Statement Issued by British Foreign Office, London, Oct. 14.
The story of an alleged Anglo-Belgian agreement of 1906, published in
the German press and based on documents said to have been found at
Brussels is only a press edition of a story which has been reproduced in
various forms and denied on several occasions. No such agreement has
ever existed as Germans well know. Gen. Grierson is dead and Col., now
Gen., Barnardiston is commanding the British forces before Tsing-tau.
In 1906 Gen. Grierson was on the General Staff at the War Office and
Col. Barnardiston was military attaché at Brussels. In view of the
solemn guarantee given by Great Britain to protect the neutrality of
Belgium against violation from any side some academic discussions may,
through the instrumentality of Col. Barnardiston, have taken place
between Gen. Grierson and the Belgian military authorities as to what
assistance the British Army might be able to afford to Belgium should
one of her neighbors violate that neutrality. Some notes with reference
to the subject may exist in the archives at Brussels.
It should be noted that the date mentioned, namely 1906, was the year
following that in which Germany had, as in 1911, adopted a threatening
attitude toward France with regard to Morocco and in view of the
apprehensions existing of an attack on France through Belgium it was
natural that possible eventualities should be discussed.
The impossibility of Belgium having been a party to any agreement of the
nature indicated or to any design for violation of Belgian neutrality is
clearly shown by reiterated declarations that she has made for many
years past that she would resist to the utmost any violation of her
neutrality from whatever quarter and in whatever form such violation
might come. It is worthy of attention that these charges of aggressive
designs on the part of other powers are made by Germany who, since 1906,
has established an elaborate network of strategical railways leading
from the Rhine to the Belgian frontier through a barren, thinly
populated tract, deliberately constructed to permit of the sudden attack
upon Belgium which was carried out two months ago.
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