Petersburg and
Vienna simultaneously to get both Austria-Hungary and Russia to suspend
military operations while the four powers endeavored to arrange a
settlement.
After I had heard that Austria-Hungary had broken off diplomatic
relations with Servia I made, by telegraph yesterday afternoon, the
following proposal, as a practical method of applying the views that I
had already expressed:
I instructed his Majesty's Ambassadors in Paris, Berlin, and Rome to ask
the Governments to which they were accredited whether they would be
willing to arrange that the French, German, and Italian Ambassadors in
London should meet me in a conference to be held in London immediately
to endeavor to find a means of arranging the present difficulties. At
the same time I instructed his Majesty's Ambassadors to ask those
Governments to authorize their representatives in Vienna, St.
Petersburg, and Belgrade to inform the Governments there of the proposed
conference and to ask them to suspend all active military operations
pending the result of the conference.
To that I have not yet received complete replies, and it is of course a
proposal in which the co-operation of all four powers is essential. In a
crisis so grave as this the efforts of one power alone to preserve the
peace must be quite ineffective.
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