The detraining stations are of sufficient length to
accommodate the longest troop train (ten cars) easily, and
they generally have at least four sidings apart from the
through up-and-down lines. Moreover, at almost every station
there are two lines of siding long enough for troop trains, so
that they can be used to some extent as detraining stations,
and so that a couple of troop trains can be held up at any
time while traffic continues uninterrupted.
It is impossible to believe that this system was constructed for any
other purpose than to prepare for the exigency which might some day
force Germany to ignore the Treaty of 1839 and invade Belgium. At least
it presumably accounts for the vast armies which invested Liege and
Namur in the early days of last August.
Its existence, in both the light and the darkness of the Treaty of
Neutrality, shows that Belgium was justified in taking any measures
which were likely to preserve her national existence, so obviously
threatened. That these measures were always within the letter and spirit
of the treaty of 1839 is so much to her credit.
The strategic lines that Germany built on her frontier would have
justified her in going further. Her obligations to herself and to her
pledged protectors prevented this. Germany went on with her railway
building unchallenged.
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