How Fräulein Dämchen was Buried.
(Reproduction prohibited.)
By Maurice Sabbe,
Professor of Germanic Languages at the Malines Athenæum.(The sketch was preceded by a brief introduction, which we quote.)
The sketch we publish here deserves particular attention. Maurice Sabbe is a scholar and a Flemish writer of repute, who, during the bombardment of Malines, fled into Holland. Sabbe knows Germany, thanks to a long residence at Weimar, and the military situation has not succeeded in destroying his feeling, which is exempt from prejudice, for Germany and Germanism. He expresses his opinion with sympathy in the lectures which he is delivering in Holland, and, in the same spirit, he has addressed, through his translator, to a German journal, the Berliner Tageblatt, this short story of life in Malines, which describes an episode of the war: the first contribution which, coming from Belgium and written by a Belgian during the war, has been destined to find publication in Germany.
The Editor.
(Berliner Tageblatt, 25th December, 1914.)Bussum, 28th December, 1914.
Sir,
I beg your hospitality for the following lines:—
In the November number (1914) of the review Onze Eeuw I published a literary version of an episode of the bombardment of Malines. A Dutch writer, M. E. Meier, requested my permission for the publication of a translation of this sketch in a German newspaper. I granted it him without hesitation and even with a certain pleasure. My narrative emphasized the kindness and magnanimity of my countrymen towards their enemies, and, at a moment when the German press was accusing every Belgian of being a franc-tireur, I thought myself fortunate to be able to place a contrary example beneath the eyes of the German public.
I left the choice of newspaper to my translator, and the translation appeared in the Christmas number of the Berliner Tageblatt.
But here the plot thickens. Unknown to me, the editors of the Berliner Tageblatt prefaced my story with a notice highly compromising to me. It asserts, in short, that I have German sympathies which the war has not succeeded in shaking, that I am giving lectures in Holland in order to express these feelings, and that I wrote my short story especially to be published in Germany!
The last assertion is already contradicted by the fact that the sketch in question is a translation of the text which appeared in a French review two months ago. As for my sentiments, they are what they have always been, those of a Belgian unshakably attached to his unhappy country and his noble King. These, and no others, are the feelings I have expressed in my lectures in Holland. My numerous auditors can testify to this.
You will give me a sensible pleasure, sir, by inserting this letter, thus assisting me to avoid any misunderstanding.
Accept, etc.,
Maurice Sabbe.
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 on effort of this kind. It was then greatly to their interest to send as many troops as possible to the Western front (so says Lieutenant-General Imhoff, in his introduction to Delbrück's Der Deutsche Krieg in Feldpostbriefen, pp. 11 to 13). Now hundreds of thousands of their men were delayed in Belgium by the siege of Antwerp. At all costs these had to be liberated in order to lengthen the battle-front towards the north-west and the sea. Towards the middle of September they did not hesitate for the third time to make peace proposals to the Government—proposals which were rejected with disdain, as were the previous ones (pp. [50]-[1]). After this repeated diplomatic failure they attempted trickery, a speciality in which they shine to more advantage. As they could not succeed in directly influencing the leaders of Belgian politics, they endeavoured to act on them indirectly through the people. A newspaper was established, L'Écho de Bruxelles, "for the general welfare," to which a certain "Aristide" contributed. He professed to be an occasional correspondent, although his articles were really the pretext for issuing the paper.
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 struggle for a cause which is not ours." The same accusation was made against "those divisional Generals whom the laurels of General Leman will not allow to sleep." "The laurels of General Leman, great God!" he adds, and thereupon he moves heaven and earth to prove the notorious insufficiency of the valiant defender of Liége. No, he says, "the true and only heroes of this melancholy war in Belgium are those who ... have proposed to treat with Germany. These, Ministers and generals, have given proof of courage and wisdom, exposing themselves to the vengeance of a mob over-excited by a system of lies and delusions.... And the public will kick out these French journalists and these hawkers of French journals who for years have whispered hatred of neighbour against neighbour, the latter being the best customer Belgium possessed." We have cited only the more scandalous portions of this article, ignoring the merely ignoble passages.
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.
Declaration.
Brussels, 1st October, 1914.
Belgian Soldiers,
Your blood and your whole salvation, you are not giving them at all to your beloved country; you are only serving the interest of Russia, a country which desires only to increase its already enormous power, and, above all, the interest of England, whose perfidious avarice has given birth to this cruel and unheard-of war. From the commencement your newspapers, paid from French and English sources, have never ceased to deceive you, telling you nothing but lies as to the causes of the war and the battles which have followed, and this is still done every day. Consider one of your army orders which affords fresh proof of this. This is what it contains:
"You have been told that your comrades who are prisoners in Germany have been forced to march against Russia beside our soldiers." Yet your common sense must tell you that this would be a measure quite impossible to execute. When the day comes when your comrades who are prisoners return from our country and tell you with how much benevolence they have been treated, their words will make you blush for what your newspapers, and your officers, have dared to tell you, in order to deceive you in so incredible a manner. Every day of resistance makes you sustain irreparable losses, while with the capitulation of Antwerp you will be free from all anxiety. Belgian soldiers, you have fought enough for the interests of the princes of Russia, for those of the capitalists of perfidious Albion. Your situation is one to despair of. Germany, who is fighting only for her life, has destroyed two Russian armies. To-day no Russian is to be found in our country. In France our troops are about to overcome the last resistance. If you wish to rejoin your wives and children, if you wish to return to your work, in a word, if you wish for peace, put an end to this useless struggle, which is ending only in your ruin. Then you will quickly enjoy all the benefits of a favourable and perfect peace.
von Beseler,
Commander-in-Chief of the Besieging Army.
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.