rality which must be
guaranteed by the British fleet and army, I shall of course
refrain from attacking France and employ My troops
elsewhere. I hope that France will not become nervous. The
troops on My frontier are in the act of being stopped by
telegraph and telephone from crossing into France.[83]

[Footnote 83: No such offer had been made. The Kaiser's error was due
to a misunderstanding, which had arisen quite honestly between Sir
Edward Grey and the German Ambassador in London. King George promptly
corrected this misapprehension of the Kaiser.

See also Addendum, p. 192.]

If it were impossible for the Kaiser, with all the exceptional
facilities of the German Empire, to arrest his mobilization for
"technical" reasons, it was infinitely more difficult for the Czar to
arrest immediately his military preparations. The demand of Germany
was not that Russia should simply cancel the mobilization order. It
was that Russia should "cease within twelve hours all warlike
measures," and it demanded a physical impossibility.

In any event, mobilization does not necessarily mean aggression, but
simply preparation, as the Czar had so clearly pointed out to the
Kaiser in the telegram already quoted. It is the right of a sovereign
State and by no code of ethics a _casus belli_. Germany's demand that
Russia should not arm to defend itself, when its prestige as a great
European power was at stake and when Austria was pushing her
aggressive preparations, treated Russia as an inferior, almost a
vassal, State. Its rejection must have been recognized by the Kaiser
and his advisers as inevitable, and, on the theory that a man intends
the natural consequences of his acts, it must be assumed that the
Kaiser in this mad demand at that time desired and intended war,
however pacific his purposes may have been when he first took the
helm.

Such will be his awful responsibility "to the last syllable of
recorded time."

How well prepared Germany was, the sequel developed only too surely.
_On the following day_--August 2d--its troops invaded Luxemburg and an
abrupt demand was made upon Belgium for permission to cross its
territory.

Upon the declaration of war, the Czar telegraphed to King George of
England as follows:

"In this solemn hour, I wish to assure you once more I have done all
in my power to avert war."

_Such will be the verdict of history._

ADDENDUM

I

THE SUPPRESSED TELEGRAM FROM THE