New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?Various
History
New York Times Current History: The European War from the Beginning to March 1915, Vol 1, No. 2: Who Began the War, and Why?
Various
World War, 1914-1918
We have only one regret to express on the subject of the disclosure of
these documents, and that is that the publication of our military
documents should be mangled and arranged in such a way as to give the
reader the impression of duplicity on the part of England and adhesion
by Belgium, in violation of her duties as a neutral State, to the policy
of the Triple Entente. We ask the North-German Gazette to publish in
full the result of its search among our secret documents. Therein will
be found fresh and striking proof of the loyalty, correctness, and
impartiality with which Belgium for 81 years has discharged her
international obligations.
It was stated that Col. Barnardiston, the military representative at
Brussels of a power guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium, at the time
of the Algeciras crisis, questioned the Chief of the Belgian General
Staff as to the measures which he had taken to prevent any violation of
that neutrality. The Chief of the General Staff, at that time Lieut.
Gen. Ducarne, replied that Belgium was ready to repel any invader. Did
the conversation extend beyond these limits, and did Col. Barnardiston,
in an interview of a private and confidential nature, disclose to Gen.
Ducarne the plan of campaign which the British General Staff would have
desired to follow if that neutrality were violated? We doubt it, but in
any case we can solemnly assert, and it will be impossible to prove the
contrary, that never has the King or his Government been invited, either
directly or indirectly, to join the Triple Entente in the event of a
Franco-German war. By their words and by their acts they have always
shown such a firm attitude that any supposition that they could have
departed from the strictest neutrality is eliminated a priori.
As for Baron Greindl's dispatch of Dec. 23, 1911, it dealt with a plan
for the defense of Luxembourg, due to the personal initiative of the
Chief of the First Section of the War Ministry. This plan was of an
absolutely private character and had not been approved by the Minister
of War. If this plan contemplated above all an attack by Germany, there
is no cause for surprise, since the great German military writers, in
particular T. Bernhardi, V. Schlivfeboch, and von der Goltz, spoke
openly in their treatises on the coming war of the violation of Belgian
territory by the German armies.
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