Admittedly a "guiltless and unoffending nation,"[1] whose neutrality and
independence had been solemnly guaranteed by treaty, to which the powers
concerned in the war were parties, has had her treaty rights violated by
one of these powers on the cynical plea that there is no right or wrong
as against national interest, that necessity obeys no law, and treaties
are "scraps of paper." This is not matter for inquiry or judicial
decision at some later date. It has been frankly avowed by the German
Government from the outset of this war.
[Footnote 1: Theodore Roosevelt.]
Again, this admitted wrong is not the sudden and unavoidable outcome of
events unforeseen and uncontrollable. It has been deliberately planned
years ahead, with elaborate preparation of railway and other facilities,
and with every invention and contrivance, to rush in irresistible
forces; to subvert and destroy the independent State that Germany was
herself pledged to defend.
Thirdly, this policy of absolute annihilation of Belgium, of its right
to live its own life, its right even to preserve those monuments of its
noble and beautiful history which had become treasured heirlooms of the
whole world, has been carried out with a ruthless barbarity to the
people, and especially the non-combatants, for which it is hard to find
a parallel in the worst incidents of the Thirty Years' War or of the
devastation of the Palatinate.
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