th
the evident object of alienating Russia and France, of inducing
the French Government to make representations at St. Petersburg,
and of thus compromising our ally in our eyes; and finally, in
the event of war, of throwing the responsibility not on Germany,
who is ostensibly making every effort to maintain peace, but on
Russia and France."

In a supplementary telegram M. Isvolsky stated that the telegram
from Belgrade to Paris, giving the Serbian reply to the Austrian
note was delayed twenty hours, and that the telegram from the French
Foreign Office containing instructions to support Russia's
representations, which had been sent at the special urgent rate at
11 a. m., July 25, 1914, only reached its destination at 6 p. m.

"There is no doubt that this telegram was intentionally delayed
by the Austrian telegraph office."

M. Isvolsky telegraphed to M. Sazonof:

"The Austrian Ambassador [Count Szecsen] has informed the Acting
Minister for Foreign Affairs [M. Bienvenu-Martin] that to-morrow,
Tuesday, Austria will proceed to take 'energetic action' with the
object of forcing Serbia to give the necessary guaranties. The
minister having asked what form such action would take, the
ambassador replied that he had no exact information on the
subject, but it might mean either the crossing of the Serbian
frontier, or an ultimatum, or even a declaration of war."

M. Broniewsky, Russian Charge d'Affaires at Berlin, telegraphed M.
Sazonof:

"I begged the Minister for Foreign Affairs [Von Jagow] to support
your proposal in Vienna that Szapary [Austro-Hungarian Ambassador
at St. Petersburg] should be authorized to draw up, by means of a
private exchange of views with you, a wording of the
Austro-Hungarian demands which would be acceptable to both
parties. Jagow answered that he was aware of this proposal and
that he agreed with Pourtales [German Ambassador at St.
Petersburg] that, as Szapary had begun this conversation, he
might as well go on with it. He will telegraph in this sense to
the German Ambassador at Vienna. I begged him to press Vienna
with greater insistence to adopt this conciliatory line; Jagow
answered that he could not advise Austria to give way."

In a second telegram M. Broniewsky gave an account of an interview
just held between Von Jagow and the French Ambassador, M.