The Associated Press published in America on Monday an account
of an interview with the German Chancellor, who tried to explain away his phrase a "scrap of paper." In using this phrase to Sir Edward Goschen be had not meant that the Treaty guaranteeing the neutrality of Belgium was a mere scrap of paper, but that as an instrument it had become so through Belgium's own forfeiture of her neutrality. He bad also intended to point out that Britain's chief motives for entering the war were no little related to the Belgian question that she allowed to the neutrality Treaty nothing more than the value of a scrap of paper. He said that the day before his conversation with Sir E. Goschen, Sir Edward Grey had made Lis famous speech in the House of Commons, and had then spoken principally of British "interests." For Belgium alone Britain would never have gone to war. The Chancellor added that he might have been "a bit excited and aroused" when he used the phrase. He had indications at the time that Belgium had already abandoned her neutrality. Absolute proof had since come to light in the Belgian archives.
Previous page
