Page:The guilt of William Hohenzollern.djvu/243

Rh aroused by the breach of faith which was followed by the slaughter of thousands of Belgians and the appalling devastation of the whole country; it aroused all civilized countries, and deprived Germany of the last friends she still had in them.

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THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE BREACH OF FAITH
}} The invasion of Belgium was not only as morally condemnable as it was intelligible from a military point of view; it was also a profound political blunder.

But the soldiers commanded and the civilian politicians had to obey. To them only fell the thankless task of justifying the breach of faith in the eyes of the world. They did not make too great mental efforts over it. On this occasion they were again content to follow the convenient example of Berchtold, which he had set when dealing with Francis Joseph i.e., pretending that one was forced to war by the hostile acts of others.

And in the case of Belgium, the Imperial Chancellor only held the noble office of a letter-carrier.

On July 29th the Foreign Office received a draft, drawn up by Moltke, the Chief of the General Staff himself, under the date July 26th, for a letter to the Belgian Government, which, after a few editorial alterations made by the Chancellor, Stumm and Zimmermann, was sent off the same day by Jagow, not to the Belgian Government, but to the German Ambassador in Brussels. It ran:

"The Imperial Government has received reliable reports regarding the intended advance of French