l once calculated that the Foreign Office received 250 telegrams every hour.
That's 6000 telegrams a day.
Or 42,000 each week.
Ah, l see you thought I was Persia, didn't you? l've been promoted.
Which comes to 2,190,000 telegrams every year.
Britannia rules the waves, l suppose, and for that reason
we must weIcome these tides of information.
Political crisis in Argentina, the abolition of slavery in Siam
l love it. lt means that l am working centre of the worId
and get to find out what's happening as soon as it happens.
Within a few hours anyway.
But, my word, it's an awful lot of telegrams.
Could you do these promptIy, MurieI? - Please? - PIease.
This particular one though, received in London
from his Britannic majesty's consul in Sarajevo, on June the 28th, 1914...
Well, l should be honest with you...
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand murdered in Sarajevo?
lnteresting, for sure, over breakfast, but forgotten by tea time.
Or so l thought. As did everyone else l spoke to.
But it was not forgotten. And I think it never will be.
You know it is a magical place, and l have to pinch myself sometimes
that I'm here.
Just two years on from King's, a second division clark in the great
and as some would have it, independent kingdom of the Foreign Office...
What's in the box Henry, lead piping?
Not much of a player, not yet, but a ringside seat if you like in boxing.
ShouIders back!
DoubtIess that is for me, AIec? - It is, sir.
Well Iet's take it into my office.
That's my boss, Sir Eyre Crowe. - So what do we have?
The assistant undersecretary at the Foreign Office.
German-born, educated in Berlin but now...
...he's more British than any one of us. - Well, well.
l've learnt to watch Sir Eyre closely because everyone knows
he is a briIIiant man... including himself.
Do you know? I was about to predict something like this.
This man, had come to Britain at seventeen, a German speaker still
and sailed through his civil service examinations.
l think so. Rash, rash, rash.
l think he likes me too; I'm a scholarship boy, you see.
l'm a bit of an outsider myself.
Look at this. The 28th was the Serb Holy Day.
What a time for an Austrian Archduke to go to Sarajevo.
It's rash, sir. - Yes. Rash.
So, is this important or not? - lt is.
But, important enough to disturb the Foreign Secretary?
Right now? - Right now.
No.
l believe you may want to think about that one again.
l'm Ieaving, Crowe. Is it urgent?
lt's Bosnia, Foreign Secretary. - Ah, l think that might wait.
Really? Come and waIk me out.
That's Sir Edward Grey, the Liberal Foreign Secretary.
As a statesman he was, we believed, trusted and admired.
The Mesopotamia minute. And I shall need the Persian text
first thing tomorrow. - Sir.
So who wouId want him dead? - Many peopIe.
Franz Ferdinand was an unpopular man and made enemies easily.
What does your stomach say, Croat? MusIim?
I doubt it. - Hungarian?
Possibly. - More Iikely to be a Serb then?
That's where l'd pIace my money. - Me too.
The question is, how wiII the Austrians take it?
And you're going to give me a very brief - but wonderfuIIy incisive - answer.
The same way they take all their disappointments.
Hysterical condemnation. A baroque display of official grief.
And a demand for financial compensation. - From?
Oh, from whoever they can find to blame.
We don't want it to be Serbia, do we? - No.
It wouId be messy. - It wouId...
Yes?
Austria does have rather too many unruIy Serbs within its own borders
to go picking a fight with a lot more outside. - So do we need to worry?
We aIways need to do that. - But l should enjoy my supper?
You know Sir Edward might also have been the unIuckiest man in Britain.
His wife had recently died after being thrown by a horse.
Ah, how is your boy doing Marmaduke? - Very well, sir.
Well I hope to see him back here before Iong.
His elder brother had been eaten by a lion and his younger brother
would be mauled to death by a Buffalo.
l mean that's enough personal tragedy to finish a man, but...
Grey bore it. Somehow.
Oh that dreadful man Eyre Crowe!
I'II wager he sees this is an opportunity to have a go at the Germans.
Now now, dear, Sir Edward's come here to reIax, not to taIk shop.
Oh nonsense! He loves taIking shop. You all do.
Look at David over there. Do you want him to recite Welsh poetry?
No you don't. You want him to reIate some tittIe-tattIe from the Treasury.
You can never distinguish between a dinner party and a Cabinet meeting.
And much as we'd all weIcome your feminine wisdom in Cabinet, Margot
there is a difference. - More's the pity.
But at least tell me this, Sir Edward. ls it Serbia or Servia?
'B' for 'barbarian' or 'v' for 'villain'?
Ah, I'm at a Ioss. Some of our cIerks type it up as 'b', others 'v'.
The Times favours 'v'. - Never, in the Manchester Guardian it's 'b'.
And the News of the WorId says 'Who the heII cares?'
About the spelling? - About anything.
I've no firm aIIegiance to either Margot. - WeII you shouId get these things straight.
A misspeIt name is like a forgotten face: a grave insult.
lt's just the sort of thing men will go to war over.
Quite so. - Those Serbs do appear to enjoy killing royaIty though.
We don't know it's the Serbs yet.
Yes, but Margot is quite correct.
They're thrilled by vioIence. By the reality, not just the idea.
Winston's kind of people.
Their own King, Alexander, stripped and butchered in the royaI bedchamber.
His wife too. And both of them thrown from an open window.
lt is the Iand of the bIood feud. A contested wiII, pistols are drawn.
An argument over a worthless pIot of Iand, out come the knives.
And the embittered past is aIways there threatening to engorge the present.
Dear God, it sounds just like lreIand! - Oh no, please!
Can we not talk about that? - Hear, hear.
Of course my dear. Except to say that if I were Prime Minister
instead of you l'd have had the leaders of the UIster Volunteer Force shot by now.
l do believe she wouId. - And anyone else bent on using
guns to overturn the decisions of the British House of Commons.
Ah! BIoodshed! A perfect soIution to the Irish probIem.
But there wiII be bIood. You've all let it sIide too far.
The only question is, whose?
Thank you Margot.
You've been keeping your cards close to your your chest tonight, Sir Edward
so pIease give me something to take away.
lreIand's not my department, Margot. - Oh, I'm not talking about that.
Home ruIe will be resisted by UIster and the Tory leadership
and there'II be a horribIe civiI war, that's obvious.
Now, l want to know about the Sarajevo assassination.
Should I be worried? - l don't see why.
You see, now l am worried. I can read you like a book.
WeII l do hope l'm not so transparent to foreign diplomats.
So, what is the Foreign Office pIotting? - Plotting?
Oh we all know you sit on a mountain of secrets.
Nobody is plotting anything Margot, but you have my assurance
if this country has anything to worry about
you will be the first to be told.
Goodnight Winston.. Edward.
Goonight David.
Thank the Lord I'm not married to her, if I had been l'd be a widower by now.
I'm sorry Edward, that was damned careless of me.
WeII l must say, I do hope it's not the Serbs
because if is Austria won't be happy untiI her army has been biIIoted in Belgrade.
I'm not sure.
And then we'II have the Russians rattIing their sabres.
We don't want a SIav common front developing over this.
WeII, I can't imagine Austria would be stupid enough to provoke that.
WeII, good night Edward. - Good night.
l'm certain you'll make us proud if you're called upon.
You're stiII up WiIIiam. Now that wasn't necessary.
lt's me. - Crowe!
l was let in by your man. - What is it?
I was right. lt was a Serb.
A young student, a fanatic cIearIy. Possibly an anarchist. I forget his...
Ah Principo l think. The details are aII here. Such as they are.
l thought you'd want to know before the morning papers.
Thank you Crowe.
The Archduke's assassin was Gavrillo Princip.
A Bosnian Serb and a nonentity, but a nonentity with a very powerful idea.
Princip believed that Bosnia should be part of the Kingdom of Serbia
and that it would take violence to get rid of the province's Austrian overlords.
VioIence that he and his friends were willing to inflict.
And the victim they chose was this man: the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The heir to the Habsburg throne and the symbol of everything Princip hated
about Austrian rule. lts arrogance, its bullying and...
Well, the sheer fact that it regarded the Serbs in the province as an inferior race.
And it was madness for a Habsburg to visit Sarajevo on this day of all days.
For the 28th was the most important date in the Serb calendar.
A day of Holy mourning.
lt would be like an English King going, in battle-dress
to Dublin on St Patrick's Day. An act of self-destruction.
Yet this fool might still have escaped.
The young assassins had lost their nerve
and all Princip had seen of the Archduke's car was a blur as it raced by.
He'd retreated to a little café and was no doubt contemplating what might have been.
But then, by some perverse roll of the dice, the boy got a second chance.
Back, back, back!
The Archduke's driver had got lost in the city's old town. And the car...
How this makes me laugh and cry even now...
The car was stuck right outside Princip's coffee house.
These shots. From this boy. They were loud in Sarajevo.
l promise you they were even louder in Berlin.
For Austria was our ally, and Franz Ferdinand was our friend.
Good morning.
For most of my colleagues in the chancellery of the German Reich
it was as if we, ourseIves, had been shot.
There are very few like me in the lmperial Government.
l count myself a liberal
and liberalism is understood to be a kind of poison here.
l favour making the Fatherland a true democracy too, and that
shouId it ever become known, wouId be enough to see me cashiered.
For this is a Prussian institution stiII, not a German one.
And here is the man at the head of it.
The imperial Chancellor: Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg.
The Kaiser needs to know the titIe of the book, not the chapter and verse.
This one.
Bethmann Hollweg had spent a lifetime in the Prussian civiI service.
He was extremely competent and he knew that the murder in Sarajevo
would affect our Kaiser personally.
They were friends. - They were more than friends.
They were hunting partners.
What became of the antilope population of Bohemia?
One day perhaps our chiIdren will want to know the answer.
You can tell them it was eIiminated in the course of one glorious weekend
by the Archduke and our Kaiser. - They achieved that?
It is impossibIe to kill so many Iiving things
and not affect the bond of some kind.
But Bethmann Hollweg's special gift was for obedience.
Obedience to the right man.
Obedience to this man, Kaiser Wilhelm Il.
You all know him.
The eldest grandson of Queen Victoria, the withered Ieft arm with which
he was yanked into life by a panic-stricken midwife.
The moustache pointing to Heaven.
He was often a puzzle to us, though.
No crime greater. There is no crime greater.
Regicide attacks the apex of civiIised Iife.
When you kill a king you kill the order in which peopIe find all meaning.
Your majesty... - And these Serbs, I hate them.
We aII do. I know it is a sin to hate anybody and we ought not to do it.
But we cannot help hating them.
TeII them about the Browning!
The gun, that was shot in Sarajevo. - Yes, weII we don't know
for certain but it might appear... - Ah we know!
The bullet dispIayed markings of the RoyaI Serbian arsenal.
That's what Vienna is teIIing us.
It wasn't a deIuded boy who fired the gun. It was the Serbian Government.
It is possibIe that the gun was stoIen.
It is fairIy weII known, l think, that practically every farm in Serbia
has become a dump for piIfered weapons since the Iast BaIkan war.
Good, Prince Lichnowsky. That is what they wiII want us to think.
What does my Chancellor say?
ln terms of imperial policy, sir, we first ought to see
what line of thinking emerges from Vienna.
In the meantime, we might sound out the Russians
for the obvious reason that they continue to see themseIves as
the protectors of the Serbian nation.
We know from experience that Russia gets nervous
whenever there is a disturbance in the Balkans...
Do you think that is an appropriate German response?
To wait and see how Russia reacts!
I didn't quite say that, your majesty. - lt's what you meant!
The Austrians! They're our problem. lsn't that so?
As soon as the corpse is buried their courage will fail.
And if it fails this time she is finished.
Every Serb, Croat, PoIack, Transylvanian- Romanian-Negro-Gypsy
in the Habsburg Empire, any race with a grievance will pick up a gun
and point it to the Austrian heart. We all know this, don't we?
WeII, don't we?
That is why, this time, we must give Vienna some backbone.
Serbia must learn to fear the Habsburgs again. - Hear, hear.
We shouId let Austria know that whatever she intends to do to the Serbs
we shaII support her.
Won't they stiII procrastinate?
Not if Nethmann here tells them that our support is conditional on their taking
immediate and decisive action against the Serbs.
MiIitary action? - Of course military action!
But it must be swift! None of their usual coming and going.
Look at you! You're all worried about Russia!
Where the heII is Moltke when you need him?
That was not a rhetorical question.
WeII General MoItke is still on vacation in CarIsbad, Your Majesty.
Oh, my Chief of Staff didn't think it worthwhiIe to break his hoIiday over this
Iike the rest of us?
I have an appointment with him in two days time, Your Majesty.
And for the rest of you. Stop worrying about Russia.
lf there's one man in the world who detests regicide more than I do
it's the Tsar.
God knows his famiIy has seen enough king-kiIIers in its time.
Prince Lichnowsky, if you will.
You wiII be returning to London soon? - Tomorrow night, Your Majesty.
Yes, yes, tomorrow, that's right. You know Max, what really matters is
what our English cousins will say. They don't understand that, but we do.
Look at this.
Do you know where this oak comes from?
l suppose it... You're going to teII me it's from England.
Oh, better than that Max. Much better than that.
It's from the quarter-deck of Nelson's 'Victory'.
lt's a gift from my grandmother.
You can still smell the salt.
Do you know that Lord Nelson used to get sea-sick?
l can get sea-sick too, it's a damn shame for us sailors.
Do you think Sir Edward Grey will be in a flap over what has happened?
Oh l have always found him to be very calm.
Easy to be, of course, when you have the deck of cards arranged
just as you want it. - That is true, sir.
It is!
And l'm pIeased you think Edward Grey will be calm.
Austria needs to be Ioved by the other great powers.
She is greatIy iII. We all know that.
The best medicine is to get her soldiers in some foreign capital.
Just for a short whiIe. The Serbs are wiId animals.
But you can tame them and then you can order them around.
They have a speciaI taIent for servility.
You're my friend, Max.
I picked you for London myself
because l wanted somebody there who wouId teII me the truth.
Not just what I want to hear.
Well, l believe Grey will Iook sympatheticaIIy
on any Austrian effort to punish the assassins.
But we shouId be aware that there is stiII something in the British mind
that revolts against o'erwinning force. Against the bully, if you will.
EspeciaIIy in the BaIkans. It is still the Iand of Lord Byron in that respect.
Yes, yes of course.
They see a large nation oppress a small one and it raises a...
protective instinct, I suppose.
UnIess Britain herself is the oppressor! And then they call it paternalism!
There is some truth in that, sir.
The hypocrisy of the English, Max. l don't know how you endure it.
Two days later the Kaiser's belligerent thoughts about Serbia
now written up into smooth prose, were handed to the Austrian ambassador in BerIin.
Look at him.
So smug.
With our respects to Vienna.
Why? Because he is Hungarian nobility and that's their style?
Or maybe it's the Kaiser's astonishing document in his hand.
'We will back you', it said, 'in whatever you choose to do'.
We would aII come to know the Kaiser's memorandum to Austria
as 'the blank cheque'.
But that phrase doesn't really do it justice. lt implies a choice.
Whereas we were expecting - even requiring - the Austrians
to open hostilities with Serbia.
Of course the old Emperor in Vienna, Franz Josef, worked to his own stroke.
Sixty-six years, he had sat on his throne.
What was urgency to a man like that?
Our blank cheque was meant to be cashed straight away.
There was IittIe chance of that! Nothing happened.
lt was as if the Balkans went back to sleep.
No guns were raised, no cannons were reeIed out. No armies moved.
In my opinion, war's a certainty.
Too many guns in circuIation now to bring politics back into the equation.
Winston? - Yeah, here's our probIem.
About 30,000 German rifIes have been landed at Larne
County Antrim, in the past few months.
Now we can get no help from the locaI authorities there
once those weapons are in the hands of the Ulster VoIunteers.
Because the Ulster VoIunteers are the Iocal authorities?
There is no greater opponent of Irish homeruIe than the lrish policeman.
The RoyaI lrish Constabulary.
Unswervingly loyal to Westmister until the moment they don't want to be.
Our fairest chance is for me to put more ships into the lrish Sea
to try and intercept the gunrunning. But of course it's the Nationalists too that...
What is it Edward? - Ah weII perhaps it's nothing.
Ah weII it transpires that
the assassins in Sarajevo... The assassins were trained in Belgrade.
The BIack Hand.
That's what they caII themselves. - Pantomime name.
Not pantomime bIood unfortunately. - Quite.
EvidentIy the Black Hand has warrened the Serbian secret service
whose leading officers seem to be terrorists in all but name.
l don't think the Serbian Prime Minister or his cabinet
knew anything of Princip though, or indeed how far this 'BIack Hand' stretches.
The Austrians know aII this presumably?
According to our intercepts they do.
Oh, weII that's good. It means they've absorbed the shock.
But, ah, still no official reaction from Vienna? - Nothing.
So what do you think is happening? - Well I imagine that the Austrian
and Serb governments have opened a private channeI of communication
and are sorting the probIem out between themseIves. - But?
But? - l'm expecting you to say what
you always say at this moment. Yes, yes.
What do I aIways say?
You wear what you imagine is your guiIeIess face
and you tell me that where CentraI Europe is concerned
it is better to listen to what BerIin is saying than Vienna.
l do that? - Mm. And then you say
In fact why don't you say it now while I get my things together?
No l know the face, you don't have to do that.
Just give me the words.
I probably say something Iike
Austria's reached the point where she can do nothing in her foreign policy
without consulting Germany first. - Mm-hmm...
But sometimes I go further than that and say
Austrian poIicy is made in Berlin. As you know.
Good. I'm glad you got that off your chest.
And you know I have an appointment on this beautiful summer's afternoon
with the invincibles...
Which not even the appearance of the German Navy in the Channel
wouId stop me from attending.
Very 'Francis Drake', Foreign Secretary.
You know Crowe, you should reaIIy take up cricket.
It teaches one an awfuI lot about life. Prince Lichnowsky loves it.
The cover drive! You know that's the finest sight in cricket.
Oh and in the whole field of sport, Edward. - Quite so!
lt's good to see you back Max. - l was sorry to miss your innings.
You mean you bIinked? - Oh it was over that quickly?
Clean bowled I'm afraid. HardIy saw it. - Your eyes?
No! Just a very fast baII. Ah, Iet's take a waIk around the rope.
I've been reassured by the Austrian silence.
l think that's a good sign, don't you? - l do.
Well it suggests a very responsibIe approach.
The BaIkans being such a tinder box. - I agree.
Ah there's two there.
But let's just speculate for a moment if you don't mind?
What do you think would happen if Austria decided to punish Serbia?
To punish her? - Teach her a lesson.
Do you beIieve that Russia wouId come to the aid of the Serbs?
WeII, she might.
And if that happened would France have to follow Russia? And...
WouId Britain be bound to foIIow France? - Yes.
WouId Britain be bound to foIIow France? - Yes, uh...
You're trying to get me to say that if a Russian cries 'heIp'
a French gendarme and a British bobby will turn up on the doorstep?
You're teasing me Edward.
l feeI you're almost trying to teII me something, Max.
Yes but you do have an understanding with France?
You know we do. Just as we have one with Russia.
But nothing that binds you in a crisis? We're stiII specuIating.
Yes well, l've nothing to hide.
His Majesty's government has an obligation to parliament
not to incur secret IiabiIities abroad. You know that.
I mean l often think we're a little more open on that score than you are.
I sometimes wonder what your Reichstag doesn't know.
But I'II teII you this. No speculation now. What happened Iast week
much depends on Austria maintaining its sense of proportion.
lt's important that Serb sentiment isn't raised to a point
where Russia finds it impossible to stand aside.
Edward, about your eyes.
l told you, it was a very quick baII. - Yes, of course.
But the physician I mentioned in Nuremburg - the oculist.
He can see you in August when you take your vacation.
The whoIe thing wouId be very discreet.
Thank you Max.
There are some secrets we have to keep.
You know Edward, we can take this to parIiament, share the load.
No I wouldn't want to do that. At Ieast, not yet.
The Commons has a right to know. - Of course.
And she will want to know.
For the moment I'd like to keep it within the charmed circle.
Charmed circle... I wonder who that might be.
You've sacked the butler, have you dear? - Foreign Office?
Crowe's cabal in the Foreign Office? Just you and Crowe!
Oh please Margot... - One sugar or two?
Ah... Two. - Diplomacy...
All those silken phrases. Why don't you just come out and say what you mean for once?
Why don't you say what you mean when you see a friend
wearing a dress you don't like? - She does.
Well, some things are better not said.
Not even the truth? - EspeciaIIy the truth.
You never know who wiII misunderstand it. - Openness...
We hear it from our back benchers aII the time
together with that other shibboleth democratic foreign poIicy.
It wasn't so very long ago that democracy itself sounded risible.
Can you imagine trying to conduct diplomacy under such condition?
There's a cIamour of popuIar passion.
lt Ieaves dead bodies everywhere.
We are the surgeons. We've seen most things
and I'm sorry if this sounds arrogant, we know how to use the knives.
AIright, do you have any chaIk with you?
This stuff doesn't seem to work properIy.
Of course you don't. lt would be too strange if you did.
Thank you for coming Crowe.
I've taken the liberty of ordering up a rather superb EIbIing.
lt's odd, isn't it, your boss... He's never been to Germany
in aII his time as foreign secretary?
Not reaIIy. He hasn't been to Austria or Russia either.
He says it aIIows him to keep an open mind and 'to pIay the baII, not the man'.
Whatever that means!
Sporting metaphors will be the death of us one day.
I must confess I've never understood the British obsession with sport.
Pursuing a rolling baII teaches you nothing apart from how to pursue a roIIing ball.
You should be in no doubt, Crowe. There are some very important people
who admire what you have done at the Foreign Office.
It can't have been easy to educate the old guard about Germany.
There was a terribIe blind spot there.
I am not popular. - l bet you're not.
No Mandarin Iikes to be told they've been hoodwinked by a rogue.
Sir Edward though is a fair man. There is no grudge there.
Oh, he is supremeIy fair.
He truIy beIieves in the role of honour in diplomacy.
Oh that's one thing a rogue can never forgive.
Outwit them by stealth or by deceit and they will grin and bear it.
They might even admire you.
Defeat them by acting honourably and they will burn for revenge.
That's something cricket doesn't teach you.
l think I'm correct in saying that l'm the only member of the entire government
who has spent some time with the Kaiser. - Most probabIy.
WeII, he looks on war as a child Iooks on war.
He never got past the tin soldier stage.
Uniforms, navaI signaIs, regimentaI coIours...
Of actuaI warfare he knows nothing and fears the worst.
So we should treat him Iike a child? - ln a manner of speaking, yes.
The onIy gesture he wiII understand from Britain is the raised hand.
That's what l think.
You must have told Sir Edward this yourself.
PoIitics is a curious business, isn't it?
Who's strong, who's weak, and whatnot...
I think it's better if it comes from someone who doesn't constitute a threat.
'Where the hell is general Moltke when you need him?'
That's what the Kaiser had asked his men in BerIin.
WeII, here he was. - General?
In CarIsbad. - Ah, a storm from Berlin!
'Taking the cure'. - You want a towel?
No... Thank you. - Someone get him one.
Every bit the Chief of the General Staff.
Even out of uniform.
And l will tell you something about this uniform
The Chief of Staff is not an hereditary position in Germany.
But Moltke's uncIe had worn it before him.
And in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 the uncle had led the German army
that crushed France and occupied Paris.
What did the nephew think of that?
An example to follow? A burden to carry? Both?
The Kaiser thinks the Russians will stand back
and let the Austrian army enjoy the whore houses in Belgrade for a couple of weeks.
Doesn't he?
He wants a victory without paying a price.
Just a small victory - in a locaI war. - But it can't happen.
The Russians aren't that stupid.
And Iet's stop pretending the Austrians are going to soIve our problems for us.
l agree.
lf we really wish to change the balance of power in the Balkans
we ought to think about what kind of price we are prepared to pay.
The German army isn't just there for decoration.
So you wiII come back to Berlin?
If l do that, everything will speed up. - Precisely.
But l don't want things to speed up, l want them to slow down.
The Ionger things drag on with Serbia the more agitated the Russians will get.
With the Russians agitated, the less beIIigerent we shaII appear in the weeks to come.
I'm staying here for a whiIe.
Harder! - Not so hard.
You can't send your uItimatum because your soIdiers are wanted at harvest?
What happened to the idea of farmers doing the harvest?
So the middle of August - five weeks?
You will be ready in five weeks time, brilliant!
Do you think there's any chance
that the Serbs might discover what we are up to by then?
And the Russians? Will they still be seething at the regicide in a month's time?
Or will they be Serbia's gaIIant protector again?
Do not sit down!
This is Austria's last chance.
So pIease explain to your Emperor, using your own words
that unIess action is taken against BeIgrade in the next week
it wiII be too Iate. Too Iate forever. You won't get another chance.
It's like taking care of a pony.
Quick to take offence, slow to act.
lsn't that always the way with people who stand on their dignity?
The same with nations.
Since the Archduke's assassination a whole three weeks had passed
before the Habsburg Emperor finally got round to composing
his ultimatum to Serbia.
But don't be fooIed by this pathetic quadrille.
Austria was in no haste, but weak and decadent as she was
her vindictiveness was amazing.
ln BerIin we waited.
We cursed the Austrians for their stupor.
And then, this!
lt's inept. They might as well have just invaded.
This makes them Iook unreasonabIe.
'UnreasonabIe'? What Austria wanted from Serbia was complete humiliation!
ln a police cell in faraway Sarajevo the Austrians already had
the Archduke's assassin Gavrillo Princip.
He and his wretched comrades stiII dreaming of a greater Serbia.
And the boys had confessed to receiving shooting lessons
and a case of revolvers in Belgrade.
But now Austria bIamed the entire Serb nation for their operation
and its Iist of demands on the Serbian government was so extreme that
in meeting them, the Serbs would have completely surrendered their sovereignty.
This is an astonishing ultimatum. - lt is.
So much for Fermanagh and Tyrone.
l wouIdn't take your eyes of lreIand gentIemen. - l'm happy to. Such a dreary bog.
I'd bet on an Irish war before l wouId a Balkan one. SadIy.
But the Austrian ultimatum has been purposely designed to be rejected, surely?
It probabIy has. But that doesn't mean it will be,
So, you have cause for hope?
l know Serbia is in no shape to fight a war. Nor, I understand, is Russia.
Then they have no alternative but to negotiate.
Just keep them suppIied with tea untiI Sir Edward is ready.
Don't let them speak to each other.
How... how do l do that?
We'd gathered the principal ambassadors at the Foreign Office.
Prince Lichnowsky you know.
Count Benckendorff - German name, but the ambassador for Russia.
And the Times reader is Count Mensdorff of Austria.
They're all cousins. That's worth saying again...
The three cousins are here.
Who wouId you Iike to see first? - Austria, l suppose.
Count Mensdorff, if you would Iike to come this way.
What is this country 'Servia'?
My government, after a thorough police investigation
into the murder of our Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his consort
have sifted through the accumulated evidence...
Yes, yes, what I want to know is what you think of this uItimatum.
The Serb government should suppress
any newspaper which creates anti-Austrian feeling.
lt must outlaw aII pan-Serbian cuItural societies.
lt must rewrite its school textbooks
to eliminate any negative references to the Habsburg monarchy.
What an extraordinary thing to demand of an independent country.
Don't you agree?
It's as though you imagine Serbia to be a little province in your own Empire.
I don't think that there's that assumption.
Do you know what I said to Crowe here when l read this thing two hours ago?
Oh you said it was the most formidabIe document ever addressed
by one state to another.
Was that before or after I fell off my chair?
It's designed to be rejected, isn't it?
No, it is. Let's not act like children today.
No government wishing to maintain its sovereignty could agree
to these terms. - Oh there would be a revoIution.
They'd be overthrown by their own people. ls that what you want?
We have no opinion on this... - Because...
lf it is, you'II be deaIing with somebody far worse in BeIgrade.
You'll get someone in charge who actuaIIy does hate you.
Point five? - Ah yes, point five.
How will that be achieved?
You demand the right for your own state officials to take an active roIe
in poIicing anti-Austrian feeIing in Serbia.
WeII there are many police forces co-operating
over nationaI boundaries these days. - Give me strength!
You've also given us 48 hours - weII that's 18 hours now
to use our influence and help Serbia move towards some of these demands.
I have been instructed to ask you what position Britain wouId take
if a confIict would break out between Austria and Serbia.
There is a strong feeling in this country that Serbia shouIdn't be humiIiated.
There's considerable admiration for her. - There is.
ls there?
But you know, I would very happily let you and the Serbs sort this mess out
between the two of you. But I can't do that
because we both know there is a danger that Russia wiII be drawn in
and the British interest wouId become invoIved.
To join forces with Russia? - To mediate, you fooI!
DipIomacy is a branch of manners. That man has none.
Russia is outraged by this, Sir Edward.
We have our dignity too. And Serbia is a friend of ours.
We can't let her be put on the end of an Austrian chain.
I think that's a sIightly fanciful image, Count Benckendorff.
My government hopes you will support us as our trusted ally?
lt's quite true. We have cooperated weII in recent years
especiaIIy in Asia, and that has been gratifying.
But Afghanistan is not the Balkans. - What are you saying?
I'm saying, l'm just warning you
that nobody in EngIand much cares about Serbia.
It wouId infuriate the British people to know that even a single muIe of ours
had been sacrificed for a country most of them cannot place on a map.
That is outrageous.
I'm not saying it's commendabIe. I'm just outIining our difficulty.
Do you think this? - He agrees with me.
And the other thing, my dear Count. PIease.
I would urge Russia to steady its own horses.
I mean Austria has put Serbia in an impossible position, l appreciate that.
But it wiII be easier for me to play the mediator if you are not
already locked into their quarrel.
You do understand that?
l'll get Prince Lichnowsky.
l can't stay in here any Ionger. I need air.
Good idea. We can use the garden.
ActuaIIy I'd like to see the Prince aIone.
You reaIIy didn't know? - I discovered its contents
at exactIy the same time as you did.
Because I thought you were testing me at the cricket.
No one in Germany knew what was in the uItimatum
but a few people did know there'd be one.
l see. And did Germany encourage Austria to be militant
in drawing up that uItimatum?
I can't answer that Edward. - Because you don't know?
I can't answer that either.
What do you think the Kaiser will think when he reads it?
He's currentIy on holiday isn't he? - Ah yes, he is.
He's definiteIy on holiday. l believe he gets back...
Yeah, no matter, But you say you were
as ignorant of the actuaI contents of the uItimatum as we were?
So tell me, man to man, now you've seen it
what do you think?
What I think of it is probably what you think of it.
I think the Germans are pIaying with us. - I reaIise that.
So why don't we send out a signaI that we are not to be pIayed with?
I meant I reaIise that's what you think. - What, I'm wrong?
There's this curious defect somewhere, Crowe.
ln me? - In the way you operate.
You are aIways so eager to hold Germany to an inappropriate moral standard.
Perhaps it comes from being an intellectuaI.
Or perhaps because I was born in Germany? - I didn't say that.
You're thinking it. - No I'm not.
But like all abstract thinkers you have your idée fixe, your obsession.
We can't afford obsessions.
We've deveIoped a sophisticated dipIomatic machine over the years.
It's not perfect but it keeps the peace.
ViIIains get caught in its moving parts, those who don't abide by the ruIes
get spat out. WeII you know this. At Ieast you used to.
Since this morning we have but one task.
To get the interested nations talking to each other.
Those with poisonous motives wiII be exposed, the machine wiII be greased
by me, by others, and it wiII operate as it did before.
You look well, Moltke. - Twenty pounds.
Carlsbad has worked its magic. - Heavier.
The Kaiser wiII be excited about the Austrian uItimatum.
Yes I think he wiII be.
Because he won't know what it means.
WeII he's finally getting his IittIe BaIkan War.
Yes he'll get that, he'll sit there contemplating that harmless IittIe acorn of his
but acorns have a habit of growing.
The little Balkan War wiII not remain a little Balkan War forever.
The probIem with our Kaiser is that he onIy ever pIans one move ahead.
WeII he's absoIutely certain that the Russians will not come to aid of Serbia.
And he's right, but they will mobilise their army and that will be enough.
But why on earth would they do that?
l will Ieave them with no other choice.
It's not Iike you to sulk, Crowe. - I'm not sulking.
And now you're offended. - No I'm not.
You'll feel better tomorrow...
When the hysteria subsides and the BaIkans become boring again.
For that matter - oh - so will I.
And Germany?
Look, twenty minutes of sunshine left. My favourite part of the day.
Goodnight. - Goodnight, Foreign Secretary.
Early night for once, thank you Humphrey. Nice to see you.
Good night. - Thank you, sir.
LoveIy evening.
Austria doesn't want to talk, she wants a war in the BaIkans.
A quick, cIean war! Over before the Russians know it's even begun.
It's the Russian army.
The Tsar appears to have ordered a section of it
facing the Austrian Empire, to mobilise.
When you are so close together it is difficult to avoid friction.
Now is the time to put British power into the scales.
lf the iron dice roII, may God heIp us.
We want to invade France.
I wiII teII you this, Britain will not stand with you.
Britain is not capable of getting invoIved? The EngIish are liars.
Are you going to wait until France is vioIated before you act?
The whoIe worId will be thrown into chaos!