The Neutrality of Belgium

by Alexander Fuehr

This work was published by Funk & Wagnalls in October 1915 (248 pp. + facs. foldout).  It proves that the claim of "sacredness" of the neutrality of Belgium as of the start of the First World War was a shallow imposture, using the very words of the principles involved and long-standing international law.

Thanks goes to Mr. Carlos Porter for supplying a hardcopy of this rare item.

CONTENTS
 

                PAGE       

PREFACE                                                                                                          vii
 

PART I

THE HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL ASPECT
OF BELGIUM'S NEUTRALITY
 

CHAPTER
 

I          A PAGE FROM BELGIUM'S EARLIER HISTORY                                      13
 

II         THE LONDON CONFERENCE AND THE QUINTUPLE
                TREATY                                                                                             30
 

III        THE TREATIES OF 1870                                                                          62
 

IV        BREAK-DOWN OF BELGIUM'S NEUTRALITY                                           69
 

V         THE EVENTS OF 1914                                                                             91
 

PART II
 

THE LEGAL ASPECT OF BELGIUM'S
NEUTRALITY

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS                                                                             117
 

VI         OBLIGATIONS OF THE GUARANTORS OF THE QUINTUPLE
                TREATY                                                                                           120
 

VII        EFFECT OF "CHANGED CONDITIONS" ON THE QUINTUPLE
                GUARANTEE                                                                                    132
 

VIII       EFFECT OF THE TREATIES OF 1870 ON THE QUINTUPLE
                GUARANTEE                                                                                    146
 

IX         INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF NEUTRALIZED BELGIUM              155
 

X          THE RIGHT OF SELF-PRESERVATION                                                 177
 

XI         LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE BREAK-DOWN OF
                BELGIUM'S NEUTRALITY                                                                  188
 

APPENDIX                                                                                                         197

*    *    *    *    *

The unsophisticated man in the street is steady all the time. He has an instinctive sense of what is right and what is wrong, and we shall have neither consistency nor honour in foreign politics until means are adopted which will enable him to control them.

--The Neutrality of Belgium, p. 248.