The English press was quiet at first, and friendly to Austria, the
assassination being generally condemned. By degrees, however, more and
more voices made themselves heard, in the sense that, however necessary
it might be to take cognizance of the crime, any exploitation of it for
political ends was unjustifiable. Moderation was enjoined upon Austria.
When the ultimatum came out, all the papers, with the exception of the
Standard, were unanimous in condemning it. The whole world, outside of
Berlin and Vienna, realized that it meant war, and a world war too. The
English fleet, which happened to have been holding a naval review, was
not demobilized.
The British Government labored to make the Serbian reply conciliatory,
and "the Serbian answer was in keeping with the British efforts." Sir
Edward Grey then proposed his plan of mediation upon the two points
which Serbia had not wholly conceded. Prince Lichnowsky writes:
M. Cambon (for France), Marquis Imperiali (for Italy), and I were to
meet, with Sir Edward in the chair, and it would have been easy to work
out a formula for the debated points, which had to do with the
co-operation of imperial and royal officials in the inquiries to be
conducted at Belgrade. By the exercise of good will everything could
have been settled in one or two sittings, and the mere acceptance of the
British proposal would have relieved the strain and further improved our
relations with England.
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