Afternoon: Berchtold sees Shebeko who he has been deliberately avoiding because he doesn’t want to discuss Sazonov’s proposal for direct talks between the two countries before Vienna declares war.
Berchtold tells Shebeko that Austria-Hungary refuses to enter into any negotiations on the Serbian reply, which has already been rejected as unsatisfactory.
He is thinking of Grey’s proposal that the Serbian answer serve as a basis for negotiation. This is not what Russia is proposing. The Russian proposal is that Sazonov and Szápáry review the original Austrian note to make it unconditionally acceptable to Serbia. [More]