followed up by strong Landwehr formations, which
will induce the small states to follow us or at least to remain
inactive in the theatre of operations, and which would crush them
in the event of armed resistance. If we could induce these states
to organize their system of fortification in such a manner as to
constitute an effective protection for our flank we could abandon
the proposed invasion. But for this, army reorganization,
particularly in Belgium, would be necessary in order that it
might really guarantee an effective resistance. If, on the
contrary, their defensive organization was established against
us, thus giving definite advantages to our adversary in the West,
we could in no circumstances offer Belgium a guaranty for the
security of her neutrality. Accordingly, a vast field is open to
our diplomacy to work in this country on the lines of our
interests.

"The arrangements made with this end in view allow us to hope
that it will be possible to take the offensive immediately after
the complete concentration of the army of the Lower Rhine. An
ultimatum with a short-time limit, to be followed immediately by
invasion, would allow a sufficient justification for our action
in international law.

"Such are the duties which devolve on our army and which demand a
striking force of considerable numbers. If the enemy attacks us,
or if we wish to overcome him, we will act as our brothers did a
hundred years ago; the eagle thus provoked will soar in his
flight, will seize the enemy in his steel claws and render him
harmless. We will then remember that the provinces of the ancient
German Empire, the County of Burgundy and a large part of
Lorraine, are still in the hands of the French; that thousands of
brother Germans in the Baltic provinces are groaning under the
Slav yoke. It is a national question that Germany's former
possessions should be restored to her."

REPORT OF M. CAMBON IN 1913

On May 6, 1913, M. Jules Cambon, French Ambassador at Berlin, wrote
to M. Stephen Pichon, Minister for Foreign Affairs in Paris, giving
an account of an interview with the German Secretary of State, Herr
von Jagow, concerning the conference of ambassadors in London on May
5th, and the results there obtained. It was agreed by Cambon and Von
Jagow that the immediate crisi