Suddenly one of the little company remembers something which everybody
has hitherto forgotten--the difference of an hour between the time in
London and the time in Berlin. Midnight by mid-European time would be
eleven o’clock in London. Germany would naturally understand the demand
for a reply by midnight to mean midnight in the country of dispatch.
Therefore at eleven o’clock by London time the period for the reply will
expire. It is now approaching eleven.
As the clock ticks out the remaining minutes the tension becomes
terrible. Talk slackens. There are long pauses. The whole burden of the
frightful issues involved for Great Britain, France, Belgium, Russia,
Germany--for Europe, for the world, for civilization, for religion
itself, seems to be gathered up in these last few moments. If war comes
now it will be the most frightful tragedy the world has ever witnessed.
Twenty millions of dead perhaps, and civil life crippled for a hundred
years. Which is it to be, peace or war? Terrible to think that as they
sit there the electric wires may be flashing the awful tidings, like a
flying angel of life or death, through the dark air all over Europe.
The four men are waiting for the bell of the telephone to ring. It does
not ring, and the fingers of the clock are moving. The world seems to
be on tiptoe, listening for a thunderstroke of Fate. The Ministers at
length sit silent, rigid, almost petrified, looking fixedly at floor
or ceiling. Then through the awful stillness of the room and the park
outside comes the deep boom of “Big Ben.” Boom, boom, boom! No one moves
until the last of the eleven strokes has gone reverberating through the
night. Then comes a voice, heavy with emotion, yet firm with resolve,
“It’s war.”
When the clock struck again (at midnight) Great Britain had been at war
for an hour without knowing it.
If I have done wrong in lifting the curtain on this private scene, I
ask forgiveness for the sake of the purpose I put it to--that of showing
that it was not in haste, not in anger, but with an awful sense of
responsibility to Great Britain and to humanity that our responsible
Ministers drew the sword of our country.