reading a violent demand for action against Russia before the national
ardour had time to cool down.

[Footnote 1: The last mention of Austria as the guilty party is the
account of the Social Democratic demonstrations in Berlin on July 28th;
reported in the papers of the following day.]

On July 26th Austrian mobilization was in full swing, and Russia
admittedly took precautions of a similar nature soon after that date. We
may be sure that Russia understands her neighbours better than the
inhabitants of the British Isles understand them. In 1909 she had
suffered a severe diplomatic defeat and corresponding loss of prestige,
because she could only use words in dealing with Germany and Austria.[2]
Now she was faced with the alternative of withdrawing from her declared
attitude (July 24th) or taking measures of a military character. In
order not to sacrifice her position as a European power and her special
position as the leader of the Slavonic peoples, Russia chose the latter
course, the only honourable one open to her. German papers and public
speakers retorted that Russia is the patron and protector of
assassins--a calculated distortion of the facts intended to have due
effect on public opinion. On all sides it was said that Russia had given
Serbia secret assurances of help which caused her to become stiff-backed
and unrepentant. Fortunately, it is possible to refute the accusation
through the pen of a German journalist, who described Belgrade's
desperate position on July 25th, the day when the ultimatum expired.

[Footnote 2: "The interests of Russian and German imperialism have
continually clashed during the last ten years, and more than once Russia
has had to beat a retreat before Germany's threats." Dr. Paul Lensch,
member of the Reichstag, in his "German Social Democracy and the World