One newspaper not subject to the Imperial censorship, one only, has found grace with the authorities—the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant. Its tendencies, clearly favourable to Germany, enable it to penetrate into Belgium; but not equally all over the country. At Gand one may subscribe to it; but its sale in single numbers is prohibited. In Antwerp it was proscribed for several months from the 7th December.
At Louvain and Brussels it may be sold in the street, and also supplied to subscribers. But it must not be supposed that the paper is anywhere regularly distributed; the edition of the morning of the 10th November, 1914, was forwarded on the 27th November to a few subscribers who were particularly persistent in their demands; it is true that this number contains the article on the letters of prisoners of war made by the Belgians (pp. [104]-[5]), and that these letters annihilate not a few accusations made by the Germans, while they throw a singular light on their lies and acts of pillage. As for the issues for the 6th, 7th, and 8th December, 1914, they were never distributed; an official announcement, which appeared in L'Ami de l'Ordre of the 9th and 10th December states that these numbers contain "inadmissible communications as to the dislocation of troops." The issues of the 24th, 25th, and 26th December were also withheld. Since January 1915 some ten numbers have been prohibited each month.
From the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant we have copied only the articles by contributors and correspondents of the journal itself; it has seemed to us that to reproduce articles extracted from Belgian newspapers was a proceeding which, while quite usual among the Germans, is not entirely honest.
Another Dutch journal, the Algemeen Handelsblad of Amsterdam, arrived in Brussels at the beginning of November; but its licence was withdrawn at the end of a week.
From February 1915 its sale was again authorized in Belgium. At the same time the introduction of a few other Dutch journals was permitted, their pro-German character being indubitable: such were Het Vaterland, De Maasbode, De Nieuwe Courant.
Newspapers introduced surreptitiously.
Let us say at once that despite all prohibitions and all the sentences pronounced, prohibited newspapers continue to trickle into the occupied portion of the country. These newspapers were at first those which were normally appearing in the towns not yet subject to German authority. Thus La Métropole and Le Matin of Antwerp, Le Bien Public and La Flandre Libérale of Gand were very soon carried as contraband and secretly sold in Brussels. Again, in the regions not yet invaded, some of the newspapers of the towns already occupied were printed: thus L'Indépendance Belge of Brussels appeared at Ostend until the arrival of the Germans in that town.
The agents who sold these newspapers had also foreign papers, especially French and English. Later, when all Belgium, save a corner of Flanders, was subjected to the Germans, a number of Belgian papers were printed abroad: La Métropole and L'Indépendance Belge in London and Le XXe Siècle at Havre.
We also used to receive from time to time occasional newspapers published by Belgian refugees abroad. Of these we may cite: L'Écho Belge, of Amsterdam, La Belgique, of Rotterdam, Les Nouvelles, and Le Courrier de la Meuse, of Maastricht.