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that the Austrian Government should offer some proof of the guilt of the proscribed officers.

10. That Austrian agents should be permitted to enter Serbia to co-operate with the Serbian Government in suppressing all anti-Austrian propaganda, and to take part in the judicial proceedings conducted in Serbia against those charged with complicity in the crime at Sarajevo. This astounding demand, which was in effect that Austrian agents should control the police and courts of Serbia, it was impossible for Serbia to accept without abrogating her sovereignty. She did not, however, unconditionally reject it, but asked that it be the subject of further discussion, or be referred to arbitration.

11. That Serbia explain to Austria the meaning of antiAustrian utterances of Serbian officials at home and abroad, since the crime of Sarajevo. This was assented to, on condition that if the explanations given were not satisfactory, the matter be submitted to mediation or arbitration.

GERMANY DICTATES REJECTION

Thus Serbia granted ten of Austria's demands, and did not altogether reject the eleventh, although it was obvious that its acceptance would mean the end of Serbian liberty and independence. It is probable that the Austrian Clovernment, left to itself, would have accepted the replies, or at any rate would have continued diplomatic negotiations. It must have done so, had it been sincere in its profession of desire merely to obtain reparation for the tragedy.

But the German Emperor apparently deemed the moment fitting for the launching of a long contemplated war of conquest against the rest of Europe. His army, navy and entire empire were in a state of the most perfect readiness for instant action, while not one of his potential antagonists

was in even the usual condition of preparedness. And his will was scarcely less supreme at Vienna than at Berlin. Therefore the Austrian Government summarily rejected the Serbian replies as wholly unsatisfactory, and the Austrian minister quitted Belgrade.

EFFORTS TO KEEP THE PEACE

That was on the evening of July 25th. Instantly the news was flashed over the world, and various governments interested themselves in efforts to prevent this breach of relations from leading to war. Russia intimated that she could not with indifference see Serbia oppressed. Great Britain urged that Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain hold a conference for mediation or arbitration. This was exactly in accord with the policy to which all the powers had pledged themselves in the treaty of The Hague. It was an eminently fair proposal, since it excluded Russia and Austria-Hungary, as prejudiced parties, and included only four powers which might reasonably be supposed to be impartial. If they had any predilections, Germany and Italy were Austria's partners in the Triple Alliance, while Great Britain and France were Russia's friends in the Triple Entente. The proposal was promptly accepted by France and Italy, but was summarily rejected by Germany.

That was on July 27th. The next day Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia. Russia declared that, on the day on which Austrian troops invaded Serbia, there would be a mobilization of Russian troops, in order to prepare for further contingencies. Thereupon Germany took the initiative and the aggressive. She proclaimed that she would not permit any interference by anybody between Austria and Serbia, but that Austria must be

left free to work her will, whatever it might be, upon her little neighbor. She ordered Russia to stop mobilization proceedings and to dismiss whatever troops had already been mobilized; and she demanded of France an immediate and categorical statement of what that country would do in case of a war between Germany and Russia.

More arbitrary and insolent utterances were probably never made by any power. They were obviously intended to mean either universal European subjection to Prussian autocracy, or war. In fact they meant war.

FALSEHOODS AND SCRAPS OF PAPER

Germany declared war upon Russia on August 1st, because Russia would not refrain from mobilizing her army at Germany's demand. Austria meantime three days before had bombarded the Serbian capital. On August 2d German troops invaded Luxembourg and Belgium, thus regarding as "scraps of paper" Germany's solemn treaty pledges to respect and to defend the inviolability of those neutral states. At the same time German troops violated the French frontier, without any declaration of war.

The next day Germany declared that France had begun war against her, by sending hostile aeroplanes across the frontier to bombard German towns and railroads. It has since been officially acknowledged in Germany that these charges against France had no foundation in fact; so that war was really declared by Germany against France on the basis of a German falsehood.

BELGIUM'S APPEAL ANSWERED

The Belgian Government made appeal to Great Britain, as one of the guarantors of Belgian neutrality, for pro

tection against the invading German army. The British Government therefore at once demanded of Germany withdrawal of the invaders and respect for the neutrality of Belgium. The reply was a flat rejection of the demand and an attack by the German army upon the Belgian city of Liege. Thereupon, at eleven o'clock on the evening of August 4th, the British Government declared that a state of war with Germany existed.

The United States Government, through the President, at once made the customary proclamation of neutrality, on the same conditions that had prevailed in other foreign wars to which this country was not a party; and other neutral nations generally did the same. Italy, though an ally of Germany and Austria in the Triple Alliance, also made a proclamation of neutrality, informing Germany as she did so that she considered that the circumstances of the declaration of an aggressive war by Germany and Austria released her from all obligations under her treaty with those powers. Thus the issues were joined, and the world's greatest war was begun.

CHAPTER IX

THE WAR IN FRANCE AND FLANDERS

Three Epochs of a Stupendous Campaign - The Invasion of Belgium Brialmont's Work-Liege the Savior of Europe - Unspeakable Atrocities of the Germans - Northern France Overrun - The Drive at Paris - Battles of the Marne and Aisne - Ypres and Loos Beginning of Trench Warfare - The Second Epoch of the Campaign The German Drive at Verdun - "They Shall Not Pass"

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- Beginning of the Third Epoch -The Campaign on the Somme River - Bapaume and Peronne the Impregnable - The Great British and French Drive from Switzerland to the Sea Breaking of the "Hindenberg Line" and Steady Retreat of the German Armies.

THE WAR in western Europe. has seen three major stages, or epochs, in which three nations successively have held the center of the stage in opposition to the German invasion. The first was very short, measured in weeks, or perhaps only days; when the handful of Belgians were holding back the multitudinous German legions until France, taken all unawares, could rally her forces for the defense of Paris. The second lasted a year and a half, when France, putting forth efforts which would have seemed incredible had they been predicted in advance, held the Germans in check until a British army could be created out of raw material and be put into the field. The third, now prevailing, is marked by the tremendous and apparently irresistible aggressiveness of the British army in cooperation with its French allies. Let us very briefly review these three epochs; briefly, because this is not a complete and detailed history of the war, but merely such an account of it as will make clear the chief happenings before the United States was dragged into the fray.

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