imply
reaffirmed the existing international law.

The pertinent parts of this great compact, with reference to the
sanctity of neutral territory, are as follows:

_CONVENTION V_

_CHAPTER I.--"THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF NEUTRAL POWERS_"

ARTICLE I.

_The territory of neutral Powers is inviolable._

ARTICLE II.

_Belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys of
either munitions of war or supplies across the territory of
a neutral Power._

ARTICLE X.

_The fact of a neutral Power resisting, even by force,
attempts to violate its neutrality cannot be regarded as a
hostile act._

Notwithstanding these assurances, it had been from time to time
intimated by German military writers, and notably by Bernhardi, that
Germany would, in the event of a future war, make a quick and possibly
a fatal blow at the heart of France by invading Belgium upon the first
declaration of hostilities, and it was probably these intimations that
led the Belgian Government on July 24, 1914, to consider:

Whether in the existing circumstances, it would not be
proper to address to the Powers, who had guaranteed
Belgium's independence and its neutrality, a communication
for the purpose of confirming to them its resolution to
carry out the international duties which are imposed upon
it by treaties in the event of war breaking out on the
Belgian frontiers.

Confiding in the good faith of France and Germany, the Belgian
Government concluded that any such declaration was premature.

On August 2, 1914, the war having already broken out, the Belgian
Foreign Minister took occasion to tell the German Ambassador that
France had reaffirmed its intention to respect the neutrality of
Belgium, and Herr von Below, the German Ambassador, after thanking
Davignon for his information, added that up to the present he had not
been

instructed to make us any official communication, but we
were aware of his personal opinion respecting the security
with which we had the right to regard our eastern neighbors.
I [Davignon] replied at once that all we knew of the
intentions of the latter, intentions set forth in many
former interviews, did not allow us to doubt their
[Germany's] perfectly correct attitude toward Belgium.

It thus appears that as late as _August 2, 19