Secrets and Lies


Sunday July 26th

On this day no headlines were printed, and supposedly little was being done. But things where happening particularly in Austria and Russia where leaders were now putting their military machines in motion and hoped all the other powers would understand.

Austria mobilized and hoped by doing so this would make France and Britain realize how serious this was and if they wanted  to avoid something worse than just a Balkan problem, they needed to restrain Russia. And France mattered more than anyone. They were Russia's biggest Ally. And without France, Russia would not even attempt to go to war with anyone.

Britain matter only because it was powerful, even though their army was small. And they had allied themselves with France and Russia in a loose and informed way, and because it was certain to want to avoid a general war.

Now the 2nd of Vienna's purposes could not possibly be achieved. France's President Poincare was still at sea. With wireless communication still primitive and Germany attempting to jam radio transmissions, he was nearly incommunicado. And Britain's Foreign Secretary was paralyzed by his government. No one in Paris or London was going to be pressuring St. Petersburg, Berlin, or Vienna for that matter-to do anything.

Grey's biggest concern was the threat from Germany. He believed if war broke out between Austria and Russia, this would lead to war between Germany and France, and Britain would then have to choose sides and they would side with France. On July 26th, Grey felt the only thing he could do was to communicate his concerns to the German Ambassador in London, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, and suggest a conference of Britain, France, Germany and Italy as a means of resolving the crisis.

Lichnowsky seized this opportunity, He knew Grey and other British leaders were likely to oppose Germany in a showdown. Lichnowsky sent a telegram to Berlin stating "I would like to call your attention to the significance of Grey's proposal of mediation "a quatre" between Austria and Russia. For I see that this is the only possibility to avoid a World War, in which for us there would be everything to lose and nothing to gain."

Russia at this point was hoping that their declaration of a Period Preparatory to War, would make Austria reconsider going to war. Even St. Petersburg was eager to make Berlin to believe that it was not being threatened. But the German intelligence soon learned that Russia was doing much more then it would admit to anyone. Russia not only feared the dispute over Serbia, but they desperately feared that the balance of power in Europe would be called into question.

Now the German Military attache in St. Petersburg kept making inquiries to Russia about their plans and what they were doing, and kept getting met with lies as a response from Russia. This made Berlin increasingly nervous, for intel kept coming in that Russia was mobilizing. Berlin became progressively less willing to accept the assurance of goodwill coming from St. Petersburg.

Now France's Ambassador in St. Peterburg, Maurice Paleologue was able to keep himself informed of the extent of Russia's preparations. Russia was under an entente with France, and was supposed to tell Paris in advance of any mobilization plans, but Paleologue didn't enforce this, it appeared that he didn't want to discourage the Russians from proceeding. Paleologue didn't even tell his own government that Russia was mobilizing, he wanted no one in Paris to restrain Russia.

But now a similar game was also being played in Vienna by Germany's Ambassador Tschirschky, he thought it was his duty to encourage Austrian aggressiveness without doing so openly.

But is so happened that on this Sunday, Kaiser Wilhelm's younger brother, Prince Heinrich of Prussia was in England visiting King George V. Heinrich sent a message to Berlin telling them that London wanted to stay neutral, even though the king had nothing to do with foreign policy. The only problem with this was, Prince Heinrich had earned a bad reputation at not being a reliable reporter, and his message contradicted warnings from Ambassador Lichnowsky, who no one took seriously. Everyone felt he was gullible and only had his position because of his long friendship with the Kaiser, so they took the word of the Prince.

So now the final week of peace had begun with Austria mobilizing while sending signals that no one was available to receive. And Russia in their first stages of mobilizing while pretending not to be; with Germany beginning to feel directly threatened; and with France's Ambassador urging the Russians as well as the Serbians on. Britain was sending signals that the continental powers where free to interpret as they wished. Berlin and Paris were both for the time being, effectively leaderless. Nothing had happened, but there was no one in control.