Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 6 August 1914, page 7
BRITAIN AT WAR
INVASION
OF
BELGIUM
DECLARATION BY GERMANY.
FIGHTING AT SEA
BRITISH CRUISER
CHASED.
NO BIG CONFLICTS.
Britain is at war with Germany.
The Prime Minister of the Com-monwealth made the announce-ment yesterday in Melbourne, the news coming afterwards by cable.
A later cable announced that Germany had declared war on England.
The German cargo steamer Pfalz
left Melbourne without a clearance yesterday, and the forts at Port Phil-lip Heads fired across her bows. She was subsequently seized.
No actual conflict between Britain and Germany is reported so far,
though a British cruiser was chased, by German warships.
It is unofficially reported that the destroyer Parramatta has captured the German mail steamer Seydlitz, which left Sydney hurriedly on Monday last.
Many citizens and soldiers all over
Australia are volunteering for ser-vice in the proposed expeditionary
force.
The 8th Infantry Brigade, with a squadron of Light Horse, was yester-day mobilised to act as a reserve for
the coast defences.
The military authorities state that this is purely precautionary, and
that a general mobilisation is not anticipated.
The citizen naval forces, 300 strong, will be mobilised this morn-
ing.
All the coast fixed defences are fully manned, and are supported by
reserves of militia.
Germany's insistence on the use of Belgian territory for her campaign against France was the immediate cause of the rupture with England. Germany has now invaded Belgium.
It is reported that the German High Sea fleet has passed through the Kiel Canal, and steamed west-
ward.
The German cruiser Breslau bom-barded a French naval station in Al-geria, and the cruiser Augsburg bom-barded Libau, on the Baltic.