WaybackWire

BELGRADE, Saturday.—Excitement in the Servian capital was at fever heat all day. Crowds paraded the streets and called upon the Government to defy Austria, and Servian flags hung from every building.

A semi-official note described the situation brought about by the Austrian demands as most critical. The Ministers met in special conference, and the keynote of feeling in the city was to face the peril of destruction rather than comply.

Heavy cannon are trained on the bridge and the Danube has been heavily mined. Military experts regard Belgrade as untenable, and the Government was making preparations to evacuate it.

General R. Putnik, chief of the Servian army staff, started to-day from Gratz, in Austria-Hungary, on his return to Servia, the Associated Press reports.

VIENNA, Saturday.—Austria-Hungary has suspended the constitutional guarantees of personal liberty, the right of assembly, the secrecy of letters and the freedom of the press, and a partial mobilisation is reported to have been ordered.

Trial by jury is abolished, civilians accused of acts against the army are made subject to military courts, and the Reichsrat and the Diets are closed. In Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia the civil power passes to the highest military command.

Austro-Hungarian reservists have been given 24 hours to rejoin their regiments, and 22 Austrian warships are said to have assembled at Cattaro.

The censor is already at work. Nearly all the Czech papers that commented on the step at Belgrade have been confiscated or placed under censorship, and in Dalmatia 42 persons have been charged with high treason.

BERLIN, Saturday.—When word of the break with Servia came through to-night, the crowds poured into the streets of three capitals. In Budapest they paraded and cheered for war, carrying officers and soldiers shoulder-high wherever they found them. “The cry of ‘Down With Servia’ was heard on all sides,” the correspondent there reports.

Vienna had awaited Servia’s decision through the day with the greatest composure, though the people knew it to be a question of peace or war. “A number of patriotic demonstrations have been held, but there is no sign of nervousness,” the Associated Press reported. To-night Vienna crowds sang patriotic songs.

Here in Berlin the centre of the city was filled with cheering, tumultuous crowds, and newspaper extras were torn from the hands of the sellers. About two thousand persons gathered before the Austrian embassy, cheering Austria-Hungary, and the Austrian Ambassador came out on the balcony to thank them. About a thousand men marched singing “Die Wacht am Rhein” through the Wilhelmstrasse.

LONDON, Saturday.—The Spectator warns that a harsh ultimatum could set the Balkans, and then Europe, alight: “The tone is altogether too like that of the ultimatum addressed by the wolf to the lamb about the drinking water.”

In St Petersburg part of the press is defiant and calls on the Government to take Servia under its protection. The Novoe Vremya writes: “Servia is being subjected to an unlawful attack and will not remain alone.”

The German press, with the single exception of the Vossische Zeitung, which criticises the interference with Servia’s sovereignty, joins in a chorus of approval of the “dignified earnestness” of the note, and promises Germany’s fullest support should any outside Power interfere.

The Italian papers are astounded at the severity of the note, which they call an unprecedented humiliation. The nationalist La Vittoria sees no reason why Italy should be drawn in: “Austria is our ally but Russia and Servia are our friends.”