But aside from that—­in your communication you have again emphasized the main point.  We did not declare war against Belgium, but we declared that since Russia and France compelled us to wage a war with two fronts (190,000,000 against 68,000,000) we had then to suffer defeat if we could not march through Belgium; that we should do that but that we should carefully keep from harming Belgium in any way and would indemnify all damage incurred—­our hand upon it!  Would Great Britain, had she been in our position, have hesitated a moment to do likewise?  And would Great Britain have drawn the sword for us if France had violated the neutrality of Belgium by marching through it?  You know well enough that both these questions must be answered in the negative.

Our Imperial Chancellor has with his characteristic conscientiousness declared that we have on our side committed a certain wrong.  I cannot agree with him in this judgment, and I cannot even recognize the commission of a formal wrong, for we were in a situation where formalities no longer obtain, and where moral duties only prevail.  When David, in the extremity of his need, took the show-bread from the Table of the Lord, he was in every sense of the word justified, for the letter of the law ceased at that moment to exist.  It is as well known to you as to me that there is a law of necessity which breaks iron asunder, to say nothing of treaties.

Appreciate our position!  Prove to me that Germany has flippantly constructed a law of necessity; prove it to me in this hour, when your country has gone over to our enemies, and we have half the world to fight.  You cannot do that; you could not do it on the 4th of August, and consequently you have assumed the most miserable of pretexts, because you wished to destroy us.  From your letter, gentlemen, I must believe that you are far from holding this view; but do you believe, and would you really try to make me believe, that your statesmen would have declared war against us only because we were determined to march through Belgium?  You could not consider them so foolish and so flippant.

An Earlier Treachery.

But I am not yet at an end.  It is not we who have first violated the neutrality of Belgium.  Belgium, as we feared and as we now, informed by the actual facts, see still more clearly, was for a long time in alliance with France and—­with you.  France’s airmen were flying over Belgium before we marched in; negotiations with France had already taken place, and in Maubeuge there was found an arsenal full of English munitions which had been stationed there before the declaration of war.  This arsenal—­you know where Maubeuge is situated!—­points to agreements which Great Britain had made with France, and to which Belgium was also party.  These agreements are before the whole world today, for the chain of evidence is complete and the treacherous plot of Great Britain is revealed.  She has encouraged and pledged