The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-12-09
HHAT FRANCE SAYS
GOVERNMENT EXPLAINS CAUSES
OF PRESENT WAR.

GOVERNMENT EXPLAINS CAUSES
OF PRESENT WAR.
4
issue YELLOW PAPER
j
French Government Blames Austria
and Germany-Says Dual Non
= archy is Primarily Responsible and
Germany is Secondary Cause of the
War.
The French ministry of foreign af-
fairs Monday made public a Yellow
Book bearing on the causes of the
present war. This French volume is
much more complete than the publ
cations of like nature thus far given
out by the governments Of the other
warning nations.
The French report has 216 pages
and comprises no fewer than $50 doc
uments. It is devoted primarily to a
recital of the negotiations which fol-
lowed the delivery of the Austrian
note to Servia (JuIy 23, 1910 and
which preceded Germany's declara-
ton of war on Russia august l,
1919 and on France august 8,
1910. It is brought to close by
the reproduction of the declaration
OF the Triple Entente powers that
Great Britain, Russia and France
would not conclude peace separately.
The French diplomatic documents
in this book are divided in chapters
in order to distinguish the prelimi-
naries from the principal phases of
Z the European crisis. The first chap
ter is entitled Preface" (1913) and
s is devoted to the remoter and the
deeper causes of the present conflict.
An extract Of the Yellow Book given
out officially IL Paris reads as fol-
lows
The First Signs.
eft was first in the spring of 1913
that we noted this colossal and expen-
sive military effort which alone can
explain the desire to impose the Ger
manic superiority and hegemony up
on the powers of the Triple Entente.
When France responded to this
menace by the drafting of the law of
three years service in the army, this
measure OF defense was denounced in
official circles in Berlin as a provo
cation. which shoul5 not be tolerated
s5 SIN April OF 1918 a secret and Of
fetal German report defined the OBJ
: jectiye and the means of the national
policy as follows: Convince the peo-
pie of the necessity of an offensive
war against France; prepare upris-
iags in Russia and in north Africa;
provide for, in case Of hostilities, the
immediate absorption Of Belgium and
Holland.
these are the ideas extolled in
this report; such is the progrom that
3 shortly after we saw the Germans en-
deaYor to put into operation.
Real War Lord.
eve declare that Emperor Will
liam, who up TO that time had posed
as a champion Of peace, admitted in
sthe course Of conversation with the
king OF Belgium that be finally had
come to share the ideas Of his mill
tary advisers. He had placel himself
among the partisans of war which
3 he thought would not be long delay
ed and the oFerpowering success of
which seemed to him certain. Pub
Lie opinion, in its turn permitted it
self to be won over by the passions
OF the military party and to come to
consider the affair of Agadir as de-
feat for Germany. It regarded the
existence OF a strong France as a
] danger to Germany and the breaking
cut OF European war as the only
remedy for all difficulties and all un-
certainties.
these beIheose dispositions con-
stitute6 a permanent danger for the
peace OF Europe.
From perusal of the other chap
tiers of the Yellow Book which are
devoted to the diplomatic negotia-
tions carried on in the month of July
there is to be deducted, and support
ed by evidence, the following impress
sions:
Planned for War.
That the combination between
Austria and Germany had decided
upon war, and that on four successive
occasions by combination endeayored
to precipitate war by violent proceed
ings, the purpose of which was to
prevent or to insure the failure of all
efforts at conciliation. The first of
these proceedings was the Austrian
altimatum to Servia (July-24), which
was the origin of this conflict. In
spite of the fact that the Belgrade
government offered, for the prosecu-
ton Of the assassins of the Austrian
archdnke, every facility compatible
with its dignity the cabinet Of Vienna
summoned the government at Bel
grade not only to disaYow all COM
plicity with the crime CT SarajeTo,
but furthermore to permit foreign
functienaries to seek the authors of
this criaezon SerYian territory.
vienna gave Servia only two days
TO accept ntegrally these draconi,.n
conditions. In spite of the fact that
~
NJ. Won Jagow, the German minister
of foreign affairs, claimed to be in
ignorance Of the contents Of this note
(which was nevertheless known to
the president of the waya2ian coun-
EcA1, Germany Immediately and with
out restriction united herself with her
ally The German ambassador came
to the Quay 'Orsay (the French for
eign Office In Paris) and declared that
the conflict should remain localized
and that any Intervention on the part
sof a third power would result in in
eaIcuiabIe consequences. This was
stantamount to letting it be under
stood that Austria should have every
liberty to crush Servia and that Ger
many would have recourse to arms to
prevent Russia from succoring Ser
syia.