Why We Are at War (2nd Edition, revised)University of Oxford. Faculty of Modern History
History
Why We Are at War (2nd Edition, revised)
University of Oxford. Faculty of Modern History
World War, 1914-1918
_By promising the dismissal from the military and civil services of
those officers and officials who are found guilty by judicial procedure,
the Servian Government limits its assent to those cases, in which these
persons have been charged with a crime according to the statutory code.
As, however, we demand the removal of such officers and officials as
indulge in a propaganda hostile to the Monarchy, which is generally not
punishable in Servia, our demands have not been fulfilled in this
point_.
5. The Royal Government confesses that it is not clear about the sense
and the scope of that demand of the I. and R. Government which concerns
the obligation on the part of the Royal Servian Government to permit the
cooperation of officials of the I. and R. Government on Servian
territory, but it declares that it is willing to accept every
cooperation which does not run counter to international law and criminal
law, as well as to the friendly and neighborly relations.
_The international law, as well as the criminal law, has nothing to do
with this question; it is purely a matter of the nature of state police
which is to be solved by way of a special agreement. The reserved
attitude of Servia is therefore incomprehensible and on account of its
vague general form it would lead to unbridgeable difficulties_.
6. The Royal Government considers it its duty as a matter of course to
begin an investigation against all those persons who have participated
in the outrage of June 28th and who are in its territory. As far as the
cooperation in this investigation of specially delegated officials of
the I. and R. Government is concerned, this cannot be accepted, as this
is a violation of the constitution and of criminal procedure. Yet in
some cases the result of the investigation might be communicated to the
Austro-Hungarian officials.
_The Austrian demand was clear and unmistakable_:
_1. To institute a criminal procedure against the participants in the
outrage_.
_2. Participation by I. and R. Government officials in the examinations
("Recherche" in contrast with "enquête judiciaire")._
_3. It did not occur to us to let I. and R. Government officials
participate in the Servian court procedure; they were to cooperate only
in the police researches which had to furnish and fix the material for
the investigation._
_If the Servian Government misunderstands us here, this is done
deliberately, for it must be familiar with the difference between
"enquête judiciaire" and simple police researches. As it desired to
escape from every control of the investigation which would yield, if
correctly carried out, highly undesirable results for it, and as it
possesses no means to refuse in a plausible manner the cooperation of
our officials (precedents for such police intervention exist in great
number) it tries to justify its refusal by showing up our demands as
impossible_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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