If the German Press, however, can be used occasionally for reporting things that people did not say, it can be used with equal facility for suppressing important statements actually made. For example, a Reuter telegram from Copenhagen on September 7th quoted a statement taken from the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, and published at Copenhagen by the German semi-official news agency. This statement dealt with Sir Edward Grey's declaration regarding his conversations with Prince Lichnowsky, the former German Ambassador to Great Britain, made in the House of Commons on August 28th:
The Norddeutsche says: "According to reports received here Sir E. Grey recently declared in the House of Commons that the correspondence exchanged between Great Britain and Germany before the war, as published by the German Government, was incomplete, that Prince Lichnowsky had withdrawn his report on the well-known telephone conversation by a telegram sent immediately he was informed that a misunderstanding existed, and that this telegram was not published. The Times, probably on this basis of official information, made the same assertion, and added the comment that the telegram was suppressed by the German Government in order to enable it to accuse England of perfidy and prove Germany's love of peace. We declare in answer to this that no such telegram is in existence beyond the telegram already made public.
"Prince Lichnowsky sent only the following telegrams:
(Sent at 1.15 p.m. on August 1st.)
"'Sir E. Grey's private secretary has just been here to inform me that the Minister desires to make me proposals concerning England's neutrality, even in case we have to go to war with France and Russia. I shall see Sir E. Grey this afternoon.'
II.
(Sent at 5.30 on the same afternoon.)
"'Sir E. Grey has just submitted the following declaration, which has been unanimously adopted by the Cabinet: "The German Government's answer respecting Belgium's neutrality is unusually regrettable, since the neutrality of Belgium is a matter affecting the feelings of this country. If Germany could see her way to give a similar positive answer to that which has been given by France it would contribute greatly to relieve the anxiety and tension here, while, on the other hand, it would be extremely difficult to restrain public temper if Belgium's neutrality should be disregarded by one of the belligerents while the other respected it."
"'To my question whether on condition that we respected Belgian neutrality he could give a definite declaration concerning Great Britain's neutrality, the Minister replied that this was not possible, but this question would play a big rôle in the present temper of the people. If we disregarded Belgium's neutrality in a war with France a revulsion of sentiment would certainly set in, which would render it difficult to maintain friendly neutrality. For the present there was no intention of proceeding to hostilities against us. It was desired to avoid this if it were in any way possible. It was, however, difficult to draw the line marking how far we might go, before there would be intervention from here. He (Sir E. Grey) kept adverting to Belgian neutrality, and said this question would play a great rôle. He had considered whether, in case of a Russian war, we and France might not simply remain armed against each other without either one attacking.
"'I asked him whether he was in a position to declare that France would enter into a pact to that effect. Since we neither desired to destroy France nor acquire portions of her territory, I believed we could enter into such an agreement which would assure us Great Britain's neutrality.