The Germans now pretend to pity the poor Belgians, who allowed themselves to be fooled by England as much as by their King and Government, and who, by their credulity, brought the war upon themselves. But what am I saying?--the German Government assures the world that we ourselves desired the war. Official Germany has become incapable of conceiving that a people should remain faithful to its international obligations, and if need be sacrifice itself for them. "Why," our adversaries ask us, "did you not accept the proposals of Germany? You would have profited by them." And indeed our eastern neighbours offered us £200,000 as the price of our complicity (F. Bettix, _Der Krieg_). It would be very interesting to know on what data Germany calculates the value of a nation's honour; in any case, we may assure her that no one in the world would be so simple as to offer so great a sum for hers. * * * * * For the rest, as far as we Belgians are concerned our interest has never entered into our calculations. It was not in order to profit by it that we resisted Germany; it was because we judged that such was our obligation as an honest nation. And yet, as the Minister, M. Carton de Wiart, remarked, at the Hotel de Ville in Paris, on the 20th December, 1914, we had, even then, the vision of our country ravaged by the Prussian hordes; but even to-day, after suffering such terrible atrocities, there is not a Belgian "who would change his poverty for the profits of a bandit." FOOTNOTES: [6] The Germans do not like one to quote these words of Herr Bethmann-Hollweg. A series of pamphlets, _Histoire de la guerre de 1914_, which has appeared in Brussels during the occupation, reports the last conversation of the Chancellor with the British Ambassador on the 4th of August, 1914 (p. 206), but the "scrap of paper" does not figure therein: the censorship suppressed this too compromising passage. [7] See, for example, Bernhardi's _How Germany makes War_, pp. 190, 191, 192. On the 4th of March, 1882, the _Nord. Allg. Zeit._ declared: "Germany has no political motive for violating Belgian neutrality, but the military advantage which might result forces her thereto." Emile Bauning, _La Belgique au point de vue Militaire et International_, Brussels, 1906, p. 58. [8] Apparently such unusual honesty cannot long survive in the mind of a German diplomatist. The phrase is in its proper place in the French text, but it is lacking in the Flemish text, which is printed facing it. [9] _K.Z._, 2nd December, 1st edition, morning, published the same revelations. This article is more complete than that printed in Brussels. We hasten to correct a numerical error which renders the opening of the second paragraph incomprehensible: it states that five years had elapsed between 1905 and 1914. According to the _K.Z._ one should read 1909 instead of 1905. [10] The same lie figures in _Lüttich_, p. 5.