New Britain herald., 1917-08-14
Kaise1ss Reply to King George.

"'4 This communication being directly counter to the Kings message to me, I telegraphed to his majesty on the 18th or 30th. thanking him for kind message through my brother. and begging him to use all his power to keep France and Russia, his allies. from making any warlike prepara- tions calculated to disturb my work on mediation, stating that I was in constant communication with his majesty, the czar. In the evening the ! king kindly answered that he had ordered his government to use every possible influence with his allies to repudiate taking any provocative mill itary measures.
 "At the same time his majesty asked me If I should transmit to Vienna the British proposal that Aus tr1a was to take Belgrade and few other Serbian towns and strip of country as a main mise (sic) to make sure that the Serbia promises on pa per should be fulfilled in reality. This proposal was in the same moment telegraphed to me from Vienna 1of London quite in conjunction with the British proposal, besides, had tel egraphed to his majesty the czar the same as an idea of mine before l re- ce1Ved the two communications from vienna and London. As both Werd of the same opinion, I imm ediately transmitted the telegrams vice versa to Vienna and London. I felt that was able to tide the question over, and was happy at the peaceful out look:
 F1ve--While I was preparing note to his majesty the czar the next morning to inform him that Vienna, London and Berlin were agreed about the treatment of affairs, received the telephone message from his excellency the chancellor that in the night before the czar had given the order to mo- bilize the whole of the Russian army. which was of course also meant against Germany whereas up till then the southern armies had been mobil- 1zed against Austria.
 "Six-In a telegram from London 1 my ambassador informed me he had l understood British government would guarantee neutrality of France. and wished to know whether Germany would refrain from attack. I tele- i graphed to his majesty the king per sonally that mobilization being already carried out could not be stopped, but | if his majesty could guarantee with his armed forces the neutrality of 1 France I would refrain from attack ing her. leave her alone and employ my forces elsewhere. His majesty an- swered that he thought my offer was based on a misunderstanding and as far as I can make out Sir Edward Grey never took my offer into serious 1 consideration. He never answered it. i Instead he declared England had to | defend Belgian neutrality, which had to be violated by Germany on stategi- ! cal grounds, news having been re- ceived that France was already pre- pairing to enter Belgium and the king of the Bclgians having refused my pe- tition for a free passage under the guarantee of his country's freedom I am most grateful for the presidents m esSage.
 WILHELM
 'GERARD.'
 The state department gave out the message as it was received by cable. It's language differs only slightly from the original autograph text, though the emperors spelling has been cor rected in several instances.
 In the paragraph numbered three "grave maneuvres" is grave measures in the orinigal. Tn paragraph four where 'to repudiate taking any pro- vocative military measures" occurs, the original read Ito refrain from taking aaett4 and fAss sparagraph six the emperor wrote "em ploy my troops elsewherA'y. :. instead of my forces" |