ansion a treaty had been drawn up between the two Powers
and was ready to be signed just when war broke out. That treaty would
have afforded Germany immense opportunities for expansion, but not at
the expense of Europe. Germany, however, desired European expansion, and
according to her accepted teaching, the fate of extra-European
territories will be decided on the battlefields of Europe.]

The former Power could have achieved this purpose by building a chain of
huge fortresses along her Belgian frontier. Why this precautionary
measure was never taken is difficult to surmise, but had it been taken,
Germany would have ascribed to her neighbour plans of aggression--and
declared war.

Great Britain could have restored the balance by creating an army of
several millions. Lord Haldane has announced that the late Liberal
Government was "afraid" to do this, although the fear of losing office
may have been greater than their fear for Germany.

The measures which England did take were merely non-binding
conversations with the military authorities of France and Belgium; the
making of plans for putting a British garrison of defence on Belgian
territory in the event of the latter's neutrality being violated or
threatened; and the printing of books describing the means of
communication in Belgium.[139]

[Footnote 139: "Belgium, Road and River Reports," prepared by the
General Staff, Vol. I., 1912; II., 1913; III. & IV., 1914. Copies of
this work have been seized by the Germans in Belgium, and capital is
being made of the incident to prove a violation of Belgian neutrality.
If the British General Staff had nothing better to do than to compile
guide-books to Belgium for a non-existent British army, it appears
merely amusing. But if the late Liberal Government believed that
Germany's potential energy could be prevented from breaking through into
Belgian territory by a barricade of guide-books--it was a lamentable
error of judgment. On the whole we are forced to call it a tragical
irony, that the only defences which Belgium possessed against the _furor
teutonicus_--excepting the Belgian army--were a "scrap of paper" and a
barricade of the same material.]

As a result of these measures, Belgium stands charged by Germany with
having broken her own neutrality, and German writers are naively asking
why Belgium did not give the same confidence to Germany which she gave
to England. The German mind knows quite well, that in building strat