The whole thing is clear to any unprejudiced observer.
It is very difficult for your attacking bully to imagine that a small
State--I mean small numerically, and weak physically--will ever have
the courage to stand up and resist the bully when he prepares to attack.
The Germans did not expect Belgium to keep them at bay while the other
countries involved prepared, but there is absolutely no doubt that the
plan was to press through Belgium, to take possession of Paris, and
then, having humiliated and crippled France, to cross the Channel and
defeat us. There is no doubt that was the plan; it is perfectly clear.
And that being so, we owe--civilization owes--to Belgium a debt which it
can never repay.
Then we have our duty to our ally, France. How much democracy owes to
France! France is the mother of European democracy. There is no doubt
about her claim to that. If there had been nothing else worth fighting
for in this war, in my opinion that alone would have been worth fighting
for, to preserve that spirit and that democracy--which France has given
to the world, and which would perish if France were destroyed.
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