Events have moved with appalling swiftness during the past week. Austria is at war with Servia [Serbia], Germany is at war with Russia and France, and we ourselves are on the very verge of war with Germany. We are confronted in Europe with a situation that has no parallel since the first Napoleon was at the height of his career of almost world-wide conquest.

MP Cecil Harmsworth's Parliamentary letter: The Luton News, August 27th, 1914.

During the last week the fortunes of war have swayed pretty impartially this way and that. From our point of view, the best news had come from the east and from the south-east. There can be no doubt whatever that Russia has begun to exercise great pressure on Germany's eastern frontier. Indeed, Russia now occupies a considerable area of eastern Prussia. This fact explains, I think, the fury of the German onslaught on ourselves and our allies in the neighbourhood of Namur and Mons.