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writers of these despatches were the diplomatic representatives of Belgium accredited to Britain, France and Germany before the war. The reports are addressed to their official chief, the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs in Brussels. The documents were discovered in the Belgian archives by the Germans in 1915, and issued in the original French with a German translation. No attempt has ever been made to dispute their authenticity, which has been accepted by British, French, American and Italian commentators, us well as by writers whose countries preserved neutrality in the war. Their value to the student of international affairs, to all those who realise that the perils of the moment and the menace of the future can only be conjured through a clear comprehension of the past, is immeasurable.

The principal writers are Count Charles doe Lalaing, Belgian Minister in London; Baron Guillaume, Belgian Minister in Paris; Baron Beyens, Belgian Minister in Paris; and Baron Greindl, Belgian Minister in Berlin. All these men had been in the Belgian Diplomatic Service for many years, and had served their country in manyny lands. Beyens had been successively chief of the