Cabinet for Austria-Hungary's assurances that she is thinking only of chastising and not of occupying Serbia.”
This dispatch fell into the hands of the German Government on its way through Germany, and they hastened to publish it, because it showed, they said, that Germany had worked with the greatest devotion for peace. The German Government later published numerous other documents of Belgian diplomats from the decade before the war, all of which spoke very favourably of Germany's love of peace. What they prove is one thing, namely, that it was particularly among Belgian diplomats that the trust in German policy was very strong.
It strikes one as all the more remarkable that the German Government published at the same time as these documents, others which were intended to prove that Belgium, long before the war, had entered into a conspiracy with England and France against Germany.
As to the distrust shown by the St. Petersburg Cabinet—mentioned by de l'Escaille—towards Vienna's assurances that she would not harm Serbia's integrity, this mistrust was not limited to St. Petersburg.
On July 29th Bethmann-Hollweg wrote to Tschirschky in Vienna:
“These utterances of Austrian diplomats no longer bear the character of private statements, but must appear as the reflex of wishes and aspirations. I regard the attitude of the Austrian Government and its varying procedure towards the different Governments with increasing misgiving. In St.
Petersburg she declares her disinterestedness as
