[English "White Paper," No. 9.]

On July 25, probably to the great surprise of both Germany and Austria,
which had definitely calculated upon Servians non-compliance with the
ultimatum, the latter country, under the conciliatory advice of Russia
and England, made a reply in which, at some sacrifice of its
self-respect as a sovereign State, it substantially accepted all but one
of the demands of Austria, and as to that it did not, in terms, refuse
it, but expressed its willingness to refer it either to arbitration or
to a conference of the powers.

[English "White Paper," No. 39.]

No court would question for a moment the conclusion that the reply was a
substantial acquiescence in the extreme Austrian demands, nor indeed did
either Germany or Austria seriously contend that it was not. They
contented themselves with impeaching the sincerity of the assurances,
calling the concessions "shams," and of this it is enough to say that if
Germany and Austria had accepted Servians reply as sufficient, and
Servia had subsequently failed to fulfill its promises thus made in the
utmost good faith, there would have been little sympathy for Servia, and
no general war. Indeed, both Russia and England pledged their influence
to compel Servia, if necessary, to meet fully any reasonable demand of
Austria. The outstanding question, which Servia agreed to arbitrate or
leave to the powers, was the participation of Austrian officials in the
Servian courts. This did not present a difficult problem. Austria's
professed desire for an impartial investigation could have been easily
attained by having the neutral powers appoint a commission of jurists to
make such investigation.