The Sun WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1914. THE ATTACK ON BELGIUM.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 154, 5 August 1914, Page 6

The Sun WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1914. THE ATTACK ON BELGIUM.

Before Bismarck made war on France in 1870, he satisfied himself that Napoleon 111. had no secret treaty of alliance with Austria, requiring the latter £b come to his aid. Austria was well disposed towards Trance, and but for the rapid succession of disasters which befel the French army might have been induced to take the field against Prussia. But the French were crumpled up so quickly that the psychological, moment soon passed, and any subsequent intervention by Austria w r ould merely have recoiled, upon herself. After 44 years,, Germany has again made war on France, and the fact that there was nothing' more defi* nitc between the Eepublic and Britain than a friendly understanding in regard to naval dispositions in the Mediterranean and the English Channel respectively, must have had a,good deal to do with Germany's decision to repeat the history of 1870. But Germany will have to fight England all the same, no matter what happens to France. By invading Belgium she has given Britain her traditional pretext for participating in a Continental war, and one that must always bring her into the field. For nearly three hundred years Britain has fought to prevent any Continental Power obtaining a dominating position in the Low Countries. It has become almost an axiom that the possession of the Low Countries by a Great Power is incompatible with Britain's supremacy at sea. For this reason Britain became one of the principal guarantors of Belgian neutrality, and the violation of that neutrality by Germany is more than 'an ample casus belli. The war of the Spanish succession and the campaigns of Marlborough were the result of attempts made by Louis XIV. to conquer the Low Countries. The war with the first- French Republic really originated out of the French invasion of the Netherlands, and Pitt's policy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of France was only abandoned when it became clear that tJie annexation of the Netherlands was the chief object of the French endeavour. Again, after the Peace of Amiens,

when the struggle with Napoleon I. was resumed, ostensibly over the refusal of Britain to give up Malta, but. really because the First Consul refused to evacuate certain places of strength in the Low Countries, the same principle dominated Britain's action. Lord Palmerston followed along similar lines, resisting the third Napoleon's schemes in 1863 for extending his frontier in the direction of Belgium and the Ehiue. The subjection of France in the present war would leave the Low Countries at the mercy of Germany, unless England intervened. And she is compelled to intervene, otherwise Germany might successfully establish herself immediately across the Channel, a perpetual menace to British trade and commerce, and to her existence as a world-wide Empire. Sir Edward Grey's statement in the House of Commons ■ yesterday is suffi-. cient intimation that Britain will not tolerate Germany in the Low Countries, and we may conclude with some confidence that, although the French were only told on Monday that Britain would protect their coasts in the Channel and the Atlantic, the mobilisation of the Navy was ordered the moment Germany declined to give a guarantee that she would respect Belgian neutrality. Iti%* no longer a war about the pretensions of Servia, but a world-shaking struggle between the two principal naval Powers. Britain is fighting to maintain Avhat she has won for herself and her Dominion's. Germany is in the field to secure a dominating and unchallengeable i )o;s Hi on on the Continent of Europe, which carries with it a worldsupremacy in commerce and political affairs. If ever there was a time when the British Empire had need to put forward a supreme effort, it is now.