Page - 129 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The ‘Skirmish’ near Temes-Kubin 129 could such a telegram be found. A corresponding entry in one of the registers does not exist either. Nothing ! And this for an undountedly historical document from the early war period. It is very likely that one must go a step further and cast doubt on whether this telegram ever existed. If it did exist, however, it must have been destroyed with good reason. Kiszling claims to have seen it, yet he cited neither a file nor a reference number. Gustav Hubka, one of the employees collaborating on the General Staff work on the First World War, said that the report had been passed on only by telephone.285 Yet the report must have existed at some point in written form, because otherwise it would not have been possible to quote its wording. If something of this nature was ever reported from the area of the 4th Corps to Vienna, then it was a bogus report. And it did not come by chance ! Perhaps it had been commissioned and was then  – after fulfilling its purpose  – destroyed. The reference to Serbian troops opening fire on 26 July without declaring war was ideal for presenting Serbia as the aggressor, which was important for the stance of Italy and Romania. If the two of them were at all to stand by the Triple Alliance, then they would do so only in the event of a war that had not been started by either Austria-Hun- gary or Germany. Others, for example the British, were also told upon receipt of the report about the skirmish that Serbia was the aggressor. The non-existent skirmish served moreover to make the claim to the domestic audi- ence that the Dual Monarchy had started a defensive war. This was not only a question of outward appearances, for that would not have required such a mystification. It was far more a measure that should ensure that everyone who had perhaps not been ready to wage an aggressive war now accepted the necessity of defence. This was important with regard to the Slavs in the Monarchy, but also in respect of the political groups who, like the Austrian Social Democrats, had made it clear when discussing the Law on War Contributions (Kriegsleistungsgesetz) that they would only accept the passing of drastic measures in the case of a defensive war. Evidently, during the course of 48 hours no-one in Austria had given any thought to informing the Supreme Commander that the declaration of war he had signed had been manipulated retroactively. It was not until a day after the dispatch of the decla- ration of war, i.e. on 29 July, that Berchtold reported the situation to the Emperor. He did so, once again, in a ‘Most humble presentation’, which stated : ‘After the news of the military engagement near Temes-Kubin could not be confirmed and, on the contrary, only a single report about a minor skirmish near Gradište had been received, which did not appear to be appropriate for use in justifying a grave act of state, I took it upon my- self in the hope of the retroactive Supreme Approval of Your Majesty to eliminate the sentence about the attack by Serbian troops near Temes-Kubin from the declaration of war against Serbia.’286