WHO WAS IT WANTED WAR?

Taranaki Daily News, 21 May 1917, Page 2

WHO WAS IT WANTED WAR?

AUSTRIA'S SIGNIFICANT CONFESSION. Wo are in a position to record a formal and categorical confession in the Austrian Press, proving that the Dual Monarchy desired and provoked the wa l- , says the" London Daily Chronicle. The leading Vienna paper, None Fre.ie Presse, in its issue of January 5, frankly states that the Serbian Government's reply to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum of ■July 23, 1914, satisfied nil the demands of the Monarchy save one. This is the first time that a Viennese journal—and a very influential one—has made' this avowal. ''The Serbian Government," says the paper, "in fact only refused to accept one of the demands embodied in tne whole Austrian ultimatum—namely, the request that our police organisation should co-operate in guarding the frontiers, and other similar measures. Since, therefore, Serbia accepted all tho points of the ultimatum —onerous though they were —save the one just cited, which was known beforehand to be unacceptable—why was war declared, against her, and why was the whole world set in a blaze ? Why, indeed ?