At first the breach of Belgian neutrality, admitted and regretted by the
German Government, has nothing to do with the question--who precipitated
the war? It constituted only an action of the war itself. On the other
hand, you call in your editorial the Austrian ultimatum a savage one
and take it for granted that this ultimatum started the stone rolling
and brought finally the general clash in Europe about. This presumption,
when presented to the court, will have to be thoroughly proved, because
there are many people, fair and just, as you consider yourself, who are
convinced of the ample justification of this ultimatum.
It is hardly describable how many criminal acts have been committed by
Servians against the very existence of the Dual Monarchy for the last
six years, under the eyes of the Servian Government and approved by it,
by intriguing against Austria's right to cultivate her own territory,
Bosnia, spreading secret societies all over the empire, &c.
The awful crime, the assassination of the heir to the throne, was only
the finish of a long chain of like acts. These facts, which immediately
lead up to the ultimatum, ought to be considered in the first place by
judging Austria's justification for sending this ultimatum to Servia.
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