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 throw suspicion on the conduct of the Belgian military authorities at the time of the taking of Antwerp. It was again the Écho de Bruxelles which was entrusted with the publication of the first false news. Shortly after the accomplishment of this pleasant task, the Écho de Bruxelles disappeared for ever: doubtless it was no longer required.
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 had thus waited to desert until they had been made the object of special distinction, which is at least peculiar. And then, setting out from the Yser, they crossed the German lines to be interned at Breda, in Northern Brabant. Strange! strange! And all this in order to inform us that these officers, disheartened by the servile and treacherous attitude of the King, refused again to send their men into battle, for the sake of the English.
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.
We love but with a single love,
We hate but with a single hate;
We have one foe, and one alone—
England!
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 the Amsterdam-Copenhagen-Berlin-Brussels route, which was covered by the so-called declaration, had suddenly grown too long for truth to travel by.
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.