After that events moved rapidly. When Count Berchtold, who hitherto had
played the strong man on instructions from Berlin, at last decided to
change his course, we answered the Russian mobilization--after Russia
had for a whole week negotiated and waited in vain--with our ultimatum
and declaration of war.
Sir Edward Grey still looked for new ways of escape. In the morning of
Aug. 1, Sir W. Tyrrell came to me to say that his chief still hoped to
find a way out. Should we remain neutral if France did the same? I
understood him to mean that we should then be ready to spare France, but
his meaning was that we should remain absolutely neutral--neutral
therefore even toward Russia. That was the well-known misunderstanding.
Sir Edward had given me an appointment for the afternoon, but as he was
then at a meeting of the Cabinet, he called me up on the telephone,
after Sir W. Tyrrell had hurried straight to him. But in the afternoon
he spoke no longer of anything but Belgian neutrality, and of the
possibility that we and France should face one another armed, without
attacking one another.
Thus there was no proposal whatever, but a question without any
obligation, because our conversation, as I have already explained, was
to take place soon afterward. In Berlin, however--without waiting for
the conversation--this news was used as the foundation for a
far-reaching act. Then came Poincaré's letter, Bonar Law's letter, and
the telegram from the King of the Belgians. The hesitating members of
the Cabinet were converted, with the exception of three members, who
resigned.