In these treaties it is also to be remarked
that Great Britain limited the possible operation of her military force
in maintaining the neutrality of Belgium to the territory of the State
of Belgium.
These treaties expired in the year 1872, and the present German Empire
has never signed any treaty guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium.
Moreover, between 1872 and 1914 Belgium became what is now termed a
world power; that is, it reached a population of nearly 9,000,000
people, it had a well-organized, well-equipped army of over 200,000 men
and powerful fortifications for its own defense; it had acquired and was
holding colonies covering 1,000,000 square miles of territory, inhabited
by 15,000,000 men, and it had active commerce, mediated by its own
marine, with many, if not all, parts of the world. Now, these things are
not at all compatible in principle with a specially guaranteed
neutrality of the State which possesses them. The State which possesses
them has grown out of its swaddling clothes, has arrived at the age and
condition of maturity and self-protection, and has passed the age when
specially guaranteed neutrality is natural.
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