Part 20 (1/2)

This question was communicated by Sir Edward Grey to the Belgian Government, with the addition that he (Sir Edward Grey) asked that ”the Belgian Government will maintain to the utmost of her power her neutrality which I desire, and expect other Powers to uphold and observe.”

Pursuant to these instructions, the English Amba.s.sador to Paris, on the night of July 31, 1914, called upon Viviani, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and on the same night received a reply which is reported by Sir F. Bertie to Sir Edward Grey, as follows:

French Government is resolved to respect the neutrality of Belgium, and it would be only in the event of some other Power violating that neutrality that France might find herself under the necessity, in order to a.s.sure defense of her own security, to act otherwise. This a.s.surance has been given several times. The President of the Republic spoke of it to the King of the Belgians, and the French Minister to Brussels has spontaneously renewed the a.s.surance to the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs to-day.[87]

[Footnote 87: English _White Paper_, No. 125.]

Confirming this, the French Minister at Brussels, on August 1st, made to the Belgian Foreign Minister the following declaration:

I am authorized to declare that in the event of an international conflict, the government of the Republic will, as it has always declared, respect the neutrality of Belgium. In the event of this neutrality not being respected by another Power, the French Government, in order to insure its own defense, might be led to modify its att.i.tude.[88]

[Footnote 88: Belgian _Gray Paper_, No. 15.]

On July 31, 1914, the English Amba.s.sador at Berlin saw the German Secretary of State, and submitted Sir Edward Grey's pointed interrogation, and the only reply that was given was that ”he must consult the Emperor and the Chancellor before he could possibly answer,” and the German Secretary of State very significantly added that for strategic reasons it was ”very doubtful whether they would return any answer at all.”

Goschen also submitted the matter to the German Chancellor, who also evaded the question by stating that ”Germany would in any case desire to know the reply returned to you [the English Amba.s.sador] by the French Government.”

That these were mere evasions the events on the following day demonstrated.

On August 1st, Sir Edward Grey saw the German Amba.s.sador in London, and the following significant conversation took place:

I told the German Amba.s.sador to-day that the reply of the German Government with regard to the neutrality of Belgium was a matter of very great regret, because the neutrality of Belgium affected feeling in this country. If Germany could see her way to give the same a.s.surance as that which had been given by France it would materially contribute to relieve anxiety and tension here. On the other hand, if there were a violation of the neutrality of Belgium by one combatant, while the other respected it, it would be extremely difficult to restrain public feeling in this country. I said that we had been discussing this question at a Cabinet meeting, and as I was authorized to tell him this I gave him a memorandum of it.

He asked me whether, if Germany gave a promise not to violate Belgian neutrality, we would engage to remain neutral.

I replied that I could not say that; our hands were still free, and we were considering what our att.i.tude should be.

All I could say was that our att.i.tude would be determined largely by public opinion here, and that the neutrality of Belgium would appeal very strongly to public opinion here.

I did not think that we could give a promise of neutrality on that condition alone.[89]

[Footnote 89: English _White Paper_, No. 123.]

On the following day, August 2d, the German Minister at Brussels handed to the Belgian Foreign Office the following ”highly confidential” doc.u.ment. After stating that ”the German Government has received _reliable information_, according to which the French forces intend to march on the Meuse, by way of Givet and Namur,” and after suggesting a ”fear that Belgium, in spite of its best will, will be in no position to repulse such a largely developed French march without aid,” the doc.u.ment adds:

It is an imperative duty for the preservation of Germany to forestall this attack of the enemy. The German Government would feel keen regret if Belgium should regard as an act of hostility against herself the fact that the measures of the enemies of Germany oblige her on her part to violate Belgian territory.[90]

[Footnote 90: Belgian _Gray Book_, No. 20.]

Some hours later, at 1.30 A.M. on August 3d, the German Minister aroused the Belgian Secretary General for the Minister of Foreign Affairs from his slumbers and,

asked to see Baron von der Elst. He told him that he was instructed by his Government to inform us that French dirigibles had thrown bombs, and that a patrol of French cavalry, violating international law, seeing that war was not declared, had crossed the frontier.

The Secretary General asked Herr von Below where these events had taken place; _in Germany, he was answered_. Baron von der Elst observed that in that case he could not understand the object of his communication. Herr von Below said that these acts, contrary to international law, _were of a nature to make one expect that other acts contrary to international law would be perpetrated by France_.[91]

[Footnote 91: Belgian _Gray Paper_, No. 21.]

As to these last communications, it should be noted that the German Government, neither then nor at any subsequent time, ever disclosed to the world the ”reliable information,” which it claimed to have of the intentions of the French Government, and the event shows beyond a possibility of contradiction that at that time France was unprepared to make any invasion of Belgium or even to defend its own north-eastern frontier.

It should further be noted that the alleged aggressive acts of France, which were made the excuse for the invasion of Belgium, according to the statement of the German Amba.s.sador himself, _did not take place in Belgium but in Germany_.

On August 3d, at 7 o'clock in the morning, Belgium served upon the German Amba.s.sador at Brussels the following reply to the German ultimatum, which, after quoting the substance of the German demand, continued: