Government.

The intentions which it attributed to France are in
contradiction with the express declarations which were made
to us on the 1st August in the name of the Government of the
Republic.

Moreover, if, contrary to our expectation, a violation of
Belgian neutrality were to be committed by France, Belgium
would fulfill all her international duties, and her army
would offer the most vigorous opposition to the invader.

The treaties of 1839, confirmed by the treaties of 1870,
establish the independence and the neutrality of Belgium
under the guarantee of the Powers, and particularly of the
Government of His Majesty the King of Prussia.

Belgium has always been faithful to her international
obligations; she has fulfilled her duties in a spirit of
loyal impartiality; she has neglected no effort to maintain
her neutrality or to make it respected.

The attempt against her independence, with which the German
Government threatens her, would constitute a flagrant
violation of international law. No strategic interest
justifies the violation of that law.

_The Belgian Government would, by accepting the propositions
which are notified to her, sacrifice the honor of the nation
while at the same time betraying her duties toward Europe._

Conscious of the part Belgium has played for more than
eighty years in the civilization of the world, she refuses
to believe that her independence can be preserved only at
the expense of the violation of her neutrality.

If this hope were disappointed the Belgian Government has
firmly resolved to repulse by every means in her power any
attack upon her rights.

In the records of diplomacy there are few nobler documents than this.
Belgium then knew that she was facing possible annihilation. Every
material interest suggested acquiescence in the peremptory demands of
her powerful neighbor. In the belief that then so generally prevailed,
but which recent events have somewhat modified, the success of Germany
seemed probable, and if so, Belgium, by facilitating the triumph of
Germany, would be in a position to participate in the spoils of the
victory.

If Belgium had regarded her honor as lightly as Germany and felt that
the matter of self-preservation would excuse any moral dereliction,
she would have imitated the example of Luxemburg, a