Europe's Last Summer (27 page)

An inquiry from Vienna to Berlin dated July 22 did not arrive until the twenty-fourth. The Hapsburg Empire was about to break all relations with Serbia. No Austrian officials would be left behind. How, then, would the Dual Monarchy declare war on Serbia? Who would actually deliver the declaration? Would Germany do it on Austria's behalf?

From the foreign office, Jagow replied that it would not be a good idea: "Our standpoint has to be that the quarrel with Serbia is an Austro-Hungarian internal affair." Yet Berlin and Vienna were discussing modalities of declaring war even before the Austrian ultimatum was delivered, let alone answered, let alone answered unsatisfactorily.

Count von Berchtold, Austrian minister of foreign affairs

British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith

British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey

David Lloyd George Chancellor of the Exchequer

Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty

Russian Foreign Minister Serge Sazonov

Czar Nicholas II and French President Raymond Poincareé

In Paris, King George V and President Poincaré

Joseph Caillaux, Prime Minister of France

Mme Caillaux

Kaiser Wilhelm II and General von Moltke viewing maneuvers

German General Erich von Falkenhayn