Belgians Under the German Eagle

by Jean Massart

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 Belgian police bonnets on their heads, yelling La Brabançonne. One would say the sight of those calcined ruins, far from intimidating the Belgians, as the butchers had hoped, only whets their rebellious spirits, and that the certainty of final success has completely effaced, in the soul of the people, the memory of the terrors experienced at the time of the burnings and killings.

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 pretend (1) that their armies are victorious and will remain so; (2) that they will be able to dictate their terms, and will annex Belgium; (3) that this will be easy, as the Belgians are already abandoning their provocative attitude, and are beginning to fraternize with their persecutors. For the moment we cannot reply publicly to lies 1 and 2; as to 3, any Belgian who wears a little rosette tacitly proclaims that he does not wish to be taken for a craven, and that his anti-German feelings have lost none of their keenness.

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):

"Opinion in Belgium is daily becoming more conciliatory. Belgium may, for the moment, be compared with a woman who is beginning to love despite herself, and who, through pride and vexation, says 'No!' as loudly as possible, for fear anyone should see what is happening to her. But one does see it, despite the ribbons of the national colours—indeed precisely on that account."

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 of the University of Brussels. The University showed its disapproval by sending him to Coventry.

(d) Behaviour of the German Administration.