irst months of the war actually constituted her whole available
continental fighting force.

To any one of unprejudiced judgment there remains, therefore, no
choice but the conclusion that Germany's violation of Belgium did not
even have the excuse of being a measure of self-defence, but, as the
Chancellor in effect admitted in his first speech on the subject in
the Reichstag, was undertaken simply because "in war the only thing
that matters is those silly old victories."

Not, as you say, in obedience to England's command (what power had
England either to command or enforce her commands?), but from a
compelling impulse of national honour did Belgium oppose the German
breach of neutrality with force of arms, though it would evidently
have been to her material interest to comply with Germany's summons or
at any rate to offer merely nominal resistance.

Holland and Switzerland would have done the same thing under similar
circumstances, as would any other self-respecting nation. Moreover,
what weight could Belgium attach to Germany's promise of immunity in
case she yielded, when at the very moment Germany, by her own act, was
demonstrating but too clearly how little she considered herself bound
by her promise or indeed by a solemn international treaty?

What the Germans have accomplished on the battlefields, as well as
within their own country, is proof of such great national qualities,
that it compels the tribute of admiration, even from your enemies.
These qualities would indeed have gone far to justify her claim to
hegemony, had they not been linked unfortunately--at least among your
ruling classes and intellectual leaders--with ways of thought and
action which are anti-humanitarian, oppressive and generally
intolerable to the rest of the world.

The theory of "frightfulness" in the conduct of warfare which Germany
now preaches and practises is no new discovery. On the contrary it is
a very ancient one--so old, in fact, that long ago it had come to be
discarded and superseded in European warfare and passed into the limbo
of forgotten things. There, until resurrected by your countrymen, it
lay for generations, along with much else which the human race had
overcome and left behind in the progress of culture and humanity--a
progress achieved by strenuous toil, sacrifices and suffering in the
course of many centuries.

Such words and ideas are met with contempt and derision by your
spokesmen and termed mere phrases a