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THE OPEN LETTER
Courtesy, Collier’s Weekly
RUINS OF THE CLOTH HALL, CATHEDRAL, AND TOWN HALL, YPRES
Compare this picture with Gravure No. 1. Both were photographed from about the same spot. As may be seen, the devastation wrought by the War is almost complete. The main façade of the great Cloth Hall had a frontage of 433 feet; the square bell tower was 230 feet high
From the earliest times the Belgae have been known as a hardy, courageous and determined people. Julius Caesar had as much trouble in his day in subduing them as the Kaiser had with their descendants in the first year of the World War. Caesar came into conflict with the Belgae when he was campaigning for the conquest of Gaul in 57 B. C., and it was only after long fighting that he crushed them. Even then they refused to remain in subjection. In a few years several of the Belgae tribes revolted, and had to be dealt with anew. When the Roman Empire was reorganized under Augustus, the Belgae were included in the province of Gallia Belgica, which extended from the west bank of the Rhine to the North Sea and south to Lake Constance.
Julius Caesar wrote, in his history of the Conquest of Gaul, “Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae,” which, freely translated, means that “the Belgae were, all around, the bravest” of the races that the Roman Conqueror met in the Gallic wars. Caesar was a man of cool, clear judgment, not averse to giving a doughty foe due credit, and several trying experiences in fierce encounters with the Belgae had afforded him a just measure of their fearless, intrepid qualities. His appraisal of their valor has had full confirmation in our day—with all the peoples of the earth, but the Huns, sympathetic witnesses.