A DISPATCH OF 1913

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2373, 1 February 1915, Page 6

A DISPATCH OF 1913

On Saturday we published the test of Sir Edward Grey's reply. Apropos of that passage in the cable message which reads: "Sir Edward Grey added that the reasons why the 'military' danways from the Rhino to tho- Belgian was that Germany was establishing an elaborate network of strategical railways from tho Rhino to the Belgium frontier, deliberately constructed to permit of a sudden attack on Belgium, such as was carried out in August last, and this fact alone was enough to justify the 'communications between Belgium and tho other Powers," the following is a copy of a dispatch from Sir E. Grey to tho British Minister at Brussels: — .

Foreign Office, April 7, 1913. Sir,—ln speaking to the Belgian Minister to-day I said, speaking unofficially, that it had been brought to my knowledge that there was apprehension in Belgium lest we should be the first te violate Belgian neutrality. I did not think that this apprehension could havo come from a British source.

The Belgian Ministor informed me that there had been talk, in a British source which he could not name, of the landing of .troops in Belgium by Great Britain in order to anticipate a possible dispatch of German troops through Belgium to France. I said that I was sure that this Gov eminent would not he the first to violate the neutrality of Belgium, and I did not believe that any British Government would he, the first to do so, nor would public opinion here ever approve of it. What we had to consider, and it was a somewhat embarrassing question, was what it would be desirable and necessary for us, as ono of the guar antors of Belgian neutrality, to do if Belgian neutrality was violated by any Power. i?or us to be the first to violate it and to send troops into Belgium would be to give Germany, for instance, justification for sending troops into Belgium also. ■ What we (Sasired in the case of Belgium, as in that of other neutral countries,, was that their neutrality should be respected, and as long as it was not violated by any other Power wo s'sould certainly not send troops ourselves into their territory.—l am, etc., E. GKJSY.