Authors

Topics

Events

Contents

British White Book

Contents:

Date: 1915

Show Summary

General Summary

The official documents relating to the outbreak of the war in 1914 were soon published and are accessible in English translations. It is well to remember that they were specially prepared for publication; furthermore, that they cannot give adequate information of the personal factor which is so important in all diplomatic matters. There is no reason, however, to doubt the authenticity of this diplomatic correspondence, which the various European governments have presented to the world. The letters and dispatches printed in the British White Book, the German White Book, the Russian Orange Book, the Belgian Gray Book, the French Yellow Book, the Austro-Hungarian Red Book, and the Serbian Blue Book confirm one another’s statements in a remarkable manner.

Historical Summary

The note which the Austro-Hungarian government addressed to the Serbian government on July 24 set forth the grievances which Austria-Hungary believed herself to have against Serbia. It referred particularly to the assassination on June 28 at Serajevo of the archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Hapsburg throne, and his wife, by political conspirators of Serbian nationality or sympathy. In effect, though not in form, the note was an ultimatum, for it required Serbia, by six o’clock on the evening of July 25, to accept or reject the following demands.

To these demands Serbia made answer on July 25, shortly before the expiration of the time limit. The Serbian government agreed to hand over for trial any subject of whose complicity in the crime of Serajevo proofs were forthcoming, and also to publish an official statement condemning the propaganda directed against Austria-Hungary. Nearly all the other Austrian demands were accepted by the Serbian government, which offered, in case its reply was considered unsatisfactory, to refer the questions at issue to the Hague Tribunal or to the mediation of the great powers. The Austrian government rejected this reply as insincere and only "a play for time," and on July 28 declared war against Serbia.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

The Outbreak of the World War

171.

The Austrian Note to Serbia

"The royal government of Serbia condemns the propaganda directed against Austria-Hungary, the general tendency of which is to detach from the Austro-Hungarian monarchy territories belonging to it, and it sincerely deplores the fatal consequences of these criminal proceedings.

"The royal government regrets that Serbian officers and functionaries participated in the above-mentioned propaganda and thus compromised the good neighborly relations to which the royal government was solemnly pledged by its declaration of March 31, 1909.

"The royal government, which disapproves and repudiates all idea of interfering or attempting to interfere with the destinies of the inhabitants of any part whatsoever of Austria-Hungary, considers it a duty formally to warn officers and functionaries, and the whole population of the kingdom, that henceforth it will proceed with the utmost rigor against persons who may be guilty of such machinations, which it will use all its efforts to anticipate and suppress."

This declaration shall simultaneously be communicated to the royal army as an order of the day by his Majesty the king and shall be published in the Official Bulletin of the army.

The royal Serbian government further undertakes:

1. To suppress any publication which incites to hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the general tendency of which is directed against its territorial integrity;

2. To dissolve immediately the society styled "Narodna Odbrana," to confiscate all its means of propaganda, and to proceed in the same manner against other societies and their branches in Serbia which engage in propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The royal government shall take the necessary measures to prevent the societies dissolved from continuing their activity under another name and form;

3. To eliminate without delay from public instruction in Serbia, both as regards the teaching body and also as regards the methods of instruction, everything that serves, or might serve, to foment the propaganda against Austria-Hungary;

4. To remove from the military service, and from the administration in general, all officers and functionaries guilty of propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, whose names and deeds the Austro-Hungarian government reserves to itself the right of communicating to the royal government of Serbia;

5. To accept the collaboration in Serbia of representatives of the Austro-Hungarian government for the suppression of the subversive movement directed against the territorial integrity of the monarchy;

6. To take judicial proceedings against accessories to the plot of June 28 who are on Serbian territory; delegates of the Austro-Hungarian government will take part in the investigation relating thereto;

7. To proceed without delay to the arrest of Major Voija Tankositch and of the individual named Milan Ciganovitch, a Serbian state employee, who have been compromised by the results of the magisterial inquiry at Serajevo;

8. To prevent by effective measures the coöperation of the Serbian authorities in the illicit traffic in arm and explosives across the frontier, to dismiss and punish severely the officials of the frontier service at Schabatz and guilty of having assisted the perpetrators of the Serajevo crime by facilitating their passage across the frontier;

9. To furnish the Austro-Hungarian government with explanations regarding the unjustifiable utterances of high Serbian officials, both in Serbia and abroad, who, notwithstanding their official position, have not hesitated since the crime of June 28 to express themselves in interviews in terms of hostility to the Austro-Hungarian government; and, finally,

10. To notify the Austro-Hungarian government without delay of the execution of the measures comprised under the preceding heads.

¹ London, 1915. His Majesty’s Stationery Office.

² , No. 4.

Contents:

Related Resources

None available for this document.

Download Options

Title: British White Book

Select an option:

*Note: A download may not start for up to 60 seconds.

Email Options

Title: British White Book

Select an option:

Email addres:

*Note: It may take up to 60 seconds for for the email to be generated.

Chicago: "The Austrian Note to Serbia," British White Book in Readings in Modern European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: D.C. Heath, 1926), 432–433. Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KMARTU2Y2DT8A2N.

MLA: . "The Austrian Note to Serbia." British White Book, in Readings in Modern European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, D.C. Heath, 1926, pp. 432–433. Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KMARTU2Y2DT8A2N.

Harvard: , 'The Austrian Note to Serbia' in British White Book. cited in 1926, Readings in Modern European History, ed. , D.C. Heath, Boston, pp.432–433. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KMARTU2Y2DT8A2N.