  In those chapters in which we have dealt with the violations of international treaties, and of the Hague Convention, we have often been led to comment on the mode of thought displayed by those who committed these crimes. But hitherto we have touched upon the subject of German mentality only in an incidental fashion; it will doubtless be interesting to consider it more closely. We shall utilize, by preference, documents of German origin. In cases where these are lacking, for example, in the case of the cruelties committed, we shall have recourse to observations which we ourselves have collected, and whose authenticity is indisputable. In place of passing in review all the peculiarities of the modern German mind, which would occupy too much space, we shall confine ourselves to those from which Belgium has suffered most cruelly; but we shall not speak—it would be superfluous—of the obscene spirit of rape, and rapacity, and drunkenness. The three psychological elements which we shall consider are pride, duplicity, and spitefulness. A.—Pride.Some Manifestations of Pride and the Spirit of Boasting. "The German nation is the Chosen People, and God is with us." That is the prevailing idea of the In her pride Germany is unanimous. No German is permitted to doubt the indisputable superiority of his nation over all other nations. As soon as he learns to lisp his first words, his brain is steeped in the conviction that no people is comparable to his own, even remotely. This longing to exalt his own country is accompanied by a corresponding desire to abase all others. Hardly is a discovery of any kind made in a neighbouring country than a German appropriates it in order to give it a new trade-mark. One example will suffice. All the world knows that Louis Pasteur was the founder of the science of bacteriology, a science whose consequences, in the spheres of hygiene and medicine, are incalculable. Germany ignores Pasteur and has heard only of Koch. A Belgian, who attended the Berlin celebrations in honour of Koch, returned disgusted with the fact that the name of Pasteur was systematically suppressed throughout the ceremonies. In an obituary notice devoted to Koch a Belgian bacteriologist, M. Jules Bordet, remarked with great justice, in speaking of the German biographies of the scientist who had just died:— "They made Koch the absolute creator of modern medicine: all other glory pales before his; he is the founder of bacteriology. Their obituary articles, emanating, for the most part, from disciples of the master, and which are, one feels, steeped in pious Reading such notices it would almost seem as though Pasteur had never lived! We think M. Bordet shows himself far too indulgent toward the German biographers when he says, in conclusion: "And one could not take it amiss of these disciples if, in their filial solicitude, they left on the tomb of their Master a few leaves from the laurels of Pasteur." Here is another example of boasting, interesting principally by reason of the charlatanesque manner in which it was published. Every one has heard of the Cooper-Hewitt mercury-vapour lamp, with its strange blue-violet light, so rich in ultra-violet rays. The most summary treatises on physics explain that quartz will allow the ultra-violet rays to pass, and that the Cooper-Hewitt quartz lamp is in constant employment in the laboratories. But if you read the communication which the Germans imposed upon L'Ami de l'Ordre on the 27th December, 1914, you will see that the Germans invented the whole affair. If you want to be initiated into the perfections of the German, Herr Momme Nissen, in Der Krieg und die Deutsche Kunst, will enumerate them for you. "The qualities of the German," he says, "integrity and courage, profundity of mind and fidelity, insight and the sense of inwardness, modesty and piety, are also the ornaments of our art." The Germans compare themselves with their Allies. Here is a last point to be considered. The Germans do not merely consider themselves to be superior to their adversaries; they are equally modest on behalf of their allies. To their minds, and in their writings, the present war is "the German war." The most complete chronological compilation which has appeared hitherto is entitled Chronik des Deutschen Krieges. The official publications deliberately ignore the Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, Croats, Turks, etc. The first of the pamphlets of propaganda distributed by the Germans (Journal de la Guerre) begins thus: "The name this war will one day bear in history is already determined; it can only be the German War, for it is a war destined to establish the position of the German nation in the world." By what name shall we call the German's sense of superiority over all other nations: is it pride, presumption, or impudence? Herr Paul Rohrbach, who is generally more moderate in his expressions, has written a pamphlet entitled Warum es der Deutsche Krieg ist ("Why this is the German War"). It would be useless to insist on the general aspects of the question. Let us consider only a few of the immediate consequences of this frame of mind: militarism, disdain for others, cynicism, and absence of the critical spirit. 1. Militarism.Might comes before Right. Bismarck has given us a precise formula of the cult of brute force, "Might comes before right!" Herr Maximilian Harden, the well-known polemical writer, expressed the same idea in a lecture delivered at Duisbourg and reproduced in K.Z. (8th December, 1914). It is expressed with equal lucidity in an article published in Zeit im Bild (19th November, 1914), and signed Vitus Bug; the author, after inquiring into the reasons which make Germany hated, adds: "Let us be victorious, and people will immediately discover that we were in the right!" It is, consequently, towards the army that the essential aspirations of the German nation converge; everything must give way to the military interest; the moment this is in question there is no longer any room for morality, says Professor Rein, of the University of Jena (N.R.C., 22nd January, 1915, morning), nor for humanity, says Herr Erzberger (N.R.C., 6th February, 1915, evening), nor even for the law of nations, declares Professor Beer, of the University of Leipzig (VÖlkerrecht und Krieg). In other countries people have remained simple enough to believe that it is precisely in time of war that the prescriptions of international law should be most strictly respected. Nothing of the sort, say the Germans; the moment war breaks out everyday justice can only efface itself. On the slightest accusation, the least pretext, or even without any, they begin to shoot and to burn. If by accident those put to death are innocent, or if there was in truth no complaint to be made against the inhabitants of the houses burned to ashes, it is obviously regrettable; Before leaving the subject of militarism, we will cite one insignificant fact which, however trifling, clearly reveals the importance which the military idea has assumed in the conceptions of the German people. According to the N.R.C. of the 6th February, 1915 (evening), VorwÄrts has protested against the following measure: The German wife whose husband is under arms cannot be expelled from her dwelling for non-payment of rent; but if her husband should be killed in the war the landlord immediately recovers the right to turn her out. 2. Disdain of Others.We have seen that the Germans are seeking by all possible means to accentuate their superiority over their neighbours. An elementary procedure for increasing the vertical distance between them and their rivals consists in depreciating the latter. Germany has so often, in every tone of voice, proclaimed the irremediable inferiority of all the other peoples inhabiting our planet, that she has at last Some Inept Proclamations, etc. Thus, to speak only of our own experience, they assuredly under-estimated our national integrity when they believed us capable of becoming accomplices in the violation of an international treaty. They also greatly under-estimated our army's powers of resistance, or they would have taken good care not to lose a fortnight in Belgium, a delay which spoiled their sudden attack upon France. Finally, they show us every day, by their placards, that they do not think much of our intelligence. Some of those entitled "News published by the German General Government" are really inimitable. Imagine our laughter when the authorities to whom we are forced to submit officially announced that a German squadron had captured fifteen fishing-boats; or that the Serbians had taken Semlin in order to obtain food; or that the star of Paschitsch was growing pale; or that the Austrians had evacuated Lemberg for strategic and humanitarian reasons; or that the British Army is so ill-equipped that the soldiers are without writing-paper and shoelaces; or that the river of the "gifts of love" continues to flow; or that General Joffre (in a French that could only have come from a German pen) informs his troops that "the moment is come to profit by the weakness which offers itself to us, after we have reinforced ourselves in men and material." In the last days of September 1914, when a citizen of Brussels met a fair-haired comrade, he hastened to measure him, to make sure that he was not Charles-Alice Yate, "being about 5 ft. 9 in. in height." Here are some of these placards:—
What is even more strange than their insistence in offering us their sophisticated views, is their virtuous indignation when they discover that we are not receptive of this kind of truth. Thus the people of LiÉge, who would not believe the German placards and preferred their secret newspapers, were warned by Lieut.-General von Kolewe that they were in danger of appearing ridiculous in the eyes of intelligent people.
Lies concerning the Situation in Belgium. Before other placards the shrugging of shoulders gave way to disgust. Baron von der Goltz, at Sofia, boasted of having rendered "the situation in Belgium entirely normal." What of it? We were so glad to be rid of him that we were ready to overlook any ineptitudes. But when his successor, Baron von Bissing, after levying a contribution of 480 million frs. (£19,200,000), had the audacity to declare that he hoped "to do much for the economic situation," and would especially apply himself "to doing everything to assist the weak in Belgium, and to encourage them," he passed the bounds of cynicism and presumption. However, two months later, on the 18th February, 1915, after having despoiled us of 120 million francs, he found occasion to go still farther, affirming his "solicitude for the welfare and prosperity of the population." Lies concerning "Francs-tireurs." What shall we say of the accusations made against Belgian civilians? From August, at the time of the first sortie of our troops from Antwerp, the Germans posted up statements in Brussels that the Belgian population was again taking part in the conflict.
Now certain of these battles took place at a distance of only six miles from Brussels; peasants were shot at Houtem (a hamlet of Vilvorde) and at Eppeghem: that is, in villages whence people went into the city every morning with vegetables, milk, etc., so that the inhabitants of the capital were perfectly informed as to the behaviour of the German troops toward the Belgian civilians. They knew, too, that these pretended attacks of "francs-tireurs" had been delivered by detachments of the Belgian army (see E. Waxweiler in La Belgique neutre et loyale, p. 219). The keen indignation against the German liars was still further aggravated when, three weeks later, the Kaiser repeated these calumnies. The fact of their having placarded the walls of Brussels with these obviously false accusations shows once more in what low esteem the Germans hold the mental faculties of their victims.
That the Germans should seek to deceive their own compatriots as to the situation is natural enough—they are quite content with official news. But in Belgium we still, in spite of all obstacles, continue to receive foreign newspapers, which keep us informed of the military operations. Why, then, did the Germans try to impose on us over the battle of the Marne, when nothing was easier than to learn the truth from the Times and the French Press? A still more curious case was that of the battle of Ypres. During a whole fortnight the official placards Another point relating to this astonishing campaign on the Yser: On the 2nd November the Germans announced that operations were rendered difficult by the inundation. On the following day, having expressed their pity for the Belgians "whose fields were devastated for a long time to come," they added that the water was in parts deeper than a man's height, but that they had lost neither man, nor horse, nor gun. How can they impose such idle stuff on people who know the polders of the coast region, with their innumerable canals and ditches, and who know, moreover, than an inundation there renders all retreat impossible? 3. Cynicism.They must require a good stock of effrontery to put before us such assertions as that of the Kaiser, whose falsity is obvious at sight. They cannot be ignorant of the fact that these impostures are instantly exposed. But this consideration does not give them pause; German superiority appears to them so indisputable that they have no need to trouble about the opinion of other people; if they occasionally indicate the reasons for their actions, it is to reassure their own conscience, not to justify themselves to their victims. They are, in short, in the situation of the sportsman who brings down the game passing within gunshot, but is not required to render an account of it to the rabbits and partridges. To the sportsman's way of thinking there is no cynicism in so acting: between the hunter and the game there is too great a difference to make such a justification necessary. Similarly, the Germans occupy, in the scale of Kultur, so exalted a position as compared with the Belgians, that they believe in good faith that all is permitted to them in dealing with this horde, and that they need not justify their actions. They behave toward us as the Conquistadores toward the Aztecs. More, they actually advertise their contempt for the rules of justice. We have already mentioned the placard posted at Gand, according to which they openly placed themselves in conflict with the Hague Convention. They have gone yet farther in this direction. What are we to say, for example, of the placard posted at Menin, in July 1915, by order of Commandant Schmidt, in which it is ordained that the families of those "who do not work regularly
And this is not the gem of the collection. At Roubaix and the vicinity (in French Flanders, close against the Belgian frontier) they advertised their decision to prevent all sales of comestibles if work were not resumed by the 7th July, and they even threatened completely to suppress "circulation," which would have resulted in the lingering death of the whole population. And this is not the worst. In a neighbouring town, Halluin, Commandant Schranck caused a declaration to be read to the assembled notables which stated that he denied their right to invoke the Hague Convention, since the German military authorities had determined to enforce the fulfilment of all their demands, "even if a city of 15,000 inhabitants had to perish."
Do you not agree that a cynicism so shameless is a sign of perplexity and an admission of impotence? The Germans realize that they are driven to the worst expedients! A host of similar facts might be cited, but it would mean useless repetition. Let us rather examine some examples of graphic cynicisms. Photographs and Picture Postcards. The Germans have published, in their newspapers, photographs representing the population of a village, consisting principally of women, being driven away as prisoners (Berl. Ill. Zeit., No. 36, 6th September, 1914); a military observation-post installed by them on the tower of Malines Cathedral during the siege of Antwerp (Berl. Ill. Zeit., No. 44, 1st November, 1914); doctors detained as prisoners in Germany, contrary to the Geneva Convention (Berl. Ill. Zeit., No. 15, 11th April, 1915); soldiers taken prisoners, whom they are forcing, despite Article 6 of the We find the same effrontery in respect of the conflagrations started by their troops: Scharr and Dathe, of TrÈves, have edited and placed on sale, in Belgium itself, a series of fifty picture postcards, representing localities which the German army has destroyed by fire. We may mention Dinant, Namur, Louvain, Aerschot, Termonde; and in Belgium, Luxemburg, Barranzy, Etalles, Èthe, Izel, Jamoigne, Musson, Eossignol, Tintigny. Let us add that these photographs commonly show German soldiers and officers striking triumphant attitudes amid the ruins. The most instructive card of this kind which we have seen is one representing General Beeger amid the ruins of Dinant. To understand the full significance of this card, one must remember that it was this officer who ordered 1,200 of the houses of Dinant to be burned and 700 of the inhabitants to be massacred. It is surprising that he did not have a few corpses of "francs-tireurs" arranged about him when the photograph was taken—preferably selected from the old men, women, and children at the breast. After the torpedoing of the Lusitania they sold in Belgium a series of cards entitled Kriegs-Errinerungs-Karte, edited by Dr. Trenkler & Co., of Leipzig, which pictured the operations of submarines. Card No. 2, of Series XXXIII, represents—very inaccurately, by the way—a German submarine stopping the Lusitania. It is as well to recall the fact that in this disaster more than 1,500 non-combatants perished, among them Mme. Antoine Depage, the wife of the well-known Belgian surgeon. Nothing ought to surprise us on the part of those
Alfred Heymel on the Battle of Charleroi. We have already spoken of the articles of Alfred Heymel and Walter BlÖm. Here are some extracts from an article by the former:—
We must not overlook an article by Captain Walter BlÖm, adjutant to General von Bissing. Herr BlÖm, who is greatly admired in Germany, and whose novels may be seen at this moment on the shelves of the travellers' libraries installed in our railway stations, does not hesitate to declare that the conflagrations at Battice and Dinant were not intended to punish the population, but to terrorize them (p. 84). The article already mentioned, which incidentally describes the shooting of a French hostage, is highly typical. One sees that the death of this man—shot because the French army does not consent to cease its bombardment—does not in the least affect the writer, who finds the conduct of his countrymen quite natural. Referring to the systematic pillage effected by the German army, we have already mentioned (p. 132) the fact that "war booty" was despatched openly. In this respect, effrontery and impudence have surely nowhere been carried to greater lengths than in the valley of the Meuse. All the villas were as a matter of course emptied by the officers; when they were situated close to the banks of the river the furniture, etc., was transported on a little steamer, one of those tourist boats which in summer run between Namur and Dinant. The boat would stop before each villa, and—without the least attempt to conceal the nature of the proceedings—the pianos, beautiful pieces of furniture, clocks, pictures, etc., were piled on the deck. To cite one case among hundreds, it Cynicism and impudence often lend one another mutual support. Let us recall, for example, the question of asphyxiating gases. Article 23 of the Hague Convention forbids the employment of poisons. Even in the siege of LiÉge our enemies were making use of shells which discharged poisonous gases at the moment of explosion; it was one of them that all but poisoned General Leman. It might, however, be supposed that these toxic vapours were the inevitable result of the detonation of the explosives with which the shells were loaded. But in April 1915 the Germans suddenly began to accuse their adversaries of the use of asphyxiating shells (see the German official communiquÉs of the 9th, 12th, 14th, and 21st April). At the same time they made it known that their chemists, far abler than those of France or England, were about to combine substances whose detonation would liberate products far more toxic than those of the enemy's shells. And on the 22nd April they preceded their attack on the trenches to the north of Ypres by a cloud of smoke of a yellowish-green colour, which asphyxiated the French and Canadians (see N.R.C., 29th April, 1914, morning). Now the falsity of their bragging allegations is obvious. They will not persuade any one to believe that between the 8th of April and the 22nd May they had had time to invent the combination of substances capable of giving off toxic vapours, to manufacture them in sufficient quantities, and finally to forward the cylinders to the field of battle. Let us add, moreover, that we knew before the end of March—that is, before the accusations made Still, the palm for cynicism goes to the high authorities. What are we to think of Baron von der Goltz, whose proclamations state that the innocent and guilty will be punished without distinction? (p. 144). Here we begin to see into the mentality of the Germans; swollen with pride, they consider that all things are permitted to them as against a people so uncivilized as the Belgians. Well, incredible as it may seem, the Germans have surpassed themselves in this department. The same action, accordingly as it is performed by them or against them, is denounced as a crime or highly approved. We have already seen this in connection with the bombardment of towns by aeroplanes and dirigibles. What shall we say of the action of the German cavalryman, who, surprised by superior forces, surrendered; but, as he was giving up his arms thought better of it, broke the head of one of his adversaries, and fled. If a Belgian or a Frenchman had been guilty of such treachery the Germans could not have found sufficient terms of abuse to heap upon his head; but as he was a German his action became ein kÜhnes ReiterstÜckchen (a "Bold exploit of a Cavalryman"). More—this incident is reported in the first number of the pamphlets of propaganda distributed by order of the Here are two other examples, bearing on matters of much greater importance. On the 4th August, 1914, the very day on which they were violating the neutrality of Belgium, and were commencing to punish us, at VisÉ, for having dared to resist them, they expressed their satisfaction in the fact that Switzerland was scrupulously remaining neutral. M. Waxweiler (p. 52) calls our attention to this contradiction in their attitude toward the two neutral countries—Belgium and Switzerland. Moreover, they had the impudence to placard their satisfaction in the neutrality of Switzerland about the streets of Brussels.
While in Belgium they burn houses and torture civilians, on the pretext that the latter have fired on them, they congratulate the Hungarian peasants who took up arms to defend their country against the Russian invader. The contrast here is so obvious that it even struck one German—Herr Maximilian Harden. In an article in Jingoism, a Disease of the Mind, he reproaches his compatriots They push their effrontery to the point of photographing their own francs-tireurs, so that no doubt may be left in our minds. The Berl. Ill. Zeit. of the 16th March, 1915 (p. 261), gives a photograph "from the theatre of the war in the Carpathians"—"Ruthenian Peasant employed in the Austro-Hungarian Army to guard roads and telegraph-lines." The peasant, without uniform, carries a rifle. Lastly, let us cite a case in which cynicism is allied to pedantry. On the calcined walls of the HÔtel de Ville of Dinant (burned on the 23rd and 24th August, 1914) is a chronogram. The letters are cut in a slab of marble let into the wall facing the Meuse. The fire had rendered the inscription illegible, but the commandant of the town, in March 1915, had the slab re-painted black and the letters re-gilt. This is the inscription:— Herr Otto Eduard Schmidt, returning from the French front by way of Dinant, was struck by this inscription. "I could not learn for certain," he says, "by questioning passing soldiers of the Landsturm, whether the inscription had lately been placed there or had merely been re-gilt. But in any case, I should regard it an insult to German authority, and I am astonished that this insult should be tolerated" (O. E. Schmidt, Eine Fahrt zu den Sachsen an die Front, p. 131). What would Herr Surrender of the Critical Spirit. Refusal to Examine the Accusations of Cruelty. Painfully moved by the horrors committed in Belgium, M. Charles Magnet, the National Grand Master of Belgian Freemasonry, wrote on the 9th September to nine German lodges, requesting them to institute, by common consent, an inquiry into the facts. Since the Germans denied the atrocities of which their troops were accused, and, on the other hand, were accusing the Belgians of maltreating the wounded, such an inquiry could only have a happy result. Two lodges only replied. "The request is superfluous; this inquiry would be an insult to our army," replied the Darmstadt lodge. "Our troops are not ill-conducted; it would even be dangerous to recommend them to display sensibility and kindness," replied the Bayreuth lodge. The argument may be summarized thus: "We know, as Germans, that we possess the truth; it is useless, therefore, to go in search of it with the help of an impartial commission." In a second letter M. Magnet commented on these evasions, as contrary to the spirit of brotherhood as to the scientific spirit. Let it not be supposed that the refusal to examine, objectively and impartially, the German and the Belgian accusations, is peculiar to Freemasonry. On the 24th January, 1915, Cardinal Mercier requested the German authorities in Belgium to set up a commission comprising both Germans and Belgians, under the presidency of a representative of a neutral country. His request was accorded no reply. Thus the Germans refuse to allow any light to be thrown on their actions and those of the Belgians. Why this opposition to a faithful search for the truth? They fear, perhaps, that the truth will be unfavourable to them. That is undoubtedly one of their reasons; but we do not think it can be the only reason; and the principal reason for their refusal is without doubt the voluntary blindness to which they have one and all subjected themselves since the outbreak of the war. They have decided, one would imagine, to accept, without any discussion, whatever is decreed by authority, which they invest with the absolute truth; every German calmly receives that portion of the truth which the Government thinks fit to dispense to its faithful, and no German permits himself to ask for more. Magister dixit: the Staff has spoken! Since the month of August a strict censorship has been exercised over the Press. VorwÄrts and other Socialist sheets have several times been suspended. The KÖlnischer Volkszeitung was suspended on the 11th September, 1914, for having published articles disposing of at least a part of the so-called Belgian atrocities.... And then, apparently, it proceeded to take them for granted; for afterwards it even aggravated the accusations brought against the Belgians. The Vossische Zeitung itself, official as it is, had its issue of the 1st December, 1914, seized on account of an article on a commission of the Reichstag (N.R.C., 3rd December, 1914, evening). At the same time the Government was careful to stop all foreign books and newspapers. This prohibition is so strict that Dutch working-men going to work in Germany are not allowed to wrap their sandwiches In Germany even people are beginning to find the censorship a little too strict. Before the Budget Commission of the Reichstag Herr Scheidemann, the Socialist deputy, complained that in the district of RÜstringen certain of the German official communiquÉs even were prohibited. The newspapers may not leave blank the spaces caused by the censorship, as the latter must not appear. At Strasburg the censorship prohibited the publication of articles dealing with the increased price of milk. At Dortmund the Socialist newspapers were subjected to a preventive censorship for having inserted an article by the sociologist Lujo Brentano, one of the "Ninety-three," professor at the University of MÜnich (N.R.C., 16th May, 1913, morning). Does the German public, knowing that the newspapers publish none but articles inspired by authority, or at least controlled thereby, accept this sophisticated mental pabulum in good part? Or does it make an effort to procure foreign publications? One must believe that it does not, for in that case the "intellectuals," better informed, would cease to blindly accept the official declarations. "But," it will perhaps be said, "since the Government forbids the introduction of foreign newspapers, it is radically impossible to obtain them." We do not know just how the Germans could obtain pamphlets and newspapers, but we do know that in Belgium we read prohibited literature every day—French, Dutch, and English. Any one who does not intend to resign himself to living in an oubliette will succeed, in spite of everything, in opening some chink that the light may shine There is accordingly no doubt that if the Germans really wished it they could without great difficulty obtain reliable "documentation." But they do not wish it. They, of late so proud of their critical spirit, who made it their rule, so they professed—and their glory, as was thought—to accept only that which their reason commanded them to believe! They have abdicated their critical faculty; they have sacrificed it to the militarist Moloch. And to-day, with eyes closed, they swallow all that the Government and its reptile Press presents to them. The Abolition of Free Discussion in Germany. What am I saying? Not only are they ready to swallow all the lies offered to them; they have even abolished liberty of speech among themselves. A striking example of this fact was given by the N.R.C. (of the 16th November, 1914, morning edition). Dr. Wekberg, one of the three editors of a German periodical, the Revue des Volksrechts, In the same connection we may recall the sessions of the Reichstag of the 4th August, 1914, the 2nd December, 1914, and the 20th March, 1915. At the first session not a voice protested against the war. At the second, the Socialist deputy, Dr. Karl Liebknecht, asked leave to present some objections, which indeed were timid enough; he was at once disowned by his party. On the 20th March the deputy Ledebour permitted himself to criticize the proclamation of Marshal von Hindenburg, prescribing the burning of three Russian villages for any German village burned by the Russians. Both these deputies expressed the opinion that it is iniquitous to punish the innocent in the place of the guilty. Immediately the whole assembly, Socialists included, copiously abused and insulted the two speakers. We may remark that Herr Ledebour was discussing not a strategical measure, but a prescription that was merely inhuman (see K.Z., 20th March, 1915, evening). These few examples are enough to show that the Socialists lend themselves to militarist domestication with the same docility as the "bourgeois" parties. As for the Catholic remnant in the Reichstag, its docility surpasses even that of the Socialists. In short, all the political parties, without exception, have abdicated their liberty of thought, to accept, obsequiously and without the slightest attempt at discussion, the ready-made opinions provided by authority. Such, in Germany, is the power of German Credulity. We have remarked that one day a curious book may be written as to the expedients invented by the Belgians to obtain news from abroad and to distribute it throughout the country. Equally interesting—but how discouraging, from the standpoint of the progressive evolution of the human mind—will be the book containing the amazing examples of credulity afforded by the Germans during this war. When speaking of the German accusations against the Belgians we cited the case of the rifles collected in the HÔtel de Ville, which were exhibited to the German soldiers as the irrefutable proof of the official premeditation of the "franc-tireur" campaign (p. 90 Not only were the soldiers thus deluded. A well-known novelist, Herr Fedor von Zobeltitz, visiting in Antwerp a museum of arms, which contained war weapons of the Middle Ages, cried: "See how Belgium made ready for the war!" Was he sincere? It is difficult to say, for artists often allow their sensibility to run away with them. One may say the same of the Kaiser, who also declared that Belgium had long been preparing for the "war of francs-tireurs"; and even, perhaps, of Herr Bethmann-Hollweg, who spoke, in his manifesto to the American newspapers, of gouged-out
We will suppose, for the time being—to be extremely generous to the Kaiser and his Chancellor—that they accepted, in good faith, the accusations of cruelty brought against the Belgians, and that they carefully refrained from investigating them, so that they should not be forced to recognize their imbecility. Voluntary Blindness of the "Intellectual." Perhaps it will be objected that the examples hitherto cited emanate chiefly from politicians and literary men, who are not accustomed to exercise their judgment. But there are also the manifestoes of the professorial body, that is, those whose essential mission consists in passing facts and ideas through the sieve of criticism, to isolate the true from the false, and to extract from error the fragment of truth which may have fallen into it. For what is the effect of teaching, of whatever degree, if it is not the constant alertness of the critical spirit, which seeks, in all things and at every moment, to separate that which is true and which should therefore be communicated to the disciple from the medley of false and useless things which may with impunity be abandoned to oblivion? And when the teacher is also a seeker, has he not once more unceasingly to exercise his critical spirit, that he may recognize in the host of ideas which present themselves to him those which may lead him to the desired end—and, once this is attained, those which he may use as a touchstone to test experimentally the validity of these deductions? In short, for the professor and the scientific worker there is no intellectual faculty more indispensable than the critical spirit. Now among those who have dashed into the lists to champion, with their pens, the rights of Germany, and to crush her adversaries, we must make a quite special mention of the professors and schoolmasters. Let us begin with the latter. Their principal argument in denial of the barbarous conduct of which the German troops have been accused, is that it would be incompatible with the flourishing condition of the educational institutions of Germany. As though elementary education was capable of eliminating from humanity the profound imprints of its intimate mentality! Instruction may hide them, as under a veneer, but it can never cause their disappearance. The Germans, after Sadowa and the war of 1870-1, declared that the whole honour of their victories was due to their primary education. "The French campaign is the triumph of the German schoolmaster." Those who in Belgium have seen the villages devastated by fire and the graves of the civilians shot, and above all the pillaged homes, with furniture and crockery broken into small fragments, and the filthy beds, will carry away the impression The Manifesto of the "Ninety-three." The famous manifesto of the "ninety-three Intellectuals" to the civilized world is only too well known, and has already been so universally execrated, that there is no need to discuss it at length. The reading of this document, which ought to be carefully preserved for the edification of future generations, might almost make us doubt the sanity of the signatories. How could they have imagined that "the civilized world" would accept their affirmations and their denials? Both are equally devoid of proof. To cite only one proposition—what are we to think of the amazing declaration that not a single Belgian citizen has lost his life or his property—except in the case of the bitterest necessity? Have they never seen the train-loads of "war-booty" entering Germany? It would certainly be interesting to hear them explain what is the "bitter necessity," under whose empire pianos and pictures have to be carried off from Belgium, or that which compels the Germans to force the collecting-boxes in the churches, or that which made them shoot Father Dupierreux for writing in his diary impressions unfavourable to the Germans! It would be cruel to insist. The "Ninety-three" have already earned, as the first penalty of their evil action, the disgust of the whole world. Further dissection of their libel inevitably leads us to the conclusion that the signatories display therein either their lack of intelligence or their servility; and that their only plausible excuse is that they allowed There is yet one point to be mentioned. The declaration of the German "intellectuals" was first made known to us by an article in the Kriegs Echo of the 16th October, 1914, entitled Es ist Nicht Wahr, and giving the whole manifesto, excepting the signatures and the paragraph referring to Louvain. Well! when we had read this tissue of flagrant lies we attributed it to some journalist who dared not even sign his name to his lucubrations. And when, later, we were told that the authors—or more exactly the signatories—comprised some of the most celebrated writers in Germany, we believed the whole thing must be a hoax. But we had to admit the evidence. It was for many of us a very painful moment when our illusions as to the stability of science in Germany were thus dispelled. The Manifesto of the 3,125 Professors. Did the Government consider that the representatives of science and art were not yet sufficiently compromised, and that they had not yet sufficiently involved the fate of the Universities with that of The mentality of the masters pales before that of the disciples. The Brussels correspondent of the N.R.C. relates (N.R.C., 11th November, 1914, morning), that of the innumerable soldiers whom he has seen passing, the only ones whose attitude was insolent were young university students of Berlin. Moreover, the German Socialists who visited our Maison du Peuple avowed that the troops who burned Louvain were principally composed of "intellectuals"! Besides the intellectuals of the teaching profession and the arts, those "barbarian scholars," as M. Emile Boutroux calls them, there is another category, which has likewise been mobilized to defend the militarist spirit and the Hohenzollern dynasty. This is the clergy: Protestant pastors, Catholic priests, Israelitish rabbis; all without distinction have been touched by the militarist grace and have entered the campaign for the good cause. The Protestant Pastors. Honour where honour is due! Herr O. Dryander, first preacher to the Court of Berlin, published a collective letter, drafted by himself, Herr Lahusen, and Herr Axenfeld, in reply to M. Babut's appeal for a declaration from the Christians of the belligerent countries, demanding that the war should be conducted conformably with Christian principles and The same theologian has published several pamphlets of sermons; Evangelische Reden in Schwerer Zeit. The general theme remains the same. "We have been compelled to accept war" (1, p. 5); "We are fighting for our Kultur against the absence of Kultur—for German morality against barbarism—for the free German personality, attached to God, against the instincts of the disorderly masses" (1, p. 7). "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Here is a sermon of a somewhat peculiar kind. Herr Busch, having explained that Germany is like a peaceful stroller who suddenly finds himself attacked by two assassins, and then by a third (p. 5), declares that "in spite of all the German soldiers love their enemies." "God be thanked," he says, "we have already read of most touching examples in the newspapers. A German sergeant-major, who had been obliged to have a man and woman shot, in Belgium, after a council of war, adopted their only child, a little girl of two or three years; for he was himself without children; as his regiment soon afterwards left for Eastern Prussia, and was passing through his own town, he took the child to give it to his wife" (p. 9). Pray God—we might add, whose civilization is only Belgian—that there are not too many married men without children among the soldiers of the Kaiser, for they have a way of making orphans in order to adopt them which would cost our country dear. Herr Correvon, pastor of the Reformed Church (French-speaking) in Frankfort-on-Main, preached a sermon on the 9th August, 1914, on the text: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" His arguments amount to this: Germany, having the right on her side, will have God on her side also. He naturally speaks of "the firm and admirable speech of the Chancellor, a man whom I can only compare with a Duplessis-Mornay, the minister of Henri IV" (p. 11). Then, having summarized the Emperor's speech, he cried: "To solve the alarming problem of these social questions ... it needed We see that from the very first days of the war, before any one could have verified the statements of the Chancellor, the Protestant pastors of Germany, even those of foreign origin, unhesitatingly accepted the official assertions. Is it as pastors that they stand forth as the stern defenders of the rights of truth? Are they not rather spiritless courtiers, we might almost say like the sheep of Panurge? The Catholic Priests and Rabbis. The Catholic priests have given proofs of equal docility. Mgr. the Cardinal Felix von Hartmann, Archbishop of Cologne, says in The Divine Providence, a pastoral letter read on the 25th of January, 1915:—
The curate August Ritzl, however, falls into the sin of pride.
Well, reverend sir, before proclaiming the cruelty of the Belgians, before asserting, from the vantage of the pulpit of Truth, that Serbia and Egypt have declared war on Germany, a little circumspection and critical sense would not have been out of place! Let us also cite the sermon preached on the 9th August, in the synagogue of Schwerin, by Dr. S. Silberstein, rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. "They have forced us to put our hand to the sword; we execrate the perfidy with which our enemies are fighting us; we wish to ward off the danger that threatens us in honourable combat." So the Jewish rabbis knew as early as the 9th August that it was Germany that had been attacked, and that the other nations were forgers! Useless to prolong the series.... We should be only repeating ourselves; for all the preachers, of whatever confession, repeat the same lesson, almost in the same words: "The war which has been forced upon us ... our treacherous enemies ... our loyal allies ... the cruel Belgians ... our excellent soldiers, allying goodness to bravery ... our heroic leaders...." B.—Untruthfulness.To describe frankly and completely the attitude of the Germans in Belgium during the present war, without speaking of their duplicity, would be an impossible task; so that the reader must not be What honesty can we expect in a people which praises to the skies a forger because he was a forger, and a forger proud of his skill! 1. A Few Lies.Number 50 of Die Wochenschau (1914, p. 1588) contains a photograph in which we see sailors loading a gun installed among sand-hills. The inscription underneath (translated from the German) reads: "Belgian gun, captured and served by German sailors on the coast of the Channel." The Channel! The Germans have never been there: they did set out, full of enthusiasm, for Calais, and then the shore of the Channel, and then London. But in that direction they never got farther than Lombartzyde, on the right bank of the Yser. But they prefer to let it be believed that they command the Channel, so they have chosen the Channel coast for the site of their gun—on paper. Then this "Belgian gun" is of a curious type for a piece of Belgian artillery; our Number 15 of Die Wochenschau (1915) gives on page 463 a view of the interior of the Palais de Justice in Brussels. Here is the description—a French translation is given: "German soldiers in the hall of the Assize Court in the Palais de Justice of Brussels. Brussels having become the seat of the German General Government for Belgium, has naturally a strong garrison and a very animated military life. The famous Palais de Justice on the Place Poelaert also houses a great number of soldiers. Nothing is more singular than the picture presented by this imposing and luxurious building with the new inmates in 'campaigning grey' who are installed there. A thousand precautions are taken so that nothing shall be spoiled; and while wherever the enemy has trodden on German soil it will be necessary to work for a long time rebuilding the buildings he has destroyed, no one will perceive, who sees the superb halls of the Palais de Justice in Brussels, that the German soldiers are billeted there." To understand the full beauty of this pleasantry one has only to look at the picture. One sees there the linen which these soldiers are drying on clotheslines stretched across the "luxurious hall"; this, It was desired to prove that England had already been forced to send marines into France. No. 27 of the Illustrierte Kriegs-Kurier, a semi-official, subsidized organ, represents "President PoincarÉ visiting the British forces in France. One sees him reviewing the artillery of the Royal Marines." And we do see President PoincarÉ passing in front of two ranks of British soldiers armed with rifles. But was it in France that this review took place, during the present war? Consult the July number of the French illustrated periodical, Lectures pour tous, for 1913. On page 1245 you will find a photograph entitled "The Consecration of the Entente Cordiale. M. PoincarÉ, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, reviewing his guard of honour on his arrival at Portsmouth (24th June, 1913)." Now the same personages and the same soldiers figure in the two photographs; and the surroundings are the same. The only difference is that one photograph was taken a moment later than the other. It seems that trickery of this kind is believed not to be a German speciality. Our neighbours accuse the Russians and the English of the same fault. But a kind of lie of which Germany may boldly claim the paternity and the exclusive monopoly is that which consists in denying, or at least in considerably diminishing, the extent of their acts of vandalism. On the other hand, they try to deceive their readers as to the causes of the destruction of Belgian towns. Thus they are now trying to make people believe that Louvain was not intentionally burned, but that the town suffered a bombardment. This is
They told the same story at Termonde to Herren Koester and Noske: "It is certain," say these gentlemen, "that Termonde was not intentionally burned." On the other hand, the Germans try to dissemble the extent of the damage inflicted. In the October issue of the official and propagandist Journal de la Guerre they give a plan of Louvain on which the parts destroyed are shown by shading. Now this plan is falsified in two ways. In the first place, There is yet another kind of graphic lie which is peculiar to the Germans. They are experts at displaying sentimentality to order; a sentimentality, by the way, which goes ill with their incontestable cruelty. Thus they have several times published photographs representing German soldiers sharing their bread or soup with French and Belgian women or children. One is particularly inclined to let oneself be touched by the kindliness of these German warriors, who, after having been so treacherously attacked by the terrible "francs-tireurs," now take the bread from their own mouths to feed the starving population.... What these public demonstrations of German generosity and magnanimity are worth one may judge from the photograph published in No. 16 of the Illustrierte Kriegs-Kurier. (It is interesting to note that it is always the Kurier, semi-official and subsidized, which bears the palm for sincerity.) The illustration shows that "the soldiers of the German Landsturm share their bread with French children." Now, this little scene, otherwise very convincing, is not laid in France but in Belgium, in the railway station at Buysinghen, near Hal. It is wholly "faked." This is not the only instance in which the No. 31 of this semi-official journal shows "the band of the German Marines which plays every Sunday at Zeebrugge." Now a street like that represented, with tall contiguous houses and large shops, does not exist in Zeebrugge. No. 3 of the same paper (it must certainly justify The same number contains two photographs of the HÔtel de Ville, Louvain: "Before and after the Bombardment"(!) Naturally our Washingtonian enemies do not miss their opportunities of falsifying picture postcards. In January 1915 they were selling in Belgium a card entitled Kriegsoperationskarte als Feld-Postbrief (published by Forkel, Stuttgart), according to which they were occupying, in Flanders, a region considerably to the west of the Yser; their front reaching to Oost-Dunkerke and Poperinghe. Another card, showing the country round Verdun, is even more flagrantly untruthful. Written Lies. Let us pass on to the written lies. The reader will remember the innumerable lies told by the German Press respecting the attitude of the Belgian population toward the German residents in our towns (p. 106), the German wounded (p. 99), and the German troops passing through or billeted in them. We shall not return to these again, save to refer to other inventions which the Germans employed to excite their troops against ours. Not content with accusing us of the most unspeakable crimes against their army, the Germans have even accused us of odious crimes against our own countrymen. In this way they seek to prove the bestially ferocious character of the Belgians. In the booklet entitled Sturmnacht in Loewen (A Night of Alarm in Louvain) Herr Robert Heymann, after reminding his readers of the cruelties of which the Belgians were guilty in Antwerp, Brussels, etc., adds that these savage deeds were by no means surprising on the part of a people which does not even respect its own fellow-citizens. Then (p. 8) he relates the "Brutalities committed against a Convent." This is too interesting an effort to suffer a word of suppression.
As will be seen, this is a story to make the flesh creep. Still, it seems to us to present certain difficulties. (a) There is no convent of Jesuits near LiÉge about 600 yards from one of the southern forts (Boncelles, Embourg, and Chaudfontaine). (b) The Jesuit brothers are not compelled to keep silence. No doubt the author chose the Jesuits because the order is excluded from Germany, so that he would expect his compatriots to know nothing of the rule of the Jesuit communities. (c) How did these brothers, who read no newspapers and never spoke, know of the existence of dirigibles? But apart from all this, the facts are incorrect. At no time did a dirigible fly over LiÉge during the siege. The people of LiÉge saw a German dirigible for the first time on the 1st September, 1914, at 10 p.m. On the following day, at 6 p.m., they saw another. (d) Therefore fires could not have been lit by the bombs from these dirigibles. (e) Where have stained-glass windows ever been seen to bulge like sails under the shock of an explosion capable of cracking walls over 30 inches in thickness? (f) Nothing had happened so far to give any one the idea that the convent was about to be pillaged. (g) Since when have the Jesuit convents owned farms, etc., or been equipped with hay-forks, manure-forks, spades, hay-carts, etc.? (h) It is delightful to note that in enumerating the precious possessions of the convent the Jesuit fathers occupy the very last place, after the pictures and the gold plate! But this impertinence is more apparent than real; for the narrator has just stated that the 150 Jesuit fathers were packed, together with the pictures and the sacred vessels, in eight (i) It was not Saturday, but Friday. It is by such inventions—presented as the narratives of eye-witnesses, and not as romances—that the Germans excite against us both their troops and their home population. The method has given excellent results; nothing gives better proof of its efficiency than the first paragraph of the story of The Battle of Charleroi, in which we read that at the beginning of August many trucks passed through Belgium which bore the inscription:— Which shows to what a pitch the minds of the German troops had been excited against us. A "French Dirigible" Captured by the Germans. Other inscriptions on the railway carriages and vans are not uninteresting to the student of Kultur. On the 5th March, 1915, we learned from ocular witnesses that a German dirigible was lost, on the 4th, at Overhespen, near Tirlemont. La Belgique of the 6th March contained a few details.
In reality the "rather serious damage" meant that the balloon was completely destroyed, and that twenty of the twenty-eight occupants of the cars were killed. So far we would not describe the report as a lie, as it does not exceed the habitual limits of our enemies' official telegrams. But this goes a little too far: At Tirlemont the report was spread that the dirigible in question was French, and that it was skilfully captured by German troops; and on the trucks which bore the metallic remains of the Zeppelin to Germany was written, in large letters: Erobertes FranzÖsisches Luftschiff (Captured French Airship). This is no longer a manipulated truth, but a downright lie. The Transportation of the German Dead. Here is another fraud of the same kind. When the number of the German dead is too great for burial on the field of battle they evacuate the surplus into other districts. The bodies are usually transported in closed vans. But sometimes these are lacking, and the bodies have to be packed into goods wagons. Nothing outside indicates the contents of these wagons; it may be supposed that the authorities have no desire to publish the extent of their losses. For this reason the corpses are always hidden under something else; one sees passing, for example, what appears to be a trainload of sugar-beet, but in reality the bodies of soldiers are being transported. A biologist might call this an interesting case of protective mimicry. Some Lying Placards. The German authorities have no scruples about posting up false news. For several weeks one might read, on the walls of the HÔtel de Ville at Vilvorde, the following placard:—
With its army! When the Germans were all crestfallen at having laid hands on an empty nest! This is merely grotesque; but here are three placards which belong to the system of intimidation À outrance. We have already stated (p. 147) that placards exhibited in Louvain stated that the town of Mons was forced to pay a fine because a civilian had fired on the German army. Now the fact was wholly imaginary; never did any civilian of Mons fire on the Germans; never did they accuse one of having done so; so that they never had occasion to fine the town on that account. All is false here, from the first word to the last. While at Louvain they were posting up the placard relating to Mons, they were exhibiting at Mons a notice according to which certain inhabitants of Soignies had fired on the German troops. This also was a sheer falsehood. No such action was imputed to any inhabitant of Soignies. At Charleroi they advertised the statement that they had inflicted a penalty on Anderlues for a similar offence. Here, once more, both accusation and penalty were pure inventions. Here is an equally untruthful placard. It was posted up at Cugnon (Luxemburg) early in October, 1914, between the fall of the first forts at Antwerp and the taking of the city. It announces the destruction of the line of forts between Verdun and Toul, and the march on Paris (a month after the battle of the Marne!). Its principal interest lies in the signature: the burgomaster did not know of the placard until it was posted; the military authorities had simply forged his name. This did not prevent them from forcing the commune of Cugnon to pay for the printing of these lies. M. Max's Denial. The most interesting example of lying by placard is undoubtedly that which was revealed by the burgomaster of Brussels. On the 30th August one might read, on the walls of the capital, a notice in which M. Max gave the lie to a placard posted at LiÉge. This is it:—
Since their burgomaster declared the assertion to be false, no doubt could remain in the minds of the people of Brussels. But, curiously enough, beside
The only serious difference between the two texts was that at LiÉge the burgomaster of Brussels guaranteed the truth of the communiquÉ. So the impression was given that it was Herr von Kolewe who had the idea of bringing M. Max's name into this ridiculous statement, in the hope of giving it some weight. But no! Von Kolewe was innocent of the forgery; it was the work of the German General Staff, and was distributed by the Wolff Agency, as we learned a little later. The LiÉge communiquÉ is precisely the official German telegram as published everywhere—for example, in Les Nouvelles, "published by the authorization of the German Military Authority," at Spa, on the 30th August, 1914; by the N.R.C., on the 28th August; by the K.Z. (see Kriegs-Depeschen, p. 41); and by the Frankfurter Zeitung (see Der Grosse Krieg, p. 172). What, then, is the meaning of the first telegram posted in Brussels—that of the 25th August, in which no mention of the burgomaster occurs? Simply this: the German Government was announcing to the whole world an item of "news" whose improbability required to be supported by the word of an honest man, such as the burgomaster of Brussels. A lie so gross and flagrant might be published
Translated into the vulgar tongue this means: "When we Germans lie we do not wish attention called to the fact." How the Officers Lie to their Men. Hitherto we have considered only those German lies which were addressed to the Belgians. But there are better lies than these: they lie to their own troops. At the outset of the invasion of Belgium the German soldiers were led to believe that they were already in France, quite close to Paris, even in October and November 1914. Germans in cantonments near Roulers, in Flanders, believed that they were only eight miles from Paris, and they used to ask the correspondent of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant to show them "a place they could see the Eiffel Tower from." This, it may be said, proves that in all armies there are soldiers of small intelligence, even in the German Army. No: it proves that in this latter army the officers lie with method. You may judge. The soldiers tended in the hospital of the Palais de Justice in Brussels used to date their letters "Paris"; and it was by order of their superior officers that they deceived their families. The official journal, Deutsche Soldatenpost, in its issue for the 16th October, 1914, contains a little poem entitled "Hindenburg," whose third stanza commences: Vor Paris aber steht das deutsche Heer... (But the German host stands before Paris.) This, be it noted, on the 16th October, more than a month after the battle of the Marne. About the same time a soldier in Antwerp learned from his officers that if the German army had not yet entered Paris it was merely to avoid the plague, which was raging there (N.R.C., 20th October, 1914, morning). After that, who can doubt that systematic lying forms part of the duties of an officer towards his men? 2. Perseverance in Falsehood. Nothing is left to chance in the campaign of lies any more than in the military campaign proper. The Great General Staff organizes everything with the same care—the attacks of "francs-tireurs," the benzine syringes, the pastilles of fulminating cotton employed in the rapid starting of conflagrations—just as it organizes the manoeuvres of the Press intended They even try to educate (which means, to pervert the minds of) the prisoners of war in their concentration camps. Thus in No. 5 of La Guerre, a journal especially intended for prisoners of war (published the 10th March, 1915), a passage is reproduced from the "Records of the War," by Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Here is an extract: "Finally, one should read the notices on the detestable attitude of the civil population of Belgium, of both sexes, in the present war: notices officially confirmed and attested in writing by several priests: according to which the populace, behaving a hundred times worse than ferocious beasts, have horribly mutilated and gouged out the eyes of poor wounded German soldiers, afterwards slowly stifling them by pouring sawdust into their nose and mouth." It will perhaps be objected that those who write of such things are blinded by the militarist spirit; that they have, like everybody in Germany, abolished in themselves the critical faculty; and that they do not even dream of disputing the statements of the official journals; in short, that they do not, properly speaking, lie, because they are sincere. But can they really be sincere? Could they, on the 10th March, pretend that they still believed that the Belgians gouge out the eyes of wounded men and choke them to death with sawdust when VorwÄrts had succeeded in getting at the truth, and had been protesting against these lies since the month of January? Besides, the Germans know their own "reptile" Press, and they ought to realize that their newspapers do not merit credence, least of all in time of war. But even if we absolve these writers of the crime of lying, to accuse them of nothing worse than inconceivable credulity, we cannot on any pretext extend the same indulgence to those who are incontestably in a position to know the truth. To cite only one example—is it not shameful that Baron von Bissing the younger should publish in April 1915, in the SÜddeutsche Monatshefte, an article on Belgium in which he repeats the accusations against the "francs-tireurs," and the tales of Belgians mutilating the German wounded? And what are we to say of the reply made by the German Minister of War to Mlle. Leman according to which the German troops have never ill-treated priests (p. 72), nor touched the property of the Church? A visit to Bueken (near Louvain) gives the reply to this twofold assertion. In May 1915 one could still see, in the sacristy, the muniment chest which had contained the sacred vessels; it had been broken open by the Germans with the aid of a bell-clapper. As for the curÉ, M. De Clerck, we know what he suffered; he was shot after his ears and nose were cut off. With the curÉ his assistant was killed: Father Vincentius Sombroek, a conventual, born at Zaandam, in Holland. The picture-postcard has, of course, not been forgotten. The Germans had on sale in Brussels, for their soldiers, a coloured card of The Uhlans before Paris. It shows groups of German cavalrymen contemplating Paris and the Eiffel Tower. This card is published by R. and K., and bears the number 500. This same firm fabricated some remarkable cards relating to the military operations in Belgium. No. 507 represents the bombardment of Antwerp. It shows the city in flames, seen from the TÊte de Flandre, and it also shows guns installed in the same locality. Now the Germans never had guns on the left bank of the Scheldt. No. 502 shows the bombardment of Namur by means of guns firing from Jambes, which again is incorrect. These cards, it should be noted, were still being sold in June 1915; that is, when every one knew that these pictures were "faked." The Germans' Treatment of Mgr. Mercier. There are other examples of continuity of falsehood than those relating to violations of the Hague Convention and the Treaty of London (1839). For example, a long series of lies was directed against one single individual—Mgr. Mercier, Cardinal-Archbishop of Malines, Primate of Belgium. The facts are so well known that there is no need of lengthy comment. 1. Mgr. Mercier went to Rome for the Conclave. We learned in Belgium, by a placard dated the 8th September, that the Cardinal was returning to his country "with a safe-conduct, passing through the German lines." A lie.—The Cardinal never had any German safe-conduct. He returned to Belgium by way of Lyons, Paris, Havre (where he delivered a speech), London, and Holland. 2. During his stay in Rome the Cardinal made declarations very unfavourable to the Germans. A placard of the 12th September, 1914, assured us that he protested against the interview in the Corriere della Sera. A lie.—The Corriere della Sera is a neutral journal (in the sense that the Belgian Le Soir is neutral), and the Germans wished to produce the impression that the Cardinal had been interviewed by a correspondent of this newspaper. Now he was interviewed by the editor of the Catholic journal, the Corriere d'Italia. This is merely one of the "errors" of Cardinal von Hartmann's rectification. The whole is in keeping with this; but it is too long to consider in detail. 3. Baron von der Goltz, at the moment of leaving Belgium, of which he had been Governor-General, thought fit to assert that he had come to an agreement with Mgr. Mercier as to the reopening of the courses in the University of Louvain (Le RÉveil, 1st December, 1914). A lie.—There was never any question of resuming these courses. 4. The Cardinal published his famous Pastoral Letter, which was sent to all the churches of his diocese, to be read from the pulpit. It recalled the present sufferings of the country, and adjured Belgians to "remain faithful to their king and their laws." Directly the Germans, informed by their spies, knew of the existence of this pastoral letter they withdrew Cardinal Mercier's authorization to visit the other bishops in his motor-car. At the same time they forbade the curÉs to make the letter known to their parishioners; they even proceeded to seize
A lie.—This declaration is false. Mgr. Evrard, Dean of St. Gudule in Brussels, went to see Mgr. Mercier at Malines, and obtained proof of the falsehood. He at once warned all the curÉs of Brussels and the district of the manoeuvre, and on Sunday, the 10th January, the reading of the letter was resumed.
5. Baron von Bissing published in the newspapers a communiquÉ stating "that no hindrance of any kind had been put in the way of the exercise of the pastoral duties of the Cardinal-Archbishop." A lie.—The Cardinal contradicted this assertion in a Latin letter addressed to his clergy.
[Translation.]
6. On Sunday, the 3rd January, 1915, the Cardinal did not go to Antwerp, as he had intended. The Germans announced in the newspapers—in L'Avenir (Antwerp), for example—that the Cardinal's absence was voluntary. A lie.—They had forbidden Mgr. Mercier to leave Malines. We have mentioned that while these things were happening the clergy continued to make the pastoral letter known in all the churches, except in those cases where the Germans had succeeded in subtracting the copies of the letter. But even there the reading of the letter was resumed after a brief interval, when fresh impressions of the letter had been printed and distributed all over the country. This propaganda was, of course, secret; an official communiquÉ published at Namur, on the 12th January, 1915, leaves no doubt as to that. It threatens the infliction of severe punishment on those who should distribute this document. To give some idea of the activity with which the pastoral letter was distributed throughout Belgium, we may mention that we know of twelve different editions in French and two in Flemish; there are, moreover, at least two typewritten editions. Each impression numbered thousands of copies; of one single edition the Germans seized 35,000 copies! We may add that a German translation also has appeared, but this is ad usum Germanorum. The interesting passages are suppressed. The pastoral letter was not without results in Rome. The Belgian colony there organized a mass for the priests put to death in Belgium, a list of whom was given by the Cardinal. The organ of the 3. The Organization of Propaganda. With the methodical spirit which they boast of possessing, the Germans have from the outset of the war created bureaux for the propagation of the "German idea" throughout the world. Some of these organizations of propaganda have for their province the neutral countries, among which, in the first rank, are the United States, the Scandinavian countries, Italy, Holland, and Switzerland. Others deal with the occupied countries, or enemy countries, through the intermediary of prisoners of war and civil prisoners. Finally, there are those that deal with Germany and her allies. If we add to the bureaux of propaganda situated in Germany, and operating thence, those established and operating in foreign countries, we shall begin to understand the power of expansion and penetration possessed by such instruments in the hands of unscrupulous people. Again, we must reckon not only with the official Besides her printed propaganda, Germany makes use of other means, apparently accessory and occasional, but whose effects may become very appreciable; visits of German scholars and German politicians, especially socialist politicians; letters written by Germans to friends or relations abroad; inquiries addressed to the scholars of neutral countries; promises made to notable persons, in the hope of obtaining their co-operation. One word before examining the working of these organizations. Should we really classify them under the heading of "falsehoods"? After what we have said of the methods of the German Press, and the mentality of the German rulers, no one will hesitate, we fancy, as to the place which falsehood must be accorded in this propaganda. But so that no doubt shall remain in the reader's mind, we will give a few quotations from the propagandist literature relating to Belgium. (a) Propagandist Bureaux operating in Germany. The most important of the propagandist pamphlets appearing in Germany is a monthly publication. It is known, in French, as the Journal de la Guerre. We know it also in German and in Dutch; probably it is translated into yet other languages. Each number consists of 40 to 72 pages, and contains general information, a chronicle of the war, photographs and drawings, tales of the battles, etc. ... in short, everything that can influence the public The Journal de la Guerre published an article by Herr Helfferich on a journey through Belgium, undertaken in September 1914. It is teeming with inaccuracies, but it would be waste of time to refute them all. We will confine ourselves to the first sentence, which states that the burgomaster of Battice has been shot. Now, this is untrue: the burgomaster of Battice, M. Rosette, who has filled his office for many years, is in excellent health, and is still living in Battice. Another publication—La Guerre—Journal pÉriodique paraissant durant la guerre de 1914-15—is intended for prisoners of war. The best method of impressing the prisoners is assuredly to show them that in their own country people are already beginning to realize the indisputable superiority of Germany. So La Guerre frequently publishes articles reprinted from La Gazette des Ardennes; only it forgets to mention that La Gazette des Ardennes is a newspaper established, edited, and printed exclusively by Germans, since the occupation. Shall we take another example of duplicity? For the Belgians, naturally, what their priests tell them has great "We Flemings," M. Nieuwenhuis is supposed to have said ... and he is a Dutchman. This is curious. Let us compare this with the original text in De Tijdspiegel, p. 316, 1st April, 1915. There we find: "Indien wij hier in Vlaanderen ... zouden zign voorgelicht...." ("If we, here in Flanders, had been informed....") The German forgers have been at work, and by a little tinkering at the text, they have made a Dutch pastor pass for a Flemish priest! To what are they not reduced! The pamphlet Die Wahrheit Über den Krieg speaks on p. 93 of an international propagandist organisation established in Berlin: the Commission for the publication of impartial news abroad (we translate from the Dutch version). This Commission publishes Correspondence for Neutrals, which aims solely at "distributing positive news concerning the working of social, juridicial, economic, and moral institutions and general culture in Germany." Its articles are especially intended for use by the Press. It appears two or three times a week, in ten different languages, and will continue to do so during the war. It asserts that its expenses are covered entirely by private subscriptions. At the Superior Technical College of Stuttgart is The professors of the University of Leipzig sent abroad a special number of the Leipziger Neueste Nachrichte of the 25th August, 1914, which gave, in chronological order, "the truth about the causes of the war and the German successes." The truth! Its capital falsehoods are too numerous for examination here. At DÜsseldorf is the BÜro zur Verbreitung deutscher Nachrichten im Auslande (the German Bureau for distributing German news abroad). The French version of this title is Bureau allemand pour la publication de nouvelles authentiques À l'Etranger. Observe, in passing, that Deutsche Nachrichten is translated as "authentic news," which will not fail to surprise the reader. This Bureau used to publish Le RÉveil, a remarkable journal sold in Belgium and the occupied parts of France. The Deutscher Überseedienst (German Overseas Service) busies itself particularly with the falsification of public opinion abroad. Its publications are usually distributed gratis. For Americans living in Europe, Germany provides The Continental Times, Special War Edition and Journal for Americans in Europe, edited at the HÔtel Adon in Berlin. To judge of the veracity of this journal, it is enough to read, in the issue for the 8th February, the article by Herr J. E. Noegerath, devoted to his journey through Belgium. In this The League of German Scientists and Artists for the Defence of Civilization (in French they make it La Ligue pour la dÉfense de la civilisation—for the prevention—which is just what it is!) is installed in the Palace of the Academy of Science in Berlin, Unter den Linden, 38. It publishes pamphlets; for example, that of Herr Riesser, on The Success of the German War Loan. As far as we know it has published nothing about Belgium. A very interesting method of propaganda is that which consists in attaching to business letters leaflets printed on very thin paper, giving "authentic" news in the language of the recipient. The Hamburger Fremdenblatt has published many of these, at 10 pfennigs for 10 copies. They include, notably, Appeals to Christians; An Appeal to the Catholic Missions, in German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian; An Appeal to the Protestant Missions, in German, English, and Portuguese. Another series of leaflets to be inserted in letters is published by the Bureau des Deutschen Handelstages, Berlin (Bureau of the German Commercial Conference of Berlin). Nine different leaflets appeared. No. 10 and the succeeding leaflets are of different origin; these leaflets are now published by the Kriegs-Auschuss der Deutschen Industrie, Berlin (Military Commission of German Industry). In Germany also are published leaflets bearing no indication of their origin. One of these, entitled What is the Cause of the Severity of the War? is curious for more reasons than one. (b) Propagandist Matter issued by the Publishing Houses. There are, to begin with, the numerous low-priced pamphlets which carry the gospel to the soldiers in the trenches, and enlighten the home population. The most voluminous and the most perfidious of these books is that of Major Viktor von Strantz: Die Eroberung BelgiËns. Several publishing houses issue series of booklets, under some general title. We may mention:—
Besides these works, which are intended rather for the masses, we must mention others, intended for a more intellectual public. Such are:—
To these we may add works appearing in small isolated volumes at a low price, containing more especially diplomatic documents:—
We must not overlook the numerous illustrated publications, among which we may mention the Album de la Grande Guerre, published by the Deutscher Überseedienst, with explanations in German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. This collection contains a number of illustrations relating to Belgium: for example, in No. 2 we have "A Zeppelin bombarding LiÉge," which never happened (p. 229): and No. 3 gives us a view of the Place des Bailles at Malines, "a quarter where the houses were destroyed by Belgian artillery" (whereas the Belgian artillery destroyed nothing in Malines, and the Place des Bailles was not bombarded but burned). (c) Propangandist Bureaux operating Abroad. Not content with flooding neutrals with literature fabricated in Germany itself, to such an extent that the former complained of the German importunity, the Germans have also set up bureaux of propaganda in foreign countries. The most important of these, without doubt, is that which has been operating in the United States, under the direction of Herr Bernhard Dernburg, ex-Minister of the Empire. Herr Dernburg has neglected no means of action, and has not feared to mount into the breach himself in his efforts to ensure the triumph of his cause. In Belgium the propaganda was of a multiple nature. In the first place, the Germans were careful (1) The Germans wished to compel various papers to appear under their control. All those in the capital refused; but in the provinces certain newspapers, such as L'Ami de l'Ordre (at Namur) and Le Bien Public (at Gand), accepted the German conditions. L'Ami de l'Ordre was really and truly forced to appear; as it admitted, in a covert fashion, in its issues of the 20th and 27th August, and explicitly in those of the 7th October and the 6th November. (2) The German authorities forced these journals, and others which have since been established, to publish propagandist articles, imposing penalties in case of failure. Thus L'Ami de l'Ordre (it was suggested that it might be called L'Ami de par Ordre!) was obliged to publish stories of "francs-tireurs" which it knew were inventions; and after the burning of the Grand' Place at Namur (concerning which it knew very well what to think) it published, in large letters, on the 28th August, 1914, a protest against francs-tireurs. On the 1st September followed an article describing the punishment of Louvain after an attack by civilians. On the following day was further mention of the Incontestably imposed, also, are the articles which basely flatter the Germans; notably its excuses after its suspension (7th and 8th December) and its thanks to the Military Government of Namur when the latter ceased to take hostages (on the 29th September). In this last issue is an equally characteristic article on the subject of the Cathedral of Reims; in this the German Government pretends that it did not allege the presence of an observation-post on the Cathedral. But one has only to read the official communiquÉs of the 23rd September in order to prove that L'Ami de l'Ordre has been forced to lie to its readers. Of course the Germans deny that they demand the insertion of these articles (see Le Bien Public, 1st November, 1914); otherwise their readers would cease to give any credence to these "Belgian" papers. (3) The principal mission of the censorship consists in suppressing all that displeases it and all that it regards as compromising. Thus, for two months L'Ami de l'Ordre did not publish a single communiquÉ from the armies of the Allies, although it pretended the contrary in its issue of the 7th October. It was only on the 26th that it began to publish them; but it then borrowed them from the German papers, which was not perhaps a guarantee of exactitude. At the same time Le Bruxellois stated that there were scarcely any French communiquÉs. As for Le Bien Public, it was suspended The censorship had promised the journals whose publication it permitted (or demanded) that it would not mutilate articles, but would suppress them entirely (Le Bien Public, 1st November, 1914). Of course, it did not keep its engagements; for what engagement did our enemies ever keep? To realize how the censorship mutilates, curtails, and falsifies one has only to compare the official telegrams contained in the French newspapers with those which are vouchsafed us by the expurgated journals. Here are a few examples; it will be seen that the censorship suppresses not only sentences and parts of sentences, but single words, and even parts of words. We will confess that this last procedure was totally unexpected, even on the part of Germany, although her scholars have certainly acquired a habit of splitting hairs. The words in italics are those suppressed by the censorship:—
To appreciate at its full value the mutilation of the official communiquÉs by the German censorship, it must be recalled (1) that it had undertaken to leave the official communiquÉs untouched, and (2) that the subservient portion of the press continued to call them "official telegrams." Sincerity of the Censored Newspapers. At the outset the censorship used to allow newspapers to leave a blank space in the place of an article, phrase, or words deleted. But this procedure was too frank for the Germans, and the readers were aware of it; so the German authorities forced the newspapers to fill up the blanks; and in order to facilitate their task they published a special typewritten journal, appearing in French and in Flemish, Le Courrier Belge, in which "all the articles had passed the censorship." Editors, therefore, had only to select an article of the desired length in order to fill the gaps left by the official scissors. We may add that by the terms of a decision given in the Court of First Instance in Brussels, the journals at present appearing in Germany under the German censorship may not claim the title of Belgian newspapers. It may readily be imagined what the censored journals have become under this delightful system. But a story which is told in Belgium will perhaps give the reader a better idea of their vicissitudes. The soul of a soldier presents itself at the gate of Paradise. "Who are you?" says St. Peter. After a long hesitating pause (for no one cares to make such a painful confession) the soul replies: "I am the soul of a German soldier." "You are an impudent liar!" cries St. Peter. "I read the Belgian newspapers with the greatest care, and they have not yet announced the death of a single German soldier!" On the 7th June, 1915, the Germans had a unique opportunity of proving that the German journals in On the night of Sunday, the 6th June, 1915, towards 2.30 a.m., we were awakened by a furious cannonade and the explosion of bombs: Allied aviators were bombarding the shed of the dirigible at Evere, to which they set fire, destroying both shed and balloon. On the same day we learned that a second German dirigible had just been destroyed at Mont St.-Amand, near Gand, by a British aviator. We awaited the next day's papers with curiosity. Would they report the two incidents, making as little of them as possible, or would they keep silence? They merely stated that the German air-fleet had raided the English coast on the night of the 7th. Of what happened on its return, not a word. In the KÖlnische Zeitung, again, there was nothing said as to the disasters at Evere and Mont St.-Amand. So the muzzled Press of Belgium and Germany may speak of German successes (we are supposing, of course, that the bombardment of open towns is a success), but as to the failures they are dumb. These are two facts which are known to hundreds of thousands of persons, and are therefore impossible of concealment. To keep silence, therefore, could have only one result, namely, to prove that the German communiquÉs are "faked," and that the Belgian journals are muzzled: in short, that all news which comes from Germany is adulterated. If our oppressors had published a short paragraph dealing with these two "accidents," then a few Belgians, more credulous A few days later the Germans plunged even deeper into the mire. On the night of the 16th June the people of Brussels once again heard the sound of guns, this time from Berchem; but no one saw an aeroplane. Next day the papers contained a paragraph stating that an attack by enemy aviators had been repulsed. Did the raid really take place? It is doubtful; and in any case it does not matter. The essential point is that on this occasion the newspapers were allowed to speak. The Governor-General, who has a keen sense of the fitting opportunity, chose this moment to inform us that a mischievous Press was circulating in Belgium (see La Belgique, 14th January, 1915). Nothing could be truer, as the reader has just seen. Persecution of Uncensored Newspapers. Naturally, the desire to obtain foreign newspapers became keener than ever in Belgium as the untruthfulness of the censored journals became more apparent. To the notices published by the Germans forbidding the distribution of "false news" (p. 187) we may add an official communiquÉ which was reproduced in L'ami de l'Ordre on the 17th October:—
(d) Various Propaganda. Lastly, let us mention—without insistence, as they are already sufficiently familiar—various methods of propaganda which are individual, and apparently spontaneous, but from which the Germans expect very happy results. All those Belgians who have friends or relations in Germany, and all those who are themselves of German origin, have incessantly been receiving, since correspondence between the two countries has been permitted, letters in which they are told that Germany is sure of victory, that the Belgians have been deceived by England and by their king, that the Germans do no harm to any one, etc. These assertions are repeated with such regularity and monotony that they produce the impression of a lesson that has been learned; so, to avoid this unfortunate impression, the correspondents are careful to declare that they are only expressing their personal opinion. Next, we may mention the foreign visits of More insidious are the visits made to Belgium by prominent German socialists: Wendel, Liebknecht, Noske, Koester, etc. They, too, hoped easily to convince us of the rights and, above all, of the superiority of Germany. They went back with an empty bag; one may even venture to assert that they were rather shaken, since Herr Liebknecht complains, in a conversation with an editor of the Social-Demokraten, a Norwegian organ, of the part which the Socialist missionaries were made to play (N.R.C., 28th December, 1914, evening). The Vossische Zeitung has discovered another means of propaganda. This journal sent a paper of questions to Dutch and Scandinavian scholars, asking them what their science owes to Germany. A shallow trick, this; every nation has naturally produced men of mark, to whom science has cause for gratitude. 4. The Violation of Engagements. The war began by the violation of a solemn treaty, to which Germany subscribed in 1839. The entire conduct of the war has been, as far as Germany is concerned, a long series of violations of the It is hopeless to discuss the matter; it would be wasted pains, Germany having decided to let her conduct be shaped by the impulse of the moment, without hampering herself with any anterior promises. She is fighting for her life, her publicists and statesmen never cease repeating, and she is free to throw all her engagements to the wind. "Not kennt kein Gebot," declared the Chancellor, on the 9th August, and this convenient maxim has lost nothing of its popularity. But there are other engagements, engagements which Germany has entered into with Belgium since the beginning of the war, and which she has broken with the same ease: a promise to restore Belgium's independence; a promise to respect our patriotism, a promise to pay cash for all requisitions once the tribute of 480 millions frs. was paid, etc. Our enemies can invoke no extenuating circumstances to mitigate these breaches of faith, for no change had occurred between the dates of making these engagements and their violation. The Independence of Belgium. On the 4th August, 1914, the very day on which our country was invaded, the Imperial Government made one last effort to extort from England a promise of neutrality. It gave an assurance that even in the case of an armed conflict with Belgium, Germany would not on any pretext annex her territory (Livre Bleu, No. 74). On that very day the Kaiser and the Chancellor made similar declarations: "We shall repair the injustice which we are committing towards Belgium," said the Chancellor. Directly they had a newspaper at their disposal in Belgium our invaders published an article assuring the Belgians of their respect for whatever engagements they had entered into (see L'Ami de l'Ordre, 29th and 30th August, 1914). Words, idle words! Hardly were the Germans, in boasting mood, able to style themselves conquerors, than they hastened to trample their promises underfoot. Are the engagements of the Berlin Government anything more than so many scraps of paper, which may with impunity be declared null and void? Such men as Erzberger, Losch, Dernburg, Maximilian Harden, etc., all partaking in the public life of their country, found nothing was more urgent than to disregard whatever the Emperor and the Chancellor might have said, no matter how solemn the circumstances, and to make plans for the future in which Belgium would remain wholly or in part annexed. The Promise to respect the Patriotism of the Belgians. "I ask no one to renounce his patriotic sentiments," said Baron von der Goltz in the first of The Forced Striking of the Flag. Every one was anxiously asking himself what was really the thought at the back of the Baron's head; for we already knew the Germans sufficiently to realize that so honeyed a phrase concealed some peril. But what? Two weeks later the riddle was solved; it meant that the Belgian national flag was "regarded as a provocation by the German troops" (placard of 16th September, 1914). A provocation of what or whom? Of their national sentiment? Well, and what of ours, which the Governor-General was not asking us to renounce? It is true that after the appearance of this placard the Military Governor announced that he had "by no means the intention of wounding the dignity or the feelings of the inhabitants by this measure; its sole purpose is to preserve the citizens from any annoyance." In short, it was for our good that we were forced to haul down our flag. What was to be done? To resist would be to give the scoundrels who were oppressing us an occasion for exercising their murderous and incendiary talents on Brussels. By a very dignified and very moderate notice, M. Max, the burgomaster, counselled his fellow-citizens to yield. This placard, which was not subjected to the censorship, despite the order given by the Germans, displeased them to the point of having it immediately covered with blank sheets of paper. But these were torn away by the people of Brussels, or else they were rendered transparent by The Belgian Colours forbidden in the Provinces. While the withdrawal of the Belgian flag was demanded, in the provinces a hunt was conducted for the Belgian colours used in the decoration of shop-windows. The German police would enter the shops and demand the immediate removal of all tricolour ribbons decorating the windows.
In Brussels it was a long time before they decided to take measures against the wearing of the tricolour rosettes which so many people carried in their buttonholes; in the streets, at least two persons in three displayed our colours. This persistence on the part of the Belgians in publicly displaying their patriotic sentiments is extremely annoying to the Germans. For proof we need only turn to the letter from Brussels published in the weekly illustrated supplement of the Hamburger Fremdenblatt for the
Prohibition of the Belgian Colours in Brussels. Suddenly, without any pretext, the sight of the little tricolour decorations worn by the people of Brussels began to offend the Germans, and the national emblem was prohibited from the 1st July, 1915. The prohibition was posted only on the 30th of June. It made a distinction between the Belgian colours, the wearing of which was tolerated if it was not provocative, and the colours of our Allies, the display of which, even if not provocative, was absolutely prohibited. How were our German bumpkins going to make this much too subtle distinction between provocative and non-provocative display? This evidently left the door open to all sorts of arbitrary actions. So the people of Brussels judged it prudent to renounce their badges entirely. A few, however, replaced the rosette by an ivy-leaf, the emblem of fidelity in the language of flowers. What were the Germans to do now? Prohibit the wearing of the ivy-leaf, perhaps, for by the 5th July they had forbidden the manufacture and sale of artificial ivy-leaves, whether of cloth or paper. But they did not persist in this course. For the first time since we had been subject to them they conceived a witty idea. They themselves began to display the ivy-leaf; from that moment this emblem could not decently be worn by any of us. It would be interesting to know who inspired them with this ingenious idea. The "Te Deum" on the Patron Saint's Day of the King. Let us note the date of L'Ami de l'Ordre which contained Baron von Hirschberg's announcement: the 15th November, the patron saint's day of the In Brussels also the Te Deum of the 15th November was prohibited. It was decided to replace it by a mass which would be sung at 11 o'clock in the church of St. Gudule. By 10.30 the church was overflowing with people; but towards 11.0 a priest passed quietly through the ranks of the faithful, announcing that the singing of the Mass had been prohibited by the Germans, and that it would be replaced by a Low Mass. After this some hundreds of persons repaired to the Palais Royal, to the gate in the Rue BrÉderode; they expected that a book would be there, as usual, to receive their signatures. The register had been there, but the German authorities had removed it. The callers then decided merely to leave their cards; but a Palace servant came to inform them that the Germans, after removing the register, had also forbidden the formation of assemblies near the Palace, and had even made some arrests; he therefore begged the public to disperse. More respect for patriotic sentiments! The Portraits of the Royal Family. Since then it has been forbidden to sell portraits of the Royal Family published since the outbreak of the war. In particular those picture-postcards are prohibited Not far away, at St. Gilles, on Sunday the 14th February, an under-officer brutally snatched away the national flag which covered the coffin of a Belgian soldier. Here is another example of individual ideas as to the respect to be paid to patriotism and piety. While in Brussels the Germans prohibited only
The German persecutions were resumed with renewed vigour on the approach of the 8th April, the King's birthday. At Antwerp the Germans took care to forbid, in advance, anything that might have passed for a royalist manifestation; but the inhabitants succeeded, none the less, under their enemies' noses, in celebrating their Sovereign's anniversary. Elsewhere the Germans, in their incorrigible meanness, had a different inspiration. They suddenly had an intuition that the communal administrations of Brabant were going to dismiss the schools in honour of the King. Immediately circulars were distributed, forbidding the closing of the schools on that day. But these ineffable blunderers had forgotten one thing: namely, that the 8th of April fell in the middle of the Easter holidays! Certain communes permitted themselves the malicious delight of inquiring of the Germans whether they must recall the pupils for the 8th of April? The Germans, of course, missed the irony of the situation, and replied that it would not be necessary to resume the classes. Their second letter contains a particularly delightful sentence: "My will is merely that instruction shall not be specially interrupted in honour of the anniversary of H.M. the King of the Belgians." Another example of the unshakable determination to respect the Belgians' patriotism! Obligation to Employ the German Language. These letters are written in German. For that matter, it has become a rule with our enemies to write only in their own tongue, and often even in German characters. Better still: at LiÉge and Namur (L'Ami de l'Ordre, 31st August, 1914) they required the Belgians also to write in German. Yet another way of respecting our patriotism! The Belgian Army is our Enemy! Far from making an effort to respect our feelings, one would even imagine that they must make it a point of honour (German honour) to wound our loyalty. Thus, when they punish any one for rendering service to the Belgians, instead of expressing the matter simply, as we have done, they announce that the Belgian is convicted of relations with the enemy. They are speaking of their enemies. But "the enemy" implies that the Belgian Government Better still: they inform us, by means of placards, that to aid the Belgian army is "treason." The Belgian becomes a traitor by rendering a service to his country! What a singular conception of honour!
The "BrabanÇonne" Prohibited. At Namur the BrabanÇonne was declared seditious on the 23rd March, 1915. But a month later the execution of the first four verses was declared to be permissible. What did the Germans mean by that? Let us remember that none of the known versions of our national song (the two versions of Jenneval and that of Rogier) consists of more than four verses. Which, then, are those that our persecutors forbid? In their rage for prohibition they have prohibited something that does not exist!—unless they were speaking of the verse invented by La Libre Belgique, and published in its tenth issue. It would be amusing if the German authorities had fallen into a snare set by a prohibited newspaper! In Brussels the Germans had not dared openly to interdict the BrabanÇonne, as they did another The National Anniversary of July 21st. In July 1915 the people of Brussels hit on a new method of celebrating the national anniversary of the 21st July. Since our tyrants would obviously forbid us to fly our flag at half-mast, in token of our being for the time in mourning for our country, a number of shopkeepers announced, by means of a small printed notice, that "the shop would be closed on Wednesday, the 21st July." The Germans were displeased; moreover, they issued a decree forbidding all demonstrations.
They also announced, by means of the newspapers in their pay, Le Bruxellois and La Belgique, that the closing of the shops might be regarded as a demonstration. Their pains were wasted. On the morning of the 21st the shops and cafÉs remained closed; in private houses the shutters were not opened. In all Brussels only a few taverns were open—taverns frequented by the Germans, which a Belgian would never compromise himself by entering. All that day it was a comforting and impressive spectacle to see the crowd, in its Sunday clothes, grave and deeply affected, with never one uplifted voice, passing along the streets of closed houses. Never had the like been seen in Brussels. No one would have dared to hope for such unanimity of feeling after eleven months of occupation. The Germans were raging. They brought out troops, who, with bayonet and cannon, occupied the principal public squares; they ran an armoured motor-car up and down the most frequented streets; they dragged artillery along the avenues surrounding the city. But they did not succeed in fomenting the slightest disturbance; the Brussels public was too firmly determined to preserve its dignity and its tranquillity. In all the churches the Te Deum was replaced by a High Mass, followed by the playing of the BrabanÇonne; the latter was sung in chorus by the congregation, who were moved to tears. The comic note was struck by the Germans. As a sort of reprisal, the authorities suspended the two newspapers which had not appeared on the 21st July: Le Quotidien and L'Écho de la Presse. Immediately La Belgique, which had appeared, suspended itself, in order to produce a belief that it was not German! As for the Bruxellois, it said not a word of the striking demonstration of the 21st. In other Belgian towns the shops were closed. In Antwerp more than the shops were closed; the bureau of German passports, in the Place Verte, announced, by means of two written notices, in German and Flemish, that it was closed for the 21st July. The Germans were trying to repeat the trick of the ivy-leaf. In vain, however, since the 21st was to occur only once! At Gand the Germans forbade the closing of the shops. And the latter were all open. But in many windows one saw, instead of the usual display of goods, a group of articles which comprised a bucket of water, a scrubbing-brush, and a chamois leather, with an inscription: "Cleaning To-day." The Anniversary of the 4th August. We must suppose that the unanimity with which the houses of Brussels were kept shut up touched the Germans in a sore place, for they prohibited
The placard announcing these prohibitions forbade us to deck our houses with flags! Flags, good God! Who then would have dreamed of flying flags in commemoration of the rupture of an international pact! At the most the people of Brussels had intended to wear in the buttonhole a little "scrap of paper." But the wearing of emblems was forbidden. What the Germans did not think of forbidding was the little demonstration of sympathy which they received on the evening of the 4th. In conformity
Our tyrants appeared greatly to fear popular demonstrations. The people of LiÉge had planned to honour, on the 6th August, in the cemetery, the soldiers who died for their country during the defence of the city in August 1914. Immediately the Germans made public their restrictive measures.
The people of LiÉge retorted by putting their shops in mourning, and on the 6th August it was an impressive spectacle to see the shop-windows throughout the centre of LiÉge hung with deep violet. School Inspection by the Germans. In the schools the children were for a long time able to sing La BrabanÇonne on the sly; but this was not to last. The German authorities passed a decree against Germanophobe demonstrations in the schools.
Our children will have to unlearn the national anthem, which, in the present circumstances, is evidently Germanophobe; and the teachers of history, too, must keep a watch upon their words. During the French lesson there must be no more recitations of Andrieux' Le Meunier de Sans-Souci. It may even be necessary to make deletions in the Latin classics; for one can see the military tribunals inflicting severe penalties on Tacitus, for even in his days Gallos certare pro libertate, Batavos, pro gloria, Germanos ad prÆdam (The Gauls fight for liberty, the Batavians for glory, the Germans for pillage). Another Latin author who would certainly be proscribed is Velleius Paterculus; he states in his Roman History: At illi (Germani), quod nisi expertus vix credat, in summa feritate versutissimi natumque mendacio genus (The Germans ally an extreme ferocity to the greatest knavery; they are a race born to lie; and one must have mingled with them to believe this). Velleius Paterculus was a good observer. The morality—or immorality—of this long series of broken engagements, which might be indefinitely prolonged, has had the result that no one can any longer put his trust in Germany. None the less does Germany continue to make promises, and is even annoyed and irritated when one doubts her word. Thus the Chancellor said, in a speech delivered to the Reichstag on the 23rd May, 1915, at the time of the negotiations with Italy:— "Germany had given her word that the concessions offered [by Germany] should be actually accorded [by Austria] C.—Incitements to Disunion.Divide et impera ("Divide in order to rule") is a maxim which has largely inspired the Germans in their relations with the Belgians. They therefore do their utmost to divide the nation from its King, to excite the Belgians one against another, and finally to kindle discord between our Allies and ourselves. We have just seen by what unjustifiable methods, after promising to respect our patriotism, they proceeded systematically (as they do all things) to thwart our sentiments of fidelity to our King and our nationality. Not content with opposing—sometimes openly, sometimes with hypocrisy—all our loyalist manifestations, they endeavour to embroil us with our Sovereigns. Incitements to Disloyalty. While they accuse the Belgian nation of having sold itself to the Triple Entente, they hold the King personally responsible for this "conspiracy." Having become the "valet" or the "slave" of England, the Sovereign could not accept the friendly hand which the Kaiser tendered him on two occasions—the 2nd and the 9th of August, 1914. At Antwerp the Germans alone appear to have heard the absurd declaration, that he vowed to Then we have him on the Yser, the melancholy king "abandoned by God." He would ask nothing better than to conclude peace. But England holds him still in her toils, and prevents him from accomplishing this wise project. It is Le RÉveil, that peculiarly truthful newspaper of DÜsseldorf, which reveals this sinister exploit of Albion. The Hamburger Nachrichten receives the same report from Brussels.
The propagandist pamphlet LÜttich is less severe to our Sovereign, since it invokes, as an extenuating circumstance, his "blindness, which verges on stupidity." Incommensurable pride or imbecility—such are the characteristics of King Albert! Do these paladins of tact and delicacy show any greater respect for our Queen? Be sure they do not! An article on King Albert and the Triple Entente, in the Deutsche Soldatenpost of the 10th October, 1914, a newspaper intended both for the troops and the Belgian public, states: "From the outset the Queen Well, we know that none of these "proofs" have shaken our fidelity. Despite all prohibitions, despite all the fines imposed, thousands of copies of the portraits of the King in the midst of his troops, and of the Queen, our dear little Queen, tending the wounded, are sold every day of the year. The patriotism of the Belgians is certainly incurable! The Walloons incited against the Flemings. So the Germans sought a new device. As they could not cause disunion between the people and the Sovereign, they tried to sow dissension between the citizens themselves, by envenoming the problem of language and reviving political rancour. At first they exploited, in the most virulent manner, the Flemish-Walloon conflict. As in all countries in which several tongues are spoken, there is naturally in Belgium a struggle between the Flemings, who speak a Germanic language, and occupy the northern portion of the country, and the Walloons, who speak a Latin tongue, and occupy the southern provinces. But this conflict, however lively it may have been, has never touched the foundations of our national conscience, and we have always felt ourselves Belgians before everything. At the outset, confesses Herr Kurd von Strantz, the Germans did not realize what profit they might derive from the antagonism of races in Belgium: an antagonism which they believed to be profound, but which was only skin-deep. Since the month of Only two months after the occupation of the capital the Germans, organizing their conquest, attempted to win over the Flemings by feigning to espouse their grievances and by exploiting their racial relationship, in order to divide them from their Walloon fellow-citizens. Suddenly, in the official communiquÉs, Flemish took the place until then occupied by French, and the German newspapers began to display a touching sympathy for their "Flemish brothers," and for their country and their art. We did not even need to read the article published by the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant on the 11th December (which was seen by M. Paul Hymans), in order to divine, at the root of these sudden and simultaneous manifestations, the orders issued by the German official circles. For it was not thus during the first weeks of the occupation. Then correspondence was permissible only in French and German: Flemish was not tolerated. The official notices were printed in French and German only. Then, on the 25th August, the Government placards appeared in German, French, and Flemish. Finally, on the 1st October, Flemish had the advantage of French. Although from the standpoint of Belgian law the latter measure was legal in the Brussels district, the by-law ordering the cinema-houses to publish their programmes in Flemish as well as French was not so; very often the manager is innocent of Flemish, and the However, the daily task of insinuation and persuasion is undertaken by the German press. In the first place it lays stress on the great affinity of character, historical past, origin, and language between the Germans and the Flemings (DÜss. Gen. Anz., 4th December, 1914). The Germans must humour the Flemings and make friends with them. One reason why it would not do to treat Belgium more harshly (as had been demanded) is that there is a racial relationship between a portion of the population and that of Germany. There is no Belgian people (Voss. Zeit., 1st March, 1915). Much is made of the distant echoes of the linguistic quarrel (Voss. Zeit., 1st March, 1915; K.Z., 18th March, 1915; Frankf. Zeit., 24th March, 1915; Osswald, Zur Belgischen Frage).—The ill-feeling of the Flemings toward the "purely Walloon" Belgian Government must be fomented (Frankf. Zeit., 24th March, 1915), and also their dislike of the Belgian press printed in the A short story by M. Maurice Sabbe was published in the Berliner Tageblatt on the 25th December, 1914, with an introduction which was peculiarly compromising to the author's patriotic sentiments. His extremely plain reply was as follows:—
This is only a detail in the conflict we are sustaining against invading Germany, but it is a very instructive detail, because it shows that before accepting any assertion on the part of our oppressors we must always ask ourselves how much of it is a lie. The same question arises À propos of a letter written by a Fleming living at LiÉge and speaking "in the name of the Flemish population of LiÉge," which aspires to live under the German domination. By the singularities of his syntax and his orthography this Fleming from LiÉge can only be of German origin (DÜss. Gen. Anz., 11th February, 1915). Once there was even a kind word spoken for the Walloons, vindicating the dignity of their dialects, which are by no means dependent on the French. (It is true this bold assertion comes from Herr Kurd von Strantz.) Inciting the People against the Belgian Government. On the other hand, they hope to detach the Belgian people from its Government. Especially during the siege of Antwerp did they heap effort In the first number he published a detestable letter in which he called upon the Belgian Government at all costs to make peace with Germany. This proceeding was so improper that the N.R.C. even, while reprinting the letter, could not refrain from criticizing it harshly. In No. 4, which appeared on the 4th October, 1914, and which was entirely devoted to an attempt to cause mental anxiety in the people of Brussels, he condemned as unpatriotic "the man who does not rise up to cry to the people of Antwerp that they must cease from this sanguinary, disastrous, and useless While "Aristide" was endeavouring to influence the civil population, aeroplanes were distributing to the Belgian troops in Antwerp circulars, printed in French, and in another language which had a certain resemblance to Flemish; and these strange handbills informed the Belgian soldiers that they had been deceived by their officers and by the authorities; that the Belgian army was fighting for the British and the Russians, etc.
When examples of this circular were brought to us in Brabant, we at first thought it was a hoax. But we had to submit to the evidence; the idea of this proclamation had really been conceived and executed by the Germans. After the fall of Antwerp the campaign continued. Was it not necessary to prevent the Belgians from going to join the Allies in the direction of Flanders? With this end in view, the Germans attempted to As for the defamatory libels which were uttered in November and December, in order to incriminate the conduct of the civil authorities of Antwerp, it is not yet known by whom they were instigated, worded, and distributed; but we have a reasonable conviction that the Germans were not unaware of them. In any case they did what they could to profit by this disagreement, and they also did their best—in vain—to revive the question when the Belgians, by common accord, had settled their differences. But the Germans had not yet given up the idea of fomenting conflicts among us. In an article entitled Belgische Umstimmigkeiten (Change of Temper in Belgium) the KÖlnische Zeitung of the 22nd November, 1914 (2nd morning edition) referred to a telegram from Berlin which stated that news received from Breda (according to the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger) asserted that seven Belgian officers had deserted and had there been interned. To verify this was very difficult, the more so as in November 1914 no postal or telegraphic communication was permitted between Belgium and Holland. The rest of the article informed us that on the 5th November—a fortnight before their desertion—these officers had received from King Albert the Cross of the Order of Leopold: they Inciting the Belgians against the English. It will be remarked that the English always receive a good share of the venomous slime which the Germans, as M. Spitteler says, spit upon the King, the Government, and the Belgian authorities. "England—there is the enemy!" says the Hassgesang Gegen England—i.e. Song of Hatred of England, the work of Herr Ernst Lissauer. It would be tedious to mention all the innumerable articles intended to arouse in us a hatred of England. We may mention the opinion of Dr. Hedin, reproduced on the placard of the 9th November, 1914; the proclamation of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, inserted, for our edification, in Le RÉveil (29th October), as well as the declaration imputed to the Flemish "poet" Cyrid Buysse (placard of 12th December, 1914). But these lovers of truth forgot to announce, a few days later, that M. Buysse denied the truth of the German declaration. A mere instance of forgetfulness, no doubt, unless D.—A Few Details of the Administration of Belgium.The preceding chapter has informed us how the Germans bore themselves towards the inhabitants of the territory occupied in conformity with—or rather in contravention of—Articles 42-56 of the Hague Convention. Treachery and untruthfulness are the chief weapons employed by our enemies. We need not return to the subject. We desire now merely to refer to some details relating to the administration. Details, we said; and in truth we shall consider neither the financial administration of the country, nor its judicial administration, nor its political administration, nor any of the other great cog-wheels essential to the life of a nation. We shall confine ourselves to very simple facts which any one can remark and understand. (a) Present Prosperity in Belgium. There is nothing of which the Germans are more proud than their talent—real or illusory—for organization. Accordingly they professed their intention of re-establishing the normal state of affairs in Belgium, in spite of the war, and they are always informing the whole world that everything has resumed its regular course in our country. Assertions of the German Authorities. Even in his inaugural proclamation (2nd September, 1914), von der Goltz took the trouble of To the numerous obstacles already mentioned we must add one other: the railway-workers and the artisans employed in many of the foundries and workshops of Belgium were perfectly well aware that their labours would principally benefit the Germans, so that by returning to their workshops they would be committing an unpatriotic action. To overcome this passive resistance the Germans multiplied their proclamations in the industrial centres. It was wasted effort. In the meantime the Governor-General, in the vain hope of galvanizing the labour organizations, sent to Germany for well-known Socialists, who, under the pretext of having a chat with the leaders of the trades unions, were really to inculcate the idea that it was their duty to urge a resumption of work. The visits of the German Socialists have been described by M. Dewinne, of Brussels, a militant worker, in the Parisian journal L'HumanitÉ. Infatuated as the Germans might be, they could hardly delude themselves as to the failure of their attempts at subornation. This did not prevent Baron von Bissing from issuing declarations dealing with the situation which were truly touching in their sincerity.
The Parasitical Exploitation of Belgium admitted by Germany. But, you may ask, had not Germany other than military reasons for wishing to revive the economic life of Belgium? A semi-official article in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, which was brought to our cognizance by the DÜsseldorfer General-Anzeiger of the 30th December, 1914, informs us upon this point. The article emanates The Tenfold Tax on Absentees. Many Belgians have left the country. That is easily understood. Those who were present at the massacres of VisÉ, Louvain, Dinant, Termonde ... hastened, in their terror, to abandon those haunts of horror. Those who lived in the towns left intact, such as Brussels and Gand, but who heard people Here are two facts which show how far life was normal in Belgium in the spring of 1915, and how far the Belgian workers were delighted to place themselves at the service of Germany. Railway Traffic in Belgium. (a) An article in the DÜsseldorfer General-Anzeiger of the 19th April, 1915 (morning), asserts that the traffic on the Belgian railways is beginning to revive; indeed, says the writer, there are thirty-eight trains daily leaving the Gare du Nord in Brussels. He exaggerates slightly. Six weeks later, when traffic had become more active, a table, dated the 30th May, 1915, which appeared in the "Belgian" newspaper L'Information, gave the movements of trains in the Gare du Nord and Gare du Midi of Brussels for the month of June. We find that only thirty-four departures are given for the two stations. Thirty-four trains in June 1915—and in June 1914 there were 292. Compare the figures. Trouble with the Artisans of Luttre. (b) The insufficiency of the number of trains is in reality one of the things that most embarrasses the German authorities (see Frank. Zeit., 16th January, 1915, first morning edition). In and about the railway workshops, for example, on the sidings at Luttre, there are hundreds of locomotives out of repair and waiting for attention. But the workers employed in these shops do not intend to work for the Germans. In vain do the latter protest that engines repaired by the Belgians shall be employed only for Belgian traffic. What guarantee have they that the locomotives will not serve to transport German troops, or munitions intended to kill our brothers? Is it not a matter of public notoriety that a contract is merely a scrap of paper? To enable the workers to resist the solicitations of the Germans the necessary relief has been distributed Traffic Suppressed at Malines. At the construction shops of Malines the Germans went a different way to work. There again workers were needed to repair railway material. Three hundred were called for. As they did not present themselves their addresses were obtained, and one fine morning soldiers called at their houses and manu militari led them to the shops. But there How to obtain their submission? The Germans threatened to suppress all traffic in Malines. A singular fashion of punishing workless men who refuse to betray their country, especially after declaring that the only "guilty" persons were those who had organized the collective refusal to work! (La Belgique, 9th June, 1915). But, in accordance with the juridical principle that "the innocent must suffer with the guilty," our enemies punished the market-gardeners of the Malines district and prevented them from sending their cabbages and rhubarb and peas and asparagus to market. After the lapse of some days the Governor-General removed the prohibition. But he did not wish it to seem that he had repented of his decision, however unreasonable the latter might be, so to keep himself in countenance he posted up a statement that a sufficient number of workers had resumed work (placard of 10th June, 1915). However, the Baron von Bissing cannot have been ignorant of the fact that none of the strikers of the Malines workshops had returned; the only workers whom the Germans had been able to recruit were some unemployed persons from Lierre, Boom, and Duffel, who had never set foot in the shops before. As they could not be employed in the manufacture of railway material, they were made to dig trenches in the direction of Wavre-Ste Catherine and Duffel. The workers whom the soldiers led to the shops by force related that their escort begged them not to resume work, because they would then be obliged to leave Malines and to go to the Yser, a prospect which inspired them with the keenest terror. (b) The Germans' Talent for Organization. "The industrial and commercial prosperity" which Belgium is at present enjoying is, of course, due to the Germans' incontestable spirit of organization. "This sense of discipline and order, which the foreigner calls militarism" (Voss. Zeit., 12th February, 1915, morning), has enabled the officers of the reserve to accomplish such wonderful things that Herr Oswald F. SchÜtte, correspondent of the Chicago Daily News (see K.Z., 6th May, 1915, first morning edition) can scarcely find the words to describe them. "We understand," adds the same journalist, "that the Government at Havre does not look with a favourable eye upon the success with which the German administration has once more made life worth living in Belgium." They are certainly something to be wondered at, the officers who are administering our country. Would you have proof? The Belgian officials of the Bridges and Highways Department refused to obey the Germans, so that the latter appointed their engineer officers to direct the work of repairing roads. But the work was naturally carried out by Belgian contractors. On macadamized roads the breaking of stones, which formerly cost from 18 to 22 centimes per square metre (about 2d. per square yard), now costs 60 to 65 centimes. Good business, you will say, for the contractors and their men. But no!—the difference goes into the pockets of the officers. Conflict between Authorities. This method of procedure naturally results in conflicts between the various administrations. We have already related (p. 157) that the city of Brussels Suppression of the Bureau of Free Assessment. In order to give the impression that they alone are capable of re-starting the economic machine in Belgium, the Germans begin by dislocating the existing machinery. Thus, a group of advocates and surveyors created a bureau for the gratuitous assessment of the damage caused by the war to real estate. This body was working to the general satisfaction, when suddenly, in March 1915, the Germans decided to take its place. Now observe their methods. The applicant who wishes the damage suffered by his property to be estimated has to begin by paying a provisional deposit, after which he finds that the costs of the assessment have to be paid out of his own pocket. What this really comes to is this: the Germans, having burned a house and reduced its owner to poverty, demand that the latter shall pay in advance for the evaluation of the damage done. The Belgian Red Cross Committee Suppressed. Another example of the suppression of a body working in a normal manner. As soon as they occupied Brussels the Germans began to meddle in the doings of the Directing Committee of the Red Cross Society, and appointed a delegate to the Society. They then tried to force the Red We should mention that the Central Administration of the Red Cross, sitting in Geneva, decided that the Brussels Committee was in the right. Attempting to justify their illegal attitude, the German authorities established a special journal, La Croix Rouge, Bulletin officiel de la Croix In vain did the Germans endeavour to put the world off the scent as to their intentions. They knew perfectly well that the National Committee of Relief and Alimentation patronized and subsidized without distinction all the benevolent undertakings which applied to it (p. 176). The real aim of our enemies is to supplant the National Committee. This committee is a private institution in which they have no voice, which greatly annoys them; at most they can endeavour to make it believed that the revictualling of Belgium is effected with their assistance. But this, as may be supposed, is not enough for them; their real aim, their unavowed object, is to obtain entire control of the National Committee, in order to exercise there also their talent for organization—or, more precisely, their talent for peculation. The 40,000,000 frs. per month does not sate their appetite. What an indefinite perspective of fleshpots could they only lay hands on the revictualling of Belgium! The whole affair of the Red Cross was conducted with annoying duplicity—annoying even to us, who nevertheless were beginning to grow accustomed to their campaign of lies. For months there were negotiations between the Belgium Managing Committee and the German authorities, represented by the Graf von Hatzfeld-Trachenberg. At each interview the latter brought forth fresh demands on the part of the Governor-General, but he always (c) The Belgian Attitude toward the Germans. Our enemies spread the report that the relations between occupants and inhabitants were greatly improving, and that the Belgians had abandoned their provocative attitude, which was so unpleasant at the outset of the war. They also asserted that by the end of October the people at Antwerp had ceased to display any antipathy towards them (KÖln. Volksz., 30th October, 1914, morning edition). At LiÉge, in Brussels and Antwerp, and at Malines, when an officer addresses a Belgian the latter pretends not to hear (N.R.C., 20th October, 1914, morning edition), or simply states that he has not time to speak to the other; or he replies in Flemish; or else, having affected to listen to him with all the marks of the most exquisite politeness, he leaves the German standing still without replying a word. The ladies more often reply, but it is only to beg the Germans not to speak to them. The officer who asks his way is almost certain to be sent in a contrary direction; while he who climbs on the platform of a tram finds that all the passengers immediately turn their backs upon him; and this rotation is executed with the regularity and precision of a reflex movement. The officer who begs a a passer-by to lend him his cigar that he may obtain a light, sees the other disgustedly throw away the cigar which an enemy has touched. The child whom an officer condescends to caress pushes away his hand with an indignant expression, and makes the ugliest grimace he knows of. In short, they are the objects of universal detestation. Perhaps it will be said that this attitude is peculiar to the towns which have been little or not at all affected by the war. But no! In localities which were largely burned down, such as Aerschot, Eppeghem, Dinant, and Louvain, the population behaves in a manner even more characteristic. At Dinant the children sing at the tops of their voices a Marseillaise with new words, expressly anti-German, in which a good deal is said about pigs. At Louvain some officers who used to amuse themselves with a phonograph which reproduced the record of the song Gloria, Vittoria, had to give up using it in June 1915, because the passers-by accompanied the refrains with other words: Gloria, Italia. At Eppeghem and Aerschot the children play at soldiers, with Not only is the Belgian population far from fraternizing with them, as they try to make the world believe, but it neglects no opportunity of proving that it is animated by very different feelings. It must be confessed that when we openly wear the Belgian or American colours it is with a double object: to advertise our attachment to our country, or our gratitude to America, and also to make the Germans furious. The little celluloid portraits of the King and Queen which one wears in the buttonhole serve the same purposes. After the Germans had imprisoned M. Max in a German prison many people displayed his portrait. This was extremely disagreeable to our enemies (KÖln. Volksz., 30th September, 1914, morning edition); but precisely for that reason people persisted in wearing the little medallion until the German police demanded its forcible removal. When the Governor-General, in the interviews which he granted the correspondents of the N.A.Z. and the Berliner Tageblatt, pretended to regard the wearing of the Belgian or American colours as a piece of childish mischief, he was simply trying to put them off the scent, for he of all people had no illusions as to the significance of the ribbons which the Belgians are wearing in their buttonholes. This significance was as follows: The Germans Other Germans try to deceive their compatriots as to the feeling of the Belgians for their oppressors. Here is what Herr Walter Nissen says, the Bruxelles correspondent of the DÜss. Gen.-Anz. (23rd July, 1915):
Is this incurable blindness? Is it an ineradicable spirit of falsehood? Does Herr Nissen really doubt the sincerity of our anti-German manifestations? During the months he has lived in our midst he must have discovered that we do, systematically, everything we can to displease the Germans, until they issue decrees of prohibition. Here is a last trait which can leave no one in doubt as to the feelings of the Belgians. In March 1915 the German authorities organized a concert in the ThÉÂtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. There were only three known Belgians present, among them a professor (d) Behaviour of the German Administration. The preceding pages have already informed the reader that the Germans have not accustomed us to look for either gentleness or sincerity. But hitherto we have not insisted on their administrative procedure, which nevertheless deserves examination. But first let us picture to ourselves the mental condition of the Belgians since August 1914. Cut off from all intellectual relations with foreign countries, we receive independent newspapers only in secret, at the peril of our liberty, or even of our lives. Every day, on the other hand, the newspapers, mutilated by the censorship, printing only the news—often false—which is favourable to the Germans, are instilling their slow poison into our brains. No matter: the people still repulse all attempts to foment disunion and demoralization; they pull their belts a little tighter rather than go to work for the enemy; they continue, to the last, to display our colours; in short, they have retained, unshaken and unshakable, their faith in our just cause and the final victory. The German newspapers are full of admiring articles describing the firmness of mind evinced by the German people, for they, too, consent to certain privations to ensure the success of their arms. Wonderful! The German people are unfailingly encouraged by their newspapers, their pastors and priests, their schoolmasters and professors, and by lectures and innumerable pamphlets. Everything that might cause their resolution to falter is carefully Here, then, is a population which is systematically refused the least item of comforting information, but which, on the other hand, is treated prodigally to everything of a nature to demoralize it; a population which, in order not to sink into despair, has to make an effort every moment of the day; a country in which it is strictly forbidden to do anything to encourage those who may suffer from a temporary depression, or to sustain and reassure those who feel themselves threatened. Is it not obvious that such pitiful psychologists as the Germans will resort to intimidation to reduce this population to their mercy? Everything is magnified into an offence, and all offences are punished by the heaviest penalties; the Germans even going so far as to threaten with death him who spreads "false news"—that is to say, who communicates news to his fellow-citizens which is displeasing to the Germans. The Appeal to Informers. The placards already cited show amply the diversity of the offences which may be committed, and the punishments which may be inflicted. But we must not forget those notices which order the inhabitants, often on pain of death, to inform against those persons who possess arms; to denounce those who are believed to be strangers to the commune; and those suspected of acting in a manner contrary to the orders of the German authorities. Here are some of these notices:
Those who are believed to be strangers; those who are suspected of acting contrary to orders ... it The most abominable thing which the Germans have conceived in this respect is that they encourage the denunciation of militia-men by their fathers, mothers, wives, or sisters. It is a principle admitted by all civilized nations—and also, no doubt, by Germany—that the Courts definitely abstain from evoking a conflict between the paternal and maternal instinct and the duty owed to justice. It is considered that it would be revoltingly inhuman to force a father or mother to bear witness against a son. Sophocles, in the Antigone, ranks this prejudice among "the immutable laws, unwritten, which are from all eternity." Now, in Belgium, when a young man leaves his family to rejoin the Belgian army, the German authorities enjoin upon his parents, his brother, or his sister, the duty of denouncing the absent man; in other words, his father or his mother—yes, we said his mother—must deliver up the son because he is doing his duty toward his country (notice of the 9th April, 1915). And the Germans are not content with threats. If the Germans forget their promises, at least they scrupulously carry their threats into execution. At Hasselt they imprisoned a woman whose son had rejoined the Belgian army (p. 152). At Namur they have on many occasions punished the parents of soldiers who had not committed the crime of denouncing them. And not content with inflicting these disgraceful penalties—disgraceful to those who impose them—they have forced L'Ami de l'Ordre to give publicity to these sentences, to the number of ten or more. Here are the details of one sentence:
Assuredly for the Germans the word "humanity" is void of meaning; they have replaced it by "Germanity." No doubt they regard maternal love among the Belgians as being of an essence so inferior that they need not take it into account. Yet in order not to wound the sensibilities of their own soldiers, nor those of their "brothers by race," the Flemings, they omitted any mention of mothers in the German and Flemish texts of their notice of the 4th April. As we have already stated, they feel that they need not observe towards the feelings of the Belgians—and above all of the Walloons—the same consideration as is shown towards those of the Germans. German Espionage. Informing cannot exist without espionage. Now we know that the Germans are past masters in this art. Every one of our towns has been favoured by a swarm of spies, male and female. In the streets, on the promenades, in the cafÉs, in the trams Agents-provocateurs or "Traps." A close espionage surrounds those who undertake the carrying of letters or the introduction of newspapers. In this case the spies work principally by means of "traps"—agents-provocateurs. A spy introduces himself to the person suspected of dealing with correspondence; he pretends he has a letter to send or receive. If the suspect listens to him, a picket of soldiers and policemen arrives on the following day to make a search. Other spies will speak in the street to a seller of newspapers; they will ask for a French or English journal, and scarcely has the vendor taken the forbidden journal from his pocket than a hand falls upon his collar. It is also by means of "traps" that the Germans catch those who enable our militia to escape from the country. A young man, of the proper age, goes One step further along the path of the informer, the spy, and the "trap," and we come to means whose ignominy is such that even the Germans themselves are forced to admit their dishonesty. Thus, at LiÉge most of the letter-boxes on the house-doors are closed by means of nails. Why? At the end of 1914 many citizens of LiÉge used to receive Le Courrier de la Meuse, a newspaper edited and printed at Maestricht by Belgian refugees. There was no great mystery about its distribution; the paper was simply slipped into the letter-box. But the German agents spied on the vendors, and having done so, searched the houses at which the newspaper was delivered. The subscriber, of course, was condemned to pay a fine. Did part of this go to the spy? It is probable; in any case it was not long before the spies were importing Le Courrier de la Meuse in order themselves to place it in the letter-boxes of well-to-do houses. A search conducted immediately revealed the prohibited article, and, At FerriÈres, near Jemelle, worse than this was done. A German priest pretended that the curÉ of FerriÈres had repeated, before a witness, a private conversation held some hours earlier. Moreover, he wanted to garble the conversation. The abbÉ's action was repugnant in such a degree that even Baron von Bissing himself was a little uneasy about the matter, and revoked the punishment awarded to the Belgian. While the mission of the spies and agents-provocateurs—including the abbÉs-provocateurs or ecclesiastical "traps"—was to procure the condemnation to various penalties of as many Belgians as possible, other "agents" in the pay of Germany commenced a vast inquiry, in order to prove, in the face of the evidence itself, the crimes of the "francs-tireurs." Well!—in spite of all the manoeuvres of spies and provocateurs and the inquirers themselves, in spite of the personal rancour which impelled a few rare Belgians to become the accomplices of the Germans, and to denounce, in a spirit of vengeance, certain of their fellow-citizens, never did the Germans succeed in mentioning a single name, not one single name, of a Belgian civilian accused of having fired upon the German troops. We say expressly "accused," and not "convicted," to show that nowhere, in village or provincial town, although petty rivalry is so acute, and although informers, even though anonymous, would have been welcomed with joy by the Germans, nowhere was any one found to assert that a Belgian civilian had fired on the German troops. No, it was so improbable, so manifestly false, that not even the most miserable of wretches would have dreamed of formulating such a calumny. The Germans wanted to make us believe that anonymous letters were pouring in upon them, but that they, as upright administrators, refused to follow up these accusations (Declaration, 4th May, 1915). Obviously a lie. We know them capable of themselves fabricating these anonymous accusations, simply to cause the Belgians mental uneasiness, and to give rise to mutual suspicion. This is yet another attempt to cause dissension. For the rest, they have since then admitted that they have invited denunciation. Worse than this: denunciation is enough to procure condemnation; it is not necessary for the offence to be proved.
We should never come to an end were we to mention all the tricks and shifts that enter into their methods of administration. We will confine ourselves to relating one or two more. According to the Hague Convention, the functionaries of an occupied territory who remain at their posts must declare that they will undertake nothing, and will refrain from everything, that may be contrary to the interests of the occupier. Note two essential points: it is only the officials who are required to sign this agreement, and they undertake to refrain from anything that may be hurtful to the occupier. Now in January 1915 the German administration of Namur wished to force the entire male population of the canton of ÉghezÉe between the ages of eighteen and forty to sign the following declaration:—
In certain communes the inhabitants, meaning well and imperfectly informed as to their rights and duties, signed this declaration, which is an improper one, as it was required of all the inhabitants, and not only of the officials; moreover, it made the signatories promise to prevent what was injurious to the Germans, not merely to refrain from it. Up to a certain point, therefore, all the inhabitants were obliged to place themselves at the service of the German authorities. Some burgomasters refused to allow the document to be signed as it stood. They added, on their own authority, the following sentence:—
The Germans did not accept this addition; they proposed a new form of words:—
In many villages the people again refused to sign. Men between 18 and 40 years of age cannot The German administration falsely invoked the Hague Convention of 1907 in addressing the peasants, who doubtless did not even know the Convention by name, and it tried twice over to take advantage of their good faith. It is not surprising that the inhabitants of the province of Namur should have become suspicious, so that they would not willingly put their names to any paper presented by the Germans. In May it was only after long negotiations and threats that the young men of Rhisnes and Emines signed their identification cards, which, according to the Germans, "imposed no engagement on the signatory." We have not ourselves seen the wording of this card, so we cannot speak as to its tenor; but it is curious that the Germans should be so insistent upon the signing of a card having so little significance. They also wished to impose, on the civic guard of Rhisnes and Emines, the engagement that they would no longer bear arms against Germany. More than half the men refused, and were sent as prisoners of war to Germany.
Let us look into this case. In the first place, there never was a civic guard at Rhisnes nor at Emines, so that it is absolutely fraudulent to give this title to all the male adult inhabitants; and since they have not been civic guards they have never borne arms against Germany, and cannot therefore engage to cease doing so. Here again appears the German duplicity in all its beauty. The men of Rhisnes and Emines assure But in the communiquÉ provided by the German authorities and published in La Belgique on the 5th June, our enemies recognize that the document said "no longer bear arms." However, a German communiquÉ is never entirely truthful; and this one forms no exception to the rule. Conforming to the truth in this respect, it departs from it in another. It says, in effect, that the men of Rhisnes "regarded themselves as still belonging to the Belgian Army." What absurdity! They refused to sign precisely because the Germans wished to make them say that they did belong to the Army! In August and September 1914 the Germans were sending Belgians into Germany as civil prisoners; in May 1915 they were sending them as prisoners of war. The difference is important, since the Hague Convention states that the cost of maintenance of war prisoners falls upon their country of origin, but that it is not speaking of civil prisoners. This is why the civilians of Rhisnes and Emines went to Germany as prisoners of war, as did the curÉ and the vicar of Cortemarck (p. 72). We have already cited (p. 233) one case of premeditated abuse of a signature. Here is another: In October 1914 the German authorities of Mont St.-Guibert (between Ottignies and Trembloux) had the following placard posted:—
This placard threatens penalties, even shooting, for the failure to attend at the railway-station; moreover, the offender's family is of course held responsible. So far it is commonplace enough. We will say nothing as to the grade of officer who thus disposes of the lives of citizens—he is a sergeant; but we know that the humblest German soldier possesses every right. What does rather surpass the usual level German administrative procedure is the fact that the burgomaster, whose name figures at the bottom of the placard, knew nothing of the latter until it was posted. The To give a complete idea of the administrative methods employed by the Germans against our country, it will be as well rapidly to describe how they behaved in a certain locality immediately after proceeding against the "francs-tireurs." Hitherto we have dealt only with places where they did not have to carry out "reprisals." We will now select Andenne, on account of the particularly savage character of the "repression" which drenched this unhappy town with blood and fire. Here are the facts in their tragic sequence:— The German patrol which penetrated into the town on the 19th August, 1914, went straight to the house of the communal receiver and seized the funds: 2,232 frs. On the following day the bulk of the troops arrived. That evening, between 6 and 9 p.m., a very sharp fusillade broke out. Immediately the civilians were accused of having fired, and the troops began to shoot down the inhabitants and burn the houses. On the following morning—the 21st August—all the inhabitants not yet shot were driven into the Place des Tilleuls. The men were herded on one side, the women on the other. From time to time Major Scheunemann, who commanded the operations, had a few men shot, sometimes before the whole population, sometimes a little apart. During the morning the soldiers dragged the corpse of the burgomaster, Dr. Camus, into the Place. As soon as Major Scheunemann learned of the death of the first magistrate, he appointed as burgomaster M. de Jaer, who was one of the group of persons waiting We will confine ourselves, as regards the events which followed the burning and the massacre, to reprinting the placard posted at Andenne during the first ten days of the occupation:—
One word as to these placards. Placard of the 21st August.—The men are all regarded as hostages; the women have to feed them; they also have to clean up the town. Placard of the 22nd August.—The military authorities declare, on the 22nd of August, that Andenne, where the "attacks of francs-tireurs" were repressed during the night of the 20th and the morning of the 21st, is already regarded by the whole civilized world as "a nest of murderers and bandits." It offers a reward of 500 to 1000 frs. to any one who will denounce the author of the plot. It also promises, to excite the zeal of the informers, that the severe measures in force will be mitigated as soon as the leaders are discovered. (No one was denounced.) 1st Placard of the 23rd August.—This announces the great victory between Sarrebourg and Metz: 21,000 French prisoners were taken. (An attempt to demoralize the population.) Note that the Wolff Agency reported only 10,000 prisoners; where did Major Scheunemann find the other 11,000? 2nd Placard of the 23rd August.—The Germans are attending to the revictualling of Andenne. (In reality the people of Andenne were starving.) Placard of the 25th August.—The German administration is strict, but just. (The people of Andenne had noticed the severity.) 1st Placard of the 28th August.—Once again the inhabitants are urged to remain calm, and are congratulated on their good conduct. (The burgomaster was forced to countersign this proclamation. Had he seen it first?) 2nd Placard of the 28th August.—The German time is made compulsory. Assemblies of more than three persons are prohibited. If arms are found in a house their owner will be hanged. At the least disturbance, the complete burning of the town and the hanging of the men. 1st Placard of the 30th August.—The German troops, having pillaged Andenne and shot down its inhabitants, now shout "Hurrah for Andenne!" Then a fresh appeal to informers. 2nd Placard of the 30th August.—The German authorities now promise to make an inquiry if there is another revolt. (This inquiry would have been a novelty.) We may be brief, for the cruel character of Kultur is so obvious, and appears so plainly from the documents cited, that it would be idle to insist upon it. If it were necessary to justify our aversion, we need only remark that the cruelties recorded were systematically premeditated. Do not the Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege (Usages of War on Land according to the Great General Staff) state that the observation of these usages is not "guaranteed by any sanction other than the fear of reprisals," and that the officer, the child of his age, carried away by the moral tendencies which affect his country, must protect himself "against exaggerated humanitarian ideas," and must realize that "the only true So that the officer shall be in no danger of forgetting the spirit in which he should conceive his relations with the enemy population, he carries some such aid to memory as the Tornister-WÖrterbuch. If he has letters or proclamations to draft, he has recourse to L'InterprÈte Militaire of Captain von Scharfenort, professor and librarian at the Academy of War in Berlin. M. Waxweiler (in La Belgique Neutre et Loyale, p. 265) has already drawn attention to the cruel and odious character of this vade-mecum, so we will not enlarge upon it. It was after consulting L'InterprÈte Militaire that a certain placard posted in Belgium in the August of 1914 was drafted. It gives no details as to the "lugubrious cruelties"; it applies both to towns and villages; it speaks of the "mayor" instead of the "burgomaster"; it is neither dated nor signed; in short, it presents all the characteristics of an "emergency placard," drafted beforehand.
The appeal to brutality comes from above. In 1900 the whole world shuddered at the advice which Wilhelm II gave the expeditionary corps setting out for China. "Follow the example of the Huns," cried the Kaiser. Why, then, do the Germans profess to be annoyed when compared to-day with the soldiers of Attila—or when their motto is spelt Gott mit Huns? A German lieutenant, whose military note-book we have had before us, does full justice to his companions. After the massacre and burning of Ottignies on the 20th August, 1914, he wrote as follows (we translate):—
Very suggestive too is the placard of the 26th April, 1915, in which Baron von Bissing informs us that according to Mr. Fox, an American journalist, the Germans have committed no useless "cruelties." Then there are useful cruelties? Really the Governor-General, who seems to know his subject, ought to publish a table differentiating the various qualities of cruelty. But a thing that does surprise us is that the virus of cruelty should already have contaminated civilians—I mean the Catholic members of the Reichstag. Herr Erzberger, the same who asserted, and who perhaps is asserting still, that the Belgians invaded Germany on the 2nd August, wrote what are perhaps the most coldly ferocious words imaginable: "Above all, no sentimentality!" (N.R.C., 6th February, 1916, evening edition). Such advice bore fruit, as we shall discover when we come to examine, in succession, the physical and moral tortures in which our executioners delight. But first let us cite a few examples of aggravations. By that we mean acts of malice which do not endanger the life or reason of the victims, but which reveal, perhaps the more clearly for that, the desire to torment. 1. Aggravations.A general remark occurs to us at once: it is that the Germans have failed in their object. For instead of exasperating us to the point of forcing us to Nothing better shows the contrast between the German mentality and the Belgian than the manner in which we have obeyed the decree concerning the German time. After only a week's occupation the inhabitants of Andenne were obliged to set their clocks to the German time. At Namur, too, this was required from the 31st August. Elsewhere the German time was enforced only at a much later date, and only in respect of the clocks in cafÉs. Many cabaret-keepers merely stopped their clocks; others had fitted a second small hand, an hour in retard of the first; others wrote beneath the clock "German Time," or even "This clock is an hour fast." In the window of a Brussels watchmaker, in the midst of many clocks which indicated more or less precisely the German time, was one which was specially labelled "Correct Time"—and that one told, of course, the Belgian time. In short, every one did what he could to avoid letting his customers regard the German time as the true time. And really, if one has adopted, as is the case in Germany and in Belgium, the system of hourly segments, it is obvious that Belgium ought to form part of the segment of Western Europe, not part of that of Eastern Europe. It is, therefore, solely in a spirit of aggravation that Germany forces her time upon Treatment inflicted upon Belgian Ladies. What do you think of the additional suffering inflicted on ladies condemned to several weeks' imprisonment for having conveyed letters from Belgian soldiers to the parents of those soldiers, or for speaking a little too boldly before an officer, or for some other crime of a like nature? It is a delicate idea to shut them up in common with half a score of other prisoners, in a room containing no convenience but a pail furnished with a cover. They are lucky if the company does not include some very dubious characters. We need not insist: these are aggravations, not serious at bottom, but their irritating nature can only be fully appreciated when one suffers them daily, or hears them described by friends or relatives who have been their victims. After the examples of collective and impersonal malfeasance dictated by some high officer desirous of justifying the fair fame of Kultur, we will take those cases in which the personality of the author clearly reveals itself, and, let us say at once, in which this personality instantly excites the disgust and indignation of all merely civilized persons. The Germans reached Capelle-au-Bois on the 30th August. But on the 31st they were repulsed by Belgian troops. On the 4th September they returned in force and forced back the Belgians; not without difficulty, however, for they had many At the same period the Germans established a few miles further to the west, at Londerzeel, pillaged and then burned the house of the notary, M. Van Hover. They had tried in vain to open the safe, so, furious at their failure, they poured benzine into it and set fire to it, procuring at least the satisfaction of knowing that all the papers would be reduced to ashes. What are we to think of the officer who, lodging in the house of a curÉ in the province of Antwerp, found it amusing to tear pages from the books which formed his host's library, or to gum them together, so that in seeking to separate them the Filthy Amusements. Others preferred to defile things. When in August and September 1914 we were told that the Germans were amusing themselves by depositing ordure in their beds we refused to believe in such perversion. But a walk through Eppeghem, Sempst, and Weerde was enough to enlighten us. Not only had they emptied all the houses, rich or poor; not only had they taken the trouble to smash into quite small pieces all the glass and crockery they could not carry away; not only, in the grocers' shops, had they delighted themselves by mixing snuff with the butter, and tacks with the cloves, and pepper with the flour, but all the bedding bore the malodorous traces of their visit. Let it not be imagined that this mania of beastliness is peculiar to the common soldiers. The officers who spent the night of the 19th August, 1915, at Cortenburg, between Louvain and Brussels, were infected by the same Kultur. In a certain house they carefully laid the table in the dining-room, without forgetting the serviettes, and then deposited a souvenir on every plate. In another house in Cortenburg they chose, as a receptacle, the tall hat of the householder. In the chÂteau of Malderen (Brabant), having taken all that pleased them and broken the rest into small pieces, they opened a card-table, deposited their excrement there, and carefully closed it again. Another manifestation of the scatological mania: Many hundreds of German Army surgeons met in congress during the Easter holidays of 1915, in Brussels. On the last day of the congress, Wednesday, the 7th April, a banquet was held, on the premises of the Palais de Justice. On the Thursday morning it was discovered that the surgeons had left souvenirs behind them; they had evacuated the surplus of food and liquor consumed by the three natural orifices, and had chosen for their purpose the most beautiful halls of the Palais. Frankly, we should not have expected this from the doctors; it is true, however, that they were German military doctors. A man amuses himself as he can—or, to put it more plainly, according to his mentality. After all, these beastly habits, disgusting as they are, are not those whose results are most disagreeable. There are others who seek violent contrasts. Thus, at Houtem, while the church was burning, on the 13th September, 1914, a military band was playing its liveliest selections at a few yards' distance. At Monceau-sur-Sambre, on the 22nd August, officers were playing the piano in the chÂteau of the demoiselles Bourriez, on the Trazegnies road, when the soldiers had already lit the upper floors. At Louvain, on the 25th August, 1914, in a cafÉ near the railway-station, soldiers set fire to the upper floor without warning the proprietor, and remained below, where they kept a mechanical piano going. They were thus able to enjoy the despairing expressions of the inmates when they discovered that they could no longer hope to save anything. 2. Physical Tortures.We shall not here refer to the innumerable cases of torture cited in the Reports of the Commission of Inquiry, nor those reported in Nothomb's La Belgique Martyre. We will confine ourselves to facts of which we have personal knowledge. The Germans will, of course, seek to deny them. So it is as well to begin by a declaration of their own. VorwÄrts, on the 23rd August, 1914 (the very day on which the chief atrocities were committed in the Dinant district), protested against the proposal made by a German officer, not to kill francs-tireurs outright, but to wound them mortally and leave them to die slowly in agony, while forbidding any one to go to their assistance. What to our mind is even graver than the proposition itself is the fact that the Deutsches Offizierblatt accepted it as quite a natural thing.
The Fate of the Valkenaers Family. One of the most horrible tragedies of this war was the massacre of the Valkenaers family, at Thildonck, on the 26th August, 1914, while Louvain was burning. Because they had not prevented the Belgian soldiers from utilizing their farms as points of support, the members of the two Valkenaers households were shot down in cold blood. Of these fourteen unfortunate people three were grievously wounded and seven killed. The better to amuse themselves, the Germans forced the elder of the young girls to wave a sort of flag. During the preceding night (that of the 25th August), in Louvain, they had savagely mangled the corpse of a young woman. On the afternoon of the 25th, being still in the immediate neighbourhood, at Bueken, they had seized the curÉ and cut off his nose and ears before giving him the coup de grÂce (p. 238). At the same time began the torture of the curÉ of Pont-BrÛlÉ, to end only on the 26th. At Elewijt, on the 27th, they amused themselves by amputating the hands of four men—the three brothers Van der Aa and FranÇois Salu. A little further to the east the first German troops who had passed through Schaffen, near Diest, on the 13th or 14th August, had there tortured the blacksmith Broeden. All day long he had laboured, shoeing the horses of the enemy's cavalry. Early in the evening he repaired to the church, with the sacristan, with the object of saving some precious articles which had not been placed in security. He was surprised by the soldiery and seized. Successively the Germans broke his wrists, his In other parts of the country also the most varied tortures. At Spontin, near Dinant, on the 23rd August, 1914, they pierced the curÉ and the burgomaster with bayonet-wounds until death ensued; but first they had bound each man with a strong cord, drawn violently tight round the waist by the combined efforts of two soldiers. It must be supposed that the officer who presided over the "severities" at Spontin had quite a special affection for cords, for having taken alive some 120 inhabitants of the place (the rest were killed, shot down while they were trying to escape), he had them all tied together by the wrists and conveyed them towards Dorinn; but many were shot before reaching that village. On the same day, in Dinant prison, a soldier strangled a baby in the arms of its mother because it was crying too loud. At Sorinnes, still in the Dinant district, and on the same day, Jules and Albert Houzieaux were burned alive. At Aiseau, on the 21st August, the Germans shut two men into a house, to which they set fire. But At Hofstade chance favoured them better; they threw Victor de Coster, whom they had just stripped, into the furnace provided by his own house; his servant shared his fate. We must suppose that the Germans take great pleasure in the contortions of the hanged. Herr Heymel had to content himself with admiring the corpse of a priest swinging in a tree; and his friend, Herr Klemm, was careful to devote, to the memory of this comforting spectacle, a drawing, published in Kunst und KÜnstler (January 1915). Herr Heymel expresses his great satisfaction before this spectacle; but what pleasure he would have experienced could he have witnessed the hanging of the men whom the Germans boast of having hanged to the trees of the Herve district; or could he have assisted to hang that inhabitant of Èvelette, whom the soldiers put to death at Andenne, on the 20th; or the cabaret-keeper who was strung up to a lantern before the Louvain railway-station, on the night of the 26th; but our fastidious littÉrateur would have tasted the keenest delight at Arlon, when an old man was put to death; he remained hanging for hours, with his feet just grazing the soil (p. 351). The Germans, perhaps, will say—supposing they think they ought to excuse themselves—that these executions were carried out as a result of the attacks of francs-tireurs, or after the mutilation of the German wounded by Belgian civilians. But it will be impossible for them to allege these lies as circumstances extenuating the inhuman treatment which they inflicted upon Belgian soldiers at the 3. Moral Tortures. The physical tortures which the Germans have inflicted upon us cannot rival their methods of moral torture. In these they have achieved refinements worthy of the inventive genius of an Edgar Allan PoË. Moral Torture before Execution. To force those about to be shot to dig their own graves, as they did at Tavigny, At Dinant, during the bloody days of the 23rd and 24th August, they invented many other moral tortures. On the morning of the 23rd they shot, in a meadow of the Fonds de Leffe, a group of thirteen men. But instead of leading them all together before the firing platoon, they cunningly prolonged their pleasure; the thirteen unfortunates were tied, in succession, to the same tree, and shot down one by one. The whole of the 23rd was consecrated, in the Fonds de Leffe, to killing the men in small batches of half a dozen; these were shot either before their wives and children, or at a short distance, but within earshot, so that the family should lose none of the groans of the dying. When, later on, the women and children were shut up in a windmill, having first been marched in front of the corpses, the Germans allowed themselves the distraction of lighting fires before the windows from time to time, in order to make the women believe that they were about to be burned alive with their children, and to delight in their anguish. While men were being shot in the Fonds de Leffe, horrible massacres were being committed at Leffe and at Dinant, at only a few minutes' distance. Here, too, men were shot before their families—for example, Victor Poncelet and Charles Naus—and the survivors were forced to pass through the midst of the corpses. The officers, too, devised more complicated diversions; for instance, allowing a group of women and children to escape into the mountains, in order to shoot them down from a distance. A moral torture commonly employed is that which consists in making people believe that they are going to be killed. All the inhabitants of Sorinnes were Pretended executions and threats of execution were everywhere in common usage. At WÉpion, near Namur, on the 23rd August, 1914 (the day of the Dinant horrors), the Germans packed the women into boats, and told them to row into the middle of the Meuse. They took aim at them several times; then, having sufficiently amused themselves, they allowed them to return to the bank. On the 28th September, 1914, a group of civil prisoners from the north of Brabant were going towards the railway-station, whence they left for Germany. The procession was preceded by a military band, which played funeral marches, so that they were convinced that they were being led to execution. Two citizens of Brussels, taking a walk on Sunday, the 30th August, ventured as far as Koningsloo, in the suburbs. They were seized by German sentinels, and imprisoned at the post. From time to time an under-officer approached them, held his revolver under their noses, and grimaced at them: "Ah, ah, walk's over, walk's done!" (Fini, promenade!). One of the prisoners asked the guard Sectional execution—execution by small groups—under the eyes of those awaiting their fate, was applied on a large scale at Arlon. On the 26th August, 123 (or 118, or 127) inhabitants of Rossignol and neighbouring localities were taken thither, and were killed in groups of ten or twelve. Madame Hurieaux was reserved for the last; she saw her husband and all her companions in misfortune perish first; and she died crying "Vive la Belgique! Vive la France!" It will be of interest to reproduce here the narrative of a medical student who was present at the executions which took place at Arlon. It may be taken as a sample, so to speak, of the German procedure: massacre and incendiarism, with no previous inquiry; the most varied moral and physical tortures; capricious condemnation or liberation of prisoners; pillage of the communal funds, etc.
But whatever the moral sufferings inflicted on those who were executed, the tortures which the Germans applied to those against whom no accusation was brought were a hundred times more atrocious. Think of the martyrdom of Mme. Cambier, of Nimy, who was forced to tread on her son's brains; and the sufferings of the innumerable men and women of whom the Germans made a living shield, at Anseremme, Mons, Tournai, and Charleroi (p. 195). As to Charleroi, here is a detail not recorded by Herr Heymel. The prisoners collected at Jumet and Odelissert were tied in couples by the wrists, to prevent them from trying to escape when the French should fire on them. Moreover, they had to walk with their hands raised. When, by reason of fatigue, they dropped their arms, the soldiers struck them with the butts of their rifles. We know a man who was thus placed before the German troops, who saw one of his relatives killed at his side, and two of the latter's sons. He himself received three bullets, one in the right wrist, one in the left arm, and the third under the chin. He escaped, but is lamed for life. Imagine also the tortures suffered by the civil prisoners who, in defiance of all justice, were sent Make no mistake: the case of Lebbeke is far from being exceptional. All the civil prisoners were Another horrible torture consists in the suppression of communications between the Belgian soldiers and their parents. Since mid-October 1914 all connections have been severed between the Belgian army which is fighting on the Yser and the Belgians remaining in Belgium. Those who seek to establish communication between the Belgian soldiers and their relatives are spied out and sentenced.
Since the spring of 1915 the posts have been operating between Belgium and Holland, so that those few privileged persons who have a correspondent in Holland might thus indirectly obtain news if the Germans had authorized correspondence through an intermediary. But they have strictly forbidden it (pp. 22-3). They could easily organize a Here is quite another kind of moral torture. The Germans are fond of leading small groups of Belgian prisoners through the streets of Brussels at moments when the latter are as busy as possible: for instance, on Sunday afternoons. One can imagine the humiliation of the poor soldiers exposed to the curiosity of the crowd; but it delights their guardians. It was evidently the desire to enjoy, simultaneously, the misery of the prisoners and the impotent anger of the spectators which led the Germans, at the time of their entry into Louvain on the 19th August, and into Brussels on the 20th, to place a few Belgian countrymen, with their hands tied behind their backs, at the head of their columns. In ancient Rome captives used to walk before the triumphal car of the conqueror. Do not the Germans realize how utterly this practice is contrary to the humane principles enjoined by Article 4 of the Hague Convention? We must suppose that they do not; for
Impossible, it will be said, to invent tortures yet more diabolic. But no, when it is a question of doing evil, Kultur can surpass itself. Imagine the mentality of the person who sent to M. Brostens, of Antwerp, the identity-disc of his son, who was taken prisoner. And imagine the inward joy of the sender in picturing the parents' despair on receiving the medal!
Here, perhaps, the culprit was an uncultivated soldier. But what are we to think of the mentality of Baron von der Goltz, when he informs us by placard that a record is kept in a register of all aggressions against the German army, and that the localities in which such attacks have taken place may expect to receive their punishment?
When one learns on what ultra-trivial hints the German troops have based their condemnation of the inhabitants, one may conclude that not a commune will escape repression. It was evidently this generalized terror which the Governor wished to inspire. He, too, wished to have the pleasure of inflicting moral torture. To give point to the contrast between the mentality of our oppressors and our own, between their Kultur and our civilization, we should like to reproduce a letter in which a young girl, living in Gand, invited Belgian women to enter the hospitals for the purpose of assisting the wounded, Germans as well as our own, to write to their families. Committees of this kind were immediately constituted, notably in Brussels.
Finally, to close with, here is a numerical example which, better than any reasoning, gives you the Kultur of the German Army to the life:— On the morning of Sunday, the 23rd August, 1914, the population of Fonds de Leffe (a suburb of Dinant) comprised 251 men and boys, including some fifteen inhabitants of neighbouring communes whom the Germans had dragged away with them. By the evening of the following day 243 had been put to death: none of those taken was spared; the eight who escaped the massacre had succeeded in fleeing. "Happily"—we were told by a woman whose father, husband, and four brothers-in-law were massacred—"happily many of the men had left for the army and were fighting on the Yser. A strange war, in which the soldiers are less exposed than the children, the old folks, and the sick who are left at home!" |
|
