Few people in these Islands knew in the early part of the summer of
1914 that Europe was on the verge of the greatest war in history. The
few men who had foresight and courage enough to warn us of the German
menace were ridiculed, and when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand (nephew
and heir to the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria) and his wife were
assassinated at Sarajevo, it was not realized that we had reached the
opening stages of a long-drawn-out tragedy which would see Europe
converted into a vast battlefield and cast a shadow over the whole
world.
Austria, at the instigation of Germany, made the Sarajevo occurrence
the pretext for beginning a war they had already planned and organized.
Serbia was to be made a scapegoat, and Germany was to take advantage
of the international situation thus created to launch her schemes
for empire development. There was a month’s delay, probably to allow
Germany to complete her preparations. On July 25th, Austria sent a note
to Serbia charging her with complicity in the Sarajevo crime, demanding
the suppression of all Serbian propaganda in the Dual Monarchy, and
insisting that an investigation into the assassinations should be
conducted on Serbian soil with the assistance of Serbian officials.