The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-02-21
British Book Shows Germany's
Double Dealing !.
SOME DAMNING REVELATIONS
ultimatum Deliberately Timed When
President Poincare And
Premier viviani Were
At sea.


stories of the happenings of the mo-
mentous days just prior to the war,
it is understood, are shattered in a
book based on official documents and
personal notes of diplomats and Off
Gals just issued.
The book characterizes as a fall
lacy the belief that the assassination
Of Archduke Francis Ferdinand at
Saraievo was "a stage managed af-
fair but it is asserted from knowl-
edge gained from official documents
that if the assassination had not oc-
Cured the war certainly would have
been started very soon.
The famous Potsdam conference
of July S, 1914, according to the
book, was not what has been gem
orally accepted. The meeting took
place, but it was not a formal con-
ference as has been declared repeat
eddy. 1t is asserted that many per-
sons who were supposed to have
been there were not present. EN-
peror William and members of the
German Imperial Staff were not pres
emit, however, and at this conference
Germany definitely decided for war.
The book was written by Prof.
Charles w. C. Oman, president OF
the Royal Historical Society and a
professor Of history at Oxford Uni
versity. "A. j. Balfour, the British
foreign secretary, and Earl Curzon,
government leader in the House of
Lords, are understood to have taken
an active interest in it's compilation.
Damning Revelations.
One of the "damning revelations, .
as Professor Oman calls them, is his
statement that from a close study of
Munich newspapers he has estab-
lished that the ultimatum from the
Vienna government to the Serbian
government was deliberately timed
when President Poincare and Pre-
mier Viviani of France were at sea
after their departure from Petro-
grad, in order to make it difficult for
the Entente to reach an understand
ing. Professor Oman gives what he
calls complete analysis of these
revelations.
A series Of hitherto unpublished
communications between Sir Edward
Grey, British foreign secretary in
1914, and Prince Lichnowsky, Ger
man ambassador in London at the
outbreak of the war, goes to prove,
Professor Oman says, that the Brit
ish Foreign Office believe that Lich-
nowsky was absolutely honest. The
book says:
'They emphasize the personal
anxiety of Lichnowsky and show that
he was actually and literally be-
trayed by his government lin other
words, he was the unwilling tool of
the Kaiser"
On July 20, 1914, Prince Lich-
nowsky wrote privately as follows to
Sir Edward Grey:
Deceitful Chancellor.
IT begin to hope that it once more
has been possible owing to Anglo
German collaboration to save the
peace of Europe"
On July 80, Sir w. E, Goschen,
British ambassador in Berlin, wrote
to Sir Edward Grey saying:
1.-THE Chancellor told me last night
that he was pressing the button with
a view to forming moderatirg in
| fluence on Vienna
Information contained in the book
shows that the opposite was taking
place and that Chancellor Won Beth
mann-Hollweg was doing everything
possible to get the German war ma
chine going.
The book refers to a journalistic
mystery-the publication by the
Westminster Gazette on August /,
1914, of dispatch dated in Berlin
giving the text of purported tele-
gram addressed on July 80 by Won
Bethmann-H ollweg to the German
ambassador in Vienna, saying:
1--WE must refuse to be drawn into
q world confiagration through Aus
tria-H Hungary not respecting our adj
vice."
Professor Oman says that the
newspaper never revealed the source
of the dispatch and it was never in
cluded in the German White Book
or in any Official publication, yet the
document was dragged out two and
one-half years later by Chancellor Mi
chaelis and cited as proof that Ger
many was holding back until Russia
modified, which mobilization Ger
many gives as the. cause OF the war.
Cars Order Disregarded.
The book goes into detail of the
fateful night during which the order
of Emperor Nicholas countermand-
ing the Russian rehabilitation was
ignored by the Russian war minister
and the Chief of the Russian Gen
eral STAFF. 1t is shown that the EN-
peror was not in possession Of infor-
nation in the hands of his War Min