(The Evolution of Modern Germany. p. 309)
[33] Conversely it may be said that the economic position of the border States becomes impossible unless the greater States are orderly. In regard to Poland, Mr Keynes remarks: ‘Unless her great neighbours are prosperous and orderly, Poland is an economic impossibility, with no industry but Jew-baiting.’
Sir William Goode (the British Director of Relief) states that he found ‘everywhere never-ending vicious circles of political paradox and economic complication, with consequent paralysis of national life and industry. The new States of repartitioned Europe seem not only incapable of maintaining their own economic life, but also either unable or unwilling to help their neighbours.’ (Cmd. 521 (1920), p. 6.)
[34] From a manifesto signed by a large number of American intellectuals, business men, and Labour Leaders (‘League of Free Nations Association’) on the eve of President Wilson’s departure for Paris.
[35] Interview published by Pearson’s Magazine, March, 1915.
[36] Times, March 8, 1915. ‘Our honour and interest must have compelled us to join France and Russia even if Germany had scrupulously respected the rights of her small neighbours and had sought to hack her way through the Eastern fortresses. The German Chancellor has insisted more than once upon this truth. He has fancied apparently that he was making an argumentative point against us by establishing it. That, like so much more, only shows his complete misunderstanding of our attitude and our character.... We reverted to our historical policy of the Balance of Power.’
The Times maintains the same position five years later (July 31st, 1920): ‘It needed more than two years of actual warfare to render the British people wholly conscious that they were fighting not a quixotic fight for Belgium and France, but a desperate battle for their own existence.’
[37] How the War Came, p. 238.
[38] Lord Loreburn adds:—
‘But Sir Edward Grey in 1914 did not and could not offer similar Treaties to France and Germany because our relations with France and the conduct of Germany were such, that for us to join Germany in any event was unthinkable. And he did not proclaim our neutrality because our relations with France, as described in his own speech, were such that he could not in honour refuse to join France in the war. Therefore the example of 1870 could not be followed in 1914, and Belgium was not saved but destroyed.’