Austro-Hungarian affair,"

claimed that Germany had transmitted Sir Edward Grey's further
suggestion to Vienna, in which Austria-Hungary was urged

"either to agree to accept the Servian answer as sufficient or
to look upon it as a basis for further conversations";

but the Austro-Hungarian Government--playing the rôle of the wicked
partner of the combination--"in full appreciation of our mediatory
activity," (so says the German "White Paper" with sardonic humor,)
replied to this proposition that, coming as it did after the opening of
hostilities, "_it was too late_."

Does any reasonable man question for a moment that, if Germany had done
something more than merely "transmit" these wise and pacific
suggestions, Austria would have complied with the suggestions of its
powerful ally or that Austria would have suspended its military
operations if Germany had given any intimation of such a wish?

On the following day, July 28, the door was further closed on any
possibility of compromise when the Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs

"said, quietly but firmly, _that no discussion could be
accepted on the basis of the Servian note_; that war would be
declared today, and that the well-known pacific character of
the Emperor, as well as, he might add, his own, might be
accepted as a guarantee that the war was both just and
inevitable; that this was a matter that must be settled
directly between the two parties immediately concerned."