WHEN THE PEACE OF EUROPE WAS BROKEN

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2426, 3 April 1915, Page 7

WHEN THE PEACE OF EUROPE WAS BROKEN

TESTIMONY OF KING ALBERT AND EARL HALDANE BELGIAN KING DEFENDS HIS COUNTRY COMING END OF SECRET DIPLOMACY (Rec. April 1, 9.10 p.m. London, April-1. King Albert, of Belgium, in an interview with the journal "Geneve," denied being a hero. "Yoji find them in the trenches," he said. Ho affirmed the fact that before the war ho and his country had scrupulously observed all the requirements of neutrality, with a precision of the specifications in an engineering contract. lie was unable to explain why Belgium had suffered, and could explain less the German acts of cruelty. Ho had never imagined the German to be a malevolent person. He emphatically denied the suggestion that Belgium had compromised hor neutrality by diplomatic conversations*. WAR INEVITABLE SINCE THE AGIDAR INCIDENT BRITAIN COULD NOT HAVE KEPT OUT. (Rec. April 1, 9.10 p.m. London, April 1. Earl Haldane, interviewed by the "Chicago Daily News," asks for American forbearance while Britain lights for her life. "If," ho said, "we appear to go beyond some of the rules of the war book's, we shall not violate the dictates of humanity or turn back the clock of civilisation. Germany's submarine warfare on belligerents and neutrals aliko is without analogy, and wo are compelled to meet it. ll' we had recourse to tho full rigours of a conventional blockade, wc could confiscate ships and cargoes. Instead, we want to spare neutrals inconvenience and injury. The Agadtr incident, added Earl Haldane, had compelled Britain to face the possibility of war, but the relations of ths two comUrlos had sluon then imwnviw!.. "t conferred with Hon- von

Bethmann-Hollwegg (the German Imperial Chancellor), saw the Kaiser, and assured the German leaders that we were prepared to enter into a most binding agreement that in no circumstances would we be a party to aggression against Germany, hut I came away uneasy. Germany was piling up her armaments.

"The Kaiser had been opposed to war, but appears to have settled into a war mood in 1913, as M. Gambon's dispatch to M. l'ichon shows. The Prussian spirit temporarily gained tho ascendancy, and the rest followed naturally.

An End to Secret Diplomacy. ''The present war," added the speaker, '-'should end secret diplomacy and political manipulation, with also a great moral advance. The world has been too luxurious. If Germany is beaten, the nations of tlio future are not likely to pin their faith to armaments. Tho present war should rid the world of at least a part of the burden of armaments."

He wa6 not sure that Britain would have remained out of the war if Germany had respected Belgium's neutrality. Belgium touched our honour, and Franco our feeling.s and interests. Having regard to tho German theories of ii world conquest, it would have been madness for Britain to sit with hands folded while Germany removed the Continental obstacles to her siege of the British Empire. But Germany's attack on Belgium gave Britain no choice. She had to resist the violation of a treaty of neutrally or she would havo been disgraced.