GERMANY'S WAR PLANS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 99, 22 September 1914, Page 7

GERMANY'S WAR PLANS.

DIPLOMATIC PRSBSURJ2. ATTiAu'i' TO bOOEIIOK FRANCE. a bonne ol liic il.jb-ooualic event# and lit: Wiupiu Ut* vTus. 11 l3nijict].:aU'jv preceded uie #u.i>ruik of war were Uesci'.oed l>y a Borrtj»j»i,«ideat of an lAiucncau paper, writing use July 2y; l' Uenua.n.v» rtajtonaibiiity for bringing on lux prcccnt ominous cri*it> in Eutfopeaa aad.is appeal's to bi: greater tlian M geueraily understood. a ue>w light oa M« spirit in Vjv-r----maa diplomacy ii&s been thrown by a letter I<j Uie lMuy Telegraph {rami its Paris correspondent, giving. a coimuum■,'utiiou lii>a tbu German Ambitjiiador to France, JJtuon Ton iSc'hoeii, winch amounted to a threat of war if Franco did not usa her influence to keep ner ally, lluaiia, out of frervia. The wr.ter says:

"The »t.roogeot evidence that the Austrian more id is reality a deliberately concerted Ueianan more is the extraordinary step taken on Friday by the Gienuan .Ambassador in Parte, Baron Ton flelioen, which was known at Ulie time only to the Daily Telegraph in Ijondoa aaJid the iX-ho de 1-a.m, in Paris. From nil the press except these two newspapers the secret was extraordinarily kept. Baroat yon fichoen himself thought Uhat no one in the public knew of hi« demarche until he read his papers on Saturday morning, it was in spnaequenee of thi# publication that he paid a Btcond visit to the •luai d'Orsay on the following day ami made a communication there whicji was, in effect, a toning down of bis communication of the day before. "The precise terms of both Friday's and Saturday's communication from Itaron Ton bohoen to the French Government are not and will not be known. I am informed, howerer, that the terms published on Saturday meaning are nci stronger than tihose which the Germaji AmJwiwador actually used. That ia to say, the expression of the German Aiinbuisadoi'a fears 'that dangerous friction might arise between the triple Alliance and the Triple Entente' in the event of the Powers of the Triple Entente not taking sUjw to localise Itlie oonllict between Austria and iSer/ia, by no moans ©vcretates what Baron Ton ixihoen said. The English words 'dangerous friction' ale, in fact, a rather milder 'translation of tthc French expression usea, 'grave tension.'

"Divested of diplomatic circumlocutions, Baron von Schocn'a communication meant 'if France and England do not stop Russia intervening against Austria, the Triple Alliance would declare war on the Triple Entente.' "Tbs aggravation e£ this extraordinary communication pf Ba,Ton von Bchoen was that it maie finst of all to Prance only on Friday. lam informed on the best authority that it wag made euibsequcntly, that ia bo say, yesterday, to the English Foreign Office. But the fact remains that the communii cation vras made to the French Government firet, and that is the most serious feature uJbout it.

Another extraordinary •incums'tance about it » tha obvious intention of the G«nnna Ehnbcgsy and of the French Government to keep the communication aeeret Baroa von Schocn'e first communication was to strange that there waa some idea, to begia with, of hia haviaj acted to a eertain extent on hi» own authority and without instructions. Thig waj not the case. Bnron too Scboan, on "the eontrary, is known to be a diplomatist of much prudence and tact. He acted on full instruction* from the Wilhelmstrasse.

The implkatioa contained in Baron rot Schoen's verbal note waa that France wag to be held as a liostage for th« ion-intervention of Russia. ia felt here at the Aus-tvo-Hußgarian move, for a particular reason. I am iaformed that the Emperor of Russia and the President of the French Republic, during their re- ■ cent interviews in Russia, received the amsurance, that tie Aiistro-Unngarian note to Bervia would be much lesi threatening than it proved to be. "The attitude of the French people ■I quite quiet, but not the quiet bred of indifference: The general French attitude may be once moTe shown by pointing t* extremists like M. Jaures. Ere* M. Jaurea writes severely about the Austrian move, and even an extreme Radical paper like Lft Lanterne, speaks o< finking all domestic political differences in the present erisis. Political enu.ities —and Heaven knows there are politieal enmities enough in the ease—were forgotten in the an xiety about greater iseuen." Support of t4 information to the Daily Telegraph, and evidence of French sentiments expressed in Parisian papers, j is farther given by a eorrespondent of \>e Pall Mall Gazette, who says.—

"The Hcko de Paris states that the Germaa Amfoassador called on ML Bienvenu Mart.iHj the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, aad made a •ommuni•atioa to Kim the tenor of which transformed tke Austro-Sermn dispute into a European diplomatic conflict.

"The Edio de Paris remarks that wtder tha aloak of localising the conflict an attempt is now made to humiliate the Triple Alliance. Last week, the journal continues, a high official <A ths Austria* Foreign Office assured the Frenck Ambassador in Vienna that the Austria# Note to Servia would be a conciliatory one. '•'At th« same time Germany was adopting military measures similar to those takea im 1111. This, Bays the. Echo de Paris, is a new 'coup d'Agadir.' Italia* dipl»ma»y, it ♦oncludes, appear# not to Ihave been informed of the proposed steps. "AH the other newspapers flipcuss the Austrian ultimatum, and dwell on the fact that Austria-Hungary has chosen a mo meat whe* hi, Poineaire and M. Yiviani are away, when the Rurtia* Government is struggling with n. formidable strike, otid when the Brittlie Government is in difficulties in Ulster to bring it« threats to a head. The Austrian military party, in ngreeire*t with that of Berlin, Ls considering the possibility by f(oisfl to war against Servia ot <l"stroyi*» the new balance ')• IV Balkans, which is iivore favorable to the Tripls Entcate thaH t» the Triple AlKwift."