And then the neutral countries--what is the part which they have played
in the drama of the past 365 days? I think I may fairly claim to have
had better opportunities than most people for studying one aspect of it,
its moral aspect, and therefore I trust I may be forgiven if I make
a personal reference. Seeing, in the earliest days of the war, that
Germany was doing her best to divert the eye of the world from the crime
she had committed in Belgium, and being convinced that Britain’s hope
both now and in the future lay in keeping the world’s eye fixed on
that outrage, I moved the proprietors of the _Daily Telegraph_ to the
publication of “King Albert’s Book.”
What that great book was it must be quite unnecessary to say, but it may
be permitted to the editor to claim that it constituted the first (as it
may well be the final) impeachment of the Kaiser before the bar of the
nations for a crime in Belgium as revolting as that of Frederick the
Great in Silesia and a thousandfold more fatal. After the publication
of “King Albert’s Book,” Germany knew that before the tribunal of the
civilized world she stood tried and condemned. But though representative
men and women in thirteen different countries united within the
covers of the historic volume to express their abhorrence of Germany’s
iniquity, the whole weight of the world’s condemnation could not be
included.
From many of the neutral nations there came pathetic cries of inability
to join in the general protest. Famous men wrote that the neutrality of
their countries imposed upon them the duty and the penalty of silence.
“My brother is a member of our Government,” wrote one illustrious man
of letters, “and if I am not to get him into trouble I must hold my
tongue.” Another, whose German name, if it could be published, would
carry weight throughout the world, said: “I know where my sympathy lies,
and so do you, but I dare not speak, for I am a German-born subject, and
to tell what is in my mind would be treason to my country.” This message
came from a remote place in Spain, the writer having been compelled
to fly from France, because his blood was German, while unable to take
refuge in Germany because his heart was French.