Sir Edward Grey then goes on to show why the
conversa- tions in Belgium occurred. Germany was establishing an elaborate network of strategic railways leading to the Belgian frontier—railways deliberately designed for an attack on Belgian territory. The real nature of Germany's "view of her responsibilities to neutral States " may be learnt on the indisputable authority of the White Book. When Germany was asked whether she would respect Belgian neutrality if Prance also promised, she refused. France when asked a similiar question assented. The German Foreign Secretary, Herr von Jagow, had spoken the actual truth when he said to the British Ambassador that the Germans "had to advance into France by the quickest and easiest way." And the Chancellor himself admitted that troth when he told the Reichstag that Germany was "committing a wrong " owing to the necessity of "hacking a way through." The German Chancellor's argument is certainly one of the most paltry we have ever come across, and is likely to do Germany as mueli harm as most German attempts to retrieve a bad blunder. It amounts to this, that if a householder puts extra bolts and bare and burglar alarms on his doors because he suspects the character of his next-door neighbour, he has thereby justified burglaryI
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