Britain also had an absorbing domestic concern-apart from holiday-making, of course. The Irish Home Rule Bill was roiling tempers very badly. On July 20-on the morning the Caillaux judges assembled in scarlet robes at the Seine Tribunal-His Britannic Majesty summoned the contending parties to Buckingham Palace, taking a very rare step beyond his constitutional role as a reigning, not a ruling, monarch. And King George did manage to postpone the crisis-until a superior urgency submerged it. But who would have expected such an urgency? Where would it come from? The Henley Regatta?
British King and Paris murderess were spear-carriers for Count von Berchtold's stagecraft. They both diverted attention as he readied the surprise climax. Vienna itself remained quiet, basking its way through July. It did generate some official news-though of a literally festive character. The City Fathers were planning the First International Vienna Music Festival, scheduled for June 1915. Newspapers reported a spirited debate on the subject in the Municipal Council. Among the main points discussed were (1) should the program consist of concerts only? and (2) if operas were included, would this be aping Salzburg, whose own first large-scale festival was slotted for August of this year and which would feature the great Felix Weingartner conducting Lotte Lehmann in Don Giovanni?
Vienna, then, looked preoccupied with matters either esthetic or bucolic and at all events harmless. As late as July 20, the Russian ambassador saw no reason for not leaving town on a two-week holiday. He left. From St. Petersburg came an even more conclusive signal of detente. On July 21, the Tsar and his guest, French President Poincare, exchanged toasts that dwelled on the international picture: The Serb-Austrian problem wasn't even mentioned.
But forty-eight hours earlier, while Europe sunned and napped, Count von Berchtold had tiptoed toward the last scene of his first act. On the afternoon of July 19, a number of taxis and private automobiles drew up before his Palais overlooking the Strudlhof Steps. The cars arrived at intervals, avoiding a dramatic convergence. It was Sunday. The scene seemed to point to some weekend social gathering. A passerby, had he cared to notice, would not have spotted a single official limousine.
Yet this was an official occasion, as crucial as it was covert: a cabinet meeting of the Joint Ministers of the AustroHungarian Empire. Berchtold had summoned them to review the text of the note to the Serbian government. On the morning of that day the "jewel" had finally been polished to perfection.
Next morning, on Monday July 20, a courier left the Ballhausplatz for the Emperor's villa at Bad Ischl. He made this trip routinely, every weekday, carrying state papers. On the twentieth he carried "the jewel" for Franz Joseph's inspection. On Tuesday the twenty-first, a brief, laconic item in the official Wiener Zeitung reported that Foreign Minister Count von Berchtold had gone to Bad Ischl "to discuss current business with His Majesty." And that morning, at 9 A.M., he was received by the Emperor.
Berchtold's diary records a Franz Joseph braced, tart, taut, not at all octogenarian.
"Well, Berchtold, ever on the go?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, one has to be. These are fast-moving times."
"Exactly, as never before. The note is pretty sharp."
"It has to be, Your Majesty."
"It has to be indeed. You will join us for lunch."
"With humble pleasure, Your Majesty."
Hoyos, whom Berchtold had brought along to the audience, took the official copy of the demarche from his briefcase. Franz Joseph initialed it. "The Jewel," already endorsed by the Joint Ministers, now bore the Imperial imprimatur.
Actually this was only the formal ratification of action taken twenty-four hours earlier. On Monday the Emperor had read and approved the note handed him by the courier. On that same Monday it had been wired to the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade. It was ready to be thrust at Serbia by the time a white-gloved footman set down a tureen before Franz Joseph, Berchtold, and Hoyos at midday of July 21.
In summary, the note said
1. that preliminary investigations prove that the assassination of the Austrian Crown Prince was planned in Belgrade; that Serbian officials and members of the government-sponsored Naradna Obrana[5] had provided the culprits with arms and training; that chiefs of the Serbian frontier service had organized and effectuated passage of the culprits into Austrian territory….
2. that even before the outrage, Belgrade had encouraged for years terrorist societies and criminal actions aiming to detach BosniaHercegovina from the Habsburg realm….
3. that in view of the above, and in order to end this intolerable, long-standing, and ongoing threat to its territories and to its tranquillity, the Imperial and Royal Government of the Austro-Hungarian Empire sees itself obliged to demand from the Royal Serbian government
(a) the publication on the front page of Belgrade's Official Journal of July 26, 1914, of a declaration by the Serbian Government which regrets, condemns, and repudiates all Serbian acts, official or nonofficial, against Austria, and all Serbian violations of rules governing the comity of nations-and that such a declaration be also published as "Order of the Day" by the King of Serbia to the Serbian Army.
The Austrian Government further demands
(b) a guarantee from the Serbian Government that it will henceforth suppress any publication inciting hatred against Austria or menacing Austria's territorial integrity; that it will dissolve any and all societies engaged in propaganda, subversion, or terrorism against Austria, and that it will prevent such societies from continuing their activities under another name or form…
The Austrian Government further demands
(c) that the Serbian Government will eliminate instantly any and all educational materials in Serbian schools that are anti-Austrian in character…
The Austrian Government further demands
(d) that the Serbian Government will remove from the Serbian Army and the Serbian administration all officials guilty of anti-Austrian acts, including specific individuals whose names and activities will be detailed to the Serbian Government by the Austrian Government; and that the Serbian Government will accept the participation of Austrian Police in the suppression and apprehension of antiAustrian subversive groups, particularly those involved in the Sarajevo crime…
Finally, the Austrian Government demands
(e) that the Serbian Government will notify the Austrian Government without delay of the execution of these measures… and to convey unconditional agreement to all of the foregoing at the latest by Saturday, July 25, 1914, at 6 P.M.
This was the super-ultimatum. In the words of the British Foreign Secretary, it constituted "the most formidable document ever addressed by one state to another." It was also the nonultimatum. Though its tone left no doubt over the consequences of noncompliance, it did not mention the possibility of war, and therefore arrived at the Austrian Embassy in Belgrade labeled as a mere "demarche with a time limit."
And there were other fine aspects to Berchtold's game. The sledgehammer message came phrased in fastidious diplomatic French, the last such "final notice" to be written in that language. Last but not least, Berchtold used precision timing, always important in a theatrical enterprise. Belgrade relied on two principal protectors, Russia and France. Just then the French Head of State was finishing his visit with the Tsar. Berchtold did not want the two to react jointly when the "demarche with a time limit" struck. Through German diplomatic sources, Berchtold had learned that President Poincare would end his stay at the Russian capital in the early afternoon of Thursday, July 23. By 5 P.M. he would be floating away on the cruiser France. Berchtold instructed the Austrian Ambassador in Belgrade to deliver the "demarche" at 6 P.M. sharp.
5
The cultural society promoting Serb nationalism. Since neither Princip nor his accomplices gave away the Black hand during their interrogations, it is not mentioned in the Austrian note.