r Maurice de Bunsen, British Ambassador at Vienna,
of his interview just held with Count Mensdorff, Austro-Hungarian
Ambassador at London.

"Mensdorff said that the Austrian Government, very reluctantly
and against their wish, were compelled to take more severe
measures to enforce a fundamental change of the attitude of
enmity pursued up to now by Serbia.... We would understand that
the Austrian Government must consider that the moment had arrived
to obtain, by means of the strongest pressure, guaranties for the
definite suppression of the Serbian aspirations and for the
security of peace and order on the southeastern frontier of
Austria.

"As the peaceable means to this effect were exhausted, the
Austrian Government must at last appeal to force. Their action,
which had no sort of aggressive tendency, could not be
represented otherwise than as self-defense. Also they thought
that they would serve a European interest if they prevented
Serbia from being henceforth an element of general unrest such as
she had been for the last ten years. The high sense of justice of
the British nation and of British statesmen could not blame the
Austrian Government if the latter defended by the sword what was
theirs, and cleared up their position with a country whose
hostile policy had forced upon them for years measures so costly
as to have gravely injured Austrian national prosperity. Finally,
the Austrian Government, confiding in their amicable relations
with us, felt that they could count on our sympathy in a fight
that was forced on them, and on our assistance in localizing the
fight, if necessary.

"Count Mensdorff added on his own account that, as long as Serbia
was confronted with Turkey, Austria never took very severe
measures because of her adherence to the policy of the free
development of the Balkan States. Now that Serbia had doubled her
territory and population without any Austrian interference, the
repression of Serbian subversive aims was a matter of
self-defense and self-preservation on Austria's part. He
reiterated that Austria had no intention of taking Serbian
territory or aggressive designs against Serbian territory.

"I said that I could not understand the construction put by the
Austrian Government upon the Serbian reply, and I told Co