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 was initiated into the King's plans. She has not uttered a single word of reproach for the horrible brutalities of which the principal victims were innocent young German girls in Brussels and Antwerp."
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 August, however, they have been trying to make up for lost time; they no longer lose a single occasion to excite the Flemings against the Walloons, and in particular they seek to make the latter believe that the Flemings already entertain feelings of sympathy towards their executioners.
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 Flemish programme is spelt in the most fantastic manner. Absolutely illegal, too, is the by-law compelling shopkeepers in Bruges and Ostend to replace their French shop-signs by signs written in Flemish. Still more galling was the outcome of a certain trial at Tongres. Some young men, Flemings and Walloons, were accused of the same offence. They were inscribed on separate lists, according to their origin. The Walloons were condemned to severer penalties than those inflicted on the Flemings. One sees the double object here: to mollify the Flemings and to make the Walloons suspicious of them. We may compare this with the fact that the majority of the Flemish civil prisoners have been repatriated, while the Walloons are still in Germany.
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 French tongue, both Government and press having been long ago won over to France and the hatred of Germany (K.Z., 15th November, 1915). La Croix Rouge is published in three languages, Flemish preceding even German, and the French occupying only the extreme right of the sheet; each number contains only one feuilleton, and that is a novel in Flemish. A little Flemish conversation manual—Vlamischer Sprachführer—is published in Düsseldorf for the use of Germans, and of soldiers in particular. In order to compromise the Flemish, the Germans pretend that well-known Flemings are already working hand-in-hand with the German administration. It is even stated that a pro-German group of young Flemings exists (K.Z., 18th March, 1915). In verse translations, the Dietsch or duitsch of the Flemish poets is rendered by "German," whereas these words signify simply the Flemish or Dutch language (Lüttich, p. 127; Köln. Volksz., 25th January, 1915). Herr Karl Lamprecht, the well-known historian, who knew that his translation was dishonest, was one of those who translated dietsch by "German" (Die Woche, No. 12, 1915). Better still, in the same article Herr Lamprecht feigns to believe that by the expression Noord en Zuid Emmanuel Hiel intended to denote the Germans and the Flemings; whereas he is speaking—and no confusion is possible—of the Dutch (Noord-Nederlanders), and the Flemings (Zuid-Nederlanders).
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:—