ved neutrality only
when compatible with her own interests, which has not often been the
case. Her whole dissimulating policy is much more questionable than our
one breach of neutrality, committed in self-defense and accompanied by
the most solemn promises of indemnity and restitution.

England and France did not give up their plan of attacking Germany
through Belgium, and by this means won the approval of the Muscovites.
Three against one! It would have been a crime against the German people
if the German General Staff had not anticipated this intention. The
inalienable right of self-defense gives the individual, whose very
existence is at stake, the moral liberty to resort to weapons which
would be forbidden except in times of peril. As Belgium would,
nevertheless, not acquiesce in a friendly neutrality which would permit
the unobstructed passage of German troops through small portions of her
territory, although her integrity was guaranteed, the German General
Staff was obliged to force this passage in order to avoid the necessity
of meeting the enemy on the most unfavorable ground.

The Germans have not forgotten the tone in which the French and Belgian
press reported the frequent excursions of French Staff officers and
Generals for the purpose of making an exhaustive study of the territory
through which the armies are now moving, and who were received with open
arms in Belgium and treated like brothers. Belgium has become the vassal
of France.

In our place the Government of the United States would not have acted
differently. "Inter arma silent leges"--in the midst of arms the laws
are silent. Besides, England had interfered beforehand in Germany's plan
of campaign by declaring that she would not tolerate an attack upon the
northern coast of France.

The German troops, with their iron discipline, will respect the personal
liberty and property of the individual in Belgium, just as they did in
France in 1870.

The Belgians would have been wise if they had permitted the passage of
the German troops. They would have preserved their integrity, and,
besides that, would have fared well from the business point of view, for
the army would have proved a good customer and paid cash.

Germany has always been a good and just neighbor, to Belgium as well as
to the other small powers such as Holland, Denmark and Switzerland,
which England in her place would have swallowed up one and all long ago.

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