INCEPTION OF THE WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1664, 20 January 1917, Page 4

INCEPTION OF THE WAR.

A cable .message published on Monday last reported the resignation ot Count Forgach, one of the under-secretaries of the AustroHungarian Foreign Office. His name is closely associated with that of Count Tschirschky, the German Ambassador in Vienna, who died last November. In giving an account of the events leading up to the outbreak of hostilities, Sir Maurice de Bunsen, the British Ambassador iit Vienna, said in si despatch dated September Ist, 1914, that the presentation of the ultimatum to »Servia was preceded by a period of absolute silence at the Austrian Foreign Office, and Unit, with the exception of the German Ambassador, Count Tschirschky, who must have been aware of the tenor if not the actual words of the Note, “none of his colleagues was allowed to see through the veil.” The close cooperation of Germany and Austria in the matter of the presentation and terms of the ultimatum is borne out by M. Jovanovitch, the Servian Minister at Vienna, who stated that the work of drawing up the ultimatum was entrusted to Count Forgaeh, formerly Minister from Aus-tria-Hungary to Servia. “If was generally believed,” said M. JovanoiViteh, “that of the representatives of foreign countries only the Ger* man Ambassador, Count Tsehirsehky, had been informed of the progress of the work.” The Servian Minister had, indeed, reason to believe that the German Ambassador had even collaborated in drawing up the ultimatum. “Representatives of States favourable to us,” he added, “also agreed with me in thinking that, drafted by these two authors JForgach and Tschirschky), the Note would contain very h,ard conditions for Servia. When the text of the Note was made public they were all taken by surprise, not to say dismayed.” Germany was kept fully in touch with what Austria was doing through Count Tsehirschky. So little, however, did the Russi an Ambassador at Vienna know of what was being done by Germany and Austria that about July 20th, on the eve of the war, he actually left the Austrian capital for a fortnight’s leave of absence. It is suggested that Tschirschky had had the opportunity of telegraphing the contents of the ultimatum to the German Emperor before it was presented to Servia.