I have made a rough translation of the original document, which was drawn
up in French, and I herewith take the liberty to enclose it.
[Enclosure—Memorandum—Translation]3
The Belgian Government has the honor to recall the attention of the
Government of the United States to the note which the King’s
Government transmitted to the United States Government, in August
1917, concerning the question of the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg.4
After calling to mind the long centuries of common history uniting
Luxemburg and Belgium and after referring to the enforced
separation, in spite of the wishes of the population of both
countries—a separation brought about solely for the advantage of
Prussia—the note of the Belgian Government claimed the restitution
of this former province of Belgium, in case the independence of the
Grand Duchy should not be maintained on account of Germany’s
violation of the treaty of 1867.5
Subsequent events have convinced the Belgian Government that a return
to the “status quo ante bellum” is impossible in the case of
Luxemburg.
The status quo ante bellum is impossible because it would
definitively hand over the Grand Duchy to German influence which is
contrary to the wishes of the people of Luxemburg.
The status quo ante bellum is also impossible because a continuation
or re-establishment of a state of affairs which would subject the
Grand Duchy to foreign influence would constitute a grave danger to
Belgium.
The entrance of the Grand Duchy into the Zollverein had, ever since
1842, given Germany a considerable economic influence in the Grand
Duchy.
This economic influence was added to the political influence which
was due to the presence of a German garrison in Luxemburg.
The Grand Duchy was only relieved of this garrison in 1866 [1867], by virtue of the treaty of London,
which however left the country neutralized, disarmed, and completely
open to German penetration.
Later on, the convention of 18726 still further facilitated this penetration
by handing over the most important railways of Luxemburg to German
Imperial administration.
The accession to the throne in 1890 of a German dynasty, foreign to
the country, accentuated this tendency which was strongly reinforced
during the war and of which the most recent manifestations
[Page 438]
have been the visit of
Chancellor Count Hertling, soon followed by the announcement of the
proposed union between the reigning family of the Grand Duchy and
the chief of the German army in Flanders, Prince Rupprecht of
Bavaria.
Notwithstanding the policy of complacency and various actions which
practically delivered the country and the direction of its affairs
to German influence, the people of Luxemburg have no wish to be made
subservient to such German influence.
Since the invasion of 1914, to which the international status of
Luxemburg did not allow effective opposition to be made, the
internal political life of Luxemburg has been greatly perturbed.
Governments have followed one another without being able to have
their authority accepted and internal disputes have reached a stage
of acuteness without precedent.
Both the Government and the dynasty have been the object of the most
violent criticism. It was only at the cost of a permanent internal
crisis that the Government of Luxemburg succeeded in keeping up the
fiction of maintaining a neutral attitude between the German
invader, to which it was in fact subjected, and the nations
associated against Germany.
To leave without redress the wrong done by the enemy in violating the
Treaty of 1867, or to re-establish (after four years of occupation
during which Germany has been the master of Luxemburg) a status quo determined by the Treaty of 1867,
by the Treaty of 1872 and by the German Customs Union, would be to
decide that the Grand Duchy should be for the future, definitively
and irrevocably, a dependency of Germany.
It can be maintained with certitude that the people of Luxemburg
would rise against the idea of such a situation.
The separation from Belgium in 1839, with its inevitable consequence
of delivering the people of Luxemburg to Prussia, has brought about
a grave menace to the existence of Belgium.
Belgium could never accept a state of things which, under the guise
of neutrality, would maintain a center of hostile influence on her
borders in a contiguous country bound to Belgium by the closest ties
of common interest.
The political separation enforced upon Belgium and the Grand Duchy
against the wishes of the inhabitants has enfeebled both countries
without, however, disassociating their destinies.
During the two crises which shook Western Europe in the course of the
past fifty years, Belgium and Luxemburg shared the same fate. Their
territory which had been respected by Prussia in 1870 were both
invaded in 1914 in consequence of military strategy.
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The frontier between the Grand Duchy and Belgium is one hundred and
ten kilometers in length; this frontier is longer than that between
Belgium and Rhenish Prussia. The Treaty of 1867 had done away with
the immediate menace of the presence of German troops in Luxemburg,
only to replace it by the new menace of a door open to aggression
against Belgium.
Luxemburg, unprotected on account of its disarmed neutrality and
whose railroads were controlled by the Germans, was in fact a point
of concentration and a means of easy access for an army invading
Belgium.
The roads of Luxemburg lead into Belgium. They were not used by the
Prussian Army in 1870, but the German invaders followed them in
their onrush towards France, through Belgium, in 1914; a large part
of the German hordes which invaded Belgium in 1914 had previously
crossed neutral Luxemburg.
Deprived of the strategic position of Luxemburg which commands access
to the southeastern part of Belgium, the Belgian army was unable to
protect the Belgian province of Luxemburg and the right bank of the
Meuse.
These military reasons, in addition to the considerations of policy
and sentiment set forth in the note of the Belgian Government
delivered in 1917, show that Belgium would seriously compromise her
future security if she did not ask the revision of the international
status of Luxemburg.
The violation of Germany of the guaranteed neutrality of Belgium, has
shaken to its foundations the whole system established in 1839.7 Therefore, the Belgian Government considers
that the bases on which rested the guarantees of existence of the
Belgian state must be revised.
The Belgian Government is convinced that the new guarantees which
must be obtained in order to establish the future security of
Belgium on a more solid foundation, are in perfect harmony with the
interests of the Luxemburgers.
The solution of the question lies in the free reunion of both
populations.
As to the modality of this reunion, Belgium, who has throughout the
centuries upheld the right of peoples to determine their own
destinies and has always claimed such right for herself will submit
the question to the freely expressed will of the two
populations.
The Belgian Government, remembering the sympathy with which the
Government of the United States received its first memorandum on the
subject, relies upon the kind assistance of the Powers associated
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with Belgium to aid in
the realization of these objects which are of such vital and sacred
importance to her.
