On Monday 13th July 1914, a legal adviser attached to the Austro-Hungarian foreign ministry, Friedrich von Wiesner, reported to Count Von Berchtold his findings on the Sarajevo assassination. Von Wiesner had been assigned to examine the evidence compiled by the civil and military authorities in Sarajevo with a view to discovering the Serbian government’s complicity. He travelled to Sarajevo on 10th July, and spent three days examining the evidence.
He reported:
“There is nothing to prove or even suppose that the Serbian government is accessory to the inducement for the crime, its preparation, or the furnishing of weapons. On the contrary, there are reasons to believe that this is altogether out of the question.”
There are reasons to believe that Count Von Berchtold never showed this telegram to the Emperor Franz Josef.
The Austro-Hungarian Imperial Minister for War, Field Marshall Alexander Freiherr von Krobatin, left on this day for his planned holiday in Bad Gastein.
On 16th January 1914, the British Submarine A 7 had sunk in Whitesand Bay – a diving failure whose cause was never established. The entire crew – 11 men – was lost: no survivors.
On 13th July 1914, the House of Commons debated the compensation due the dependents of those who died in the A 7 disaster, and a discussion about how to induce reservists to rejoin “in sufficient numbers to make good the present shortage of 11,084 men in the Regular Army”.
Edinburgh Eye 