How the Nations Waged War: A companion volume to "How the War Began"Kennedy, J. M. (John McFarland)
History
How the Nations Waged War: A companion volume to "How the War Began"
Kennedy, J. M. (John McFarland)
World War, 1914-1918
The _Norddeutsche_ says: "According to reports received here Sir E.
Grey recently declared in the House of Commons that the correspondence
exchanged between Great Britain and Germany before the war, as
published by the German Government, was incomplete, that Prince
Lichnowsky had withdrawn his report on the well-known telephone
conversation by a telegram sent immediately he was informed that a
misunderstanding existed, and that this telegram was not published.
_The Times_, probably on this basis of official information, made the
same assertion, and added the comment that the telegram was suppressed
by the German Government in order to enable it to accuse England of
perfidy and prove Germany's love of peace. We declare in answer to this
that no such telegram is in existence beyond the telegram already made
public.
"Prince Lichnowsky sent only the following telegrams:
(Sent at 1.15 p.m. on August 1st.)
"'Sir E. Grey's private secretary has just been here to inform me
that the Minister desires to make me proposals concerning England's
neutrality, even in case we have to go to war with France and Russia. I
shall see Sir E. Grey this afternoon.'
II.
(Sent at 5.30 on the same afternoon.)
"'Sir E. Grey has just submitted the following declaration, which has
been unanimously adopted by the Cabinet: "The German Government's
answer respecting Belgium's neutrality is unusually regrettable, since
the neutrality of Belgium is a matter affecting the feelings of this
country. If Germany could see her way to give a similar positive answer
to that which has been given by France it would contribute greatly to
relieve the anxiety and tension here, while, on the other hand, it
would be extremely difficult to restrain public temper if Belgium's
neutrality should be disregarded by one of the belligerents while the
other respected it."
"'To my question whether on condition that we respected Belgian
neutrality he could give a definite declaration concerning Great
Britain's neutrality, the Minister replied that this was not possible,
but this question would play a big rôle in the present temper of the
people. If we disregarded Belgium's neutrality in a war with France a
revulsion of sentiment would certainly set in, which would render it
difficult to maintain friendly neutrality. For the present there was no
intention of proceeding to hostilities against us. It was desired to
avoid this if it were in any way possible. It was, however, difficult
to draw the line marking how far we might go, before there would be
intervention from here. He (Sir E. Grey) kept adverting to Belgian
neutrality, and said this question would play a great rôle. He had
considered whether, in case of a Russian war, we and France might not
simply remain armed against each other without either one attacking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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