Читать книгу Craven's Part in the Great War - John T. Clayton - Страница 4

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Few people in these Islands knew in the early part of the summer of 1914 that Europe was on the verge of the greatest war in history. The few men who had foresight and courage enough to warn us of the German menace were ridiculed, and when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand (nephew and heir to the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria) and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo, it was not realized that we had reached the opening stages of a long-drawn-out tragedy which would see Europe converted into a vast battlefield and cast a shadow over the whole world.

Austria, at the instigation of Germany, made the Sarajevo occurrence the pretext for beginning a war they had already planned and organized. Serbia was to be made a scapegoat, and Germany was to take advantage of the international situation thus created to launch her schemes for empire development. There was a month’s delay, probably to allow Germany to complete her preparations. On July 25th, Austria sent a note to Serbia charging her with complicity in the Sarajevo crime, demanding the suppression of all Serbian propaganda in the Dual Monarchy, and insisting that an investigation into the assassinations should be conducted on Serbian soil with the assistance of Serbian officials.