Page - 115 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The July Crisis 115 The note of response was brought to the Austro-Hungarian embassy by Prime Minister Pašić in person. This served to underline the importance of the document to be deliv- ered, as well as to express a certain degree of anxiety. Naturally, the note of response was not delivered mutely ; instead, the Serbian position was explained using all available clichés. At this late stage in the day, Pašić was no longer concerned about his electoral campaign, and he would have been fully aware of the importance of the document. The note of response  – and this was the consistent view of nearly all state chan- celleries  – was extremely skilfully worded. It had been revised until just before being delivered. For this reason, it contains deletions  – something highly uncommon for a document of this significance  – that Prime Minister Pašić had still made at the last moment while being driven to the Austrian embassy. However, there was no question of this being an unconditional acceptance. Since the Austrian envoy in Belgrade had been given no room for manoeuvre, and he had only been given permission to accept a full agreement to the Austrian démarche, he was obliged in accordance with his instruc- tions to leave the embassy, board a train and in this way to make it clear that diplomatic relations had been broken off. In Serbia, mobilisation had already begun hours before the note of response was delivered.