between Germany and Belgium.

In reply to further interrogations from a member of the
Social Democratic Party, Herr von Heeringen, Minister of
War, stated: "Belgium does not play any part in the
justification of the German scheme of military
reorganization; the scheme is justified by the position of
matters in the East. Germany will not lose sight of the fact
that Belgian neutrality is guaranteed by international
treaties."

A member of the same party, having again referred to
Belgium, Herr von Jagow again pointed out that his
declaration regarding Belgium was sufficiently clear.[86]

[Footnote 86: Belgian _Gray Book_, No. 12.]

On July 31, 1914, the Belgian Foreign Minister, in a conversation with
Herr von Below, the German Minister at Brussels, asked him whether he
knew of the assurance which, as above stated, had been given by von
Bethmann-Hollweg through the German Ambassador at Brussels to the
Government at Belgium in 1911, and Herr von Below replied that he did,
and added, "that he was certain that the sentiments to which
expression was given at that time had not changed."

Thus _on July 31, 1914_, Germany, through its accredited
representative at Brussels, repeated the assurances contained in the
treaty of 1839, as reaffirmed in 1870, and again reaffirmed in 1911
and 1913.

Germany's moral obligation had an additional express confirmation.

The second International Peace Conference was held at The Hague in
1907. There were present the representatives of forty-four nations,
thus making as near an approach to the poet's dream of the "federation
of the world" and the "parliament of man" as has yet been possible in
the slow progress of mankind.

That convention agreed upon a certain declaration of principles, and
among the signatures appended to the document was the representative
of His Majesty, the German Emperor.

They agreed upon certain principles of international morality, most
of them simply declaratory of the uncodified international law then
existing, and these were subsequently ratified by formal treaties of
the respective governments, including Germany, which were deposited in
the archives of The Hague. While this treaty _as an express covenant_
was not binding, unless all belligerents signed it, yet, it recognized
an existing _moral_ obligation. The Hague Peace Conference proceeded
to define the rights of neutral powers, and in so doing s