The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-08-09
BELGIAN NEUTRALITY TREATY
 SIGNED 45 YEARS AGO TODAY

F.
 Today marks the forty-ifth anni- versary of the signing of a, treaty be tween Great Britain and Prussia by which the neutrality of Belgium, l which had been guaranteed by an earlier convention of all the great reasserted. Two days later Great Britain and France entered into a similar treaty, and HE1e fear, then widespread in Belgium, that the little country might be drawn into the Franco Prussian war, was definitely and finally a1lay There was wild rejoicing among the Belgians, and expressed by the King and officials of the Belgian government
 When the present war broke out Belgium was protected against a,g4 gressfon not only by the guarantee of the independence of Belgium, but by he treaties of 1870 which Great Britain forced upon Prussia and France. It was these treaties which became but scraps of paper when military necessity sent the armies of the Kaiser swarming over Belgium ] last year.
 Great Britain's role as protector of Belgium was, more, successful in 1870. l when the Emperor Napoleon and the soon-to-fbe empire of Bisrnarck's crea- ton engaged in conflict. When Trance and Germany elashed Belgium l feared a repetition of history, in which l she had always played the role of a prize hung up for greedy and power ful nations to squajbble over. Again l her geographical position made her a 1 buffer state between hostile powers. 1 Hoping for the best, Belgium fully ex- 1 pected the worst She promptly put hen little army on a war footing and prepared to sell her independence dearly. Both her French and Ger
 man borders were lined with troops | and hastily inprovised defences.
 England's position made it necessary 1 that Belgian neutrality should be pre- i served. if the island Kingdom was 1 to be saved from having a. constant menace at her very gates, but aside l from this self-interest the British peo- plekwere tremendously aroused by the unhappy. plight of their neighbor. 1 Genuine sympathy as well as the in zstinct of self protection animated the British in their demands upon Prussia
 and France
 The British government formally
 and definitely announced the 'fnten- 1 ton to maintain the integrity of Bel g1um,o and solemnly warned both I France and Germany mot to violate i the neutrality of Belgium There was
 no n1isfaking the earnestness Of Great
 Britain, and both of the warning na- 1 tions fully realized that to fail to heed
 the warning would involve war with England Both nations therefore lost
 no time in signing the proffered trea-
 ties, and Belgium. for the time, was
 saved.
 As a result of Britain's interventi on
 Belgium was spared all the horrors ot
 that war, and for once a great con-
 fict faged about her borders while 1 the latter remained inviolate IT
 September 1870. a number of French
 troops passed into Belgium, but ei1
 mood was far from belligerent, as they
 were fleeing from the disaster at Sc.
 dan, and entered Belgium only to es-
 cape capture by the Germans. They
 ir1rn ediately laid down their arms and
 were fnterned by the Be1gians
 The experience of 1870 gave the Bel
 gians confidence in the power of the
 treaties by which they were protected
 "a confidence which it now seems
 was sadly misplaced.