The Reply—July 25

General Putnik.

At 3 p.m., Serbia began mobilization. That evening she responded to the Austrian ultimatum. Remarkably, Serbia agreed to everything, with the sole exception of allowing Austrians into Serbia. She suggested that this point be submitted for arbitration to the International Tribunal in The Hague.

This is how things were supposed to work, Lloyd George's "sane and well-ordered arbitrament," and the International Tribunal was probably an excellent starting point. Just in case it didn't work, the Serbian government moved out of Belgrade.

In a wonderfully surreal incident, given that the ultimatum was merely an excuse for war, the Serbian Army Chief-of-Staff, General Putnik was arrested in Budapest as he was returning to Serbia by train. When Franz Josef heard of the arrest he ordered a special train to take Putnik on his way, along with an apology.

We're about to invade you, but no one can accuse us of not being polite!