You had not the moral courage to say so, and, having said so, to act accordingly and to warn Belgium that your promise was "a scrap of paper," and effectively nothing more.

It _is_ nothing more, and has proved to be nothing more, but you do not see that your indelible disgrace lies just in this, that you unctuously proclaim that you are keeping your word when all the time you know, you have always known, that you refused utterly and completely to take the needful steps to enable you to translate word into action.
Have you not torn up your "scrap of paper" just as effectively as Germany has?
As my husband puts it: England gave Belgium a check, a big check, and gave it with much ostentation, but took care that there should be no funds to meet it! Trusting to your check Belgium finds herself bankrupt, sequestrated, blotted out as a nation.

But I know England well enough to foresee that English statesmen, with our old friend, the Manchester _Guardian_, which we used to read in years gone by, will always quote with pride how they "guaranteed" the neutrality of Belgium.
As to the future.

You cannot win.

A nation that has prided itself on making no sacrifice for political power or even independence must pay for its pride.