France and Italy accept the British proposal for a conference

On 26 July 1914 the government of Great Britain put forward a formal proposal intended to halt the approaching war. The ambassadors of the four powers not directly involved in the Austro-Serbian dispute – Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy – were to meet in London under the chairmanship of the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, and seek a solution to the crisis. Until the talks ended, Austria-Hungary, Serbia and Russia were to refrain from military operations.

The proposal was circulated on Sunday 26 July by the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, Sir Arthur Nicolson, with the consent of Grey, who was away from London. It was an expanded version of the mediation Grey had already suggested on 24 July. Its model was the London ambassadors’ conference of 1912–1913, which during the Balkan Wars had helped avert a conflict between the great powers. Grey hoped the same mechanism would work again.

On 27 July the proposal was accepted by France and Italy. In France the reply was given by the acting Foreign Minister, Jean-Baptiste Bienvenu-Martin, because President Raymond Poincaré and Prime Minister René Viviani were still sailing home after their visit to Russia. The consent of Italy, represented by its Foreign Minister Antonino di San Giuliano, carried particular weight. Rome belonged to the Triple Alliance together with Germany and Austria-Hungary, but it had not been forewarned of the ultimatum to Serbia and did not want to be dragged into a war. Russia also expressed readiness to talk, although its Foreign Minister, Sergey Sazonov, preferred direct negotiations with Vienna.

Without the participation of Germany, however, the conference could not take place, and Berlin refused the same day. The Foreign Secretary, Gottlieb von Jagow, told the British ambassador that such a conference would in practice be a court of arbitration and that Germany could not bring Austria-Hungary before a European tribunal. Instead he proposed direct talks between Vienna and St Petersburg. At the same time Berlin let Vienna understand that it was passing on the British proposals merely to keep up appearances and that Austria-Hungary need not take them seriously. The German ambassador in London, Prince Lichnowsky, warned in vain that the British were treating their initiative very seriously.

27 July 1914 thus revealed a clear division of Europe. France, Italy and Russia were ready to sit down at the table, Great Britain was trying to act as mediator, and Germany blocked the only joint peace initiative of the great powers. The next day Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.