brought the news of the murder at Sarajevo of the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne. My friend, Mr. Edward Schuler, was despatched
by the Associated Press to Vienna, and when he returned, I readily saw,
from the state of feeling that he described as existing in Vienna, that
war between Austria and Servia was inevitable, and that unless some
supreme effort should be made for peace by Emperor William, a general
European war must follow.

Wednesday, July 29, the day after Austria's declaration of war against
Servia, I lunched at the Hotel Ritz with Mrs. Marshall Field and her
nephew, Mr. Spencer Eddy. Mrs. Field was about to leave Paris for
Aix-les-Bains. We talked about the probability of Russia being forced to
make war with Germany. I warned Mrs. Field of the risk she would run in
going to Aix-les-Bains, and in the event of mobilization, of being
deprived of her motor-car and of all means of getting away. At that time
no one seemed to think that war really would break out. Mrs. Field
finally gave up her plan of going to Aix-les-Bains and went to London.
The following evening Maitre Charles Philippe of the Paris Bar and M.
Max-Lyon, a French railroad engineer who had built many of the Turkish
and Servian railroads, dined with me. They both felt that nothing could
now avert war between France and Germany.

Yesterday (July 31) a sort of war fever permeated the air. A cabinet
minister assured me that at whatever capital there was the slightest
hope of engaging in negotiations and compromise, at that very point the
"mailed fist" diplomacy of the Kaiser William dealt an unexpected blow.
There seems no longer any hope for peace, because it is evident that the
Military Pretorian Guard, advisers to the German and Austrian emperors,
are in the ascendency, and they want war. "Very well, they will have
it!" remarked the veteran French statesman, M. Georges Clemenceau.