here would be
no question of our intervening if Germany was not involved, or
even if France was not involved. But we knew very well, that if
the issue did become such that we thought British interests
required us to intervene, we must intervene at once, and the
decision would have to be very rapid, just as the decisions of
other powers had to be....

"The German Ambassador took no exception to what I had said;
indeed, he told me that it accorded with what he had already
given in Berlin as his view of the situation."

In still another message Grey informed Goschen that he had said to
the German Ambassador, in reference to the suggestion of San
Giuliano, the Italian Prime Minister of mediation between Russia and
Austria, that it would not be mediation to urge Russia to stand
aside and give Austria a free hand to go any length she pleased.

Grey informed Ambassador Bunsen at Vienna that Austro-Hungarian
Ambassador Mensdorff, had offered to submit him a long memorandum
justifying the action of his government toward Serbia. Grey refused
to discuss the Serbian question now that the peace of Europe was
imperilled. The greater question settled, the powers might be free
to obtain satisfaction for Austria in the lesser.

"In reply to some further remarks of mine, as to the effect that
the Austrian action might have upon the Russian position in the
Balkans, he said that, before the Balkan war, Serbia had always
been regarded as being in the Austrian sphere of influence."

Bunsen reported to Grey that the news of Russian mobilization was
not generally known in Vienna.

_France._ M. Bienvenu-Martin, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs,
notified the Ambassadors at St. Petersburg, London, Berlin, Rome,
Vienna, and Constantinople, and the Minister to Serbia, that the
Austro-German attitude was becoming clearer.

"Austria, uneasy concerning the Slav propaganda, has seized the
opportunity of the crime of Sarajevo in order to punish the
Serbian intrigues, and to obtain in this quarter guaranties
which, according as events are allowed to develop or not, will
either affect only the Serbian Government and army, or become
territorial questions. Germany intervenes between her ally and
the other powers and declares that the question is a local one,
namely, punishment of a political crime committed in the past,
and sure guaranti