ould violate the
neutrality of those countries and seize some of their harbors.
This allegation is as baseless as the allegation about our
intention to violate the neutrality of Belgium, and events
have shown it to be so. But it seems to be a rule with Germany
to attribute to others the designs that she herself
entertains; as it is clear now that, for some long time past,
it has been a settled part of her strategic plans to attack
France through Belgium. A statement is inclosed, which was
issued by us on Oct. 14 last, dealing with this point.

This memorandum and its inclosures should provide ample
material for a reply to the German statements.

Foreign Office, Nov. 9, 1914.

* * * * *

Belgian Official Denials.

Here is inclosed a copy of the note of Aug. 3 sent by M. Davignon,
Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Herr von Below Saleske, the
German Minister at Brussels, included in the Belgian "Gray Paper," and
printed in full in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Oct. 18 and reprinted in THE
TIMES'S pamphlet of the war's diplomatic papers. This is the note
expressing the "profound and painful surprise" caused to King Albert's
Government by the German invitation to it to abandon Belgian neutrality
and denying that France had, as alleged by Germany, manifested any such
intention.

A second inclosure gives this clipping from The London Times of Sept.
30:

OFFICIAL STATEMENT.

The German press has been attempting to persuade the public
that if Germany herself had not violated Belgian neutrality,
France or Great Britain would have done so. It has declared
that French and British troops had marched into Belgium before
the outbreak of war. We have received from the Belgian
Minister of War an official statement which denies absolutely
these allegations. It declares, on the one hand, that "before
Aug. 3 not a single French soldier had set foot on Belgian
territory," and, again, "it is untrue that on Aug. 4 there was
a single English soldier in Belgium." It adds:

"For long past Great Britain knew that the Belgian Army would
oppose by force a 'preventive' disembarkation of British
troops in Belgium. The Belgian Government did not hesitate at
the time of the Agadir crisis to warn foreign Ambassadors, in
terms which could not be misunderstood, of its formal