An Ultimatum—July 23

David Lloyd George can still manage a smile!

It's almost a month since Princip's shots, Franz and Sophie are buried and mourned and initial concern has faded. A report sent to Vienna on July 13 determined that the Serbian government was not implicated in the assassination. Despite this, and encouraged by Germany continually telling Austria to punish Serbia quickly and firmly in the belief that Russia would do nothing, the Austrian government drew up a fifteen point ultimatum, among which were demands that: Serbia must suppress all anti-Austrian subversives, condemn Serbian military involvement in the assassination, condemn and punish the spread of any Anti-Austrian propaganda (even in schools), allow Austrian officials to enter Serbia to investigate and punish those involved in the plot. The full text of the ultimatum can be found HERE.

Acceptance of the ultimatum amounted to Serbia giving up her recently won independence, but then it was never intended to be accepted, it was an excuse, as cynical as the Nazi's staging a fake Polish raid on the wireless station at Gleiwitz on August 31, 1939.

With superb timing and wonderful optimism, David Lloyd George told the British parliament on July 23, that civilized nations could now regulate any disputes between themselves by, "sane and well-ordered arbitrament." That evening the ultimatum, a document that Edward Grey, the British Foreign minister was to call, "the most formidable document that was ever addressed from one state to another," was delivered to Belgrade.