THE pages of the Daily Echo 100 years ago today made chilling reading as the gravity of recent developments exactly one month since the assassination of the Austrian Arch-duke Franz Ferdin-and came to a head.

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War.

After a week fraught with anxiety Europe’s gravest fears were confirmed when Serbia was unable to satisfy the terms of Austria-Hungary’s rigid ultimatum and, as the deadline passed, Britain and France looked on with trepidation as practically all of the nations now prepared for the worst.

The official announcement hardly came as a surprise for it was known earlier in the day that the Austrian attitude was uncompromising.

Although Serbia effectively accepted all of Austria-Hungary’s demands except for one the Austrian government broke diplomatic relations with Serbia on July 25 and went ahead with military preparedness measures.

Meanwhile, alerted to the impending crisis, Russia – Serbia’s supporter in the Balkans – began its own initial steps towards military mobilisation against Austria-Hungary.

Despite the apparent hopelessness of the situation, the Daily Echo revealed how the British Cabinet clung to the faint hope that the conflict could be contained to the Balkans.

It was reported that the tone in which Germany rejected Britain’s proposal for the prevention of all out war by requesting Germany cease involvement in the conflict was quite courteous.

The Germans reiterated their inability to do anything other than support their ally – Austria-Hungary – in the ensuing operations.

Although the Germans also agreed to share in negotiations for a localisation of the war the ominous news of the partial mobilisation of the Russian troops on the German and Austro-Hungarian frontiers made any efforts of finding a peaceful resolution implausible.

That night, before the watching world had even had a chance to draw breath from the day’s developments, the Austro-Hung-arian artillery divisions moved into position and initiated a brief, ineffectual bombardment of the Serbian capital Belgrade across the Danube River.

News of the shelling in Belgrade sparked enthusiastic patriotic demonstrations in both Russia and Austria-Hungary, with crowds numbering thousands marching through the streets of both Moscow and Vienna.