"Prince Henry of Prussia came to see me on Sunday July 26 [1914] at 9.30 a.m. and asked me if there was any news. I said the news was very bad & it looked like a European war & that he better go back to Germany at once. He said he would go down to Eastbourne to see his sister (Queen of Greece) & he would return to Germany that evening. He then asked what England would do if there was a European war. I said "I don't know what we shall do, we have no quarrel with anyone & I hope we shall remain neutral. But if Germany declared war on Russia, & France joins Russia, then I am afraid we shall be dragged into it. But you can be sure that I & my Government will do all we can to prevent a European war!" He then said—"Well, if our two countries shall be fighting on opposite sides, I trust that it will not affect our own personal friendship". He then shook hands & left the room, having been with me about eight minutes."
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Note, quoted in Harold Nicolson, King George the Fifth: His Life and Reign (1953), pp. 245-246
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_V_of_the_United_Kingdom
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George V of the United Kingdom
George V of the United Kingdom (3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India. He was monarch during World War I and the Great Depression. He was succeeded by his sons Edward VIII and George VI, and is the great-grandfather of the United Kingdom's current head of state Charles III.
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