Serbia Drifts
Léon Descos, French Ambassador to Belgrade, on July 1 reported home that the Serbian military party was involved in the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, that Serbia was in the wrong, and that Russian Ambassador Hartwig was in constant conversations with Regent Alexander to guide Serbia through this crisis. The "military party" was a reference to Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence, Dragutin Dimitrijević, known more commonly as Apis, and the officers he led in the 1903 murder of the King and Queen of Serbia. These men had great influence in Serbia as their acts led to the installation of the current dynasty ruled by King Peter and Regent Alexander. Serbia requested and France arranged the replacement of Descos with the more hawkish Boppe who arrived on 25 July. Hartwig died of a heart attack on 10 July during a visit to the Austrian legation in Belgrade.
Read more about this topic: July Crisis
Famous quotes containing the word drifts:
“O women, kneeling by your altar-rails long hence,
When songs I wove for my beloved hide the prayer,
And smoke from this dead heart drifts through the violet air
And covers away the smoke of myrrh and frankincense;
Bend down and pray for all that sin I wove in song....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)