inating feature of this chapter of the _Yellow Book_
is a report from the French Embassy in Berlin to its Foreign Office on
the public opinion of Germany in the summer of 1913, as disclosed by
the reports of the French consular representatives in Germany. It
gives an extraordinary analysis of conditions in Germany prior to the
war, and it describes in great fullness the many causes which were
contributory to the creation of a powerful war party in Germany. As
it is not in strictness a part of the diplomatic record, it is not
embodied in the text of this book, but its value as an acute analysis
of conditions in Germany--made before the passions of the war had
clouded the judgment--will repay the reader's careful consideration.

The second chapter of the French _Yellow Book_ deals with the events
which took place between the murder of the Archduke and the Austrian
ultimatum and presents new and cumulative evidence of substantial
value.

The French Consul General at Budapest, in a report to his Foreign
Office under date July 11, 1914, after showing that the Hungarian
Premier, Count Tisza, had refused to disclose, even to the Hungarian
Chamber, the results of the judicial inquiry into the Serajevo murder
and the decision taken by the Austrian Cabinet, proceeds to show how
the suppression of the news in Austria was a part of the scheme to
make the ultimatum to Servia so abrupt and speedy that no course would
be open to Servia and Europe other than an immediate and unconditional
surrender.

Everything is for peace in the newspapers, but the mass of
the public believes in war and fears it.... The Government,
whether it be seriously desirous of peace, or whether it be
_preparing a coup_, is now doing everything it can to allay
this anxiety. That is why the tone of the Government
newspapers has been lowered first, by one note and then by
two, until now it has become almost optimistic. But the
Government newspapers themselves have carefully spread the
alarm. Their optimism to order is really without an echo.
The nervousness of the Bourse, a barometer one cannot
neglect, is a sure proof of that. Stocks, without exception,
have fallen to improbably low prices. The Hungarian four per
cent. was yesterday quoted at 79.95, a price which has never
been quoted since the first issue.[38]

[Footnote 38: French _Yellow Book_, No. 11.]

Simultaneously a very differe