little concern, and in which we take an interest of very secondary order? How came that about?
Would it not have been easier for us to stand aside, to let those great antagonists fight it out amongst themselves, and then at the end to come forward, smug and smiling, without loss, without injury to our country or its possessions, and perhaps to claim our share of any good things which might happen to be lying about? Now, I want to impress upon you, if I can, that if we had been foolish enough to use that language, we should absolutely have forfeited the position which we desire to see this country occupy, and the great prospects to which we desire it to look forward in the future. [Cheers.] I think every one is aware that what brought us into the dispute at the last was the violation of the neutrality of Belgium. Was it possible for us to be indifferent to that violation? [Cries of "No."] At any rate, Belgium set us a splendid example. [Cheers.]
Belgium might have saved her churches, cathedrals, and libraries; she might have saved her smiling fields; she might have saved her people from the nameless sufferings which they have undergone; but she, at any rate, felt that to do that at the price of her own disgrace was a sacrifice which she was utterly unable to make. [Hear, hear.] Belgium never hesitated. Are we going to hesitate? [No.]
Now remember that just as Belgium was offered clumsy bribes by Germany, so we were offered inducements which Germany thought would be sufficient. We were offered them on condition that we would allow a certain "scrap of paper" to be torn up. There was more than one scrap of paper. There was in the first place the treaty of 1839, entered into between the Sovereigns of this country and Belgium, solemnly guaranteeing the integrity and independence of Belgium. Then came the treaty of 1870, entered into between the King of the Belgians and Queen Victoria, in which again the neutrality of Belgium was guaranteed, and in which there was inserted a solemn enactment that if that neutrality should ever be endangered the two Governments, the Governments of Great Britian and of Belgium, were to concert together the measures necessary in order to secure the independence of Belgium.
I dwell on these words because I shall have to remind you of them in a moment. And the third scrap of paper was that which was signed in the year 1907 at the time of The Hague Convention, when the signatories, of whom, of course, Germany
