The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-01-03
BELGIAN INVASION | IS AGAIN DEFENDED
 :::::;:9!Y 5 GERMAN LEADER
oths, Hammann Makes Long In vatement Outlining I'm With UssiOn Made by Allied y With reply to Teuton Note

Sc 4in January 2.-(Via Sayville)
 reply to the peace proposals of the cen
 tral powers was reflected today in
 statement made to the semi-official
 Overseas News agency by pr. Ham,
 mann. who until the turn of the year
 was director of the intelligence de-
 partment of the foreign office. This
 comment was not based upon the of- A fcial text of the entente's note, as thus far only the version supplied by the RIIavas News agency from Paris has 8 been received here.
 8a Dr. Hammann, who collaborated in x the important work of the foreign of- 4 flee last month, said that consideration # by Germany and her allies of peace Al offer dated back as for as October. At V that time the intention was entertained 5rof making an honest and sincere at- tempt to prevent further useless blood shed. Being asked as to the general im-
 pression created by the entente reply,
 he said:
 DR. HAMMANN STATEMENT .pt 'If I am to express an opinion in a
 few words, it is this: Instead of taking
 place around a peace table, the en-
 siente's deliberations took place on a
  forgot nothing that could possibly in
 Huence neutrals against us.
 The point of the accusation, how Over, to which the largest space is SFtllotted in the entente note is the mar
 tyrdom of Belgium But if one de- Flires to pass judgment on the marty iiom of Belgium one must speak before Mhand regarding neutral and loyal Bell
 @ium,' and this Belgium had ceased to o'sxist long before the war. do not want to speak about the documents which we found in Brussels and which k.have been published. They can be read I by everybody. I only wish to single out one point which up to now has not
 been sufficiently considered-the report made by Baron Greindl, Belgian minis ter at Berlin, dated December 23, 1911.
 "Ilis clear sighted statesman ther. X explained forcibly that already at that time the entente was inspired by noth- ing but the one thought of encircling tGermany from the north. AS proof of 3this Baron Greind1 quoted the outcry
 started in Paris and London short time before when the Dutch plan to fortify Flushing had become known. Baron GreindI then said:
 REASON NOT CONCEALED
 "'The resason why they wished that the Scheldt remain without defense was not concealed. In this they admitted
 
 kan English garrison to Antwerp with Sout hindrance, thus creating in Belgium = D basis for operations in the direction of the lower Hhine and Westphalia Baron Greindl reported that the plan swas then changed in such a manner ,Fthat the English auxiliary army was snot to be landed on the Belgian coast, f but in the adjoining French ports This Ssame plan of an English landing in or Ader to threaten Germany was equally ahinted at as imminent by Lord Roberts ,Isuring the last Moroccan crisis. In ,.n ;sch circumstance most certainly it .Spuld have been an easy thing for Bel TO am, after the German question im1 anita.4 (whether Belgium would permit Con.A passage of German troops) to take ,er+ ! armies back to Antwerp and then ya-l the Germans under protest march { fthrough the country.
 z "How little such action would have Ssviolated the spirit of existing condi- l1tsbns may be understood if one recalls -ov; secret clashes of the treaties of ,,,.,31. In them certain agreement from U U 'dfmer times were maintained which Cseserve, as well to England as to Ger l-C. 3ny, the right to occupy Belgian fortress. In 1887 a great English news paper-if I am not mistaken it was the Standard, still declared that em- ployment on the part of Germany of the right of way through Belgium could , not be taken as in violation of Bel t gian neutrality"