In September, when matters were much harder than we suspected for the Central Powers, a new voice came from the monster’s mouth—or rather a still more pitiful, soft-hearted cry for poor suffering humanity!—from these people who, after two thousand years of civilization that had gained for them so high a place in the world, had revived, without cause, the treachery and barbarity that had made them odious to and distrusted by Cæsar; who committed crimes in 1914-15 and 1916 that will haunt the world’s memory for ever! What a mockery must those German pleas for humanity have appeared to the people of Tamines, Aerschot, Louvain, and other districts of Belgium still grieving for those ruthlessly murdered, still morally suffering from the horrors to which they were unjustly subjected!
Heart-rending pictures were given of fair towns destroyed in the valley of the Somme; of their homeless and perishing inhabitants; of beautiful historic edifices wrecked by the “folly of the French bombarding their own cities”—those centres of a hostile Power that had not hesitated to commit any outrage in its vainglorious and frantic rush for Paris! No murmur of regret had escaped the success-intoxicated legions who advanced, with comparative ease, from the ruins of innocent Belgian towns, leaving devastation and despair behind them! No pang of remorse then made them hesitate to slaughter guiltless citizens, and bury them in heaps, sometimes before life was extinct, or to crucify their first British prisoners—a fact I was later assured was true, by an English soldier who had seen the bodies!
But now that the avenging armies, overcoming obstacles such as the Germans never had to face, were uprooting them from the strongholds prepared during four years, the despotic song of victory through frightfulness suddenly became a whine of compassion, a childish and stupid wail for peace! No outsider could have been more infuriated at this than those in Brussels who had suffered under the despot’s hand and witnessed the vileness of his deeds. Again and again long articles appeared in our papers, trying to induce the cold and famished Belgians to add their impotent appeal for a cessation of hostilities, and to impress them with the suddenly developed Christian spirit of Germany! This failing, an attempt was made at terrorization. Photographs of ruined towns in France were exhibited, showing the homeless inhabitants flying for their lives. The papers gave highly coloured accounts of the general destruction, misery, and horror on the scene of each battle, as the price of every step in advance made by the Allies. The same fate was predicted for Belgium, should the unlikely happen, and the invincible German forces find it expedient to retire to one of their many well-prepared strongholds in that country. (The prospect of a German defeat was represented as too improbable to deserve contemplation.) At one time an account appeared describing the inevitable destruction of Brussels, should the Germans ever be driven back on it. In such a case, it was stated officially, Brussels was to be “the bouquet of the whole war.” Added to all this, quotations equally disheartening were printed from English papers. One, purporting to be from The New Statesman, was given on 2nd October as follows: “The Germans will certainly draw back their front to rectify it. But at a very short distance behind, they possess lines that form a solid base and, if able to hold it, they will not have lost more territory than they occupied at the beginning of 1918. And even supposing Douai and Cambrai should be lost to them, the experience of years must guard us against exaggerated optimism.” “Above all,” it finishes, “one can reasonably affirm that Hindenburg and Ludendorf have not absolutely renounced the idea of a counter offensive. For the moment, they relinquish territory, but their retreat is methodic, and we should greatly deceive ourselves to imagine it excludes the possibility of their launching a vigorous counter attack, when the Anglo-French assault will have come to an end through exhaustion.” With such discouraging signs came the German movement for peace and plea for humanity!
“This war-fury, this rage for destruction, must be nailed to the pillory” was quoted, about the same time, from a German socialistic paper of 1st August 1918. Would it have been quoted four years earlier, when blood and destruction were the means by which Germany thought to crush civilized states and become master of Europe? Now that her war-chariot lay wrecked amid the corpses of her legions, death, slaughter, and devastation suddenly began to appal her, and roused a cry of fear which found no echo in Belgium. When the British announced they were fighting east of Roussoy and had occupied Lempire, the official information from Berlin, dated the 20th September, told us “the British attempted an advance in the sector Epehy-Lempire with a great number of tanks. An enormous number of these were destroyed, the remainder being obliged to retire; and as to the British infantry, they fled in haste toward their positions of departure.” Every effort of the Allies was depicted as having failed, “grâce au feu des mitrailleuses et de l’infanterie allemandes.” Then, at the tail-end, a brief announcement would appear that the German line had retired, for strategical reasons, without being molested by the enemy.
In addition to these confusing and contradictory reports long editorials appeared sneering at the Allies’ futile efforts. The Americans’ advance at St. Mihiel was presented as having been attained “without combat,” the Germans having drawn back in accordance with long-prepared plans, and so secretly that the enemy was not aware of it and “only pursued us very hesitatingly.” When the British made their great rush on Cambrai and broke through the line that Hindenburg considered impregnable, it was attributed to a fog. When they advanced on Hummel it was over ground that had been deliberately evacuated, with such “masterly ability” that the British for two days were unaware of the German’s retirement!
Despite the irritation such accounts caused in Brussels, enough was unintentionally betrayed to revive our hope. Most childish of all was the continued boasting of what Germany had accomplished in her first onrush, which, considering all the overwhelming advantages she had, should have carried her to rapid victory. With her check at the Marne she was beaten, and that was the moment when the people and troops of Germany should have waked to their blunder, and rid their great nation of a malady that has ruined its prosperity and degraded its name.