ad, however, shown no sign
of sympathy or help, though some weeks had already elapsed
since the murder; a time limit, said his Excellency, was
essential, owing to the procrastination on Servia's part.

I said that if Servia had procrastinated in replying a time
limit could have been introduced later; _but, as things now
stood, the terms of the Servian reply had been dictated by
Austria, who had not been content to limit herself to a
demand for a reply within a limit of forty-eight hours from
its presentation_.

Unfortunately both Russia and England's requests for time were
refused, on the plea that they had reached the Austrian Foreign
Minister too late, although it has never yet been explained why, even
if Count Berchtold were unable to take up the requests before the
expiration of the ultimatum, the matter might not have been reopened
for a few days by a corresponding extension of the time limit.

In the absence of some explanation, which as yet remains to be
made, the absence of the Austrian Premier from Vienna at the time
intervening between the issuance of the _ultimatum_ and the expiration
of the time limit seems like an extraordinarily petty piece of
diplomatic finesse. He had without any warning to the great Powers of
Europe, launched a thunderbolt, and if there ever was a time when a
pacific foreign minister should have been at his post and open to
suggestions of peace, it was in those two critical days. And yet,
after issuing the ultimatum, he immediately takes himself beyond reach
of personal parleys by going to Ischl, and this was taken by the
German Foreign Office as a convenient excuse for an anticipated
failure to extend this courtesy to Russia and England. Upon this we
have the testimony of the English Ambassador at Berlin, who in his
report to Sir Edward Grey, dated July 25th, says:

[The German] Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs says
that on receipt of a telegram at ten o'clock this morning
from German Ambassador at London, he immediately instructed
German Ambassador at Vienna to pass on to the Austrian
Minister for Foreign Affairs your suggestion, for an
extension of time limit, and to speak to his Excellency
about it. Unfortunately it appeared from the press that
Count Berchtold is at Ischl, and Secretary of State thought
that in these circumstances there would be delay and
difficulty in getting