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Is Belgium Still Neutralized?

A Study in the Termination of Treaties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2017

Harold J. Tobin
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Extract

A brief description of Belgium’s geography and history is essential to make clear how the present tangled legal situation arose respecting Belgium’s neutrality since its violation in 1914. Belgium is one of those nations, like Palestine and Luxemburg, which, unfortunately for their tranquillity, lie across the easiest route between two powerful states. Her history is largely the story of the passage of armies up and down the Meuse, between France and Germany. The names of Rocroi, Sedan, Namur and Liege tell the story of the importance of this highway.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , July 1932 , pp. 514 - 532
Copyright
Copyright © by the American Society of International Law 1932

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References

1 Protocol of Conference, Jan. 27, 1831, 18 British and Foreign State Papers, 765 (here-after cited as State Papers).

2 Treaty of Nov. 15, 1831, Art. VII, 18 State Papers, 651.

3 Id., Art. XXV, 18 State Papers, 663. See also Niemeyer, Belgien und seine Neutralisierung (München, 1917), p. 10.

4 State Papers, 990 and 1000.

5 Livre Gris Bebe, 42.

6 Miller, My Diary of the Peace Conference, IV, 434 (hereafter cited as “Miller”).

7 III U. S. Treaties, 3349.

8 112 State Papers, 358.

9 III U. S. Treaties, 3566.

10 121 State Papers, 923.

11 For two divergent views see Oppenheim, International Law (McNair ed.), I, 222–3, and Fauchille, Traité de Droit International Public, Vol. I, Pt. 3, p. 418.

12 Protocol of Jan. 20, 1831, 18 State Papers, 760.

13 See Palmerston’s attitude, in Woeste, , La Neutralité Belge (Brussele, 1891), p. 33.Google Scholar

14 188 Hansard, Parliamentary Debates, 970.

15 57 State Papers, 34.

16 July 4, 1867, 188 Hansard, 976.

17 188 Hansard, 976.

18 Id.

19 It is interesting in this connection to compare the treaty of Paris of 1856, in which the seven signatory Powers engage individually only to respect the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, with the treaty between Great Britain, Austria and France, signed two weeks later, guaranteeing both jointly and severally the same integrity. We have here the same difference as exists between Holland’s obligation under the 1839 treaty and that of the guarantor Powers, with regard to the state guaranteed.

20 LXV Hansard (Commons), 1818. Grey quoting Granville, Aug. 8, 1870, in his speech of Aug. 3, 1914.

21 Id.

22 60 State Papers, 10 and 13.

23 Bredt, Die Belgische Neutralität und der Schlieffensche Feldzugsplan (Berlin, 1929), p. 128 ff.

24 Deuxième Livre Gris Belge, annexe au No. 100, quoted in De Périer, La Neutralité de la Belgique (Paris, 1921), p. 42.

25 LXV Hansard (Commons), 1818.

26 Gooch & Temperley, British Documents on the Origins of the War, Vol. XI, Doc. 580, p. 309. Hereafter cited as “Gooch & Temperley.”

27 Gooch & Temperley, British Documents on the Origins of the War, Vol. XI, Doc. 580, p. 309. Hereafter cited as “Gooch & Temperley.”

28 Id. and Doc. 656, p. 339.

29 Jagow to Lichnowski, Gooch & Temperley, Vol. XI, Doc. 587, p. 312.

30 Id. Doc. 580, p. 309, and 656, p. 339.

31 Grey to Villiers, Aug. 5, 1914; Gooch & Temperley, Vol. XI, Doc. 655, p. 339.

32 See above, page 519, note 25.

33 Grey also told Cambon that Great Britain was bound by the 1839 convention to require the observance of Belgian neutrality “without the assistance of the other guaranteeing Powers.” See Price’s Diplomatic History of the World War, 2nd ed., Doc. 137.

34 April, 1922, 152 Hansard (Commons), 1845, and id., 153, p. 32.

35 De Herziening der Verdragen van 1839—Diplomatike Documenten (Brussels, 1929), p. 26.

36 For France’s early attitude see Woeste, op. cit., Lamartine’s letter, p. 32.

37 Granville to Lyons, July 30, 1870, 60 State Papers, 948.

38 See page 519.

39 Gooch & Temperley, Aug. 3, 1914, Vol. XI, Doc. 551, p. 298.

40 Command Paper 7627, Misc. No. 12, 1914, quoted in this Journal, Supplement, Vol. 9 (1915), p. 72.

41 Sept. 11, 1920, 2 League of Nations Treaty Series, 128.

42 19 State Papers, 1415.

43 Gooch & Temperley, Aug. 4, 1914, Vol. XI, Doc. 612, p. 320; also Bredt, op. cit., 169–192.

44 Gottschalk, Frankreich und, das Neutralisierte Belgien (Stuttgart, 1926), p. 122; also Schulte, Von der Neutralität Belgiens (Bonn, 1915), p. 76. Refuted by de Visscher, La Belgigue et les Juristes Allemandes (Paris, 1916), pp. 65 ff.

45 Bloomfield to Granville, Aug. 6, 1870, 61 State Papers, 688. Granville to Bloomfield, Aug. 27, 1870, 61 State Papers, 699.

46 Buchanan to Granville, Aug. 12, 1870, id., 685.

47 Id., 1198.

48 Gooch & Temperley, Vol. XI, Doc. 656, p. 339.

49 Ambassador Francis to Secy, of State, Nov. 27, 1917, U. S. Foreign Relations, 1918, Russia, I, 249.

50 Miller, IV, 426.

51 Id., X, 26.

52 Miller, IV, 492.

53 Id.

54 Id., 490; see also Sottile, La Neutralité à Titre Permanent: “The common law of contracts teaches us that the object promised should not change. Now the guarantors wished to assume tolerable, not intolerable, risks,” p. 111.

55 Miller, X, 176–184.

56 Id., 184. For an explanation of this change in the later treaty, see Waxweiler, Belgium and the Great Powers (New York, 1916), pp. 145–153.

57 See page 529.

58 Miller, X, 46–49.

59 Id., p. 50.

60 British memo. Miller, V. 33.

61 Miller. VI. 381.

62 Ministère des Agoires Etrangères, Documents Diplomatiques, La Revision des Traités de 18S9 (Brussels, 1929), p. 12.

63 “Holland’s Opposition to Ratifying the Belgian Treaty,” 25 Current History, p. 523.

64 Bescheiden in Zake de Tusschen Nederlanden Belgie, etc. (‘sGravenhaage, 1929), pp. 13–15.

65 Miller, IV, 445–7.

66 Hyde, International Law, I, 42, citing Bonffls-Fauchille, 7th ed., par. 348–367.