twelve autos, this morning attempted to cross the German frontier near Walbeck, west of Geldern. This means the gravest conceivable violation of neutrality by France."
The German Foreign Office must have lost its head completely, to make itself thus ridiculous in the eyes of foreign countries.
Geldern, moreover, is situated near Wesel, where the French airmen were supposed to have been brought down. The military in that frontier district appear to have been particularly nervous and apt to see ghosts.
But General Emmich went still farther than Jagow. He gave the reason for the invasion of Belgium in a proclamation which ran:
"Our troops acted under the compulsion of an unavoidable necessity, Belgian neutrality having been violated by French officers who, in disguise, entered Belgian territory in automobiles, in order to reach Germany." (Quoted by Dr. E. J. Gumbel in his pamphlet, " Vier Jahre Luge " (" Four Years of Lies "), page 9.)
In his war speech of August 4th Bethmann-Hollweg was not ashamed to make use of this silly pretext for the invasion of Belgium. He acknowledged that the attack on Belgium "contravenes the dictates of International Law," as also that the French Government had declared in Brussels that it was willing to respect Belgium's neutrality so long as their opponent respected it. He forgot to remark that Jagow had declined to make the same declaration. He continued:
"We knew, however, that France was ready for the invasion,"
