German government rejects British conference proposal

On 28 July 1914 the government of Germany finally rejected the British proposal to convene a conference of the ambassadors of four powers in London. The plan put forward by the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had been backed the day before by France and Italy, and Russia had also expressed readiness to talk. Without Berlin’s participation, however, the conference could not take place.

The British ambassador in Berlin had already heard the first refusal on 27 July from the Foreign Secretary, Gottlieb von Jagow. On 28 July Germany’s position was confirmed by the Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg. He argued that Germany could not summon Austria-Hungary before a European court in its dispute with Serbia. A conference would resemble arbitration, to which Vienna did not agree.

Instead, Berlin pointed to another path: direct talks between Vienna and St Petersburg. The Chancellor gave assurances that Germany wished to work with Great Britain for peace and was itself trying to influence its ally. Such a reply made it possible to reject the conference without appearing to be an opponent of peace.

In those days Bethmann Hollweg was playing a double game. On the one hand, he did not want Germany to look like a state that rejected all mediation and thereby took on responsibility for war. He was particularly anxious that Britain should remain neutral. On the other hand, he had no intention of putting real pressure on Vienna that might stop its reckoning with Serbia.

The refusal coincided with Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia. On that same day the conference plan therefore lost its point: the powers could no longer prevent war, but at most limit its scope. British diplomacy tried other solutions in the following days, but the chance of joint action by the powers, like that of the time of the Balkan Wars, had been lost.