The territory of neutral Powers is inviolable.
ARTICLE II.
Belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys of either munitions of war or supplies across the territory of a neutral Power.
ARTICLE X.
The fact of a neutral Power resisting, even by force, attempts to violate its neutrality cannot be regarded as a hostile act.
Notwithstanding these assurances, it had been from time to time intimated by German military writers, and notably by Bernhardi, that Germany would, in the event of a future war, make a quick and possibly a fatal blow at the heart of France by invading Belgium upon the first declaration of hostilities, and it was probably these intimations that led the Belgian Government on July 24, 1914, to consider:
Whether in the existing circumstances, it would not be proper to address to the Powers, who had guaranteed Belgium’s independence and its neutrality, a communication for the purpose of confirming to them its resolution to carry out the international duties which are imposed upon it by treaties in the event of war breaking out on the Belgian frontiers.
Confiding in the good faith of France and Germany, the Belgian Government concluded that any such declaration was premature.
On August 2, 1914, the war having already broken out, the Belgian Foreign Minister took occasion to tell the German Ambassador that France had reaffirmed its intention to respect the neutrality of Belgium, and Herr von Below, the German Ambassador, after thanking Davignon for his information, added that up to the present he had not been
instructed to make us any official communication, but we were aware of his personal opinion respecting the security with which we had the right to regard our eastern neighbors. I [Davignon] replied at once that all we knew of the intentions of the latter, intentions set forth in many former interviews, did not allow us to doubt their [Germany’s] perfectly correct attitude toward Belgium.