I. The first document is a report of the Chief of the Belgian General
Staff, Major Gen. Ducarme, to the Minister of War, reporting a series
of conversations which he had had with the Military Attaché of the
British Legation, Lieut. Col. Barnardiston, in Brussels. It discloses
that, as early as January, 1906, the Belgian Government was in
consultation with the British Government over steps to be taken by
Belgium, Great Britain, and France against Germany. A plan had been
fully elaborated for the landing of two British army corps in French
ports to be transferred to the point in Belgium necessary for
operations against the Germans. Throughout the conversation the
British and Belgian forces were spoken of as "allied armies"; the
British Military Attaché insisted on discussing the question of the
chief command; and he urged the establishment, in the meantime, of a
Belgian spy system in Germany.
II. When in the year 1912 Lieut. Col. Barnardiston had been succeeded
by Lieut. Col. Bridges as British Military Attaché in Brussels, and
the Chief of the Belgian General Staff, Major Gen. Ducarme, had been
succeeded by Gen. Jungbluth as Chief of the Belgian General Staff, the
conversations proceeded between the two latter officials. That is to
say, these were not casual conversations between individuals, but a
series of official conversations between representatives of their
respective Governments, in pursuance of a well-considered policy on
the part of both Governments.
III. The above documents are given additional significance by a report
made in 1911 by Baron Greindl, Belgian Minister in Berlin, to the
Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, from which it appears that this
representative of the Belgian Government in Berlin was familiar with
the plans above set forth and protested against them, asking why like
preparations had not been made with Germany to repel invasion by the
French and English.
Taken together, these documents show that _the British Government had
the intention, in case of a Franco-German war, of sending troops into
Belgium immediately--that is, of doing the very thing which, done by
Germany, was used by England as a pretext for declaring war on
Germany_.
They show also that the Belgian Government took, in agreement with the
English General Staff, military precautions against a hypothetical
German invasion of Belgium. On the other hand, the Belgian Government
never made the slightest attempt to take, in agreement with the German
Government, military precautions against an Anglo-French invasion of
Belgium, though fully informed that it was the purpose of the British
Government to land and dispatch, across French territory into Belgium,
160,000 troops, without asking Belgium's permission, on the first
outbreak of the European war. _This clearly demonstrates that the
Belgian Government was determined from the outset to join Germany's
enemies._
[Illustration: MR. AND MRS. WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL