and a great mistake. To begin with, it cannot be denied that we committed the first illegal action by the invasion of Belgium, and that this fact could serve as a justification or excuse of all subsequent breaches of the law. This action turned the public opinion of the whole world against us, which brought a decisive influence to bear upon the whole course of the war. The sufferings of Belgium made England's interference easy, and gave the strongest weapon to the military party in Italy and created hatred in America.
Bismarck, who was a statesman no one can accuse of sentimentality, recognized that it would be a mistake to begin a war against France by violating the neutrality of Belgium. When the Belgian question was opened in England, as I have already mentioned, in 1887, Bismarck said in his paper: "Germany would never begin a war with the violation of a European agreement. Anyone who thinks that political leadership is subjected to the point of view of the General Staff and not vice versa, is making a grave error."
The real motive of the British Government which decided her to interfere in the war was not the breach of neutrality which had been committed in Belgium, but the fact that England could not allow Germany, which was antagonistic to her and which had been her rival during the last decade, to gain unquestionable supremacy on the continent, and especially could England not permit that Germany should rule over the coast that lies immediately opposite to England after vanquishing France. Nothing but the sufferings
