Our scholars have long known that Frederick the Great was the first
German to say that international treaties were to be observed so
long as they were useful and served his purpose, and when that time
passed a treaty was to be counted "a scrap of paper." When then the
English Ambassador, on July 1, 1914, told Bethmann-Hollweg plainly
that if Germany invaded Belgium, England would have no other course
than to join her armies to those of Belgium and France, the German
Prime Minister exclaimed, "And declare war for what? For just a scrap
of paper!" We now know that Germany signed treaties for purposes of
diplomatic camouflage, to blind the eyes of other governments while she
was making ready her weapons for attack. Most significant that speech
in the Reichstag on July 31, 1914, that contains this: "We cannot
longer postpone the fulfillment of the pledge given to Austria at the
conference of July 5th." During all those days, between July 30th and
August 4th, when the Kaiser was apparently trying to prevent war,
Germany and Austria were secretly preparing cannon, guns, ammunition,
railway trains, food, and secretly hurrying them to the front, during
three entire weeks, following the agreement between the Kaiser and
the Emperor. Upon eternal brass, therefore, Germany engraved her own
infamy. "We are now in a state of necessity, and necessity knows no
law. We were compelled to override the just protest of the Belgian
government. The wrong--I speak openly--that we are committing, we will
endeavour to make good as soon as our military goal has been reached.
Anybody who is threatened as we are threatened can have only one
thought, how he is to hack his way through,--how he is to hack his way
through."