4 August: Difference between revisions

*[[Sir Edward Grey]] wires to [[Sir Edward Goschen]] telling him that unless satisfactory German assurances ''re'' Belgian neutrality are forthcoming, he is to ask for his passports.

*At 7 p.m. the ''{{wl|Berliner Tageblatt}}'' flaring placards through the city, states: "Great Britain breaks off diplomatic relations."<ref>The shock was admittedly, for one moment, paralyzing. That which the greater part of the population had believed impossible from reasons of British domestic policy, and improbable because of their sublime faith in British selfishness, had happened. The childish chatter about the unity of the Germanic race, which no sane observer of Prussian manners could ever have seriously believed, was probably less responsible for the outrageous treatment of English-speaking people throughout Germany than the sudden angry realization of the fact that the press and the foreign office had alike utterly misled public opinion regarding the actual unpreparedness of England for any war; and the bitter word "Betrayed," which was on thousands of lips in [[Berlin]] on the night of 4 August, was directed as much against German diplomacy as against supposed English treachery.

*British mobilisation orders issued.

*[[Sir John Jellicoe]] takes command of British Fleet.

==References/notes==

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