etersburg, handed a note
_verbale_ to M. Sazonof, denying the press report that the action of
Austria-Hungary was instigated by the German Government, and
declaring that this government "had no knowledge of the text" of the
note to Serbia before it was presented, and had "exercised no
influence upon its contents."

"Germany, as the ally of Austria, naturally supports the claims
made by the Vienna Cabinet against Serbia, which she considers
justified.

"Above all Germany wishes, as she has already declared from the
very beginning of the Austro-Serbian dispute, that this conflict
should be localized."

The same statement was made to the French Government by Baron von
Schoen, the German Ambassador, and to the British Government by
Count Benckendorff, the Russian Ambassador. The count asked Sir
Edward Grey, British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, that the British
Government bring conciliatory pressure on Austria.

"Grey replied that this was quite impossible. He added that, as
long as complications existed between Austria and Serbia alone,
British interests were only indirectly affected; but he had to
look ahead to the fact that Austrian mobilization would lead to
Russian mobilization, and that from that moment a situation would
exist in which the interests of all the powers would be involved.
In that event Great Britain reserved to herself full liberty of
action."

_Great Britain._ Sir Francis Bertie, British Ambassador at Paris,
telegraphed to Sir Edward Grey that M. Bienvenu-Martin, French
Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, hoped that Serbia's reply to
Austra-Hungary's demands would be sufficiently conciliatory to
obviate extreme measures, but said that there would be revolution in
Serbia if she were to accept the demands in their entirety.

Sir George Buchanan, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg,
telegraphed to Sir Edward Grey that M. Sazonof, Russian Minister for
Foreign Affairs, said that the explanations of the Austrian
Ambassador, Count Szapary, did not quite correspond with information
received from German quarters, which information came too late to
affect negotiations at Vienna.

"The Minister for Foreign Affairs said that Serbia was quite
ready to do as you had suggested and to punish those proved to be
guilty, but that no independent State could be expected to accept
the political demands which had been put for