July 21 1914: Britain goes to war in two weeks' time but the overwhelming concern is not relations between Austria and Serbia, but peace in Ireland. George V has called an emergency conference of eight political leaders at Buckingham Palace to consider the 'grave situation'
Lloyd George, the Chancellor, and Prime Minister Herbert Asquith leave for the Palace by the garden entrance to No 10 Downing Street
In his speech to the leaders, the King recognises that his 'intervention' is a 'new departure'
The French president Poincare states at St. Petersburg warns Austrian ambassador that "The Russian people are very warm friends of the Serbians, and France is Russia's ally"
The Serb prime minister, Pasitch, goes off on an election tour for the pending Serb elections to parliament; did not return to Belgrade until Jul 24
On July 21, the German government told Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador in Berlin, and Bronewski, the Russian chargé d'affaires, that the German Reich had no knowledge of what Austrian policy was towards Serbia. In private, Zimmermann wrote that the German government “entirely agreed that Austria must take advantage of the favourable moment, even at the risk of further complications”, but that he doubted “whether Vienna would nerve herself to act”. Zimmermann ended his memo that “he gathered that Vienna, timid and undecided as it always was, was almost sorry” that Germany had given the “blank cheque” of July 5th, 1914, instead of advising restraint with Serbia. Conrad himself was pressuring the Dual Monarchy for “haste” in starting a war, in order to prevent Serbia from “smelling a rat and herself volunteering compensation, perhaps under pressure from France and Russia”
In the bookshops, the demand for Lord Alfred Douglas's memoir about Oscar Wilde is so great that the publisher apologises to those who have not been able to buy it
Information resourced from the following sites:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/richardpreston/100280860/ww1-14-days-to-go-george-v-calls-an-emergency-conference-on-ireland-france-and-russia-reaffirm-friendship/
http://www2.uncp.edu/home/rwb/July_Crisis_1914_Chronology.htm
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