Arizona republican., 1917-01-03

things which the entente was unable to take"
 What about the reproach that Ger many in the decisive week of July 09l) declined the British proposal of q conference and thus mace war un- avoidable?"
 To this. pr Hammann replied:
 The proposal for conference was made July 26 by Germany. The mean ing of it was that the delegates of France, Italy and Great Britain should meet with Germany in conference. and try to find a way out of a difficult situation. The first condition making the holding of such a conference pos sible. should have been that the Rus sian cabinet declare its consent, but it answered July 27. in an evasive man. ner. and referred to conversations with the Austro- Hungarian ambassador in Petrogrstd as having begun under the most favorable auspices.
 The following day Germany agreed to the British proposal that direct understanding between Vienna and Petrograd would result in quicker and better action. Thus rey, on July 28, telegraphed to Goschen British am bassador at Berlin):
 " But as long as there is prospect of a direct exchange of views between Austria and Russia, l should suspend every other suggestion, as I entirely agree that it is the most preferable method of all
 ''I can only advise every one to read the English blue book if he wants to be informed about these matters But to my mind, it seems to be altogether wrong to look for the real causes of the war in the evsnts during the last weeks of July, 1914. Then. perhaps, the last impulse for war was given, but tn real cause must be found a consid- erable time before.
 Since the Anglo French treaty of 1904 a complete literature had sprung up in France in which openly and loudly the conquest of Alsace Lorraine was discussed and everything said in order to suggest to the French the idea of Germany's inferiority. The entente's note points out that at the last peace conference Germany treated the propo- sition to disarm with distrust. But Germany knew then pertinently that the proposition was mainly directed against her existence.
 Russia after the economic regula- tion that followed the war with Japan had worked with increasing zeal for the preparedness of her army. When Ger many employed the surplus of her youth for military service, France in order to surpass us. introduced d three years service, thus sapping her cap ital of vital national forces Six months before the beginning of the war the French military specialists pub lished openly discussions regarding the reasons for billions and billions of French money streaming into Russia and the conditions under which France had loaned this money. France had asked in return for her loans the con- struction of strategical railroads in Russia.
 Tn this literature it was explained with all the circumstances that not Warsaw but Grodno and Kovno would be the base for Russian deployment because from there the Prussian army corps in Koenigsburg and Allensten could most quickly be rolled up and thus the road to Berlin could be opened.
 Tn August, 1914, .he attempt was made at least to make things go this way. And today they want to per suade the nations of the world that Germany prepared herself, not for pro- lection against an aggressive coalition but in order to annihilate France.
 "The same people who promised to Russia the conquest and possession of Constantinople, dare to assert that Germany had aggressive intention. Of course the conquest of Constantinople, which was announced by Trepoff (the Russian premier)' in the duma, is passed in silence in the entente note, just as they, in a discussion of diplo- , nntic events in July, 1914, elegantly