an neutrality treaty, should have
caused such an unfavorable impression in the United States. The
expression was used in quite another connection and the meaning
implied in Sir Edward Goschen's report and the turn given to it in the
biased comment of our enemies are undoubtedly responsible for this
impression."

The speaker was Dr. Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, the German Imperial
Chancellor, and the conversation with a representative of The
Associated Press occurred at the German Army Field Headquarters, in a
town of Northern France, and in a villa serving as the office and
dwelling for the Imperial Chancellor, for the Foreign Minister,
Gottlieb von Jagow, and for the members of the diplomatic suite
accompanying Emperor William afield.

The Chancellor apparently had not relished the subject until his
attention was called to the extent to which the phrase had been used
in discussion on the responsibility of the war. He then volunteered to
give an explanation of his meaning, which in substance was that he had
spoken of the treaty not as "a scrap of paper" for Germany, but as an
instrument which had become obsolete through Belgium's forfeiture of
its neutrality, and that Great Britain had quite other reasons for
entering into the war, compared with which the neutrality treaty
appeared to have only the value of a scrap of paper.

"My conversation with Sir Edward Goschen," said the Chancellor,
"occurred Aug. 4. I had just declared in the Reichstag that only dire
necessity and only the struggle for existence compelled Germany to
march through Belgium, but that Germany was ready to make compensation
for the wrong committed.

"When I spoke I already had certain indications, but no absolute proof
upon which to base a public accusation, that Belgium long before had
abandoned its neutrality in its relations with England. Nevertheless,
I took Germany's responsibilities toward the neutral State so
seriously that I spoke frankly of the wrong committed by Germany.

"What was the British attitude on the same question?" continued the
Chancellor. "The day before my conversation with Ambassador Goschen,
Sir Edward Grey had delivered his well-known speech in Parliament, in
which, while he had not stated expressly that England would take part
in the war, he had left the matter in little doubt.

"One needs only to read this speech through carefully to learn the
reason for England's intervention in the war. Amid all his beautiful
ph