During several days and under conditions difficult to explain Germany
had been preparing to change her army from a peace to a war footing.
From July 25 in the morning, that is even before the expiration of the
time limit set Servia by Austria, she had brought to their full strength
the garrisons in Alsace-Lorraine. On the same day she had placed the
works close to the frontier in a state of effective armament. On the
26th she had prescribed for the railroads the preparatory measures for
concentration. On the 27th she had made requisitions and placed her
covering troops in position. On the 28th the summoning of individual
reservists began, including those distant from the frontier.
Could we be left in doubt as to Germany's intentions after her taking
all these measures with relentless thoroughness?
France Forced to Act.
This, then, was the situation when, on July 31, in the evening, the
German Government, which had not taken any positive part since the 24th
in the conciliatory efforts of the Triple Entente, sent to the Russian
Government an ultimatum alleging that Russia had ordered the general
mobilization of her armies, and demanding the cessation of this
mobilization within twelve hours.
This demand, all the more offensive as to form when it is borne in mind
that a few hours earlier Emperor Nicholas, actuated by a spontaneous
feeling of confidence, had asked the German Emperor to mediate, was made
at the moment when, at the request of England and with the knowledge of
Germany, the Russian Government was accepting a proposition of a kind
calculated to bring about an amicable arrangement of the Austro-Servian
conflict and of the Austro-Russian difficulties by means of the
simultaneous cessation of military operations and preparations.
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