You will remember that England, France, and Prussia had promised each other to protect Belgium from war.  Even in the war of 1870, France and Prussia had carefully avoided bringing their troops upon Belgian soil.  Now, however, with the German army invading Belgium, the English statesmen had to decide their course.  As heads of one of the nations to guarantee Belgium’s freedom, they called on Germany to explain this unprovoked invasion.  The Germans made no answer.  They were busily attacking the city of Liege.  Great Britain gave Germany twenty-four hours in which to withdraw her troops.  At the end of this time, with Germany paying no attention still, England solemnly declared war and took her stand alongside of Russia and France.

The Germans were furious.  They had no bitter feeling against the French.  They realized that France was obliged, by the terms of her alliance, to stand by Russia, but they had confidently counted on keeping England out of the war.  In fact, the German ambassador to England had assured the German emperor that England had so many troubles, with her uprising in Ireland and threatened rebellions in India and South Africa that she would never dare fight at this time.

The English people, on the other hand, were now thoroughly aroused.  If there is one thing that an Englishman prides himself on, it is keeping his word.  The word of the English had been given, through their government, to Belgium that this little country, if it should resist invasion, would be protected, and this word they thought must be kept at all hazards.  It made no difference that, aside from her great navy, England was utterly unprepared for the war.  Like the decision which Belgium had had to make the day before, this was a crucial step for the British to take, but to their everlasting honor they did not hesitate.  In the case of Germany’s declaration of war the German laws say that no war can be declared by the Kaiser alone unless it is a defensive war.  Therefore, as one American writer has pointed out, this is the only kind of war that the Kaiser ever declares.  The German military group, having control of the newspapers, put in a lot of stories made up for the occasion about French soldiers having crossed the border and shot down Germans on August 2nd.  They told how French aviators had dropped bombs on certain German cities.  As a matter of fact, the French soldiers, by orders of their government, were drawn back from the frontier a distance of six miles in order to avoid any appearance of attacking the Germans.  The City Council of Nuremburg, one of the cities that was said to have been bombed by the French, later gave out a formal statement saying that no bombs had fallen on their city and no French aviators had been seen near it.  But the German government gave out this “news” and promptly declared a “defensive” war, and the German people had to believe what they were told.

Very different was the case in England.  Here was a free people, with free schools and free newspapers.  Just as every German had been taught in the schools of his country that Germany was surrounded by a ring of jealous enemies and would one day have to fight them all, so the people of England had been taught in their schools that war between civilized peoples is a hateful thing and must finally disappear from the earth.