that you are proceeding to mobilize, but I should like to receive from you the same guarantee as I have given you, namely, that these measures do not mean war and that we shall continue to negotiate for the welfare of both our countries and the general peace which is so dear to our hearts. Our long, tried friendship must succeed with God's help in preventing bloodshed. I anxiously await your answer, full of confidence."
The unsuspecting "Nicky" never dreamed that his long, tried friend "Willy" had by this time already sent the declaration of war to him and thus opened the war.
THE REASON FOR THE DECLARATION OF WAR
William had been in a tremendous hurry about it, almost as quick as the Austrians on July 25th against the Serbians.
At 12 midnight the period ended at the expiry of which, according to the Chancellor's announcement, Germany would mobilize, if Russia did not at once demobilize on all fronts, while Austria went on with her general mobilization and the war against Serbia continued.
And by 1p.m., not only was mobilization ordered, but the declaration of war sent to St. Petersburg.
The German White Book, which gives all documents in German, as a rule, even those originally in foreign languages—e.g., the telegrams interchanged between the Kaiser and the Tsar—publishes the declaration of war
