The intimate papers of Colonel House arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.

CHAPTER X
WILSON AND THE WAR
He [Wilson] goes even further than I in his condemnation of Germany's
part in this war....
Extract from Diary of Colonel House, August 30, 1914
I
COLONEL HOUSE sailed on July 21 and arrived in Boston
eight days later. Immediately before he left, word was carried to him that the British Foreign Office had awakened to
the serious character of the international situation.
'July 20, 1914: Tyrrell brought me another message from
Sir Edward Grey, which was to the effect that he wished me
to know before I sailed that the Austro-Serbian situation was
giving him grave concern.'
The forebodings which the Colonel had experienced in
Berlin were indeed in process of realization. On July 23,
Austria sent to Serbia an ultimatum designed to provoke
war, and five days later, brushing aside the Serbian reply as
unsatisfactory, began the bombardment of Belgrade. The
civil rulers of Germany appreciated suddenly the peril of the
path down which they were being dragged by their Austrian
ally and their own military clique; stupidly, they refused to
accept the conference suggested by Grey, which would have
permitted a cooling-off period; and as the crisis intensified
with the mobilization of Russia in support of Serbia, the army
leaders seized control at Berlin. As House had prophesied,
they wasted no time but struck immediately. Diplomatic
and military complexities produced this paradox: that a
Russo-German war set in motion by an Austro-Serbian