conditions imposed except that relating to the participation of
Austrian officials in the inquiry, an explanation being asked on
this point. If this reply should be deemed inadequate, Servia
stood ready to submit the question at issue to The Hague Peace
Tribunal and to the Powers which had signed the declaration of
1909 relating to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The subsequent action of Austria was significant. The Austrian
Minister at Belgrade, as before stated, rejected it as
unsatisfactory and immediately left the Servian capital. He
acted, in short, with a precipitancy that indicated that he was
acting under instructions. This was made very evident by what
immediately followed. When news came on July 28th that war had
been declared and active hostilities commenced, it was
accompanied by the statement that Austria would not now be
satisfied even with a full acceptance of her demands.

That the intention of this imperious demand and what quickly
followed was to force a war, no one can doubt. Servia's nearly
complete assent to the conditions imposed was declared to be not
only unsatisfactory, but also "dishonorable," a word doubtless
deliberately used. Evidently no door was to be left open for
retrogressive consideration.

THE IRONIES OF HISTORY

It is one of the ironies of history that a people who once played
a leading part in saving the Austrian capital from capture should
come to be threatened by the armies of that capital. This takes
us back to the era when Servia, a powerful empire of those days,