Austro-Hungarian Red Book: Count Berchtold to the Austro-Hungarian Mission, 25 July 1914 – Part IV | The July Crisis: 100 Years On, 1914-2014

Originally posted on The July Crisis: 100 Years On, 1914-2014.

Leopold Count Berchtold

On 25 July 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leopold Count Berchtold (pictured), circulated a memoir to all Austro-Hungarian diplomatic missions. The memoir formed the basis of Austria-Hungary’s view of Serbia, and the Dual Monarchy’s rational during the July Crisis. From the Austro-Hungarian perspective, it lists the different forms of Serbian aggression endured since the beginning of the century, culminating in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo. The following is part IV of the memoir.

Circular Note to the Austro-Hungarian Mission. Vienna, 25 July 1914.

A few months previously, research with regard to treasonable propaganda had been instituted on Luka Aljinovicz’s account. In the course of these investigations three witnesses had testified against Aljinovicz, who, they said had in 1913 received 100 dinar from the Narodna odbrana for purposes of propaganda, but more especially for an attempt upon the life of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and a secret student society had given him the same sum.

This shows how the criminal agitation of the Narodna odbrana was recently concentrated upon the person of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

All these facts lead to the conclusion that the Narodjia odbrana, and the elements hostile to Austria-Hungary grouped around it, had recently considered the…

via Austro-Hungarian Red Book: Count Berchtold to the Austro-Hungarian Mission, 25 July 1914 – Part IV | The July Crisis: 100 Years On, 1914-2014.