In both camps it would be the triumph of an imperialist policy which would foster new wars and end in rendering illusory the very agreement between the contracting parties.... It is not necessary to point out, besides, the injury to Italy, to Germany, to Turkey, and even to Greece (really reduced in that case to British vassalage) implied by this hypothetical division into zones of influence of the vast stretches from the Rhine to the Euphrates, from Cologne to Bagdad.
The Young Italian movement has something in common with the Young Turk movement and the other non-European Nationalist movements that are labeled “Young.” To win, and then to maintain a place among the nations, to stand up for one’s rights, a country must be strong. And a country cannot be strong unless the old political machine has been swept away, finances put upon a sound basis, and sweeping reforms in administration introduced. The people as a whole cannot be relied upon to do this. Thus it falls to the lot of a private organization to oppose and overthrow the existing Government by force. Lawlessness is justifiable because it is for the purpose of combating decadence and anarchy. Overriding the suffrage right of the people is justifiable, because the Government established by the revolution knows better than they do what is needed to save the country. Before the revolution the country was held in contempt among the nations. After the revolution the miracles wrought will compel the respect of other nations. Then will the country in which the beneficent revolution occurred, by being strong, assert triumphantly its rights and further its interests the world over.
CHAPTER XIX
BELGIUM AFTER THE WORLD WAR
After the German invasion, in 1914, the Belgians moved their Government from Brussels to Antwerp and then to Ostend. When the last strip of southwestern Flanders became a battle-front, they were compelled to take refuge at Havre. With the exception of Serbia, no country suffered as much during the World War as Belgium. Up to the day of the armistice the little kingdom was completely under the heel of an enemy military occupation. It was natural that the withdrawal of the Germans should have been followed by a universal outburst of nationalism in an exaggerated form, and that the Belgian people should have believed that their reward for heroic endurance was going to be great and immediate. They forgot for a moment that they were a small state, and that the disinterested gratitude of the big fellows could not be expected to go far beyond fine speeches. The Principal Allied and Associated Powers showed their affection and esteem for Belgium by changing their legations to embassies. But that is as far as it went.
The Belgians quickly learned that in international relations size has everything to do with power, and that gratitude for services rendered in the past plays no part in world politics. Receiving and sending ambassadors was not going to make Belgium big, while new and continued services to the interests of the great powers were to be required. The World War was past history!
The Belgians found this out when the Peace Conference opened. They were immediately relegated to the position of a “secondary state with particular interests,” and, like other small states, to get a hearing and espousal of their national aims, they had to become a satellite of one of the great powers.
When the Allied armies entered Brussels in November, 1918, they found the walls placarded with posters displaying a map, signed by the “Comité de Politique Nationale.” We looked, rubbed our eyes, and looked again. What did the Belgians hope to get for having saved the world? A drastic rectification of frontiers with Holland, Germany, and France, reconstituting the historic Belgian motherland and giving Belgium defensible boundaries. These comprised the left bank of the Scheldt to its mouth; Dutch Limburg, with Maestricht; the fourteen Walloon cantons, given to Prussia by the Treaty of Vienna in 1815; the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg; and a change in the Ardennes frontier with France. On first glance the only part of this program that looked at all feasible was what Belgium wanted to take from Germany. Holland was a neutral state, not mixed up in the war, and it was incredible to expect France to do anything territorially for Belgium or to allow her to incorporate the Grand Duchy. On second thought the map embodying Belgian desiderata seemed to bring up the thorny question of an unneutralized Belgium in the European political world.
When Belgium was erected into an independent state by the Treaty of London in 1839, a question that had been settled after Napoleonic wars was reopened. Great Britain, Prussia, and France were equally suspicious each of the others. Through Belgium Prussia could menace France and France Prussia. Through Belgium either Prussia or France could menace Great Britain. France had determined to keep control of the Meuse valley as far north as possible. Prussia had determined to bar the road to the Rhine. Great Britain had determined to prevent Antwerp from becoming a port of war on the North Sea. All three nations agreed to guarantee the neutrality of Belgium. But they took additional precautions. Great Britain insisted that Holland should remain in control of both banks of the Scheldt at its mouth. Prussia had insisted on Holland retaining a portion of Limburg and upon the separate political existence of a portion of Luxemburg. France insisted upon a tongue of land in the Ardennes on both sides of the Meuse. The three powers worked the problem out in terms of their own interests and not those of the new country. They drew the boundaries of Belgium with no regard for her strategic interests. But strategic consideration for Belgium did not have to enter in. Was she not to be neutralized?
When Belgium came to the Peace Conference her statesmen felt justified in pointing out that the common guarantee of neutrality had not worked when put to a supreme test; for the early days of the war had proved how disastrous was the control of the entrance to Antwerp in the hands of a neutral state. And, if the war had gone on, Maestricht as neutral territory would have been a tremendous handicap to the advance of Allied armies. Why, they asked, should consideration be shown to Holland now? Her neutral rôle in the World War was inglorious, and just lately her conduct in receiving the fleeing Kaiser and refusing to deliver him up to justice was an unfriendly act.