Bunsen's report, that Austria-Hungary had been ready to moderate several
points of its note to Servia, are mentioned, as follows:

As we are told by a well-informed source, these assertions do not
at all correspond to the facts; furthermore, from the very nature
of the steps undertaken by the dual monarchy in Belgrade, this
would have been entirely inconceivable.

A glance at the date shows that the Bunsen report is misleading, for he
himself tells that Count Berchtold, on July 30, had expressed his
consent to a continuation of the exchange of thought in Petersburg; the
latter, therefore, could not begin before the 31st, while in the night
from July 30 to 31 the mobilization of the entire Russian Army against
Germany was ordered in Petersburg, finally making impossible the
continuation of the last German attempt at mediation in Vienna.

The truth is, in spite of Russian and English twistings, that without
the interval caused by Germany's efforts in Vienna, which interval
England allowed to pass unused in Petersburg, the war would have broken
out a few days sooner.

Let us consider how the fact of the Russian mobilization, the dimensions
and tendency of which was brought to the knowledge of the London Cabinet
at the very latest on July 24, must affect Germany.

On July 24 the Russian Government declared, in an official communiqué,
it would be impossible for it to remain indifferent in an Austro-Servian
conflict.

Germany's Hand Forced.