On Aug.
1, 1914, the German Empire asked Great Britain to do virtually the same
thing, and Great Britain refused. It is, therefore, Germany who stood in
1914 on the same ground, with regard to Belgium neutrality, as she did
in 1870, and it is Great Britain who shifted her position and virtually
gave notice that she herself would become a belligerent. It was this
notice served by Sir Edward Grey on the German Ambassador in London on
Aug. 1, 1914, which made the occupation of Belgium an absolute military
necessity to the safety of the German armies advancing against France.
Otherwise they would, so far as the wit of man could divine, have left
their right flank exposed to the advance of a British army through
Belgium, and there certainly was no German commander so absolutely
bereft of all military knowledge or instinct as to have committed so
patent an error.
Belgium has Great Britain to thank for every drop of blood shed by her
people, and every franc of damage inflicted within her territory during
this war. With a million of German soldiers on her eastern border
demanding unhindered passage through one end of her territory, under the
pledge of guarding her independence and integrity and reimbursing every
franc of damage, and no British force nearer than Dover, across the
Channel, it was one of the most inconsiderate, reckless, and selfish
acts ever committed by a great power when Sir Edward Grey directed, as
is stated in No.
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