The Imperial Ambassador performed this mission. Up till the present
we have not learned Russia's answer to this demand. ["Hear, hear!"]
Telegraphic reports concerning it have not yet reached us, although
the wire still transmits less important messages. ["Hear, hear!"]
Therefore, on Aug. 1, at 5 o'clock, when the appointed period of
grace was long past, the Kaiser considered it necessary to
mobilize.

At the same time we had to make sure of the position France would
take. To our direct question whether in case of a German-Russian
war she would remain neutral, France answered that she would do
what she had to do in her own interests. [Laughter.] That was an
evasive if not a negative answer to our question.

Declares France Began War.

In spite of this the Kaiser gave the order that the French border
should be respected. The command was strictly enforced, with a
single exception. France, which mobilized simultaneously with us,
declared that she would respect a zone of ten kilometers from the
border. ["Hear, hear!"] And what happened in reality? There were
bomb-throwing flyers, cavalry patrols, invading companies in the
Reichsland, Alsace-Lorraine. ["Unheard of!"] Thereby France,
although the condition of war had not yet been declared, had
attacked our territory.

Concerning the French complaints in regard to violations of the
border, I have received from the Chief of the General Staff the
following report: Only one offense has been committed. Contrary to
an emphatic order a patrol of the Fourteenth Army Corps, led by an