assured the Government of King Albert that no such step
would be taken. The pretext now was that the French were about to
invade Belgium, as to which there was then, and has not been since, any
proof whatever.

[Footnote 558: British White Paper, No. 105 and _Enclosures_, also No.
116.]

Here we must go back in order to understand the action of the British,
French, and German Governments. They and all the Powers had signed the
treaty of 1839 guaranteeing the independence of Belgium; and nothing had
occurred since to end their engagement. The German proposals of July 29,
1914, having alarmed Sir Edward Grey, he required both from Paris and
Berlin assurances that neither Power would invade Belgium. That of
France on August 1 was clear and satisfactory. On July 31 the German
Secretary of State, von Jagow, declined to give a reply, because "any
reply they [the Emperor and Chancellor] might give could not but
disclose a certain amount of their plan of campaign in the event of war
ensuing." As on August 2 the official assurances of the German
ambassador at Brussels were satisfactory, the British Foreign Office
seems to have felt no great alarm on this topic. But at 7 P.M. of that
evening the same ambassador presented a note from his Government
demanding the right to march its troops into Belgium in order to prevent
a similar measure by the French. On the morrow Belgium protested against
this act, and denied the rumour as to French action. King Albert also
telegraphed to King George asking for the help of the United Kingdom.
The tidings reached the British Cabinet after it had been carefully
considering whether German aggression on Belgium would not constitute a
_casus belli_[559].

[Footnote 559: British White Paper, Nos. 123, 151, 153; Belgian Grey
Book, Nos. 20-25. For a full and convincing refutation of the German
charges that our military attaches at Brussels in 1906 and 1912 had
bound us by _conventions_(!) to land an army in Belgium, see second
Belgian Grey Book, pp. 103-6; Headlam, _op. cit._, ch. xvi., also p.
377, on the charge that France was about to invade Belgium.]

The news of the German demand and the King's appeal reached Westminster
just before the first debate on August 3. Sir Edward Grey stated that we
were not parties to the Franco-Russian Alliance, of which we did not
know the exact terms; and there was no binding compact with France; but
the conversations on naval affairs pledged us to consult her wi