3 OCTOBER 1914, Page 11

The Belgian Minister of War has issued an official state-

ment in answer to the German imputations that Britain or France would have violated Belgian neutrality if Germany had not done so, and that French and British troops actually marched into Belgium before the outbreak of war. The state- ment says: " Before August 3rd not a single French soldier had set foot on Belgian territory. . . . It is untrue that on August 4th there was a single English soldier in Belgium. . . . For long past Great Britain knew that the Belgian Army would oppose by force a ' preventive' disembarkation of British troops."