"French troops already crossed the German frontier yesterday at Altmünsterol, and on mountain roads in the Vosges, and are still on German territory. A French aviator, who must have flown over Belgian territory, was shot down yesterday in the attempt to destroy the railway at Wesel. The presence of several other French aeroplanes over the Eifel territory was yesterday established beyond all doubt. These also must have flown over Belgian territory. French aviators yesterday dropped bombs on the railway lines at Karlsruhe and Nürnberg. France has thus placed us in a state of war with her."
Now at last they had the long-desired state of war. France, it is true, could at the same time politely produce a list of complaints about violations of the frontier, and Bethmann-Hollweg, in his war speech on August 4th, had even to confess that they were not unjustified. The French Government did not, however, make these a cause of war; in order to prevent violations of the frontier by their troops they had even done what the German Government did not do; as early as July 3oth they had issued orders that:
"Although Germany has made her defensive arrangements only a few hundreds of metres from the frontier on the whole front from Luxemburg to the Vosges and placed covering troops in their battle positions, we have withdrawn our troops ten kilometres from the frontier and forbidden them to advance nearer." (Yellow Book of 1914. No. 106.)
