er desire the participation of some Austrian
officials in the preliminary examination on Servian territory and the
final dissolution of the pan-Serb societies agitating against
Austria-Hungary. The Imperial and Royal Government gave a period of 48
hours for the unconditional acceptance of its demands.

The Servian Government started the mobilization of its army one day
after the transmission of the Austro-Hungarian note.

As after the stipulated date the Servian Government rendered a reply
which, though complying in some points with the conditions of
Austria-Hungary, yet showed in all essentials the endeavor through
procrastination and new negotiations to escape from the just demands of
the monarchy, the latter discontinued her diplomatic relations with
Servia without indulging in further negotiations or accepting further
Servian assurances, whose value, to its loss, she had sufficiently
experienced.

From this moment Austria was in fact in a state of war with Servia,
which it proclaimed officially on the 28th of July by declaring war.

[Sidenote: see exhibits 1 & 2.]

From the beginning of the conflict we assumed the position that there
were here concerned the affairs of Austria alone, which it would have to
settle with Servia. We therefore directed our efforts toward the
localizing of the war, and toward convincing the other powers that
Austria-Hungary had to appeal to arms in justifiable self-defence,
forced upon her by the conditions. We emphatically took the position
that no civilized country possessed the right to stay the arm of Austria
in this struggle with barbarism and political crime, and to shield the
Servians against their just punishment. In this sense we instructed our
representatives with the foreign powers.

[Sidenote: see exhibit 3.]

Simultaneously the Austro-Hungarian Government communicated to the
Russian Government that the step undertaken against Servia implied
merely a defensive measure against the Serb agitation, but that
Austria-Hungary must of necessity demand guarantees for a continued
friendly behavior of Servia towards the monarchy. Austria-Hungary had no
intention whatsoever to shift the balance of power in the Balcan.

In answer to our declaration that the German Government desired, and
aimed at, a localization of the conflict, both the French and the
English Governments promised an action in the same direction. But these
endeavors did not succeed in preventing the interposition