The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915: What Americans Say to EuropeVarious
Philosophy
The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915: What Americans Say to Europe
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Here is inclosed a copy of the note of Aug. 3 sent by M. Davignon,
Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, to Herr von Below Saleske, the
German Minister at Brussels, included in the Belgian "Gray Paper," and
printed in full in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Oct. 18 and reprinted in THE
TIMES'S pamphlet of the war's diplomatic papers. This is the note
expressing the "profound and painful surprise" caused to King Albert's
Government by the German invitation to it to abandon Belgian neutrality
and denying that France had, as alleged by Germany, manifested any such
intention.
A second inclosure gives this clipping from The London Times of Sept.
30:
OFFICIAL STATEMENT.
The German press has been attempting to persuade the public
that if Germany herself had not violated Belgian neutrality,
France or Great Britain would have done so. It has declared
that French and British troops had marched into Belgium before
the outbreak of war. We have received from the Belgian
Minister of War an official statement which denies absolutely
these allegations. It declares, on the one hand, that "before
Aug. 3 not a single French soldier had set foot on Belgian
territory," and, again, "it is untrue that on Aug. 4 there was
a single English soldier in Belgium." It adds:
"For long past Great Britain knew that the Belgian Army would
oppose by force a 'preventive' disembarkation of British
troops in Belgium. The Belgian Government did not hesitate at
the time of the Agadir crisis to warn foreign Ambassadors, in
terms which could not be misunderstood, of its formal
intention to compel respect for the neutrality of Belgium by
every means at its disposal, and against attempts upon it from
any and every quarter."
The "Agreement" of 1903.
The third inclosure is this British official communique:
14 October, 1914.
The story of an alleged Anglo-Belgian agreement of 1906
published in the German press, and based on documents said to
have been found at Brussels, is only a fresh edition of a
story which has been reproduced in various forms and denied
on several occasions. No such agreement has ever existed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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