In spite of the general mobilization I continue to exchange views with Count Berchtold and his collaborators. All insist on the absence of aggressive intentions on the part of Austria against Russia and of ambitions of conquest in regard to Servia, _but all equally insist on the necessity for Austria of pursuing to the very end the action begun and of giving to Servia a serious lesson which would constitute a certain guarantee for the future_. This was in effect a flat refusal of all mediatory or otherwise pacific suggestions, for the right of Austria to crush Servia by giving it "a serious lesson"--what such a lesson is let Louvain, Liége, and Rheims witness!--was the crux of the whole question. Concurrently Sir Edward Goschen telegraphed to Sir Edward Grey that Germany had declared that day the "_Kriegsgefahr_" and that the German Chancellor had expressed the opinion that "all hope of a peaceful solution of the crisis" was at an end. The British Ambassador then asked the Chancellor,-- whether he could not still put pressure on the authorities at Vienna to do something in the general interests to reassure Russia and to show themselves disposed to continue discussions on a friendly basis. He replied that last night he had begged Austria to reply to your last proposal, and that he had received a reply to the effect that Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs would take the wishes of the Emperor this morning in the matter.[72] [Footnote 72: English _White Paper_, No. 112.] Here again the world is not favored with the text of the message, in which the Chancellor "begged Austria to reply," nor with that of the Austrian Foreign Minister's reply. While these events were happening in Berlin and London, the Russian Ambassador in Vienna advised Sazonof "that Austria has determined not to yield to the intervention of the powers and that she is moving troops against Russia as well as Servia."[73] [Footnote 73: English _White Paper_, No. 113.] Russia thereupon, on July 31, ordered a general mobilization of her army. Concurrently with these interviews, the English Ambassador in Vienna had a conversation with the Austrian Under-Secretary of State and called his attention to the fact that during the discussion of the Albanian frontier at the London Conference of Ambassadors the Russian Government had stood behind Servia, and that a compromise between the views of Russia and Austria-Hungary resulted with accepted frontier line. Although he[74] spoke in a conciliatory tone, and did not regard the situation as desperate, _I could not get from him any suggestion for a similar compromise in the present case_. Count Forgach is going this afternoon to see the Russian Ambassador, whom I have informed of the above conversation.[75] [Footnote 74: The Austrian Under-Secretary of State.]