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A BOOK OF
BELGIUM'S GRATITUDE
LA (".RAN HE RRKTAGNK ACCUEILLK l.KS RKFUCilKS )iKL(.Ks
ANDRE CLUYSENAAR
A BOOK OF
BELGIUM'S GRATITUDE
COMPRISING LITERARY ARTICLES BY
REPRESENTATIVE BELGIANS, TOGETHER
WITH THEIR TRANSLATIONS BY VARIOUS
HANDS, AND ILLUSTRATED THROUGHOUT
IN COLOUR AND BLACK AND WHITE
BY BELGIAN ARTISTS
<^/<y
LONDON : JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
NEW YORK : JOHN LANE COMPANY ^>o^^
TORONTO : S. B. GUNDY <>^^:>~^>^ MCMXVI
AU LECTEUR!
CE livre n*est ni un repertoire ni un proces-verbal. La
generosite britannique, la charite americaine ne sont
pas faites pour etre inventoriees. L'heure n'est pas
venue, la chose fut-elle possible, d'enumerer les reconforts
regus par la Belgique dans son martyre.
Nous avons pense simplement qu'il ne fallait pas laisser passer la
Noel 191 5, la seconde Noel de Texil, sans offrir un hommage de gratitude
k nos bienfaiteurs. Cet hommage on le trouvera ici, sans pretention
de solennite ni d'exactitude, avec le seul sougi de la sincerite et du bon
vouloir.
Que les plus hautes figures de notre patrie aient spontanement daigne
s'associer a notre desir, que des personnalites officielles nous aient
apporte leur concours, que les artistes et les ecrivains, sollicites par nous,
nous aient donne une image vive et emue des choses et des gens d'Angle-
terre, c'est ce qui nous emplit de joie et de confusion. Car, voyant les
imperfections et les lacunes du livre, nous savons bien que Phoramage
est incomplet ; mais, sentant palpiter dans chacune de ses pages le
cceur de la Belgique exilee, nous renongons a nous en excuser.
Nous tenons, cependant, a souligner quelques-unes des pensees qui
nous ont guides dans notre travail. Nous n'avons pas cherche a
etablir une hierarchie dans I'hommage rendu. Nul ne figure dans le
livre a raison des fonctions qu'il occupe, et il n'y a pas d'ordre de
preseance. Tous sont des temoins, et la portee de leur temoignage est
dans le sentiment, non dans le detail du texte.
II en est de meme pour les artistes et les ecrivains. Quels que
soient leur talent et leur reputation, leur principal titre a nos yeux est
qu'ils ont vu nos bienfaiteurs a Poeuvre. On ne trouvera pas les noms
de ceux-ci. II y a, hors texte, d'admirables portraits. C'est, peut-on
dire, la seule fa^on dont nous avons voulu signaler ce que les Beiges
V
AU LECTEUR!
refugies doivent a quelques personnaKtes dont le devouement et la
soUicitude sont connus de tous. Mais le livre est dedie aux bienfaiteurs
innombrables et anonymes, a cette grande masse de bonte, d*intelligence
et d'activite ou la misere et la douleur de la Belgique plongent comme
dans un abime de reconfort et d'esperance.
Le lecteur mettra lui-meme des noms. Nous faisons appel k sa
collaboration, comme nous avons demande celle des hautes person-
nalites anglaises qui ont bien voulu accepter d'etre nos traducteurs.
Grace k ces derniers, notre hommage, tout incomplet et imparfait qu'il
soit, s'elargit, se hausse et atteint le vaste monde ou se meut le libre
parler anglais. Leurs noms, leurs talents servent I'effort reconnaissaut
de la Belgique et on ne peut trouver plus delicat temoignage de I'amitie
britannique.
A leur exemple tous ceux qui liront ce livre, dont la composition et la
valeur intrinseque peuvent se ressentir et des incertitudes de I'exil et
du trouble de I'heure, recueilleront dans leur coeur Pelan fervent ou le
pinceau et la plume ont cherche leur inspiration. lis y ajouteront, a
leur tour, toutes leurs raisons personnelles d'admiration et de gratitude
et contribueront ainsi a montrer que la reconnaissance de la Belgique
n'est pas inferieure au bienfait re^u.
G'est tout ce que nous avons tente d'exprimer en attendant I'heure
de I'histoire.
Les Editeurs.
VI
TO THE READER.
THIS book is neither a schedule nor an official report.
British generosity and American charity cannot be
catalogued. Even were such a thing possible, the time
has not yet come for a detailed statement of the relief
which Belgium has received in her martyrdom.
We have simply thought that we ought not to let the Christmas of
1 91 5 pass by — the second Christmas of exile — without offering a tribute
of gratitude to our benefactors. This tribute you will find in the follow-
ing pages. It does not pretend to be formal or precise. All we have
aimed at is to show our sincerity and goodwill.
That the very highest in our land should spontaneously and graciously
have associated themselves with our project, that official personages
should have lent their aid, that the artists and writers whom we
approached should have given us vivid and touching pictures of English
folk and English things — all this, of course, has filled us with gladness,
but yet has left us in some embarrassment. For, conscious of the
imperfections and the gaps in the book, we know that the tribute is
incomplete > but after all, feeling the heart of exiled Belgium beat in
these pages, we make no apology.
Yet we should like to draw attention to a few of the motives which
have guided us in our work. We have not tried to establish a hierarchy
in the tribute rendered. No one figures in the book merely on account
of the functions he fulfils, and there is no order of precedence. All are
witnesses, and the value of their testimony lies in the feelings they
express and not in the detailed exactness of the facts to which they refer.
The same applies to the artists and writers. Whatever may be their
talent and reputation, their chief claim to be heard, according to our
view, is that they have actually seen our benefactors at work. The
names of the latter you will not find. Apart from the letterpress there
vii
TO THE READER
are some fine portraits. That is the only way in which we have con-
sidered it advisable to mark the debt of our Belgian refugees to certain
individuals whose devotion and solicitude are known to us all. But the
book is dedicated to the innumerable and anonymous benefactors, to
that vast bosom of love, thought, and action to which the misery and
sorrow of Belgium fled as to a haven of comfort and hope.
The reader himself must supply the names. In this respect we ask
for his collaboration, just as we have asked for that of the distinguished
English men and women who have been so kind as to be our translators.
Thanks to the latter, our tribute, however incomplete and imperfect,
can find wider scope and can reach the vast expanses of the earth where
the English language is spoken. Their names and what their names
stand for aid our expression of Belgian gratitude ; and what more
delicate proof than this of English friendship could we find ?
So all those who read this book, in whose composition and intrinsic
value are reflected both the uncertainties of exile and the anxiety of the
present hour, will feel in their hearts the warm impulse from which
pencil and pen have drawn their inspiration. They, in their turn, will
add to it all their personal reasons for admiration and thankfulness, and
thus aid us in demonstrating that the gratitude of Belgium is not inade-
quate to the benefits received.
That is all we have tried to express. For more we must await the
Hour of History.
The Editors.
Vlll
A BOOK OF
BELGIUM'S GRATITUDE
IS PUBLISHED IN RECOGNITION OF THE HELP AND HOSPITALITY
GIVEN BY THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND OF THE RELIEF BESTOWED
BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DURING THE GREAT WAR
PATRON : H.M. THE KING OF THE BELGIANS
PRESIDENT : H.E. PAUL HYMANS, BELGIAN MINISTER
COMMITTEE
EMILE CAMMAERTS. EMILE CLAUS, membre de l'academie royalb de belgique
HENRI DAVIGNON. JULES DESTREE, dkput£
PAUL LAMBOTTE, niREcreuR des beaux-arts
BARON MONCHEUR, envoye extraordinaire et ministre pl^nipotentiaire
CHEVALIER E. CARTON de WIART, secretaire honoraire dv roi
ART EDITOR : PAUL LAMBOTTE
LITERARY EDITORS: EMILE CAMMAERTS and HENRI DAVIGNON
TRANSLATION EDITOR : WILLIAM J. LOCKE
SECRETARY : MARGARET LAVINGTON
THE PROFITS DERIVED FROM THE PUBLICATION
OF THIS BOOK WILL BE PLACED AT THE
DISPOSAL OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN MARY
CONTENTS
AUTHOR
SUBJECT
PAGE
Les Editeurs ....
PART I.
S.M. Le Roi des Belges .
S.M. La Reine des Belges
La Duchesse de Vend6me
La PrINCESSE CLfMENTINE
Le Cardinal Mercier
Le Baron de Broqueville
M. Berryer ....
M. Hymans ....
M. Vandervelde
Le Comte de Lalaing
Le Comte Goblet d'Alviella .
Le Baron Goffinet
Monseigneur De Wachter
M. E. de Cartier de Marchienne
M. May ....
M. Pollet ....
Commandant Maton
M. Bauss ....
M, Burton ....
M. Robyns de Schneidauer
M. Emile Royer
Le Baron Moncheur
Le Chevalier E. Carton de Wiart
Professeur Van der Essen
Le R.P. Rutten
M. Segaert ....
M. Standaert
Madame Hymans
Madame Vandervelde
Madame Maton
Madame Destr^e
Mademoiselle Rossignon
identielle des Nations
Avant propos
Lettre
Lettre
Lettre
Lettre
La Charit6 Prov:
Tribut a la Grande Bretagne
A la Grande Bretagne
Le Caractere Britannique .
Notre Confiance
Le Belgian Relief Fund
Nos Refugies en Angleterre
Au Nom des Blesses .
The Work of Charity
Impossible to Record
Les « King Albert's Hospitals " .
Les Orphelins de la Guerre
Nos Blesses en Grande Bretagne .
" Omnia Fraterne ! " .
The Flower of Eternal Gratitude
L'CEuvre du War Refugees Committee
Aux Femmes d' Angleterre .
Hommage a I'Amerique
La«C.R.B." ....
L'Opinion Publique Americaine et les
Souffrances de la Belgique
Au Canada
L'Australie et la Nouvelle Zelande au Secours
du Peuple Beige .
South Africa ....
Ce Qui Ne Doit Pas Mourir
The Mother Country
Comment j'ai pu Rhabiller nos Soldats
Les Artistes Beiges et nos Soldats
Generosite Prevoyante
CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR
SUBJECT ]
PAGE
The Translation Editor
Preface
PART I.
Earl CuRzo^f
Letter
5
Major A. A. Gordon, M.V.O. .
Letter
9
Earl Cromer .....
Letter
II
Viscount Dillon ....
Letter
• i3
Cardinal Archbishop Bourne .
The Providential Charity of the Nations
H
Viscount St. Cyres
A Tribute to Great Britain
i6
Charles Thomas-Stanford, M.P.
To Great Britain . . . ^
21
Sir William Osler, Bt. .
The English Character ....
26
May Sinclair ....
Our Trust
27
COMTE DE LaLAING ....
The Belgian Relief Fund
34
Lady Moreton . . . .
Our Refugees in England .
SO
Lady Paget
In the Name of the Wounded
6o
(In English)
(In English)
Margaret Lavincton
The King Albert's Hospitals
. 66
B£rengere Drillien
The War Orphans ....
71
Lady Colvin
Our Wounded in Great Britain .
n
Marshall Hall, K.C^ M.P.
« Omnia Prater ne ! " .
. 81
(In English)
Professor Moorman
The Work of the War Refugees Committee
92
Mrs. Lewis Harcourt
To the Women of England .
102
G. G. Greenwood, M.P.
Homage to America ....
107
William Caine ....
The*'C.R.B."
• "5
Hon. Mrs. John Ward
Public Opinion in America and the Suffering
of Belgium
126
Sir Lees Knowles, Bt.
To Canada
136
Paul Taylor
How Australia and New Zealand have Helpec
Belgium
149
Rt. Hon. W. P. Schreiner
South Africa .....
162
Viscountess Hambleden .
That Which Cannot Die .
. 168
(In English)
Mrs. John Lane ....
How I Reclothed our Soldiers
172
1 Laurence Binyon . , . .
• Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson
The Belgian Artists and our Soldiers
175
Generous Foresight ....
179
xi
CONTENTS
AUTHOR
SUBJECT
PAGE
PART II.
Maurice Maeterlinck
Pour I'Honneur ....
183
Emile Verhaeren ....
Les Ciels d'Anglcterre
187
Fernand Severin ....
A I'Angleterre .....
191
Jules DESTRf e ....
Nos Artistes en Anglcterre .
193
Paxjl Lambotte ....
L'Accueil fait aux Artistes .
• 199
Eugene Ysaye ....
L'Art et la Guerre ....
211
Arthur de Greef ....
Le Temperament Musical Britannique
217
Ernest Van Dyck
La Grande Bretagne Protectrice des Arts
223
Emile Cammaerts ....
Le Temoinage des Ecrivains anglais
229
Henri Davignon ....
Les Fruits de I'Exil ....
249
Professeur Moeller
Oxford : Les Impressions d'un Historiei
1
Beige
271
Professeur Dejace
L'Universite Beige de Cambridge .
. 287
Antoine Borboxjx ....
En Ecosse
300
La Comtesse van den Steen de Jehay .
Comment ils Meurent
• 305
Maria Bierm^ ....
Comment elles les Soignent
. 313
Louise Carton de Wiart
Impressions de Guerre
327
L, DuMONT-WlLDEN
Images anglaises ....
• 333
J. F. FONSON ....
Lettre de I'Yser ....
341
LfoN SOUGUENET ....
Ce que je dois a I'Angleterre
349
Richard Ditpierreux
Dans la Galles du Sud
354
Charles Delchevalerie .
Aspects et Lemons de Londres
360
Jean de BosschIre ....
La Tamise a Londres
368
Le Comte Renaud de Briey
La Jonction des Troupes britanniques et
beiges sous la Mitraille
375
Anonymous ......
Anecdotes
}8i
xu
CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR SUBJECT
PAGE
PART II.
Alfred Sutro For Honour
. 185
Lord Latymer
The British Skies ....
. 189
A. P. Graves .
To England
. 192
Campbell Dodgson
Our Artists in England
. 196
Sir Claude Phillips
The Welcome to Our Artists
. 205
Sir A. C. Mackenzie
Art and the War ....
. 214
Sir Ernest Clarke
The British Musical Temperament
. 220
Elizabeth Asquith
Great Britain : Protectress of the Arts
226
William J, Locke .
The Testimony of English Writers
• *39
E. B. Osborn
The Fruits of Exile . . . .
. 259
Rt. Hon, Herbert Samx^l, M.P.
Oxford : Impressions of a Belgian Histo
rian . 279
Edward Marsh ....
The Belgian University at Cambridge .
• *94
Professor Grierson
In Scotland
. 302
Lady Meriel Bathurst .
How They Die . . . .
. 309
Lady Byron .
How They Tended Us . , .
. 320
John Buchan
War Impressions . . . .
. 330
Lady Charnwood .
English Impressions . . . .
• 337
J. Lewis May
Letter from the Yser ....
• 345
Sir Hercules Read . .
What I Owe to England
• 351
Henry D. Roberts ....
In South Wales . . . .
. 357
Horace Annesley Vachell
London Object Lessons
• 36+
Rt. Hon. Sir John Simon, M.P.
London and Its Thames .
. 371
Sir Home Gordon, Bt.
The Union of the British and Belgian T
roops
under Fire, ....
• 377
F. Anstey
.
.
Anecdotes
. 382
Xlll
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ARTIST
SUBJECT
PAGE
AndrI Clttstsenaar
Emile Claus, Membre de I'Academie
Royale de Belgique
Albert Delstanche ....
J. G. Rosier, Directeur de I'Academie de
Beaux-Arts de Malines
Victor Rousseau, Membre de I'Academie
Royale de Belgique
Michel Sterckmans ....
Andre Cluysenaar .....
Jean Delville, Professeur a I'Academie
Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles
Marten van der Loo ....
Albert Baertsoen, Membre de I'Academie
Royale de Belgique
Adolphe Hamesse .....
Valerius de Saedeleer
JULIEN CeLOS
Pierre Paulus
Charles Mertens .
Loins DE Smeth
Alexandre Marcette
La Grande Bretagne accueille les Refugies
Beiges ..... Frontis.
Rhododendrons, Kew Gardens
Kensington Gardens ....
The Right Hon. Viscount Gladstone, GiC.B
G.C.M.G., P.C, etc.. President of the
War Refugees Committee
Buste portrait de Lady D. M.
Le Strand a Londres
Lady Lugard .....
The Right Hon. Herbert Samuel, P.C, M.P
etc. ......
Hampton Court ....
La Tamise, I'hiver ....
Herbert Hoover, Esq., President of the
Committee for Relief in Belgium .
Le Pays de Galles . . . .
St. Paul's Cathedral ....
Hungerford Bridge ....
The Hon. Harry Lawson, M.P., etc., Pro-
moter of the Daily Telegrafh Subscrip-
tion in honour of King Albert
Sir Horace Monro, K.C.B., Permanent Sec-
retary of the Local Government Board .
Le Pont de Maidenhead ....
i6
24
32
48
64
72
80
96
112
128
144
160
176
184
192
xiv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ARTIST
SUBJECT
PAGE
Paul Wissaert
Lady Emmott, President of the Clothing
Department of the War Refugees
Committee
Maurice Wagemans . .
La Tamise
224
A. Jonniaux
Hall Caine, Esq
232
Charles Mertens, Professeur a I'Institut
Superieur des Beaux-Arts d'Anvers
Sir Ernest Hatch, Bt. . . .
240
Marcel Jefferys
Impression de Theltre
256
Jules de Bruycker .....
Magdalen College, Oxford .
272
Jules de Brxtvcker .....
Merton College, Oxford
280
Albert Claes .....
King's College Chapel, Cambridge
288
Albert Claes ......
Court of King's College, Cambridge .
296
DoLF VAN Roy
The Hon. Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, Presiden
of the Club for Belgian Soldiers
t
304
Maurice Blieck
London Bridge ....
320
Marc-Henry Meunier .
Route en Sussex ....
336
Mademoiselle Jenny Montigny
Rotten Row
344
Louis Reckelbus
St. Ives, Cornwall ....
352
Alfred Bastien
Clair de lune sur la Tamise
368
Jean de BosschIre .....
La Neige k Timberden Bottom, Kent .
384
XV
<.^<
Part I
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TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER OF H.M. THE KING OF
THE BELGIANS BY THE RIGHT HON. THE
EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON.
I JOIN with all my heart in the
expression of gratitude conveyed
in this book to the British Nation,
which has welcomed our refugees
with a generosity and anxious
care that will dwell in the memory of
every Belgian.
WJtLf mW (^KJ/ "'kxH ^Jbu/r no-ni
(MUW^ cuxXjBUiJt tvi^nitfu
'7
TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER OF H.M. THE QUEEN
OF THE BELGIANS BY MAJOR A. A. GORDON, M.V.O.
THE generosity of
Great Britain and her
Colonies, and of the
United States of
America, is a magni-
ficent example of charity.
Moved by this unanimous spirit
of touching soHcitude for Belgium, I
join with all those who have written
their names in this book, in order to
express my profound gratitude to
these two great nations for the help
which they have rendered to our
countrymen during this time of sore
trial.
Belmont House,
Park Side
WimMgdon.S.W
PosU iiTeUgraphe
'W.mbledon
Telephone NTSmT-O.
' 'yyi^tA,<g^UZ'try\ -c^ ct^ -^l
{.9S euu /f/j- ^V^
10
TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER OF THE DUCHESS OF
VENDOME BY THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF CROMER.
DURING the past year there has been forthcoming the
most splendid example of that English hospitality which
has always been proverbial. Thousands of Belgian refugees,
the innocent victims of the most tragic and the most
sanguinary act of treachery known to history, have been
received on English soil. At some future time it will be necessary to
devote a volume to the recital of the benefits, the consolation, the help
and support afforded by the noble Kingdom of Great Britain to Belgium
during the long months of its glorious martyrdom. But even now
every Belgian may inscribe in the depth of his heart an everlasting
expression of thanks. I am happy to associate myself with all these, in
expressing to England the modest homage of my profound admiration
and my heartfelt gratitude.
1 1
fun fat lAju:i'^£i^ //^g^fe^/v^z/yr-- !«^ ^^a^-J^ /^j^aa
^t/^dA^^ ^^^^^ t^ ^Ae^MJi^ iAirizA> ^^/^A^^ , >^L.
12
TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER OF THE PRINCESS
CLEMENTINE BY VISCOUNT DILLON.
OUR countrymen and women whose homes have been
so brutally destroyed and they and their children left
without shelter have, however, found in England a new
and a generous fatherland. From end to end of the United
Kingdom a magnificent spirit of generosity has made the
sufferings of Belgium its own, and has met our misfortunes with open
arms. With a splendid enthusiasm, its mansions, its town and country
houses have become places of rest or convalescent homes to which
were welcomed our unhappy refugees.
There, as also in the hospitals, may be found admirable women of
all ages and every station in life, unceasingly tending the bedsides of
our wounded, devoting themselves to the alleviation of their sufferings
and creating in their hearts a deep sense of gratitude to those whom
I have often heard them style " Our English mothers."
13
LA CHARITE PROVIDENTIELLE DES NATIONS.
Par le Cardinal Mercier, Archeveque de M alines.
NOS malheurs ont emu les autres nations. L'Angleterre,
rirlande et I'Ecosse ; la France, la HoUande, les Etats-
Unis, le Canada rivalisent de generosite pour soulager
notre detresse. Ce spectacle est ^ la fois lugubre et
grandiose. Ici encore se revele la Sagesse Providentielle
qui tire le bien du mal. En votre nom et au mien, mes freres, j 'off re
aux Gouvernements et aux nations qui se tournent si noblement vers
nos malheurs le temoignage emu de notre admiration et de notre
reconnaissance.
THE PROVIDENTIAL CHARITY OF THE NATIONS.
Translation by Cardinal Bourne, Archhishof of Westminstgr.
OUR misfortunes have aroused the compassion of other
nations. England, Ireland, and Scotland ; France,
Holland, the United States, and Canada have entered
into generous rivalry in order to relieve our distress.
It is a sight full both of sadness and of glory. In
this, too, does the Wisdom of Providence shine forth, bringing
good out of evil. In your name and my ov^^n, my brethren, I offer to
the Governments and nations that have looked so nobly upon our
misfortunes the heart-felt expression of our admiration and of our thanks.
^.C^.fl
i-»»*<AAi»_,^^
H
TRIBUT A LA GRANDE BRETAGNE.
Par le Baron de Broqueville,
President du Conseil des Ministres, Ministre de la Guerre.
I
COMBIEN il serait souhaitable que, au lendemain de la
guerre, la gratitude beige narrat, dans toute la mesure
possible, les prodiges accomplis par la generosite britan-
nique en faveur des beiges amenes en Angleterre par un
destin severe !
Ce serait tout a la fois oeuvre de justice et enseignement de beaute
morale.
II faut avoir vecu ces heures d'epreuve pour connaitre I'etendue
des tresors materiels et moraux, des attentions affectueuses et delicates
que la charite britannique nous dispensa sans compter.
Militaires et civils, tous nous en gardons au coeur le souvenir emu et
reconnaissant.
Grace ^ la Grande Bret agne, les botes exiles sur la terre hospitaliere
se demandent bien souvent si leur sort n'est point superieur a celui
des Beiges demeures dans la Belgique envahie.
L^ bas, face a face avec le conquerant du sol sacre, Tame, eprise
de la patrie, subit sans relache la plus cruelle des douleurs, c'est-a-dire
I'odieuse vue et la domination de I'etranger.
Le reconfort des prouesses accomplies par les glorieux soldats,
du droit et de I'independance y est generalement ignore. Seule la
voix trompeuse de I'envahisseur tinte aux oreilles de la nation.
N'est-ce pas U plus qu'il n'en faut pour atteindre la foi la plus robuste,
pour dechirer les coeurs les mieux trempes ?
Mais la aussi la confiance regne absolue et la force morale est telle
qu'elle s'affirme partout, meme jusque dans le silence du mepris.
Ceux qui ignorent le caractere beige pouvaient douter qu'un tel
spectacle leur fut jamais offert. Pour moi il m'est apparu tout naturel
quand le 4 aout 1914 je traduisais la pensee nationale en disant a la
tribune du Parlement : " la Belgique pent etre vaincue ; elle ne sera
jamais domptee."
15
A TRIBUTE TO GREAT BRITAIN.
Translation by Viscount St. Cyres.
WELL it were if a grateful Belgium hailed the
morrow of the war by telling the whole tale of
the marvellous generosity showered on those
of her children whom a cruel fate drove to
British shores.
This would be an act of justice ; this would be a moral lesson of
rare worth.
Only those who have lived through the hours of trial know in what
rich abundance British charity lavished gifts upon us, meeting our
needs of body and mind with equal delicacy and understanding.
Tender memories of gratitude live in the hearts of us all, soldiers and
civilians alike.
Such is Great Britain's gracious hospitality that our exiles often
wonder whether they are not faring better than their countrymen
who remained in their devastated land.
From morn to night these last endure the most terrible of trials.
They see the invader on the sacred soil of home ; they feel his iron
hand.
His strident voice alone besets their ear. They know nothing of
the glorious feats of arms wrought by the champions of freedom and of
right.
Is not this enough to shake the stoutest faith, to shatter hearts of
oak ?
No. It is not so. Their confidence is still unbroken ; their soul
still cries aloud, even if it be only through the silence of disdain.
No one who knows the Belgian character can doubt this for a moment.
I, for one, was well assured that I was only translating the nation's
feeling into words when I exclaimed, in my place in Parliament, on
August 4th, 1914 : " Belgium may be conquered — beaten she can
never be."
16
K E N S I N G TO N CARD I'. N S
AI.P.ERT DELSTANCHE
A LA GRANDE BRETAGNE.
Par Paul" Berryer, Ministre de VlntSrieur.
MES CoUegues du Gouvernement et moi, nous nous
souviendrons d'un jour du debut de Septembre, 1914, ^
An vers ! Un steamer avait jete I'ancre au port. Quel-
ques gentlemen — parmi lesquels M. Gordon, que nous
devions revoir souvent — se presenterent au siege du
Gouvernement et expliquerent simplement : " De riches anglais
nous ont delegue vers vous pour vous prier d'accepter le contenu
du bateau qui nousfa amenes. Prenez les vivres, les vetements, les
medicaments dont il est charge. Et dites nous quels sont les besoins
les plus urgents qui vous assaillent. Dans huit jours nous vous
rapporterons tout ce que vous aurez demande. Mais, de grace, soyez
gourmands. L'Angleterre ne vous donnera jamais assez."
Quand ces paroles furent prononcees, quelle clarte soudain
pour nous ! Dans cet Anvers convoite par une armee de 200,000
Allemands masses devant ses forts, envahi de longues theories de
refugies, frappe par ces homicides rodeurs de nuit, les Zeppelins,
dans Anvers, ou d'angoissants bruits de massacres, d'incendies, de
pillages, auraient pu nous terrifier, nous eumes la nette conscience
que nous n'etions pas seuls. Derriere nous la sympathie du monde
pour notre patrie, I'admiration pour notre Roi, pour la loyaute et
sa defense s'affirmait, la commiseration pour ses malheurs grandissait.
Et devant nous, ?ame de nos allies, I'ame de la Grande Bretagne.
Quel reconfort !
Oui, des Highlands severes, au doux rivages de I'English Channel^
de rile d'Emeraude a I'enorme architecture grise de Londres, une
commotion de sympathie pour les Beiges avait passe, dont les ondes
gagnaient toutes les parties du monde ou claque le dfapeau du Roi
Georges.
De ce jour, I'aide britannique ne cessa de grandir et de se manifester
en tous les domaines.
Je voudrais, quant a moi, mettre en valeur le noble role que remplit
le Gouvernement britannique a I'egard de nos refugies.
A I'arrivee de ces pauvres victimes de la guerre qui d'Ostende, comma
un betail s'enfuyant sous I'orage, s'etaient hatees vers les cotes
17 C
A LA GRANDE BRETAGNE
hospitalieres, un homme vint a elles delegue par ses coUegues du
Gouvernement, mais aussi delegue par son grand coeur. II etait
simple et bienveillant, il avait une vue precise des necessites
de I'instant et . . . il " comprenait." II comprenait la misere,
il comprenait ce qui etait du et ce qu'il fallait refuser,
il comprenait la psychologic amere du refugie. Herbert
Samuel, son nom est dans le coeur de tous nos refugies, et c'est
aux qualites de I'homme que va autant leur hommage qu'aux
decisions du President du Local Government Board ou du Postmaster-
General.
Chez les ames genereuses de grands malheurs creent de grandes
inspirations. M. Herbert Samuel et ses collegues pergurent tout de
suite la nature speciale de la charge inattendue qui leur incombait.
L'hospitalisation de nos refugies pouvait se concevoir de plusieurs
fa^ons toutes differentes. II 7 avait la formule etatiste et la formula
particulariste. Sans s'attarder a la solution neerlandaise, a la creation
par les pouvoirs publics d'asiles et de camps pour refugies ou au systeme
frangais de I'allocation aux refugies dans le besoin, payable en nature
ou en argent par les mairies et sur la caisse de I'Etat, I'Angleterre qui
est un pays a formation particulariste — et qui lui doit la robustesse
de sa personnalite — fit appel a I'initiative privee qui ne demandait
qu'a s'exercer.
En laissant a des concours prives la question du logement, de Palimen-
tation, de I'habillement du refugie, le Gouvernement britannique ne
savait-il pas qu'il pouvait avoir confiance dans la sympathie et dans
la generosite de ses nationaux ; ne comprenait-il pas qu'il rendait plus
national le mouvement d'entraide ? Ne savait-il pas qu'il pouvait aussi
se fier aux qualites de jugement, de volonte et de sens pratique dont son
peuple est si bien pourvu et sans lesqueUes le coeur ne tarde pas a etre
impuissant ? Le resultat : ce fut I'hospitalite assuree a plus de 150,000
refugies. Ce fut le Belgian Relief Fund. Ce fut le libre cours donne
k une charite dont on ne saurait assez celebrer I'efficacite et la beaute.
Ingenieuse et persistante cette generosite fut multiple ; elle alia de nos
refugies a nos populations en passant par nos soldats. Elle fut pratique,
elle fut active, eUe fut discrete, elle eut des devouements maternels et
18
A LA GRANDE BRETAGNE
des calineries d'enfant et surtout elle decupla ce qu'elle donna par la
fa^on de donner.
Mais des directions gouvernementales etaient necessaires, un controle
et une coordination etaient utiles, il y avait d'inevitables lacunes
a combler. Herbert Samuel sut donner les unes, assurer les autres,
creer toutes choses h. point en s'inspirant dans une sage mesure de
ce que desiraient ses compatriotes et de ce que voulaient les necessites
ou les traditions de la vie anglaise et de ce que sollicitaient les refugies.
A la Commission pour donner du travail aux refugies que presida
avec tant d'autorite Sir Ernest Hatch, au Registrar-general, aux ateliers
pour refugies, aux usines de munitions et de produits de guerre, Foeuvre
du Gouvernement britannique fut completee et tenue en correlation
avec les instructions de I'experience, avec la prolongation du sejour
des refugies et avec les exigences de la guerre.
Fallut-il que le Gouvernement beige fit acte de souverainete en
Angleterre ; fallut-il que les refugies s'assemblassent, discutassent,
imprimassent, le Gouvernement anglais recula pour nous sa bien-
veillance a toutes les limites. C'est ainsi que le Comite OfEciel beige
pour r Angleterre jouit aupres des autorites d'outre Manche du prestige
qui lui revient, que le Ministere des Colonies fonctionne a Londres
dans les meilleures conditions, que I'enrolement des jeunes gens de
i8 a 25 ans put se poursuivre avec la collaboration des services de la
police.
Partout et toujours le Gouvernement et les Autorites du Royaume
furent secourables et bienveiUants aux Beiges. II y a dans leur accueil
quelque chose de chevaleresque qui leur fait honneur et reconforte
mieux que tout, ceux qu'ils honorent. lis ue manquent pas de montrer
leur respect pour le nom beige et de porter dans ce respect un hommage
a notre loyaute et un salut a notre martyre.
Honneur h. vous, Herbert Samuel ! Vous avez su, en ces periodes
realistes faire de la bonte un principe de gouvernement. Si I'on a pu
dire des Beiges qu'ils ont releve le nom d'etre humain dans le meme
temps que deux empires le rabaissaient, vos collegues et vous-meme
avez montre que la Grande Bretagne a erige par dessus tout la loyaute
et I'humanite foulees aux pieds.
19
A LA GRANDE BRETAGNE
Hommage a vous, amis anglais ! Vous avez ete les sublimes ouvriers
d'une oeuvre de charite inconnue jusqu'ici dans les annales des guerres
et dont ni la duree ni certaines difEcultes individuelles ne vous ont
detourne. Vous avez ete les bons samaritains de nos miseres ; vous
avez agrandi les mots de charite et de solidarite. Vous avez cree la
collaboration des civils dans ce temps ou nos jeunes hommes et les
votres, sur le sol de Belgique, forment de leur sainte poitrine la chaine
qui aujourd'hui presse et qui demain etreindra I'ennemi.
Paul Fort chante dans ses " Poemes de France " tous vos St. Georges,
vos beaux guerriers valeureux dont le sang se mele aux cendres d'Ypres.
Laissez-moi vous dire, a vous les parents de ces soldats, a vous Anglais,
Ecossais, Irlandais, aussi prodigues de votre coeur qu'eux de leur sang,
que tous les Beiges, Gouvernement et citoyens, vouent k votre patrie
et a vos personnes une immense reconnaissance. Celle-ci, soyez-en
surs, traversera les temps. Celle-ci, croyez-le, vous sera comptee
dans I'histoire.
20
TO GREAT BRITAIN.
Translation by Charles Thomas-Stanford, M.P.
NEITHER I nor my colleagues in the Government will
forget a certain day at Antwerp in the early part of
September, 19 14. A steamer had dropped anchor in
the port. Several gentlemen, among them Mr. Gordon,
whom we were to see often again, presented themselves
at the Seat of Government, and gave this simple explanation of their
purpose :
" As delegates of certain wealthy people in England we beg you to
accept the cargo of the boat which has brought us hither. Take the
live-stock, the clothing and the medicines with which it is laden. Tell
us what are the most pressing of your necessities, and we will return
in a week, bringing with us all you ask for. But, we beg you, don't be
afraid of being greedy ; England can never give you enough."
What a sudden clearing of the sky these words brought to us ! In
this city of Antwerp, the coveted object of an army of 200,000 Germans
massed before its forts, invaded by long processions of refugees in home-
less misery, stricken by those murderous prowlers of the night, the
Zeppelins ; in Antwerp, where agonising rumours of massacre, burning,
and pillage might have filled us with despair, we had manifest proof
that we were not alone ; that behind us the sympathy of the world
with our country was unfolding itself; that admiration for its King,
its loyalty and its stubborn defence was finding utterance ; that pity
for its woes was beginning to grow. And behind us, too, the soul of
our allies, the soul of Great Britain. How great a consolation was
there !
Yes, from the stern Highlands to the sweet shores of the English
Channel, from the Emerald Isle to the vast grey mass of London, a
tremor of sympathy with the Belgians had passed, and its undulations
spread to all those outlying portions of the world over which the flag
of King George flutters in the breeze.
From this day onwards there was no pause in the growth of British
assistance and its manifestations in every sphere.
I should like for myself to estimate aright the noble part played by
the British Government in regard to our refugees.
21
TO GREAT BRITAIN
On the arrival of these poor victims of the war, who, like a herd of
cattle taking refuge from the storm, had hastened from Ostend towards
the hospitable shores, a man came to them, acting not only as the
representative of his colleagues in the Government, but acting also
from his own greatness of heart. He was natural and kindly disposed,
he took a precise view of the necessities of the moment and — ^he
" understood." He understood their distress ; he understood what
must be done, and what had to be refused ; he understood the
bitterness of the refugee's soul. Herbert Samuel — ^his name is
enshrined in the heart of all our refugees, and their homage goes out
as much to the qualities of the man as to the decisions of the President
of the Local Government Board, or the Postmaster-General.
With generous souls great calamitites give birth to great inspirations.
Mr. Herbert Samuel and his colleagues grasped at once the special
character of the unexpected charge which had devolved on them.
It was possible to conceive many quite different methods of hospitably
entreating our refugees. There was the system of State aid ; there
was also the individualist system. Without pausing to consider the
Dutch solution, the creation by public authorities of asylums or camps,
or the French plan of a grant to the needy payable either in money or
in kind by the municipalities and at the charge of the State, England,
a country based on individualism, to which she owes the robustness of
her character, appealed to private initiative. And this asked for nothing
more than to be made use of.
In leaving it to public bodies to administer the housing, the pro-
visioning, and the clothing of the refugees, may we not conclude that
the British Government knew that it could rely on the sentiment of
affection for Belgium and the generosity of its citizens ? That it under-
stood that it was placing on a more thoroughly national basis
the movement of mutual assistance ? That it knew that it
could also trust the judgment, the goodwill, and the common
sense with which its people are so richly endowed, and
without which the kindliest intentions soon cease to be effective ?
What was the result ? It was the assurance of hospitality to more
than 150,000 Belgians, the Belgian Relief Fund, and the setting free
22
TO GREAT BRITAIN
of a stream of charity the efficacy and beauty of which cannot be
adequately praised. As imaginative as it was persistent, this generosity
was not content with a single field ; it did not confine itself to our
refugees, it passed on to our soldiers, and from them to our civil popu-
lation. It was practical, active, and discreet ; it combined the devotion
of a mother with the coaxing ways of a child ; above all, it increased
tenfold the value of its gift by the manner of its giving.
But there was need of guidance by the Government ; the utility of
control and co-ordination was plain ; inevitable gaps had to be filled.
Mr. Herbert Samuel knew how to provide the first, to secure the
second and to put everything exactly on the right footing. He drew
his inspiration in sagacious proportion from the aspirations of his
fellow-countrymen and the exigencies or traditions of English life
on the one hand, and the appeals of the refugees on the other.
At the commission for providing work for refugees, over which Sir
Ernest Hatch presided with so much authority, at the office of the
Registrar General, at the workshops for refugees, and at the factories
of munitions and war material, the labours of the British Government
were completed and kept in touch with the lessons of experience, with
the prolongation of the sojourn of the refugees, and with the require-
ments of the war.
If it were necessary for the Belgian Government to perform an
act of sovereignty in England ; if it were necessary for the refugees to
meet, to debate, or to issue publications, the English Government
stretched its goodwill for us to the utmost Hmits. And so Le Comite
Officiel Beige pour VAngleterre enjoys with the authorities across the
Channel the prestige which results from this action of the Government ;
le Ministere des Colonies works in London under the best possible con-
ditions ; and the enhstment of young men from 1 8 to 25 years of age
is carried on with the assistance of the police authorities.
Everywhere, and at all times, the authorities of the Kingdom were
full of help and goodwill for the Belgians. Their welcome has a touch
of chivalry which not only does honour to themselves, but cheers,
better than all else, those whom they honour. Never do they fail to
show their respect for the Belgian name, and by this respect to
23
TO GREAT BRITAIN
convey their homage to our loyalty, and their recognition of our
martyrdom.
Honour to you, Herbert Samuel ! In this age of materialism you
have succeeded in making kindness a principle of Government. If it
has been possible to say of the Belgians that they have raised the credit
of mankind while two empires were debasing it, your colleagues and your-
self have shown that Great Britain has exalted loyalty and humanity
above everything at the very time when they were being trampled
under foot.
Homage to you, dear English people ! Your work in a cause of
charity which is without precedent in the annals of warfare has been
sublime. You have been deterred neither by its duration nor by such
individual difficulties as have attended it. You have been good Samari-
tans to us in our calamities ; you have given a new significance to the
words charity and fellowship. You have founded the co-operation of
our civilians while our young men and yours, on the soil of Belgium,
stand shoulder to shoulder and form a chain which to-day gaUs and
to-morrow shall bind fast the foe.
Paul Fort, in his " Poemes de France," sings of your noble and valiant
warriors, every one a St. George, whose blood is mingled with the ashes
of Ypres. Let me say to you, the kinsfolk of these soldiers, to you
English and Scots and Irish, prodigal of your sympathy as they of their
blood, that all Belgians, Government and citizens alike, vow to your
country and yourselves gratitude without bounds. This, be assured,
will resound through the ages ; this, throughout history, will be
accounted unto you for righteousness.
24
THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT GLADSTONK, G.L. i;., ETC,
J. G. ROSIER
LE CARACTERE BRITANNIQUE.
Par Paul Hymans,
Ministre d'Etat, Ministre de Belgique a Londres.
EUX traits essentiels marquent le caractere britannique :
la loyaute et la bonte.
L' Anglais a le culte du devoir. II I'accomplit avec
stoicisme et simplicite. II agit selon sa conscience et son
coeur, spontanement et sans ostentation. Sa reserve,
son apparente froideur recouvrent des sources profondes de sensibilite
et de tendresse. II s'est en tout temps passionne pour la cause des
opprimes.
Loyaute et bonte ! La Grande Bretagne a merveilleusement deploye
ces deux vertus dans la tourmente terrible qui s'est dechainee sur le
monde. Loyaute vis-a-vis de la Nation beige, brutalement attaquee
au mepris des engagements les plus sacres, a laquelle elle avait donne
sa parole et pour laquelle elle verse son sang et son or. Bonte infinie
et multiple vis-a-vis des proscrits de I'affreuse guerre, des exiles venus
dans son ile hospitaliere pour chercher un abri et des consolations,
pour echapper aux exactions et aux insolences de I'envahisseur.
La Belgique s'est offerte en sacrifice. Elle a supporte le premier
choc des formidables legions germaniques. Les perils afFrontes, les
souffrances subies lui ont permis de recevoir sans dechoir. L'amitie
et la generosite britannique I'ont honoree et grandie.
Au moment ou j'ecris, la Grande Bretagne, maitresse des mers, ne
s'est pas encore assure la victoire definitive sur terre. Mais elle a des
a present acheve une radieuse recolte morale. Elle a moissonn6 a
plein bras la gratitude des cceurs beiges.
25
THE ENGLISH CHARACTER.
Translation by Sir William Osler, B"^,, F.R.S., etc.
TWO essential features distinguish the English character :
loyalty and kindness.
The Englishman makes a cult of duty. He fulfils it
with stoicism and simplicity. He acts according to his
conscience and his heart, spontaneously and without
ostentation. His reserve and his apparent coldness conceal depths of
feeHng and tenderness. He becomes at all times roused to passion in
the cause of the oppressed.
Loyalty and kindness ! How wonderfully Great Britain has displayed
these two virtues in the awful turmoil which has been let loose upon the
world. Loyalty to the Belgian Nation, brutally attacked in spite of
the most sacred pledges, to whom she had given her word and for whom
she pours out her blood and her gold. Kindness, infinite and manifold,
towards the victims of this frightful war, the exiles who have sought
in her hospitable island shelter and comfort, and an escape from the
extortion and insolence of the invader.
Belgium has offered herself up as a sacrifice. She has borne the first
shock of the formidable German legions. The perils she has braved,
the sufferings she has undergone, permit her to accept without humiha-
tion. She has been honoured and raised by British friendship and
generosity.
As I write. Great Britain, the mistress of the seas, is not yet assured
of decisive victory on land. But she has already achieved a glorious
moral harvest. She has reaped to the full the gratitude of Belgian
hearts.
i
z6
NOTRE CONFIANCE.
Par Emile Vandervelde, Mintstre d^Etat.
DANS cette guerre, dont I'issue parait si lointaine encore,
nous n'avons eu qu'un seul jour de doute quant au resultat
final. C'etait le 4 Aout 1914. La Belgique venait d'etre
envahie. Elle avait fait appel ^ ses garants. Le Conseil
des Ministres, au Palais en Bruxelles,attendaitleur reponse.
On savait ce que ferait'la France. Mais que ferait I'Angleterre ? Sa
reponse ne se fit pas-attendre. Elle intervenait. Elle affirmait I'identite
de ses interets avec ceux de la liberte en Europe. Elle engageait toutes
les forces de son'Empire pour la defense d'un petit peuple traitreusement
attaque. Des ce moment, nous respirames.
La lutte sera longue, le succes sera difficile. Mais il est assure.
La Belgique a eu I'honneur de porter les premiers coups au Cesarisme
allemand. L'Angleterre vaincra Guillaume IL comme elle a vaincu
Napoleon : elle lui donnera le coup de grace.
OUR TRUST.
Translation by May Sinclair.
IN this war, whose issue still seems so far off, we had only one day of
doubt as to the end. That day was the Fourth of August, 1914.
Belgium had just been invaded. She had appealed to those who
stood surety for her. The Ministerial Council, in the Palace in
Brussels, was waiting for their response. We knew what France
would do. But what about England ? She did not keep us waiting for
her answer long. She stepped in. She proclaimed her interests one
with those of European liberty. She pledged all the forces of her Empire
to the defence of the little country so treacherously attacked. From
that moment we breathed freely.
The struggle will be long. Victory will be hard. But it is sure. The
honour of striking the first blow at German Caesarism fell to Belgium.
It remains for England to beat William the Second as she beat Napoleon
— by giving him the couf de grdce.
27
LE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND.
Par le Comte de Lalaing,
Envoye extraordinaire et ministre plenipotentiaire.
LORSQUE la Belgique fut envahie, lorsque notre Roi et son
Gouvernement repousserent fierement le marche propose
par I'Allemagne, lorsque nos troupes s'opposerent au passage
de I'ennemi et que la resistance de nos forteresses retarda
la marche des forces germaniques, ce ne fut qu'un cri en
Angleterre ; " Ah ! les braves gens."
A ce cri du coeur succeda un desir, aussi vif que spontane, de venir
en aide aux families eprouvees de nos soldats et a nos blesses. Le
public britannique voulait nous aider a tout prix et ne savait comment
proceder. Je fus inonde de lettres me demandant comment un faible
hommage aux Beiges pouvait leur etre envoye. " Nous n'avons pas
pu vous defendre, m'ecrivait-on. Laissez nous au moins venir en aide
a vos compatriotes qui souffrent."
J'eus I'idee de faciliter la mise a execution de ces intentions gene-
reuses et, des les premiers jours de la guerre je fondai le Belgian Relief
Fund, dont le siege etait a la Legation du Roi et auquel Son Altesse
Royale Madame la Duchesse de Vendome voulut bien donner son
auguste patronage. On ignore trop combien precieux fut le concours
que Son Altesse Royale daigna preter a cette entreprise. Son activite
inlassable, ses demarches personnelles nous furent du plus grand
secours. On pent dire que la Duchesse de Vendome fut la marraine
du Belgian Relief Fund et le tint sur les fonts baptismaux. Aussi I'enfant
prospera. La presse britannique seconda genereusement nos efforts
et I'appel suivant fut public dans tous les journaux: " Belgian Relief
Fund, sous le patronage de S.A.R. la Duchesse de Vendome, soeur de
S.M. le Roi des Beiges. Le Ministre de Belgique a Londres a inaugure
un * Fund ' pour assister les families des soldats beiges qui defendent
vaillamment leur pays, injustement attaque, et pour venir en aide aux
malades et aux blesses. En faisant cet appel, le Ministre de Belgique
est certain de pouvoir compter sur la sympathie du public britannique
a cette heure critique. Les souscriptions peuvent etre envoyees a la
Legation, 15 West Halkin Street, S.W., sous la rubrique Belgian Relief
Fund."
28
LE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
Depuis lors, le Gouvernement du Roi a decide que non seulement
les families des soldats, mais toutes les families beiges seraient prises
en consideration dans la distribution des secours recueillis par le
Fund, la guerre actuelle ayant confondu dans la meme infortune
les victimes civiles et militaires, et que des subsides considerables
seraient alloues a la Croix Rouge Beige et aux hopitaux.
Je priai tous nos consuls de coUaborer a cette ceuvre en centralisant
les souscriptions dans leurs juridictions et bientot je regus d'eux les
nouvelles les plus encourageantes. Londres, Edimbourg, Dublin, Liver-
pool, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Bradford, Sheffield,
York, Belfast, et toutes les grandes villes rivalisaient de generosite.
Le zele patriotique et les perseverants efforts du Consul- General et
du corps consulaire Beige ont ete couronnes du plus grand succes.
Ce fut bien autre chose lorsque notre pays eut subi la grande invasion,
marquee par ses horreurs inoubliables, ses cruautes et ses devastations.
On s'ecria alors : " Ah, les pauvres gens ! " L'injustice du sort qui
nous etait reserve, alors que nous n'avions fait que defendre notre
patrie, attaquee au mepris des traites, la tragedie de notre situation,
car nous luttions encore seuls contre des armees entieres toucherent
tous les coeurs. Bientot Liege et Namur tombaient. Bruxelles, au
pouvoir des Allemands, n'avait plus qu'un defenseur moral, son grand
premier magistrat. Anvers, qu'on ne put pas secourir, fut assiege,
puis pris. Avec quelle admiration attendrie on pronongait ici les noms
du Roi Albert, du General Leman, du Bourgmestre Max, comme plus
tard celui du Cardinal Mercier ? Les preuves pratiques de la sympathie
anglaise ne cessaient d'affluer. Les offrandes du Roi Georges, de la
Reine Marie, de la Reine Alexandra, du Prince de Galles, du Lord
Maire de Londres, paraissaient sur les listes de souscripteurs. A c6te
des plus grands noms d'Angleterre, figuraient ceux des donateurs
les plus modestes. Un millionnaire, que je remerciais d'un don princier,
me repondait tres simplement: " Je suis riche; je ne donne pas plus
que le pauvre qui envoie son obole." Que de dons touchants me sont
parvenus! Quatre pence en timbres-poste d'une pauvre veuve; de
petites sommes economisees par des enfants sur leurs plaisirs. Que
d'ecoles m'ont envoye 1' argent destine a 1' excursion annuelle au bord
29
LE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
de la mer ! Les directrices m'ecrivaient : " On a mis au vote la decision
a prendre — L'excursion ou les Beiges. Les enfants ont vote, Belgium.
II n'y aura pas d'excursion cette annee." Des femmes, des jeunes filles
m'envoyaient leurs pauvres bijoux, avec priere de les vendre au profit
des Beiges. Des employes de la poste et des chemins de fer, et des
grandes maisons de commerce ont transmis, des le debut, des cotisations
hebdomadaires ou mensuelles " for the Belgians." Les firmes puis-
santes, les banques, les principaux financiers, les corporations, et les
glides signaient des cheques importants, le clerge faisait des quetes
dans les paroisses. Les particuliers pretaient leurs salons, les theatres
leurs salles, les artistes et les amateurs mettaient leurs talents a la dis-
position de la cause beige. Les passants memes s'arretaient pour remettre
a de jeunes Anglaises, portant la cocarde tricolore, leur offrande a notre
pays.
La generosite merveilleuse de la Grande- Bretagne a trouve un
echo dans les Colonies. Un poete anglais a decrit le Lion Britannique
tenant tete a ses ennemis, en rugissant, " et des regions lointaines
ses lionceaux lui repondaient " (and younger lions answered him from
regions far away). L'exemple de la mere patrie a ete suivi sans retard.
Toute I'Australie, la Nouvelle Zelande, le Canada, I'lnde, les Colonies
de la Couronne ont lutte de generosite, publique et privee. Les
Gouvernements Coloniaux et leurs villes principales m'ont fait parvenir
des cotisations superbes. Les Belgian Flag Days, a I'instar de ceux
de Londres et des provinces anglaises, ont ete celebres aux Antipodes.
Qui ne donnait en argent donnait en nature, en vivres ou en vetements.
Des navires sillonnaient les mers australes et des transatlantiques
mettaient le cap sur Londres a I'intention des Beiges. A la Noel,
un vapeur, le Jason, monte par des Argonautes modernes, apportait
aux enfants beiges une cargaison de jouets.
Mais les vetements manquaient et I'hiver etait la. Le Relief Fund
avait pour les habillements un bureau special, bientot trop exigu,
ou un compatriote devoue, M. J. Navaux, aide d'un vaillant personnel
de volontaires, deballait, classait, emballait et expediait les vetements
aux destinataires, qui etaient au debut, les malheureux eparpiUes sur
le littoral beige, puis les refugies en HoUande et enfin en Grande-
LE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
Bretagne. On peut dire que I'Angleterre et ses colonies ont vide leurs
armoires pour vetir les Beiges dans le besoin et leurs depots pour leur
envoyer des vivres. Deja, avant la chute d'Anvers, plusieurs navires
charges de provisions et d'habillements offerts au Belgian Relief Fund,
furent expedies a notre Metropole commerciale et leur contenu put
etre distribue a la population de la ville et des environs, avant I'arrivee
de I'ennemi, grace aux bons soins du secretaire infatigable du Fund, le
Major Gordon, qui des le debut m'a aide a organiser le Fund et qui a
personnellement accompagne a Anvers les vapeurs precites. Son assis-
tance devouee et desinteressee, ses relations etendues et sa grande
experience m'ont ete du plus grand secours. Le Belgian Fund, avant
que les communications ne fussent coupees, a pu ravitailler Ostende
et Gand en farine, en habillements, sans parler du numeraire expedie
pour les premiers besoins des refugies, lamentablement echoues sur
la cote beige en fuyant leurs foyers.
Le Relief Fund avait son siege principal a West Halkin Street, ou
la correspondance etait triee une premiere fois, mais des les premiers
jours il a fallu ouvrir des bureaux speciaux, d'abord a Apsley House,
gracieusement prete par le Due de Wellington, puis dans des locaux
de I'Hotel Alexandra, genereusement offerts par la Direction. La.
tout un personnel depouillait les envois et remerciait les donateurs.
Les sommes recueillies chaque jour etaient deposees dans une
banque et tenues a la disposition du Ministre Beige de I'Interieur,
qui en dirigeait la distribution. Pendant les premiers mois de la guerre
la Legation du Roi fut assaillie de bienfaiteurs et de bienfaitrices, avec
mille plans pour adoucir nos infortunes, alors que les salons et les
antichambres se remplissaient de compatriotes demandant aide ou
conseil. L'offre et la demande se trouvaient juxtaposes souvent. Des
comites beiges d'assistance de diverses natures furent crees peu a peu;
on organisa des bureaux nouveaux. Le concours de bonnes volontes
que j'ai trouve dans la colonic beige est au-dessus de tout eloge et I'assis-
tance desinteressee de nos compatriotes dans ces premiers temps difEciles
fut des plus precieuses. C'est que de nouveaux problemes se posaient
qui depassaient le cadre du Relief Fund. Entre autres celui des refugies.
C'est par milliers qu'ils arrivaient, d'Ostende d'abord, de la Hollande
31
LE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND V ~
ensuite. Les difficultes ont ete resolues cependant, grace^a 1' assistance
immediate et puissante du Gouvernment Britannique qui accueillait
nos refugies comme hotes de la nation et au devouement des comites
anglais et beiges. L'administration anglaise envoyait des vapeurs
chercher nos refugies a Ostende ou a Flessingue, les installait dans des
depots provisoires a Aldwych, Alexandra Palace, Edmonton, etc. Les
comites repartissaient les families chez I'habitant, qui s'offrait a prendre,
que dis-je, qui reclamait des Beiges. Mes amis personnels et une foule
d'anglais, proprietaires fonciers, mettaient leurs chateaux, leurs villas,
leurs cottages a la disposition de nos compatriotes et les hebergeaient
pendant des mois. Mais il en venait toujours. Finalement les particuliers
et les municipalites de province les accueillirent en Ecosse, au pays de
Galles, en Irlande. On sait qu'ils arrivaient, ou sans argent, ou avec
de la monnaie beige. A Folkestone et a Londres grace aux avances
faites par le Relief Fund, les refugies ont pu changer leurs billets a
un taux favorable en attendant que des mesures adequates eussent
ete prises pour solutionner cette question, si vitale pour les nouveaux
arrives.
On ne peut parler de la generosite dont nos compatriotes ont ete
I'objet, sans mentionner I'assistance prodiguee aux Beiges restes au
pays, soit environ 7 millions, dont 2 miUions sans ressources aucunes.
Les autorites allemandes se bornaient a prelever des contributions et
a imposer des amendes. La " Commission for Relief in Belgium "
fut fondee, sous les auspices des Ambassadeurs d'Amerique et d'Espagne
a Londres et des Ministres respectifs a Bruxelles. M. Hoover, le presi-
dent du Comite, qui a rendu des services inappreciables, apres avoir
obtenu des autorites allemandes I'assurance que ses envois en Belgique
pour nourrir la population seraient respectes, a pu expedier chez nous,
par la Hollande, les vivres achetes par les souscriptions de nos amis du
Royaume-Uni et des Etats-Unis, auxquelles le Belgian Relief Fund a
aussi contribue largement. Le Gouvernement Britannique lui-meme
a fait don a ce comite d'un subside imposant.
Le fait d'avoir inaugure le Relief Fund m'a permis d'assister a
I'eclosion de magnifiques projets, qui ont ete couronnes de succes.
Le meme esprit animait les autorites et les particuliers. Si le President
32
\
ULSTE I'URTRAIT DE LADY I). M.
VICTOR ROUSSEAU, MEMBRE DE L'ACADEMIE ROVALE DE KELGI^UE
LE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
du Local Government Board, alors le Rt. Hon. Herbert Samuel,
ainsi que M. U. Wintour et Sir Ernest Hatch etendaient leur puissante
protection sur nos compatriotes. Lady Lugard fondait ses hostels,
I'Hon. Harry Lawson developpait son idee genereuse et geniale du
Daily Telegraph Fund, assiste par M. Morgan; M. Brett inaugurait
le Pall Mall Gazette Fund ; et M. Hall Caine editait le Livre du Roi
Albert. La generosite du peuple anglais s'est vraiment manifestee d'une
fa^on eclatante. On peut evaluer en livres sterling les sommes qui
nous ont ete consacrees, mais on ne se rendra jamais compte de ce que
cet effort represente de bonte individuelle, de sacrifices personnels,
de sympathie cordiale.
Profondes et diverses ont ete les causes de ce mouvement. L'admira-
tion et la pitie etaient du nombre. Peut-etre il y avait-il aussi une
nuance de remords, car le public sentait vaguement que si la Belgique
avait ete ecrasee, c'est qu'on avait un peu tarde a lui porter secours.
II y avait enfin le culte voue a notre Souverain, " orgueil de la patrie,
champion de I'humanite," comme le nomme Cammaerts. Pour les
anglais, comme pour nous, notre Roi a ete le heros de cette guerre.
Paladin apparaissant dans un siecle prosaique et utilitaire, auquel va
toute la veneration tout I'enthousiasme de son peuple, il a frappe
I'imagination de la nation anglaise, eprise d'ideal.
En esquissant les origines du Belgian Relief Fund, en citant le con-
cours de sympathies qu'il a provoque, j'ai ete entraine malgre moi a
rappeler la generosite de la nation anglaise dans plusieurs autres de ses
manifestations, qui meriteraient des aper^us speciaux. Quoiqu'il en
soit, je sais que mes compatriotes n'oublieront pas ce que I'Angleterre,
ce que le Royaume-Uni, ce que I'Empire Britannique a fait pour eux
dans les moments d'epreuve et de detresse. Et lorsqu'aura sonne,
sur I'horloge tardive de la justice, I'heure de la delivrance, lorsque nos
populations fouleront le sol d'une patrie liberee, dans nos villes comme
dans nos usines, dans les plaines de Flandre, comme dans les fagnes
des Ardennes on parlera longtemps des amis d'Angleterre ; on dira:
lis ont ete bons pour nous.
33 D
THE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND.
Translation by the Author.
WHEN Belgium was first invaded, when our
King and his Government proudly rejected
the deal proposed by Germany, when our
troops opposed the passage of the enemy,
and when the resistance of our fortresses
delayed the march of the German armies, with one voice England
praised our brave people.
Hence a strong and spontaneous desire to help the distressed families
of our soldiers and our wounded. The British public wished to assist
and did not know how best to do so. I was overwhelmed with letters
asking how help could be sent to the Belgians. The writers said:
" We have not been able to defend you. Let us at least afford some
aid to your suffering compatriots."
With a view to facilitating these generous intentions, at the beginning
of the War I founded the Belgian Relief Fund. Its headquarters were
at the Legation and H.R.H. the Duchess of Vendome graciously
gave it her patronage. Her Royal Highness's assistance cannot be suffi-
ciently appreciated. Her untiring activity and personal efforts were
most useful. She was the fairy godmother of the Belgian Relief Fund,
and the infant prospered. The British Press most generously assisted
our efforts, and the following notice appeared in all the papers:
" Belgian Relief Fund. — Under the patronage of Her Royal Highness
the Duchess of Vendome, sister of His Majesty the King of the
Belgians. The Belgian Minister in London has opened a fund to
relieve the distressed families of the Belgian soldiers, now in the field,
who are gallantly defending their country against an unprovoked
attack, and to afford help to the sick and wounded. In making this
appeal to the British public, the Belgian Minister feels sure he can
count upon their sympathy in Belgium's hour of need. Contributions
may be sent to the Belgian Legation, 15 West Halkin Street, S.W.,
marked ' Belgian Relief Fund.' "
When later on the misfortunes of the War overtook the dependants
of civilians and soldiers alike, the Belgian Government considered that
it would be equitable to extend the benefits of the Fund to all the
34
THE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
sufferers, and to afford help to the Belgian Hospitals and Red
Cross.
I had recourse to all our consuls' assistance in centralising the con-
tributions of their respective jurisdictions, and the news I received
from them w^as most encouraging. London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Liver-
pool, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Bradford, Sheffield,
York, Belfast — all the great towns were vieing with each other in gene-
rosity. The patriotic and persevering efforts of our Consul-General
and the Belgian consular body met with the greatest success.
This movement spread with the news of the greater invasion of
Belgium, marked by unforgettable horrors and cruel devastation. The
cry went up: "Ah! poor people! " The injustice of our fate, for we
had but defended our country, attacked notwithstanding all treaties,
the tragedy of our situation, fighting alone, as we still were, against
whole armies, touched every heart. Soon Liege and Namur fell. Brussels,
in the hands of the Germans, had but the moral support of her great
Burgomaster. Antwerp, which could not be relieved, was besieged
and taken. The names of King Albert, General Leman, Burgomaster
Max, and, later on, of Cardinal Mercier, were on every tongue, and the
practical proofs of British sympathy flowed in. The contributions of
Their Majesties King George, Queen Mary, Queen Alexandra, H.R.H.
the Prince of Wales, and the Lord Mayor of London headed the lists.
Side by side with the greatest names of Britain were those of the most
humble subscriber. A millionaire I had occasion to thank for a princely
gift answered quite simply: *' I am well off; I have sent no more than
the poor that give their pennies." How touching were some of the
contributions sent! Fourpence in stamps from a poor widow; small
sums economised by children out of their pocket money. Several schools
sent the money reserved for the annual seaside excursion, and the
schoolmistresses wrote: "We have put to the vote — the excursion or
the Belgians? The children voted Belgium, so there will be no seaside
trip this year." Women and young girls sent their poor trinkets to be
sold for the cause. Post Office and railway employees and clerks from
the great stores forwarded weekly or monthly sums. Leading business
houses, banks, financiers, City companies, and corporations sent cheques
35
THE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
and clergymen forwarded collections from their parishes. Private
persons lent their drawing-rooms and theatres their halls; artists and
amateurs devoted their talents to the Belgian cause ; while English
ladies wearing the tricolour ribbon appealed to the passers-by.
Great Britain's wonderful generosity found a ready echo in the
Dominions and Colonies. An English poet says, describing the British
lion at bay, " and younger lions answered him from regions far away."
The Mother Country's example was followed by Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, India, and all the Crown Colonies. Governments
and municipalities and private individuals sent splendid gifts. There
were Belgian flag days at the Antipodes, as in London and the pro-
vinces. Contributions were sent in money, provisions, or clothes. Ships
crossed the southern seas and liners headed for London to help the
Belgians, and at Christmas the good ship Jason, with its crew of modern
Argonauts, brought over a load of toys for our poor children.
Clothing was badly wanted and winter was at hand. The Relief
Fund had a special department for clothing, which soon became too
small and where our devoted compatriot Mr. Navaux, with a staff
of active volunteers, packed and forwarded the articles, first to the
unfortunate people stranded on the Belgian coast, then to our refugees
in Holland and Great Britain. England and the Colonies emptied their
cupboards to clothe the Belgians, and their stores to send them food.
Before Antwerp fell several steamers laden with provisions and clothes
given to the Belgian Relief Fund were sent to that town and the
contents were distributed to the population of Antwerp and its suburbs,
before the arrival of the enemy, thanks to the untiring efforts of the
Fund's honorary secretary. Major Gordon, who from the first assisted
me in organising the Fund, and accompanied those vessels to
Belgium. Major Gordon's devoted and disinterested help, his large
circle of friends, and his great experience were invaluable. Before
communications were cut off the Belgian Relief Fund was able to
forward flour and warm clothing to Ostend and Ghent, as well as money,
urgently required for the first needs of the poor refugees who had fled
from their homes to the coast.
The Relief Fund's headquarters were at West Halkin Street, where
36
THE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
all letters were opened, but it soon became necessary to have special
offices, first at Apsley House, by kind permission of the Duke of Welling-
ton, then at the Alexandra Hotel, where rooms were generously provided
by the management. There the correspondence was gone through and
all gifts acknowledged. The sums received were transferred to a bank
and held at the disposal of Mr. Berryer, Home Secretary of the Belgian
Government, who took all decisions as to the distribution of the funds.
During the first months of the War the Legation was crowded with
well-wishers of both sexes, submitting plans for the alleviation of our
distress, while the rooms were full of our compatriots seeking help and
advice. Supply and demand met very often under that roof. The Belgian
Assistance Committees of various sorts were formed. Other offices
were opened. I cannot speak too highly of the support I met with
in our Belgian Colony in London, nor of the disinterested assistance
given me by these compatriots in days of stress. New problems arose
daily, many of which were outside the scope of our Relief Fund —
among others, that of the refugees. They arrived in thousands, first
from Ostend, then from Holland. All difficulties were met, however,
thanks to the immediate and powerful intervention of the British
Government, who received the refugees as guests of the English nation,
and to the assistance afforded by English and Belgian Committees.
The British authorities sent steamers to bring over those refugees
from Ostend or Flushing, and sent them temporarily to Aldwych,
Alexandra Palace, Edmonton, etc. Committees allotted families to
persons who offered to give, nay, who insisted on giving, hospitality to
Belgians. My personal friends and many landowners placed their
country houses, villas, cottages at the disposal of my compatriots, and
attended for months to their wants. But still more came. At last distant
municipalities and private persons in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales
took them in. They arrived on these shores, often without means or
with Belgian money only. Both at Folkestone and in London advances
made by the Relief Fund enabled the refugees to exchange their notes
at a reasonable exchange, until measures could be taken to solve this
vital problem for the new arrivals.
It is impossible to speak of the generous treatment extended to our
37
THE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
compatriots without mentioning the help given to the Belgians who
remained in their own country — roughly speaking, about seven million
people, of whom two million were without means. The German autho-
rities contented themselves with levying taxes and imposing fines.
The " Commission for Relief in Belgium " was founded under the
auspices of the American and Spanish Ambassadors in London and
their respective colleagues in Brussels. Mr. Hoover, the chairman, who
rendered inestimable service, obtained an assurance from the German
authorities that the food he sent to sustain the population in Belgium
should not be seized, and was thus able to forward, through Holland,
the food-stuffs bought with money provided by our British and American
friends. The Belgian Relief Fund was able to contribute to this good work,
and the British Government gave a splendid donation.
As founder of the Belgian Relief Fund, it has been my privilege to
witness the maturing of many magnificent undertakings which were
entirely successful. The same humane and kindly spirit animated public
bodies and private individuals. The President of the Local Govern*
ment Board, then the Rt. Hon. Herbert Samuel, with Mr. Wintour
and Sir Ernest Hatch, gave their powerful help to our compatriots;
Lady Lugard founded her hostels; the Hon. Harry Lawson developed
his generous idea of the Daily Telegraph Fund, assisted by Mr. Morgan,
Mr. Brett inaugurated the Pall Mall Gazette Fund, and Mr. Hall Caine
edited King Alberfs Book. British generosity surpassed itself. The
amounts subscribed are easily reckoned up, but it is impossible to
imagine what they represent in the way of kindheartedness, personal
sacrifice, and deep sympathy.
Various and deep-seated were the motives that influenced public
opinion. Admiration and pity were among them. Perhaps a tinge of
regret, too, for the public vaguely felt that Belgium might perhaps
not have been so crushed had timely help been forthcoming. Then
there was respect for our sovereign, " the pride of his country and the
champion of humanity," as our poet Cammaerts has called him. He is
considered as the hero of this War. King Albert burst upon a prosaic
century as a knight of old, and this appealed to the imagination of the
British nation, ever ready to appreciate high motives and lofty ideals.
38
THE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND
While trying to follow the Belgian Relief Fund from its cradle and
to acknowledge the wonderful response given to its appeal, I have
alluded to many other proofs of British generosity, each one worthy of
more special notice. I know, at any rate, that my countrymen will never
forget what England, what the United Kingdom, what the British
Empire did for them in their distress. And when the hour of deliverance
shall have struck at last, when our people tread once more the soil
of their free land, in our towns and in our factories, on the plains of
Flanders and the rugged hillsides of the Ardennes, they will remember
their English friends and will say: " They were good to us! "
39
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE.
Par le Comte Goblet d'Alviella, Ministre d^Etat.
LA premiere fois que je compris jusqu'ou peuvent s'etendre les
repercussions de la guerre, en dehors des charniers qui marquent
I'emplacement des batailles, ce fut sous les murs d'Anvers,
quand j'assistai au lamentable defile des premieres caravanes
qui fuyaient devant I'invasion.
Campagnards et citadins, hommes valides portant des instru-
ments aratoires, des valises, des paniers ; voire, noues dans un sac
ou un drap de lit, les debris de I'avoir familial; jeunes femmes tenant
un enfant dans les bras, tandis qu'une marmaille fatiguee s'accrochait
aux jupons; vieillards se trainant appuyes sur un baton ou soutenus par
un bras complaisant, tous marchant d'un pas lourd, saccade, dans un
silence sinistre, les chaussures souillees, le regard fixe et perdu. C'etait
comme une page oubliee de I'histoire des invasions barbares aux premiers
siecles de notre ere. Dans I'intervalle des groupes passaient ajoutant
encore au desordre, des vaches, des pores, conduits ou traines par
leurs proprietaires, ensuite toutes especes de vehicules, tomberaux,
chariots de ferme,brouettes,charrettes a chiens ou a bras. La, sur de la
paille, gisaient, a cote des choses les plus heteroclites, les impotents de
I'exode: des vieux, casses par I'age; des malades grelottants de fievre;
des femmes recemment accouchees; des bambins dont I'inconsciente
exuberance detonnait par instants dans Tuniversel effarement. " Ou
allez-vous ainsi? " demandai-je a une femme vetue en bourgeoise aisee
qui cheminait entre deux fiUettes ? " Dieu le sait," me r6pondit-elle ; " nous
allons la ou ne sont pas les Prussiens." — L'autorite militaire leur fournit,
ce soir la, un abri et une pitance; puis le lendemain, ils reprirent leur
migration vers le nord, aussitdt remplaces par d'autres theories de mal-
heureux plus minables et plus eperdus encore.
Je revis une foule analogue, quelques jours plus tard, lorsque les
fugitifs des Flandres, entasses sur les quais d'Ostende, se lancerent a
I'assaut des steamers et des autres embarcations qui pouvaient mettre
la mer entre eux et les hordes de plus en plus proches. Ici les classes
moyennes etaient plus largement representees ; mais la bousculade avait
pris de telles proportions que la plupart des bagages furent perdus, que
des families furent irremediablement separees et que plus d'un fugitif,
40
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
precipite des passerelles, trouva dans I'eau une mort clemente. Aux
survivants, il ne restait, helas, suivant le voeu de Bismarck, que les yeux
pour pleurer.
La troisieme fois que je les retrouvai,ce fut,peu apres, dans les locaux
d'Earl's Court et d' Alexandra Palace, amenages a leur intention par le
Gouvernement anglais avec une celerite qui attestait a la fois son esprit
d'organisation et la generosite de ses previsions. Quel contraste cependant
entre les gaies facades d'une architecture fantaisiste, ou tout evoquait Ifl
souvenir des rejouissances populaires, et I'aspect poignant de cette foule
entassee dans de vastes salles ou tantot I'alignement des couchettes
faisait songer a des dortoirs d'hopital et, tantot, la frigidite des longues
tables de bois blanc, a des refectoires de caserne ou de couvent. Sans
doute, c'etait pour ces infortunes le vivre et le coucher, I'abri, la securite,
le port apres I'orage. Mais aussi c'etait k la fois I'isolement et la promis-
cuite, avec I'incertitude de I'avenir en plus. Sortis de leurs premiere
stupeur, ils commen^aient a realiser ce qu'ils avaient subi et perdu;
nombre d'entre eux semblaient porter encore dans les yeux la tragique
vision de leurs foyers detruits et de leurs proches massacres.
Cependant ces grands caravanserails, oii devaient se succeder, pendant
des mois, des nouvelles vagues de refugies, n'etaient pas destines i
Tester des centres d^ hospitalisation; ils devaient etre exclusivement des
centres de distribution, d'oii les families devaient etre dirigees vers des
destinations mieux appropriees, dans les localites les plus diverses du
Royaume-Uni.
Charge par notre Ministre de I'lnterieur, I'honorable M. Berryer,
d'installer a Londres le Comiti officid Beige des Refugies, je commengai,
a la fin de novembre, une serie de visites qui devaient me mettre en
contact avec nos compatriotes dans le sud de I'Ecosse ainsi que dans
I'ouest de I'Angleterre. Des le debut je fus frappe du changement dans
la physionomie et I'attitude de ces malheureux que j 'avals vus en proie
tout d'abord a un affolement bien justifie, puis a une atonie non moins
comprehensible. II etait visible qu'ils etaient en train de se ressaisir,
qu'ils se reprenaient a vivre et a esperer ; que si, chez eux, le souvenir des
recentes souffrances conservait toute son acuite, ils s'affranchissaient
graduellement de la depression produite par les privations, les fatigues
41
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
et les menaces du lendemain. — C'est I'hospitalite anglaise qui avait
accompli cette oeuvre de cicatrisation et de relevement.
Du jour ou les premieres colonnes de refugies beiges debarquerent
dans le Royaume-Uni, un grand elan de pitie et de reconnaissance avait
secoue la nation anglaise jusqu'en ses profondeurs. Meme parmi les plus
petites localites, des comites s'etaient formes spontanement pour venir
en aide aux fugitifs, dont les journaux decrivaient en termes poignants
les miseres et les souffrances. Ces organismes se proposaient non seule-
ment de reunir sur place les fonds necessaires, mais encore de pourvoir
au logement, a la nourriture, a I'habillement des families auxquelles ils
comptaient fournir un asile. Immediatement les dons affluerent dans des
proportions inattendues. Les riches envoyerent leurs cheques ; les pauvres
leur obole; tons, des dons en nature, vetements, chaussures, literies,
provisions. Partout des proprietaires offrirent gratuitement des maisons
et des villas; d'autres ouvrirent leurs propres foyers a des families
entieres.
Aussitot constitues, ces Comites firent savoir au War Refugees Com-
mittee — qui, egalement forme par I'initiative privee, s'appliquait de
Londres a regulariser tout le mouvement, — combien chacun d'entre eux
pouvait caser et entretenir d'individus et de families. Quelques-uns
envoyerent a Londres et a Folkestone des delegues charges directement
de choisir et d'amener le contingent desire. Des localites importantes
ont meme etabli chez elles des centres de distribution secondaires ou
les refugies etaient heberges pendant plusieurs jours; ce qui permettait
de mieux repartir les families dans des conditions plus ou moins adaptees
a leur milieu social ou professionnel. J'ai rencontre des secretaires qui se
vantaient d'avoir acquis, pour mener a bonne fin ce triage toujours
delicat, un flair exceptionnel.
Les autorites locales d'ailleurs, rivalisaient de sollicitude. C'etait en
general les maires qui exer^aient les fonctions de president et assuraient
le concours de tons les services municipaux.
Le nombre total des Comites ainsi formes a depasse 4,000; ce qui
donne en moyenne un comite pour environ 40 refugies, s'il est exact que
le chiffre de ces derniers ait oscille constamment autour de 200,000.
Ces Comites comptaient un nombre variable de membres, de 10 a 40,
42
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
ce qui donnerait pour toute I'Angleterre peut-etre 50,000 personnes
vouees a cette pieuse mission. On peut affirmer que toutes y apportaient
cette tenacite et cet esprit pratique qui caracterisent les Anglais dans
leurs entreprises. Ce n'a pas ete, pour moi, le moindre sujet d'etonne-
ment que la simplicite avec laquelle, partout, ces hommes et ces femmes,
les dernieres surtout, prenaient sur leurs interets, sur leurs affaires, sur
leurs distractions, sur I'exercice de leur profession ou la conduite de leur
menage, le temps considerable exige par leur oeuvre de solidarite et de
misericorde.
Frequemment plusieurs families etaient installees dans un immeuble
cede gratuitement ou moyennant un loyer nominal. Tantot on y pla^ait
une " matrone," femme de charge qui achetait les provisions et veillait
k la tenue de la maison. Tantot on allouait hebdomadairement aux chefs
de famille une somme calculee d'apres le nombre des bouches k nourrir.
C'est, me seftible-t-il, ce dernier systeme qui a donne les meilleurs
resultats; les femmes, se chargeant h tour de role de preparer les repas
et d'entretenir la maison, double fonction ou elles apportaient cette
science de I'economie culinaire et ce souci de la proprete domestique qui
caracterisent les menageres de nos classes laborieuses.
J'eus presque partout Poccasion de visiter quelques-uns de ces homes
et de ces hostels. J'en ai rapporte la meilleure impression. Peut-etre, en
certains endroits, y avait-il quelque exageration, qui rendra un jour plus
ou moins dure aux occupants leur reintegration, dans les conditions plus
modestes, de leur ancien habitat. Ainsi dans une petite ville du
Somersetshire, ou le Comite local a dej^ reuni assez de fonds pour
entretenir pendant un an son lot de refugies, je trouvai deux families
d'ouvriers flamands installes au fond d'un cirque verdoyant sur les bords
d'une claire riviere, dans un elegant chalet avec lumiere electrique,
chambre de bains, escalier de service, le reste ^ I'avenant ! Les hommes
heureusement avaient trouve du travail.
Mais il ne s'agissait pas seulement d'assurer h. nos refugies les
necessites materielles de la vie. II fallait encore les visiter, les consoler,
leur fournir des distractions: concerts, cinemas, excursions, confe-
rences, livres pour les adult es et jouets pour les enfants ; preter une oreiUe
complaisante au recit prolixe de leurs malheurs ou a I'expose emphatique
43
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
de leurs doleances; enfin apaiser les petites querelles engendrees entre
occupants, ne fut-ce qu'a propos de I'alternance dans la possession de
la cuisine commune. La tache etait rendue plus difficile encore par la
difference de langues qui necessitait souvent Pemploi d'un et meme,
quand il s'agissait de flamands, de deux interpretes volontaires.
Cependant on finissait toujours par s'entendre. Sans doute il y eut,
ici et la, des froissements, des heurts, des desillusions. Mais les Anglais
ont parfaitement compris que de pareils mecomptes sont inevitables
dans une masse humaine ou se rencontre fatalement toute la variete
des caracteres et des educations, aggravee par le sentiment de malheurs
immerites. Lorsque, en depit d'une patience k laquelle il faut rendre
hommage, un comite devait reconnaitre I'impossibilite d'un amendement
ou lorsque certains individus devenaient un facteur persistant de
scandale pour le reste de la communaute, ces indesirables etaient
renvoyes ^ Londres, ou, sans perdre leurs droits a I'assistance, ils
etaient concentres dans des depots speciaux, soumis a une discipline
assez severe. J'ai visite ^ deux reprises un de ces etablissements, a
Edmonton, et comme je felicitais le Directeur sur I'ordre qui y regnait,
il me repondit modestement : " C'est par la douceur que je suis arrive
^ ce resultat."
L'instruction des enfants n'a pas ete oubliee, soit qu'on ait
organisee ^ leur intention des cours primaires, donnes par des
instituteurs beiges, religieux ou laics, en frangais ou en flamand, soit,
qu'on les ait repartis — et ce fut le cas le plus frequent — dans les ecoles
anglaises, en menageant la transition par des legons pratiques de langue
anglaise, confiees ^ des instituteurs bi-lingues. On a pu constater, a
cet egard, la rapidite avec laquelle ces enfants, les petits flamands
surtout, apprenaient I'anglais et il leur en restera certainement beaucoup
apres leur rentree au pays. Bambins de Belgique et d'Angleterre
s'eduquaient reciproquement ^ chanter la " Braban9onne " et le
" God Save the King." Je me souviens d'avoir visite k Bristol une
ecoleprimaire ou Wallons, Flamands et Anglais me saluerent en entonnant
avec beaucoup d'unisson une chanson patriotique en . . . flamand.
Un autre probleme qui se rattache aux preoccupations d'assistance
morale, c'est la lutte contre une oisivete forcee qui finirait par demoraliser
44
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
notre population de travailleurs. On rapport qu'une haute autorite
devant laquelle on exposait les merveilles de I'hospitalite anglaise,
se serait ecriee: " Qu'on prenne garde de pauperiser nos Beiges," c'est-
a-dire de les habituer a vivre sur la generosite privee ou publique. Les
Comites locaux ; les partlculiers ; les Bureaux du Labour Exchange^
organisation analogue a nos bourses du Travail ; le Comite Officiel beige
de Londres ; the British Government Committee for providing occupation
et son President, Sir Ernest Hatch, qui s'est multiplie avec autant
d'energie que de perspicacite pour resoudre cette irritante question —
se sont longuement appliques a trouver pour nos compatriotes
des occupations en rapport avec I'age, la condition et la profession
de chacun. L'entreprise etait ardue, en dehors meme de I'obstacle
provenant de I'ignorance de I'anglais. II fallait respecter deux
principes parfaitement legitimes (et c'est i cette condition seulement
qu'on pouvait faire admettre par la classe ouvriere du Royaume-
Uni I'intrusion de concurrents etrangers): I'un, c'est qu'on ne
pouvait s'exposer a avilir le taux general des salaires, en amenant les
Beiges a accepter une remuneration inferieure a celle des ouvriers
indigenes; I'autre, que les Beiges devaient uniquement accepter du
travail dans les professions ou la main d'ceuvre britannique etait insuffis-
ante. Ensuite comment utiliser les intellectuels (avocats, notaires,
professeurs, employes de toute categorie), trop lies a certaines branches
de notre organisme national pour trouver a I'etranger, surtout en
Angleterre, des situations equivalentes ? Malgre ces obstacles et bien
que le probleme n'ait pas ete completement resolu, je dois dire qu'a
chacun de mes voyages en Angleterre j'ai pu constater une decroissance
sensible des oisivetes forcees. L'appel du gouvernement anglais au
concours d'un nombre, pour ainsi dire, illimite de bras, en vue d'inten-
sifier la production des munitions ne peut manquer de reduirje encore,
sinon de faire disparaitre, parmi nos refugies valides, les derniers con-
tingents d'inoccupes.
S'il ne convient pas qu'on mette les ouvriers beiges dans une situation
inferieure a celle des salaries anglais, il faut aussi qu'ils ne soient point
places dans des conditions plus avantageuses. Or c'est ce qui devait
inevitablement se produire, si a cote de leur salaire, ils conservaient
45
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
pour eux et leur famille tous les avantages que leur assurait I'hospitalite
britannique. II fut done convenu, d'accord avec I'autorite beige, que,
les cas echeant, ils devraient abandonner aux Comites ou plutot au fond
commun de I'assistance locale, une certaine proportion de leur salaire.
Cet arrangement rationnel, tout legitime qu'il fut, n'a pas ete sans
rencontrer quelque resistance. Toutefois, grace a la fermete des
Comites et au bon sens des refugies, il a fini par prevaloir generalement,
d'autant mieux qu'un grand nombre de Comites ont decide de consacrer
une partie de ce remboursement k la constitution d'un fond de
rapatriement, pour etre restitue aux deposants des la fin de leur exil.
C'est grace au concours obligeant de ces Comites que j'ai pu visiter
successivement, au cours de plusieurs voyages, une soixantaine de
localites, en Ecosse, dans les Cornouailles et le Pays de Galles, le Devon-
shire, le Somersetshire, le Cheshire, et le Surrey, en outre de quelques
grandes villes. J'avais commence ces visites sans autre intention que de
Jeter quelques coups de sonde dans la situation de nos compatriotes en
Angleterre. A la fa^on dont ils m'accueillirent, je m'apergus vite du bien
que produisait chez ces exiles la presence, meme passagere, d'un Beige
investi de quelque autorite pour leur dire que leur Gouvernement
legitime, lui-meme refugie au Havre dans la large hospitalite de la
Republique frangaise, n'oubliait pas ses milliers de concitoyens confies
a la generosite du peuple anglais ; qu'il sympathisait avec leurs douleurs
et avec leurs espoirs, qu'il leur envoyait I'assurance de sa protection
dans le present et de sa soUicitude pour I'avenir, quand aurait sonne
I'heure de la liberation. Paisiblement reunis dans la grande salle des
mairies ou de quelque autre batiment ofEciel, etaient-ce bien les memes
gens que j'avais contemples, peniblement affecte et comme honteux
de mon impuissance, dans les debacles d'Anvers et d'Ostende, puis
dans la cohue d'Earl's Court et des depots similaires? Chez eux, desor-
mais, s'affirmait, en meme temps qu'une profonde gratitude pour les
soins dont ils etaient combles par leurs hotes, la persistance d'un
patriotisme qui s'etait avive dans les epreuves. " On ne nous laisse
rien a desirer pour le moment," me fut-il repondu maintes fois, " mais |
nous serons bien autrement heureux quand nous pourrons rentrer
chez nous." La foi au retour dans la patrie delivree est aussi ancree
46
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
chez eux qu'elle Fetait chez les Israelites de Babylone et s'ils n'avaient
pas de harpes suspendues aux saules des fleuves qui baignent leur terre
d'exil, ils ne perdaient pas une occasion de me saluer par des Braban-
^onnes qui plus d'une fois m'ont fait monter les larmes aux yeux.
Avides de nouvelles, surtout de celles qui se rapportaient aux opera-
tions de nos armees, ils laissaient deborder leur enthousiasme, chaque
fois qu'ils entendaient une allusion aux exploits de nos soldats sur
I'Yser, k la vaillance du Roi, au devouement de la Reine, au drapeau
tricolore qui flottait toujours sur un coin de la Belgique. Une autre
note, qui rencontrait la meme faveur, c'etait I'affirmation que nos
divergences politiques, religieuses, sociales, linguistiques, devaient
s'effacer devant les devoirs envers la patrie. Si les esthetes qui, il y a
quelques annees, demandaient ironiquement k Edmond Picard ou
il avait decouvert "I'ame Beige," avaient pu assister k ces entretiens,
ils auraient bjen du reconnaitre que, parmi nos refugies comme parmi
nos soldats, comme parmi les sept millions de Beiges actuellement
sous le joug allemand, I'ame Beige repond a chaque appel, palpite dans
le coeur des Flamands comme dans celui des Wallons, et ne demande
qu'^ s'epanouir dans la Belgique delivree de I'etranger.
Sans doute, s'il y avait lieu d'encourager ces braves gens dans leur
foi au succes final, il etait bon aussi de les mettre en garde contre des
espoirs prematures et de les exhorter a la patience, sinon a la resigna-
tion. Mais pas une voix discordante ne s'elevait quand je leur disais
que mieux valait attendre et meme souflFrir encore, pourvu que la fin
fut une ceuvre integrale de reparation et de justice.
L'Angleterre ne s'est pas contentee d'accueillir k bras ouverts les
refugies qui lui demandaient asile, elle est allee les chercher, la ou
les secours restaient insuffisants. Apres la chute d'Anvers et I'invasion
des Flandres, un million de Beiges s'echappa du pays par les frontieres
hoUandaises. Malgre la generosite dont fit preuve a I'egard de ces
fugitifs la nation hollandaise, celle-ci n'etait pas a meme de nourrir
et d'entretenir un pareil afilux d'emigrants, generalement denues de
ressources. Entasses dans des baraquements, sous des tentes, ou sur
des pontons, ces malheureux ne tarderent pas a souffrir cruellement de
la faim et du froid. La majeure partie rentra bientot en Belgique, des
47
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
que la furie allemande se fut suffisamment calmee pour leur laisser
une securite relative. Mais ceux qui etaient restes en arriere voyaient
avec terreur I'approche de la mauvaise saison aggraver encore leur
situation miserable. C'est alors que I'Angleterre intervint et a la suite
d'une enquete privee, organisee par quelques membres du Parlement,
le trop-plein de I'emigration en Hollande fut graduellement dirige sur
le Royaume-Uni ou on leur accorda la meme hospitalite qu'a leurs
predecesseurs. Ainsi s'explique, que malgre les rentrees au pays, le
chiifre total de nos refugies en Angleterre soit reste si longtemps le
meme.
II faut remarquer que cet elan en faveur des refugies beiges n'a nui
aucunement aux souscriptions paralleles, souvent organisees par les
memes personnes, en faveur des oeuvres qui visent le soin de nos blesses,
le bien-etre de nos soldats, surtout le ravitaillement des populations
demeurees en Belgique, que seules I'assistance des allies et des neutres
a jusqu'ici preservees de la famine. Comme, a la fin d'un meeting tenu
a Llandudno, cette perle des plages galloises, je remergiais le Comite
pour le devouement qu'il avait apporte a secourir son lot de refugies,
le secretaire s'approcha de moi et me remit un cheque de 200 livres
sterling avec cette seule explication, qui en disait long: " Voici pour
les Beiges restes en Belgique; nous nous chargeons de nos refugies."
Dans la petite ville manufacturiere de Street, pres de Wells, a la suite
d'un meeting en plein air, improvise par des ouvriers anglais, auxquels
j 'avals du exposer dans leur langue la situation de la Belgique, une
quete spontanee de gros sous rapporta une somme surprenante pour le
Belgian Relief Fund. Et tout ceci sans prejudice des souscriptions
volontaires qui vont avec la meme abondance aux nombreuses oeuvres
organisees par les Anglais en faveur de leurs propres soldats blesses,
reformes et valides. On peut dire que cette horrible guerre a mis en
evidence les cotes les meilleures, comme les pires, de la nature humaine.
Combien de temps encore se prolongeront ces manifestations sans
precedents d'une generosite qui revele non seulement la profondeur
des sympathies anglaises, mais qui atteste encore les progres de la
solidarite humaine ? Jusqu'ici elles ne se sont guere ralenties et il n'y a
pas de motif pour craindre qu'elles ne s'epuisent avant la fin des
48
c
^
y.
X
<
b:
1—
t-
X
t;
U
NOS REFUGIES EN ANGLETERRE
hostilites. En tout cas, ce qui en restera, c'est, des maintenant, le
nouveau lien qu'elles ont etabli entre deux nations deja unies par la
conscience de verser leur sang pour une meme cause, qui est la cause
du droit, de la liberte de I'Europe et de I'avenir de la civilisation.
I" Septembre 191 5.
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND.
Translation by Lady Moreton.
APART from the charnel-houses marking the sites of
battles, it was beneath the walls of Antwerp, when I
witnessed the mournful procession of the earliest
caravans flying before the invasion, that I realised for
the first time how far the war could spread its
nefarious influence.
Peasants and townsfolk, strong men carrying agricultural tools,
boxes, baskets, even the remains of their household goods tied up in
sheets or bags; young women with children in their arms and other
tired little ones tugging at their skirts; old people dragging themselves
along by the help of a staff or a friendly arm; all walking with heavy
and uneven steps, silently, their shoes covered with dust, gazing with
vacant stare. It was all like some forgotten page from the story of the
invasion of barbarians in the first ages of our era. To add to the disorder,
between these groups came cows and pigs driven or pulled along by
their owners ; then, all sorts of vehicles, manure carts, farm waggons,
wheelbarrows, hand-carts and carts drawn by dogs. In these, side by
side with the most heterogeneous collection of objects, the helpless
members of the exodus lay on straw; the old, broken by age; the sick,
shivering with fever ; women but recently confined ; little children whose
careless mirth burst forth at times amid the universal terror. " Where
are you going ? " I asked a woman who was tramping along between
two little girls. " God knows," she answered. " We are going where
there are no Prussians." That night the military authorities furnished
them with shelter and a pittance ; but the next day they continued their
northward migration, to be replaced by others even more hopeless and
pitiful.
I saw another similar crowd, a few days later, on the quays of Ostend,
fugitives from Flanders, who tried to take by storm the steamers and
other craft which could put the sea between them and the horde which
was coming nearer and nearer. Here the middle class was more largely
represented; but the struggle was so great that most of the luggage
was lost, families were hopelessly divided and more than one fugitive,
thrown off the gangway, found a merciful death in the water. To the
50
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND
survivors, alas, nothing remained, according to the vow of Bismarck,
but eyes to weep with.
I met them soon afterwards for the third time, in the quarters arranged
for them by the British Government, with a celerity which testified
both to its power of organisation and to the extent of its forethought,
at Earl's Court and at the Alexandra Palace. What a contrast there was,
however, between the gay facades of fantastic architecture, where
everything called up memories of popular merrymaking, and the moving
sight of this multitude crowded together in the vast halls, where the
rows of beds evoked recollections of hospital wards, and the long, cold,
deal tables suggested barrack mess-rooms or convent refectories. It
certainly was bed and board, shelter, safety and the haven after the
storm for these unhappy people ; but it also meant, however, at once
isolation and promiscuity, added to the uncertainty of the future. As
they became less panic-stricken they began to realise what they had gone
through and what they had lost, but many of them still seemed to see
before their eyes the tragic visions of ruined hearths and dear ones
murdered.
These great caravansaries, where for months wave upon wave of fresh
refugees was to succeed one another, were not meant, however, to
remain as permanent quarters ; they were intended exclusively to be
centres of distribution, from which families could be despatched to
more suitable destinations throughout the length and breadth of the
United Kingdom.
As I had been entrusted by our Minister of the Interior, the Honour-
able M. Berryer, with the task of inaugurating in London the " Official
Belgian Committee for Refugees," I began, towards the end of November,
a series of visits to put myself in personal touch with our compatriots in
the South of Scotland and in the West of England. From the first I
was struck by the change in the appearance and bearing of those whom I
had first seen in the throes of well-justified terror, and then in a no less
comprehensible state of collapse. It was evident that they were coming
to themselves, and that, if the recollection of recent sufferings retained all
its acuteness, they were, nevertheless, gradually overcoming the
depression caused by privations, fatigues, and fears for the future.
51
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND
British hospitality had wrought this work of healing and restoration.
From the day when the first contingent of Belgian refugees landed
in the United Kingdom, a wave of gratitude and pity stirred the
British nation to its depths. Committees were formed spontaneously,
even in little places, to help the fugitives, whose sufferings and sorrows
were described in vivid terms by the newspapers. These organisations
proposed not only to collect the necessary funds locally; but also to
provide lodgings, food and clothes for the families to whom they
intended to offer shelter. At once, in unexpected measure, the offerings
poured in. The rich sent their cheques, the poor their mites, and every-
one gifts in kind, garments, shoes, bedding and provisions. Everywhere
owners offered houses and cottages, while others opened their homes
to take in whole families.
As soon as these committees were constituted they informed the
" War Refugees' Committee " (also a private enterprise which con-
trolled the movement from London) how many individuals or families
could be accommodated. Some sent delegates to London or Folkestone
to select and bring home the number wanted. Secondary centres of
distribution were even formed in some of the more important localities,
where the refugees were taken in for several days, and this facilitated the
establishment of families under conditions more or less adapted to their
social or professional standing. I have met secretaries who boasted of
having acquired an unusual dexterity in making a happy selection —
always a question of the greatest delicacy.
Moreover the local authorities outrivalled each other in solicitude.
The Mayor usually exercised the duties of president and assured the
cooperation of the Municipality.
The Committees thus formed exceeded 4,000, which gives to each
of these bodies about forty refugees, if the figure is correct that the
number of the latter fluctuated always around 200,000. The number
of members of these Committees varied from ten to forty, which would
show that perhaps 50,000 people throughout England devoted themselves
to this pious mission. It can be affirmed that all brought to bear that
tenacity and that practical common sense which characterise the
English in all their undertakings.
52
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND
To my mind, not the least astonishing part was the way in which,
everywhere, these men and women, particularly the latter, spared from
their interests, their businesses, their pleasures, the exercise of their
professions or the care of their households, the considerable time which
their work of joint responsibility and mercy demanded.
Often several families were installed in empty houses offered gratui-
tously or at a nominal rent. Sometimes a matron was placed in charge,
who bought the provisions and looked after the house. Sometimes,
the heads of the families were allowed a daily sum according to the
number of mouths to be fed. This last plan, it seems to me, answered
best; the women took it in turns to prepare the meals and keep the
house in order, functions to which they brought to bear the science of
culinary economy and the careful domestic cleanliness which characterise
the housewives of our working classes.
I had the opportunity nearly everywhere of visiting some of these
homes and hostels, of which I brought away the very best impression.
In certain places, maybe, there were mistakes which will make the
return to the more humble conditions of their former habitations
more or less hard for the occupants. At one place, for instance, where
the local Committee had collected enough funds to support its share of
refugees for a year, I found two Flemish workmen's families installed in
a luxurious residence, ensconced in a sheltered and charming situation on
the banks of a clear stream, and fitted with electric light, a bathroom,
and a back staircase and the rest to match. The men fortunately had
found work.
It was not, however, only a case of providing for the material wants
of our refugees. They had, besides, to be visited, comforted, and
provided with amusements, concerts, visits to picture palaces, excursions,
lectures, with books for the adults and toys for the children; a willing
ear had to be lent to the lengthy recital of their troubles or to the
emphatic explanations of their grievances ; peace had to be made between
the occupants in small quarrels which arose even about such trifles as
using the common kitchen in turns. The task was rendered the harder by
the difference of language, which often necessitated the help of a volun-
tary interpreter, and in the case of Flemings even two. They always
53
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND
ended, however, in understanding one another. Here and there, no doubt,
there were jars, and some took offence or were dissatisfied. The English,
however, completely understood that such things were unavoidable
among a human mass in which there met and clashed every kind of
temperament and education, and of which every unit was sore with
a consciousness of undeserved misfortune. When, in spite of the
exercise of most laudable patience, the Committees found amendment
hopeless, or when individuals became a continual source of reproach
to the rest of the community, the undesirables were sent back to London,
where, without forfeiting their claim to be aided, they were concen-
trated in special dep6ts, and subjected to a sufficiently severe discipline.
I went twice over one of these establishments at Edmonton, and when I
congratulated the manager on the order which reigned there, he modestly
replied, " I have arrived at this result by kindness."
The instruction of the children has not been overlooked; either
elementary courses given in French or Flemish by Belgian clerical or
lay teachers have been arranged for them, or — and this has been the
usual plan — they have been sent to English schools; the change
being made easier to them by practical lessons in English given by
bi-lingual teachers. It has been found that these children, particularly
the little Flemings, acquired the language rapidly and will certainly
remember much of it when they return to their native land. Belgian
and English children have learnt from each other to sing the " Braban-
gonne " and " God Save the King." I remember visiting a school at
Bristol where Walloons, Flemings, and English greeted me by striking
up very harmoniously a patriotic song — in Flemish.
Another problem which concerns the moral aspect of the work is the
struggle against the enforced idleness which would end in demoralising
our population of toilers. It is told that a high authority, when the
marvels of British hospitality were being explained to him, exclaimed
" Let them be careful not to pauperise our Belgians," not to accustom
them, that is, to live on the generosity of others. Local Committees,
private persons. Labour Exchanges (organisations similar to our
Bourses du Travail), the British Government Commission for providing
occupation for the refugees and its Chairman, Sir Ernest Hatch, who,
54
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND
with as great discretion as energy, has been untiring in settling this
troublesome question, all devoted themselves to finding occupations for
our compatriots, suitable to the age, standing, and profession of each.
The task was no easy one, apart from the impediments caused by an
ignorance of the English language. Two perfectly legitimate principles
had to be respected : one, that the usual rate of wages should not be
lowered by allowing the Belgians to accept a smaller remuneration
than the native workmen (and it was on this condition alone that the
working classes of the United Kingdom would tolerate the intrusion
of foreign competitors) ; the other, that the Belgians were only to
accept work in trades where labour was scarce. Then, how were those
engaged in intellectual pursuits to be employed ? The barristers,
lawyers, professors, officials of all sorts, who were too closely bound up in
certain branches of our national organism to find equivalent positions
abroad, particularly in the United Kingdom ? In spite of these obstacles,
and though the problem is not yet completely solved, even by the
new opening which the extension of munition works has made for hands
lacking employment, on each of my journeys through the country I
must say that I have been able to note a marked decrease among
the enforced idlers. The call of the British Government for a
practically unlimited number of hands in view of increasing the
output of munitions cannot fail to reduce the unemployment still
further, if not to cause its total disappearance from among our able-
bodied refugees.
If the Belgian workmen ought not to be put in a situation inferior
to that of the British wage-earner, neither should they be placed in a
superior one. This must inevitably have occurred had they kept for
themselves and their families all they earned in addition to the
advantages afforded them by hospitality. It was therefore deter-
mined, in agreement with the Belgian authorities, that in this case they
should make over a certain portion of their wages to the Committees,
or rather to the local general fund. This arrangement, fair and reasonable
as it was, met with some resistance. Thanks, however, to the firmness of
the Committees and the good sense of the refugees, it ended in becoming
general, particularly as a great number of the Committees decided to
55
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND
earmark a fixed portion of these payments to the foundation of a fund
to be returned to the depositors at the end of their exile.
It was owing to the kindness of these Committees that in the course of
several journeys I was able to visit successively sixty different places, in
Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, Devonshire, Cheshire, and Surrey, besides
many of the big towns. I began these visits merely to form some
idea of the situation of my compatriots in Great Britain ; but by the
way I was received I speedily became aware of the benefit these exiles
experienced even from the casual presence of a Belgian who was
invested with some authority to tell them that their lawful Government
itself sheltering under the spacious hospitality of the French Republic
at Havre, did not forget the thousands of its fellow citizens who were
confided to the generosity of the British people ; that it sympathised
in their sorrows and their hopes, and that it sent them the assurance
of its protection in the present and of its solicitude for the future,
when the hour of deliverance should arrive. Peaceably gathered
together, as I saw them, either in the town hall or other similar
building, could they be, indeed, the same people whom I, deeply
affected and almost ashamed at my inability to help them, had watched
in the catastrophes of Antwerp and Ostend and later in the throng at
Earl's Court and similar depots? Henceforward, together with a deep
gratitude for all the care they had experienced from their hosts, they
cherished a firm patriotism which had become stronger through trial.
" They leave us nothing to desire for the present," I was told many
times, " but we shall be infinitely happier when we go home." Faith in
the return to a delivered country is as strongly rooted in them as it was
in the Israelites in Babylon, and if they have not hung up their harps
on the willows by the rivers of their land of exile, they never missed an
opportunity of greeting me with " Braban^onnes " that more than
once brought the tears to my eyes.
Eager for news, especially about the operations of our Army, they
give vent to their enthusiasm every time they hear an allusion to the
exploits of our soldiers on the Yser, the valour of the King, the devotion
of the Queen, or to the tricolour flag still waving over a corner of
Belgium. Another incident, which met with the same approval, was the
S6
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND
declaration that our political, religious, social, and linguistic differences
ought to be lost in our duties towards our country. If the EstheUs
who, a few years ago, scornfully asked Edmond Picard where he had
discovered the " Soul of Belgium " could have been present at these
meetings, they would have had to recognise the fact that among our
refugees, as among our soldiers and among the seven million Belgians
at present under the German yoke, the soul of Belgium responds to
every call, throbs in the hearts of Flemings and Walloons alike, and
only seeks to expand freely in a Belgium delivered from the alien.
No doubt there was need to encourage these good people in their
faith as to ultimate success; it was also well to warn them against
premature hopes and to exhort them to patience, if not to resignation.
Not a discordant voice, however, was heard when I told them it was
better to wait and even to suffer further, provided the end was a
complete work of reparation and justice.
The United Kingdom was not content with merely receiving with
open arms those refugees who sought her shelter ; she also went to
seek them where help was insufficient. After the fall of Antwerp
and the invasion of Flanders, a million Belgians escaped across the
frontier of Holland. In spite of the generosity which the Dutch nation
showed towards these fugitives, mostly penniless, it was not in its
power to feed and maintain such an influx of immigrants. Huddled
together in huts, tents, or barges, they soon suffered cruelly from
hunger and cold. The majority of them returned to Belgium as soon
as the fury of the Germans had calmed sufficiently to afford them
relative security ; but those who remained behind viewed with terror
the approach of the bad weather which would aggravate their miserable
position. It was then that the British nation stepped in and, after a
private enquiry organised by some members of Parliament, the overflow
of the emigration to Holland was gradually directed towards the United
Kingdom, where they found the same hospitality as their predecessors.
This explains why, in spite of some returning to their native land, the
number of our refugees in England remains about the same.
It ought to be remarked that this outpouring in favour of the Belgian
refugees has not diminished analogous subscriptions, often organised
57
OUR REFUGEES IN ENGLAND
by the same people, for charities which saw to the care of our wounded,
the well-being of our soldiers, and, above all to the provisioning of the
population remaining in Belgium, whom only the assistance of the
allies and neutrals has, up to now, preserved from famine. At the end of
one of the meetings which I attended, as I was thanking the Committee
for the devotion they had shown in helping their detachment of refugees,
the secretary came to me and placed in my hand a cheque for ^200, with
no other explanation than this, which spoke volumes : " For the Belgians
who remain in Belgium ; our own refugees we will look after ourselves."
In Street, a small industrial town, near Wells, after an open-air meet-
ing, improvised by some British workmen to whom I had to explain in
their own language the situation of Belgium, they brought in spon-
taneously an abundant collection of pence for the Belgian Relief Fund,
showing how deeply their hearts had been touched.
All this, outside the subscriptions which have flowed from all parts to
the fund organised amongst the inhabitants of the United Kingdom
for the wants of their own soldiers, wounded and fit for service. In
truth, this awful war has brought out at once — although not from the
same quarters — the best and the worst sides of human nature.
For how much longer will these manifestations of an unprecedented
generosity continue — a generosity which reveals not only the depth
of British sympathy, but also testifies to the progress of solidarity
among the human race ? So far it has not slackened, and there is no
reason to fear that it will do so before the end of the war. At any rate,
what will remain is the newly-forged link between the two nations,
already united by the knowledge that they are shedding their blood
lor the same cause — the cause of right, of the liberty of Europe and of
the future of civilisation.
1st September, 191 5.
58
AU NOM DES BLESSES.
Par le Baron C. Goffinet,
President de la Croix Rouge de Belgique.
PARMI les oeuvres beiges qui ont pus'epanouir sur ce sol d'hospi-
talite legendaire, c'est a la Croix Rouge de Belgique qu'incombe
peut-etre la plus grande dette de gratitude envers I'Angleterre.
Quand I'oeuvre de devastation fut consommee et que la
Belgique dut lancer un appel de detresse pour ses enfants blesses,
tombes en defendant pied a pied un territoire sacre couvert de tombes,
c'est dans I'Empire tout entier qu'on I'entendit. Et des villes de
I'Inde comme des villages de I'Ecosse on vit affluer ^ cote des sous-
criptions genereuses et des humbles oboles anonymes, les dons de
toute nature destines au soulagement de la souffrance.
La bas, dans nos hopitaux du front, des femmes anglaises, pretes a
tous les sacrifices, prodiguent a nos soldats les tresors de leur devoue-
ment.
Dans ce livre, ou tache de s'exprimer la reconnaissance de Fame
beige envers le pays qui a donne au monde I'exemple d'un confraternite
sans precedent dans I'histoire, la Croix Rouge devait avoir sa page.
Ce sont nos blesses qui la signeront.
59
IN THE NAME OF THE WOUNDED.
Translation by Lady Paget,
President of the American Red Cross in England.
OF all the Belgian Societies that have found refuge in this
land of proverbial hospitality, none owes a greater debt
of gratitude to Britain than the Belgian Red Cross.
In Belgium, the work of devastation accomplished, the
stricken country sent out a cry of distress for her wounded
sons — wounded while passionately contesting every inch of that sacred
soil, strewn vdth the graves of those already fallen. Her call resounded
throughout the British Empire — and from the towns of India, as from
the villages of Scotland, generous gifts in money and kind poured in for
the succour and alleviation of the suffering.
In the hospitals at the Front, EngUshwomen, prepared for any sacri-
fice, devote themselves wholeheartedly to nursing our sick and wounded.
To the country which has given to the world an example of brotherhood
without precedent in history, Belgium, in this book, endeavours to
express the gratitude enshrined in her heart. The Red Cross claims
its page, signed by our wounded.
60
THE WORK OF CHARITY.
By a. a. Dewachter,
Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar-General to H.E. Cardinal Mercier.
I LOOK upon it as a great honour to have an opportunity of expressing
to the British people, in this monument of Belgium's gratitude,
the feelings which I have had occasion to voice so many times at
local meetings — feelings of the deepest and heartiest gratitude. I will
keep, of course, to my own department — the spiritual care of my
countrymen, entrusted to me by His Eminence Cardinal Mercier,
Archbishop of Malines, and by the Bishops of Belgium.
More than i6o of our priests, both regular and secular, have been
sent out to look after the spiritual and moral interests of the Belgian
Refugees. As a whole their reports arc more than satisfactory. Instances
of the most touching character are brought forward, which show how
even Protestant Clergymen and Protestant members of different
committees have done their best to bring from the most distant places our
Belgians to their own Catholic churches. I am very happy to pay a
tribute of gratitude to those ladies and gentlemen on account of their
generous and tolerant dispositions; and our people will also keep a
grateful remembrance of them.
A special homage of most sincere and respectful thanks is to be paid
to the higher ecclesiastical authorities of the Catholic Church in Great
Britain and Ireland, in America, Australia, and New Zealand. It would
be a long list if we had to give the names of Cardinals, Archbishops and
Bishops who, on accoimt of their eagerness to assist us in the most
generous way and their numerous proofs of heartiest sympathy, deserve
Belgium's gratitude for ages to come.
If we have met with such paternal affection among the higher
Catholic Clergy, not less generous and cordial have we found so many
Rev. Rectors who have received into their presbyteries our Belgian
priests, treated them as their brothers and given them every faciUty
to fulfil their duties towards the refugees. Some of these kind-hearted
Fathers, in spite of their narrow means, divided with us what they so
much wanted for themselves.
May I venture to say that our Rehgious Orders of Nuns, whose
6i
THE WORK OF CHARITY
convents, schools, orphanages and hospitals were destroyed or burnt
down, and who had to flee for their lives, have found also a most charit-
able hospitality in the United Kingdom. They have at once tried to
make themselves useful by taking care of different Refugees' Centres,
by teaching the little children, and by assisting the various convents
here in works of mercy and charity. Many testimonies expressing the
highest satisfaction with the Belgian Sisters have reached me from the
xiifferent committees for the relief of Belgian Refugees.
Allow me to dwell upon another point which is so touching and
shows how well the little children of this country have been taught the
true meaning of charity towards their poor and destitute neighbour — of
charity, the virtue by excellence of Christian doctrine, the first virtue
proclaimed by our Divine Saviour. Instances of this great virtue have
come from every quarter; from Lancashire, Ireland, India and Australia,
where the little ones, and sometimes the poorest, collected their
farthings and halfpennies to be sent for the help of the poor children in
Belgium.
A most striking proof of British and American sympathy are also
those hundreds of letters coming from every part of the British Empire
and America, from the highest and most influential classes down to the
very poor, in which lies an expression of unbounded admiration for our
country, and a kind of worship for our great King as well as for our
great Cardinal. I hope these testimonies will come to light one day,
as an imperishable monument in honour of Belgium, as well as in honour
of those who bestowed them upon us.
Of course, another monument in bronze or marble will be erected
one day in Brussels or in one of the destroyed towns which went through
all the horrors of this awful war, in commemoration for generations and
ages to come of the generous hospitality we enjoyed here and of the
valuable assistance we received from different friendly countries. It will
be an utter impossibility to have engraved in golden letters on this
monument the names of all the cities, institutions, committees which
so largely contributed to the relief of the Belgian Refugees as well as of
those who remained in Belgium. We know our generous benefactors
do not require such a testimony of Belgium's gratitude. Higher lies their
62
I
THE WORK OF CHARITY
view, and greater also and everlasting will be their reward promised by
Him, Who said that a glass of cold water given in His Name v^U have
its reward — by Him, Who proclaims as an essential condition of eternal
happiness the works of mercy and charity !
63
IMPOSSIBLE TO RECORD.
By E. de Cartier de Marchienne,
Envoy e extraordinaire et Minis tre flenipotentiaire, President du Belgian
Relief Committee.
tT is quite impossible fof me to try and squeeze in a few lines the
deep and true feelings of gratitude with which my heart is filled
for the kindness, generosity and loving care bestowed on our Belgian
refugees by the Government and people of the British Empire.
I know fuU well that brevity is the soul of wit, but somehow I
don't feel like being witty at this time, as brevity might smack of forget-
fulness or ingratitude.
Well, we Belgians are not a forgetful or ungrateful race, as time has —
and will — prove, and in confirmation of this assertion, I hope and trust
that our Belgian Relief Committee of Finsbury Square may soon
publish a record of some of the many instances of loving kindness and
fraternal feelings shown to our refugees by high and low in England,
as in Scotland, Ireland and Wales — and Canada and South Africa, and
the generosity of Australia and New Zealand.
The kindness of heart and endless generosity shown to our suffering
compatriots by the many races and creeds of this great Empire are
truly wonderful, and no one admires them more than I do.
64
LADY LUGARD
ANDRfi CLUYSENAAR
LES " KING ALBERT'S HOSPITALS."
Par Paul May,
Envoye extraordinaire et Ministre plenipotentiaire.
L'HONNEUR d'avoir facilite la creation de nos Hopitaux
beiges en Angleterre, rerient ^ M. Herbert Samuel, alors
President du Local Government Board, puissamment aide par
des collaborateurs devoues.
A la profonde gratitude que le Comite des " King Albert's
Hospitals " doit au Gouvernement anglais rient se joindre un senti-
ment de reconnaissance emue k Tinitiative anglaise, et notamment
^ MM. Bourne et Hollingsworth. Ces messieurs, dans un elan
de solidarite genereuse, ont mis ^ notre disposition le splendide
etablissement de Staffordshire House, le premier " King Albert's
Hospital " cree en Angleterre, et autour duquel les autres se sont
groupes.
Le souvenir de I'hospitalite re^ue est grave dans le coeur de nos
heros. II restera ^ jamais uni dans I'esprit des generations a venir ^
celui de leurs exploits.
6s
THE KING ALBERT'S HOSPITALS.
Translation by Margaret Lavington.
THE honour of having facilitated the establishment of our
Belgian hospitals in England belongs to Mr. Herbert
Samuel, then President of the Local Government Board,
with the powerful assistance of his devoted fellow-
workers.
Not only do the Committee of the King Albert's Hospitals owe a
debt of profound gratitude to the British Government, but they are
also moved to a grateful recognition of English initiative, and notably
that of Messrs. Bourne and HoUingsworth. These gentlemen, with a
manifestation of generous and brotherly sympathy, put Staffordshire
House at our disposal, a magnificent institution, the first King Albert's
Hospital to be founded in England, and the one with which the others
are affiHated.
The memory of hospitaHty received is written on the hearts of
our heroes. Of that and of their deeds the generations that are to
come will be forever mindful.
66
LES ORPHELINS DE LA GUERRE.
Par Emile Pollet,
Consul- General de Belgique h Londus,
DE toutes les manifestations de la generosite britannique
dont j'ai ete le temoin et I'intermediaire aucune ne m'a
plus touche que I'elan charitable qui a accueilli mon
appel en faveur des orphelins de la guerre en Belgique.
Les enquetes qui ont ete menees, notamment dans les
parties les plus atteintes du pays, telles que le Luxembourg, la region
de Dinant, celles de Tamines, de Vise, d'Aerschot, de Termonde,
d'Ypres, ont fait connaitre des cas affreux de misere et d'abandon.
Un certain nombre d'enfants erraient seuls par les routes des campagnes
ou les rues des villes, prives de nourriture et de vetements. D'autres
sont arrives dans des villages eloignes de leur foyer, ignorants a la
fois ce qu'etaient devenus leurs pere et mere et, dans certains cas,
ne pouvant meme pas donner leur nom. D'autres enfin ont du etre
transportes en masse soit en Hollande, soit dans le Grand Duche
de Luxembourg et en France, soit meme en Angleterre et en Suisse,
parce que leur village etait devaste et que plus personne ne pouvait leur
venir en aide.
L'enfant que I'on enleve de son milieu est non seulement prive des
nombreux moyens qu'il peut y trouver de faire sa carriere et de vivre
une vie appropriee a son etat, mais encore il souffre moralement et
profondement de ne plus re voir son village ou le quartier de sa ville,
les visages qui Font connu, les compatriotes qui I'ont aime ou qui
etaient attaches a ses parents ; souvent meme le langage maternel ne
frappera plus son oreille.
Aux institutions qui s'occuperont des orphelins de la guerre a
empecher ces deracinements en s'efforcant de faire rentrer dans sa com-
mune I'orphelin afin qu'il y soit soutenu et eleve.
Le " Belgian Orphan Fund " ou fondation pour secourir les orphelins,
dont j'ai le grand honneur d'etre le president, cherche a preparer les
voies a cette ceuvre de I'avenir. L'idee premiere en est nee dans le coeur
d'une mere. Madame E. Pollet choisit la date de I'anniversaire de la
fete du Roi des Beiges, 15 novembre 1914, pour inauguration du
Belgian Orphan Fund, en organisant un Flag Day, pendant lequel
67
LES ORPHELINS DE LA GUERRE
furent vendus a Londres et dans certaines autres villes anglaises des
petits drapeaux aux couleurs beiges. Le succes fut tres grand. A
Londres seul les recettes s'elev^rent h plus de 6,000 livres sterling.
Pouvait-il en etre autrement quand on sait le sentiment naturel de
generosite du peuple anglais, sa sympathie ancienne pour la Belgique,
qu'il a aidee ^ naitre et quand on a suivi I'ardente admiration qu'il a
vouee au sacrifice de notre patrie et au courage indomptable de son Roi ?
Depuis sa fondation, le Belgian Orphan Fund a continue k jouir de la
sympathie generale et k la fin du mois de septembre 191 5 les recettes
s'eleverent a environ 65,000 liyres sterling. Cette somme a ete convertie
presque integralement en Bons du Tresor anglais ^ 4J % d'interet,
ce qui contribuera a accroitre le capital et compensera largement les
frais qui sont insignifiants.
A peu pres a la meme epoque ou fut cree le Belgian Orphan
Fund, on fonda egalement k Londres, une institution quasi analogue
sous le titre de " Friends of Belgium Society." Les deux fondations
se sont fusionnees tout recemment et PcBuvre est actuellement connue
sous le nom de " Belgian Orphan Fund with which is incorporated the
Friends of Belgium Society." (Fondation des orphelins beiges dans
laquelle est incorporee la Societe des Amis de la Belgique).
Comme les necessites de I'institution seront considerables et qu'il
faudra beaucoup de ressources pour y subvenir, des comites ont ete
organises dans divers pays, notamment dans les colonies et possessions
britanniques et tous ont promis de nous preter leur bienveillant concours.
De bonne augure pour le resultat final sont les manifestations de
generosite qui se sont produites en faveur de I'oeuvre dans la plupart
des contrees de I'Empire et qui emanent surtout des enfants des ecoles.
N'est-ce pas touchant de voir ces petits eleves etrangers songer k
leurs camarades infortunes de Belgique ? Ceux de la Nouvelle-Galles
du Sud (Australie) ont envoye au Belgian Orphan Fund, au mois
d'aout dernier, par I'intermediaire de 1' Agent-general du Gouverne-
ment k Londres, la somme enorme de 29,500 livres sterling. Les
enfants des ecoles canadiennes donnent de leur tirelire, depuis le
comniencement de I'annee, chacun i shelling par semaine, ce qui
rapporte environ mille livres sterling par mois. Les habitants d'Auck-
68
LES ORPHELINS DE LA GUERRE
land et de Dunedin (Nouvelle-Zelande) ont contribu6 rcspectivement
pour 5,000 et i,ooo et ceux de Melbourne (Australie) pour i,ooo livres
sterling. II y a lieu de citer aussi les ouvriers du Midland Railway, les
Beiges employes a la Poste et aux Telegraphes de Londres qui envoient
r^gulierement leur obole.
Le Belgian Orphan Fund se trouve sous le haut patronage de Leurs
Majestes le Roiet la Reine des Beiges, de S.A.R. la Duchcsse de Vendome,
et de S.A.I, la Princesse Clementine. Une lettre a ete re^ue de Sa
Majeste la Reine Alexandra souhaitant a I'oeuvre tout le succes possible.
S.A.R. la Princesse Henri de Battenberg a daigne en accepter la
Presidence d'honneur.
Le Comite Executif s'occupe des maintenant des cas urgents qui
viennent h sa connaissance, tant en Belgique, en France, en Angleterre
et en HoUande, ou il peut y avoir des orphelins dans le besoin, mais
un des buts de I'institution consiste a creer des orphelinats en Belgique
ou les enfants qui auront perdu leurs parents k cause de la guerre et
n'ayant pas de moyens d'existence, recevront une instruction pratique.
II y en a qui seront confies aux soins de families privees, d'autres seront
places dans des ecoles et des colleges. Pour I'education des orphelins,
on tiendra compte de leurs dispositions naturelles, de leurs relations
de famille, de leur force physique et comme il est dit plus haut, on
s'evertuera a laisser autant que possible les orphelins dans les endroits
ou ils vivaient auparavant.
Plus tard, d'ici quelques annees, quand les orphelins ne seront plus
sous le controle du Belgian Orphan Fund et pourront contribuer a
edifier une Belgique plus forte et plus heureuse, les fonds et les etablis-
sements disponibles seront destines aux vieux soldats et ^ leurs femmes.
Les pauvres enfants ont tout perdu : leurs parents et leur foyer. II
nous faut assumer la tache de les elever et de les instruire, comme un
tribut solennel a I'egard de ceux qui sont morts si glorieusement pour
leur patrie. Le monde entier est solidaire et doit soutcnir ceux qui
combattent pour les idees de liberte et d'independance.
A combien s'eleve le nombre de ces enfants ou plutot combien y en
aura-t-il, car les Allemands occupent toujours le sol beige et la guerre
est loin d'etre terminee ? II est bien difficile de repondre ^ cette ques-
69
LES ORPHELINS DE LA GUERRE
tion,''d'autant plus que ies communications avec la Belgique sont quasi
impossibles, mais ils doivent se compter par milliers. Dans la petite
ville d'Andenne qui ne possede que 8,000 habitants, il 7 avait, k la
fin de septembre 191 4, environ 190 orphelins dont Ies parents avaient
ete tues par Ies Allemands ou etaient tombes au champ d'honneur.
Tous ceux qui auront contribue a un titre quelconque au Belgian
Orphan Fund, oeuvre humanitaire par excellence, auront k cceur,
lorsqu'ils se rendront en Belgique pour voir Ies champs ou se seront
livrees Ies batailles sanglantes, de visiter Ies institutions que le Belgian
Orphan Fund aura eu soin de creer dans Ies endroits Ies mieux choisis
du pays. lis y recueilleront le temoignage emu de la gratitude de la
bouche meme de ces petits etres destines a devenir des hommes utiles
pour la patrie et pour I'humanite et qui, sans leur aide genereuse, se
trouveraient peut-etre abandonnes et dans la misere.
70
THE WAR ORPHANS.
Translation by BiRENciRE Drillien.
MONG the many revelations of British generosity of
which I have been the witness and medium, none has
touched me more than the outburst of charity in
response to our appeal on behalf of the war orphans of
.Belgium.
Inquiries made in Belgium, especially in the most devastated
districts, such as Luxembourg, Dinant, Tamines, Vise, Aerschot,
Termonde and Ypres, have revealed ghastly cases of destitution
and desertion. Many children wandered alone along the country
lanes or city streets without food or clothing ; others came to
villages far removed from their homes, in total ignorance of the fate
of their parents, and in certain cases even incapable of giving their
names ; while others whose villages lay in ruins and whom there was
none to succour, were carried off wholesale to Holland, the Grand
Duchy of Luxembourg, France and England.
Now a child removed from the familiar scenes of his daily life is
thereby not only deprived of many available ways of earning his liveli-
hood and living in a manner suitable to his condition, but his mind also
is keenly affected by the change from his native town or village and the
absence of the familiar faces of his own people who loved him or were
attached to his parents. Often, too, his mother- tongue will not greet
his ears again.
The Institutions for the relief of the war orphans which have in view
the prevention of such eradication will do their utmost to send the
children back to their own parishes, to be cared for and educated there,
and the Belgian Orphan Fund or Fondation 'pour secourir les Orphdins,
of which I have the great honour to be President, seeks to prepare the
way for this work of the future.
The scheme first sprang into existence in a mother's heart ; Mme. E.
PoUet selected the birthday of the King of the Belgians, November 15th,
1 91 4, for the inauguration of the Belgian Orphan Fund and organised a
Flag Day, upon which little Belgian Flags were sold in London and other
English cities. This was a great success. In London alone over j^6,ooo
were taken. This was only to be expected if one remembers the natural
71
THE WAR ORPHANS
generosity of the English people, their delightful sympathy for Belgium,
which they helped to create, and when one has been a witness of their
warm admiration for the sacrifice made by our country and the un-
conquerable courage of our King.
Since its foundation, the Belgian Orphan Fund has not ceased to
benefit by the sympathy of the pubhc, and at the end of September,
191 5, the receipts amounted to nearly ^65,000. This sum has been
almost entirely converted into English Treasury Bonds at 4 J per cent.,
which will both increase the capital and go a long way towards covering
the few expenses entailed.
At about the same time as the creation of the Belgian Orphan Fund
another quasi-analogous institution was established in London under the
name of Friends of Belgium Society. The two institutions were
recently incorporated and are known to-day as The Belgium Orphan
Fund with which is incorporated the Friends of Belgium Society.
As the needs of such an institution will be great and much money
will be required to meet them, committees have been formed in different
countries, especially in the British Dominions and Colonies, which have
all promised us their kindly aid.
Of good omen for the final result of the scheme are the generous sums
given in all parts of the Empire, especially by the school children.
Is it not a touching thing that these little stranger children should
think of their unfortunate Belgian comrades ? Those of New South
Wales sent through the Agent-General of the New South Wales Govern-
ment in London the enormous sum of ^29,000. Since the beginning of
the war the children of the Canadian schools have each given a shilling
a week out of their pocket money, which brings in about j^i,ooo a months
The people of Auckland and Dunedin (New Zealand) have contributed
jf 5,000 and j^ijOOO respectively and those of Melbourne (Australia)
^1,000. Mention must also be made of the men of the Midland Railway
and the Belgians employed at the Post and Telegraph Offices in London,
who send their contributions regularly.
The Belgian Orphan Fund is under the distinguished patronage of
Their Majesties the King and Queen of the Belgians, H.R.H. the
Duchesse de Vendome, and H.LH. Princess Clementine. A letter
72
THE RIGHT HON. HERBERT SAMUEL, P.C, M.I',
JEAN DELVILLE
THE WAR ORPHANS
has been received from H.M. Queen Alexandra wishing all possible
success to the scheme, and H.R.H. Princess Henry of Battenberg has
graciously condescended to become the Honorary President.
The Executive Committee has already started the relief of urgent
cases that have come to their notice in Belgium, France, England, and
Holland — everywhere, in fact, where there may be destitute orphans ;
but one of the aims of the Institution consists in founding Orphanages
in Belgium, where the children who have lost their parents through the
war and have no means of existence may receive a practical education.
Some will be entrusted to the care of private families, while others
will be sent to schools and colleges. As regards their education, the
natural tastes of the children, their social standing and their con-
stitutions will be taken into consideration, and, as I remarked before, they
vdil be sent, as far as possible, into the districts where they lived before
the war.
Later on, in the course of a few years, when they cease to be under
the control of the Belgian Orphan Fund and are able to help in the
building of a stronger and happier Belgium, the money and estabhsh-
ments of the Fund will be devoted to the relief of old soldiers and their
wives.
The poor children have lost their all, home and parents. We must
make it our duty to educate and bring them up as a solemn tribute
to those who have so gloriously died for their country. The whole
world is responsible and must come to the aid of those who have battled
for liberty and independence.
How many such orphans exist 1 or rather how many will there be,
for the Germans are still on Belgian soil and the war is far from ended.
It is very difficult to reply to that question, all the more so because
communication with Belgium is practically impossible, but there
must be thousands. At the end of September there were about 190
orphans in the small town of Andenne, which numbers 8,000 inhabitants
only, whose parents had been murdered by the Germans or had fallen
on the field of honour.
Everyone who has in any way helped the Belgian Orphan Fund, a
humanitarian work par excellence, will be anxious, when they go to
71
THE WAR ORPHANS
Belgium and see the fields where bloody battles were waged, to visit
the institutions which the Belgian Orphan Fund will have founded
in the most suitable districts. There they will hear words of touching
gratitude from the very lips of the forlorn little creatures growing into
men and women ready to serve their country and the cause of humanity,
who without their generous aid would perhaps have been left to misery
and destitution.
74
NOS BLESSES EN GRANDE BRETAGNE.
Par le Commandant R. Maton,
Attache militaire de Belgique a Londres.
L 'INVASION et ses horreurs se repandirent en Belgique
pendant les trois premiers mois de la guerre. Nos blesses,
nos malades, fuyant les bombardements, les incendies ou
I'internement, furent traques de ville en ville, d'hopital en
hopital, et, apres de douloureux transbordements, ils
s'arreterent le long de notre littoral.
La ils considererent avec inquietude le fosse enorme qui les separait
de I'inconnu et de I'exil. Une nouvelle evacuation plus penible encore
s'imposait de toute urgence.
Cependant les difficultes de transport furent vaincues et la derniere
etape fut bientot franchie. L'emouvant cortege de blesses, d'amputes
et meme de mourants, qui comptait ^ environ 20,000 hommes, etait
attendu sur 1' autre rive.
Nous vimes aux ports de debarquement, aux gares d'arrivee, les
representants officiels du grand peuple britannique, les comites prives,
les particuliers improvisant toutes les oeuvres de devouement, se
partageant ou mieux se disputant nos blesses.
II en partit pour toutes les directions, tant pour I'Angleterre que
pour I'Ecosse et pour I'Irlande.
Les grands hopitaux militaires et navals, les hopitaux civils et les
ambulances ouvrirent large ment leurs portes et les heros de Mons,
de la Marne et d'Ypres appelerent fraternellement aupres d'eux les
rudes combattants de Haelen, de Quatrecht et de I'Yser.
Dans les maisons particulieres, en ville comme a la campagne, partout
on demanda des blesses. Pour eux les demeures furent bouleversees,
les habitudes, les interets furent oublies, chacun sentit comme un
besoin imperieux de travailler a la grande oeuvre commune de contribuer
a reparer I'injustice, d'accueillir et de proteger ceux qui symbolisaient
le droit opprime par la force.
On n'imagine pas la profonde satisfaction qu'eprouverent tous ces
malheureux en arrivant au bout de leur calvaire, de connaitre enfin
le sentiment de la securite et de la stabilite.
Alors commen^a cette ceuvre de devouement patient, regulier et
75
NOS BLESSES EN GRANDE BRETAGNE
tenace ; oeuvre dans laquelle le caractere anglais se manifeste tout
entier, decide, comme en toutes choses, a aller jusqu'au bout de la tache
rnalgre la duree, malgre des difficultes non entrevues.
Les organisations hatives n'avaient pas permis de choisir les botes,
lis etaient venus au hasard, appartenant aux milieux les plus divers.
C'etaient avant tout des blesses beiges et les plus desires furent
ceux qui reclamaient les soins les plus longs et les plus delicats — et
Ton vit la volonte de tous se plier et s'adapter aux gouts et aux
besoins de leurs hotes.
II n'est pas d'indulgence qu'on n'ait eue pour ces malades, parfois
difficiles. On comprit cette situation exceptionnellement douloureuse
de I'homme, peut-etre irremediablement frappe, se trouvant au loin,
souvent sans communication avec sa famille ; le cerveau encore hante
d'effroyables visions, le coeur plein d'inquietude pour les siens.
Et ainsi, pendant des semaines et des mois, les blesses beiges connurent
des soins assidus et attentifs. On imagina pour eux distractions et
encouragements. Pour beaucoup arriva bientot I'heure heureuse de la
convalescence et de la guerison.
Les malades sont des enfants, ils sentent la confiance et I'energie
renaitre en eux avec les forces physiques ; ils redeviennent hommes
et, en ces heures graves, ou Taction scule importe, ils ont hate de
reprendre place dans la melee.
En quittant le sol ami ils emportent le souvenir emu de cette
hospitalite large et bien organisee, ils ont ete temoins de cette vie
probe, de cette prodigieuse activite qui ancrent au fond de nous meme
une entiere confiance dans I'avenir.
76
OUR WOUNDED IN GREAT BRITAIN.
Translation by Lady Colvin.
INVASION and its horrors spread over Belgium during the first
three months of the war. Our sick and wounded, in their flight
from bombardment, conflagration or internment, were driven from
town to town, from hospital to hospital, till, after agonising
transferences, they came to a halt at last along our coast. There
they gazed anxiously on the great stretch of water which separated
them from the unknown and from exile. Here they were faced by a
new ordeal still more painful and urgent.
However, the difficulties of transport were overcome, and the last
stage was soon accomplished. That touching procession of the wounded,
the maimed, and even the dying, amounting to some 20,000 men, was
awaited on the opposite coast.
At the ports and the railway stations we found officials representing
the great British people, and also members of various committees and
private individuals, improvising all manner of works of mercy and
dividing among themselves, almost in competition, the care of our
wounded.
These were distributed in every direction, in Scotland and Ireland
no less than in England.
The great military and naval hospitals, the civil hospitals and nursing
homes, all threw open wide their doors, and the heroes of Mons, the
Marne and Ypres fraternised in brotherly fashion with the stubborn
fighters of Haelen, Quatrecht and the Yser.
The wounded were asked for everywhere, in private houses in town
and in the country. Homes were turned upside down, habits and
interests were forgotten. Eveiyone was conscious of an imperious
desire to share in the great common work of trying to repair injustice,
and of welcoming and protecting those who were the symbols of right
oppressed by brute force.
The profound relief experienced by those unhappy men, driven from
spot to spot, at having arrived at the end of their calvary, at knowing
once more the feeling of security and rest, cannot easily be imagined.
Then began the work of patient, steady, tenacious devotion ; a
work in which the whole national character showed itself determined,
71
OUR WOUNDED IN GREAT BRITAIN
as in all things, to go unfalteringly to the end, no matter how long the
task might last or how unexpected the difficulties might prove.
The hurried organisations did not admit of time for making choice
among the guests — they came at haphazard and from the most diverse
social surroundings. What mattered was that they were wounded
Belgians, and the worse the wounds, and the longer and more delicate
the care they were likely to require, the more they were welcomed.
The wishes of all hosts were bent and adapted to the tastes and needs
of their guests.
There was no limit to the indulgence extended to these sufferers,
who were sometimes perhaps hard to please. But the exceptionally
painful position of a man badly, perhaps mortally wounded, finding
himself far away from and often unable to communicate with his
family, his brain still haunted by terrifying visions, his heart full of
anxiety for his dear ones, was well understood.
And so for long weeks and months the wounded Belgians experienced
the most untiring care and attention. Amusements were invented to
encourage them, and for many the happy hour of convalescence and
health soon came.
Invalids are like children ; they feel confidence and energy revive
vdth physical strength ; they become men once more, and, in these
momentous hours when action alone counts, they are impatient to
take their places again in the fight.
On leaving that friendly soil they carry away with them the moving
memory of its generous and well-organised hospitality ; they have seen
for themselves the well-ordered life, the prodigious activity which gives
us all sure and entire confidence in the future.
78
** OMNIA FRATERNE!"
Par a. Bauss.
Ancien Prisident de la Federation des Avocats Beiges.
DANS ce pays de peu de lois, mais de tant de justice, de
peu de juges mais d'une magistrature d'elite, de peu de
paroles mais de tant d'actes, le Barreau Beige a regu
I'accueil le plus touchant: les quatre Inns auxquels se
joignit la Law Society se sont ouverts pour lui sans qu*il
eut fallu le demander ; tout ce qui pouvait etre fait pour consoler,
aider et secourir a ete fait largement et simplement.
Nous nous souviendrons toujours et plus specialement des bonnes
heures passees a Gray's Inn, avec nos confreres anglais, dans la salle
historique aux merveilleuses boiseries qui avait vu danser la Reine
Elisabeth et qui avait attendu pres de quatre siecles pour devenir le lieu
d'asile et de reunion des avocats de Belgique echappes a la domination
etrangere. C'est la que nous avons retrouve le coude k coude de la
confraternite et ou, nous revoyant periodiquement, nous avons pu nous
reconforter en parlant ensemble de la Patrie absente.
C'etait notre excellent ami Cox-Sinclair qui nous y avait introduits.
Se rappelant I'accueil que la Federation des Avocats Beiges avait fait
naguere aux delegues du Barreau Anglais, il eut, des les premiers jours
de la guerre, la pensee touchante de nous faire offrir par I'Inn auquel
il appartenait I'hospitalite genereuse et complete qui devait nous aider
^ supporter les douleurs et les privations de I'exil.
D'autres confreres devinerent bientot que beaucoup d'entre nous
pourraient avoir besoin d'une aide plus efficace encore et fonderent le
Belgian Lawyers* Aid Committee. Leur sympathie se demontra
par des actes et, grace ^ eux, beaucoup d'entre nous parvinrent ^ passer
les " temps difficiles."
Enfin un des plus illustres representants de la grande magistrature
anglaise, Lord Justice Phillimore, s'entendit avec un de nos confreres
du Inner Temple, Arthur J. Barratt, pour administrer, entre autres
au profit des plus malheureux d'entre nous le fonds que le Barreau
Americain avait constitue pour secourir les jurisconsultes de tous pays,
victimes de la guerre.
C'est ainsi que, de toutes parts et sous toutes les formes, au sein
79
" OMNIA FRATERNE ! »
de la grande famille juridique, I'Angleterre nous a donne les preuves
efficaces de sa grandeur et de sa bonte.
Notre reconnaissance ne pourra jamais atteindre les limites d'une
confraternite s'affirmant ayec une pareille generosite.
80
HAMPTON COURT
MARTEN VAN DER LOO
" OMNIA FRATERNE! »
Translation by E. Marshall Hall, K.C, M.P.
IN this country of few laws but much justice, of few judges but
high-class judicial authority, of few words but so many great deeds,
the Bar of Belgium has received a most touching welcome. The
Four Inns of Court (with which the Law Society has identified itself)
have spontaneously opened their doors for their reception, and all
that could be done to console, help, and bid them be of good cheer has
been done large-heartedly and without ostentation.
We shall always remember the happy hours passed in the company
of our English confreres, and more especially those we enjoyed in the
historic Hall of Gray's Inn, with its marvellous wood panelling, where
Queen Elizabeth danced and which, almost 400 years later, has now
become the refuge and meeting-place of those Belgian barristers who had
escaped from the tyranny of foreign domination. It was in this Hall
that we have found ourselves shoulder to shoulder with our English
friends and brothers, and have met one another from time to time,
finding comfort and consolation in discussing the affairs of our beloved
country across the sea. We owe our thanks to our excellent friend Mr.
Cox-Sinclair for having introduced us there. Remembering as he did
the hearty welcome that the Federation des Avocats Beiges had, only a
short while since, extended to the delegates of the English Bar, there
came into his mind at the earliest days of the war the gracious and
kindly thought to offer us, by means of the Inn of which he is a
member, its generous and unstinted hospitality, which will go far to
mitigate and make less unendurable the sorrows and privations of our
exile.
To some others of our English confreres it soon occurred that many
of us might be in need of help of a more solid kind, and so they initiated
the " Belgian Lav^yers' Aid Committee," thus demonstrating their
sympathy by their actions, and it is thanks to them that many of us
were enabled to pass successfully through some troublous times.
One of the most illustrious representatives of the English High
Court Bench, Lord Justice Phillimore, made arrangements with one of
our confreres of the Inner Temple, Mr Arthur J. Barratt, to distribute
amongst those of us who were most in need not only these gifts, but
81 G
" OMNIA FRATERNE! "
also some portion of the fund that the Bar of the United States of
America had subscribed for the benefit of all lawyers, of any nationality,
who had suffered through the war.
Thus it was that from all quarters, and in all manner of ways, in the
very heart of the great family of jurists, England has given to us the
most sterling proof of her greatness and her kindness.
Our sense of gratitude can never come up to the level of such
generosity as has been shown to us by our brother-members of a great
profession.
82
THE FLOWER OF ETERNAL GRATITUDE.
By Flor. Burton,
Editor-Manager of " De Nieuwe Gazet,^^ Antwerp ; Chairman of the
Belgian Press Association {English Section).
DURING these unspeakable trials which our poor little
country has had to put up with for the last year, your
people of England have remained our hope and our trust.
If we have not despaired, during this hurricane of fire
and blood, it is because we have never forgotten that you
are watching over us.
It was owing to confidence in the British Nation that free and
independent Belgium was indebted for its existence and for eighty years
of peaceful progress.
But who on our side could have surmised at the beginning of this war,
that the work of the British statesmen would have taken root so deeply
in the hearts of the British Nation, that your Government, dear friends,
acting towards Belgium as they did, was in unison with the sentiments
of your people.
We, men of the Press, representing so many different philosophical
and political opinions and ideals, moulded actually together in the same
glowing patriotism, have assembled and fraternised on different
occasions, but always in full daylight of peace, with the best and fore
most of your Press, with your admirable Institute of Journalists.
According to custom, assurances were given on both sides of the
warmest devotion of staunch and true friendship.
Who at the time of those fetes, of those brilliant convivial
gatherings — who could have imagined that you, our blessed British
friends, would so soon after have been called upon to change into
deeds the promises of support and protection tendered by the authorised
voices of public opinion?
And even if somebody had had the gift of second sight, of having
seen the clouds gather in the East which would sow death and destruc-
tion over the whole of Western Europe — even he, could he have
represented to himself an atom of the treasures which your soul and
afterwards your generous hands would strew, to do honour to the
word of your statesmen and of our beloved brethren of your Press, in
83
THE FLOWER OF ETERNAL GRATITUDE
order to alleviate the unspeakable, uncalled-for and unmerited need
which has befallen our poor people ?
Now we see, we experience, we feel, in body and soul that which had
been beyond our imagination — namely, how it is possible that a nation
can receive, lodge, cajole, and even spoil an entire other nation.
The greatest need has conceived the mightiest, the widest altruism
the world has ever had the privilege to witness.
The entire Belgian people feels riveted to your nation through
eternal ties of blood.
All ours who came to you have found a brother and a sister there, and
how many of you have taken upon themselves with a light mind and a
warm heart the duties of parents for poor orphans who have lost father
or mother — nay, both — in this terrible war.
To how many have you not restored the belief in righteousness and
generosity during these black nights of despair? And have you not
sent thousands and thousands of your best to us : your soldiers
chivalrous and undaunted in battle, spilling their blood of their own
free will by our side and along with our French Allies for the h oly cause
of free civilisation? Have you not sent your doctors, your women doctors
and nurses, coming mostly from the highest classes of society, as minis-
tering angels amongst the horrors of war ?
Your soldiers and your benefactors of all sorts, how can we cristallize
them better than in the respected persons of your King, always an
example of soldierly and statesmanly honour, your Queens, mother and
consort of your doubly-crowned sovereign who condescended to visit
the humblest of our refugees, tendering consolation and hope.
Meantime — ^we do not forget it — ^your powerful fleet watches night
and day ; rules, sure of her force, the oceans, and bars them, the source of
all life, relentlessly to the ruthless invader of our unfortunate little
country, the despicable breaker of the laws of nations.
Your navy, friends of Great Britain, is a sure guarantee that the world
will be set free from the nightmare it now suffers under.
No trial, however awful it may be, shall shake our trust in your power,
in your nobility, and in your sense of justice. We put vdth fullest
confidence the fate of our Motherland in your hands.
84
THE FLOWER OF ETERNAL GRATITUDE
You will — no matter what happens — maintain the independence
which you once gave us. And so there will be no tiny spot left as big
as a heart where, in blood and in tears, there will not blossom the flower
of eternal gratitude for the noble British Nation.
8s
L'CEUVRE DU WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE.
Par E. Robyns de Schneidauer, Consul-general.
L 'EXPLOSION de generosite que provoqua en Angleterre
I'arrivee des refugies beiges revelait les plus nobles sentiments
de la nation britannique. Faite non seulement de pitie pour
le malheur mais d'estime pour I'attitude de notre pays, cette
generosite sut revetir une forme de deference ; aussi eut-elle
un eifet rare : elle laissa les beneficiaires aussi flattes que reconnaissants.
Dans toute I'etendue de Royaume-Uni, la meme emotion avait pro-
fondement remue toutes les couches sociales : depuis le lord qui proposait
la somptueuse hospitalite de son manoir jusqu'au pauvre berger dont
j'ai conserve la lettre et qui off rait un petit troupeau au berger beige
qui aurait perdu le sien ; depuis le magistrat vieilli dans I'honneur qui
exaltait la resistance beige comme le triomphe des principes de sa vie,
jusqu'aux ecoliers qui nous exprimaient leur enthousiasme dans de naives
calligraphies et nous envoyaient I'argent de leurs prix pour acheter du
dessert aux petits refugies.
Mais pour que tant d'elans spontanes, pour que tant de jolis gestes
pussent avoir un effet utile, il fallait les concentrer et les repartir
judicieusement. Ce fut le " War Refugees Committee " qui se proposa
a la confiance publique pour realiser cette tache, specialement en ce
qui concerne I'organisation de I'hospitalite.
Lorsqu'on lit les rapports qui ont ete publics sur I'oeuvre colossale
de ce comite, on se demande avec etonnement comment cette institu-
tion, improvisee avec le concours de simples volontaires, a pu poursuivre
son objet sans encombre : a peine avait-on jete les bases de son organi-
sation, que dej^ elle se voyait obligee d'entrer en plein fonctionnement ;
^ peine ses rouages etaient-ils indiques, que deja ils se trouvaient
soumis a la plus haute tension ; les arrivages de refugies atteignirent
bientot une importance decuple de celle qui avait pu etre prevue, et
le developpement de I'ceuvre devait suivre pour ainsi dire au galop ce
mouvement progressif. Et cependant elle a reussi ^ se maintenir k
la hauteur de la tache. L'explication est simple : c'est que ceux qui,
des le debut, lui avaient offert leur concours etaient fermement decides
a s'y consacrer corps et ame et prets ^ accomplir toutes les besognes.
Ah ! si dans les premiers jours surtout, les membres du comite avaient
86
L'CEUVRE DU WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
cru devoir se cantonner administrativement dans les services qui leur
avaient ete assignes, ils n'auraient pu completement reussir, mais
chacun d'eux savait, a I'occasion, former a lui seul un comite et se
chargeait personnellement de tous les details d'un cas qui, en temps
normal, aurait reclame les services de divers departements. Cela les
entrainait parfois fort loin, temoin ce secretaire que je vis, une nuit,
a I'arrivee d'un train de refugies, s'embarrasser d'un charmant bebe
pour decharger une mere de cinq enfants et I'emmener dans un asile
provisoire : la-bas on le prit lui-meme pour un refugie et on
voulut Fhospitaliser avec toute la famille !
Ce que fut le travail de I'ceuvre, on peut en donner une idee generale
en disant que le War Refugees Committee a procure un logement
permanent a plus de 150,000 refugies, qu'il a assure leur reception,
leur transport, leur enregistrement, sans parler de ses services acces-
soires. Toutefois pour se rendre compte de I'infinie complication de
la tache et pour comprendre jusqu'ou le devouement a du etre porte
il faut avoir vecu dans le mouvement, dans la trepidation, dirais-je
de la vaste organisation.
Aussi s'il m'est echu I'honneur d'ecrire cette note de gratitude,
c'est que, depuis plus d'une annee dej^, la direction du Bureau Auxi-
liaire que M. PoUet, Consul-general de Belgique, a etabli au
siege meme du War Refugees Committee, m'a ete confiee. Des
le debut en effet, le comite avec une immediate comprehension des
necessites de I'avenir et en meme temps par une delicate attention
envers les refugies, avait accueilli avec empressement I'idee de mon
coUegue, de creer un bureau de renseignements consulaires dans ses
locaux. Comme on le pense bien, ce ne fut pas seulement un office
d'informations, mais il devint naturellement I'intermediaire constant
entre nos compatriotes et tous les rouages de la vaste institution creee
pour les secourir. Nous fumes done les temoins journaliers de tous
les labeurs et de tous les devouements.
Les premiers mois qui suivirent la constitution du War Refugees
Committee ont ete ce qu'on peut appeler la periode heroique de son
histoire. Au dehors, une foule enorme se pressait devant le siege du
comite, aux " General Buildings " a Aldwych ; en ce temps la, le nombre
87
L'CEUVRE DU WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
des visiteurs se chiffrait par plusieurs milliers par jour ; rintervention
de la police avait du etre reclamee pour assurer le service d'ordre, mais
il Y avait un reflet des sentiments de la nation dans la maniere dont
les " Bobbies " en usaient avec la foule des Beiges qu'ils contenaient
paternes et un peu attendris, comme de bons geants. L'interieur du
vaste batiment ressemblait ^ une ruche : sur les escaliers encombres
d'hommes, de femmes, d'enfants, de bagages, c'etait un va-et-vient
incessant de scouts qui, tout fiers dans leur petit uniforme khaki releve
d'un foulard de couleur vive, se faufilaient prestement dans la foule
pour s'acquitter de leurs messages. Devant les differents bureaux,
dont plusieurs s'abritaient derriere de simples paravents, s'allongeaient
des files impatientes de refugies de toutes les conditions. Aucune
distinction n'etait admise, mais au milieu de la presse generale, chacun
s'effagait lorsqu'apparaissait I'uniforme glorieux des blesses de ?Yser !
Dans le bourdonnement de la cohue, on entendait sans cesse retentir
la sonnerie des 40 telephones du batiment tandis que le tapotement de
trente machines a ecrire clichait febrilement la correspondance qui se
chiffrait par des milliers de lettres.
En plein travail d'organisation, I'oeuvre devait fonctionner et rendre
quand meme pour satisfaire ^ toutes les demandes.
C'etait I'epoque ou toutes les initiatives pouvaient se manifester.
On remarquait, par exemple, que les demandes de renseignements
concernant I'education devenaient de plus en plus nombreuses ; vite
on inscrivait sur une pancarte le mot " ecoles," la pancarte etait accrochee
a un pupitre et voila un departement fonde. Cela rappelle le temps de
ces grandes crises politiques ou il suffisait qu'un homme parvint ^
se faufiler a la table ou siegeait le gouvernement provisoire pour devenir,
par ce seul fait, ministre ! Mais, au comite, on n'acceptait que des
ministres competents.
Pour eviter le desordre de la cohue, on dut introduire les refugies par
fournees successives. Quoique rassures dejk par la bonne reception
qui leur avait ete faite dans les gares, ils penetraient dans les bureaux
encore inquiets et d'ailleurs enerves par une longue attente. Songez
que beaucoup d'entre eux avaient tout perdu et qu'ils avaient passe
leur voyage dans les plus cruelles angoisses se demandant ce qui allait
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L'GEUVRE DU WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
bien advenir de leur famille ! Comment done se seralent-ils imagines
le petit paysan flamand et I'humbJe ouvrier wallon que des personnages,
comptant parmi les plus considerables de I'aristocratie et de la politique
anglaise, auraient tout abandonne pour venir s'installer dans les bureaux
des " General Buildings " et s'occuper de leur trouver un logis ? Com-
ment se seraient-ils doutes, par exemple, que 1^-haut travaillait pour
eux un eminent homme d'Etat qui, de ses fenetres, pouvait contempler
la statue de son illustre pere sur la place. Sans doute en accourant en
foule au comite, les refugies de toutes les classes sociales savaient bien
qu'ils seraient secourus, mais ils ignoraient dans quelle mesure et de
quelle maniere. Et la maniere avait pour beaucoup d'entr'eux une
importance egale, sinon superieure, h. la mesure. EUes le savaient bien
ces grandes dames qui, entourees d'auxiliaires d'elite, se devouaient du
matin au soir k ecouter les confidences des exiles et a leur chercher une
hospitalite appropriee a leur situation. Et rien n'etait plus charmant
que de les voir s'ingenier a leur laisser I'impression qu'ils etaient non
pas des " hospitalises '* mais bien des " invites." Cette reception
pleine de delicatesse et de deference, produisit meme au debut sur
certains d'entr'eux — heureusement fort rares — un eifet capiteux : ils
en vinrent k se croire des heros uniquement parce qu'ils etaient refugies
et, suivant le mot spirituel d'un orateur beige, ils croyaient un peu qu'ils
avaient sauve I'Europe parce qu'ils s'etaient sauves eux-memes. On
en souriait parfois avec indulgence au War Refugees Committee, mais
on ne s'en moquait jamais, car on estimait que tous les refugies avaient
droit k la consideration publique. N'avaient-ils pas tous applaudi au
noble geste de leur Roi repoussant I'indigne proposition de I'AUemagne
et n'avaient-ils pas consenti ainsi h I'avance k tous les sacrifices pour
sauvegarder I'honneur de leur pays ! Ah ! je puis le dire avec une
legitime fierte, parmi les milliers et les milliers de refugies qui ont
passe par nos bureaux, parmi tant de pauvres gens endeuilles, ruines,
perdus ou deracines, nous n'en avons pas entendu un seul regretter le
refus historique de son souverain.
On se tromperait singulierement si I'on s'imaginait que I'activite du
War Refugees Committee s'est bornee a I'hospitalite proprement dite.
Outre les questions de transport, de logements provisoires, etc., qui
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L'CEUVRE DU WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
etaient les coroUaires naturels du grand probleme, le comite avait
encore a faire face a de multiples necessites ; il suffit de parcourir la
liste de ses nombreuses divisions pour s'en convaincre : departements
de I'education, des emplois, des vetements, de la sante, des renseigne-
ments sur parents perdus, de I'enregistrement, des appartements, des
subventions privees, des prestations de nourriture, de la poste, des
bagages, le dispensaire, la nursery, etc., etc. C'est done un veritable
ministere des refugies qui a fini par se creer a Aldwych ! Les bureaux
des " General Buildings " ne pouvant suffire a tous ces services, le
comite s'etait vu, des le second mois de sa fondation, dans la necessite
d'amenager tant bien que mal les vastes locaux d'un ancien skating
rink situe heureusement dans le voisinage immediat. Cette grande
annexe fut surtout frequent ee par les classes populaires des refugies.
La section du departement de I'hospitalite, qui fonctionna dans ces
installations improvisees, a eu une tache particulierement penible et je
me demande vraiment comment les vaillantes dames qui s'y sont
devouees pendant plus d'une annee, depuis le matin jusqu'a des heures
avancees de la nuit, ont pu y resister. Et cependant elles sont encore
la, toujours attelees ^ une tache toujours aussi rude, accueillant les
refugies avec le bon sourire qui console et qui reconforte ! Certes ce
n'est pas au War Refugees Committee qu'ont manque les exemples
dignes de reconcilier les classes sociales ! La reconnaissance populaire
s'exprimait meme souvent dans des termes pleins de naivete : j'entendis
plus d'une fois de bonnes femmes flamandes, tout emues de gratitude,
tutoyer de grandes dames de I'aristocratie anglaise en leur disant :
" Madame, tu es bonne ; Madame, je ne peux rien te dire que merci,
mais c'est avec mon coeur, tu sais ! " Je crois bien meme me rappeler
qu'elles pronongaient : " tu seies."
Et ce qu'il y a de merveilleux c'est que certains des membres les plus
occupes du comite trouvent encore le temps de fonder des ceuvres
speciales en dehors de leur besogne reguliere ; une des principales
fondatrices du War Refugees Committee amenage toute une serie
d'hotels pour y loger des refugies et en assume I'administration ; une
autre fonde un club pour que nos militaires sans famille, puissent se
retrouver entre camarades pendant leur conge en Angleterre, etc., etc.
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L'CEUVRE DU WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
Nous n'en finirions pas si nous voulions citer tous les traits de
devouement personnel dont nous fumes temoins. Une nuit, ou 1' affluence
des refugies avait ete particulierement considerable, on constate que tous
les hotels sont combles. Que faire ? C'est bien simple, repond une
de ces dames et elle emmene tout simplement les inconnus dans son
domicile prive. Une autre fois on nous amene, en desespoir de cause,
au Consulat, un orphelin, un petit bonhomme intraitable qui avait
lasse toutes les patiences. " Me permettez-vous d'essayer," me dit
une grande dame, et elle adopte illico le gamin. J'appris quelques
jours apres, qu'il avait mis toute la maison sens dessus dessous.
A cote de ces cas dont on pourrait multiplier les exemples, il y a le
devouement banal mais admirable de tous les jours ; celui par exemple
des " dames d'escorte " qui, depuis une annee, vont toutes les nuits
chercher les refugies aux gares, se chargent de regler les mille details
de leur voyage et leur rendent une foule de petits services ; celui des
directrices des refuges qui se consacrent specialement aux enfants du
peuple et s'ingenient ^ leur procurer du reconfort et des distractions.
Et tous ces devouements se sont repetes en province dans les milliers
de sous comites locaux qui se sont rattaches au comite central pour couvrir
I'Angleterre d'un vaste reseau de charite. Nous ne pouvons en ecrire
I'histoire particuliere dans un cadre aussi limite mais ils ont chacun
leur part dans le tribut de reconnaissance que la Consulat-general de
Belgique et son bureau auxiliaire tiennent a payer au War Refugees
Committee. Nous fumes, au siege de celui-ci, les constants inter-
mediaires entre le malheur et le devouement, entre le besoin et la
generosite et bien souvent nous dumes nous raidir non seulement
contre I'emotion que suscitaient chez nous les miseres de nos com-
patriotes, mais encore contre celle que nous causait la charite et la
bonte de leurs bienfaiteurs.
Et c'est pourquoi je me trouve maintenant un peu dans la situation
de la bonne femme flamande a laquelle je faisais allusion ci-dessus, et
qui pour exprimer un monde de remerciements ne trouvait pas autre
chose qu'un simple " merci." C'est une formule facile que I'on
emploie lorsqu'on ne trouve pas les termes qu'il faudrait, mais c'est
celle dont on use aussi quand on est trop emu pour en dire davantage.
91
THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE.
Translation by Professor F. W. Moorman.
THE outburst of generosity which the arrival of the
Belgian refugees aroused in England was very charac-
teristic of the noble feelings of the British nation. This
generosity, which sprang not only from pity for mis-
fortune but also from esteem for the attitude of our
country, knew how to assume a form of respect ; and it had the rare
effect of awakening in the recipients a sense of flattery as well as of
gratitude. Throughout the whole extent of the United Kingdom the
same emotion had profoundly stirred every class of society, from the
lord who placed at our disposal the sumptuous hospitality of his
country seat to the poor shepherd who, in a letter which I have kept,
offered a little flock of sheep to the Belgian shepherd who had lost his
own ; from the high official weighed down with years and honours
who extolled the Belgian resistance as the triumph of the principles
that ruled his life to the school children who expressed their enthusiasm
in quaintly spelt letters and sent us their pocket money in order to
buy fruit for the little refugees.
But in order that so much spontaneous enthusiasm and so many
kindly actions should produce a useful effect a judicious concentration
and distribution were necessary. It was the War Refugees Com-
mittee which offered itself to the public confidence for the realisation
of this task, more especially in all that pertained to the organisation of
hospitality.
When one reads the reports which have been published on the
colossal work of this Committee, one asks with amazement how this
improvised body of voluntary helpers has been able to pursue its object
unimpeded. It had scarcely laid the foundations of its organisation
when it saw itself compelled to enter at once into full activity; no sooner
was its machinery appointed than it was called upon to bear the greatest
possible strain. The refugees soon arrived in numbers ten times as
great as those which had been foreseen, and the development of the work
was compelled to follow at break-neck speed this progressive movement.
Nevertheless it has succeeded in performing its task at the highest
level of efficiency. The explanation is simple : the fact is that those
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THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
who, from the commencement, had offered their services were resolutely
determined to devote themselves, body and soul, to the task and were
ready to accomplish whatever was necessary. If the members of the
Committee, especially in those first days, had thought that they must
confine their administrative labours to the special duties which were
assigned to them, they would not have been able to ensure a complete
success ; but, when occasion arose, every member knew how to form a
committee single-handed, and personally undertook all the details of a
case which at normal times would have claimed the services of various
departments. A single instance will show that this was sometimes
carried very far : one night, on the arrival of a refugee train, I saw a
secretary take charge of a charming baby, in order to relieve a mother of
five children, and carry it away with him to a provisional shelter. There
he was himself mistaken for a refugee and hospitality was offered to
him and all his family !
One can give a general idea of the arduous nature of the task by
saying that the War Refugees Committee has provided permanent
homes for more than 150,000 refugees, that it has seen to their reception,
their transport, their registration, not to mention accessory services.
But to form an idea of the infinite complexity of the task, and to under-
stand how far the devotion to it must have gone, it is necessary to have
lived in the movement, in the whirr, shall I say, of the vast organisation.
If, therefore, the honour of writing this note of gratitude has fallen
to me, the reason is that for more than a year the direction of the
Bureau Auxiliaire which M. PoUet, the Belgian Consul-General, estab-
lished at the Headquarters of the War Refugees Committee, has been
entrusted to me. Indeed, from the start, the Committee, realising
future needs and at the same time imbued with a courteous regard for
the refugees, had eagerly welcomed my colleague's idea that a consular
Information Bureau should be created on its premises. As vvdll be
readily believed, this was something more than a mere Inquiry Office ;
it became quite naturally the constant intermediary between our com-
patriots and all the wheels of the vast organisation created for their
help. We were therefore the daily witnesses of all its labours and acts
of devotion.
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THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
The first months which followed the constitution of the War Refugees
Committee formed what one may call the heroic period of its history.
Outside, an enormous crowd gathered before the Headquarters of the
Committee, at the " General Buildings," in Aldwych ; at that time the
number of visitors amounted to several thousands a day. The help of
the police had to be sought in order to preserve order, but the fatherly
and sympathetic way in which the " Bobbies," like good giants, handled
the crowd of Belgians was in itself an indication of the feelings of the
whole nation. The interior of the vast building resembled a hive ; on
the staircases, crowded with men, women, children and luggage, there
was an incessant coming and going of scouts, who, in the pride of their
khaki uniform, set off with a brightly coloured scarf, deftly threaded
their way through the crowd in order to carry out their messages. In
the various offices, several of which were divided from each other only
by screens, impatient files of refugees of all sorts ranged themselves in
lines. No distinctions were drawn, but in the midst of the general
throng everyone stepped into the background when there appeared
the noble uniform of the soldiers wounded at Yser.
Amid the hum of the crowd one heard incessantly the bells of the forty
telephones of the building, while the thirty typewriting machines
feverishly tapped out the correspondence, which amounted to thousands
of letters. Working at full speed, the organisation was compelled to
pursue its activities in spite of every obstacle in order to satisfy all the
demands.
That was the time to show the power of initiative. One noticed,
for instance, that the requests for information with regard to education
became more and more numerous ; soon the word " Schools " was written
on a placard, and the placard was hung on a desk, and, behold ! a depart-
ment was founded. All this recalls the time of those great political
crises when it was sufficient for a man to thread his way to the table
where the provisional government had its seat in order thereby to
become a minister. But on the Committee only competent ministers
were accepted.
In order to avoid the disorder of the crowd, the refugees had to be
brought up in successive batches. Although reassured by the kindly
94
THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
reception already given them at the railway stations, they were still
disturbed in mind and also fatigued with the long wait when they
made their way into the offices. Remember that many of them had
lost everything, and that they had passed the time of their journey in
cruel anguish, asking themselves what was going to happen to their
families. How could the simple Flemish peasant and the humble
Walloon artisan imagine that some of the most influential members of
the English aristocracy and the political world had given up everything
in order to take their places in the offices of the General Buildings and
devote their powers to finding a home for them ? How could they
believe, for instance, that an eminent statesman was working on their
behalf in an upper room from the windows of which he could look upon
the statue of his illustrious father in the square ? Of course, when
flocking in crowds to the Committee, the refugees of all social grades
knew quite well that they would be helped, but they did not know to
what degree and in what manner. And for many of them the manner
was of equal, if not of more, importance than the degree. The high-
born ladies knew this quite well, as, surrounded by helpers of aristo-
cratic birth, they devoted themselves from morning to night to listen-
ing to the confidences of the exiles and seeking for them a hospitality
suited to their needs. Nor was anything more delightful than to see
them taking pains to convey the impression that the refugees were in no
sense recipients of charity, but rather guests. This reception, so full
of respect and delicacy, produced even at the start an intoxicating
effect in certain cases — fortunately only a very few ; these came to
believe themselves heroes merely because they were refugees, and as the
witty saying of a Belgian public speaker expresses it, they rather fancied
that they had saved Europe because they had saved themselves. Some-
times this caused an indulgent smile at the War Refugees Committee,
but we never made fun of it, for we recognised that all the refugees had
a right to public consideration. Had they not all approved of the noble
action of their King, when he rejected Germany's ignoble proposal,
and had they not thus accepted beforehand every sacrifice in order to
safeguard the honour of their country ? Yes, I can say with legitimate
pride that among the thousands and thousands of refugees who have
95
THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
passed through our offices, among so manv poor people, bereaved, ruined,
lost or uprooted, we have never heard a single one who regretted the
historic refusal of his Sovereign.
One would be strangely in error if one believed that the activities of
the War Refugees Committee was limited to hospitality in the strict
sense of the word. Besides questions of transport, temporary lodg-
ings, etc., which were the natural corollaries of the great problem, the
Committee had still to face a great variety of needs. To be convinced
of this it is sufficient to glance through the list of its various sections ;
these include departments of education, employment, clothing, health,
information as to lost relatives, registration, apartments, private assist-
ance, distribution of food, postal arrangements, luggage, the dispensary,
the nursery, etc. Thus it is a true refugees' ministry which has come
into being at Aldwych. The offices of the " General Buildings "
not being sufficient for all these services, the Committee, in the second
month of its existence, saw itself compelled to fit up, as well as it could,
the vast premises of a former skating-rink which was fortunately situated
in the immediate neighbourhood. This huge annex was chiefly fre-
quented by the popular classes of refugees. The section of the hospi-
tality department which carried out its work in these improvised
buildings has had a particularly difficult task, and one may well ask
how the brave ladies, who for more than a year have devoted themselves
to it from early morning to a late hour in the evening, have been able
to hold out. And yet they are still there, face to face with a most
difficult task, welcoming the refugees with a kindly smile, which brings
comfort and consolation. In truth there has been for the War Refugees
Committee no lack of examples which might serve to break down the
barriers of social distinctions. The gratitude of the common people
often expressed itself in the most naive terms. I heard more than once
Flemish women, moved by gratitude, addressing gentlewomen of the
English aristocracy with the familiar " thou," and saying, " Madame,
thou art good," " Madame, I can only say * Thank you,' but, thou
knowest, I say it with all my heart." I think I can even remember
that they pronounced tu sais as tu seies.
The wonder is that some of the busiest members of the Committee
96
LA TAMISK I. IIIVICR
ALllKKT l!AKRIS()i;X. MK.MliKK DK l.'ACADF.MIE ROVAl,K DK I'.KI.C.UJUK
THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
still find time to institute special undertakings outside of their regular
duties. One of the chief foundresses of the War Refugees Com-
mittee fits up a whole block of hostels to house refugees and under-
takes their management ; another founds a club in order that those of
our soldiers who have no family life may find themselves among their
comrades during their stay in England, etc.
We should never come to an end if we attempted to mention all the
marks of personal devotion which we have witnessed. One night, when
the rush of refugees had been particularly great, the news arrivest hat all
the hostels are full. What is to be done ? " That is quite simple,"
replies one of these ladies, and she quietly takes away the strangers
to her private home. Another time, they bring to the consulate,
as a last resort, an orphan, an intractable little fellow who had tired the
patience of everybody. " Let me have a try," says a high-born lady,
and she adopts the youngster on the spot. Some days later I learnt
that he had turned the whole house upside down.
Side by side with these cases, of which one could furnish many
more examples, there has been the simple but admirable everyday
devotion : for instance, that of the escort ladies, who, for a whole
year, go every night to the stations to look for the refugees, undertake
to arrange the thousand details of their journey, and render them a
host of little services ; or that of the directresses of the homes of
refuge who devote themselves specially to the children of the people,
and do their utmost to procure for them comforts and distractions.
And all these acts of devotion are repeated in the provinces, in the
thousands of local committees which are attached to the central
committee and cover England with a network of charitable work. We
cannot write their special history in so limited an outline as this, but
they have one and all their share in the tribute of gratitude which the
General Consulate of Belgium and its Bureau Auxiliaire desire to render
to the War Refugees Committee. At the headquarters of the Com-
mittee we were the constant intermediaries between misfortune and
devotion, between need and generosity, and very often we had to stiffen
our backs not only against the feeling that the misery of our com-
patriots aroused, but also against that aroused by the kindness and
generosity of their benefactors.
97 H
THE WORK OF THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE
And that is why I now find myself somewhat in the position of the
good Flemish woman — ^to whom I have referred above — ^who, in order to
express a world of thanks, could only find the simple words " Thank
you." It is an easy formula which one uses when one cannot find the
words which one needs, but it is also that to which one has recourse
when one is too deeply moved to say more.
98
AUX FEMMES D'ANGLETERRE.
Par Emile Royer, Depute.
[Paroles extraiUs de V allocution prononcee avant le concert du 2^ Avrily
191 5, organisS h Londres par les musiciens beiges en Vhonneur des Dames
anglatses.]
PEUT-ETRE avez-vous lu I'exquise nouvelle d'Anatole France
intitulee Le Jongleur de Notre-Datne, Phistoire de ce pauvre
jongleur que les circonstances avaient amene h. se faire moine,
et qui pour honorer la Sainte Vierge, ne trouva rien de mieux
que d'executer devant son autel les tours qui jadis lui avaient
valu le plus de louanges. Mais un jour le prieur et deux anciens
du couvent qu'avaient intrigues les longs sejours que Barnabe —
c'etait le nom du pauvre homme — faisait dans la chapelle, Pepierent,
et " le virent devant I'autel de la Sainte Vierge, la tete en bas, les
pieds en I'air, jonglant avec six boules de cuivre et douze couteaux."
lis crierent au sacrilege. Et " ils s'appretaient tous trois a le tirer
vivement de la chapelle, quand ils virent la Sainte Vierge descendre
les degres de I'autel pour venir essuyer d'un pan de son manteau
bleu la sueur qui degouttait du front de son jongleur."
C'est, mus par un sentiment analogue ^ celui de Barnabe, qu'un
groupe d'artistes beiges, pour vous exprimer, Mesdames, au nom de
leurs compatriotes refugies en Angleterre, leur reconnaissance et leur
veneration, ont con^u le projet de declamer, de chanter, et de jouer pour
vous. ... Si j'avais k vous indiquer les motifs de cette gratitude, je
risquerais de vous tenir ici beaucoup trop longtemps. Laissez-moi
seulement vous rappeler cet episode.
.... C'etait dans la seconde moitie d'Octobre. L'armee beige
s'etait retiree d' An vers. Peniblement, sous la menace d'etre coupee
de l'armee franco-anglaise, elle avait franchi par I'etroit couloir reste
libre encore au Nord des Flandres, les 140 kilometres qui separent An vers
de Nieuport. Les hommes etaient harasses. Sans doute esperaient-ils
pouvoir prendre, une fois arrives en France, quelque repos. Mais
voici que le Roi Albert, dans une proclamation eloquente, les avertit
tout k coup que dans les positions ou il les placera, leurs regards doivent
desormais se porter uniquement en avant, et que le moment est venu
99
AUX FEMMES D'ANGLETERRE
de chasser du sol de la patrie, I'ennemi qui I'a envahie au mepris de ses
engagements et des droits sacres d'un peuple libre.
L'armee beige fait face k I'ennemi. Le haut commandement
franfais lui a demande de resister pendant 48 heures. Reduite a
48,000 fusils, elle va tenir deux semaines avec I'appui d'une brigade
frangaise renforcee ensuite par une division, contre une armee de
150,000 hommes abondamment nourrie, elle, de vivres, de canons et
de munitions.
Mais ^ quel prix !
En douze jours, la petite armee beige perdit alors 14,000 hommes,
dont 4,000 tues. Pour les blesses la situation fut affreuse. La plupart
furent transportes k Calais. Mais personne n'avait prevu la bataille
de I'Yser. A Calais, il n'y avait pour recevoir les blesses, ni hopitaux,
ni medecins en nombre suffisant, ni infirmiers et infirmieres. Les
batiments publics, les ecoles surtout, furent hativement transformes
en ambulance. On y deposait les blesses sur un peu de paille pous-
siereuse ou certains furent meme operes, et des passants, des ouvriers
et des ouvrieres qui revenaient de leur travail, faisaient 4 nos soldats
la charite de les soigner quelques instants.
Alors I'Angleterre vint k leur secours. De neuf k dix mille d'entre
eux furent transportes dans le Royaume-Uni, et ils y furent soignes,
je ne dirai pas avec devouement, laissez moi dire avec tendresse.
Et vous avez, Mesdames, continue depuis lors cette ceuvre de frater-
nelle sollicitude. Vos coeurs de femme ont " realise " qu'^ toutes les
souff ranees qu'endurent les soldats en campagne, s'en ajoute une pour
les Beiges : ils sont sans communication avec leurs parents et leurs
amis ; ils en sont separes par les lignes allemandes ; ils ne resolvent meme
pas, pour la plupart, ces lettres de chez eux qui montrent aux soldats
qu'au pays on ne les oublie pas, et qui, glissees sur leur cceur, les font,
si leur heure sonne, mieux mourir.
Vous avez voulu, Mesdames, en procurant a nos soldats qui sont au
front, ou dans les camps de I'arriere, du linge, des vetements de laine,
du tabac, et des douceurs, suppleer les epouses et les mamans qui
attendent anxieusement Ik-bas. Vous avez meme voulu leur donner
I'impression que leurs petits freres et leurs petites soeurs, k la maison
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AUX FEMMES D'ANGLETERRE
songeaient h eux. J'ai vu de ces cartes touchantes, que nos soldats
retiraient de la pochette des chemises que vous leur envo)dez, et ou
se trouvait le nom d'un enfant, avec I'indication de son age — trois ans,
sept ans, quatre ans — et le porte-bonheur de ses voeux innocents de
bonne chance et de bonne sante.
Votre bonte s'etend aux soldats internes en Hollande, k ceux qui
sont prisonniers en Allemagne.
Et nos refugies civils ont ete par vous sauves de la misere et de la
desesperance. Lady Lugard m'a dit avec quelle emotion vous avez
vu arriver en Angleterre ces pauvres femmes de nos provinces flamandes,
dont les plus heureuses avaient aupres d'elles leurs enfants, dont d'autres
avaient au milieu de la tourmente ete separees de leur famille, et qui,
incapables de s'exprimer dans votre langue, et ne sachant que quelques
mots de fran^ais, ne pouvaient que repeter : " Tout brule, tout brule ! "
Avec quelle delicatesse vous les avez secourues ! Vous disiez aux
refugies beiges que vous ne faisiez que vous acquitter d'une partie de la
dette de votre pays envers les Beiges qui avaient sauve la cause de la
liberte dans le monde. Vous le leur avez dit, Mesdames, et ils I'ont
cru, et quand maintenant certains d'entre eux le repetent, sous souriez,
Mesdames . . . et c'est charmant.
C'est de tout cela que j'aurais voulu vous remercier. Mais le moyen,
pour moi, de le faire et de vous etre agreable ? Je ne puis essayer qu'en
cedant la place aux artistes qui doivent se faire entendre ce soir.
Ecoutez-les bien. Leurs instruments et leurs voix vous diront
toute la detresse de ceux dont la patrie est sous le joug d'un ennemi
deteste. Ecoutez-les bien. Leurs instruments et leurs voix vous
diront aussi toute la douceur de votre amitie pour ceux qui etaient sans
foyer. Ecoutez-les bien. Leurs instruments et leurs voix ne sauraient
assez vous dire : Merci !
lOl
TO THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND.
Translation by Mrs. Lewis Harcourt.
[Extract from a Sfeech delivered on April 23/^, igi^, at the Concert
organised in London by Belgian Artists in honour of the ladies of Great
Britain.^
LADIES, — Doubtless some of you have read The Juggler of Notre
Dame, that exquisite short story by Anatole France : the tale
of the poor juggler, who, driven by circumstances, became a
monk and who, to do honour to the Blessed Virgin, could think
of nothing better than to offer a performance before her altar
of those tricks which had formerly earned him the highest praise.
But one day the Prior and two of the senior monks — who had been
puzzled by the long time that Barnabas (this was the name of the poor
man) spent in the chapel — spied upon him and " discovered him before
the altar of the Blessed Virgin, standing on his head with his feet in the
air and juggling with six copper balls and twelve knives." They cried
out at the sacrilege and all three were trying hard to drag him from the
chapel, when they saw the Blessed Virgin " descend the steps of the
altar and wipe the perspiration from the forehead of her juggler with the
corner of her blue mantle."
Moved by a sentiment similar to that which actuated Barnabas, a
group of Belgian artists, in order to express to you, ladies, in the name
of their compatriots who have sought refuge in England, their gratitude
and respect, conceived the idea of reciting, singing, and playing to you.
If I were to tell you the reasons for this gratitude I should run the risk
of detaining you too long. But let me just tell you this episode.
It was during the latter part of October. The Belgian Army had
retreated from Antwerp painfully, and, in peril of being cut off from
the Franco-British Army, it had succeeded in crossing by means of the
narrow passage which still remained open to the North of Flanders, the
140 kilometres which separated Antwerp from Nieuport. The men
were worn out. No doubt, once arrived in France, they hoped to be able
to get some rest. But King Albert, in an eloquent proclamation,
suddenly warned them that in the positions in which he intended to
place them, they should only look forward to the future and that the
moment had come to drive the enemy from the soil of their land, which
102
TO THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND
had been invaded in violation of solemn treaties and the sacred rights of a
free people.
The Belgian Army faced the enemy. The head of the French Army
asked them to hold on for forty-eight hours. Reduced to 48,000 rifles
they had to confront for a fortnight an army of 150,000 men, well fed
and well armed, with only the assistance of a French Brigade, which was
afterwards reinforced by a Division. But at what cost ! In twelve
days the small Belgian Army lost 14,000 men, of which 4,000 were
killed. The state of the wounded was frightful. The greater part were
taken to Calais, but nobody had foreseen the battle of the Yser. At
Calais the hospitals, the doctors and nurses were altogether insuffi-
cient to cope with the wounded. Public buildings, especially the
schools, were hastily transformed into Ambulance Stations. Here they
placed the wounded on sparse and dusty straw, where some were even
operated upon, and the passers-by — ^working men and working women —
returning from their labours gave their kindly ministrations to our
soldiers.
It was then England came to our help. Between nine and ten
thousand Belgians were moved to the United Kingdom, to be treated
not only with devotion, but vdth tenderness.
And you,, ladies, have since then continued this work of womanly
love. Your women's hearts realised that in addition to all the hard-
ships suffered by soldiers at the Front must be added the fact that our
people are unable to communicate with their relations and friends ;
they are separated from them by the German lines. They very often
cannot even receive those letters from home showing that they are not
forgotten by their loved ones, the knowledge of which would enable
them at the last to die more happily.
By procuring suppHes of Hnen, woollen garments, tobacco and
comforts for our soldiers at the Front or in the rest camps, you have,
ladies, acted for the wives and mothers who are anxiously waiting over
there. You have even endeavoured to give them the impression that
their little brothers and sisters at home thought of them. I have seen
some of those touching cards, which our soldiers would draw from the
pockets of the shirts which you sent them, and on which they found
103
TO THE WOMEN OF ENGLAND
the name of a child, with his age — three years — seven years — four
years — ^with their innocent wishes for good luck and good health.
Your kindness includes even the soldiers interned in Holland and
those who are prisoners in Germany.
Our civilian refugees have been saved by you from misery and
despair. Lady Lugard has told me with what emotion you saw the poor
women from our Flemish provinces arriving in England — the happiest
among them being those who had their children with them, whilst
others in the midst of the horror had been separated from their families,
and, incapable of expressing themselves in your language, and knowing
but few words of French, could only repeat " Tout brule ! Tout brule ! "
(All burnt ! All burnt !) With what delicacy have you not helped
them ! You told the Belgian refugees that you were only paying part
of the debt which your country owed to the Belgian nation, which had
saved the cause of liberty for the world. You told them so, ladies,
and they believed it, and now, when some of them repeat it, you smile,
ladies — it is charming.
It is for all this that I wish to thank you. But how am I to do it in
such a manner as will be agreeable to you ? I can only do it by making
way for the artists who are to perform this evening.
Listen to them ! Their instruments and their voices will make you
understand the sorrow of those whose country is under the yoke of a
hated enemy. Listen to them ! Their instruments and their voices
will also show you all the sweetness of your friendship for those who are
homeless. Listen to them ! Their instruments and their voices can
never sufficiently express their thanks
104
/
HOMMAGE A L'AMERIQUE.
Par le Baron Moncheur,
Envoys Extraordinaire et Ministre Plenipotentiaire.
MON sejour de dix annees aux Etats-Unis m*a permis
d'apprecier les qualites de ce noble et genereux peuple
qui ne reste indifferent ^ aucune des souffrances de
I'humanite.
Que la guerre exer^at ses ravages dans les regions les
plus lointaines de PAfrique ou de I'Extreme Orient ; que la fureur d'un
despote multipliat ses victimes en Asie Mineure, ou que les forces de la
nature produisissent ces catastrophes subites devant lesquelles I'homme
reste impuissant et aneanti, toujours, de New York k San Francisco je
voyais le secours s'organiser immediatement. La charite americaine, k
I'ombre du Pavilion etoile, arrivait la premiere aussi bien k Messine
qu'en Coree ou sur les plateaux de I'Armenie. Mais, jamais cet elan
n'a ete plus spontane, plus magnifique que lorsqu'il a ete inspire par
les douleurs infinies de la Belgique martyre.
J'avais pu constater toujours la profonde sympathie qui unit les
citoyens de la Grande Republique, dont I'activite prodigieuse ne connait
pas d'obstacle, h la petite mais laborieuse nation qui a pu s'elever au
premier rang dans I'ordre economique. Cette sympathie re^ut sa
consecration k I'Exposition Universelle de St. Louis. Je fus temoin
des marques toutes speciales d'estime et de consideration dont furent
I'objet nos nombreux compatriotes qui participerent h. ces assises
raondiales du genie industriel.
Quand, dix annees plus tard, notre malheureuse patrie se couvrait de
ruines et de sang c'est de I'autre c6te de I'Atlantique que partait I'initia-
tive admirable de I'oeuvre americaine " Commission for Relief in
Belgium," qui a sauve la vie b. des millions de Beiges condamnes par les
desastres de la guerre et I'oppression d'un envahisseur impitoyable k
la mort par la famine.
Mais I'inepuisable charite americaine ne s'est pas arretee Ik ; elle
s'exerce aussi de mille manieres k I'egard de ceux de nos nationaux qui
furent obliges de chercher un refuge h I'etranger. Cette action bien-
faisante est souvent si delicate et si discrete que I'on ne saura que plus
tard toute I'etendue de la dette de reconnaissance que nous avons
contractee.
105
HOMMAGE A L'AMERIQUE
Je reponds au desir de millions de coeurs beiges en me faisant des k
present I'interprete de cette gratitude sans borne qui cimentera pour
toujours les liens d'etroite amitie entre les deux pays.
La nation americaine avait ete temoin pendant pres d'un siecle des
luttes pacifiques mais victorieuses des Beiges sur le terrain commercial
et industriel ; elle admire maintenant leur courage indomptable pour
la defense de la patrie. Quand sonnera I'heure de la resurrection elle
tendra la main a la Belgique sortant du sepulcre et sa generosite I'aidera,
j'en suis sur, a s'epanouir de nouveau sous le soleil de la Liberte.
1 06
HOMAGE TO AMERICA.
Translation by G. G. Greenwood, M.P.
MY ten years' sojourn in the United States has enabled
me to appreciate the character of this noble and
generous people, to whom no form of human suffering
appeals in vain.
Was war ravaging the remotest regions of Africa, or of
the farthest East ; was a furious despot slaying his victims by the
thousand in Asia Minor ; were the forces of Nature causing one of those
sudden catastrophes before which man stands impotent and over-
whelmed— always from New York to San Francisco I beheld the imme-
diate organisation of relief for the sufferers. American charity, under
the star-spangled banner, ever arrived first, whether at Messina, in
Korea, or on the plains of Armenia. But never was there such a
spontaneous, such a magnificent outburst of that charity as when it was
inspired by the infinite miseries of martyred Belgium.
I have constantly had occasion to observe the profound sympathy
which unites the citizens of the Great Republic, whose prodigious
energy brooks of no obstacle to its path, and the small but laborious
nation that has succeeded in raising itself to the front rank in the
industrial world. This sympathy received its consecration at the
Internationar Exhibition of St. Louis, where I was myself witness of the
special marks of esteem and regard accorded to our compatriots, so
many of whom took part in that Convention of the Nations over which
the very genius of Industry presided.
When, ten years later, our unhappy country lay in ruins and blood, it
was from the other side of the Atlantic that sprang the initiative of that
admirable American work, " The Commission for the Relief of Belgium,"
which has saved the lives of millions of Belgians that had otherwise been
condemned by the misfortunes of war and the oppression of a merciless
invader to suffer death by famine.
But the inexhaustible American charity did not stop there. It still
works in a thousand different ways to succour those of our people who
were constrained to seek refuge in foreign countries. This beneficent
action is often so delicate and so tactful that only at a later date will the
full extent of the debt of gratitude which we have contracted be truly
known.
107
HOMAGE TO AMERICA
It is in response to the desire of millions of Belgian hearts that in their
name I now express that boundless gratitude which will for ever cement
the bonds of a close friendship between these two countries.
The American nation had been witness for nearly a century of
the pacific but victorious struggles of the Belgians in the field of
commerce and industry. It now admires their indomitable courage in
the defence of their Fatherland. When the hour of resurrection shall
sound that nation will hold out its hand to Belgium rising from the
tomb, and its generosity, I know full well, will aid our desolated country
once more to blossom like the rose under the sun of Liberty.
io8
LA *^C.R.B."
Par le Chevalier E. Carton de Wiart,
Secretaire honoraire du Rot.
DANS ce volume, specialement consacre ^ Pexpression de
la gratitude des Beiges envers leurs amis anglais, il serait
cependant impossible de ne pas mentionner une oeuvre
grandiose et admirable creee par leurs amis d'Amerique
et qui possede h. Londres son centre et son siege principal :
je veux parler de la " C.R.B." comme on appelle communement la
" Commission for Relief in Belgium.''^
Tandis que nos amis anglais et frangais se prodiguaient avec une
generosite attentive et inlassable pour aider les Beiges refugies chez
eux, un probleme redoutable se presentait : comment nourrir les
sept millions de Beiges demeures prisonniers dans leur propre pays
transforme en une sorte d'immense place assiegee, et en faveur desquels
une action directe du Gouvernement beige ou des Gouvernements
allies etait desormais impuissante ? Des le mois d'octobre 1914,
les approvisionnements de ble, de farine et d'autres denrees alimentaires
de premiere necessite commengaient ^ s'epuiser et I'on n'ignorait pas
que I'occupant, en depit de toutes les obligations pouvant resulter de
la Convention de La Haye, ne nourrirait la population que dans la mesure
ou Vy engageraient ses propres convenances. Seule une organisation
neutre pouvait efficacement s'interposer. Mais il ne suffisait pas qu'elle
fut neutre. Elle devait etre dirigee par des hommes assez entendus
et assez laborieux pour assumer I'organisation materielle de cette
entreprise gigantesque, assez connus et assez consideres pour s'imposer
k la confiance de tous les belligerants, assez desinteresses pour accepter
de consacrer genereusement leur temps et leurs peines ^ la direction
ecrasante de cette oeuvre purement charitable. L'Ambassadeur
d'Amerique a Londres, Mr. W. H. Page, consulte a ce sujet, n'hesita pas
et signala le nom d'Herbert Hoover comme celui du " right man " desire ;
celui-ci accepta I'ingrate mission qui lui etait offerte et constitua
aussitot la C.R.B. , dans laquelle se grouperent sous sa presidence
plusieurs Americains et Espagnols distingues. Les representants
diplomatiques des Etats-Unis, de I'Espagne et des Pays-Bas voulurent
bien accepter la presidence d'honneur de la Commission, et il convient
109
LA " C.R.B."
de rendre un particulier hommage au Marquis de Villalobar et h
Mr. Brand Whitlock, respectivement Ministres d'Espagne et d' Amerique
a Bruxelles, qui preterent constamment k la Commission le concours
le plus efficace et le plus devoue.
II y a aujourd'hui exactement un an que la C.R.B. a commence son
ceuvre et chaque semaine I'a vue se developper et se fortifier sous
I'impulsion magnetique de I'homme qui la dirige. II serait trop long
de raconter ici toutes les peripeties de sa constitution, les difficultes
sans nombre et de toutes sortes qu'elle a rencontrees, et son histoire
pent le mieux se resumer en mettant en regard son programme et les
resultats acquis.
La C.R.B. poursuivait cinq objets principaux :
1. Rassembler des vivres destines a la population beige.
2. Transporter ces vivres de leur point d'origine jusqu'en Belgique.
3. Distribuer ces vivres a la population en s'assurant qu'ils ne
seraient ni directement ni indirectement requisitionnes par I'occupant.
4. Assurer les moyens financiers indispensables pour pouvoir
effectuer ces enormes importations de vivres dont une large part devait
etre payee a I'etranger.
5. Mobiliser la charite du monde en faveur de cette partie de la
population beige qui n'etait plus en mesure d'acheter sa nourriture.
Quant au premier point, I'on saisira vite I'importance de I'oeuvre
entreprise en considerant ce seul chiffre : environ 80,000,000 de kilogs
de vivres doivent etre importes chaque mois en Belgique, et cette
quantite formidable de marchandises, mise en nature a la disposition
de la C.R.B. ou achetees par ses soins suppose une manutention, une
surveillance des marches, une connaissance des disponibilites dont le
profane peut difiicilement se faire une idee.
Une fois ces marchandises rassemblees en Amerique, au Canada, en
Argentine, en Australie, dans les ports d'embarquement ou elles ont
ete apportees economiquement grace aux tarifs de faveur obtenus des
compagnies de chemins de fer, il s'agit de resoudre le probleme plus
complique de les transporter jusqu'en Europe. La guerre a complete
ment bouleverse le marche des frets et des assurances maritimes. II s'agit
1 10
LA " C.R.B."
done de veiller a ce que regulierement — car un retard peut provoquer la
famine en Belgique — des navires affretes et assures aux milleures condi-
tions possibles, pour lesquels la C.R.B. a obtenu des autorites allemandes
la promesse de libre-passage, viennent decharger dans les entrepots
de Rotterdam leurs precieuses cargaisons. Depuis le 22 octobre 1914,
date de la premiere reunion de la C.R.B. , jusqu'au 22 octobre 191 5,
251 navires exclusivement charges de vivres, sauf quelques caisses de
vetements ^ destination de la Belgique, ont ete affretes et ont decharge
a Rotterdam 710,000,000 kilogs. de vivres. La moyenne du fret et
de ses accessoires a ete, grace a I'habilete des dirigeants et ^ la generosite
de nombreux concours, de 10 a 15 pour cent en dessous ce ce qu'eut
represente le transport par les voies ordinaires.
Les vivres rassembles \ Rotterdam, il faut les faire parvenir au
consommateur en Belgique et ce n'est pas la tache la plus aisee. Tout
d'abord les voies de communications utilisables a cet effet ont presque
disparu en Belgique : les lignes de chemins de fer non detruites sont
reservees presque exclusivement pour les transports militaires alle-
mands ; les moyens de transport automobiles ont disparu ; les canaui
seuls \ peu pres sont utilisables, encore faudra-t-il en refectionner un
grand nombre. La C.R.B., ayant obtenu des autorites allemandes
I'assurance que les vivres importes par ses soins ne seront pas requisi-
tionnes, doit veiller par I'entremise des delegues qu'elle installe dans
chaque province a ce que ces engagements soient respectes, a ce que les
magasins converts par son pavilion soient a I'abri de toute saisie ou
requisition. C'est un travail d'organisation et de surveillance important
et delicat qui n'a pu etre mene a bien que grace a un personnel volontaire
a la fois habile et energique, actif et devoue, recrute parmi des citoyens
americains qui acceptaient de venir ^ tour de role passer quelques
mois en Belgique pour remplir ces ingrates fonctions. Plus de 100
volontaires americains ont ainsi travaille pour la C.R.B. en Belgique
au cours de cette annee et une cinquantaine y resident en permanence.
II faut mentionner ici le Comite National de Secours et d' Alimenta-
tion. Ce Comite National, exclusivement beige, possedant des rami-
fications dans toutes les Communes, assure dans tout le pays
occupe, au moyen de ses quelque 4,000 comites locaux et de ses 30,000
1 1 1
LA " C.R.B."
coUaborateurs volontaires, la repartition des vivres introduits par la
C.R.B. Son role est immense, mais il ne nous appartient de I'etudier
ici, non plus que celui des autorites beiges, dans cette note specialement
consacree a Toeuvre directe de la Commission for Relief ; il nous suffira
de signaler en passant Taction bienfaisante exercee par le Comite
National sous I'impulsion energique de son admirable cheville ouvriere :
M. Emile Francqui, President du Comite Executif. Le Comite
National agit en complete harmonic avec la C.R.B., les deux organisations
se completant I'une I'autre et etant du teste etroitement unies, Tune
etant, si Ton pent ainsi dire, I'agent exterieur et Fautre Tagent interieur
de I'ceuvre commune de charite.
Nous avons dit que la C.R.B. devait aussi assurer les moyens financiers
indispensables pour effectuer ces enormes importations de vivres. En
effet, en outre des donations destinees aux indigents et dont la C.R.B.
a entrepris le transport en Belgique, elle assure I'importation des vivres
destines aux personnes en mesure de les acheter. Son role bien-
faisant est done double, " secours " et " alimentation." Sans elle, ni
riches ni pauvres n'auraient de pain, sauf les miettes tombees de la
table des AUemands. Les Beiges se sont admirablement organises pour
s'aider eux-memes ; tons ceux qui pouvaient le faire ont tenu a payer
le pain qu'ils recevaient, et de plus les souscriptions locales en Belgique
meme et parmi les Beiges a I'etranger en faveur des pauvres ont produit
des resultats magnifiques. Mais les sommes produites par ces souscrip-
tions locales et par les ventes aux non-indigents etaient representees par
des billets de banque beiges, inutilisables pour les achats sur les marches
etrangers. Et c'est seulement au prix de negociations fort difficiles,
grace surtout au puissant appui du Gouvernement Beige, et particuliere-
ment de M. Van de Vyvere, Ministre des Finances, que ce redoutable
probleme du change a pu etre resolu d'une maniere entierement satis-
faisante. En meme temps la solution intervenue a permis de sauvegarder
d'importants interets generaux. C'est un cote de la question qu'il ne
sera permis d'etudier completement que plus tard.
Enfin le role de la C.R.B., et non le moindre, fut d'organiser ce qu'on
tres heureusement appele : " A Mobilisation of Benevolence " pour
secourir la detresse de la population beige indigente. Comme le faisait
I 12
HKRBEKT HOOVER, ESQ
ADOLPHE HAMESSE
LA " C.R.B."
justement remarquer I'auteur de I'Histoire de la Guerre publiee par
le Times y cette expression depeint parfaitement le travail entrepris,
car le mot " benevolence " eveille bien I'idee de ces sentiments immenses
et indefinissables de sympathie suscites par les grandes detresses, et le
terme technique " mobilization " rappelle les methodes pratiques et
scientifiques par lesquelles ces sentiments sont intensifies et utilises.
Cet immense travail a necessite I'organisation d'un systeme de pub-
licite dans le monde entier et particulierement en Amerique. Des
brochures, des conferences, des articles de journaux ont fait connaitre
partout la misere de la population beige et son infortune heroique causees
par sa fidelite aux lois de I'honneur. Des comites locaux crees de toutes
parts ont multiplie Paction des grands centres. Autant que possible les
dons recueillis en especes ont ete consacres a des achats de vivres dans
I'Etat ou la Province ou ils avaient ete recueillis. Les moindres dons ont
regu un accuse de reception et tous les comptes ont ete constamment
controles par des experts-comptables. Au total, les dons regus par la
C.R.B., et dont la plus large part lui ont ete envoyes directement ou
bien ont ete recueillis a la suite de la propagande intense organisee par
ses soins, representent a ce jour une valeur de plus de 75 millions de
francs recueillis dans tous les pays du monde, sans tenir compte evidem-
ment des sommes recueillies en Belgique mcme ou parmi les Beiges a
I'etranger. Mais le soutien le plus effectif de la C.R.B. a ete le subside
mensuel de 25 millions de francs qui lui a ete procure par le Gouverne-
ment Beige.
Ce qui n'est pas moins remarquable, grace a I'habilete et au des-
interessement des membres de la C.R.B. , qui ont gracieusement prete
leur temps et leur travail au fonctionnement de cette enorme machine,
la part des frais generaux represente moins de 0.75 pour cent des
sommes depensees.
Telle est, retracee en quelques lignes et resumee en quelques chiffres,
I'histoire de la C.R.B. pendant la premiere annee de son existence.
Generalement, lorsqu'on celebre un anniversaire d'une existence bien
rempHe, on conclut en disant " Ad multos annos ! " Plaise au Ciel
que I'existence si bienfaisante de la C.R.B. ne doive plus se continuer
longtemps encore et que, notre Patrie delivree, on ne parle plus d'elle
113 I
LA " C.R.B."
que pour benir sa memoire. Au souvenir fidele qui s'attachera a ces
lettres fatidiques " C.R.B." sera indissolublement lie celui des hommes
devoues qui ont consacre sans compter leur temps et leurs peines a
sauver un pays de la detresse et de la famine. Un nom brillera d'un
eclat particulier parmi les leurs, c'est celui de Herbert Hoover, qui par
sa volonte de fer, son activite prodigieuse, son genie d'organisation,
et avec son coeur profondement charitable a su mener h bien cette
entreprise gigantesque au travers de difEcultes diplomatiques, finan-
cieres, materielles, personnelles, qui eussent suffi a rebuter tout autre.
II a ete admirablement aide par ses coUaborateurs que je ne puis ici
citer tous, et il est le premier a leur rendre le tribut d'eloges qu'ils
meritent, mais c'est sa personnalite puissante qui a, des le premier
jour, galvanise cette creation improvisee, et qui a conquis la confiance
generale. Une tres haute personnalite americaine a laquelle j'exprimais
un jour ma gratitude pour I'assistance que son pays et lui-meme avaient
donne au notre, me repondit, " You have not me to thank ; I am only
wise enough to obey Mr. Hoover ! " C'etait a la fois charmant de
modestie et le plus beau des eloges.
Nos amis anglais et nos amis americains, voulant marquer leur
parente de race et les mille liens qui les unissent, en depit de I'immensite
des mers qui les separent, ont coutume de dire, " Blood is thicker than
water." Les Beiges qui se sont unis aux Anglais et aux Americains
par une parente nouvelle fondee sur le plus noble des sentiments
sauront bien leur prouver, j'en reponds pour eux, que " Gratitude is
thicker than blood."
22 Octobre, ^9^S'
114
THE "C.R.B."
Translation by William Caine.
IN this book, peculiarly devoted though it is to the expression of
Belgium's gratitude to her English friends, it would be impossible
to forget a splendid and wonderful work, conceived and set on
foot by friends in America, and having its headquarters in London,
I mean the " C.R.B.," as the Commission for Relief in Belgium
is generally called.
While our English and French friends were exhausting themselves,
with unwearying generosity, to succour the Belgian refugees in their
countries, the formidable problem arose of feeding the seven million
Belgians who remained prisoners in their own land (now transformed
into a kind of vast besieged fortress), and to help whom neither the
Belgian nor the Allied Governments could any longer do anything.
After the month of October, 1914, the stocks of corn, flour, and other
foods of the first importance began to be exhausted, and it was clearly
seen that the army of occupation, against all its obligations under the
Hague Convention, would consult no convenience but its own where
the feeding of the population was concerned. In this emergency
only a neutral organisation could usefully act. But it was not enough
that this organisation should be neutral. It had to be controlled by
men of sufficient brains and energy to assume the direction of so tremen-
dous an undertaking, widely enough known and respected to command
the confidence of all the belligerents, and so far independent that
they could devote the whole of their time and strength to the task of
managing a work purely charitable yet crushing in its demands upon them.
Dr. Page, the American Ambassador in London, was consulted,
and without hesitation declared the name of the " right man " —
Herbert Hoover. This gentleman accepted the thankless mission
offered to him and at once formed the C.R.B., of which, under his
presidency, several leading Americans and Spaniards became members.
The Ambassadors of the United States, Spain and Holland became
Vice-Presidents of the Commission, and Mr. Brand Whitlock and
the Marquis of Villalobar, the representatives at Brussels of America
and Spain respectively, must be particularly thanked for their
invaluable, enthusiastic, and unremitting assistance.
THE "C.R.B."
It is now just a year since the C.R.B. began its work, and every
week we seem to grow in scope and power under the magnetic impulse
of the admirable man who directs it. It would take too long to speak
here of all the incidents which marked its beginnings, the innumerable
difficulties of all kinds which it has had to meet. Its history is best
told by stating its programme and achievements.
The C.R.B. has pursued five principal objects : —
1. To collect the foodstuffs intended for the Belgian population.
2. To bring these foodstuffs into Belgium from their points of
departure.
3. To guarantee that they should be distributed among the people
in such a way that they should, neither directly nor indirectly, be
requisitioned by the army of occupation.
4. To organise the financial arrangements necessary to the importa-
tion of these enormous quantities of foodstuffs, for which a great
part must be paid for abroad.
5. To mobilise the charity of the whole world for the benefit of
that section of the Belgian people which was no longer able to pay
for its own food.
With regard to the first of these objects the character of the under-
taking will be readily grasped if we consider one single figure : about
80,000,000 kilograms of foodstuffs must be imported each month
into Belgium. This enormous quantity of merchandise, offered to or
bought by the C.R.B., requires a power of management, a skill in the
observation of the markets, and a knowledge of the sources of supply
of which no one can form any idea who is not familiar with such matters.
No sooner have all these goods been collected, in America, Canada,
Argentina, and Australia, at the various depots to which, thanks to
the favourable tariffs obtained from the railway companies, they have
been economically brought, than the still more complicated problem
presents itself of carrying them to Europe. The war has completely
upset all freights and marine insurances. It is necessary, therefore,
to secure that the ships, chartered and insured at the best possible
rates and guaranteed at the instance of the C.R.B. free passage by the
German authorities, shall arrive regularly at Rotterdam — for a month's
116
THE "C.R.B."
delay might cause a famine in Belgium — there to discharge their precious
cargoes.
Since October 22nd, 1914, when the C.R.B. came into existence,
to October 22nd, 191 5, ships laden entirely with foodstuffs (with the
exception of a few cases of clothing) for Belgium have been chartered
and have unloaded at Rotterdam 710,000,000 kilos, of food. The
freightage and its incidents, thanks to the capacity of the management
and to much generous co-operation on the part of the companies
concerned, has been 10 to 15 per cent. lower than would have been the
case had the transport been effected in the ordinary way.
The food, collected at Rotterdam, must now be brought to the
consumer in Belgium, and this is by no means the easiest task. To begin
with, the channels of communication which could serve the purpose have
almost ceased to exist in Belgium. The railways which have not been
destroyed are reserved almost exclusively for the military movements
of the Germans ; all transport by automobile has vanished ; only the
canals are fairly serviceable, though it is still necessary to rebuild a
great number of them. The C.R.B. , having obtained the German
authorities' assurance that the foodstuffs imported by it shall not be
requisitioned, must make sure, through agents whom it maintains in
each province, that this promise is fulfilled, and that the depots which
are protected by its flag shall remain secure from all seizures or requisi-
tions. This important and delicate task of organisation and super-
vision has only been carried out successfully through the agency of
voluntary workers, at once able, energetic and devoted, and recruited
from American citizens who have consented to come, in turn, and spend
a few^ months in Belgium in performing this thankless task. During
this year more than a hundred American voluntary workers have acted in
Belgium for the C.R.B.
The Comite National de Secours ct d'' Alimentation must be mentioned
in this place. This National Committee, which is exclusively Belgian,
provides, throughout the occupied territory, by means of its 4,000
local committees and its 30,000 voluntary assistants, for the distribution
of the food brought into the country by the C.R.B. Its activities
are immense, but, in this paper, which is specially concerned with the
117
I
THE "C.R.B."
labours of the Commission for Relief, further examination of them would
not be proper. It will be enough if we note, in passing, the valuable
assistance rendered by the National Committee, under the vigorous
guidance of its admirable director, M. Emile Francqui, the President
of the Executive Committee. The National Committee works in
perfect harmony with the C.R.B., each of the two organisations being
the other's complement, and being in all ways strongly united, the one,
if the expression be allowed, forming the Exterior, the other the Interior
Agency of the common work.
We have said that upon the C.R.B. devolves also the duty of
providing the finances necessary to these prodigious importations of
foodstuffs. Apart from the gifts which are intended for the destitute
inhabitants, the conveyance of which the C.R.B. undertakes, the
Commission provides for the introduction of food which is to be bought
by those who have the means. Its kindly role is, therefore, the double
one of free aid and selling provisions. Without it neither rich nor poor
would have bread to eat, save for the crumbs which fall from the German
table, and these would be sold very dear. The Belgians have organised
themselves excellently for the purposes of mutual help. All those who
can do so have bound themselves to pay for such food as they obtain,
and over and above this the local subscriptions in Belgium for the benefit
of the poor have had magnificent results. But the sums realised by
these local subscriptions and by sales to people of means were repre-
sented by Belgian bank-notes, useless for purchases in the foreign mar-
kets. It is only at the cost of the most laborious negotiations, thanks
also to the powerful support of the Belgian Government, and particu-
larly of M. Van de Vyver, Minister of Finance, that this difficult problem
of exchange has been satisfactorily solved. At the same time it has been
possible to safeguard many important national interests in the country.
This is an aspect of the question which only at a future date it will be
permissible fully to examine.
Lastly, it was the duty of the C.R.B. (and not the lightest) to organise
that which has been most happily called " A mobilisation of bene-
volence," for the purpose of relieving the distress of the destitute
Belgian population. As the author of the History of the War published
ii8
THE "C.R.B."
by The Times very justly observes, this expression describes perfectly
the work that has been undertaken, for the word Benevolence at once
suggests the idea of those large and indefinable feelings of sympathy
which are only to be aroused by great misfortunes, and the technical
word, " Mobilisation," recalls the practical and scientific methods
by which these sentiments are developed and utilised. This vast
work has made necessary the organisation of a system of publicity
throughout the world and particularly in America. Pamphlets, public
meetings, newspaper articles, have everywhere made known the misery
of the Belgian people, the heroic misfortunes of their country, brought
about by her faithful obedience to the Laws of Honour. Local Com-
mittees, everywhere springing up, have intensified the action of the chief
centres. As far as possible gifts of money have been spent on food-
stuffs within the country or province where they have been collected.
The smallest gifts have been acknowledged and all accounts have been
constantly and competently examined. The total value of the gifts
received by the C.R.B., the greater part of which has been sent to it
direct or else has been collected in all countries of the world, thanks to
the vigorous agitation organised by its efforts, is represented to-day by
a sum of more than 75,000,000 francs, without reckoning sums collected
in Belgium itself or among the Belgians in exile. The mainstay, how-
ever, of the C.R.B. has been the monthly subsidy of 25,000,000 francs
found by the Belgian Government. And, what is not the least remark-
able feature, owing to the capacity and disinterestedness of the members
of the C.R.B., who have so kindly brought their time and their
strength to the assistance of this enormous machine, the expenses of the
work are represented by less than i per cent, of the disbursements.
Such, told in a few lines and summed up in a few figures, is the
history of the C.R.B. during the first year of its existence. Generally,
when we celebrate an anniversary of any well-employed life, we conclude
by saying, " Ad multos annos ! " Please God, the existence of the
C.R.B., beneficent though it be, is not fated to continue very much
longer, and our liberated country may soon speak of it no more except
to bless its memory ! Faithfully we shall treasure the thoughts which
will attach to those fateful letters, " C.R.B.," and with them shall be
119
THE "C.R.B."
indissoluble bound up the names of those devoted men who have
sacrificed, without hesitation, their time and their toil to the salvation
of a country from misery and starvation. One name among them must
shine with a peculiar lustre, that of Herbert Hoover, who by his will of
iron, his prodigious energy and his genius for organisation, and with his
deeply charitable heart has successfully conducted this vast enterprise
through difficulties — diplomatic, financial, material, personal — by which
any other man must have been defeated. He has been admirably
helped by his colleagues, and he is the first to give them all the praise
which they deserve ; but it is his powerful personality which has,
from the first day, galvanised this creation of a moment and gripped
the confidence of a world. A very high-placed American, to whom I
was one day expressing my gratitude for the help which his country
and he himself had given to ours, said to me, " You have not to thank
me. I am only wise enough to obey Mr. Hoover." It was at once a
charming piece of modesty and a compliment of the most graceful kind.
Our English and American friends, to mark their kinship and the thou-
sand ties which unite them, in spite of the vastness of the seas which
separate them, are accustomed to say, " Blood is thicker than water."
The Belgians, who are united to the English and to the Americans
by a new brotherhood founded upon the noblest of sentiments, will
know how to prove to them — and answer for it — that " Gratitude is
thicker than Blood."
October iznd, 191 5.
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L'OPINION PUBLIQUE AMERICAINE ET LES
SOUFFRANCES DE LA BELGIQUE.
Par Leon Van der Essen,
Professeur a VUniversitS Catholique de Louvain.
LE 20 juin dernier I'express de New York a Washington
m'emportait a travers les regions fertiles et verdoyantes de
la Pennsylvania. J'avais achete le New Tork Times. En
parcourant le journal, mes regards furent soudainement attires
par un mot : Belgium, imprime en tete d'une colonne consacree
a des comptes rendus de livres recemment parus. Ce n'est point sans
profonde emotion et fierte patriotique que je lus le passage suivant :
" Pourquoi la Belgique occupe si peu de place dans les publications
consacrces a la guerre est une question difficile a resoudre. II est
cependant certain qu'aucune contree n'a excite la symphathie populaire
et I'enthousiasme du monde au meme degre que ce petit royaume,
dont I'etendue geographique atteint a peu pres le quart de I'Etat de
Pennsylvanie, mais qui a pose des actes d'heroisme et souffert des
martyres si extraordinaires que sa grandeur depasse les limites de toute
comparaison. Si la guerre compte un heros, c'est bien la Belgique. . . ."
Cette declaration du grand journal de New York reflete iidelement
Topinion qui existe parmi I'elite americaine au sujet de la Belgique
martyre. C'est la la constatation singulierement consolante qu'il m'avait
ete permis de faire au cours d'un sejour d'environ sept mois dans la
grande Republique et la joie que j'eprouvai a lire et a relire ce passage
du Nezv Tork Times me rappela tout naturellement a Tesprit mes
premieres impressions en debarquant sur le sol americain
Lorsque le Minneapolis s'engagea, par une froide matinee de
decembre, dans la bale de New York et que les silhouettes des gigan-
tesques "sky-scrapers" se decouperent sur I'horizon, un serrement
involontaire de coeur s'empara de moi. Sans doute, I'une des plus
grandes universites des Etats-Unis, celle de Chicago, avait demontre
la sympathie que ses dirigeants eprouvaient pour la Belgique en invitant
un professeur de la malheureuse Universite de Louvain a accepter
temporairement I'hospitalite chez elle, mais ce geste, si touchant de
spontaneite, n'etait-il pas isole ? Cette manifestation de solidarite
universitaire n'etait-elle pas un simple acte philantropique, denue de
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L'OPINION PUBLIQUE AMERICAINE
toute signification plus profonde ? Ma perplexite ne dura pas longtemps.
Non seulement j'appris que certains de mes coUegues avaient ete
invites successivement par d'autres universites americaines, a Harvard,
a Columbia, a I'Universite de Pennsylvanie, a TUniversite catholique
de Washington — d'ou j'avais re^u moi-meme une proposition extreme-
ment genereuse quelques semaines a peine apres les horreurs de Louvain —
a Princeton, a Yale, mais j'experimentai moi-meme a I'Universite de
Chicago tout ce que cachait la formule officielle transmettant en style
administratif I'offre du comite de surveillance.
Graduellement je decouvris non seulement les qualites generales
du peuple americain, son grand coeur, sa generosite, sa franchise,
son temperament juvenile et enthousiaste, mais aussi le profond esprit
de justice, le respect du droit, le gout de I'honnetete simple qu'abritent
I'intelligence et le coeur des intellectuels de ce grand pays. Combien
de fois n'ai-je pas vu des professeurs d'universite etudier avec passion
les recits d'horreur qui leur venaient des plaines devastees des Flandres
et, apres avoir satisfait leurs scrupules quant a I'authenticite de ces
temoignages, donner libre cours a leur indignation ou exprimer, les
larmes aux yeux, leur immense commiseration. En toute sincerite,
ils ont dil faire echo a ce que disait Beatrice Barry, dans une piece en
vers adressee " To a German Apologist," et imprimee a Chicago :
" You have used both speech and the printed word
To have your side of the story heard.
We have listened long, v^e have listened well,
To everything that you had to tell.
We would fain to be fair, but it seems as tho'
You can't explain what we wish to know,
And when lesser points have cleared away,
You are sure to fail us when we say :
Belgium ! ''
Le sort de la Belgique envahie, brutalisee, soumise aux pires tour-
ments, voila ce qui apparait toujours a I'avant-plan des preoccupations
de I'elite americaine. Nous nous rendons compte qu'il ne s'agit
point de philantropie sans plus, mais d'une manifestation de la conscience
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L'OPINION PUBLIQUE AMERICAINE
droite et honnete, qui se sent elle-meme outragee par le martyre d'une
petite nation, loyale et fidele a la parole donnee.
Un soir, j'assistai, a Chicago, a une conference donnee par un million-
naire, un " self-made man," qui, a force d'energie et d'esprit d'initiative,
s'etait cree une position enviee dans la societe. Suivant I'exemple
de tant de ses compatriotes, il avait consacre une large part de ses
revenues a collectionner des manuscrits et des livres concernant I'histoire
primitive du Mexique et avait genereusement legue ces tresors a Fune
des plus belles bibliotheques de la ville. Apres la conference, I'on
me presenta a lui.
Lorsqu'il apprit que j'etais Beige, sa belle figure de vieux pionnier
s'illumina, ses yeux se mouiUerent et, me prenant les mains, il me dit
d'une voix que I'emotion faisait trembler : " Ah ! les Beiges, quels
braves et honnetes gens. lis n'ont plus qu'un devoir a remplir,
c'est de se prosterner tons les soirs devant Dieu et d'appeler Ses bene-
dictions et Sa protection sur la tete de votre roi, ce gentilhomme sans
peur et sans reproche ! "
C'est la meme pensee qui animait cette elite qui suivait h Chicago
les conferences sur I'histoire de Belgique et qui ecoutait, dans un silence
ou I'on sentait battre la sympathie des coeurs, le recit des heroismes
passes et des resurrections successives. C'est cette meme admiration
qui produisait I'emotion profonde que I'on pouvait epier sur les figures
males et energiques des ingenieurs des chemins de fer du Middle
West lorsque, au local de leur club, on leur fit le recit simple et sans
artifice de I'attentat commis contre le droit des gens le 4 aout 1914,
et lorsqu'on leur montra la Belgique restant honnete et loyale depuis
plus de quatre-vingts ans. Quels sentiments animerent done ces
directeurs d'ecoles publiques et privees qui permirent a un conterencier
d'expliquer aux eleves des classes superieures pourquoi la Belgique se
defendait jusqu'a la mort dans cette guerre des nations ? Et peut-elle
etre taxee de simple philantropie, Paction des membres de la Young Men's
Christian Association de Chicago, qui, lots d'une conference sur I'histoire
de Belgique, decorerent leur salle de reunion du drapeau beige et
accueillirent I'orateur par une vibrante " Braban9onne."
Mais pourquoi analyser, en faisant defiler les scenes que j'ai vecues
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L'OPINION PUBLIQUE AMERIC4INE
moi-meme, les motifs d'une sympathie si generale, alors que des Ameri-
cains de marque ont eux-memes devoile les raisons profondes de
I'attitude vis-a-vis de la Belgique ? Qu'on lise les pages magnifiques
ou I'eminent president de I'Institut Carnegie a Pittsburg, M. S. Harden
Church, a exprime son indignation de voir le bourreau insulter sa
victime apres I'avoir outragee et que I'on compare avec cet American
Verdict on the War I'opinion de personnalites comme I'ancien ambas-
sadeur, J. H. Choate, ou I'ancien procureur-general, ]. M. Beck.
Le premier est d'accord avec le second pour dire que " I'invasion de la
Belgique par I'Allemagne ne fut pas seulement un grosse violation de
traites existants, mais qu'elle outrageait aussi le droit internatix)nal,
qu'elle fut un crime contre I'humanite dont le souvenir ne s'effacera
jamais, un crime qui changea cette contree paisible et prospere en un
abattoir humain, ou coule le sang de quatre grandes nations." Qu'on
lise aussi le requisitoire de M. Beck, appuye sur une analyse penetrante
et impartiale des temoins de la tragedie, et son verdict prononce au
nom du " tribunal supreme de la civilisation," verdict qui sonne
ainsi : " Le cruel mepris des droits de la Belgique est un des spectacles
d'ini quite politique les plus repugnants dans I'histoire du monde."
Ces paroles severes ne doivent point nous etonner de la part de
citoyens d'un pays qui venere parmi ses grands hommes le president-
martyr Lincoln. Lorsque, a un moment des plus sombres de la guerre
civile, I'on demanda a Lincoln s'il etait sur que Dieu etait " de son
cote," il se contenta de repondre : " Je ne sais, je n'ai point songe a
cela. Mais je suis tres anxieux de savoir si nous sommes du cote de
Dieu." Les droits imprescriptibles de la justice et la morulite Inter-
nationale sont encore en honneur parmi les Americains d'aujourd'hui.
C'est pour ce motif que, si I'elite americaine s'est empressee d'alleger
les peines de tous ceux qui souffrent en quelque mesure de cette horrible
guerre, son coeur est alle par-dessus tout a la Belgique, martyre du
devoir. Elle nous a donne son appui moral dans cette lutte pour la
liberte, elle a mis en ceuvre toutes les ressources de son genie organisa-
teur pour arracher a la misere et a la mort ceux qui expient si durement
le crime d'etre restes fideles a la parole donnee.
Cet appui, ce secours, nous en aurons encore besoin le jour ou il
124
L'OPINION PUBLIQUE AMERICAINE
s'agira de restaurer la Belgique. Ce jour-la, d'immenses multitudes
de pauvres gens auront besoin des necessites premieres de I'existence.
Non seulement il leur faudra rebatir leur foyer detruit ; ils devront
aussi se remettre a arracher au sol natal les fruits qui les font vivre ; ils
devront trouver le capital necessaire pour se procurer les outils de leur
labeur. Des groupes innombrables d'industriels auront a reedifier
leurs etablisscments ruines ou veufs de leur machinerie et a trouver le
credit necessaire pour construire sur les restes du passe les bases de
I'avenir. L'energie, certes, ne leur manquera point : I'histoire du peuple
beige est la pour apprendre a I'univers que ni les desastres, ni les guerres
n'ont jamais reussi a ruiner la prosperite de ce pays indomptable. De
nombreux intellectuels, disperses par la tourmente, reviendront pleurer
sur les ruines de Louvain, mais dans la vue de ces ruines memes ils
puiseront la volonte tenace de rendre a leurs institutions la vitalite
qui etait leur gloire. Des artistes se promeneront, saisis d'horreur, a
travers les debris des monuments que leur leguerent leurs ancetres, et,
devant ces pauvres pierres mortes et outragees, tacheront de trouver
le plan des edifices de I'avenir. Mais surtout, il y aura les veuves et
les orphelins, ecroules en larmes aupres des tombes innombrables.
Tous, agriculteurs, industriels, intellectuels, artistes, pauvres loques
humaines, tous auront besoin de I'appui d'une main amie. Mais tous
jureront de rendre a la patrie meurtrie sa beaute d'autrefois.
Enfin, il y aura la conscience de I'univers qui exigera que justice soit
laite et que le sacrifice de la Belgique trouve sa recompense dans le
retablissement du droit.
En ce jour de renaissance et de restauration, tous les Beiges, ceux
qui souffrent, ceux qui prient, ceux qui se seront battus pour la liberte,
tourneront leurs regards vers la grande Republique ; ils attendront,
confiants dans la conscience et la pensee americaines.
I2C
PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICA AND THE SUFFERINGS
OF BELGIUM.
Translation by The Hon. Mrs. John Ward.
THE 20th of June last, the train between New York
and Washington was taking me across the green and
fertile fields of Pennsylvania. I was reading the New
York Times, when my eye was suddenly caught by one
word, " Belgium," printed at the top of a column of
recent book reviews. It was not without profound emotion and
patriotic pride that I read the following passage : —
" Why Belgium finds so scant a space in the war bibliographies is a
question difficult to answer. Certainly, no country has aroused the
popular sympathy and enthusiasm of the world to a like degree with
this little kingdom, occupying a geographical area of about one-fourth
the State of Pennsylvania, yet performing deeds of valour and enduring
martyrdom that places it beyond all comparison in greatness. If the
war has a hero, it is Belgium."
This statement by a great New York paper reflects accurately the
feeling which exists amongst intellectual Americans on the subject of the
martyrdom of Belgium. I had reached this singularly consoling con-
clusion after spending seven months in the great Republic — and the
pleasure which I derived from reading and re-reading this passage in the
New Tork Times reminded me of my first impressions after landing
upon American soil.
When the Minneapolis came into the bay of New York on a cold
December morning, and when the gigantic skyscrapers appeared on the
horizon, I was conscious of an involuntary heaviness of heart. Without
doubt, one of the largest universities in the United States, the University
of Chicago, had shown the sympathy which its directors felt for Belgium,
by offering hospitality to a professor of the unhappy University of
Louvain. But this, although a touching and spontaneous offer, was
perhaps only to prove an isolated case. Was this not, perhaps, a simple
philanthropic act, devoid of all deeper significance ?
My perplexity did not last long. Not only did I learn that certain of
my colleagues had been invited to stay by the following Universities —
Harvard, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, the Roman Catholic
126
PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICA
University at Washington (from which I had myself received a very
generous proposition only a few weeks after the horrors of Louvain),
Princeton and Yale — but I experienced myself, at the University of
Chicago, all the kindness which was hidden behind the official formulas
used in the offer of the Committee.
Gradually I discovered not only the general qualities of the American
people — their great heart, their generosity, their freedom, their youthful
and enthusiastic temperament, but also the deep sense of justice, the
respect of law and the simple honesty which animate the minds and
hearts of the intellectual people of this great country.
How many times have I not seen professors of universities, after
studying with passion the tales of horrors brought from the devastated
plains of Flanders, and after having satisfied themselves as to the
authenticity of the evidence, give free rein to their indignation and
express with tears in their eyes their great sympathy. They were forced
to echo a piece of verse by Beatrice Barry addressed " To a German
Apologist," and printed in Chicago : —
" You have used both speech and the printed word
To have your side of the story heard,
We have listened long, we have listened well.
To everything that you had to tell.
We would fain be fair, but it seems as tho'
You can't explain what we wish to know.
And when lesser points have cleared away,
You are sure to fail us, when we say :
Belgium ! "
The fate of a Belgium invaded, brutalised, and condemned to awful
torments, is the predominant thought in the minds of thinking Ameri-
cans. We realize that to them, it is not only a mere question of philan-
thropy, but also a matter of their honest conscience, outraged by the
martyrdom of a small and loyal nation which remained faithful to its
promise.
I was present one evening in Chicago at a lecture given by a millionaire,
a self-made man, who, by his energy and initiative, had made for himself
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PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICA
an honoured position in society. Following the example of many of
his compatriots, he had spent a great part of his income in collecting
manuscripts and books concerning the early history of Mexico — these he
had generously bequeathed to one of the finest Hbraries in Chicago.
After the lecture I was introduced to him. When he heard that I was a
Belgian, the fine face of the old pioneer Ht up. His eyes softened, and,
seizing my hands, he said, in a voice trembKng with emotion : " Ah, the
Belgians — what a brave and honest people ! They have but one duty
left and that is to prostrate themselves every night before God, and to
implore His benediction and His protection for their King, that gentle-
man ' sans peur et sans reproche.' "
It was this same thought which animated those in Chicago who
listened to the lectures on the history of Belgium, and heard in a
silence tense with sympathy of past heroism and of successive resur-
rections. This admiration was visible on the faces of some engineers
from the Middle West, who were told in their club the plain and unvar-
nished story of an attempt made pgpinst the rights of a nation on the
4th of August, 1914, and of a Belgian that had remained honest and
loyal for upwards of eighty years.
What sentiments, then, must hav^e animated the head authorities of
both public and private schools, when they allowed a lecturer to explain
to the scholars in the higher classf-s why Belgium was defending herself
to the death in this war ofnciiioiis ? And can it be called simple philan-
thropy when on the occ?sion of a lecture on the History of Belgium, the
members of the Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago not only
decorated their halls with the Belgian flag, but also greeted the
lecturer with a rousing " Braban^onne."
But, in reviewing scenes through which I myself have passed, why
analyse a sympathy so general, when Americans of note have
themselves explained the profound reasons for the existing feeling about
Belgium. Read the fine pages in which Mr. Harden Church, the emi-
nent President of the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, has expressed his
indignation at the thought of the executioner insulting his victim while
torturing him. Compare with this verdict on the war the opinion of
such well-known Americans as the former Ambassador, J. H. Choate, and
128
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PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICA
a late Deputy Attorney-General, J. M. Beck. The latter agrees with
Mr. Choate when he says that " The invasion of Belgium by Germany
was not only a gross breach of existing treaties, but was in violation of
settled international law, and a crime against humanity never to be
forgotten, a crime that converted that peaceful and prosperous country
into a human slaughter-house, reeking with the blood of four great
nations." Read also the charge made by Mr. Beck, based on his pene-
trating and impartial analysis of the evidence given by witnesses of the
tragedy, and his verdict pronounced in the name of " the supreme
tribunal of civilisation,'* a verdict which reads as follows : " The callous
disregard of Germany of the rights of Belgium is one of the most
shocking exhibitions of political iniquity in the history of the world."
These stern words ought not to astonish us, coming as they do from
a citizen of a country who reveres amongst its great men the martyr
President Lincoln. When in the darkest hour of the Civil War they
asked Lincoln if he were sure " that God was on his side," he simply
replied, " I do not know, I have not thought about it, but I am
extremely anxious to know whether we are on God's side."
The unalterable principles of justice and of international morality are
still honoured amongst Americans of to-day. It is for this reason that,
though the thinking people of America have hastened to lighten the
burdens of all those who suffer, in whatever degree, from this horrible
war, yet their hearts have gone out above all to Belgium, martyred for
the sake of her honour. America has given us her moral support in this
struggle for liberty. She has organised all her resources to rescue from
misery and death all those who are expiating so terribly the crime of
having remained faithful to a given promise.
This support, this help, we shall continue to need on the day when it
becomes necessary to restore Belgium. On that day immense numbers
of poor people will want for the very necessities of life. Not only will
they have to rebuild their ruined homes, but they will have to extract
from their native soil the harvests by which alone they can live. They
will have to find the capital with which to procure the implements of
labour. Industrial groups will have to rebuild their factories, and
replace their ruined machinery. They will have to find the necessary
129 K
PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICA
credit to rebuild the foundations of the future on the ashes of the
past.
Energy will not be wanting. The history of the people of Belgium
will prove to the world that neither disaster nor war has the power to
crush the prosperity of this indomitable country. Many scholars, in
tragic mood, will return to mourn over the ruins of Louvain, but from
these self-same ruins they will draw strength to revitalize these buildings
which were once their glory. Artists, overcome with horror, will
walk through the ruins of monuments which have existed for genera-
tions, but in presence of these poor scattered stones they will try to
form plans for the future.
But above all, there will be the widows and orphans — ^weeping over
innumerable tombs.
All these remnants of humanity, farmers, manufacturers, artists,
and literary men — all will need the help of a friend, and all wiU be united
in trying to revive the former beauties of their beloved country.
Finally, the whole world will see that justice is done and that the
sacrifice of Belgium, rewarded by the restoration of her rights, will
not have been in vain.
All Belgians, on that day of her renaissance, all those who suffer,
those who pray, those who have fought for liberty, all wiU turn their
thoughts to the Great Republic — they v^ await with confidence the
verdict of the American people.
130
AU CANADA.
Par le R.P. Rutten, Dominicain.
'5
1L n'y a pas de pays ou la sympathie pour la Belgique soit plus
unanime, plus ardente et plus genereuse qu'au Canada.
Partout, des rives de TAtlantique ^ celles du Pacifique, la Belgique
y apparait toute aureolee du respect et de I'admiration que lui
valent son sacrifice glorieux et sa resistance indomptable.
Je viens de parcourir une tres grande partie de son immense territoire,
vaste comme toute I'Europe.
Comment dire les hommages enthousiastes prodigues partout \ la
Belgique et ^ ses Souverains bien-aimes !
Des le debut de la guerre, le Premier Ministre du Dominion, Sir
Robert Borden, et Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Chef de I'Opposition et ancien
Premier Ministre, prononcerent \ la Chambre federale et au Senat,
des discours emouvants, glorifiant I'attitude loyale de la Belgique et
I'heroisme de sa resistance ^ Liege. Toutes les autorites du pays,
toutes les societes importantes et d'innombrables particuliers prodi-
guerent \ notre Consul-general, M. Goor, par des visites affectueuses,
par des adresses touchantes ou par des attentions d'une delicatesse
exquise, les temoignages de leur admiration et de leur attachement.
II suffit, dans une reunion publique, de prononcer le nom de la
Belgique ou de son Roi pour soulever des salves d'applaudissements,
et Forganisateur d'une grande reunion disait recemment : " Aujourd'hui,
pour etre assure du succes, il faut parler de la Belgique."
Les membres de la Mission Beige aux Etats-Unis n'oublieront
jamais la manifestation grandiose dont il furent I'objet \ Toccasion de
leur visite ^ Montreal le 24 septembre, 19 14.
Les autorites de St. Jean d' Iberville, premiere ville canadienne par
ou devait passer le train amenant la delegation beige, avaient obtenu
un arret de quelques minutes.
Toute la ville etait a la gare, acclamant ceux que le depute du canton
M. Demers, appelait dans son discours de bienvenue : " Messieurs les
delegues de I'heroique et noble Belgique."
A Montreal, ce fut une entree triomphale. Malgre I'heure tardive,
I le train n'entre en gare qu'a onze heures du soir — une foule immense
*■' etait la, fremissante d'enthousiasme. Les etudiants eurent vite fait
131
AU CANADA
^e deteler les chevaux et de trainer la voiture des ministres beiges
jusqu'a leur hotel. Le lendemain, ce^ fut une serie de receptions
ininterrompue, k I'Hotel de ville, au " Canadian Club," au " Board of
Trade," a la Commission du Port de Montreal, puis au Monument
National, ou la grande reunion du soir se termina en apotheose.
" Regardez," s'ecria I'un des orateurs, M. I'avocat Montpetit, en
montrant la salle ou resplendissaient partout nos couleurs nationales,
" regardez : tous les portent avec orgueil ; on dirait vraiment qu'il y
a sur toutes nos poitrines des parcelles de votre gloire." Les trois
delegues beiges etaient MM. Henry Carton de Wiart, Paul Hymans et
Emile Vandervelde. C'est assez dire que I'eloquence beige fut ce soir
la irresistiblement prenante.
J'assistais, le 21 juillet dernier, ^ Montreal, h la fete de I'anniversaire
de notre independance. Quoique assombrie par notre deuil et par
I'obsession de la longue duree de notre epreuve, la fete fut profonde-
ment impressionnante. A I'issue du service solennel que je celebrai a la
cathedrale pour nos soldats defunts, I'archeveque, Monseigneur Bruchesi,
proclama, d'une voix emue, que la cause de la Belgique merite qu'aucun
sacrifice ne soit epargne pour assurer son triomphe, car " cette cause
est celle de I'honneur, de la liberte et de la justice."
M. de Sadeleer, Ministre d'Etat, residant temporairement k New
York, etait venu presider la fete et prit plusieurs fois la parole. Lui
aussi n'oubliera jamais I'accueil si affectueux que lui reserverent les
autorites et la population canadiennes. Tous les Beiges qui eurent
le bonheur de paraitre devant le public canadien en garderont une
impression ineffa^able.
# # * «
Mais j'ai hate d'attester que la sympathie des Canadiens ne
s'exteriorisa pas seulement par des paroles et par des manifestations.
Au debut du mois de septembre 1914, notre compatriote M. H.
Prud'homme recevait de Belgique une lettre exposant la detresse
navrante des victimes de I'invasion allemande. M. Prud'homme en
refera aussitot a notre Consul-general et tous deux resolurent immediate-
ment d'organiser 1' " (Euvre de Secours pour les Victimes de la Guerre
en Belgique." Le Consul-general sollicita et obtint aussitot le
132
AU CANADA
patronage et I'appui empresse de Son Altesse Royale le Due de
Connaught, Gouverneur-general du Canada ; du Premier Ministre, Sir
Robert Borden ; du Chef de I'Opposition, Sir Wilfrid Laurier ; de
Messieurs Rod. Lemieux, H. B. Ames, membres du Parlement federal ;
et du Premier Ministre de la Province de Quebec, Sir Lomer Gouin.
Ce dernier, ainsi que le Premier Ministre de la Nouvelle Ecosse,
M. G. H. Murray, adresserent aux autorites et i la population de leurs
provinces des appels touchants, qui valurent ^ I'CEuvre d£ Secours des
contributions importantes. Le Gouvernement federal fit voter un
subside de 50,000 dollars, celui de la Province de Quebec 25,000 dollars,
et toutes les autres Provinces tinrent a intervenir dans la mesure de
leurs ressources disponibles. Plusieurs etablissements financiers et
certaines chambres de commerce verserent des sommes importantes,
tel le " Board of Trade " de Toronto, qui recueiUit b. lui seul 75,000
dollars.
II resulte des chiffres detailles publics par I'infatigable tresorier de
I'CEuvre de Secours, M. Prud'homme, qu'a la date du 1 8 mai dernier, la
valeur, en francs, des secours provenant du Canada depassait sensible-
ment le chiffre considerable de dix millions. Les dons en especes
recueillis par notre Consul-general s'elevent a pres d'un million,
et a la date du 6 octobre dernier le Comite Central de I'CEuvre de
Secours disposait de nouveau d'environ 500,000 francs.
Les liberalites du peuple canadien sont d'autant plus meritoires
qu'il est durement atteint par la crise economique mondiale et qu'une
multitude d'ceuvres nationales destinees k I'entretien de I'armee
canadienne, des femmes et des enfants de soldats, exigent des sommes
considerables. Le Fonds Patriotique canadien a dej^ recueilli pres de
six millions de dollars. Les femmes et les enfants des beiges ayant
quitte le Canada pour prendre du service dans les armees alliees en
beneficient au meme titre que les Canadiens de naissance. II en est
de meme des autres oeuvres qui sont venues se greffer en quelque sorte
sur I'oeuvre principale du Fonds Patriotique : " Canadian Red Cross,"
"Soldiers' Comforts," " Tobacco Fund," "Prisoners of War Fund," etc.
Les grandes compagnies de chemin de fer se sont empressees
d'accorder la gratuite des transports de vivres destines a la Belgique.
AU CANADA
Quelle oeuvre admirable et touchante que celle de la " Layette
beige," dont j'eus le bonheur de saluer les initiatrices a Ottawa et k.
Montreal ! Les dames de la societe canadienne s'y rencontrent avec
les femmes des residents beiges et I'on vit maintes fois de tres pauvres
filles prendre sur leur sommeil et reunir leurs petites economies pour
offrir une layette aux petits enfants de la lointaine Belgique.
Le Comite pour la restauration de I'Universite de Louvain se reunit
regulierement dans les locaux de I'Universite Laval k Montreal et s'est
dej^ assure des appuis inappreciablement precieux.
J'oublie fatalement des oeuvres et des noms qui ne devraient pas
I'etre. Je devrais citer tous les membres du Comite d'honneur et
du Comite executif de I'CEuvre de Secours pour les victimes de la guerre
en Belgique — ^tous nos consuls et k leur tete le Consul-general, dont le
devouement fut inlassable, et nombre de personnalites diverses apparte-
nant h. tous les cultes et h toutes les opinions. Et quand bien meme
la place restreinte dont Je dispose me le permettrait, j'aurais le senti-
ment de manquer h la justice en n'y ajoutant pas I'immense masse des
bienfaiteurs anonymes qui, comme les initiateurs et les organisateurs,
ont acquis des droits imprescriptibles h. la reconnaissance de la Belgique.
Dans son rapport detaille de la visite des membres de la Mission
beige h Montreal, M. A. Lemont a intitule son chapitre final : " Les
devoirs du Canada vis-^-vis de la Belgique." II y exprime I'avis que
la sympathie du Canada devra s'affirmer de plus en plus et d'une fagon
permanente et methodique en favorisant plus encore que par le passe
les emigrants beiges, dont les debuts sont parfois difficiles. II faudra
surtout, ajoute-t-il, multiplier nos relations commercials avec la
Belgique et adapter nos tarifs k ses besoins.
Aucun Beige n'oserait dire que le Canada a des devoirs vis-^-vis de
nous. Mais j'interprete certainement la pensee de mes compatriotes
en affirmant que nous avons contracte envers le Canada un devoir
d'imperissable gratitude.
* * # #
Quand ces lignes paraitront, j'aurai quitte, peut-etre pour n'y plus
revenir, cette terre immense du Canada qui va de I'Atlantique au
Pacifique. Que ne suis-je artiste pour faire apprecier ici a mes
AU CANADA
compatriotes ne fut-ce qu'un coin des beautes du pays que je viens
de traverser ! Que ne suis-je poete, capable de chanter iin hymne de
reconnaissance a tous les devouements que j'y ai rencontres !
Je te salue, Canada, pays des lacs petits et grands, parsemes d'iles
et d'ilots, aux rives capricieusement dentelees et ourlees d'une vegetation
touffue revetant, k I'automne, une parure multicolore et resplendissante.
J'aime tes forets profondes et silencieuses, qui montent en pente
douce aux flancs de tes collines ou tapissent les parois de tes montagnes
escarpees.
J'aime tes horizons immenses, ta Prairie, vaste comme I'ocean, tes
champs de ble, dont les tiges ondulent k perte de vue, comme les vagues
de la mer au souffle du large.
J'aime ton Saint Laurent, fleuve majestueux, qui semble ne vouloir
jamais se retrecir, ou se refletent merveilleusement toutes les teintes
du ciel, et dont j'ai vu, par une belle journee d'ete, I'immense nappe d'eau
etinceler comme une grande lame d'acier irradiee par les rayons du soleil.
J'aime I'inconiparable et sauvage beaute de tes Montagnes Rocheuses
avec ses sommets lumineux, ses rochers formidables, ses pics elances,
ses ravins profonds, ses lacs reveurs et ses torrents roulant leurs eaux
d'un vert transparent sur les cailloux blanchis.
C'est en vain que les sapins essaient, dans leur effort seculaire, de
grimper jusqu'au sommet de tes pyramides altieres. Leurs lignes sont
si belles et leur silhouette si noble que le soleil et la neige en peuvent
seuls souligner les beautes. Mon compatriote et concitoyen le Pere
de Smet, de Termonde, fut I'apotre de cette terre bosselee, ravinee,
herissee, qui parut longtemps inaccessible. Dans sa pauvre ville natale,
incendiee par les hommes de la " Kultur," qui eussent effraye ses
sauvages, la statue de I'Apotre des Montagnes Rocheuses est restee
debout et intacte, comme les belles cimes auxquelles il apporta un jour
la bonne nouvelle.
Tu es belle, meme en hiver, terre du Canada, quand la neige te
couvre toute entiere d'une parure immaculee, qui n'est pas un linceul
mais une fourrure, protegeant ton sommeil afin qu'^ leur reveil, tes
champs, tes forets et ta Prairie donnent de nouveau aux millions
d'hommes qui en vivent le betail, le bois, et le ble.
^35
TO CANADA.
Translation by Sir Lees Knowles, B'^j C.V.O.
THERE is no country where the sympathy for Belgium
is more unanimous, keen and generous than Canada.
Everywhere, from the shores of the Atlantic to the shores
of the Pacific, Belgium seems to wear a halo of respect
and admiration which she has won by her noble sacrifice
and her indomitable resistance.
I have recently traversed a very great part of her vast territory, as
enormous as the whole of Europe.
How can I describe the enthusiastic homage paid everywhere to
Belgium and her dearly beloved Sovereign !
From the very commencement of the war the Prime Minister, Sir
Robert Borden, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the leader of the Opposition
and formerly the Prime Minister, delivered in the Senate and in the
House of Commons moving speeches, in which they glorified the loyal
attitude of Belgium and the heroism of her stand at Liege.
All the authorities of the country, all the leading societies, and an
immense number of private individuals afforded lavish testimony
to our Consul-General, M. Goor, by cordial visits, by touching
addresses, or by attentions of exquisite delicacy, of their admiration
and devotion.
It is sufficient at a public meeting merely to mention the word
" Belgium," or the name of her King, to raise rounds of applause ; and
the organiser of a great meeting said recently, " To-day, to be sure of
success, one must speak of Belgium."
The members of the Belgian Mission to the United States will never
forget the magnificent demonstration, of which they were the object,
on the occasion of their visit to Montreal, on September 24th, 1914.
The authorities of St. Jean d'Iberville, the first town in Canada
through which the train carrying the Belgian delegates passed, had
obtained permission for a stoppage of a few minutes.
All the population were at the station, cheering those whom Mr.
Deniers, the local member of Parliament, described in his address of
welcome as " Delegates of heroic and noble Belgium."
At Montreal there was a triumphal entry. In spite of the late hour,
136
TO CANADA
the train not arriving until eleven o'clock at night, there was an immense
crov^d full of enthusiastic excitement. The students at once unharnessed
the horses and drew the carriage of the Belgian ministers to their
hotel.
The next day there was an uninterrupted course of receptions at the
Town Hall, at the Canadian Club, at the Board of Trade, at the
Commission of the Port of Montreal, and finally at the National Monu-
ment, where the great meeting of the evening came to a triumphant
termination.
" Look," cried one of the speakers, a lawyer, Mr. Monpetit by name,
pointing to the hall in which our national colours were displayed every-
where, " look, everyone wears them with pride, and one might say with
truth that every one of us bears a share of your glory on his breast."
The three Belgian delegates were MM. Henry Carton de Wiart,
Paul Hymans, and Emile Vandervelde. It is enough to say that the
Belgian eloquence that evening was of irresistible force.
I was present at Montreal, on the 21st of last July, at the celebration
of the anniversary of our independence, and, although overshadowed by
our mourning and by the obsession of our long drawn-out ordeal, it was
deeply impressive. At the conclusion of the solemn service at the
Cathedral, which I conducted for our fallen soldiers, the Archbishop,
Monseigneur Bruchesi, announced, in a voice full of emotion, that the
cause of Belgium deserved that no sacrifice should be spared in order
to assure her victory ; for " her cause is the cause of honour, of liberty,
and of justice."
M. de Sadeleer, Minister of State, residing temporarily in New
York, who had come to act as president, made several speeches.
He, too, will never forget his affectionate reception by the authorities
and the people of Canada. All those Belgians who had the good fortune
to appear before the Canadian public will preserve also an indelible
impression.
• * • :|e
But I make haste to testify that the sympathy of Canada is not merely
on the surface, not merely verbal and demonstrative. At the begin-
ning of the month of September, 1914, our fellow-countryman,
TO CANADA
M. H. Prud'homme, received from Belgium a letter, detailing the
heartrending distress of the victims of the German invasion. M.
Prud'homme referred this letter at once to our Consul-General, and
they two decided immediately to raise the Relief Fund for the Belgian
victims of the vv^ar. The Consul-General requested immediately, and
obtained, the patronage and cordial support of His Royal Highness
the Duke of Connaught, Governor-General of Canada, the Prime
Minister (Sir Robert Borden), the Leader of the Opposition (Sir Wilfrid
Laurier), Messieurs Rod, Lemieux and H. B. Ames (Members of the
Federal Parliament), and the Prime Minister of the Province of Quebec
(Sir Lomer Gouin).
The last-named, as well as the Prime Minister of Nova Scotia, Mr.
G. H. Murray, addressed to the authorities and to the population of
their provinces moving appeals, which brought in many large contribu-
tions to the Relief Fund. The Federal Government voted a grant of
50,000 dollars, that of Quebec 25,000 dollars, and all the other provinces
strove to assist to the utmost extent of their available * resources.
Many financial houses and several Chambers of Commerce made large
contributions : for instance, the Board of Trade of Toronto, which
collected alone 75,000 dollars.
It appears from the details of the figures published by M.
Prud'homme, the indefatigable treasurer of the Relief Fund, that
on the 1 8th of last May the total "amount in francs of the help
coming from Canada was well over the considerable sum of ten
millions.
The gifts in kind, collected by our Consul-General, amounted
almost to a million francs, and on the 6th of last October the Central
Committee had at its disposal an additional sum of 500,000 francs.
The liberality of the Canadian people is all the more praiseworthy
because they are hard hit by the world's economic crisis, and because
a large number of national funds, intended for the assistance of the
Canadian troops and their wives and children, have absorbed consider-
able sums of money. The Canadian patriotic funds have already raised
nearly six million dollars.
The wives and children of Belgians who have left Canada to take
138
TO CANADA
service in the Allied armies benefit in the same manner as those who
are Canadians by birth.
It is the same with other funds which are modelled in some degree
on the main scheme of the Patriotic Fund, the Canadian Red Cross,
Soldiers' Comforts, Tobacco Fund, Prisoners of War Fund, &c.
The great railway companies at once granted free transport for supplies
destined for Belgium.
What an admirable and touching institution is that of the Belgian
Layette, the foundresses of which I had the honour of greeting at
Ottawa and Montreal !
The ladies of the Canadian Society meet the wives of Belgian resi-
dents, and one often hears of the poorest girls giving up their hours of
sleep and collecting by means of little economies in order to provide a
store of baby-linen for the little children of far-off Belgium.
The Committee for the restoration of Louvain University meet
regularly in the precincts of Laval University at Montreal, and already
support of inestimable value has been assured.
Unfortunately, I am certain to forget names and deeds which ought
not to be forgotten. I must mention, however, the members, honorary
and executive, of the Relief Fund for the war- victims in Belgium, all our
Consuls, and in the forefront the Consul-General, whose devotion was
untiring, and many other persons of all sects and opinions. And even
if the limited space at my disposal did not permit it, I should feel guilty
of injustice were I not to mention the immense number of anony-
mous charitable people who, as initiators and organisers, have gained
undoubtedly the right to the gratitude of Belgium.
Mr. A. Lemont, in his detailed account of the visit of the members
of the Belgian Mission to Montreal, has headed his last chapter " The
Duty of Canada towards Belgium." He expresses the opinion that
Canadian sympathy should take a much fuller, more permanent and
systematic form, in the still more generous encouragement of Belgian
immigrants, whose start in life is sometimes difficult. It will be neces-
sary especially, he adds, to extend our commercial relations with
Belgium, and to adapt our tariff to her needs.
No Belgian would dare to say that Canada had duties towards
139
TO CANADA
Belgium. But I am voicing for certain the thoughts of my com-
patriots when I declare that we owe to Canada a debt of imperishable
gratitude.
* * * *
When these lines are published I shall have quitted, perhaps never
to visit again, this vast territory of Canada, which stretches from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.
Oh, thgt I were an artist, so that, on the spot, I might make my
fellow-countrymen appreciate a fraction of the beauties of the country
through which I have just passed ! Why am I not a poet, capable of
singing a hymn of thanks for all the kindness which has been shown to
me here ?
Canada, I salute thee, country of lakes, big and little, dotted with
islands small and great, with fancifully indented shores, fringed with
luxuriant vegetation : in the autumn, a many-coloured and brilliant
attire.
I love thy forests, dense and silent, which rise in gentle slopes up
the sides of thy hills, and carpet the steeps of thy precipitous chains.
I love thy vast spaces, thy prairies, broad as the ocean ; thy fields of
corn, waving as far as the eye can reach, like the rolling billows of a
mighty sea.
I love thy St. Lawrence, majestic stream, chafing, as it were, in con-
finement, wherein is marvellously reflected every tint of heaven ; which
I have seen on a fine summer's day, a vast sheet of water shining like
an immense blade of steel, glittering in the rays of the sun.
I love the incomparable and wild beauty of thy Rocky Mountains,
their summit in a blaze of light, their mighty rocks, their pointed peaks,
their deep ravines, their dreamy lakes and roaring torrents, pouring
their waters of transparent green upon a stony bed of white bleached
purity. In vain do the pine trees try unceasingly to reach the summit
of thy proud pinnacles. Their lines are so fine and their outline so
noble that the sun and the snow alone can enhance their beauty.
My compatriot and fellow-countryman. Father de Smet, of Termonde,
was the apostle of this rough, ravined and rugged country, which for a
long time appeared to be quite inaccessible.
140
TO CANADA
In his poor native town, burnt by the men of " Kultur," who would
have amazed his savages, the statue of the Apostle of the Rocky Moun-
tains remains standing and intact, like the beautiful mountain-tops to
which once upon a time he was the bringer of glad tidings.
Thou art glorious, even in winter, land of Canada, when the snow
hides thee completely beneath a cloak of white, not as a shroud but as
a garment, guarding thy slumber, that at their awakening thy fields,
thy forests, and thy prairies may yield once more to the millions who
depend upon them, their cattle, their timber, and their corn.
141
L'AUSTRALIE ET LA NOUVELLE ZELANDE AU SECOURS
DU PEUPLE BELGE.
Par Henry Segaert.
LE 14 Octobre, 1914, M. Fisher, Premier Ministre du Common-
wealth AustraHen, proposait a la Chambre des Representants de
Melbourne d'offrir k la Belgique une somme de 100,000 liv. st.
" en temoignage de reconnaissance pour les services heroiques
rendus par les citoyens de cette nation au genre humain, en
defendant leur droit national de vivre en paix dans leur patrie," et,
dans le discours qu'il pronon^ait pour appuyer cette motion, M.
Fisher ajoutait : " C'est un grand privilege pour un jeune Dominion
qui n'est pas un etat souverain, mais qui jouit d'un gouvernement
autonome sous I'autorite de la Couronne britannique, de pouvoir ainsi
payer a la Belgique un tribut d'admiration pour la valeur de son peuple
et les sacrifices qu'il s'est impose. Nous prions les Beiges d'accepter
cet hommage. II n'est evidemment pas suffisant pour reparer les
destructions et les mines causees par un ennemi arrogant. Nous
esperons cependant qu'il aidera h panser les blessures immeritees de
ce peuple vaillant ! "
Presentee dans ces termes, la proposition d'un don national de
I'Australie a la Belgique fut adoptee k une majorite quasi absolue.
A ce moment, cependant, on ne connaissait d'une fagon exacte, dans les
grands centres du Commonwealth, que les details de I'attentat perpetre
contre notre neutralite et de la resistance du Roi, du Gouvernement et
de la nation beige h. I'envahisseur sans scrupules : Jes blessures que
I'Australie venait nous aider a panser c'etaient celles d'une guerre
injuste mais que I'on supposait encore, 1^ bas, devoir etre loyale.
C'est plus tard seulement, avec les premiers recits de I'epopee
magnifique de I'Yser, que se repandirent en Australie et en Nouvelle
Zelande les premieres precisions concernant les destructions systemati-
ques, les massacres de civils, les horreurs et les atrocites commises par
les hordes barbares : Nous avons dans nos dossiers des lettres de Sydney
datees de Decembre 1914, ou se manifeste encore I'incredulite vis k vis
des nouvelles de ce genre qui commencent h passionner I'opinion
publique. Mais bientot le doute devient impossible : Les rapports des
Commissions d'enquete beige et britannique sont publics in extenso, les
142
L'AUSTRALIE ET LA NOUVELLE ZELANDE
preuves de toute nature s'accumulent sous les yeux du monde horrifie.
Et, lorsque derriere ce faisceau d'horreurs, dans la Belgique ecrasee,
broyee par la botte du conquerant, se dresse le spectre de la famine
menagante, une vague irresistible de pitie et de solidarite souleve la
conscience des etats oceaniens : De Melbourne et de Sydney, jusqu'aux
confins de la Nouvelle Zelande, les coeurs s'emeuvent et s'attendrissent,
partout des groupements, des comites s'instituent pour recueillir les
secours indispensables a la nation martyre et ceux qui sont trop loin des
centres, perdus dans I'immensite de ces pays nouveaux, trouvent dans
I'agent-general de leur Etat ^ Londres le mandataire naturel de leur
charite isolee.
A mesure que le temps vient augment er et compliquer les necessites
du ravitaillement des Beiges opprimes et des Beiges exiles, le mouvement
s'etend, s'accentue, s'amplifie. II semble que les sentiments de soli-
darite du peuple australien s'exaltent dans leur exercice meme : Des
rives lointaines du Sud aux commissions de secours de Londres, c*est
un fleuve d'or qui s'ecoule dont le courant se fait plus large, plus majes-
tueux chaque mois. Si bien qu'aujourd'hui,* apres un an de guerre
et de souffrances, la Belgique a re^u de I'Australie et de la Nouvelle
Zelande, avec des chargements entiers de dons en nature, plus de
1,775,284 livres sterling, au del^ de 47 millions de francs !
Et il ne faut pas perdre de vue, pour estimer k sa juste valeur la
veritable grandeur de cet effort de confraternite Internationale, qu'il
a ete fourni par des etats nouveaux, dont la population totale ne depasse
guere six millions d'habitants et qui se sont imposes en meme temps
la charge d'une intime collaboration financiere militaire et navale h. la
lutte contre les barbares.
J'ai eu moi-meme I'honneur et la joie de signaler dans la presse beige
les details qui me sont parvenus de temps k autre sur les secours apportes
par tels etats d'oceanie a ma patrie souffrante. II n'a pas encore ete
public jusqu'ici cependant un aper^u general et detaille de ce que
I'Australie et la Nouvelle Zelande ont fait pour la Belgique. Qu'il me
soit done permis d'exposer dans leurs grandes lignes Foeuvre realisee
et les resultats obtenus dans chacune des deux grandes possessions de la
*3i AoCit 1915.
L'AUSTRALIE ET LA NOUVELLE ZELANDE
Couronne imperiale britannique : Quelle que soit I'aridite des chiffres,
ils ont en pareille matiere plus d'eloquence que les mots !
La Nouvelle Zelande ne constitue un Dominion autonome que depuis
I'annee 1907. Elle est composee de deux grandes et de plusieurs petites
lies situees a pres de 1,200 milles ^ Test de I'Australie, et sa population
europeenne est de moins de 1,100,000 habitants. Eh bien, dans ce
pays I'un des plus jeunes de la societe des nations, qui en est aux pre-
miers pas de sa vie autonome, des que I'echo fut parvenu des malheurs de
notre patrie, toutes les institutions, toutes les organisations sociales
mobiliserent aussitot leurs ressources et leurs influences pour apporter
un beaume a nos blessures : En quelques mois, d'Octobre 191 4 a Fevrier
1915, les fonds recueillis par S.E. le Gouverneur-general, Lord Liverpool,
atteignirent plus de 50,000 liv. st. Plus de 95,000 liv. st. furent envoyees
h Londres de Decembre a Juillet par la Tresorerie du Dominion ;
60,000 liv. St. furent recoltees dans la seule ville de Canterbury (N.Z.) ;
le mayor de Dunedin, les residents d'Otago, la ligue des enfants de
Southland, le " fund " du Consul de Belgique accumulerent des sommes
variant de 2,000 a 8,000 liv. ; les journaux locaux, les unions agricoles,
les comites regionaux, les societes scolaires, les associations charitables
unirent leurs efforts pour reunir des cargaisons entieres de cereales,
de moutons congeles, de beurre, de fromage, des centaines de balles de
couvertures, des miUiers de caisses d'habits, qui furent dirigees vers
I'interieur de la Belgique occupee et vers les centres de refugies.
J'ai pu feuilleter, dans les bureaux du Haut Commissionnaire de la
Nouvelle Zelande a Londres le registre ou s'inscrivent encore jour
par jour les cheques et les mandats telegraphiques, parmi lesquels
alternent les sommes de deux ou trois livres et les envois depassant le
million. Rien ne demontre mieux que toutes les classes sociales de la
Nouvelle Zelande se sont intimement unies pour adresser a I'Hon.
Th. Mackenzie, son representant a Londres, ces dons, dont le montant
atteignait a fin Aout le total de 270,576 liv. st.
N'est-ce pas a bon droit que la Belgique peut meler la fierte d'avoir su
provoquer dans la nation la plus meridionale du monde un tel elan
d'enthousiasme a la reconnaissance qu'elle est heureuse de manifester
publiquement au peuple Neo-Zelandais !
144
i
ST. I'AUI. S CAIHEDRAI.
JUI.IKN CEI.OS
{
L'AUSTRALIE ET LA NOUVELLE ZELANDE
C'est avec le meme coeur, avec la meme abnegation, que les habitants
des six etats reunis sous la banniere etoilee du Commonwealth Aus-
tralien se sont associes, des que fut pousse le premier cri d'alarme, au
mouvement d'universelle sympathie qui secoua le monde devant I'atten-
tat perpetre contre les citoyens de la nation la plus pacifique de la
terre.
Presqu'isoles au milieu des regions inconnues encore du continent
oceanien, les quatre cent mille habitants disperses dans I'immense
territoire de I'Australie du Sud ont envoye pendant la premiere annee
de la guerre h leur Agent-general h Londres de nombreux colis de
vetements et plus de 207,000 livres sterling recueillis par le South
AustraHan Belgian Relief Committee.
La population de I'Australie Occidentale est plus reduite encore,
atteignant a peine 300,000 habitants. La aussi, cependant, le mouve-
ment pro-beige a pris des I'origine une belle extension : Au 3 1 Aout
191 5, une souscription ouverte par le journal West Australian avait
rapporte deja 20,400 liv. st. Des personnalites devouees y ont fonde un
Belgian Relief Fund, un Belgian Children's Fund, et y ont reuni en
quelques mois plus de 32,083 liv. st. sans compter des chargements
importants de farine, de fruits, et d'effets d'habillement.
Dans le meme laps de temps, I'Etat du Queensland a adresse au
Belgian Relief Fund la somme de 112,049 liv. st. Nous relevons
parmi les principales sources de ce total : Le Brisbane Belgian Consulate
Relief Fund avec 74,683 liv.; le Queensland Patriotic Committee avec
16,286 liv. et le Gouvernement local avec 10,000 liv. st. En comple-
ment de ces dons en numeraire, le peuple de I'Etat a rassemble des
chargements considerables de comestibles pour les refugies beiges
dans le Royaume-Uni. Ces denrees ont ete distribuees dans les hopitaux
traitant des blesses beiges et dans les institutions et homes supportant
des refugies.
La Tasmanie nous a offert 21,400 liv. st. recoltees dans les divers
centres de I'Etat ou des comites ont ete formes dans ce but, habituelle-
ment sous la presidence du maire de la cite ou des dirigeants du district.
" ]e puis vous assurer hardiment," ecrit 1' Agent-general de Tasmanie
^ Londres, en nous communiquant ce chiffre, "que partout le peuple
145 L
L'AUSTRALIE ET LA NOUVELLE ZELANDE
de I'Etat a temoigne d'une chaleureuse sympathie envers le peuple
beige. Le resultat de notre campagne charitable n'est peut-etre
pas tres considerable en lui-meme. II faut y trouver I'expression du
desir unanime de notre petite communaute d'^ peine 200,000 ames de
venir en aide a notre soeur heroique d'Europe ! "
L'Etat de Victoria au contraire, est, au point de vue de la population,
le second du Commonwealth et sa capitale, Melbourne, le siege actuel
du Gouvernement federal. Sous I'impulsion du Lord Maire de Mel-
bourne les oeuvres beiges ont surgi des la premiere heure dans la metro-
pole : Le Belgian Relief Fund, sous sa presidence, a reuni a lui seul plus
de 200,000 liv. St. Le Belgian Flag Day organise par la Lady Mayoress a
rapporte au dela de 9,000 liv. tandis que I'activite de ces hautes autorites
s'interessait encore a d'autres oeuvres multiples en faveur des soldats,
des religieuses beiges. Entraines par cet exemple, le peuple et les
grandes institutions de I'Etat ont rivalise de generosite : Les journaux
en vue, les banques importantes, les services publics, et les directions
des principaux theatres ont contribue, par leur oeuvre commune, a
faire monter le total des fonds souscrits dans le Victoria a 246,172 liv. st.
M. MacBride, Agent-general a Londres, avait d'autre part obtenu de
pouvoir disposer au profit des Comites de Refugies des stocks de comes-
tibles en reserve dans la capitale du Royaume-Uni, et, detail qui a
sa saveur, la plupart des chaussures distribuees a nos concitoyens en
Angleterre furent fournies par le Victoria, a la suite d'un appel lance
la bas par Mme. MacBride qui put obtenir egalement des quantites de
vetements et de douceurs pour les soldats beiges du front. Enfin, une
ambulance automobile complete, equipee aux frais des membres des
services publics de I'Etat, fut offerte au Gouvernement beige par M,
Leslie Stuart de Melbourne.
J'ai volontairement omis jusqu'a ce moment, malgre I'ordre alpha-
betique dans lequel j'ai cru devoir presenter I'expose de I'oeuvre realisee
par les Etats Australiens, I'Etat de Nouvelle Galles du Sud. Je I'ai
fait, parce que j'ai ete personnellement a meme de suivre de plus pres
le mouvement de solidarite magnifique qui fut celui de toute I'Australie,
dans cet Etat, dans cette belle ville de Sydney dont I'inepuisable charite
envers nos malheurs m'a remph d'admiration et de reconnaissance.
146
i
L'AUSTRALIE ET LA NOUVELLE ZELANDE
Dans les lettres que j'ai regues de la bas d'un des miens, en I'ame
duquel s'unissent I'amour de la Belgique, son pays natal, et de I'Aus-
tralie, sa patrie d'adoption, j'ai trouve des le premier mois de la guerre k
cote de la soUicitude inquiete pour le sol de ses peres, les premices de
la splendide moisson dont je denombre aujourd'hui la recolte.
Des le debut des hostilites les souscriptions des citoyens de Sydney
avaient afflue spontanement chez notre representant officiel dans
cette ville et le " Consul's Fund " atteignait deja d'imposantes pro-
portions, quand un groupe d'admirateurs de la Belgique entreprit la
creation du Belgian National Fund et I'organisation, dans tout I'Etat,
d'une veritable croisade de charite en faveur de notre pays. Dans
toutes les villes, dans tous les villages, des comites et des sous comites
furent institues, partout des initiatives devouees se consacrerent aux
coUectes, aux ventes de charite, a I'etablissement de listes de souscrip-
tions mensuelles ou hebdomadaires. II fallait atteindre tous les citoyens,
frapper a toutes les bourses, drainer les pennys, aussi bien que les livres
d'or et les larges banknotes, et savoir au besoin, de ceux a qui manquait
de numeraire, accepter le don en nature transformable de mille
ingenieuses fagons en ecus trebuchants !
Et, du haut en bas de I'echelle sociale, I'emulation charitable s'est
si bien emparee de ce pays que le total des souscriptions, arrete pour
I'Etat de Nouvelle Galles du Sud au debut de Septembre 191 5, atteint
le chiffre enorme de 786,000 liv. st. soit plus de 21 millions de francs.
Bien plus, a I'heure actuelle des souscriptions permanentes sont assurees
pour la duree de I'occupation de notre territoire, k concurrence de 30
mille livres par mois !
Outre ces dons en argent, c'est par centaines de caisses, par millier
de balles, que des effets d'habillement furent expedies pour nos soldats
et pour nos refugies et la valeur des moutons congeles, des lapins
conserves, des fruits, des comestibles varies embarques a Sydney a
destination de Londres et de la Belgique est evaluee au bas mot a 55,000
liv. St.
Voulez-vous savoir maintenant dans quel esprit s'exerge cette philan-
tropie quasi incomparable ? Laissez-moi vous exposer ce que fut a
Sydney le " Belgian Day " le 14 Mai 191 5 :
'^7
L'AUSTRALIE ET LA NOUVELLE ZELANDE.
Vers la fin du dernier hiver, la " Commission for Relief in Belgium "
avait lance un appel au monde civilise, exposant les necessites urgentes
du ravitaillement de la population civile beige. Des reception de la
nouvelle, le Comite executif du National Belgian Relief Fund, confia k
M. Hugh Ward le soin d'organiser une journee au cours de laquelle
I'heroisme beige soit commemore dans tout I'Etat, toutes les ressources
possibles etant mises en ceuvre pour galvaniser davantage encore I'elan
de la generosite nationale.
A Sydney meme la fete du 14 Mai restera memorable. La ville fut
ce jour-U une masse de rouge, jaune et noir ; le Roi Albert fut litte-
ralement immortalise : sa photographie etait partout, aux fenetres,
sur les murs, aux boutonnieres des habits, couronnee de feuilles de
laurier et enlacee des couleurs nationales. Toutes les autres villes,
tous les villages de I'Etat furent de meme decores aux couleurs beiges ;
dans toutes les families, a la meme heure, un toast fut porte a notre
vaillant peuple et a son Roi, et le rapport des coUectes, des representa-
tions theatrales, des corteges de cette seule journee, fit monter le
total du Belgian Fund de 127,000 livres sterling !
" Ce n'est pas seulement," ecrivait le lendemain matin le Sydney
Morning Herald, " 1 'esprit de charite qui animait hier le peuple entier
de Nouvelle Galles du Sud, c'etait le desir de payer une partie de la
dette incalculable contractee envers une nation dont le Roi et les sujets
ont refuse de se soumettre, k un moment ou leur soumission eut porte
un coup mortel ^ I'Empire britannique ! " La Belgique martyre
pourrait-elle desirer meilleur reconfort dans sa douleur que de telles
paroles commentant de tels actes ?
148
HOW AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE HELPED
BELGIUM.
Translation by Paul Taylor.
ON October 14th, 191 4, Mr. Fisher, Prime Minister of
the Australian Commonwealth, proposed in the Chamber
of Representatives at Melbourne a grant of ^f 100,000 to
Belgium " in grateful acknowledgment of the heroic
services the citizens of that country have rendered
mankind in defence of their national rights to live in peace in their
own country," and in the speech he delivered in support of the
motion Mr. Fisher added : " It is a great privilege indeed for our
young Dominion — not a sovereign State, but a Dominion which is
free to govern itself under the British Crown — to have this opportunity
of paying to Belgium a tribute of praise for the valour of its people
and the great sacrifices they have made ; and of asking the Belgians
to accept from us a small gift ; not that it may repair the damage that
has been done, or the destruction that has been brought about by an
arrogant foe ; but that, in some way, it may heal the wounds that the
people of that country have suffered through no fault of their own."
Submitted in these terms the proposal of a national gift from Australia
to Belgium was adopted with almost absolute unanimity. At that
moment, however, the great centres of the Commonwealth had precise
information only as to the details of the outrage perpetrated against
our neutrality, and of the resistance of the King, the Government,
and the Belgian nation to their unscrupulous invader. The wounds
which Australia was helping to heal were wounds inflicted in an unjust
war, but one, as was still supposed there, conducted on principles
of honourable warfare. It was only later that, together with the
first accounts of the magnificent Epopoeia on the Yser, particulars
of the systematic destruction, the massacres of civilians, the horrors
and atrocities committed by the barbarian hordes reached Australia
and New Zealand. We have among our papers letters from Sydney
dated in December, 191 4, still displaying incredulity as to news of this
character, then beginning to excite public opinion. But in a short
time doubt became impossible : the reports of the Commissions of
Enquiry — Belgian and British — were published in extenso and proofs
149
HOW AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE HELPED
of every kind accumulated under the eyes of the horrified world. And
when, following upon this collection of horrors, there arose in Belgium,
crushed and ground under the heel of the conqueror, the spectre of
threatening famine, an irresistible wave of pity and solidarity swept
over the conscience of the Oceanian States. From Melbourne and
Sydney to the confines of New Zealand hearts were touched
and stirred, everywhere meetings and committees were organised
to collect the help indispensable to the martyred nation, while those
too far removed from the centres of population, and lost in the immensity
of these new countries, found in the Agent-General of their State in
London the natural channel for their isolated charity. And, as in the
course of time, the necessity of providing for the wants both of the
downtrodden and of the exiled Belgians has become greater and
more complicated, so has the movement spread, accentuating itself
and enlarging its sphere. It seems that the sentiment of solidarity
displayed by the Australians acquires increasing strength by its very
exercise. From the distant southern shores to organisations of relief
in London there flows a river of gold broader and more majestic
every month ! So that at the present time,* after a year of war and
suffering, Belgium has received from Australia and New Zealand,
besides whole shiploads of gifts in kind, more than ^^i, 775, 284 — more
that is, than forty-four millions of francs. And in appraising at its
true value the real grandeur of this effort of international confraternity
we must not lose sight of the fact that it has been carried out by new
States whose total population hardly exceeds six millions, and who
have taken upon themselves at the same time the burden of a close
collaboration, financial, military, and naval, in the struggle against the
barbarians.
I myself have had the honour and pleasure of calling attention in
the Belgian Press to the details which from time to time have become
known to me of the assistance afforded by the Oceanian States to my
suffering country. Till now, however, no general and detailed survey
of such assistance has been published. Let me, therefore, be permitted
to trace in their broad outlines the work done and the results
•August 31, 1915.
150
HOW AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE HELPED
realised in each of the two great possessions of the Imperial British
Crown. However dry figures may be, they are in matters of this kind
more eloquent than words. New Zealand has only been constituted
as a self-governing Dominion since 1907. It is composed of two large
and several small islands situated about 1,200 miles east of Australia,
and its European population is less than 1,100,000. Yet in this country,
one of the youngest in the society of nations, as yet only in the infancy
of its autonomous existence, no sooner had the echo of our country's
misfortunes reached there than every institution, every social organi-
sation, mobihsed their resources for the purpose of alleviating our
distress. In a few months, from October, 191 4, to February, 191 5, the
funds collected by His Excellency the Governor-General, Lord Liver-
pool, amounted to jf 50,000. More than ^^95,000 were sent to London
from December to July by the Dominion Treasury ; ^60,000 were
collected in the town of Canterbury (N.Z.) alone ; the Mayor of
Dunedin, the residents of Otago, the Children's League of Southland,
the " fund " of the Belgian Consul accumulated sums varying from
^2,000 to j^8,ooo ; the local newspapers, the agricultural societies,
the district committees, the school societies, the charitable associa-
tions united their eflPorts to gather together whole shiploads of meal,
frozen meat, butter and cheese, hundreds of bales of blankets and
thousands of cases of clothes, which were forwarded to the interior of
occupied Belgium and the various refugee centres. I have had the
opportunity at the offices of the High Commissioner of New Zealand
in London of looking through the register containing the entries day
by day of the cheques and telegraphic money orders received, among
which alternate sums varying from a few shillings to many thousands
of pounds. Nothing more clearly shows that all classes of society
in New Zealand have closely associated themselves in forwarding to
their representative in London, the Honourable Th. Mackenzie, these
gifts, of which the amount at the end of August had reached a total
of £2'/o,^y6. Is it not with good reason that Belgium can mingle
with the gratitude it is her happiness publicly to acknowledge to the
people of New Zealand a feeling of pride in the outburst of enthusiasm
she has succeeded in evoking in the most southern nation of the world ?
HOW AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE HELPED
It was in the same spirit and with the same self-sacrifice, that the
people of the six States united beneath the starred banner of the
Australian Commonwealth associated themselves, at the first cry of
alarm, with the movements of universal sympathy which shook the
world in face of the outrage committed against the citizens of the most
peaceful nation on earth.
Almost cut off in the midst of still unexplored regions of the Oceanian
Continent, the four hundred thousand inhabitants dispersed amid the
immense territory of South Australia forwarded during the first year
of the war to their Agent-General in London numerous packages of
clothes and more than ^207,000 collected by the South Australian
Belgian Relief Committee.
The population of Western Australia is still smaller, hardly amounting
to 300,000 inhabitants. There, also, however, the pro-Belgian move-
m^ent from the first has attained considerable proportions. Up to
August 31st, 191 5, a subscription opened by the Western Australian
newspaper had already produced a sum of ^20,400. Devoted leaders
of the community have founded a Belgian relief fund, a Belgian children's
fund, and have got together in a few months more than _^32,o83, apart
from important consignments of flour, fruit, and articles of clothing.
During the same period the State of Queensland has forwarded to
the Belgian Relief Fund the sum of ^112,049. Among the principal
sources of this total we may draw attention to the Brisbane Belgian
Consulate Relief Fund with ^74,683, the Queensland Patriotic Com-
mittee with ^16,286, and the Local Government with ^10,000. Supple-
mentary to these gifts in cash, the people of this State collected large
consignments of provisions for the Belgian refugees in the United
Kingdom. These have been distributed among the hospitals where
the Belgian wounded are receiving treatment and the institutions
and homes maintaining the refugees.
Tasmania has contributed jf 2 1,400 to our funds, collected in the
various centres where committees have been formed for this object,
presided over, in the regular course, by the Mayor of the city or the
chief officials of the district. " I can assure you with confidence,"
writes the Agent-General of Tasmania in London, in forwarding
152
HOW AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE HELPED
to us this sum, " that the people of the State have everywhere displayed
a warm sympathy with the people of Belgium. The result of our charitable
campaign is not perhaps in itself very considerable, but you must regard
it as expressing the unanimous desire of our small community of barely
200,000 souls to come to the assistance of our heroic European sister ! "
The State of Victoria, on the contrary, is, from the point of view
of population, the second in the Commonwealth, and its capital,
Melbourne, is the actual seat of the Federal Government. Under the
initiative of the Lord Mayor of Melbourne the interests of Belgium
have from the first received attention. The Belgian Relief Fund
under his presidency has collected a sum of over j^200,ooo. The
Belgian Flag Day organised by the Lady Mayoress brought in more
than j^9,ooo, while the activities of these high authorities have interested
themselves in many other matters in favour of the Belgian soldiers and
the Belgian nuns. Carried away by this example, the people and the
great institutions of the State have vied with each other in a spirit of
generous emulation. The principal organs of the Press, the leading
banks, the public services, the managers of the principal theatres,
have contributed, by their efforts in a common cause, to raise the
total funds subscribed in Victoria to a sum of ^^246,172. Mr. MacBride,
the Agent-General in London, was also entrusted with power to dispose
of large stocks of provisions stored in the capital of the United Kingdom
for the benefit of the Refugee Committees, and — a detail of some
interest — the greater part of the boots and shoes distributed to our
fellow-citizens in England were furnished by Victoria as the result of
an appeal by Mrs. MacBride, who was also equally successful in
obtaining quantities of clothing and comforts for the Belgian troops
at the front. Finally, a complete automobile ambulance, equipped at
the expense of members of the public service, was offered to the
Belgian Government by Mr. Leslie Stuart, of Melbourne.
I have voluntarily omitted up to this moment, in spite of the alpha-
betical order in which I have thought it desirable to give a resume of
the work carried out by the Australian States, the State of New South
Wales. I have done so because I have been personally in a position
to follow more closely the movement of magnificent solidarity which
HOW AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE HELPED
characterised the whole of Australia, as it was exemplified in that
particular State, in that beautiful town of Sydney, whose inexhaustible
charity towards our misfortunes has filled me with admiration and
gratitude. In letters which I have received from there from a relative —
in whose soul are united the love of Belgium, the country of his birth,
and of Australia, the land of his adoption — I have found from the first
month of the war, side by side with an anxious solicitude for the soil
of his fathers, the first fruits of the splendid harvest whose results I
am now enumerating.
From the commencement of hostilities the subscriptions from the
citizens of Sydney have poured in spontaneously to our oflBcial repre-
sentative there, and the " Consul's Fund " had already reached imposing
proportions when a group of admirers of Belgium undertook the creation
of the Belgian National Fund and the organisation throughout the
State of a regular crusade of charity in behalf of our country. In every
town, in every village, committees and sub-committees were established,
everywhere, under the stimulus of devoted voluntary effort, collections,
charity sales, and the formation of monthly and weekly subscription
lists were to be met with. Their aim was to reach each individual
citizen, to open every purse, to cause the inflow of the pence as well
as golden sovereigns and big bank notes, and when the need arose to
transform into solid cash in countless ingenious ways the offerings in
kind of those who were not in a position to contribute their money.
And from top to bottom of the social scale this charitable emulation
has so possessed the country that the total subscriptions reached by
the State of New South Wales at the beginning of September, 191 5,
amounted to the enormous sum of ^^786,000, or more than twenty-
one millions of francs. And, more than this, at the present time
permanent subscriptions are assured, for so long as our territory is
occupied, at the rate of ^1,250 a month.
In addition to these gifts in cash hundreds of cases and thousands
of bales of clothing were forwarded for our soldiers and refugees,
and the value of the frozen mutton, preserved rabbits, fruit, and eatables
of various kinds consigned from Sydney to London and Belgium amounts
at the lowest estimate to ^55,000.
HOW AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE HELPED
And now would you wish to know in what spirit this well-nigh
incomparable philanthropy is displayed ? Let me describe to you
" Belgian Day " at Sydney on May 14th, 191 5.
Towards the close of last winter the " Commission for Relief in
Belgium " had issued an appeal to the civilised world, setting forth the
urgent necessity for the revictualling of the civilian population in
Belgium. On the reception of the news the Executive Committee
of the National Belgian Relief Fund entrusted to Mr. H. Ward the
task of organising a " day " in the course of which the heroism of
Belgium should be commemorated throughout the whole of the State,
every possible resource being put into operation for the purpose of still
further stimulating the outbursts of national generosity.
In Sydney itself the fete of May 14th will remain memorable. On
that day the town was a mass of red, yellow, and black. King Albert
was literally immortalised : his likeness was everywhere — in the
windows, on the walls, in everyone's buttonhole, crowned with laurel
leaves and surrounded by the national colours. All the other towns
and villages of the State were decorated in the same way with the
Belgian colours ; in every family at the same hour the toast was proposed
of our gallant people and their King, and the amount resulting from
street collections, theatrical representations, and processions on this
day alone increased the total of the Belgian Fund by j^i 27,000 !
" It was not only," said the Sydney Morning Herald of the following
day, " the spirit of charity which yesterday animated the entire popu-
lation of New South Wales, it was the desire to discharge a portion of
the debt contracted towards a nation whose king and subjects refused
to submit at a moment when their submission would have struck a
deadly blow to the British Empire ! "
And could our martyred Belgium wish for greater comfort in her
sorrow than such words, commenting upon such acts ?
15
SOUTH AFRICA.
Par EuGiNE Standaert, Deputi.
OUS escomptions une triomphante rebellion en
Afrique du Sud, quelle deception aujourd'hui! Et
quelle responsabilite pour ceux qui nous ont menes U!"
Ainsi s'exprimait le journal teuton Der Tag le
lendemain du jour ou les Commandos du General Botha
abattirent le drapeau allemand qui flottait sur le forum de Windhoek.
C'est, en effet, du pays des Boers que nous sont venus la premiere
victoire definitive et la perte, pour I'AUemagne, d'un vaste empire
colonial, le Sud-ouest Africain. Du pays des Boers — qui Peut cru ?
Vers la fin de notre mission en Afrique, apres une inoubliable
campagne de meetings, poursuivie, pendant deux mois, ^ travers les
vastes pays du Transvaal et de I'Orange, nous debarquions a Ladysmith.
Sous un ciel abaisse, un ciel d'orage, livide, filtrant par ses echan-
crures des flambees de soleil, faisceau d'or pale sur un decor de deuil,
on nous mena en pelerinage vers les cimetieres historiques.
Aux portes de Ladysmith — dont la tour eventree et trouee par
les boulets boers a garde intactes ses blessures de guerre — se trouve,
au cceur d'un vallon pittoresque. Wagon Hill : un cimetiere, six cents
tombes, un horizon de petites croix blanches, pieusement encadrees
de fleurs, champ de bataille et champ de repos du vaillant regiment de
Devonshire. Plus loin, dans le silence lourd d'une campagne vide, aux
tons indefinis de bruyeres empourprees, aux horizons fauves sans
arbres et sans moissons, nous cotoyons des croix, des tombes encore.
De ci de la, etranges, des kopjes, isoles, poses ^ plat sur la plaine, en
leur forme amusante de cones impeccables, faits au tour, se profilent
sur I'horizon, dans la tonalite gris-clair de leur roche depolie, festonnee
de lichen.
Soudain, en face de nous, une cone plus haut, plus massif que les
autres, au sommet nu, aplati ; des croix blanches, beaucoup de croix,
une stele hexagone, noir et blanc avec des noms, beaucoup de noms,
tout une floraison anglaise de jeunesse aristocratique et plebeenne
tombee la : c'est Spioenkop !
Spioenkop — Windhoek. 1902 — 1914. Antithese troublant, pheno-
mene, a la fois prodigieux et dramatique.
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SOUTH AFRICA
Oh ! Cela ne se fit pas sans hesitations, sans secousses ni dechire-
ments douloureux.
Que de fois nous fumes temoins des angoisses de I'ame boer, oscillant
entre les idees de rebellion et de loyalisme ; apres nos meetings, sou vent,
les Boers nous faisaient la naive confession de leurs ccEurs confiants et
simples : " Nous vous sommes reconnaissants d'avoir ouvert nos yeux
k la verite ; c'est bien fini, desormais, entre nous et le barbare trait re
k sa parole, bourreau de votre cher petit peuplc si pacifique et si bon.
Mais, tout de meme, la tentation fut forte; songez done, il n'y a que
douze ans ! Nous n'avons pas eu le temps d'oublier 1 Toutes les
fibres de notre chair fremissent encore au souvenir de la guerre terrible
que nous fut faite. . . ."
Quand le recul du temps permettra de donner aux choses leurs
justes proportions, dans la claire vision de la lutte geante que nous
aurons vecue, emergera comme un episode au dessus de toutes les
previsiones humaines, la participation des Boers de I'Union Sud-
Africaine k la guerre mondiale.
Malgre tout le phenomene resterait inexplique, s'il ne fallait y voir
un des plus beaux triomphes du genie colonial des Anglais ; la ou
tous les autres eussent echoue, la Grande-Bretagne, flegmatiquement, a
double le Cap des tempetes. C'est que Pimperialisme britannique
s'entend, ^ merveille, a respecter les aspirations nationales de ses
dominions, laissant chaque peuple autonome, libre, independant,
disposer de son gouvernement interieur, de ses interets economiques,
meme de sa force armee. Cela est si vrai, qu'on a pu faire, au debut de
la guerre actuelle, cette constatation frappante : I'Angleterre voit son
drapeau flotter sur la cinquieme partie du monde entier et elle dispose
d' une armee, grande comme celle de la Suisse !
II eut suffi au Ca nada, aux Indes, h TAustralie, a la Nouvelle Zelande,
k I'Union Sud-Africaine de dire : " Nous restons chez nous en nous
desinteressant de la guerre," pour que I'Angleterre eut a faire face,
par ses seules ressources, au conflit formidable ou elle se trouve engagee.
Mais toutes les Colonies, spontanement, se sont solidarisees avec la
Mere-patrie, donnant ainsi le dementi aux sarcasmes teutons, se riant
de I'imperialisme britannique. " Un imperialisme de parade, sans
SOUTH AFRICA
consistance et sans force, destine a s'effondrer au premier choc un
peu rude."
Quel succes pour la cause des allies, quel mecompte pour I'imperialisme
allemand, qui, au rebours de I'autre, a pour base le militarisme et pour
but I'absorption des nationalites par la culture germanique — cette
horreur !
" Un Colosse aux pieds d'argile," disaient les Teutons en parlant de
I'Angleterre ; s'il y a quelque part, en Europe, un Colosse aux pieds
d'argile, il ne se trouve pas sur une ile.
Le reve germanique d'un Empire Colonial Africain " aussi beau
que les Indes," s'est evanoui a jamais. L'AUemagne comptait sur la
cooperation des Afrikaanders et on sait qu'au debut de la guerre, le
Kaiser, en personne, s'est abaisse jusqu'a envoyer un telegramme
disant : " Je consens a reconnaitre I'independance du Transvaal et
de rOrange, meme k la garantir, a condition que la rebellion eclate
sans delai." Mais les Boers sont defiants de nature et si d'aucune,
tout d'abord, se laisserent seduire, pour la grande majorite, le tele-
gramme de I'Empereur qui avait garanti I'independance de la Belgique,
apparut n'avoir que la valeur de quelque chose comme un " scrap of
paper."
Si cependant les Boers avaient ecoute I'agent provocateur couronne,
s'ils s'etaient revokes en masse, k. la suite des generaux de Wet, Beyers,
et Maritz, on se demande, non sans effroi, quelle eut ete la consequence
de ce fait, sur le cours des evenements, I'Angleterre se trouvant obligee
de depecher, en Afrique, ses meilleurs regiments. Mais c'est le gros
bon sens boer, qui, a I'heure decisive, I'emporta ; voyant, en Belgique,
le Teuton a I'oeuvre, sa duplicite, sa malhonnete, ses atrocites, le Boer
a eu, soudain, la clairvoyance du peril, auquel I'exposait le triomphe
de la Germanie. Faisant taire tous autres sentiments, comprimant, au
fond de son etre, les blessures toujours saignantes, conscient, apres tout,
des larges libertes que I'Angleterre a su lui garder, le Boer, resolument,
a suivi le loyal Botha pour aller, cote a cote avec les Anglais, combattre
et vaincre I'Allemand.
Que dire des temoignages de sympathie et de generosite qui, de
I'Afrique du Sud, sont venus vers la Belgique ?
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SOUTH AFRICA
Au cours de notre raid a travers rUnion, de la pointe du Cap aux
rives du Limpopo, des que la glace fut rompue entre les Afrikaanders et
nous, des que nous pumes demasquer la perfidie allemandes et mettre
a neant les calomnies infames, partout repandues par les agents teutons,
il y eut un revirement magnifique de I'opinion publique. La meme ou
nous etions, tout d'abord, accueillis avec froideur, I'elan fut d'autant
plus cordial et plus genereux.
Que de souvenirs emouvants se pressent, en foule, dans ma
memoire !
II me souvient d'un jeune Boer de seize ans — c'etait en plein centre
rebelle — m'abordant a Tissue d'un meeting ; dans son regard clair,
brillait encore I'emotion ressentie, au regit des atrocites commises en
Belgique. *' Monsieur," me dit-il, " je ne suis pas riche, mais voici dix
shellings, je vous en supplie acceptez les, pour nos pauvres freres
flamands." Comme je me recriais, emu, disant que les delegues beiges
n'avaient pas pour mission la coUecte et que d'ailleurs ses parents pour-
raient ne pas approuver tant de largesses. " O ! " repliqua-t-il, " ma mere
est la bas, elle ne sait rien, mais demande lui." Nous nous approchons,
j'explique, en deux mots, a la mere, ce qui vient de se passer et la
brave femme, embrassant vivement son fils, s'ecrie : " Paultje wat is dat
toch schoon ! " (Mon petit Paul, comme cela est beau !) et se retournant
vers moi, elle ajoute : " Acceptez, monsieur, je vous en prie, ce sont
toutes ses economies."
Un autre jour, c'etait a Capetown, des jeunes gens nous expliquent,
qu'ayant depuis plusieurs mois fait des epargnes en vue d'une grande
excursion de vacances, ils se sont reunis, apres notre meeting, et ont
decide, d'un commun accord, de renoncer au voyage projete et de
nous remettre, pour les Beiges martyrs, toute leur cagnotte, soit sept
mille et cinq cents francs.
A Bloemfonteyn, capitale de I'Orange, au diner que nous fut oifert par
le gouverneur de la province, celui ci, dans un toast d'une cordialite
debordante, nous annonga que tous les employes et ouvriers des chemins
de fer de la region venaient de decider, spontanement, I'abandon de
deux et demi pour cent sur leurs appointements et salaires, au profit
des Beiges.
SOUTH AFRICA
A Vryheid, localite qui compte deux mille ouvriers charbonniers,
le maire, entoure de son conscil communal, nous regoit a la gare, disant
simplement ceci : " Vous ne trouverez, dans cette commune, que de
modestes houilleurs, mais leurs coeurs battent tellement a I'unisson du
votre, que, tous, spontanement, ont decide de verser, jusqu'^ la fin de
la guerre, trois pour cent sur leur salaire au relief-fund beige." Je
dois confesser que ce discours, digne de I'antique, me toucha a ce point
qu'au moment meme je ne sus rien dire, des larmes d'emotion m'avaient
jailli aux yeux ; je pris, de mes deux mains, la main calleuse du
maire, la serrant dans une forte et cordiale etreinte. La foule
fit echo a la sincerite de cette reponse muette par de vibrants
bravos.
Partout les autorites de I'Union se multiplierent en faveur des Beiges ;
son Excellence Lord Buxton, le sympathique et si distingue Gouverneur-
general, montra I'exemple ; non seulement il nous prodigua, en gentle-
man de haute allure, les attentions les plus cordiales et les plus signi-
ficatives, mais au meeting de Johanisburg, qu'il presidait, devant
quatre mille auditeurs, apres un eloge vibrant du Roi et du peuple beige,
il fit un appel pathetique k la solidarite africaine. Et dans leur home
princier, au pare fastueux, surprenante evocation de la residence
d'Este a Tivoli, au milieu des jardins en terrasses, encadrees de
lointaines montagnes bleues et floues, parmi la profusion aveuglante
des plus belles fleurs qui soient, k I'ombre des palmiers, des
bananiers, des bambous geants, le Gouverneur-general et la toute
gracieuse Lady Buxton organiserent, au profit des Beiges, des fetes,
qui furent comme une pluie d'or dans les plateaux tendus.
Quelque» jours apres notre retour en Europe, le Consul de Belgique
h. Port Elisabeth — ville comptant ^ peine sept mille habitants de race
blanche — m'ecrivait : *' Depuis votre venue chez nous, le succes du
relief-fund beige depasse toutes les previsions, j'aurai, dans peu de
jours, recueilli, ici, cent mille francs."
Je n'en finirais pas de citer, par le menu, les nobles exemples de la
generosite Sud-Africaine ; surtout dans les centres ou dominent les
Coloniaux Anglais, c'etaient chaque jour, des manifestations empoig-
nantes, de tels elans de sympathie et d'enthousiasme, que, sous peine
1 60
■Ji. -i
SOUTH AFRICA
d'etre vaincu par I'emotion, il fallait tendre ses nerfs avec vigueur,
pour garder la maitrise de soi.
Au moment de quitter I'Afrique, a bord du Balmoral embosse aux
rives merveilleuses de Table Bay, nous resumes, sur le pent du navire,
la visite d'un groupe de jeunes soldats, grands, degages, ^ la fois solides
et minces, I'oeil bleu, caressant, specimens types de cette fiere race boer,
si decouplee et si fine ; dans leur langue hollandaise a la fois musicale
et simple ils disaient : " Nous venons vous dire * Au revoir ' et solliciter
le bonheur de vous serrez la main. Nous assistions au grand meeting
de Pretoria et avons entendu vos discours ; le meme soir nous decidions
de nous engager comme volontaires, pour aller nous battre contre les
barbares qui ont martyrise nos pauvres freres flamands. Dans
quelques jours nous partons pour le South-west, et quand ce sera
fini la-bas, s'il plait a Dieu, nous viendrons en Flandre. ..."
O chere et noble Belgique, comme ta cause doit etre belle pour
engendrer ainsi, jusqu'aux confins du monde, la generosite, I'abnegation,
I'ardente bravoure de tant d'ames d'elite, entrainees par I'exemple,
que tu donnas, des plus hautes vertus qui honorent I'humanite !
i6i
M
SOUTH AFRICA.
Translation by the Hon. W. P. Schreiner,
High Commissioner of the Union of South Africa.
"E expected a victorious rebellion in South
Africa ! We now see how we were deceived.
A heavy responsibility rests on those who there
misled us ! "
Thus Der Tag, the German journal, on the
day after General Botha's Commandoes lowered the German flag which
waved over the Court House at Windhuk !
The fact is that the land of the Boers has brought to us our first clear
victory, and to Germany the loss of a vast Colonial Empire in South-
west Africa. The land of the Boers ! Who would have believed it ?
Towards the end of our mission in Africa, after a memorable campaign
of meetings prosecuted for two months throughout the great countries
of the Transvaal and Orange Free State, we left the train at Ladysmith.
Under a lowering, stormy, leaden sky, fissured with slanting rays of
sunlight, pale-gold touches on a gloomy scene, we neared historic burial
grounds.
The tower of Ladysmith, ripped and gapped by Boer artillery, keeps
unrepaired the wounds of war. Near its gates, in the heart of a
picturesque glen, is Wagon Hill, a grave for six hundred of the brave
Devonshire Regiment, their field of battle and of rest, one gleam of
small white crosses, framed in flowers of aifection. Farther on, we
again passed white crosses marking graves, set in the close silence of an
empty plain, unbounded, without tree or crop, yet with purple patches
of heather within fawn-coloured far horizons, while here and there above
these horizons projected the profile of a strange solitary kopje, plumped
upon the plain, in quaint form of perfect cone shaped by the lathe.
These added a colour tone of clear grey from their polished rock
surfaces and draperies of lichen. Suddenly there rose before us a cone
higher and more massive than others, flat at the top and bare, with white
crosses — many a cross — set in a hexagon, all black and white with names
— many a name — marking where of the flower of England's youth of high
and low degree many had fallen.
It was Spioenkop !
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SOUTH AFRICA
Spioenkop to Windhuk ! 1902 to 1914 ! Bewildering antithesis —
phenomenon wonderful and dramatic !
Ah ! That could not be without some falterings, or without sad
shocks and the rending of old ties.
How often did we witness the anguished Boer spirit, wavering
between ideas of rebellion and loyalty ! Often after our meetings one
or other of them would, from a trusting and simple heart, confess to us,
" We are indebted to you for having opened our eyes to the truth :
all is indeed over for the future between us and the barbarous traitor to
his word, the butcher of your small people, so peaceful and good. But,
all the same, the temptation was strong ; just remember, only twelve
years have passed ! We have not had time to forget ! Every fibre of
our flesh still thrills to any reminder of the terrible war which was
waged against us. . . ."
When lapse of time shall permit events to be given their just
proportions in a clear retrospect of the giant struggle through which we
shall have passed, standing out, as one episode which was beyond all
human prevision, will be the part played in the World War by the Boers
of the Union of South Africa.
Such a phenomenon, otherwise inexplicable, is understood only if
we therein discern one of the finest triumphs of the colonising genius
of the British. In a tempest where any other would have stranded, the
ship " Great Britain " has calmly doubled the Cape of Storms. This
is due to the fact that British Imperialism understands admirably how
to respect national aspirations throughout its " Dominions," leaving
to each people the autonomy, freedom, and measure of independence
necessary to arrange its own internal government, its own economic
interests, and even its armed forces. This is so much the case that one
could, at the outset of the present war, have made with truth the striking
statement, " England sees her flag wave over one-fifth of the whole
world, and she arranges for an army as great as that of Switzerland ! "
At the outset of war it only needed Canada, India, Australia, New
Zealand and the Union of South Africa to say, " We remain at home and
take no part in the war," for England to have to face with her resources
alone the formidable conflict wherein she found herself engaged. But
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quite spontaneously every Colony ranged itself as one with the Mother
Country, thus giving the lie to the Teutonic taunt which derided British
Imperialism as " an Imperialism for show, without consistency or
force, and destined to fall in pieces at the first slightly rough shock."
What a success for the cause of the Allies, what a miscalculation for
German Imperialism, which, in contrast to British Imperialism, has
militarism as its base, and as its object the absorption of nationalities
by the frightful German Culture.
Germans used to call England " a Colossus with feet of clay " ; if
anywhere in Europe a clay-footed Colossus exists, he is not found in an
island.
The German dream of an African Colonial Empire " as fine as the
Indies " has vanished for all time. Germany reckoned on the
co-operation of the Afrikanders, and it is known that at the outset of the
war the Kaiser personally lowered himself so far as to send a telegram
saying, " I consent to recognise the independence of the Transvaal and
the Orange Free State, even to guarantee it, on condition that the
rebellion breaks out without delay " ; but the Boers are by nature
shrewdly distrustful, and though some of them at the beginning
allowed themselves to be seduced, to the great majority the telegram of
the Emperor who had guaranteed the independence of Belgium appeared
to have only the value of such a thing as a " scrap of paper." If,
however, the Boers had listened to the crowned agent provocateur, if they
had revolted en masse and followed Generals de Wet, Beyers, and Maritz,
one asks oneself, not without fear, what might have been the consequence
on the course of events of England's finding herself obliged to send her
best troops into Africa. But the plain good sense of the Boer carried
him with it at the decisive moment : seeing in Belgium the Teuton at
his work, seeing his duplicity, roughness and atrocities, the Boer had a
sudden clear vision of the peril to which German triumph would expose
him. Silencing other feelings, compressing in the depths of his being
wounds ever bleeding, admitting, after all, the great liberties which
England had taken steps to secure to him, the Boer has resolutely
followed loyal Botha in marching, side by side with the English, to
fight and conquer the German.
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SOUTH AFRICA
What can I say of the proofs of sympathy and generosity towards
Belgium which have come from South Africa ?
In the course of our journey across the Union, from Cape Point to
the banks of the Limpopo, as soon as the ice was broken between
the Afrikanders and ourselves, as soon as we were able to unmask German
perfidy and to nullify the infamous calumnies which were widely spread
by Teutonic agents, there was a magnificent and sudden revulsion of
public opinion. Even at a place where at first we were received with
coolness the outburst of opinion became so much the more cordial and
generous.
What moving recollections press crowding on my memory !
I remember a young Boer sixteen years of age at a plainly rebellious
centre coming up to me at the close of a meeting ; in his clear glance
there still shone the emotion which he felt at our story of atrocities
committed in Belgium.
" Sir," said he to me, " I am not rich, but here are ten shillings ;
I pray you to accept them for our poor Flemish brethren." I exclaimed,
with feeling, that it was not part of the mission of the Belgian delegates
to collect money and that, apart from that, his relations might not
approve so gr^at a gift on his part ; but he replied, " Oh ! my mother is
down there, she knows nothing about it, but ask her." I approached
the mother and in a few words explained to her what had taken place,
and the excellent woman, warmly embracing her son, cried " Paulje,
wat is dat toch schoon I " — " My little Paul, how fine of you ! " and
turning towards me added, " I pray you, sir, to accept ; these shillings
are the whole of his savings ! "
On another day, at Cape Town, some young people explained to us
that, having for several months been saving money with a view to
a great holiday excursion, they had, after our meeting, come together
among themselves and had decided with one accord to give up their
contemplated journey and to remit to us, for the Belgian martyrs, their
entire holiday fund, some 7,500 francs.
At Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State, at a dinner given
to us by the Administrator of the Province, he, in a speech abounding in
cordiality, announced to us that all the railway employees and workers
16s
SOUTH AFRICA
of that part had just decided, of their own motion, to give up 2J per
cent, of their salaries and wages for the benefit of the Belgians.
At Vryheid, where some 2,000 coal miners are employed, the Mayor,
surrounded by his Town Councillors, met us at the railway station, and
said simply this : " In this locality you will only find unassuming
colliers, but their hearts so throb in unison with yours that they all, of
their own free will, have resolved to pay in, until the end of the war,
3 per cent, of their wages to the Belgian Relief Fund."
I must confess that this speech, worthy of ancient days, so touched
me that at the moment I could say nothing, my tears flowed, I took
with both mine the toil-hardened hand of the Mayor, clasping it in a
strong and cordial grasp. With resounding cheers the crowd around
echoed the sincerity of my mute response.
Everywhere the persons in authority in the Union surpassed them-
selves in kindness for the Belgians. His Excellency, Lord Buxton, the
sympathetic and distinguished Governor-General, set the example ;
not only did he, a gentleman of lofty bearing, lavish upon us the most
cordial and significant attentions, but, before four thousand hearers, at
the meeting at Johannesburg over which he presided, after pronouncing
stirring praise of the Belgian King and people, he made pathetic appeal
for oneness in South Africa.
The Governor-General's residence in a stately park, recalling in a
wonderful way the spirit of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli, is situated in the
midst of terraced gardens and in a framework of mountains, blue and
soft in the distance. There, amid a bewildering profusion of the loveliest
possible flowers, in the shade of palms, plantains and giant bamboos,
the Governor-General and the all-gracious Lady Buxton, organised for
the benefit of the Belgians a splendid fete which brought a golden
shower.
Some days after our return to Europe, the Belgian Consul at Port
Elizabeth (a town of scarcely seven thousand white inhabitants) wrote
to me as follows : " Since your visit to us the success of the Belgian
ReHef Fund surpasses all forecasts. I have within a few days collected
here a hundred thousand francs."
I should never end, were I to cite in detail all the noble examples of
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SOUTH AFRICA
South African generosity ; especially in the centres where the Colonial
English predominate, there were daily striking manifestations — ^such
outbursts of sympathy and enthusiasm, that, in the danger of being
overcome by emotion, one had to brace one's nerves firmly to remain
master of oneself.
At the moment of quitting Africa, on board the Balmoral lying
broadside on in the wonderful docks of Table Bay, we received when
on the ship's bridge a visit from a group of young soldiers, tall, at ease,
sturdy and slight alike, with smiling blue eyes, typical specimens of that
proud Boer race so strong limbed and so fine. They spoke in their own
Dutch language, at once musical and simple : " We come to bid you good-
bye, to wish your return, and to ask the honour of clasping your hand.
We took part in a great meeting at Pretoria, and heard your speech ;
that evening we decided to enlist as volunteers to fight against the
savages who have made martyrs of our poor Flemish brethren. In a
few days we are setting out for the South-west, and when the business
is finished down there, if God pleases, we shall come to Flanders."
O dear and noble Belgium ! How glorious must be thy cause thus
to kindle, in the very ends of the earth, the generosity, the self-sacrifice,
the ardent valour of every choice spirit, led by the example which
thou hast given of the highest virtues which dignify humanity !
translated freely from the original French of M. Eugene Standaert by
W. P. Schreiner. A token of friendship and regard. October, 1915.
167
CE QUI NE DOIT PAS MOURIR.
Par Madame Hymans.
DANS dix ans, dans cent ans et plus encore, lorsque les
feuillets de ce livre auront jauni, rien de ce qu'il exprime
ne sera oublie.
L'enfant sur les genoux du grand'pere, de generation en
generation ecoutera les histoires de la Grande Guerre et
invariablement, apres toutes les horreurs evoquees, une emotion
bienfaisante etreindra les coeurs au recit de ce que fit pour les pauvres
exiles, la compatissante et fraternelle Angleterre.
L'immortalite de la belle campagne d'humanite britannique est
assuree par la reconnaissance du peuple beige tout entier.
THAT WHICH CANNOT DIE.
Translation by Viscountess Hambleden.
IN ten years, in a hundred years and yet longer, when the leaves of
this book have turned yellow with age, nothing that it expresses
will be forgotten.
From generation to generation the child sitting on his grandsire's
knee will listen to the stories of the Great War and all its horrors.
The tale of what England did for the poor exiles in her compassion
and fraternal affection will ever move all hearts with a true emotion,
and the story of the British campaign waged on behalf of suffering
humanity will be rendered immortal by Belgian gratitude.
i68
THE MOTHER COUNTRY.
By Madame Vandervelde.
" There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee ; thou hast great Allies ;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and Man's unconquerable mind."
SURELY these splendid words of Wordsworth's seem to have
been written for the Belgians, who in the midst of their distress
and their misery have found " great Allies " indeed. And how
can we ever express our thanks to England — to the mother
country, who has taken to her heart thousands of refugees, who
has housed and clothed and fed them, and to her colonies, who have
contributed with such unparalleled generosity towards keeping the
seven millions of inhabitants in Belgium alive.
169
COMMENT J'AI PU REHABILLER NOS SOLDATS.
Par Madame R. Maton.
ALA fin du mois d'octobre, 191 4, un grand nombre de
militaires beiges blesses etaient arrives dans les lies
Britanniques.
Accueillis avec une grande bonte et soignes avec une
touchante sollicitude ils trouverent loin de leur patrie
des foyers et de nouvelles families.
Tons les soins medicaux, leur entretien et tout ce qui devait les
conduire a la guerison leur fut assure. Mais le depart de Belgique
avait ete si precipite que beaucoup d'entre eux, transportes sur des
matelas ou dans des couvertures, n'avaient pas d'uniforme, d'autres
etaient arrives en tenue d'ete, un grand nombre avaient leur linge
incomplet, lacere ou souille de sang.
Repondant k une necessite et a un desir generalement exprime, j'ai
cherche a reconstituer les trousseaux que les families de ces braves
n'avaient ni le pouvoir ni la joie de leur procurer. C'est alors qu'avec
I'aide de quelques amies, j'ouvris un magasin-depot que j'eus le bonheur
de voir se remplir rapidement de sous-vetements, de conforts de tous
genres, et de milliers d'objets destines aux soldats beiges. II m'avait
suffi d'exposer mon projet pour sentir qu'une vive sympathie allait
secourir mes efforts. De toutes les parties du Royaume, ainsi que des
Dominions et des Colonies, m'arriverent des dons magnifiques et
touchants : des petits enfants, des ouvriers, des ouvrieres, collaborerent
a mon oeuvre.
II me semble que chaque famille britannique, voulut manifester sa
solidarite par un envoi, qui toujours etait accompagne d'un mot plein
de coeur et souvent de tout encouragement pour nos soldats.
La richesse de mon magasin fut telle que non seulement des milliers
et des milliers d'hommes passant par 23 City Road, au moment de
leur convalescence ou avant leur retour au front, purent recevoir
une abondante distribution de linge, mais que, depuis lors, je suis
assez heureuse de pouvoir expedier periodiquement a S.M. la Reine
d'innombrables caisses de conforts et de cadeaux.
Je puis en outre fournir de la laine h tricoter a plus de 2,000 femmes
beiges, leur procurant ainsi la joie de travaiUer pour nos soldats.
170
COMMENT J'AI PU REHABILI.ER NOS SOLDATS
Et tout cela est realise, grace k la generosite de cette belle nation
qui nous a si largement accueillis et a voulu nous creer des foyers ou
tous trouvent I'apaisement de leurs si cruelles souffrances.
171
HOW I RECLOTHED OUR SOLDIERS.
Translation by Mrs. John Lane.
AT the end of October, 191 4, a large number of wounded
Belgian soldiers arrived in the British Isles. Welcomed
with the greatest kindness and cared for with the most
touching solicitude, they, although far from their own
country, found homes and new friends. They were
given the best of medical care and hospitality, and indeed everything
was done that could contribute to their recovery. But so hurried had
been their flight from Belgium that many of them, carried on mattresses
or wrapped in blankets, were without uniforms ; others were in summer
things, and most of them had insufficient underclothing, and that torn
and bloodstained.
Because of this need and a wish generally expressed, I determined
to procure new outfits for these brave men whose families had neither
the means nor the happiness of providing them. I therefore, with the
help of some friends, opened a shop-warehouse, which I had the joy
of seeing rapidly filled with underclothing, comforts of every description,
and innumerable other things for our Belgian soldiers. It was quite
sufficient to say what I needed for me to feel the eager sympathy
ready to aid. From every part of the Kingdom, as well as the Dominions
and Colonies, there came splendid and touching gifts : little children,
labourers and working women were among my helpers.
It seems to me as if every English family longed to show their kinship
by a gift, always accompanied by some touching word of encouragement
for our soldiers. The overflowing wealth of my shop was such that
thousands and thousands of men calling at 23 City Road, during
convalescence or before returning to the Front, received an abundant
supply of underclothing. And, further, since then I am happy to be
able to send periodically to Her Majesty the Queen innumerable cases
of comforts and gifts. Among other things I supply knitting wool to
2,000 Belgian women, thus giving them the joy of working for our
soldiers. And all this is made possible thanks to the generosity of
that noble nation which has accorded us so great-hearted a welcome
and has endeavoured to give us homes where all should find comfort
after their cruel sufferings.
172
LES ARTISTES BELGES ET NOS SOLDATS.
Par Marie- Jules Destree.
IL serait assez inutile de parler de nos artistes en Angleterre et de
I'accueil qu'ils y ont trouve, puisque d'autres coUaborateurs se
sont dej^ charges de cette tache. Mais il peut etre interessant
encore de montrer de quelle fagon constante ils ont aide les oeuvres
consacrees a I'amelioration de la condition de nos soldats, et combien
ils ont aide k faire appel, dans les formes elegantes de Fart, a la
generosite anglaise.
C'est cette generosite qu'il convient de reconnaitre aujourd'hui,
nous le savons bien, mais en verite, il est impossible d'en faire le
denombrement detaille ; nous aurions trop de remerciements a adresser
aux personnalites anglaises et specialement aux dames qui ont ete
les protectrices et les coUaboratrices constantes de I'oeuvre du vetement
du soldat beige. Si nous avons pu, h Sackville Gallery, repondre
presque toujours aux demandes qui nous etaient adressees par les
soldats, si nous avons pu leur envoyer des chaussettes, des mitaines,
des echarpes, des vetements de toutes sortes et ces petits " conforts "
si precieux pour ceux qui sont eloignes de tous leurs parents et amis,
c'est a ces dames anglaises, surtout, que nous le devons. Et c'est a
elles que doit aller, qu'ira la reconnaissance de nos soldats. Voila un
aspect, entre bien d'autres, des raisons de sympathie qui uniront
desormais la Belgique a 1 'Angleterre.
Mais peut-etre ces dames qui nous furent secourables, qui frequen-
terent avec assiduite nos fetes et nos concerts, trouveront-elles quelque
plaisir a voir rappele les noms des artistes beiges qu'elles eurent
I'occasion d'applaudir. Les meilleurs ont tenu a soutenir patriotique-
ment I'ceuvre du vetement du soldat beige.
Notre grand ecrivain, M. Maurice Maeterlinck est venu avec Madame
Georgette Leblanc-Maeterlinck, le 7 Juillet, 191 5, nous apporter ses
impressions sur la guerre et le programme de cette seance est illustre
d'un dessin de notre grand sculpteur, M. Victor Rousseau.
MM. les Ministres Hymans et Vandervelde, MM. les Deputes
Destree, Feron, Royer et Standaert, ont ete les orateurs applaudis de
nos conferences.
Les peintres nous ont donne, d'une part, des series de cartes postales,
.LES ARTISTES BELGES ET NOS SOLDATS
d'autre part, leur participation k cette Exposition de Poupees, double
manifestation de leurs talents varies : MM. A. Baertsoen, Ch. Bastien,
Claus, Cluysenaar, Delstanche, J. Delville, De Smet, Horta, Ch.
Houben, Jeff ryes, Jonniaux, J. Opsomer, H. Ottevaere, P. Paulus,
Stergmans, Tytgat, Van Offel, Verhaegen et Wagemans, ont conquis
les suffrages des amateurs anglais.
Plus important encore, naturellement, fut le concours des artistes
de la musique et du chant. Les compositeurs Louis Delune, Depauw
et Joseph Jongen ; les pianistes, A. Degreef, Laoureux, Miles. Folville,
Laenen ; les violonistes, Deru, Stielman ; les violoncellistes, Delune,
Doehard, Jeanne Fromont, Mme. Boin Kufferath ; les cantatrices,
Marie Weber Delacre, Jeanne Houben, Lefevre ; les chanteurs, Bouillez,
Dua — ont forme le personnel infatigable de nos concerts. Rappelons
encore les noms de MM. Jules Delacre et de ses amis du Theatre du
Soldat, et de Carlo Liten, et notons qu'a diverses reprises des artistes
anglais ont tenu h. seconder I'effort de leurs confreres beiges.
Ainsi, pour cette oeuvre d'assistance k nos soldats, toute une vie
artistique jadis si remarquable chez nous, s'est continuee en Angleterre
et a rencontre toujours, dans la Societe anglaise, le plus genereux et
le plus enthousiaste encouragement.
Je me suis limitee aux manifestations dont je fus le temoin, mais il
en a ete de meme, d'ailleurs, pour toutes les oeuvres d'assistancc sociale
nees de la guerre.
Nous garderons le souvenir de tous ces devouements pour les jours
heureux oii nous rentrerons dans notre Belgique retrouvec et nous
dirons alors ^ nos artistes, notre reconnaissance. Mais il faut la dire
des aujourd'hui 4 1' Angleterre, au nom des dames du Comite de I'CEuTrc
de Sackville Gallery.
174
THE BELGIAN ARTISTS AND OUR SOLDIERS.
Translation by Laurence Binyon.
OF our artists in England and of the welcome they have
found there it is superfluous to speak, since others who
are contributing to this book have undertaken that task.
But it may be of interest, none the less, to point out how
constant have been their efforts to aid in the work of
improving our soldiers' lot, and how great has been the help they have
given by appeaHng to English generosity through the gracious forms
of art.
It is this generosity which it behoves us to acknowledge to-day,
as we well know ; but, in truth, to present a detailed record would not
be possible, we should have too many thanks to offer to English people
individually, and in especial to the ladies who have been so staunch in
supporting and in working with the organisation for clothing the Belgian
soldiers. That we have been able, at the Sackville Gallery, to meet
in almost every case the wants that the soldiers expressed to us ; that
we have been able to send them socks, mittens, scarves, clothes of all
sorts, and those little " comforts " so precious to those who are separated
from their families and their friends, is chiefly owing to these English
ladies. And it is to them that should come, that will come, our soldiers'
thanks. Here is one strand, among many others, of the ties of sympathy
that henceforth will unite Belgium to England.
But perhaps those ladies who rallied round us, who came so assidu-
ously to our gatherings and concerts, will take some pleasure in seeing
recorded the names of the Belgian artists whom they had the oppor-
tunity of applauding. The best have made a point of patriotically sup-
porting the work of the Committee for the Clothing of the Belgian Soldiers.
Our great writer, M. Maurice Maeterlinck, came with Madame
Georgette Leblanc-Maeterlinck on the 7th of July, 191 5, to bring us
his impressions of the war, and the programme for the occasion was
illustrated by a drawing from the hand of our great sculptor, M. Victor
Rousseau.
The Ministers of State, MM. Hymans and Vandervelde, the Deputies
MM. Destree, Feron, Royer and Standaert, have been applauded
speakers at our meetings.
^7S
THE BELGIAN ARTISTS AND OUR SOLDIERS
The painters have given us, in the first place, sets of pictorial post-
cards, in the second, their contributions to the Exhibition of Dolls :
a two-fold expression of their varied gifts. MM. A. Baertsoen, Ch.
Bastien, Claus, Cluysenaar, Delstanche, J. Delville, De Smet, Horta,
Ch. Houben, Jeffryes, Jonniaux, J. Opsomer, H. Ottevaere, P. Paulus,
Stergmans, Tytgat, Van Offel, Verhaegen, Wagemans ; all these have
won the admiration of English amateurs.
Still more important, of course, was the co-operation of the musicians
and singers. The composers, MM. Louis Delune, Depauw, and
Joseph Jongen ; the pianists, MM. A. Degreef and Laoureux, Miles.
Folville and Laenen ; the violinists, MM. Deru and Stielman ; the
violoncellists, MM. Delune and Doehard, Mile. Jeanne Fromont,
Madame Boin Kufferath ; the singers. Miles. Marie Weber Delacre,
Jeanne Houben, Lefevre, MM. Bouillez and Dua — these have been the
indefatigable performers at our concerts. Let us also record the names
of M. Jules Delacre, and of his friends of the Theatre du Soldat, and of
Carlo Liten ; and let us note that on many occasions English artists
have been at pains to second the efforts of their Belgian comrades.
In this work, then, of assisting our soldiers in the field, that artistic
activity which so signally distinguished our country in the old days
has resumed a full life in England and has invariably met with the most
generous and warm encouragement from English society.
I have confined myself to experiences of which I have myself been a
witness, but the experience of all the groups of workers for the relief
of the distress caused by the war has been the same.
We shall treasure the remembrance of all these devoted hearts against
the good day when we shall go home, when our own Belgium shall be
restored to us. Then we shall give thanks to our artists. But to-day
it is England we thank, in the name of the ladies of the Sackville Gallery
Committee.
176
TIIK nn\. HARRY I.AWSON, M. 1'.
charlp:s mertens
GENEROSITE PREVOYANTE.
Par Mademoiselle Rossignon.
L 'AUTRE jour, comme mes yeux s'etaient arret es sur Padmirable
" Angelus " et que mon ame se penetrait, peu h peu, du senti-
ment, tout k la fois calme et religieux, qui s'exhale du chef
d'oeuvre de Millet, mon cceur s'etreignit soudain d'une emotion
profonde, k laquelle se melait je ne sais quelle nostalgie
etrange des lieux evoques par le maitre fran^ais.
C'est que, dans cette nature simple et pourtant riche et grandiose, il
me semblait retrouver notre campagne des Flandres, avant la guerre.
Cette campagne aux moissons d'or s'etendant jusqu'aux horizons
sans fin, ces vergers k I'herbe opulente et aux fruits vermeils, ces vaches
paissant dans des pres savoureux, tandis que les bergait doucement la
quietude ensoleillee de nos plaines. Ma pensee ayant pris son vol,
embrassa bientot plus encore : c'etaient nos rivieres a Peau claire et
joyeuse, nos canaux silencieux gardes par les peupKers et les saules,
et les nids qui chantaient dans les hetres, dans les chenes, et je sentais una
jouissance attendrie a laisser mon esprit se perdre dans cette vision
heureuse du Passe. . . .
Tout a coup je me ressouvins de I'effroyable chose, de celle qui avait
tout detruit, tout ensanglante, tout broye dans sa fureur sauvage et le
regard de mon ame ne vit plus que les champs sans moissons, sillonnes de
tranchees profondes, servant d'abri aux vivants et de tombeaux aux
morts. Je vis I'eau pure de nos rivieres embourbee et sanglante,
nos arbres seculaires coupes au ras du sol, nos fleurs pietinees et nos
campagnes riantes d' avant la bataille n'offrant plus que I'image de la
desolation, de I'aridite effrayante du desert. Je me demandais combien
de temps cela pouvait durer encore. Si la delivrance etait proche,
comment nous arriverions ^ nourrir le peuple et a ravitailler Tarmee ?
Comment ? La generosite des seigneurs, des societes d'agriculteurs,
des fermiers de cette contree hospitaliere a Fexile y a songe.
Au cours de cette annee terrible nos amis de Grande-Bretagne ont
pourvu a nos besoins futurs comme a nos necessites presentes. Telles
des fourmis prevoyantes, ils ont amoncele, pour nous, dans les greniers
de leur economat, les graines, les racines, les instruments aratoires.
Ils ont songe a preserver nos especes.
177 N
GENEROSITE PREVOYANTE
Si la Grande-Bretagne florissante a pu continuer son evolution
agricole, elle ne I'a point continuee pour elle seule, mais, dans une pensee
genereuse, elle nous a associes k ses succes. L'heure de la liberation
sera celle d'une crise economique formidable ; elle a resolu de nous aider
k la vaincre.
La preoccupation de ses proprietaires ne se borne plus a leur seule
prosperite ; ils y ajoutent le souci des necessites qui accableront le
peuple beige lorsqu'il rentrera dans ses foyers, et tandis que s'accomplit
en Belgique I'oeuvre de mort, la Grande-Bretagne agricole applique dans
un gigantesque effort, toutes les energies de son intelligence et de ses
bras a preparer pour notre vaillant mais infortune pays Pceuvre de
reconstitution et de vie.
" La terre meurt," dit le laboureur des Flandres. C'est pour ressus-
citer plus feconde, grace au noble geste du Royaume-Uni, qui etouffera
dans notre sol I'ivraie de la desolation sterile, pour y faire fructifier a
nouveau le bon grain du Seigneur.
178
GENEROUS FORESIGHT.
Translation by Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson.
THE other day, while my eyes lingered on the wondrous
" Angelus " and the spirit of peace and devotion with
which Millet's masterpiece is imbued gradually over-
spread my soul, my heart was suddenly smitten with a
deep emotion wherein mingled a strange, inexplicable
homesickness evoked by the great French painter.
It was as if this nature study, so simple yet so rich and sublime, made
visible to me once again our Flemish country as it was before the war.
This land with its golden harvest-fields stretching to limitless
horizons, these orchards with their lush grass and rosy fruits, the very
cows grazing in rich meadows, in the sunshiny peace of the country-
side— such was Flanders.
My thoughts thus taking wing, spread still farther. There were
our rivers v^ith their clear gay ripples, our silent canals with their
guardian poplars and willows, and the nests of birds singing in oaks
and elms. And I took a pitiful pleasure in allov^dng my soul thus to
wander in the joyous vision of the past.
All at once I remembered the appalling Thing — ^the Thing that had
destroyed all, spattered all with blood, mangled all, in its savage fury ;
and the eyes of my soul saw nothing but fields without harvest,
furrowed with deep trenches serving as shelters for the living and as
graves for the dead.
I saw the clear streams muddied and reddened with blood, our time-
honoured trees felled to the ground, our flowers trampled underfoot,
and the pleasant fields, that lay smiling before the dawn of battle, offering
nothing but a picture of desolation and the arid terror of the desert.
I asked myself how much longer could it last. If deliverance were
near, how should we succeed in feeding the people and supplying the
army ?
How indeed !
The generosity of great landowners, agricultural societies, and the
farmers of this land, so hospitable to the exile, had borne all this in
mind.
During the course of this terrible year our friends in Great Britain
179
k
GENEROUS FORESIGHT
have provided for our future needs as well as for our present necessities.
Like the wise, foreseeing ants, they have made provision for us in their
storehouses of grain, roots, and agricultural implements. They have
taken thought for the preservation of our race.
If Great Britain, flourishing as she is, has been enabled to keep up her
agricultural development, she has not kept it for herself alone, but, with
thoughtful generosity, she has associated us with her success.
The hour of liberation will be also that of a formidable economic
crisis. She has resolved to help us to survive it. The interest of her
landowners is not merely limited to their own prosperity ; they have
extended it to a consideration of the necessities which will overwhelm
the Belgian people on their return to their homes.
And while the sword of Death is busy in Belgium, yeoman England is
devoting all the powers of its mind and arm to prepare our valiant but
unfortunate country for the task of the reconstitution of its life.
" The fields are dying," say the peasants of Flanders. But they
shall rise again all the more fruitful, thanks to the noble action of Great
Britain, which shall uproot from our soil the tares of sterility, so that
the good grain of the Lord may bear fresh fruit.
80
Part II
POUR L'HONNEUR.
Par Maurice Maeterlinck.
LE peuple anglais, comme le peuple beige, est entre dans Teffroy-
able lutte, non point par interet, par haine hereditaire, mais
uniquement pour une question d'honneur. Si les autres combat-
tants' sont les soldats de la necessite, nous sommes les volon-
taires de I'honneur; et sans rien enlever aux merites des pre-
miers, ce titre ajoute aux notres tout ce qu'une idee pure et desinteressee
ajoute aux plus beaux actes de courage. Et c'est pourquoi, nuUe part en
ce monde, notre sacrifice n'a ete compris, admire et aime comme il I'est
ici. Vous vous etes reconnus en nous. II est indubitable, et nous le
sentons aussi profondement que vous le sentez, il est indubitable, qu'a
notre place, vous auriez fait exactement ce que nous avons fait. Vous
I'auriez fait avec la meme simplicite, la meme ardeur tranquille et sure,
la meme bonne foi. Vous vous seriez devoues aussi totalement, avec le
meme mepris des phrases inutiles, la meme conscience, la meme tenacite.
Et si je ne crains pas de recommencer devant vous I'eloge de ce que nous
avons fait, c'est que tout cet eloge retombe sur vous-memes qui n'auriez
pas hesite h. faire les memes choses.
En effet nous avons I'un et Pautre la meme conception de I'honneur;
et cette meme pensee doit porter les memes fruits. A vos yeux comme
aux notres, une promesse formelle, une parole donnee est la chose la
plus sacree qui se puisse echanger entre deux hommes. Or, bien plus
que la valeur d'un homme, parce qu'elle s'eleve beaucoup plus haut et
s'etend beaucoup plus loin, la valeur d'un peuple se mesure k I'idee
qu'il se fait de son honneur et surtout ^ ce qu'il est capable de lui
sacrifier. Sur toutes les autres idees qui menent I'humanite, notamment
sur I'idee religieuse, on peut ne pas etre d'accord; mais qui ne s'entend
pas sur celle-ci, n'a plus droit au nom d'homme. Elle est le foyer le plus
pur, le centre de plus en plus ardent de toute vertu, de toute dignite
humaine.
Vous vous etes entierement sacrifies h. cette idee; et au nom de cette
meme idee, aussi vivante, aussi puissante dans vos ames que dans les
notres, vous etes venus a notre secours, comme nous savions que vous y
viendriez, car nous comptions sur vous avec la meme certitude que vous
comptiez sur nous. Vous etes prets aux memes sacrifices et vous en
183
POUR L'HONNEUR
portez dej^ fierement les plus lourds. Aussi, dans cette enorme lutte,
sommes nous unis par des liens plus fraternels encore que ceux des
autres Allies. Notre union est plus haute et plus genereuse, puisqu'elle
est fondee tout entiere sur les pensees et les sentiments les plus nobles
qui puissent animer un coeur. Et cette union dans une confiance et une
affection reciproques qui grandissent et s'elevent d'heure en heure, nous
aide Tun et I'autre a depasser notre devoir.
Car nous I'avons depasse et le depassons chaque jour davantage.
Nous avons fait et faisons bien plus que nous n'etions tenus de faire.
Pour nous Beiges, il nous fallait resister loyalement, energiquement,
jusqu'au bout de nos forces, comme nous I'avions promis. Mais il eut
ete permis a I'honneur le plus ombrageux de deposer les armes apres
I'immense et heroique effort des premiers jours, et d'esperer la clemence
du vainqueur en nous reconnaissant vaincus. Rien ne nous obligeait a
nous immoler tout entiers, a offrir successivement en holocauste ^ notre
pensee, tout ce que nous possedions sur cette terre, a continuer la lutte
apres I'ecrasement, j usque dans les dernieres tortures de la faim qui
etreignent aujourd'hui trois millions d'entre nous. Rien ne nous y
obligeait que I'idee de plus en plus haute que se font du devoir ceux qui
ont commence de le pratiquer et qui meurent en I'accomplissant.
Quant a vous. Anglais, vous deviez nous venir en aide, c'est-a-dire
nous envoyer les troupes que vous aviez sur pied; mais rien non plus
ne vous obligeait, apres les premiers combats inutiles, a vous devouer
avec une ardeur, une abnegation sans egales, a jeter dans I'immense et
morteUe bataille toute votre jeunesse, la plus belle de ce monde, toutes
vos richesses, les plus prodigieuses de cette terre; et a faire surgir de
votre sol, par un miracle qu'on jugeait impossible, en moins de mois
qu'il ne fallait d'annees, les plus belles, les plus solides, les plus tenaces
armees qu'on ait vues s' aligner dans cette guerre. Rien non plus ne vous
y obHgeait que cette meme emulation, cette meme ivresse du devoir,
cette meme passion de la justice, cette meme idolatrie de la parole
donnee qui pour etre sure de tenir tout ce qu'on a promis depasse meme
ce qu'on n'eut pas ose promettre.
184
SIR HORACE MUNRO, K.C.B.
LOUIS DK SMETH
FOR HONOUR.
Translation by Alfred Sutro.
THE British people, like the Belgian people, did not enter
this appalling conflict from motives of self-interest, or
because of an ancient hatred, but for the single reason that
their honour compelled them. If the other combatants are
the soldiers of necessity, we are honour's volunteers ; and
this title, without in any way detracting from the merits of our Allies, at
least adds to our own all that a pure and disinterested idea can add to the
most splendid acts of courage. And therefore has this sacrifice of ours
been understood, admired and loved in Great Britain more than anywhere
else in the world. In us you recognised yourselves. It is beyond
all doubt, and we feel it as profoundly as you feel it, that in our place
you would have done precisely what we did. You would have done it as
simply, as calmly, with the same devotion and the same good faith.
You would have offered yourselves as entirely, with the same contempt
for useless phrases, with the same conscientiousness and the same
resolve. And if I am not afraid once again to praise before you what
we have done, it is because that praise falls equally on yourselves, who
would unhesitatingly have done the same.
The truth is that we have both of us the same conception of honour;
and the same idea must bear the same fruits. To you, as to us, the formal
promise, the given word, is the most sacred thing that can pass between
two men. Thereby we judge a man's worth; but the worth of a people
means more, it goes farther and deeper, and must be judged by the idea
it has formed of its honour, and above all by the sacrifice it is capable
of making for that idea. There are others that sway humankind, notably
the religious one, on which it is permitted to differ; but who does not
agree on this one forfeits his right to the name of man. It is the serene
abiding-place, the glowing centre, of all virtue and human dignity.
You have sacrificed yourselves entirely to this idea, which lives as
mightily in your soul as it does in our own. It was because of this idea
that you came to our help, as we knew that you would, for we counted
on you as surely as you counted on us. You are ready for the same
sacrifices ; you are making them now, and the greatest of all. And
therefore are we united, in this vast struggle, by bonds still more
i8s
FOR HONOUR
fraternal than those which connect us with our other Allies. Our union
is deeper and more unselfish, for it rests on the noblest thoughts and
emotions of which the heart is capable. And it is this union, in an
affection and confidence that increase and extend from hour to hour,
that helps us both to exceed the mere limits of our duty.
For we have exceeded those limits; we exceed them more and more
eveiy day. We have done far more than we were obliged to do. It
was expected of us Belgians that we should offer a loyal and strenuous
resistance until such time as our strength was exhausted; this we had
promised. But, after the immense and heroic efforts of the first few days,
could the most delicate sense of honour have been offended if we laid
down our arms, and earned the clemency of the conquerors by acknow-
ledging ourselves as conquered ? Nothing compelled us to immolate
ourselves entirely, to offer up, as a holocaust to this idea of ours, all that
we possessed in the world ; to continue the struggle long after we had
been crushed and were menaced by the absolute famine that holds in its
grip to-day three millions of our people. Nothing compelled us, save
only the lofty and ever loftier idea of duty that those conceive of it who
have begun to practise it, and die in its fulfilment.
As for you, Britons, you had to help us, to send us the troops you had.
ready; but you too were not compelled, after the first vain battles, to
display such a burning devotion, such matchless abnegation ; to hurl all
your splendid young men, the finest in the world, into the overwhelming
and deadly conflict ; to pour forth your prodigious, unequalled wealth,
and to produce from your soil, by a miracle none had deemed possible,
and in fewer weeks than it would have seemed to need years, the grandest,
staunchest, most unflinching armies that have fallen into line in this
war. Nothing compelled you, save only the same spirit of emulation, the
same passion for duty and craving for justice, the same devotion to the
given word, which, in its anxiety that all that has been promised shall
be done, goes far beyond even what one would not have dared to
promise.
i86
LES CIELS D'ANGLETERRE.
Par Emile Verhaeren.
JE crois que les plus beaux nuages qui se forment au monde
decorent les ciels anglais. J 'en ai vu de merveilleux en Ecosse,
dans le Yorkshire et en pays de Galles. J'ai vecu avec eux
pendant les jours tristes de I'liiver et les heures belles du
printemps, en songeant ^ mon pays devaste ou seuls les obus
eclatants et les incendies dechaines se changeaient en nuages de fumee
et d'epouvante. Mes reves de deuil et mes espoirs de resistance
et de victoire ont ainsi rencontre leurs symboles dans les horizons
toujours mouvant de la Grande-Bretagne. J'etais heureux ou en tous
cas console de parler longuement avec ses passagers lumineux et
mobiles, U-haut ; je leur pretais mes pensees, mes craintes, mes
volontes, mes esperances.
J'ai compris alors pourquoi les peintres d'Angleterre ont toujours ete
attire dans leurs tableaux champetres bien plus par le ciel que par la
terre. Constable a fait quelques toiles ou le sol n'apparait que comme
une simple ligne, comme une sorte de frise, pour soutenir I'immense
construction aerienne. Une assemblee de nuages y remplace une
reunion de personnages et le tableau tout entier n'est qu'un grandiose
portrait de rimmensit6. L'air, le vent, la clarte y brillent et y bougent ;
ils y sont des agents de beaute. lis y repandent on ne sait quoi de
prodigieux et de troublant.
Turner est le poete epique de Tinfini. Quand son pinceau entre en
bataille, les nuees lui obeissent et semblent tour a tour se ramasser pour
la lutte ou se disperser pour la charge. Je connais certaines de ses
aquarelles faites au pays de Galles ou I'on cherche dans les " profondeurs
remuees " les personnages d'Ossian. Toute la poesie des clartes et des
ombres est traduite avec une sorte de passion formidable et la realitc
deja puissante et belle en apparait plus merveiUeuse encore.
Nous pouvons done remercier les Anglais de toute I'attentive et
magnifique bienveillance qu'ils nous ont temoignee sans oublier que leur
pays lui-meme nous fut egalement genereux. U s'est montre a nous
avec toute sa beaute speciale, avec tout son eclat personnel pour nous
charmer et nous consoler. II a fait plus. II nous a inspire les pensees
hautes et larges. Qui regardait Thorizon garde par ses nuages lumineux
187
LES CIELS D'ANGLETERRE
et guerriers sentait son coeur et son esprit se raffermir et s'exalter.
Une force morale reside dans les choses 'belles. Elles sont actives
quoique silencieuses. Elle conseillent et persuadent. Qui les ecoute
et surtout les comprend eprouve en leur presence on ne sait quoi de
ferme et de grand que peu d'hommes inspirent et imposent. On peut
vivre avec des nuages comme avec une compagnie de hauts esprits et de
grands coeurs.
1 88
THE BRITISH SKIES.
Translation by Lord Latymer.
I THINK that nowhere in the world are the clouds so beautiful
as those that adorn the British sky. I have seen them in Scotland,
in Yorkshire, and in Wales, and they were wonderful. I have lived
with them during the melancholy days of winter and the happy
hours of spring, while thinking of my devastated country, where the
clouds are clouds of horror, the smoke of bursting shells and the
breaking out of conflagrations. My mournful dreams and my hopes
of resistance and victory found their symbols in the ever-changing
heavens of Great Britain ; and my long talks with the luminous travellers
moving through them, in which I attributed to them my thoughts, my
fears, my wishes, and my hopes, made me happy, or at least brought me
consolation.
So I can understand why English landscape painters have always been
more attracted by the sky than by the earth. On some of Constable's
canvases the ground is only indicated by a simple line, as a kind of
support to the enormous aerial structure. An assemblage of clouds
takes the place of a gathering of rustics and the whole scene is nothing
less than a grand portrait of immensity, in which the agents of beauty
are the air, the wind, and the brightness, brilliant and moving. These
diffuse an influence both tremendous and delicate.
Turner is the epic poet of infinity. With his compelling brush he
conquers cloud-land, where the vapours seem to mass themselves rank
on rank for the contest and to disperse at his attack. I know some of his
water-colour paintings of Welsh scenery in which one expects to see the
personages of Ossian emerge from the ever-shifting depths. All the
poetry of light and shade is expressed with a kind of formidable passion
and seems even more marvellous than the reality, however striking and
beautiful.
We can thank the English, then, for all the careful and splendid bene-
ficence that they have shown us, without forgetting that the very land
itself has been equally generous to us. It has revealed itself to us in
all its peculiar beauty, in all its individual radiance, to charm and console
us. It has done more. It has inspired us with lofty and large thoughts.
Whoever looks on its horizon, guarded by its clouds, luminous and
189
THE BRITISH SKIES
warriorlike, feels his heart and spirit strengthened and exalted. A
moral force resides in beautiful things. Though silent, they are potent.
They counsel and persuade. He who Hstens to them, and, above all,
understands them, experiences in their presence a certain great and
strong influence that few men inspire or impose. To live with the
clouds is to live with a high-minded and great-hearted friend.
190
A L'ANGLETERRE.
Par Fernand Severin.
OUS etions sans appui : tu nous as secourus,
Nous etions las, meurtris, saignants, bien qu'invaincus
Tes soins ont adouci notre fiere detresse.
Tu nous as fait benir, ^ force de tendresse,
Ce que I'heure presente avait pour nous d'amer.
Nous t'aimons, tu le sais, mais ce n'est pas d'hier
Que nos coeurs sont a toi. Lorsque mil huit cent trente
Arma contre ses rois I'Europe fremissante,
Les Beiges, qu'enchainait un odieux traite,
Jeterent, eux aussi, leur cri de liberte.
N'est-ce pas ton accueil, puissance tutelaire,
Qui, revoquant enfin un arret seculaire,
Confirma dans ses droits la jeune nation ?
N'avons-nous pas grandi dans Tombre d' Albion ?
Aujourd'hui que la guerre a detruit ton ouvrage,
Et que la loyaute, le bon droit, le courage.
Force du faible, reconfort de I'innocent,
Ne nous ont point gardes du fleau menagant,
Tu surgis dans ta force, ardente et resolue !
Quelque lourde que soit la tache devolue,
Tu I'acceptes ! Ton ame est celle d'un heros.
Ton glaive ne doit pas rentrer dans le fourreau
Qu'il ne nous ait rendu la liberte ravie.
Ainsi tu nous auras deux fois donne la vie,
Mere auguste. Deja I'horizon triste et noir
S'iUumine pour nous du radieux espoir
Qu'eveille dans les coeurs ta parole loyale ;
Et notre gratitude est toute filiale.
191
TO ENGLAND.
Translation by Alfred Perceval Graves.
NO one was nigh to help us — ^your arm was stretched to aid.
We were worn and torn and bleeding — but unconquered
and undismayed :
Your comradeship and care have calmed our proud
distress,
And the cup of our despair, through your fine tenderness,
Is filled with blessed balm and consolation dear.
We have loved you well — ^you know it. But not only since yester year
Have our hearts yearned to yours — eighty-five winters ago.
When shuddering Europe arose and laid her tyrants low.
And our Belgians who lay bound, beneath a hateful yoke.
With one exultant cry to Liberty awoke —
Was it not your right arm, O Tutelary Power,
That struck off our secular chains in one bright, glorious hour.
Confirming our just rights by that transcendent stroke ?
And have we not since grown up in the shadow of England's oak ?
To-day when a coward laid your fair young nursling low.
And the loyal and just and brave, as they reeled from his felon blow.
Could not save a greybeard and virgin, the mother and babe from the
surge
Of rape and murder and torture let loose by the Devil's Scourge,
You arose in the flaming might and right of your resolute wrath.
And the fell, blood-reeking monster who scornfully challenged your path
You met, resolved in soul, like your Champion Knight, Saint George,
Till your pure, proud sword had pierced through his cruel dragon gorge
And set Maid Belgium free — its fury never to sheathe.
Thus shall her freedom of you be born anew from death,
England, our mother august ! and lo ! yon gloomy cope
Breaks on our gaze into glowing raptures of heavenly hope.
And our hearts leap up to hear your pledge to our land renewed,
And the tears are flooding our eyes in filial gratitude.
192
C X
I <
NOS ARTISTES EN ANGLETERRE.
Par Jules Destree, Depute,
C'ETAIT en Septembre de Pan dernier, au bord de la mer.
L'AUemagne tenait Bruxelles dej4, mais elle n'avait pas
encore Anvers, ou continuait ^ vivre notre Gouvernement.
La cote beige, d'abord abandonnee par tous ses habituels
villegiateurs, avait ete peu ^ peu envahie par de nombreux
refugies. Les uns etaient de pauvres gens dont les villages avaient
ete devastes et qui arrivaient, denues de tout, en cohues lament-
ables ; les autres appartenaient ^ la classe aisee et se resignaient sans
trop de peine a passer dans les confortables villas du littoral des vacances
qu'ils n'avaient pas prevues ; d'autres enfin etaient les soldats blesses
de nos premiers combats, soignes dans les grands hotels transformes en
ambulances.
Pendant toute la journee, tous ces deracines se promenaient sur la
digue, friands de nouvelles, commentant les journaux. Nous n'avions
plus de journaux beiges qu'^ Anvers, ^ Gand et a Ostende, et les joumaux
anglais etaient particulierement recherches.
Des troupes allemandes barraient la route vers Bruxelles, mais
pourtant on parvenait encore a avoir avec la capitale et le reste du pays
des communications assez regulieres. On apprenait ainsi peu ^ peu,
avec un etonnement mele d'horreur, la fa^on atroce dont I'armee alle-
mande menait la guerre, les massacres d'Andenne, de Tamines et
d'Aerschot, la destruction de Dinant et de Louvain. Les recits les
plus veridiques rencontraient beaucoup d'incredules, car on se refusait
a croire I'Allemagne capable de pareilles barbaries. On suivait avec
effroi la rapide avance des troupes germaniques ^ travers la France et
Ton tremblait pour Paris dont elles s'approchaient chaque jour. . . .
Et tandis que les ames etaient inquietes et soucieuses, le ciel etait
pur et doux, le soleil clair, la grande mer paisible et souriante, la dune
blonde et delicieuse ^ voir ; les clochers et les tours, parmi les arbres,
ornaient les lignes charmantes et pittoresques de la feconde plaine
flamande.
Oh ! les belles journees de cet ete finissant, si touchantes par tout le
tragique qu'on pressentait obscurement. . . .
Ce fut par une de ces journees que je vis arriver deux professeurs
193 o
NOS ARTISTES EN ANGLETERRE
d'universites anglaises, accompagnes par un de mes amis et avec
lesquels j'eus un entretien qui me laissa a la fois surpris et charme.
lis avaient pense aux artistes et intellectuels de Belgique et venaient
leur offrir I'hospitalite en Angleterre. lis s'etonnaient de ne pas les
avoir vus arriver encore ; jusque la, des paysans du Limbourg, du
Brabant septentrional et de la province d'Anvers avaient compose
principalement I'exode. Et avant que les peintres, les sculpteurs,
les artistes de nos theatres et de nos concerts, les professeurs d'uni-
versite eussent songe, a chercher un abri pendant la tourmente, eux les
Anglais, y avaient pense et venaient me prier d'etre leur interprete.
Delicate pensee qui honore ceux qui la realiserent avec tant de cordialite
simple. ... Ce fut ce jour-la la premiere poignee de main des artistes
d'Angleterre a leurs freres de Belgique.
Un mois plus tard j'etais a Anvers, dans An vers a I'agonie. J'avais
ete, en cette heure supreme, supplier le Gouvernement et le Roi de
m'employer a quelque besogne utile a la Patrie. J'eus avec le Roi
Albert un long entretien, au cours duquel il me dit : " AUez a Londres,
Monsieur Destree, et occupez-vous la-bas de nos artistes qui y sont
deja nombreux ; il ne faut pas que I'elite de notre peuple perisse dans
la tempete." . . . Preoccupation admirable et touchante, n'est-il pas
vrai, chez notre Souverain, que cette soUicitude en cet instant redoutable
dont I'insolite gravite eut affole des natures moins bien trempees !
Et je me souviens qu'il me park de Victor Rousseau, de Donnay
et de Rassenfosse, en s'informant d'eux avec bienveillance. J'eus
I'honneur de lui signaler que ces artistes exposaient a Venise et de
suggerer le projet de transporter a Londres cette exposition. Detail
furtif d'une conversation, en lequel le destin decidait des lors, a mon
insu, mes sejours ulterieurs en Italic. . . .
J'arrivai a Londres, un soir. Soir de brouillard et d'humidite pene-
trante. Soir lugubre ou il me semblait marcher dans des larmes.
Sur les trottoirs lulsants, les placards annon9aient les nouvelles, et
chacune d'elles etait comme un coup au coeur : Anvers bombarde !
Anvers en flammes ! Chute d'Anvers. . . .
£t nous etions perdus dans la ville formidable, egares, etourdis
194
NOS ARTISTES EN ANGLETERRE
par le mouvement prodigieux qui nous entourait, en proie k cettc
detresse morale : ne savoir ou aller, toutes nos habitudes cassees, ces
habitudes qui sont comme le squelette qui soutient normalement notre
vie quotidienne.
Des le lendemain, quelques visites, quelques presentations, et Ton
eut aussitot la sensation de la famille retrouvee. Pour tous les artistes
beiges, des portes fraternelles s'ouvrirent, des havres furent trouves,
des assistances delicates rendirent la vie plus supportable et plus
facile.
Et ce fut, ce jour-la, la seconde poignee de main des artistes d' Angle-
terre aux artistes de Belgique.
Quelques mois plus tard, dans les salons graves et froids de la Royal
Academy, a Londres, une assemblee d'elite ecoutait les discours qui
celebraient la remise solennelle k la nation britannique d'un marbre
d'Egide Rombaux, ceuvre beige offerte a leur pays par les artistes
anglais, en perpetuel temoignage de la fraternite qui les avait unis b,
nos artistes pendant I'annee terrible. Le marbre magnifique, une de
ces oeuvres qui avaient figure avec eclat a Venise, resplendissait, dans
I'harmonie de sa forme elegante, au milieu de la salle, et les paroles qui
furent echangees ce jour-la laisserent dans tous les cceurs une impression
delicate et douce.
C'etait la troisieme fois que je voyais la main des artistes d'Angle-
terre dans la main des artistes de Belgique.
Mais nul ne pourrait dire quand ce sera la derniere. Car desormais
des liens sont crees qui sont indestructibles ; des relations d'estime,
d'admiration et de fraternite sont etablies qui seront utiles aux uns
et aux autres, et lorsque les choses reprendront, dans la paix, leur
cours normal, chacun se sera enrichi de souvenirs precieux, attestant,
dans les deux pays, I'union des serviteurs de la Beaute.
195
OUR ARTISTS IN ENGLAND.
Translation by Campbell Dodgson,
Keefer of Prints and. Drawings at the British Museum.
IT v/as in September last year, by the seaside. Germany already
held Brussels, but she had not yet gained Antwerp, which continued
to be the seat of our Government. The Belgian coast, at first
deserted by all its habitual summer visitors, had gradually been
invaded by numerous refugees. Some were poor people whose
villages had been devastated and who arrived, stripped of every-
thing, in lamentable crowds ; others belpnged to the well-to-do class,
and had no great difficulty in resigning themselves to passing an unfore-
seen holiday in comfortable villas by the sea ; others again were the
soldiers wounded in our first battles, who were cared for in the big
hotels transformed into hospitals.
These uprooted people walked along the sea-front the whole day
long, eager for news, discussing the papers. We had no more Belgian
papers except at Antwerp, Ghent, and Ostend, and the English papers
were particularly sought after.
German troops barred the road to Brussels, but nevertheless people
contrived to keep up fairly regular communications with the capital
and the rest of the country. Thus they learned by degrees, in astonish-
ment, mingled with horror, the atrocious way in which the German
Army was conducting the war — the massacres of Andenne, Tamines,
and Aerschot, the destruction of Dinant and Louvain. The most
truthful narratives were often received with incredulity, for people
refused to believe Germany capable of such barbarity. They followed
with alarm the rapid advance of the German troops across France, and
trembled for Paris, to which they were drawing nearer every day.
And while the souls of men were weary and full of care, the sky was
pure and sweet, the sun bright, the wide sea peaceful and smiling, the
sand-dunes pale and delightful to behold ; the belfries and towers,
among the trees, adorned the charming, picturesque contours of the
fertile Flemish plain.
Oh ! the beautiful days of that end of summer, so touching through
all the tragedy that was dimly apprehended.
196
OUR ARTISTS IN ENGLAND
It was on one of these days that I saw two professors of English
universities arrive, accompanied by one of my friends, and had an
interview with them which left me both surprised and charmed. They
had thought of the artists and scholars of Belgium, and came to offer
them hospitality in England. They were surprised that they had not
already seen them there, the exodus having up till then been principally
composed of the peasants of Limbourg, Northern Brabant, and the
province of Antwerp. And "before the painters, sculptors, theatrical
artists, musicians, and university professors had thought of seeking
refuge during the whirlwind, the English had thought of it, and came
to beg me to be their agent. A tactful thought which honours those
who carried it out with such simple cordiality. That day was the
first time that the artists of England shook hands with their brothers
of Belgium.
A month later I was at Antwerp, Antwerp in its agony. I had gone,
at this supreme hour, to entreat the Government and the King to
employ me in some occupation useful to the country. I had a long
conversation with King Albert, in the course of which he said to me :
" Go to London, Monsieur Destree, and look after our artists who
are already over there in considerable numbers ; the pick of our people
must not perish in the storm." It was admirable and touching —
was it not ? — to see our sovereign anxious about such matters at
an awful moment, the unaccustomed gravity of which would have
unhinged a temperament less finely wrought.
And I remember that he spoke to me of Victor Rousseau, of Donnay,
and Rassenfosse, asking kindly for information about them. I had
the honour of bringing to his notice that these artists were exhibiting
at Venice and of suggesting that this exhibition should be transferred
to London. That was a minor detail in a conversation, but in it
destiny was already deciding, unknown to me, my further sojourn
in Italy.
I arrived in London one evening. An evening of fog and pene-
trating damp. A melancholy evening, on which I seemed to be walking
through tears. On the shining pavements posters announced the
OUR ARTISTS IN ENGLAND
news, and every announcement was like a stab in the heart : Antwerp
bombarded ! Antwerp in flames ! Fall of Antwerp !
And we were lost in the formidable town, astray, stunned by the
prodigious movement that surrounded us, a prey to the moral distress
of not knowing where to go, with all our habits broken off, those habits
which are like the framework that normally sustains our daily life.
The next day some visits were paid, some introductions effected, and
immediately we had the sensation of having found our family again.
For all the Belgian artists brotherly doors were opened, havens were
found, aid was tactfully offered that rendered life easier and more
endurable.
And that day was the second time that the artists of England shook
hands with the artists of Belgium.
Some months later, in the cold, dignified rooms of the Royal Academy,
a chosen assembly listened to the speeches which celebrated the formal
presentation to the British nation of a marble by Egide Rombaux, a
Belgian work offered to their country by English artists in perpetual
testimony to the brotherly bonds that had united them to our artists
during the year of terror. The magnificent marble, one of those works
which had figured successfully at Venice, shone, in the harmony of its
elegant form, in the midst of the gallery, and the words that were
exchanged that day left a delicate and kindly impression in every
heart.
It was the third time that I saw the hands of the artists of England
clasped in those of the artists of Belgium.
But none can say when it will be the last time. For bonds are
henceforth created that are indestructible ; relations of esteem,
admiration and fraternity are established which will be useful to
both countries, and when in time of peace things resume their normal
course, each will be enriched with precious memories* attesting the
union of the servants of Beauty.
198
L'ACCUEIL FAIT AUX ARTISTES.
Par Paul Lambotte,
Directeur des Beaux- Arts au Ministhe des Sciences et des Arts de Belgique
L'ENVAHISSEMENT brutal de la Belgique par les hordes
teutonnes, les atrocites sans nom commises au debut de la
campagne centre des populations inoffensives par les soldats
de Guillaume II., provoquerent Pexode immediat d'un grand
nombre d'artistes.
Ces etres nerveux, sensitifs, imaginatifs, impressionables ^ I'exces,
devaient plus que tout autres. s'effarer de Tattentat invraisemblable
commis centre la civilisation a laquelle ils croyaient ! lis ne pouvaient
se resigner a subir le joug de fer de I'occupant, ses vexations intolerables,
ses interdictions arrogantes, aux sanctions calculees en vue de repandre
la terreur dans tout le pays.
Peintres, sculpteurs, musiciens, hommes de lettres franchirent a la
hate la frontiere hollandaise. Pour la plupart la ne s'arreta pas le voyage.
Attires par I'espoir d'y trouver du travail et des ressources ils passerent
bientot en Angleterre.
La plupart etaient accompagnes des groupes lamentables des epouses,
des enfants, des vieux parents habitues a compter sur les moyens d'exis-
tence que le chef de la famille leur procurait.
Immediatement les artistes britanniques manifesterent la plus
touchante et la plus delicate sollicitude a I'endroit de ces confreres en
exil.
Sans s'inquieter de la crise, si angoissante pour eux-memes, provoquee
par la guerre, ils ne menagerent ni leur argent ni leurs efforts pour
assister ceux que le sort leur confiait.
Le Chelsea Arts Club, I'Arts Club, le Ridley Art Club furent parmi
les premieres associations qui offrirent aux artistes emigres des subsides,
des elements de travail, I'usage de locaux ou ils pussent se reunir,
rencontrer leurs nouveaux amis anglais, disposer a leur gre des biblio-
theques et des cabinets de lecture.
Comme de coutume en matiere de bienfaisance Pinitiative privee prit
les devants, indiqua les voies a suivre. Des peintres, des sculpteurs,
preterent des ateliers meubles, de partout des offres d'hospitalite, des
invitations gracieuses affluerent.
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Le Royal Institute of British Architects s'ouvrit largement aux archi-
tectes beiges. En Janvier 1915 la Royal Academy of Arts, adoptant les
propositions genereuses de Sir Edward Poynter, procura aux artistes
Poccasion de mettre leurs oeuvres sous les yeux du grand public, de
prendre contact avec lui, de se creer des ressources par des ventes
opportunes.
Aucune pensee egoiste de concurrence ne vint paralyser ce mouve-
ment altruiste. Les salles beiges annexees a la War Relief Exhibition de
Burlington House obtinrent un succes de bon aloi. La presse se
montra tres bienveillante, les transactions furent nombreuses.
Anterieurement — en Novembre 1914 — une exposition- tombola
d'oeuvrettes que j 'avals en grande partie apportees de Belgique a cette
fin, et dont le complement me fut donne ici par les artistes beiges
refugies, eut lieu a la Goupil Gallery, Regent Street, grace a I'obligeance
toute disinteressee de MM. W. Marchant & Co.
Cette entreprise rapporta plus de sept cents livres qui furent, en
presque totalite, envoyees a Bruxelles et distribuees, entre les plus
desherites des artistes qui n'avaient pas pu ou pas voulu quitter le sol
natal. Un comite local fut specialement constitue dans ce but. Le
surplus fut affecte a des secours urgents ici.
L'apparition d'un grand nombre d'oeuvres d'art beiges jusqu'a
present rarement apergues dans les expositions britanniques avait
provoque et entretenu a Londres et dans tout le Royaume-Uni un
mouvement de curiosite sympathique en faveur de notre ecole.
L'initiative avisee de Sir Henry Trueman Wood saisit I'occasion de
faire donner, sous les auspices de la Royal Society of Arts, des conferences
qui familiariserent les auditeurs avec les noms et les ouvrages caracteristi-
ques de nos maitres. Des projections nombreuses les illustrerent. The
Society of Women Artists organisa aussi deux Conferences consacrees a
I'Art Beige. M. G. Rosier, Directeur de I'Academie des Beaux-Arts de
Malines en fit une, en anglais, avec un grand succes. Des coUectes, a
Tissue de ces causeries, produisirent de quoi assister des femmes artistes
malheureuses.
Le Women's International Art Club fit, de son cote, large place dans
son salon annuel, aux oeuvres de nos femmes peintres et de nos dentel-
200
L'ACCUEIL FAIT AUX ARTISTES
lieres. Le compartiment d'art applique attira beaucoup de visiteurs, des
ventes et des donations permirent d'envoyer des secours pratiques aux
ouvrieres du lin tenu qui, dans leurs tristes demeures beiges, continuent
a manier les fuseaux et a creer leurs entrelacs exquis de fil.
On vit apparaitre un peu partout des oeuvres de nos artistes. Le
Gouvernement me donna mission de concentrer a Londres les envois
importants et nombreux qui en 191 4 avaient figure hors du pays a des
expositions internationales.
Un contingent considerable revint de Venise, en meme temps que des
dessins et des eaux-fortes reexpedies par les organisateurs de Fexposi-
tion de blanc et noir de Florence.
La majeure partie des oeuvres qui avaient ete exhibees aux Salons de
Paris et a 1' exposition municipale de Lyon furent dirigees sur San
Francisco mais cependant une quantite appreciable en arriva en Grande
Bretagne. D'autre part une collection excellente et tres representative
de sculptures beiges avait ete montree a Edimbourg, a Glasgow, a Aber-
deen, avec un succes eclatant. Ces tresors etaient encore inedits pour
Londres. Leur apparition y provoqua en faveur de Tecole de sculp-
ture beige un mouvement d'enthousiasme qui allait bient6t avoir sa
consecration.
Enfin les artistes s'etaient remis au travail. De nombreuses interpreta-
tions de figures ou de paysages britanniques vus par des yeux beiges ne
cesserent d'apparaitre depuis lors, on vit de tout cela aux salons de la
Society of Portrait Painters, au Royal Institute of Painters in Water
Colours, a la Societe Internationale des Sculpteurs et Peintres, a la War
Exhibition de Guildhall, a la Goupil Gallery, chez MM. Boussod-Valadon,
et dans vingt autres endroits encore.
Ce fut bientot le tour des grandes viUes du Royaume-Uni. Chacune
k. I'envi voulut avoir son Exhibition Beige ou tout au moins une section
beige annexee a son salon de printemps ou d'automne. Des expositions
s'ouvrirent a Cardiff, a Brighton, a Oxford, a Sevenoaks, a Taunton, a
Cheltenham, k Liverpool, a Derby ; dans bien d'autres cites quelques
oeuvres des notres furent incorporees dans des ensembles interna-
tionaux.
Aucune de ces entreprises ne fut infructueuse. Partout des transac-
201
L'ACCUEIL FAIT AUX ARTISTES
tions furent conclues et quelques musees locaux s'enricherent heureuse-
ment d'oeuvres beiges.
» # * *
Entretemps les artistes britanniques continuaient a reunir des fonds
destines au soulagement de leurs confreres beiges, specialement de ceux
restes en Belgique, dont la detresse chaque jour devenait plus navrante.
La Royal Scottish Academy prit Tinitiative d'une entreprise a laquelle
tous les artistes ecossais preterent leur concours et qui produisit la plus
magnifique moisson.
Sir James Guthrie, President de PAcademie, a bien voulu me confier
cette recolte et s'en remettre a moi, sous certaines conditions speciales
faciles a observer, pour la repartir. Elle n'etait pas inferieure a quatorze
cent quarante livres sterling !
De son c6te le Comite de la War Exhibition de la Royal Academy fit
genereusement la part des Beiges. Son tresorier me fit parvenir plus de
230 livres auxquelles MM. J. Lavery, J. Pennell et quelques autres
ajouterent des dons individuels, abandonnant au " fund " beige le
produit integral de la vente de leurs ceuvres qui avaient paru la.
Je dois mentionner encore les dons qui me vinrent du Sketching Club
de Dublin, du Ridley Art Club, de la Sv/ansea Art Society, affirmant de
partout cet elan de solidarite profondement touchant dont on ne
saurait assez louer et reconnaitre la genereuse spontaneite.
Le Salon d'ete de la Royal Academy de Londres a resume et couronne
d'une fa^on en quelque sorte symbolique Paccueil collectif reserve par
les artistes britanniques aux artistes beiges.
A ce Salon parut une statue en marbre, oeuvre du sculpteur bruxellois
Egide Rombaux, intitulee " Premier Matin." Elle avait ete vue a Bruxelles,
quelques mois avant la guerre, au Salon de Printemps 191 3 et de la
transportee a Venise d'ou elle fut amenee a Londres. Partout elle avait
ete extremement admiree, chacun la considerait comme un chef-d'oeuvre.
Des avant I'ouverture de I'exposition Sir Edward Poynter, le venerable
et charmant President de la Royal Academy, Sir William Goscombe
John, I'eminent statuaire, les peintres D. Y. Cameron et H. Hughes
Stanton avaient decide d'ouvrir une souscription afin d'acquerir I'oeuvre
et I'offrir a la nation.
202
L'ACCUEIL FAIT AUX ARTISTES
Les artistes britanniques, confraternels et genereux une fois de plus,
s'associerent avec enthousiasme a cette pensee. Des amateurs d'art, des
critiques s'unirent a eux. En trois semaines la somme necessaire C^Soo)
fut reunie, bientot meme elle fut depassee et les dons continuerent
d'affluer. Un tel resultat en ce temps de guerre est extremement
eloquent. Les souscripteurs de la derniere heure tinrent a honneur de
voir leurs noms inscrits sur les listes et voulurent que leurs contributions
non utilisees pour Pacquisition du marbre fussent devolues au fond de
secours en faveur des artistes beiges.
Le sculpteur Rombaux, retenu a Bruxelles, fut mis au courant de la
manifestation exaltante dont son oeuvre fournissait I'occasion. II parvint
a faire connaitre ici toute sa joie et toute sa fierte. II eut ete heureux de
consentir un sacrifice important afin de faciliter les choses mais cela ne
fut pas accepte, les promoteurs du don eurent la coquetterie de ne rien
vouloir deduire du chiffre indique par Fauteur quand son envoi partit
pour Venise.
La remise du marbre ^ la nation se fit avec quelque solennite, au
cours d'une ceremonie toute de dignite simple et de reconfortante
solidarite.
Elle revetit TaUure d'un hommage coUectif rendu par I'Ecole Britan-
nique a I'Ecole Beige.
II n'y eut que quatre discours assez brefs mais les auditeurs ressen-
tirent avec emotion I'elevation, la noblesse, la rarete du geste dont ils
furent les temoins. Les plus purs sentiments dont se puisse enorgueillir
la pensee humaine, depouilles de toute arriere pensee egoiste, furent
seuls exaltes.
Sir Edward Poynter exprima excellemment le sens symbolique et
desinteresse de la manifestation en faisant, au nom des souscripteurs,
remise de I'oeuvre aux musees nationaux.
Lord Plymouth voulut bien, en termes flatteurs, ^accepter au nom
des Trustees de la National Gallery.
Les orateurs beiges preciserent le caractere general de I'initiative
prise par les promoteurs et marquerent la gratitude profonde de leurs
compatriotes.
II fut clairement entendu que la blanche et harmonieuse statue de
203
L'ACCUEIL FAIT AUX ARTISTES
marbre due au ciseau de Rombaux, oeuvre marquante de I'un des
sculpteurs qui ont porte si haut le juste renom de notre art, demeurerait
desormais dans les galeries publiques de Londres comme un souvenir
permanent de la touchante et digne hospitalite exercee par les artistes
de la Grande-Bretagne en faveur des artistes de la Belgique heroique et
martyre; comme un symbole eternel des liens nouveaux et durables
recemment noues entre les deux Ecoles !
204
THE WELCOME TO OUR ARTISTS.
Translation by Sir Claude Phillips.
THE brutal invasion of Belgium by the Teutonic hordes,
the unspeakable atrocities committed in the early days
of the campaign against an inoffensive population by
the soldiery of William H., brought about the imme-
diate exodus of a great number of artists. Nervous and
sensitive, imaginative and impressionable to excess, they were
naturally among the very first to be alarmed by so monstrous and
incredible an onslaught upon the civilisation in which they believed.
They could not face the idea of submitting to the iron yoke of the
enemy in occupation — to his intolerable oppression, his arrogant inter-
dicts enforced by severities devised with the view of terrorising the
whole country. Painters, sculptors, musicians, men of letters hastened
to cross the Dutch frontier.
And for most of them flight did not stop at this point. Possessed by
the hope of finding work and creating sources of income, they soon crossed
over to England. Most of them were accompanied by pitiable groups of
human creatures; by women and children, by elderly relations accus-
tomed to rely on the head of the family for the means of subsistence.
Forthwith the artists of Great Britain gave active proof of the most
touching and delicate sympathy with these their exiled brothers-in-art.
Undismayed by the crisis — so trying to them also — which had arisen
as a consequence of the War, they spared neither money nor pains in
their determination to come to the aid of those whom Fate had confided
to their care.
The Chelsea Arts Club, the Arts Club, the Ridley Art Club were
among the first associations to come forward with assistance in the shape
of pecuniary advances, of opportunities for work, of permission to use
buildings in which it might be possible for Belgian artists to confer,
to meet their new English friends, and to make free use of libraries
and reading-rooms.
As the rule is when good works are to be initiated, private enterprise
took the lead, and indicated the road to be followed. Painters and
sculptors lent furnished studios; from all sides there came gracious
invitations, there flowed in offers of hospitality. The Royal Institute of
205
THE WELCOME TO OUR ARTISTS
British Architects opened its doors wide to the Belgian architects. In
January, 191 5, the Royal Academy of Arts, adopting the proposal
generously put forward by Sir Edward Poynter, procured for our artists
the opportunity of bringing their works before the general public —
of coming into contact with it and creating pecuniary resources by
opportune sales. There was no selfish dread of competition to impede
this nobly altruistic movement. The works brought together in the
galleries set aside for the display of Belgian art, constituting in them-
selves a supplementary section of the War Relief Exhibition at Bur-
lington House, achieved a quite satisfactory success. The Press
showed itself favourably disposed, and a considerable amount of business
was done.
Previously — in November, 1914 — an exposition-tombola of minor
works, for the greater part brought over by me from Belgium, and
supplemented by others presented over here by Belgian artists, was
organised at the Goupil Gallery, in Regent Street, thanks to the entirely
disinterested co-operation of Messrs. Marchant & Co., the proprietors of
that gallery. This enterprise brought in more than seven hundred
pounds, almost the whole of which sum was transmitted to Brussels,
and distributed among the most unfortunate of those artists who had
been unable, or unwilling, to leave their native country. A special
committee was appointed with this object, and the surplus was applied
to cases of urgency over here.
The appearance in British exhibitions of a great number of Belgian
works of art such as had hitherto been unfamiliar in England was
the cause of a movement of sympathetic curiosity in favour of our
school — not in London alone, but in the whole of the United Kingdom.
Sir Henry Trueman Wood, wisely turning to account the opportunity
thus offered, arranged, under the auspices of the Royal Society of Arts,
a series of lectures which familiarised audiences with the names and the
most characteristic works of our masters. Of these works numerous
lantern-slide illustrations were given.
The Society of Women Artists organised also two lectures on Belgian
art, and M. G. Rosier, director of the Academy of Fine Arts at Malines,
gave one of these, in English, with great success. Collections made at the
206
THE WELCOME TO OUR ARTISTS
close of these informal addresses produced sums which were devoted to
the assistance of women artists in distress.
The Women's International Art Club accorded much space in its
annual exhibition to the work of our women painters and our lace-makers.
The section of Applied Art in this display attracted many visitors.
Sales and donations rendered it possible to afford practical help to
the workers of these subtle textures who, grief-stricken in their
dwellings in Belgium, continued to ply their needles and weave
exquisite arabesques in thread.
On all sides were to be seen the productions of our artists. I was
instructed by the Government to concentrate in London the numerous
and important examples which in 1914 had represented our national art
in international exhibitions abroad. Many such objects were forwarded
from Venice, and at the same time drawings and etchings were sent
back by the organisers of the Black-and- White Exhibition which had
been held in Florence.
The greater number of those works which had been exhibited at the
Paris Salons and at the Municipal Exhibition of Lyons were transferred
to San Francisco, but a certain number found their way to Great
Britain.
An excellent and representative collection of Belgian sculpture had
moreover been shown, with the most brilliant success, at Edinburgh,
Glasgow, and Aberdeen. These treasures were as yet unknown in London;
their appearance there aroused an enthusiasm for the Belgian School
which was soon to take a practical form. At last our artists were
in a position to resume work. Figure subjects, and also landscapes which
as British scenes viewed through Belgian eyes possessed a special interest,
continued to appear without intermission. Such pieces found
a place in the exhibitions of the Society of Portrait Painters,
the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, and the Inter-
national Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers respectively ;
in the War Exhibition of the Guildhall, at the Goupil Gallery,
in that of Messrs. Boussod-Valodon & Co., and in many other
shows. Then came the turn of the great cities of the United King-
dom. Everyone of these was eager to include a Belgian exhibition,
207
THE WELCOME TO OUR ARTISTS
or, at any rate, a Belgian section, in its spring or autumn display.
Temporary collections were brought together at Cardiif, Brighton,
Oxford, Sevenoaks, Taunton, Cheltenham, Liverpool and Derby ;
while in many other towns works by our artists took their place in
international groups of painting and sculpture. None of these enter-
prises was unfruitful ; on all sides advantageous arrangements were
entered into, and in some cases local museums made desirable acquisi-
tions of works of art by Belgians.
* • • •
Meanwhile the artists of the United Kingdom continued to collect
sums for the reHef of Belgian artists, especially those who had
remained in Belgium ; for the condition of the latter was becoming from
day to day more pitiable.
The Royal Scottish Academy took the initiative in an enterprise to
which all the Scottish artists lent their aid, and this brought in a magnifi-
cent harvest. Sir James Guthrie, President of that institution, was good
enough to place the sum realised in my hands, and, subject to certain
conditions easily fulfilled, to allow me full liberty as regards the mode
in which it was to be applied. The sums collected reached the high figure
of fourteen hundred and forty pounds. Then the Committee of the
War Exhibition at the Royal Academy made a generous allowance to
the Belgian artists. Their treasurer handed me a sum exceeding two
hundred and thirty pounds, to which Mr. Lavery, Mr. J. Pennell, and
some others added private donations, making over to the Belgian Fund
the entire price of such of their works as had been sold in that exhibition.
I must not omit to mention the gifts which reached me from the
DubHn Sketching Club, the Ridley Art Club, and the Swansea Art
Society, since these, coming from independent centres, afforded further
evidence of a profoundly touching outburst of fraternal feeling, the
generous spontaneity of which it would be impossible to overrate.
The Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy summed up and
crowned in a fashion that might be termed symbolic the collective wel-
come accorded by the British to the Belgian artists. In this exhibition
there appeared a marble statue entitled Premier Matin, the work of
the Brussels sculptor Egide Rombaux. This had been seen in the Spring
208
I.ADY EMMOTT
PAUL WISSAERT
THE WELCOME TO OUR ARTISTS
Salon of Brussels a few months before the war ; it had subsequently
been transported to Venice, whence it was brought to London. Every-
where this work had excited admiration, everywhere it was greeted as a
masterpiece. Even before the opening of the exhibition Sir Edward
Poynter, the venerable and charming President of the Royal Academy,
Sir William Goscombe John, the eminent sculptor, together with
the well-known landscape painters D. Y. Cameron and H. Hughes-
Stanton, had decided to open a subscription with a view to the
acquisition of this statue and its presentation to the nation.
The artists of the United Kingdom, showing themselves once more
fraternal and generous, gave enthusiastic support to this project.
Amateurs and art critics co-operated with them, and in three weeks the
sum required (;^8oo) was brought together. Soon, indeed, it was exceeded
— and still donations continued to pour in. Such a result as this in war-
time has its own eloquence.
The subscribers who came in at the last moment claimed as an honour
that their names should be entered upon the lists, and insisted that
their contributions, seeing that they could not be utilized for the
purchase of the statue, should be transferred to the fund for the assist-
ance of Belgian artists.
The sculptor M. Rombaux, who was detained in Brussels, was
informed of the stirring demonstration thus evoked by his work. He
succeeded in making known over here his joy and his pride. Indeed
he would have been pleased to make an important reduction in the
price of his statue, in order to facilitate the arrangements in progress,
but it was felt that this could not be allowed. Those who had con-
ceived the idea of making the gift showed an almost fastidious delicacy
in their refusal to allow any lowering of the price fixed by the artist
when the statue was exhibited by him at Venice.
The presentation to the nation took place with some solemnity in the
course of a ceremony marked by simple dignity and a consoling affirma-
tion of fraternal union. It took the form of a collective tribute by British
to Belgian art. Only four rather short speeches were delivered, but the
audience was deeply moved by the elevation, the nobility, the modera-
tion of tone and gesture in all that was said and done. The loftiest
209 P
THE WELCOME TO OUR ARTISTS
sentiments of which human thought is capable, free from all taint ot
egotism or mental reservation, were expressed.
Sir Edward Poynter, who represented the subscribers, and was charged
with the duty of making the gift to the nation, succeeded admirably
in expressing its symbolic intention and the disinterested character
of the entire manifestation. Lord Plymouth in flattering terms
announced the acceptance of the statue by the Trustees of the
National Gallery. The Belgian speakers defined the nature of the
initiative taken by the promoters and emphasized the deep gratitude
of their compatriots. It was clearly understood that the white
harmonious statue due to the chisel of Rombaux — a representative
work by one of the sculptors who have raised to a still higher point
the well-deserved renown of our art — ^would take its place definitively
in one of the public galleries of London, as a permanent record
of the touching and noble hospitality extended by the artists of
Great Britain to the artists of Belgium, the heroic, the martyred land —
as a lasting symbol of the new and durable bonds of union which in these
days of trial have united the two schools.
210
L'ART ET LA GUERRE.
Par E. Ysaye,
Mattre de Chapelle de S.M. le Rot des Beiges.
LES maux de la guerre sont multiples ; chacun, au sens personnel,
en determine la nature, d'ordre materiel ou moral. La patrie,
la terre aimee, le " home " deserte sont les sentiments qui
souifrent en nous. L^ bas, au front, des enfants cheris qu'une
mort heroique ou obscure guette! . . . C'est U qu'est la
grande souff ranee, faite d'amour et d'egoisme! . . . Aux pauvres
diables ces douleurs sont sans palliatif; s'ils se resignent, c'est que
leur esprit sans largeur n'analyse point et que le mal est plutot dans
la mature que dans Vordre abstrait.
L'artiste seul possede le baume infaillible qui, sans fermer les bles-
sures, en eteint les souifrances : c'est I'Art ! L'Art, le refuge, I'oasis, la
source ou, seuls, peuvent se desalterer, se reposer, les servants, les
inities, les elus ! . . .
Avec le secours de I'art, la souff ranee devient la " bonne souffrance "
dont parle le poete. Beaucoup d'entre nous, secoues par les poignantes
emotions des debuts de cette guerre si brusque et tant inattendue,
quoique depuis longtemps on en parlat, ne purent rien tirer de leur
cerveau: cela ne venait pas; on se raidissait, on essayait quand meme,
on se violentait, et d'informes ebauches naissaient, bientot delaissees,
mortes inachevees. Les nerfs etaient trop tendus, et quoique I'on
crut qu'en quelques mois — quelques semaines (!) — tout allait se ter-
miner, rentrer dans I'ordre, les Allemands chasses du pays qu'ils
souillaient, une sourde incertitude, une inquietude nerveuse se repan-
daient, nous tenaillaient douloureusement. Helas! les Allemands
resterent dans nos murs, et c'est peu a peu que la certitude de vaincre
vint nous rechauffer, nous regenerer, nous rendre I'energie au travail,
dissiper I'ombre sterilisante. Dans ce pays, d'hospitalite si large et si
delicate, au contact de ce mouvement perpetuel, de cette ruche labori-
euse, le courage revint ; on ne sentait plus la guerre et, apres une annee,
malgre d'audacieuses barbaries dont sont victimes d'innocents et
paisibles passants, on ne la sent pas davantage. Ici on apprend a
bannir toute crainte puerile, et la certitude d'une victoire finale s'enra-
cine en vous si profondement que la perspective d'une attente prolongee
21 I
L'ART ET LA GUERRE
ne vous cause plus aucun malaise. Ah! cette bonne Angleterre! . . .
Qui sait si, rentres dans nos foyers, nous ne la regretterons pas ?
Plusieurs des notres y reviendront, peut-etre pour s'y installer complete-
ment, s'y creer un " home " et jouir de ces bonnes moeurs anglaises si
pleines de morale h qui sait les comprendre.
La guerre — ce fleau — est aussi un " nettoyage "; elle fait oeuvre
d'epurement; elle fut parfois le germe d'heureux avatars; elle est
puissante a developper la fibre nationale, I'amour des siens; dans le
danger on se resserre, on se decouvre les uns les autres ; les sentiments
se font plus genereux, plus larges pour les hommes et les oeuvres.
C'est ainsi que, sans ignorer le fond de notre art beige, je ne I'ai jamais
tant admire que pendant son exil. Groupes dans le malheur tous nos
artistes fraterniserent ; il me sembla qu'ici on ne parlat plus de rivalite,
la critique fut plus indulgente, elle se tut, et j'entendis des conferences
sur I'art beige que jamais on n'aurait faites au pays. J'ajoute que les
conferenciers etaient tout nouveaux et que chez les musiciens comme
chez les peintres il y eut d'heureuses surprises.
L' Angleterre, par les memes causes, ressentit les memes effets. J'ai
connu, dans ce pays, pour les musiciens nationaux, la meme indifference
qui sevit en Belgique de temps immemoriaux. Eh bien, au cours de
cette annee, il m'a semble que le public anglais prenait gout aux oeuvres
des siens, qu'un vif interet s'eveillait pour les compositeurs et les
virtuoses britanniques. J'ai constate, en suivant les programmes des
concerts, que I'art anglais entrait dans une phase vitale du meilleur
augure. Ce pays s'est enfin degermanise, et, en marchant dans le
sillon trace par le puissant musicien qu'est Elgar, I'originalite de son
art ne peut manquer de se developper rapidement. En eifet, dans la
production nouvelle il y a un elan nouveau, on ecoute des oeuvres fort
interessantes de musique de chambre. Pour I'orchestre, k cote des
vastes conceptions d'Elgar, le chef inconteste de I'ecole, on entend des
pocmes modernistes d'un tour plutot latin, mais d'ou deja s'echappe
un parfum sui generis. Les orchestres, admirablement diriges par des
musiciens de premier ordre, parmi lesquels il faut citer Wood et Landon
Ronald, les orchestres, ou naguere les elements etrangers affluaient,
sont aujourd'hui bien anglais, sauf quelques rares exceptions en faveur
212
L'ART ET LA GUERRE
d'instrumentalistes frangais et beiges. Les editeurs eux-memes, par
miracle, paraissent disposes k aider le mouvement, et, comme les
frangais, s'appretent a se liberer du despotisme des editions allemandes.
Bientdt done il ne restera de I'influence germanique, si manifeste
avant la guerre, que le souvenir d'une epoque au cours de laqueUe
Fart musical anglais s'enlisait dans Porniere d'un classicisme vetuste
et sterile.
J'ai souligne avec joie cette heureuse transformation dans la culture
musicale du public anglais. En terminant, je salue avec respect
et admiration les artistes, compositeurs et virtuoses, anciens ou
nouveaux, qui sont sortis de limitation pour creer un art que I'abus des
" pathetiques " attardait.
213
ART AND THE WAR.
Translation by Sir A. C. Mackenzie,
Principal of the Royal Academy of Music.
MANIFOLD are the evils of War. Each of us deter-
mines their material or moral nature in his own
personal way. The Motherland, its beloved soil, the
deserted home are the sentiments which fill us vdth
sorrow. Far away, at the Front, are our cherished
children, for whom death, heroic or obscure, lies waiting! . . . There,
indeed, is the great suffering born of love and pride ! . . . To some
unfortunate ones such pangs are beyond relief; if they are resigned,
it is because their trammelled spirits do not analyse, and the evils
appear to be more material than moral.
Only the artist possesses that infallible balm, which, though it may
not heal the wounds, can be an anodyne. It is Art ! Art ! the haven,
the oasis, the source at which its servants, the initiated, the elect, can
quench their thirst and find rest.
With the succour of Art, pain becomes " La bonne souffrance " ot
which the poet speaks. Many among us, shaken by poignant emotions
at the commencement of this war — so abrupt and unexpected, however
long it may have been spoken of — could produce nothing from their
brains: nothing would come. All the same, we raUied and forced our-
selves, but only unformed outlines came forth, soon to be laid aside to
die unfinished. Our nerves were too much strained, and although we
believed that in a few months — a few weeks ! — all would be over and in
order again, the Germans driven from the country they were soiling,
a dull uncertainty, a nervous inquietude grew and held us in its painful
grip. Alas! the Germans remained within our walls, and only slowly
came the certainty of victory to comfort, to regenerate, bring back the
energy for work to us, and dissipate the blighting shadow. In this
country, where hospitality is so great and so thoughtfully dispensed,
in contact with the perpetually busy movement of this beehive of
labour, our courage revived, we felt war no more ; and now, after a year,
despite the audacious barbarities of which the victims are innocent
and peaceable passers-by, we feel it in no greater degree. Here, one
learns how to banish puny fears, and the certainty of final victory
214
ART AND THE WAR
becomes so deeply rooted in oneself that the prospect of a prolonged
wait hardly causes uneasiness. Ah! good England! . . . Who knows
but that, when once again at our own firesides, we may not miss her?
Many of us will come again, perhaps to settle down for good and all,
to make a " home " and to enjoy the good English customs, so full
of lessons to those who know how to apply them.
The war — this scourge — is also a " cleanser " ; it acts as a puri-
fier ; it sometimes is the forerunner of happy manifestations ; it
has the power of strengthening the national fibre and love for our own
folks. In danger we draw closer together and find each other. Our
feelings towards men and their work become broader-minded and more
generous. Thus, while far from being ignorant of the roots of Belgian
Art, I have never admired it more than now, during its exile. Thrown
together by misfortune, our artists fraternised. It struck me that here
none spoke of rivalry : criticism was more indulgent, even silent ; and I
have heard speeches on Belgian Art which never would have been
delivered in our country. Let me add that the speakers were quite
unknown men and that musicians as well as painters provided happy
surprises.
England, for like reasons, has experienced similar effects. I am
aware that, as regards native musicians, the same indifference prevailed
here which obtained in Belgium from time immemorial. Well, during
the course of this year, it seems to me that the British public has
appreciated the work of its compatriots ; that a lively interest in British
composers and executants has been awakened. Watching the Concert
programmes, I find that English Art had entered upon a vital phase of
happier auguries. This country is de-Germanised at last ; and, following
the lines traced by that powerful musician Elgar, the originality of its
Art cannot fail to develop itself rapidly. In fact, in its recent output
there is a new spirit, and one listens to most interesting works in the
domain of Chamber-music. In the Orchestra, side by side with Elgar's
vast conceptions — the incontestable chief of the school — we hear
" poemes modernistcs^'* of a somewhat Latin turn, but from which
already emanates an odour sui generis. The Orchestras — conducted
admirably by first-rate musicians, among whom to be named are Wood
215
ART AND THE WAR
and Landon Ronald — in which, not so long since, the foreign element
predominated, are, saving some rare exceptions in favour of French or
Belgian instrumentalists, now thoroughly English. The publishers
themselves, strangely enough, seem disposed to assist the movement,
and like their French colleagues are preparing to free themselves from
the despotism of German Editions. Soon, then, nothing will be left
of Germanic influence, so patent before the war, but the remembrance
of an epoch during which English Musical Art was stuck in the rut of a
worn-out and sterile classicism.
I have dwelt with joy upon this happy transformation in the musical
culture of the English public, and, in conclusion, I salute, with respect
and admiration, the artists, composers and executants, whether of the
older or newer schools, who have abandoned imitation in order to
re-create an Art which was hampered by the abuse of convention.
216
LE TEMPERAMENT MUSICAL BRITANNIQUE.
Par Arthur de Greef,
Professeur au Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles.
JE voudrais analyser une idee tres repandue dans le Royaume-Uni
et qui me parait fausse.
Sans I'oubli d'un passe glorieux cette idee n'aurait pu naitre.
Simple et claire en apparence, elle a, par cela meme, ete admise
trop facilement.
En realite elle souleve une question complexe qui touche a la
fois \ I'ethnographie, \ I'histoire et \ I'art, et ^ laquelle il est difficile de
repondre, meme partiellement, en quelques lignes, sans preciser quelques
points importants, sans rappeler quelques faits historiques.
Le peuple anglais est-il de temperament musical ?
II peut y avoir des peuples momentanement au repos apres une
productivite trop grande; il se peut que pendant cette periode
d'affaiblissement leur combativite soit insuffisante pour les defendre
contre les agressions du mauvais gout. II n'y a pas de peuple insensible
a la musique.
Dans I'histoire generale de Tart musical, I'Angleterre a joue le role
d'une puissante individualite. Sans remonter a des epoques que le
manque de documents laisse mysterieuses, nous pouvons dire que des
le debut du xv*™* siecle de nombreuses compositions, en majeure
partie religieuses, annoncent une germination pleine de promesses.
Une rapide diffusion de I'art nouveau amene vers le milieu du xvi*°»e
siecle une merveilleuse efflorescence. Les William Byrd, les Morley, les
Gibbons, creent d'innombrables oeuvres vocales, religieuses et profanes, des
motets, des " canzonets," des madrigaux, des ballets, des morceaux de
musique instrumentale, des " fantaisies " pour les violes, de delicieuses
pieces pour la virginale, des danses. La reputation des executants
depasse la mer et bientot les cours d'Europe (et specialement celles
d'Allemagne) recherchent et s'attachent des artistes anglais, joueurs
de viole, de luth ou d'instruments a clavier.
Les orgues de la Cathedrale d'Anvers sont confiees, pendant les neuf
dernieres annees de sa vie, au celebre compositeur John Bull (i 562-1628).
Par les cEuvres de cette epoque nous pouvons juger, non seulement
de I'ingeniosite des compositeurs, mais aussi de I'habilete des virtuoses.
217
LE TEMPERAMENT MUSICAL BRITANNIQUE
Et nous voici au plein epanouissement !
Au XVI I ^™e siecle se dresse la grande figure de Henri Purcell.
Musicien puissant et fecond, son genie se prodigue dans les genres les
plus divers: oeuvres chorales saisissantes de dignite et de noblesse,
ouvertures pour le theatre, musique de scene et " stage-plays " (forme
primitive de I'opera), senates, pieces d'orgue, de clavecin, etc., etc.
L'Angleterre a done eu une riche ecole de compositeurs et d'executants.
Et la chanson populaire !
Quel musicien n'en connait les precieuses reliques, les delicieux
chants ecossais,* irlandais, cambriens ?
Le peuple qui a chante et qui chante encore ces chantes-1^ est un
peuple plein d'imagination et de poesie.
Actuellement dans toutes les grandes villes du Royaume-Uni il y a
de magnifiques orchestres, de nombreux chceurs qui, tous les ans,
donnent de grandioses executions de Bach, de Haendel (cet Anglais
d'adoptiont), de Beethoven, de Mendelssohn, d'Elgar.
Le peuple anglais aime done la musique, la grande musique.
A-t-il perdu la faculte creatrice .?
Dans le dernier quart du xix^n^e siecle, un musicien de genie vint
frapper les imaginations, non seulement par sa grande originalite, mais
encore par la puissance de ses effets orchestraux, amplification des
procedes de Berlioz et de Liszt, et par I'audace victorieuse qu'il mit a
renverser les limites trop etroites qui enserraient le langage harmonique
et les regies despotiques qui comprimaient les idees musicales dans
des monies precongus et immuables. Son influence fut immense.
Sa formule d'art — " I'art allemand," comme il I'appelait lui-meme —
devint I'ideal d'innombrables musiciens de tous pays, et Bayreuth la
Mecque vers laquelle allerent se steriliser toutes les personnalites.
Cet engouement fut desastreux.
L'action corrosive du Wagnerisme degenere en fanatisme, se mani-
festa chez certains compositeurs d'abord par la caducite graduelle de
•Certains d'entr'eux ont conserve jusqu'a nos jours dans les Highlands leur aspect primitif
pintaphone et le dialecte gaelique.
"I" II vecut 45 ans en Angleterre, y composa toutes ses grandes oeuvres et fut fait sujet
britannique par acte du Parlement en 1726.
218
LE TEMPERAMENT MUSICAL BRITANNIQUE
leur originalite et raccroissement effrayant des reminiscences Wagneri-
ennes ; ensuite chez le public par une sorte de fascination qui I'immo-
bilisa pendant de longues annees dans une admiration globale et
irraisonnee de toutes les ecoles, de tous les chefs d'orchestre, de tous les
chanteurs, de tous les instrumentistes venus d'AlIemagne.
Helas, I'Angleterre parait avoir souffert cruellement de ce mal, car
en ce moment-U elle avait oublie son passe et ne voulait plus croire
en la force, engourdie mais toujours vivante, qu'elle portait en elle.
Apres une crise relativement courte, la musique fran^aise s'est ressaisie
et actuellement elle est en pleine possession de ses caracteristiques.
Camille Saint-Saens et Cesar Franck (notre compatriote, au moins
de naissance) sent les deux robustes piliers sur lesquels s'appuie le
temple nouveau.
Les d'Indy, les Faure, les Dukas, les Pierne, les Debussy, les Ravel,
et d'autres encore continuent I'edifice.
Quel sera le nom fulgurant qui rayonnera au fronton ?
Pourquoi I'Angleterre n'arriverait-elle pas a creer une ecole anglaise
comme la France a deja etabili une ecole frangaise ?
Procedant comme le firent les musiciens russes, pourquoi les musiciens
anglais ne pourraient-ils puiser dans leurs ressources autochthones de
quoi eriger un art autonome correspondant k leur genie propre original
et fait de leurs personnalites individuelles ?
L'histoire des civilisations et des peuples montre les lentes oscillations
des facultes collectives.
Un peuple qui a le passe artistique de I'Angleterre, qui a sa musique
populaire de jadis, qui a les qualites actuelles de science et d'originalite
que nous firent connaitre les oeuvres executees I'hiver passe au " British
Festival " k Queen's Hall, est un peuple au temperament musical.
Je salue avec joie son reveil et je prevois dans un avenir rapproche sa
gloire musicale nouvelle.
219
THE BRITISH MUSICAL TEMPERAMENT.
Translation by Sir Ernest Clarke, M.A., F.S.A.,
Chairman of the Folk Song Society.
I DESIRE to analyse a very widespread idea in the United Kingdom
which appears to me wrong. This idea could not have arisen had
not a glorious past been forgotten. Simple and clear in appearance,
it has for that very reason been too readily adopted. In reality, it
raises a complex question which, as it concerns ethnography, history
and art, is not easily answered, even partially, in a few lines, without
emphasizing some important points and recalling certain facts of
history.
Are the English people musical in temperament ?
There may be peoples momentarily at rest after a period of too great
productivity; and during such period their powers of resistance may be
inadequate to defend themselves from the aggression of bad taste.
There is no people insensible to music !
In the general history of Musical Art, England has played the part
of a powerful individuality. Without going back to a period which the
absence of documents leaves mysterious, we may say that from the
beginning of the fifteenth century numerous compositions, chiefly
religious, indicate a movement of great promise. A rapid diffusion of the
new art brings about, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, a
marvellous efflorescence. Men like William Byrd, Morley, Gibbons
create innumerable vocal works, both sacred and secular: motets,
canzonets, madrigals, ballets, instrumental pieces, fantasias for viols,
charming pieces for the virginals, and dances. The reputation of the
executants crosses the sea, and soon the Courts of Europe (especially
those of Germany) seek out and attach to themselves English artists,
players on the viol, lute and keyboard instruments. The organ of
Antwerp Cathedral was entrusted for the last nine years of his life to the
celebrated composer John Bull (1562-1628). By the works of this period
one can judge, not only the ingenuity of the composers, but the skill
of the performers.
And then we come to the period of full bloom.
In the seventeenth century the great figure of Henry Purcell appears.
Powerful and prolific musician, his genius was lavishly bestowed in
220
THE BRITISH MUSICAL TEMPERAMENT
the most diverse styles — choral works, striking in their dignity and
nobility, overtures for the theatre, incidental music, and " stage-
plays " (primitive form of opera), sonatas, pieces for organ and harpsi-
chord, etc., etc. England had then a rich school of composers and
executants.
And the folk songs. ...
What musician does not know those precious relics — the delicious
songs of Scotland,* Ireland and Wales?
A people who have sung, and who sing still, songs such as those must
be a people full of imagination and poetry.
To-day, in all the great towns of the United Kingdom, there
are magnificent orchestras, numerous choirs, which every year give
fine performances of Bach, Handel f (that Englishman by adoption),
Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Elgar.
English people, then, do love music and fine music. Have they lost
their creative faculty?
In the last quarter of the nineteenth century a musician of genius
appeared, striking the imagination not only by his great originality,
but still more by the power of his orchestral effects, carrying farther
the methods of Berlioz and Liszt, and by the triumphant audacity
with which he destroyed the too narrow bounds which restricted
harmonic language and the despotic rules which crushed musical ideas
into preconceived and rigid forms. His influence was immense.
His formula of Art — " German Art," as he called it himself — became
the ideal of innumerable musicians of all countries, and Bayreuth became
the Mecca towards which every personality went to be sterilised. This
infatuation was disastrous. The destroying influence of Wagnerism,
which had degenerated into fanaticism, showed itself at first in certain
composers by a gradual decay of originality and the alarming increase of
Wagnerian reminiscence ; then it was revealed in the public by a sort of
fascination, which petrified it for years and years into a state of
* Some of them have preserved to our own days, in the Highlands, their primitive penta-
tonic character and the Gaelic dialect.
•f He lived forty-five years in England, composed all his great works there and was made
a British subject by Act of Parliament in 1726.
221
THE BRITISH MUSICAL TEMPERAMENT
universal stupid admiration for all the schools, all the conductors, all the
singers, all the instrumentalists who happened to come from Germany.
Alas! England appears to have suffered cruelly from this evil, for at
that moment she had forgotten her past and would no longer believe
in the strength, numbed, yet still vital, that lay within her.
After a relatively short crisis, French music reasserted itself; and
to-day is in full possession of all its characteristics. Camille Saint-Saens
and Cesar Franck (our countryman at least by birth) are the two strong
pillars on which rests the new temple. D'Indy, Faure, Dukas, Pierne,
Debussy, Ravel, and others support the edifice. Whose will be the
brilliant name which will beam on the pediment ?
Why should not England found an English School as France has
already established the French School ? Following the example of
Russian musicians, why cannot the English draw out, from their
aboriginal resources, something on which to create an art of their own,
corresponding to their own native genius and made up of their individual
personalities .''
The history of civilisations and of peoples shows the slow oscillations
of collective faculties.
A people which has the artistic past of England, with its folk-music
of former days, possessing real qualities of science and originality such
as the works performed at the " British Festival " at Queen's Hall last
winter made known to us, is a people with musical temperament.
I greet with joy its awakening, and foresee in the near future its
new musical glory.
222
LA GPIANDE BRETAGNE PROTECTRICE DES ARTS.
Par Ernest Van Dyck,
" La reconnaissance est la vertu des forts ^ — Bonaparte.
L 'HORRIBLE cauchemar n'est pas passe — mais les Beiges en
exil ne veulent pas attendre plus longtemps I'occasion de
remercier la noble Angleterre, et de lui dire leur gratitude
infinie pour I'hospitalite qu'ils ont re^ue.
La Belgique n'est pas belligerante au sens propre du mot :
c'est une victime ! Un colosse est venu pietiner notre pays paisible
et iaborieux, qui s'entendait avec toutes les puissances voisines
sans meme jamais avoir marque a I'une ou a I'autre d'entr'elles une
preference ou une sympathie speciale. Notre loyale protectrice
I'Angleterre etait, peut-etre meme, la moins connue, sinon la moins
aimee d'entre ces voisines, parce qu'il fallait traverser les mers pour
apprendre a la connaitre.
Une elite seule avait pu apprecier son ame chevaleresque et sa grandeur
morale. Mais lorsque les conquerants vinrent saccager nos villes et
nos bourgs, nos tristes populations depossedees, allerent demander aux
" Blanches rives," jusqu'en la " Verte Erin " et pres des montagnes
ou I'hospitalite se donne,
mais ne se vend jamais !
un refuge momentane.
Comment les exiles furent re^us, soignes, choyes et consoles, des
voix plus autorisees que la mienne ont su le dire ici meme.
Depuis le plus noble des dues jusqu'au plus humble des boutiquiers,
tout le monde rivalisa de zele pour guerir les douleurs physiques et
morales.
Sous la froide et hautaine enveloppe de I'insulaire, un peu distant,
que la plupart d'entre nous ne connaissaient que de loin, nous avons
senti battre des cceurs compatissants qui cherchaient nos coeurs.
Et voici qu'un lien indissoluble s'est forme qui unit plus que jamais
notre petit peuple au plus grand des peuples. L'Empire " qui com-
mande aux mers " a etendu sur nous son manteau protecteur et nous a
dit : reposez vous, ne craignez plus — ma liberie repond de la vdtre !
Alors dans ce livre, quelques-uns de Belgique ont pris la plume
au nom de tous et ont ecrit leur gratitude qui ne pent pas perir.
223
LA GRANDE BRETAGNE PROTECTRICE DES ARTS
Nos paroles se seraient envolees comme s'envolent tous les verbes,
mais le sentiment coUectif que nous exprimons ici, restera comme un
" Charte " du remerciement, au grand, au noble Royaume-Uni.
4: ♦ 'K *
Ceux qui ont pu rester au pays dans leurs maisons intactes, nous
ont parfois envie les soins dont on nous entourait et je connais un
notable de chez nous, jaloux intransigeant, qui nous a compare aux
emigres de Coblence.
A Coblence, les emigres etaient au milieu des ennemis de leur nation,
tandis que nos pauvres victimes de I'invasion se sont trouvees au milieu
d'allies et d'amis.
Afin d'eviter de vivre cote a cote avec I'envahisseur plus d'un exile
a du consentir a de penibles sacrifices, et malgre le baume que des mains
amies ont mis sur les blessures — ^la souffrance de ceux qui resterent et
de ceux qui partirent a du etre au moins egale.
Parmi ceux que cette terrible guerre des peuples a le plus atteint
sont les travailleurs des arts de la paix, et les artistes musiciens surtout
ont connu les limites de I'infortune.
Mais I'Angleterre a tendu encore une fois sa main secourable. Nos
musiciens d'orchestre et nos virtuoses les plus fameux, ont ete accueillis
a bras ouverts non seulement par le public, mais par les confreres
anglais.
De toutes parts les manifestations musicales se sont organisees, un
orchestre beige s'est forme et malgre la portion congrue h. laquelle
les artistes du Royaume-Uni etaient eux-memes reduits, ceux-ci
ont trouve le moyen de partager en freres avec les camarades venus de
Belgique.
* * ♦ *
J'ai dit : " Merci " au nom des veuves, au nom des petits enfants, au
nom des orphelins, au nom de tous les desherites — mais je tiens surtout
a dire " Merci " au nom des artistes musiciens et dramatiques dont j*ai
vu la souffrance soulagee.
L'un d'entr'eux me disait : Devons nous tant souffrir par le pays de
la musique ? — Ou sont done Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart et
Richard Wagner ? Les Divines melodies et les harmonies sublimes
224
•2F'
I. A TAMISK
MAURICK WAG KM A XS
LA GRANDE BRETAGNE PROTECTRICE DES ARTS
cachaient-elles au monde epouvante un peuple redevenu ou reste
barbare ? Et la reponse vint de I'Angleterre meme, dont I'eclectisme
hautain ne voulut pas croire que les grands maitres de la musique
avaient quelque chose de commun avec les prouesses de I'usine Krupp.
Alors qu'une minorite, peut-etre interessee, voulait bannir Pexecution
de la musique allemande pendant la duree du sauvage conflit, les grands
chefs d'orchestre anglais mettaient a leurs programmes Wagner,
Beethoven, Mozart, et la foule venaient les acclamer, prouvant ainsi
qu'au pays des Stanford et des Elgar nul ne craint le rayonnement de
genies lumineux, et jugeant qu'il n'y a rien de commun entre les maitres
des temps, helas revolus — et les 93 intellectuels, signataires d'un honteux
manifeste !
Terre de Shakespeare, de Milton, de Bacon, de Byron, de Carlyle,
de Dickens et de cent autres esprits fameux — vous avez accueilli les
artistes beiges errants et miserables et pour cela vous serez benie a
travers les siecles ^ venir !
Votre sol fecond enfantera pour la gloire du monde d'autres musiciens,
d'autres poetes, d'autres peintres et d'autres philosophes !
Jadis, a une epoque plus heureuse, vous vint d'Anvers celui que vous
avez appele Sir Anthony Van Dyck, qui aux jours fastueux des Stuart
peignit toutes vos beautes et toutes vos elegances. Du fond du coeur
je vous dis " Merci " pour avoir recueilli, aux jours de misere et de
deuil, un chanteur, son tres humble homonyme.
225
GREAT BRITAIN: PROTECTRESS OF THE ARTS.
" Gratitude is the virtue of the strong.''^ — Bonaparte.
Translation by Elizabeth Asquith.
THE nightmare is not over — but the Belgians in exile will
no longer wait for an opportunity of thanking England
and telling her of their infinite gratitude for the hospi-
aUty they have received.
Belgium is not a belligerent in the true sense of the
word — she is a victim. A Colossus has come trampling on our peaceful
and industrious country which had ever been on friendly terms
with all the neighbouring Powers, though without showing to one or
other of them a special preference or a special sympathy. Our loyal
protectress, England, was perhaps the least known, if not the least
loved, of these neighbours, for in order to know her it was necessary
to cross the seas.
Only a chosen few had been able to appreciate her chivalrous soul
and her moral greatness. But when the conquerors came sacking our
cities and our castles, the populations, sad and disinherited, went to
ask of the white cliffs of England, of green Erin, and of the distant
mountains where " hospitality is given but never sold," a momentary
refuge.
How the exiles were received, tended, nursed and consoled, voices
of more authority than mine have told you here. From the noblest
of Dukes to the humblest of shopkeepers, everyone competed for
the care of their sufferings — physical and moral.
Under the cold and haughty exterior of the islander — a little distant
— which most of us only knew from afar off, we have felt the beating of
compassionate hearts searching for our hearts.
And hence an imperishable bond has been formed which unites
more than ever our little people with the greatest of peoples. The
Empire which " rules the waves " has spread over us her protecting
mantle, and said, " Rest and fear no more — my freedom answers for
yours."
So in this book some of us from Belgium have taken our pens in our
hands to write in the name of all of our undying gratitude.
226
GREAT BRITAIN : PROTECTRESS OF THE ARTS
Our words will fly away, as all words will, but the collective sentiment
of gratitude that we here express will remain as a " Charter of Thanks "
to the great, the noble United Kingdom.
Those who have been able to remain in our country with houses
intact have sometimes envied the care that has been lavished on us,
and I know one notability — a jealous extremist — who compared us to
the emigrants at Coblentz.
But at Coblentz the refugees were among the enemies of their nation,
whereas our poor victims of the invasion found themselves among allies
and friends.
In order to avoid living side by side with the invader, more than one
exile has had to consent to painful sacrifices, and, in spite of the balm
which kindly hands have laid on their wounds, the sufferings of those
who have stayed and of those who have left must have been at least
equal.
Among those who have been most affected by this war of the peoples
are the exponents of the arts of peace, and musicians especially have
known the extremes of misfortune.
But England has once more held out a helping hand. Our orchestral
musicians and our most famous executants have been received with
open arms not only by the public but by their English fellow-artists.
Everywhere musical entertainments have been organised, a Belgian
orchestra has been formed, and in spite of the meagre portion to which
the artists of the United Kingdom have themselves been reduced, they
have loyally shared it with their comrades from Belgium.
I have said " Thank you " in the name of the widows, in the name of
the children, in the name of the orphans, in the name of all the dis-
inherited. But above all I want to say " thank you " in the name of the
musical and dramatic artists whose sufferings I have seen relieved.
One of them said to me : " Must we suffer so much from the country
of Music ? Where are Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Mozart and Wagner ?
Did their divine melodies, their sublime harmonies hide from a horri-
fied world a people that has become or remained barbarous ? " And
the answer has come from England herself, whose lofty eclecticism
has refused to believe that the great masters of music have anything in
227
GREAT BRITAIN: PROTECTRESS OF THE ARTS
common with the exploits of the Krupp factory. WTien a minority —
perhaps not entirely disinterested — wished to ban the performance of
German music for the duration of the savage conflict, the great English
conductors put Wagner, Beethoven and Mozart into their programmes,
and the public by applauding proved that in the country of the Stan-
fords and the Elgars no one fears the brilliance of genius. There is
nothing in common between the masters of the past and the ninety-
three intellectual signatories of a shameful manifesto.
Land of Shakespeare, of Milton, of Bacon, of Byron, of Carlyle, of
Dickens, and of a hundred other shining lights — ^you have received the
Belgian artists — miserable wanderers — and you will be blessed for that
through the centuries to come. For the glory of the world your fertile
soil vdll give birth to other musicians, other poets, other painters and
other philosophers. Once in a happier era there came from Antwerp
the man you called Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and in the sumptuous days
of the Stuarts he painted all your beauties and all your graces. From
the bottom of my heart I thank you for having received in days of misery
and mourning a singer, his humble namesake.
228
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS.
Par Emile Cammaerts.
JE ne pense pas qu'on puisse trouver dans I'histoire un elan de
sympathie comparable k celui qui souleva I'Angleterre en faveur
de la Belgique, au debut de la guerre. Cette sympathie s*est
traduite en actions et en paroles. Je voudrais rappeler ici quelques-
unes de ces paroles. Non pas les discours eloquents des hommes
d'Etat de I'Angleterre, dont il a dej^ ete question dans ce livre, mais
le temoignage plus discret mais non moins sincere de ses ecrivains.
Je ne puis, bien entendu, dans les limites de cette courte etude, citer
tous les poemes, tous les articles, tous les livres dont la Belgique a
fait I'objet au cours de ces derniers mois. Je ne puis non plus, n'etant
pas competent, me permettre d'evaluer les qualites litteraires de toutes
ces oeuvres. Le temps n'est d'ailleurs propice ni a un travail de biblio-
graphic ni a un travail de critique. Tout ce que je puis oser entre-
prendre c'est de donner un aper9u forcement incomplet des circon-
stances a la faveur desquelles mon pays a regu ces temoignages de
sympathie ; c'est de penetrer, s'il se peut, les motifs qui ont inspire
aux poetes et aux ecrivains anglais un si ardent enthousiasme. Au cours
de la crise que nous traversons, les artistes deviennent les interpretes
les plus sinceres de la nation. La lecture de leurs oeuvres nous rapproche
du coeur du peuple.
Qu'on veuille done bien me pardonner de ne citer que quelques
oeuvres caracteristiques parmi toutes celles qui devraient trouver
place ici et ne pas me faire un grief de toutes les negligences et de tous
les oublis que je vais etre force de commettre. Je ne suis d'ailleurs
que partiellement responsable de ces erreurs. Si la moisson etait moins
abondante, je pourrais plus aisement en compter les gerbes. Si les
ecrivains anglais avaient ete moins genereux a notre egard, il nous eut
ete peut-etre plus facile de les remercier. L'enthousiasme provoque
toujours une certaine gaucherie chez ceux qui en sont I'objet. J 'en
appelle aux premiers soldats beiges qui debarquerent k Folkestone,
apres la chute d'Anvers, et que leurs ardentes admiratrices depouil-
lerent de leurs boutons de tunique. Me trouvant, litterairement parlant,
dans une situation analogue, je crois avoir droit a quelque indulgence.
229
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
II y a, au Palais de Justice de Bruxelles, une statue representant
le Droit entre la Pitie et la Justice. Elle est due, si je me souviens
bien, k notre excellent sculpteur A. Dillens. Le symbole se passe de
commentaires. La Pitie plaide le pour, la Justice plaide le contre et
le Droit, dans sa souveraine sagesse, exprime I'equilibre entre les deux
forces adverses, entre la vertu cardinale et la vertu theologale, entre
le sentiment et la raison. Mais supposons que I'artiste, au lieu de
disposer ses figures I'une a droite I'autre a gauche de la figure centrale,
ait place la Pitie et la Justice du meme cHe. Que resterait-il du groupe?
Que deviendrait le role du Droit? Telle est la question qui se posa
a la conscience du peuple anglais au debut de la guerre. Nous savons
avec quel enthousiasme, avec quelle ardente devotion elle j a repondu.
II n'est certes pas indispensable d'etre anglais pour etre chevaleresque
ou genereux, mais I'education anglaise developpe ces qualites et les
affine a I'extreme. La pratique constante des sports, la necessite d'etre,
des la plus tendre enfance, " beau joueur," de gagner sans gloriole
et de perdre sans protestation, engendre, dans I'ordre moral, une
extraordinaire susceptibilite, un mepris profond pour qui ne se con-
forme pas au rigoureux code d'honneur du " playground." C'est a
ce point que, dans la majorite des cas, le desir legitime de gagner la
partie est oblitere par la joie que Ton eprouve a la bien perdre, apres
un ardent combat. Peu importe le resultat pourvu que la lutte soit
chaude, et les vaincus sortent souvent de I'arene plus joyeux que les
vainqueurs.
L'oppression du faible par le fort, la lachete, dans les affaires privees
comme dans les affaires publiques, est execree par toutes les nations
chretiennes de I'Europe — par toutes celles du moins qui sont encore
dignes de ce nom. Mais ce mepris se trouve encore renforce en Angle-
terre par le sentiment — je serais meme tente de dire par le prejuge —
du " fair play." Le menteur et la brute ne sont pas seulement honnis,
ils sont disqualifies — ce qui est bien pire.
L'opinion publique anglaise a parfois ete seduite, elle s'est parfois
emue ^ tort, mais c'est toujours en faveur du faible contre le fort. II
n'est pas de nation oii la doctrine individualiste ait fait moins d'adeptes,
il n'en est pas ou le culte de la force, ou le transcendentalisme nietzscheen
230
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
aient plus lamentablement echoue. Pour 1' Anglais, et non sans raison,
le surhomme ne sera jamais qu'un lache, qu'un " bully" pour me servir
d'une expression intraduisible. (C'est une des raisons pour lesquelles
il professe k I'egard du militarisme — meme sous son aspect le plus
legitime — une si ombrageuse mefiance.) Le sens critique lui fait parfois
defaut, le sens moral jamais. II lui est aussi impossible de se mouvoir
" par dela le Bien et le Mai " que de confondre les deux camps d'une partie
de cricket ou de football. Son instinct, sa religion, ses prejuges meme
devaient done le porter a defendre la Serbie contre I'Autriche, la Belgique
contre I'Allemagne.
Mais il y a une difference, une difference profonde que la lecture
des journaux de I'epoque suffit a mettre en evidence. Entre la puissante
Autriche et la faible Serbie, il y avait conflit d'interet. L'une et I'autre
voulaient s'agrandir. De meme, entre I'ancienne triplice et la triple
entente, existait une certaine rivalite diplomatique. Nous avons
aujourd'hui etabli les responsabilites et la premeditation austro-allemande
ne fait plus de doute pour personne. Mais, a la veille de la guerre, il
n'en etait pas tout a fait ainsi. Une fraction importante de I'opinion
publique anglaise pouvait encore pretendre que le pays se trouvait
entraine dans un conflit auquel il n'etait qu'indirectement interesse,
et en rejeter la responsabilite sur " les obscures intrigues de la diplo-
matic." Toute fausse qu'elle etait, cette attitude n'en etait pas moins
discutable, et ces doutes et ces incertitudes eussent pu paralyser jusqu'a
un certain point I'initiative du gouvernement. C'est pourquoi la viola-
tion de la neutralite beige nous apparait aujourd'hui comme un acte
providentiel. L'ultimatum du deux aout etablit d'une maniere aveu-
glante la mauvaise foi de I'Allemagne, il dessilla brusquement les
yeux de la democratic anglaise, il lui enleva tous ses doutes, toutes ses
hesitations. II plaga la Justice a cote de la Pitie du meme cote du Droit.
Le conflit d'interet devint un conflit d'idees, la doctrine politique
devint un principe religieux, la guerre devint une croisade.
II faut avoir ete en contact avec les ouvriers anglais pour comprendre
I'influence enorme qu'exerga sur leur esprit I'envahissement de la
Belgique. A la veille de cet evenement, _ ils restaient indifferents sinon
hostiles. Des le lendemain, les bureaux de recrutement regorgeaient
231
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
d'une foule enthousiaste. La Belgique etait non seulement une
victime, mais une victime entierement irresponsable dont I'innocence
etait reconnue par le chancelier de I'Empire lui-meme. Ses habitants
ne demandaient qu'a " labourer, semer et recolter et a chanter leurs
chansons dans les bles."* Plutot que de voir ecraser ce loyal " petit
peuple dont le monde chante la gloire, plutot que de faire defaut a
la * Grande Belgique ' dans sa detresse, plutot que cela, la guerre ! " f
A la compassion, a I'indignation vient s'ajouter un troisieme senti-
ment, un sentiment de responsabilite. " II y a une foule d'objets dignes
d'emouvoir notre pitie dans cette guerre," ecrit G. K. Chesterton
dans un appel adresse au Daily Telegraph. "Mais ce n'est pas ici une
question de pitie. C'est une question d'honnetete elementaire, comme
celle qui nous ferait rembourser h un pauvre homme son dernier sou
s'il nous I'avait prete pour affranchir une lettre. A ce point de vue, la
Belgique occupe un place a part, et meme les revendications des autres
Allies peuvent attendre jusqu'a ce que sa dette soit completement
remboursee. Nous avons assiste partout a des exemples de sacrifice,
mais ce furent des sacrifices d'individus se devouant, chacun, a leur
pays. Des Serbes moururent pour la Serbie, des Italiens pour I'ltalie.
Mais les Beiges ne moururent pas seulement pour la Belgique. La Belgique
mourut pour I'Europe. Le soldat ne se sacrifia pas seulement pour
la nation, la nation se sacrifia pour I'humanite."
L'opinion publique anglaise n'a jamais accepte la modeste inter-
pretation donnee aux evenements par le gouvernement beige et par les
proclamations royales. Suivant elle, la Belgique aurait parfaitement
pu montrer, sans se deshonorer, un esprit plus conciliant. Entre le
sentier perilleux escaladant les falaises heroiques et la grande route
descendant vers les marais stagnants de la moUesse et de la lachete,
elle aurait pu choisir quelque voie mediane et eviter la ruine sans
s'exposer au deshonneur. A Timpossible nul n'est tenu. La France et
I'Angleterre ne pouvant intervenir en temps utile, rien n'obligeait
le roi Albert a poursuivre les hostilites avec I'indomptable energie
* Cecil Roberts dans The Glory of Belgium.
f Coulson Kernahan dans The Glory of Belgium.
232
I
IIAI.I, CAINE. KSg.
A. JONNIAUX
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
dont il fit preuve et k sacrifier son armee et son pays pour permettre
aux Allies de regagner le temps qu'une politique imprevoyante leur
avait fait perdre :
" Si la Belgique avait cede, la France et I'Angleterre auraient-elles
pu protester? Les Beiges n'etaient certainement pas tenus de constituer
une premiere ligne de defense pour proteger ces deux Puissances qui
avaient garanti sa neutralite, mais qui n'etaient pas ^ meme de la
defendre contre I'empereur Guillaume."*
Dans tout ceci, les ecrivains anglais se montrent plus royalistes
que le roi, plus belgophiles que les Beiges eux-memes.
" Qu'importe que nous n'ayons pas rompu nos serments," s'ecrie
F. W. Bourdillon,t " si ces villes doivent tomber en ruine ! Qu'importe
que I'Angleterre s'eveille! Les Beiges morts au champ d'honneur
se reveiUeront-ils jamais? "
Ce sentiment de responsabilite est si profond, si unanime, que
c'est peut-etre le seul point sur lequel M. Bernard Shaw soit d'accord
aujourd'hui avec ses concitoyens. Ce n'est pas le moindre miracle qu'ait
realise I'elan de sympathie que provoqua I'attitude de la Belgique au
debut de la guerre.J
- * # * *
La nation qui remplit scrupuleusement ses engagements est simple-
ment honnete; si elle depasse les limites de son devoir, elle devient
heroique; et si cet heroisme entraine sa ruine, au cours d'une lutte
inegale, elle devient martyre.
II est impossible de comprendre I'attitude de la pensee anglaise vis
^ vis de la Belgique si I'on fait abstraction de I'aspect religieux de la
question. L'atmosphere est extremement favorable au mysticisme,
en ce moment. Soit que nous nous illusionions plus aisement, soit que
nos yeux deviennent plus per^ants, nous voyons, nous sentons, nous
exprimons une foule de choses qui nous auraient semble jadis appartenir
k un autre monde. Les recits que les blesses rapportent du champ de
bataille echauffent et exaltent imagination populaire. Des anges
* W. Barry dans Everyman^ s Special Relief Number.
f The Glory of Belgium.
X Voir EverymatCs Special Relief Number.
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
apparaissent a Mons, Jeanne d'Arc couvre la retraite en Champagne
et des fleches de feu trouent les nuages en Pologne. Le vent est au
miracle. Le centre de gravite de notre existence se deplace. Le
merveilleux semble naturel et le naturel semble merveilleux.
C'est dans cet etat d'esprit que le public anglais a suivi anxieusement
la tragedie que vivait la nation beige. Tous les elements qui se trouvent
dans la Legende Doree se retrouvaient ici. La reponse du gouverne-
ment a Tempereur allemand devint la fiere repartie du martyr chretien
a I'empereur remain, refusant d'adorer les faux dieux. Liege fut le
premier supplice dont le saint sortit agrandi. Puis vint la deuxieme
demande de I'Allemagne, le deuxieme refus du gouvernement, suivi
de represailles terribles — Aerschot, Louvain, Malines, Termonde.
La chute d'Anvers enfin et la retraite vers la France — la passion du
martyr. Et sa resurrection, sur I'Yser, ou une armee fantome tint
contre un ennemi quatre et cinq fois plus nombreux, comme si tous
les morts qu'elle avait perdus luttaient a cote des quelques survivants.
Et le jeune roi Albert, digne symbole de la nation, incarnant son courage,
sa patience, attendant avec calme les renforts promis, restant, durant
des mois, isole en presence de son puissant ennemi, sans un geste
d'humeur dans la defaite, sans un mouvement de vanite dans la victoire.
Quelle belle legende quand on la contera, dans cinquante ans, au coin
du feu, mais quel miracle, pour ceux qui suivirent, pas a pas, la marche
des evenements, terrible, ineluctable comme un drame antique!
Cette signification mystique de la tragedie beige a ete admirablement
comprise par les lettres anglais.
II faut relire dans le King Albert's Book, ces pages impressionantes
dans lesquelles John Galsworthy compare I'invasion allemande a une
inondation a laquelle le peuple beige oppose une digue vivante: " Mais
les vagues les engloutirent. Dans le sombre tumulte des flots, je vis
les hommes qui se tenaient encore par le bras, les femmes agenouillees,
s'accrochant a la terre, et les petits enfants morts flottant ga et la,
et les betes mortes. Et leurs yeux restaient ouverts, bravant encore
la mort. Et au dessus d'eux les flots sauvages mugissaient. Mais, haute
et claire, la voix criait: " Freres, tenez ferme, la mort n'est pas, nous
vivons! " Et, affrontant la crete des eaux, je vis les ombres de ces
234
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
morts, se tenant par le bras, et je les entendis repondre: " Frere, nous
vivons
I »
Le Roi-Soldat n'avait-il pas dit: " Nos corps peuvent etre vaincus,
notre esprit reste invincible " ?
De la, a I'idee de I'efficacite du sacrifice, il n'y a qu'un pas, Monsignor
Benson le franchit. Selon lui, le martyr de la nation beige n'a pas seule-
ment ete fertile parce qu'il a inspire aux Allies des efforts extraordinaires
et parce qu'il a eu pour resultat de contenir, pendant trois semaines,
I'invasion des barbares. II a exerce une action plus mysterieuse et plus
profonde: " Si, comme les mystiques le croient, il n'est pas une souf-
france, soufferte par la plus humble creature, qui ne porte des fruits,
pas un cri, fut-il pousse par une bete a I'abattoir, qui ne soit entendu
et auquel il ne soit repondu — ne pouvons nous pas dire aussi que, lorsque
les comptes seront finalement dresses, la ruine de Malines et le sac de
Louvain auront contribue, pour une certaine part, a creer une beaute
plus noble et un courage plus patient."
Pour les plus enthousiastes, la Belgique devint un nouvel Israel,
" gardant I'autel de Dieu," * entretenant le foyer, alimentant les lampes,
une nation elue, predestinee au martyre, dont le courage et la patience
devaient sauver le monde des assauts de I'Antechrist, et devant laquelle
les plus orgueiUeux devaient ployer le genou: " Champion de I'honneur,
nous lavons vos pieds, nous pansons vos plaies, a genoux devant vous.
Quoique de laches mains vous aient crucifie, quoique votre sang coule
et que votre tombe soit creusee, rejouissez-vous et vivez! "t
* * * *
Si je me suis permis d'insister sur I'interpretation donnee k la tragedie
beige par le public et par les lettres anglais, c'est qu'elle explique
la part de plus en plus importante prise par I'Empire britannique dans
la guerre. Si celle-ci n'avait pas ete populaire, le gouvernement
n'aurait pu ni lever les recrues indispensables, ni monopohser I'industrie.
II ne faut pas oublier que la grande majorite des Anglais ne peuvent
envisager I'eventualite d'une defaite navale ou d'un debarquement.
II ne s'agit done pas pour eux de sauvegarder leur propre existence,
• F. W. Orde-Ward dans The Glory of Belgium.
t Eden Phillpotts dans King Alberfs Book.
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
mais de combattre, pour la bonne cause, a cote de leurs Allies. Le
martyre de la Belgique a ete le grand levier moral qui a emu les masses
et qui a permis au gouvernement de prendre les mesures necessaires
sans froisser I'opinion publique. II etait done particulierement interessant
d'analyser son action.
Mais ce ne sont ni ces eloges, ni ces panegyriques qui ont touche
le plus profondement le cceur des Beiges. lis ont choisi la porte etroite
parce que c'etait la seule que s'ouvrait devant eux. lis ne trouvent
aucune consolation a se poser en heros et en martyrs. La palme qu'on
leur offre ne leur rendra ni leurs foyers, ni leurs villes, ni leur inde-
pendance. C'est vers la patrie qu'ils se tournent sans cesse, c'est elle
seule, avec sa verdure eclatante, ses vieux clochers, ses parfums et ses
chansons, qui hante leurs reves et obsede leur souvenir. L'ode la plus
pompeuse ne vaut pas, a leurs yeux, une touffe d'herbe des prairies de
I'Yser.
Ce qui m'a surtout surpris et touche, k la lecture du King Albert's
Book, ce sont ces croquis de vie beige qui se trouvent epars dans le
livre ; quelques traits, sans aucune pretention, mais qui temoignent,
mieux que les plus beaux poemes, de la profonde sympathie des ecrivains
anglais a notre egard. EUes nous prouvent qu'eux aussi savaient aimer
Celle que nous avons momentanement perdue.
" Je revai que les gens de la patrie des carillons, etaient arrives, un
matin d'automne, avec leurs cloches, pour les suspendre au haut des
tours et des forteresses de mon pays," ecrit Thomas Hardy. L'auteur se
reveille pour assister au morne defile des refugies de Bruges, d'Anvers
et d'Ostende. Les cloches etaient restees la-bas. . . .
II sufiit d'entendre Edm. Gosse parler de nos poetes, W. J. Locke
invoquer les souvenirs de la revolution des Pays-Bas contre I'Espagne,
et Hilaire Belloc priser nos tresors artistiques pour sentir que la
Belgique n'etait pas isolee en Europe, que son esprit et sa civilisation
etaient apprecies au dela du detroit, qu'elle etait, pour me servir de
I'image de G. K. Chesterton, comme I'une de ces etroites fenetres qui
s'ouvrent au fond des portraits de Memling et a travers lesquelles la
campagne se deroule a I'infini.
Quel plaisir de suivre Arnold Bennett, au cours de ce premier voyage
236
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
qu'il fit en Belgique il y a vingt ans : " Namur et la vue de la Meuse !
Et Dinant avec ses rochers et sa tour et, plus loin, Anseremme ou on
pouvait avoir un lit et quatre repas et un bain dans la Meuse, le tout
pour quatre francs par jour! " Je crois savoir de quelle auberge il s'agit.
Les prix n'avaient guere augmente la derniere fois que j'y ai passe.
W. de Morgan nous parle de Louvain. C'est un souvenir qui date
de cinquante ans, lorsque le carillon jouait toutes les heures :
Voici le sabre, le sabre, le sabre,
Voici le sabre, le sabre de mon pere.
" En prenant un ^-compte chaque quart d'heure, a raison d'un sabre
pour le premier quart, de deux pour la demi-heure, et de trois pour les
trois quarts."
D'autres impressions sont plus recentes, tel le spectacle tragique
de la retraite d' An vers decrit par May Sinclair, qui fut ambulanciere
au debut de la campagne: " lis sourient quand I'ambulance de la
Croix Rouge les depasse. (Ceux qui n'ont pas vu ce sourire d'une
armee en retraite ignorent la beaute du desespoir.)." Tel encore ce
croquis d'un groupe de soldats beiges blesses dessine par Mary Chol-
mondeley: " Polydore avec son visage hale, et ses yeux gris, ronds et
impassibles s'improvisa immediatement I'interprete de ses camarades
II sentit sans doute que cette position lui etait due parce qu'il etait le
seul de la bande possedant un uniforme complet: tunique bleu fonce,
pantalon bleu clair et kepi. Nestor, Maria et Achille portaient des
jerseys avec leurs pantalons bleus. Jan, naturellement, n'avait pas
d'uniforme. II ne portait qu'un etrange costume anglais trop etroit
a la taille. Polydore seul possedait un kepi, mais tous les cinq avaient
la tete enveloppee dans d'enormes echarpes de laine."
# « * •
Que de choses tragiques et touchantes nous avons vues ensemble,
durant ces derniers mois! Combien de prejuges n'avons-nous pas
perdus? Combien de decouvertes n'avons-nous pas faites? La vie beige
et la vie anglaise se sont trouvees intimement associees ; nous avons
partage les memes doutes, les memes espoirs. Nous croyions nous
connaitre a peine et ne pas nous comprendre, et voil^ que nous nous
237
LE TEMOIGNAGE DES ECRIVAINS ANGLAIS
retrouvons, comme des amis apres un long voyage, et que nous
nous etonnons d'avoir si peu change.
Pourquoi parler de notre gratitude lorsque nous ne sommes h meme
de la temoigner que par des mots? Attendons le jour ou, dans la
Belgique liberee, nos amis anglais nous rendront spontanement la
visite forcee que nous leur avons faite ici, et ou, dans un branle-bas de
cloches et de petards, parmi les fleurs et les drapeaux, sur la Grand
Place de Bruxelles, nous porterons le toast de notre grande et eternelle
Alliee : Dear Old England !
238
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS.
Translation by William J. Locke.
THERE cannot, I think, be found in history an outburst
of sympathy comparable with that which was evoked
in England towards Belgium on the outbreak of the
war. That sympathy was expressed in actions and in
words. A few of these words I should like to recall —
not the eloquent speeches of English statesmen which have already
been treated of in this book, but the more discreet, yet none the
less sincere testimony of English writers. Within the scope of this
short study I cannot, naturally, quote all the poems, articles, and
books which have had Belgium for their theme during these last months.
Not being competent, I cannot either appraise the Uterary quahties
of all these works. Besides, this is not the time either for a bibliographical
summary or a critical review. All I dare undertake is to give a neces-
sarily incomplete survey of the circumstances in view of which my
country has received these testimonies of sympathy, and to lay bare,
if such a thing is possible, the motives which inspired English poets
and writers with such burning enthusiasm. In the course of the crisis
through which we are passing a nation's artists become its sincerest
interpreters. By reading their works we get nearer the heart of the
people.
So I must crave pardon for quoting only a few characteristic works
among all those that should be mentioned here, and freedom from
reproach for all such omissions as I shall be forced to make and such
lapses of memory as I may exhibit. Besides, I am but partially res-
ponsible for such errors. If the harvest were less abundant, I could
more easily count the sheaves. If English writers had been less generous
towards us, it would be easier to thank them. The man who comes in
for enthusiastic ovation must always feel a bit shy and awkward. Look
at the first Belgian soldiers landing at Folkestone after the fall of
Antwerp, who were stripped of their tunic buttons by their ardent
admirers ! Finding myself, in a literary sense, in the same predica-
ment, I think I may claim some indulgence.
* * * *
In the Palais de Justice in Brussels there is a piece of statuary repre-
239
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
senting Right standing between Pity and Justice. Unless my memory
plays me false, it is the work of our fine sculptor, A. Dillens. The
symbolism is obvious. Pity pleads /or, Justice pleads against, and Right,
in her sovereign wisdom, signifies the equilibrium between these
two opposing forces — between the cardinal virtue and the theological
virtue, between sentiment and reason. But suppose the artist, instead
of arranging his figures one to the right and the other to the left of
the central figure, had put Pity and Justice both on the same side— -
what would remain of the group ? What would be the part of Right ?
Such was the question which was put to the conscience of the English
people at the outbreak of the war. We know with what enthusiasm,
with what ardent devotion, it replied.
Certainly it is not indispensable that a man should be English in
order to be chivalrous or generous, but English education successfully
produces these qualities and brings them to a fine finish. The constant
practice of athletic pastimes, the necessity, from earliest childhood,
of " playing the game," of winning without boasting, of losing without
protest, develops a remarkable moral sensitiveness which expresses
itself in a hearty contempt for anyone who does not conform to the
rigorous code of honour of the playground. This feeling rises to such
a pitch that, for the most part, the legitimate desire of winning the
game is subordinate to the pleasure of losing it well after a fierce
struggle. The result does not matter so long as the fight is hot, and the
vanquished often leave the ground more elated than the victors.
Oppression of the weak by the strong, mean and cowardly dealing
both in private and public affairs, are loathed by all the Christian
nations of Europe — by all, at least, who are yet worthy of the name.
But this hatred is enormously strengthened in England by the ruling
passion — I am almost tempted to say by the prejudice — for " fair
play." The liar and the brute are not only condemned to obloquy ;
they are disqualified — which is far worse !
Public opinion in England has sometimes been led astray, some-
times been aroused in a wrong cause — but always it has been in favour
of the weak against the strong. There is no nation in which the doctrine
of Individualism has found fewer disciples, no nation on the shores
240
SIR KRNKSr HATCH, BT.
CHARLKS ISIKRTEN.S
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
of which the Religion of Might or Nietzschean Transcendentalism
has suffered more lamentable shipwreck. To the Englishman — and
not unreasonably — the Superman will never be anything but a coward
and a bully. (That is one of the reasons why the Englishman maintains
a sullen distrust of militarism — even in its most legitimate aspect.)
The critical sense he may sometimes lack; the moral sense never. It is
as impossible for him to get philosophically beyond the primitive
conception of " Good and Evil " as it would be to mix up the two sides
in a game of cricket or football. For these reasons his instincts, his
rehgion, his very prejudices, made him defend Serbia against Austria
and Belgium against Germany.
But with regard to the attitude towards these two small countries,
there is a difference, a profound difference, which is made clear by
reading the newspapers of the early period of the war. Between
powerful Austria and weak Serbia there was a clash of interests. Both
sought aggrandisement. In the same way, between the old Triple
Alliance and the Triple Entente there existed a certain diplomatic
rivalry. To-day we have defined the responsibilities, and no one has
any lingering doubt as to Austro-German premeditation. But on the
eve of war this was not entirely the case. An important section of
English public opinion still found it possible to maintain that the
country was being drawn into a struggle in which it was only indirectly
interested, and to throw the responsibility on " the secret intrigues
of diplomacy." However false this attitude, it was none the less open
to discussion, and these doubts and uncertainties might, to some
extent, have paralysed the initiative of the Government. That is
why the violation of Belgian neutrality strikes us to-day as an act of
Providence. The ultimatum of August 3rd shed a lurid light on
the bad faith of Germany, suddenly opened the eyes of English
Democracy and swept away all its doubts and hesitations. It set
Justice and Pity both on the same side of Right. The conflict of
interests became a conflict of ideas ; political doctrine became a religious
principle ; the war became a crusade.
One must have been in touch with the English working classes to
understand the enormous influence which the invasion of Belgium had
241 s
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
upon their minds. On the eve of this event they remained indifferent,
if not hostile. The very next day the recruiting offices surged with an
enthusiastic crowd. Belgium was not only a victim but a wholly irre-
sponsible victim, whose innocence was recognised by the Imperial
Chancellor himself. Her inhabitants only asked " to plough and
sow and gather and sing our songs in the corn."*
" Rather than fail ...
That ' little ' loyal race whom, near and far,
A world acclaims for glorious, deathless deed,
Rather than fail Great Belgium in her need.
Rather than this, in God's Own name, be war! "f
To compassion and indignation a third sentiment was added — the
feeling of responsibility. " There are countless cases for compassion
... in this war," writes G. K. Chesterton in an appeal addressed
to the Daily Telegraph ; " but this is not a case for compassion. This
is a case for that mere working minimum of a sense of honour which
makes us repay a poor man who has advanced his last penny to post
a letter we have forgotten to stamp. In this respect Belgium stands
alone, and the claims even of other AUies may well stand aside till she
is paid to the uttermost farthing. There has been self-sacrifice every-
where else, but it was self-sacrifice of individuals, each for his own
country; the Serbian dying for Serbia, or the Italian for Italy. But
the Belgian did not merely die for Belgium. Belgium died for Europe.
Not only was the soldier sacrificed for the nation, the nation was
sacrificed for mankind."
English public opinion has never accepted the modest interpretation
put on events by the Belgian Government and by royal proclamations.
It has held that Belgium, without dishonour, might well have shown a
more conciliatory spirit. Between the perilous pathway skirting heroic
precipices and the broad highway leading down towards the stagnant
marshes of sloth and cowardice she might have chosen some midway
* Cecil Roberts in The Glory of Belgium.
^ Coulson Kernahan in The Glory of Belgium.
242
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
road and avoided ruin without incurring degradation. No one is bound
to do the impossible. France and England not being able to intervene
in time, King Albert v«^as under no obligation to pursue hostilities with
his indomitable energy and sacrifice his army and his country in order
to allow the Allies to gain the time which a short-sighted policy had made
them lose.
" Had the country yielded, I ask whether France or England would
have had a word to say ? The Belgians were certainly not bound to
form a first line of defence for these Great Powers which had guaranteed,
but were far from being in a position to protect, the neutrahty threatened
by Kaiser Wilhelm." *
In all this English writers show themselves more royalist than the
King, more Belgiophile than the Belgians themselves.
" What worth were oaths unbroken, when walls and cities brake ?
What profits England's waking ? Can Belgium's dead awake ? " f
This feeling of responsibiUty is so profound, so unanimous, that it is
perhaps the only point on which Mr. Bernard Shaw is in agreement
to-day with his fellow-citizens. This is not the least miracle which the
outburst of sympathy caused by Belgium's attitude on the outbreak of
the war has worked. J
# # * #
The nation that scrupulously fulfils her engagements is merely honest;
if she passes beyond the narrow confines of her duty, she becomes
heroic ; and if this heroism brings on her ruin, in the course of an
unequal struggle, she becomes a martyr.
It is impossible to understand the attitude of English thought
towards Belgium if one does not take into account the religious aspect
of the question. At the present moment the atmosphere is peculiarly
favourable to mysticism. Whether we are more subject to illusion, or
whether our vision is more penetrating, we see, we feel, we express a
multitude of things which once we should have regarded as belonging
* W, Barry in Everyman's Special Relief Number.
f F. W. Bourdillon in The Glory of Belgium.
X See Everyman's Special Relief Number.
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
to another planet. The tales brought back by the wounded from the
battlefield excite the popular imagination. Angels appear at Mons.
Joan of Arc covers the retreat in Champagne, and fiery arrows cleave
the storm-clouds of Poland. The wind is set in a miraculous quarter.
The centre of gravity of our existence is displaced. The supernatural
seems natural and the natural seems supernatural.
It was in this frame of mind that the English public anxiously followed
the tragedy of Belgium. Here were all the essentials of The Golden
Legend. The Government's reply to the German Kaiser became the
haughty answer of the Christian martyr to the Roman Emperor, refusing
to worship false gods. Liege was the first ordeal through which the
martyr passed to greater veneration. Then came the second demand of
Germany, the second refusal of the Government, followed by hideous
reprisals — Aerschot, Louvain, Malines, Termonde. Then, at last, the
fall of Antwerp and the retreat to France — the Supreme Martyrdom.
And then the glorious resurrection on the Yser, where a phantom army
held at bay an enemy fourfold, fivefold in number — for all the world as
though the countless dead were fighting by the side of the few heroic
souls that still drew the breath of life. Lastly, the young King Albert,
the heroic symbol of his country, her fortitude and her patience, calmly
awaiting the promised help, for months standing alone before his
mighty enemy, facing defeat with undaunted brow and in serene
modesty welcoming success. What a legend for the fireside fifty years
hence ! But what a miracle for us who follow, step by step, the march of
events — terrible and irresistible as in a Greek drama !
This mystical significance of the Tragedy of Belgium has been
admirably understood by English men of letters.
Read, for instance, the moving pages in King Alherfs Book, in which
John Galsworthy compares the German invasion to an inundation
to which the Belgian people opposes a living dyke.
" But the black flood rolled over and on. Then, down in its dark
tumult, beneath its cruel tumult, I saw men still with arms linked;
women on their knees clinging to the earth; little children drifting —
dead, all dead ; and the beasts dead. And their eyes were still open, facing
that death. And above them the savage water roared. But clear and high
244
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
I heard the Voice call : * Brother ! Hold ! Death is not ! We live ! ' And
fronting the edge of the flooding waters, I saw the shades of those dead,
with arms yet linked, and heard them crying: * Brother! We hold! ' "
Has not the Soldier- King said : " Our bodies may be vanquished, but
our soul remains unconquerable " ?
From that to the idea of the efficacy of sacrifice is but a step.
Monsignor Benson made it. According to him, the martyrdom of the
Belgian nation was not only fruitful in that it inspired the Allies wdth
extraordinary effort and resulted in their holding back the invasion of the
barbarians for three weeks; it exercised a deeper and more mysterious
influence.
" As the mystic believes that there is not one pang suffered by the
smallest creature that is not worth while, not one inarticulate cry of
pity, even from the beast in the shambles, that is not heard and
answered, so he would have us believe that somehow and somewhere,
when the sum is made up, even shot-shattered Malines and the wreck
of Louvain will have their part in the production of even higher visions
and a more gallant patience."
For the more enthusiastic, Belgium became a New Israel:
" From Israel down to Belgium
Have they kept God's holy altar," *
guarding the hearth, feeding the lamps, a nation elect, predestined to
martyrdom, whose courage and patience were to save the world from
the assaults of Anti-Christ, and before whom the proudest were to kneel.
" Champion of human honour, let us lave
Your feet and bind your wounds on bended knee,
Though coward hands have nailed you to the tree
And shed your innocent blood and dug your grave,
Rejoice and live! " f
* * * •
If I have ventured to dwell upon the interpretation given to the
Tragedy of Belgium by the English public and men of letters, it is
* F. W. Orde Ward in The Glory of Belgium.
t Eden Phillpotts in King Albert's Book.
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
because it explains the part, ever becoming more and more important,
played by the British Empire in the war. If the war had not been
popular, the Government would not have been able to raise the necessary
recruits or to monopolise industry. We must not forget that the great
majority of Englishmen are incapable of contemplating the eventuality
of a naval defeat or a hostile landing. So, for them it is not a question
of safeguarding their own existence, but of fighting for the Good Cause
by the side of their allies. The martyrdom of Belgium was the great
moral lever which moved the masses and enabled the Government to
take necessary measures without running counter to popular opinion.
It is therefore peculiarly interesting to analyse its influence.
But it is not this praise, these panegyrics, which have most deeply
touched the hearts of Belgians. They chose the strait gate because it was
the only one open to them. They find no consolation in posing as heroes
and martyrs. The palm that is offered them will not give them back their
homes, their towns, their independence. It is towards their country
that they ever turn their gaze ; it is she alone, with her shimmering
verdure, her old steeples, her sweet odours and her songs that haunts
their dreams and crowds their memories ; and in their eyes the most
stately ode is not worth a blade of grass on the meadows of the Yser.
While reading King Albert's Book what particularly surprised and
touched me was those sketches of Belgian life scattered through the
volume ; simple, unpretentious words, yet showing as finely as the most
beautiful poems the deep sympathy of English writers ; proving to us
that they too can love Her whom for the moment we have lost.
" I dreamed that people from the Land of Chimes
Arrived one autumn morning with their bells,
To hoist them on the towers and citadels
Of my own country,"
writes Thomas Hardy. The author awakens to witness the dreary
procession of refugees from Bruges, Antwerp, and Ostend. " No
carillons in their train."
It is enough to hear Edmund Gosse speak of our poets, Hilaire Belloc
appreciate our artistic treasures, another writer invoke the memories
246
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
of the uprising of the Netheriands against Spain, for us to feel that
Belgium was not isolated in Europe, that our spirit and our civilisation
were felt beyond the Straits of Dover, that — to use a simile of G. K.
Chesterton — she was like one of those narrow open windows in the
background of Memhng's portraits through which the landscape is seen
rolling infinitely on.
What a pleasure to follow Arnold Bennett on his first trip to Belgium
twenty years ago! "Thence to Namur with the first glimpse of the
Meuse ! Thence to Dinant with its cliffs and its tower, and on to little
Anseremme, where one could have a bed and four meals and a bathe in
the Meuse for four francs a day." I think I know the very inn. The
price had scarcely increased the last time I went there.
William de Morgan tells us of Louvain. It is a memory of half a
century back, when the carillon played every hour :
Void le sabre, le sabre, le sabre,
Void le sabre, le sabre de mon phe.
" And, at each quarter, took an instalment ; at the rate of a sabre for
the first quarter, two for the half-hour, and the whole line for the three-
quarters."
Other impressions are more recent, such as the tragic spectacle of
the retreat from Antwerp described by May Sinclair, who was attached
to an ambulance at the beginning of the campaign.
" They smile as the Red Cross ambulance rushes by. You know
nothing of beauty and desolation who have not seen that smile of an
army in retreat."
Such also as Mary Cholmondeley's sketch of a group of wounded
Belgian soldiers : " Polydore, with his dusky complexion and round,
grey, impassive, unwinking eyes, amazed at nothing, at once constituted
himself as spokesman of the party. . . . Possibly he may have felt that
this position was his due, as he was the only one of the contingent in
full Belgian uniform. Dark blue coat, wide light blue trousers, and
peaked cap. Nestor, Maria and Achille wore English sweaters with their
blue trousers. Jan, of course, had no uniform, only a weird English cheap
suit rather too tight in the waist. None of them, except Polydore, had a
247
THE TESTIMONY OF ENGLISH WRITERS
peaked cap. But all five of them were wound up in enormous woollen
comforters."
# * # *
What sights of laughter and tears we have seen together during these
last months. How many prejudices have we not lost? How many-
discoveries have we not made? Belgian life and English life have been
intimately associated; we have shared the same doubts, the same hopes.
We thought we scarcely knew, and could not understand each other;
and lo! we meet like friends after a long voyage and are astonished at
having found each other so little changed.
Why speak of our gratitude when we are only able to show it by
words ? Let us await the day of Belgium's liberation, when our English
friends of their own free will shall repay us our forced visit over here,
when amid pealing of bells and soaring of rockets, with flowers and
flags, on the Grande Place of Brussels, we shall drink to the toast of
our great, eternal Ally: Dear Old England!
248
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL.
Par Henri Davignon.
IL est dans Part de Burne-Jones, dont certains de nos peintres
beiges et de nos ecrivains ont subi plus que d'autres, peut-etre,
I'influence spirituelle, un symbole familier. C'est celui de I'arbre
mystique charge de fruits dores et plus parfaits que nature. Dans
le jardin de reve les belles creatures au profil de camee atteignent
d'un geste harmonieux les branches accessibles, leurs doigts reguliers
touchent sans les froisser les produits merveilleux, les detachent, se les
tendent en souriant gravement et gardent dans les yeux le reflet d'une
pensee lointaine.
Pourquoi songe-je obstinement k ces visions preraphaelites en cet
ete de guerre, sur la terre d'exil et tandis que le sort de nos refugies et
I'avenir de notre peuple s'evoquent devant mon esprit reconnaissant ?
C'est que ce long sejour sur le sol britannique, apres un automne
tumultueux, k travers un hiver resigne, suivi d'un printemps d'espe-
rance, a Tissue d'un ete de resolution feconde me semble aboutir dej^
k une abondance de fruits murissants.
La Belgique remuee jusqu'aux entrailles par le soc aigu de la plus
terrible guerre, comme une terre forte et riche et vieiUe et profonde
qu'elle est, a feconde le germe sanglant depose dans ses sillons ouverts.
Malgre I'occupation sacrilege ou I'exil douloureux la seve a monte
dans le peuple unanime. Moisson ou vendange ou cueillette, il y a
a engranger, a mettre au pressoir, k remplir le cellier. Ne parlons pas
d'appauvrissement de sterilite, ni de mort. La Belgique s'accroit,
enfante et revit pour ses nouveaux destins.
Et dej^, dans les neuf provinces crucifiees, le sang des martyrs
engendre des heros, une generation nouvelle entraine les populations
a plus de desinteressement, a une meilleure solidarite et au juste orgueil
qui donne aux nations leur conscience. Loin de meconnaitre cet
elargissement de la vie patriale et cette force, forgee dans le sacrifice
et la perseverance, la Belgique exilee s'unit modestement avec envie,
avec respect, avec admiration au labeur, sous le joug, de la Belgique
occupee. EUe aussi, cependant, acquiert un sens nouveau de
I'avenir. Je voudrais essayer de le dire ici pour la contribution
inestimable qu'y apporte le Royaume-Uni et parce que dans la Belgique
249
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
de demain Tapport anglais est un facteur desormais lie a la grandeur
nationale.
I.
Le Beige vovageait peu. En dehors des privilegies de la fortune
qui s'offraient en hiver de rapides sejours sur la Cote Mediterraneenne,
en ete de banales excursions dans la Suisse bernoise, la Foret-Noire
ou sur les bords du Rhin, bien rates etaient les gens soucieux de penetrer
le secret des autres peuples. Un voeu lointain, formule aui origines
de la race, liaient a leur horizon familier les gens de Flandre et de
Wallonnie. Le Bruxellois lui-meme, produit moderne d'une vie
centralisee, s'il aimait Paris, ne s'y sentait qu'imparfaitement ^ I'aise et
pour rien au monde on n'eut decide une famille de Gand ou de Liege
k emigrer vers des cites de langues etrangeres. Bien plus, quitter une
ville de Belgique pour une autre, transporter ses penates de Bruges
a Arlon, de Louvain k Mons, c'etait un evenement qui ne se pouvait
justifier que par des raisons graves, longuement meditees et susceptibles
de commentaires publics.
Certaines carrieres recevaient de ces habitudes seculaires une depre-
ciation evidente. La carriere militaire, qui exige les deplacements de
I'avancement k travers les garnisons de province, la carriere diplo-
matique et consulaire qui separe longuement les families et fait perdre
le contact avec le decor coutumier.
L'une et I'autre, les voici tout d*un coup et depuis plus d'un an au
premier plan des preoccupations et des voeux de tous. L'lme et Tautre
sont I'objet d'envie et d'exaltation. II semble que Pavenir et Pexistence
de chacun soient suspendus a I'effort de I'armee et de la diplomatie
et, du coup, une reverence nouvelle entoure ces institutions dans
lesquelles on n'entrait pas, avant la guerre, sans raisons speciales.
Le sejour anglais contribue puissamment a renforcer cette impression
chez le Beige exile. Nulle part, en effet, la vocation des armes et le
gout des entreprises lointaines ne regoivent une consecration aussi
unanime de la part de I'opinion. C'est une nouveaute pour le
Beige, a qui le volontariat etait apparu trop longtemps comme
une echappatoire commode aux charges guerrieres, de constater la
250
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
pression ardente et continue de Topinion britannique sur Telite de la
nation. Ici c'est moralement que le service est obligatoire. Et si
Pon peut trouver que, dans Teffroyable crise ou le monde se debat, le
temps fait defaut pour la pleine action d'un tel argument, il faut recon-
naitre qu'il a sa grandeur, qu'il situe le sacrifice supreme et la gloire
du plus humble soldat dans une atmosphere d'estime civique et de
conscience individuelle ou le sens national s'elargit.
Le Beige, refugie dans Pile inconnue, y sl decouvert d'abord ceci :
il est des fardeaux necessaires et qu'il faut savoir charger volontaire-
ment sur les epaules. Apres I'admirable et unanime adhesion du
peuple k Tacceptation heroique de la lutte impossible par son Roi
et son Gouvernement, apres I'intime et douloureux partage par les
ci\Tls des souffrances et de Tendurance des soldats, Tasile, le refuge,
ouverts par I'Angleterre aux victimes pantelantes prolongeaient en
largeur et en profondeur le retentissement du plus noble sacrifice et du
plus heroique martyre. La Belgique epuisee et vaincue engendrait
des legions sur la terre hospitaUere. L'armee qu'elle venerait, qu'elle
pla^ait desormais au centre de ses voeux, la petite armee beige, servait
de stimulant a la naissance, au developpement de Pimmense armee de
Kitchener. Volontairement, pour reparer Tinjustice faite a la Belgique
d'abord, pour sauver le monde ensuite, un vaste empire repandu a travers
le globe, un empire realiste et utilitaire pla^ait au premier plan de son
acti^^te et de son interet : le soldat.
Voil«l qui, au cours des longs mois de sejour dans les campagnes et
dans les villes, a dignement acheve de restituer aux Beiges le sens des
necessites militaires permanentes. Des Tattaque de Liege, tout leur
coeur fut avec nos lignards, nos artilleurs et nos cavaliers, sur les glacis
de la Meuse. Apres Anvers, pendant I'Yser, et chaque mois qui vit
se reorganiser au bord de la mer les debris de notre armee, ce fut chez
Pexile une revelation, une comprehension, une acceptation croissantes
des efforts militaires imposes ^ tout peuple digne de vivre, qu'il s'etende
sur quatre-vingt kilometres de littoral ou qu'il embrasse de son domaine
trois oceans.
Quand Ypres regut le premier obus incendiaire, dirige avec une
satanique intention sur le coeur du beffroi des Halles, I'ame de la
251
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
Belgique tout entiere se sentit atteinte. Car les gens d'Anvers, de Gand
ct de Bruges et ceux de Liege, de Mons, d'Arlon, de Bruxelles et ceux
des petites villes aussi de Stavelot et d'Audenarde, de Binche et de
Poperinghe ont compris quel meurtre le Barbare tentait de perpetrer.
Ne pouvant faire une entree triomphale dans la derniere cite d'ancienne
franchise, il la voulait raser jusqu'au sol afin de persuader aux Beiges,
qu'il tenait sous sa botte, la mort de leur independance. Mais au long
fremissement irreductible des Beiges du dedans, repondit I'appel
pathetique des Beiges du dehors ou passait la voix meme des pierres
illustres, saignant leur sang de cinq siecles de gloire et de civilisation.
Et le monde s'est emu et, comme I'incendie criminel de la bibliotheque
de I'Universite de Louvain, la ruine des Halles d'Ypres a plus fait pour
I'effondrement de I'Allemand dans I'opinion civilisee que I'effort
victorieux des Allies de la mer a 1' Alsace.
Toute I'histoire de Belgique s'est dressee parmi les flammes d'Ypres
et, dans les plus lointaines Ameriques, on a su que quelque chose
d'ancien, de grandiose et d'immortel, sur un tout petit coin de la vieille
Europe, provoquait I'acharnement collossal et ridicule du monstre
teuton. Du coup les diplomates ont pu compter sur un allie nouveau,
du coup I'ultimatum du 2 Aout et la violation du droit, rendue confuse
par de vagues calomnies allemandes et par une insuffisante connaissance
de la neutralite beige, ont acquis tout leur sens impie. La force d'un
peuple ayant lutte depuis des siecles pour la liberte a qui il elevait ses
perrons, ses beffrois, ses hotels-de-ville, s'attestait une chose infiniment
respectable entre les concurrences economiques et politiques des
voisins.
A I'heure precise ou le Belgique perdait son territoire, ou son gouverne-
ment recevait le benefice d'une fiction diplomatique, ou son Roi fixait
sa tente sur le sable de la mer, ou son peuple etait somme de payer le
tribut a I'envahisseur, la Belgique apparaissait plus imposante et plus
vivante dans la societe des nations. Ses representants a I'etranger
jouissaient d'un prestige et d'une autorite inusites. lis negociaient
I'emprunt de millions sur un credit fictif, ils entamaient I'etude du
programme des reparations et des renouvellements, sur un point de
depart hypothetique.
252
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
NuUe part, le sentiment du grandissement de la patrie ne fut plus
present au Beige qu'en Angleterre. II entendait la voix des hommes
publics, il suivait les demarches autour de ce Foreign Office qui fut
toujours un phare dans I'obscurite des destinees du monde. Tout lui
parlait d'avenir. Lui qui, absorbe par le labeur quotidien et I'honnete
ambition de faire produire k son sol, a ses eaux, le maximum de leur
rendement, n'avait guere songe au privilege de vivre libre au milieu des
convoitises, il s'emerveillait d'etre le centre du conflit, de voir Her a sa
delivrance les sympathies du monde et d'entendre confier la defense de
son honneur aux representants du plus grand Empire.
Le Beige doit a 1' Angleterre le sens de sa valeur Internationale.
Desormaisil voudra k ses envoyes plenipotentiaire cesoutien d'universelle
sympathie et d'autorite indispensable qui assure aux diplomates anglais,
avec le reconfort necessaire dans une mission difficile et ingrate, le
stimulant de se sentir porte par le voeu unanime de la nation.
IL
Dans aucun pays au monde, je crois, le souci de la chose publique
n'est aussi repandu et ne fait autant partie des preoccupations quoti-
diennes du citoyen que dans la Grande Bretagne. Sans doute, cela ne
va pas sans certains inconvenients. Nous nous croyons le peuple le
plus penetre de divisions politiques et certes, etant donne I'etroitesse
du territoire et les infiniments petits k quoi aboutissaient les passions
des partis, notre vie publique se ressentait d'un exces de politique
interieure. Le Royaume-Uni est loin d'etre exempt de ces tares
inherentes peut-etre au regime parlementaire dans une democratie. II
faut reconnaitre, cependant, qu'elles sont amplement compensees par
le sentiment universel et profond de la responsabilite individuelle dans
le progres coUectif de la nation. Au moment ou le Beige abordait en
Angleterre il se trouvait mele a la grande secousse qui, en ebranlant
d'un choc necessaire I'edifice politique britannique, lui faisait rendre
un son de solidite et de vigueur. Ainsi tout ce qu'il avait oui dire de la
patrie de la democratie traditionnelle et organisee, sur le modele de
laquelle les constituants de 1830 avaient voulu edifier I'armature
politique du jeune royaume, s'accordait avec le spectacle qu'il avait
253
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
sous les yeux. Si le faux ideal d'un pacifisme et d'une fraternite inter-
nationale, dont tant de gens chez nous s'etaient kisses leurrer, croulait
depuis le 2 Aout, la realite du jeu des institutions parlementaires
resistait a la crise des hommes et des idees. Aussi eloigne de la dictature
que de la demagogic, le regime anglais continuait a associer librement
le respect de I'autorite permanente du Roi et la responsabilite d'un
gouvernement issu du voeu national a travers la selection de deux
chambres, ou la tradition et la democratic se font une utile concurrence.
Jusqu'au bout, malgre les discussions d'idees et les changements
d'hommes, malgre les sautes et les pointes de I'opinion, malgre les
erreurs, les appetits et les devoiements — a cause merae de tout cela — le
regime apparait comme asscz souple, assez equilibre et assez conforme
au temps present pour justifier I'adhesion unanime de tous les citoyens.
Et le Beige exile examine a ce contact ses convictions anciennes. II se
complait a seconder d'une emulation interieure, fertile en meditations
et en resolutions, les principes sur lesquels la nation britannique base
la force de sa vie publiquc : le respect indiscute de I'elan religieux
necessaire a I'homme pour sauvegarder ses vertus interieures, la tolerance
devant toutes les manifestations sinceres dc I'opinion, I'acceptation
dans les concurrences d'interets de la predominance de I'interet national.
A quel point I'Anglais se passionne pour la chose publiquc, les Beiges
ont pu le constater dans les families ou I'hospitalite le faisait penetrer.
Les femmes, plus encore que les hommes, ont le gout des idees direc-
trices et discutent les personnalites responsables. Elles ont aussi le
sens de Paction. Et dans le domaine de la charite dies sont admirables.
C'est k elles que nous devons cette ingenieuse, rapide et si diverse
adaptation de I'hospitalite anglaise au peuple desempare et depouille
jete sur les plages de la cote par le plus effroyable bouleversement.
Elles ont eu Pair de faire cela si facilement, si simplement et sans se
departir de la grace souriante et alerte qui est le propre de la femme
britannique.
Ah ! PAnglaise, celle que les gens du Continent appellent " la Miss "
et qu'une litterature de convention depeint invariablement mince,
rose, independante et sportive, quels tresors insoup^onnes de sensi-
bilite delicate et joyeuse y decouvrirent les Beiges adoptes par elle !
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
Elle leur a fait ce don d'elle-meme qui semblait impossible de la part
de creatures que nos romans fran^ais representaient faites pour le flirt
et non pour I'araour, vouees au sport et peu a la maternite, enragees de
" suffragisme " et indifferentes k I'obscur devouement, pliees aux rites
d'une elegance formaliste et inadaptables aux exigences de debraille et
de minuties des petites gens du Continent.
J'ai vu des jeunes-filles aux mains fines laver la vaiselle dans un" home "
prepare par elles pour trois families de Flandre ; j'ai connu de respec-
tables ladies visitant regulierement de petits bourgeois de Wallonnie
et essayant d'ajuster leur fran(;ais de pensionnat aux interminables
bavardages de nos " commeres." J'ai su que, s'apercevant de I'insur-
montable gene que leurs plus discretes apparitions introduisaient dans
certains menages une fois installes comme chez eux, les dames de Comites
ont impos6 a leur zele de ne plus franchir des seuils de maisons meu-
blees et alimentees par elles, mais ont continue a faire le tour des
fournisseurs pour veiller h. ce que les menageres n'aient pas de sujets de
plaintes.
Le Beige ne peut pas se rendre compte de ce qui a ete fait, de ce qui
continue a etre fait a chaque heure du jour pour lui. La profonde,
I'invincible tristesse de I'exil, I'angoisse du foyer delaisse, detruit peut-
etre ou profane par la presence de I'envahisseur, le souvenir tenace,
violent comme celui d'un cauchemar, des horreurs vecues sous le feu
et la cruaute du barbare, I'apprehension le I'avenir tissent autour de lui
la trame d'un voile impalpable et permanent analogue aux brumes de
Novembre sur la riviere. Tamises par lui le bienfait et la gratitude ont
de part et d'autre de la peine k apparaitre et a se traduire tels qu'ils
sont cependant.
Mais enregistres par le sub-conscient de I'ame ils s'accumulent, meles
aux visions dont le plus petit marmot refugie et peut-etre tous ces
enfants qui n'ont fait que voir le jour sur le sol anglais se penetrent avec
Pair qu'ils respirent.
Je me rappelle, au cours d'une excursion de dimanche dans le Surrey
qui, avant de devaler vers la mer, dresse des cretes si semblables a celles
des Ardennes, avoir rencontre trois petites filles se tenant par la main.
Elles avaient des tresses blondes bien nouees, des visages rouges
255
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
comme des pommes, des robes a fleurs et marchaient sagement sur la
route plane. Je leur demandai mon chemin, mais elles ne comprirent
ni mon frangais, ni mon anglais et par une inspiration soudaine je les
interrogeai en flamand. Elles ne s'etonnerent point et dirent posement
qu'elles ne connaissaient que le chemin vers le " Casteel " a I'ombre
duquel elles etaient logees. Suivant leur regard, je decouvris alors le
cottage fleuri et souriant, a demi dissimule sous les branches d'un de ces
chenes comme on n'en trouve qu'en Angleterre. Je les laissai repartir
toutes trois, se tenant par la main, sages et graves, enfants de I'exil,
enfants de notre Flandre sans coUines et sans arbres, enfants d'une race
elevee dans des maisons sans etages, tassees contre le sol ingrat feconde
par un labeur inconnu ici. Rentrees la-bas, reprises avec les leurs, par la
rude vie, se souviendront-elles du pare aux arbres seculaires, de la
coUine surplombant la plaine, et des paysans gardeurs de moutons,
eleveurs de betail en des pres faciles a fumer, et des confitures sur le
pain quotidien, et des eglises froides et confortables, et des robes fraiches
mises meme en semaine, et du grand pays flegmatique et genereux ?
Qui sait ? C'est ici le grand mystere des influences de la terre et des
cieux, des souvenirs du premier age plus tenaces que tout ce qui s'apprend
dans les livres ou par I'experience des hommes. Mais je crois que jamais
aucun Beige, quel que soit son age et ses origines, ne s'affranchira de
I'apport inegal et certain de ces jours d'exil. Des visions anglaises
sont dans le sang de nos enfants.
Des coeurs adolescents regoivent-ils ici la revelation troublante et
decisive de I'amour ? Les Beiges ne connaissent guere d' alliance
maritale hors de leurs frontieres. C'est un des phenomenes frappants
de notre originalite racique. A part quelques unions fran9aises de
souche aristocratique et quelques rares echanges sentimentaux hol-
landais, le Beige se marie chez lui. Jamais aucun Wallon de la frontiere
qui va d'Aubel a Trois-Ponts, n'epousa, grace a Dieu, une Allemande.
II est plus singulier qu'un mariage anglo-belge ait ete jusqu'ici une
chose exceptionnelle. J 'en ai connu un, il fit scandale lorsqu'il fut
conclu. II faillit tourner mal au bout d'un an. II vient de recevoir le
plus tragique et le plus beau denouement.
Quand la guerre me permettra de me souvenir encore que je suis un
256
2 K
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
romancier, je me promets d'en ecrire I'histoire. Veut-on m'autoriser a
en noter ici brievement la simple courbe ? Aussi bien il apporte ime
conclusion logique a des reflexions, je le crains, un peu hasardees et
fort decousues.
Elle s'appelait Madge. Lui c'etait Jean Swalue, le fils de ce conserva-
teur du Musee Gruuthuse, a Bruges, ou logent sans doute aujourd'hui
Dieu sait quels soudards. lis se connurent dans les concours de tennis
a Ostende, Tete avant celui de la guerre. Elle fit attention k lui parce
qu'il ressemblait h un Anglais, grand, bien decouple, le visage rase et
taciturne. Le sport les introduisit Fun et Pautre dans le monde ferme
des hobereaux de Flandre. Mais lui ne songeait qu'a elle et son coeur
simple et tenace vivait deja passionnement le reve de Fassocier h sa vie.
Madge se kissait aller au plaisir d'une intrigue que le decor de Bruges
rendait plus romanesque et plus decisive qu'elle n'avait pense. II park
mariage et faillit rompre le charme. Celui-ci operait cependant avec
la complicite secrete de cette terre de tradition et du voeu dominateur
d'une race obstinee.
Madge se trouva fiancee presqu'a son insu. Elle se persuada qu'elle
n'abdiquait point sa liberte et que ce serait un enchantement d'etre
associee au reve de Bruges.
Mais ramenee dans la vieille cite, apres la noce en Angleterre ou le
marie avait fait si bonne figure d'insukire, elle comprit peu a peu com-
bien celle-ci etait exigeante et accapareuse. Ce n'est point un decor de
reve, c'est le cadre immobile d'une vie tres ancienne et tres reguliere
ou le travail, les moeurs et les gens obeissent h des prescriptions plus
rigoureuses de n'etre commandees que par I'assentiment unanime.
Quand Madge se sentit a bout, en libre et franche femme de son pays,
elle park nettement k Jean Swalue ; " Je ne puis pas rester,j'ai essaye,
c'est impossible ; pour notre bonheur il faut que nous rentrions en
Angleterre. Je pars ce soir."
Et elle est partie. Et apres un mouvement de revoke et de douleur
Jean I'a suivie. II est devenu un parfait Anglais. lis attendaient le
bebe espere quand la nouvelle invraisembkble et cruelle de I'invasion
allemande eclat a.
Apres un long moment d'incertitude et de desarroi, I'homme a rejoint
257 T
LES FRUITS DE L'EXIL
Parmee Beige. II n'a pu defendre que le dernier lambeau du sol national,
derriere I'Yser et il I'a fait jusqu'a la mort. Son corps de grand gar^on
blond repose quelque part dans le cimetiere d'Adinkerke.
Madge a longtemps songe a ce qu'elle pourrait faire pour rendre k sa
memoire le tribut necessaire. EUe n'a pas beaucoup pleure : le sort
de Jean lui parait le plus beau du monde. EUe a renonce k fleurir son
tombeau dans le sable maritime. Avec la meme silencieuse et nette
resolution qui lui avait fait quitter Bruges, elle y est rentree. Ce ne
fut pas sans peine. La ville est isolee et farouchement gardee par
I'ennemi que le voisinage de I'Yser emplit d'une crainte superstitieuse.
Mais rien n'est impossible k une femme d'Angleterre qui sait ce qu'elle
veut. Elle a penetre seule et deja bien lourde dans la cite dormante.
Malgre I'outrage de la presence de I'AUemand, la vie y continue reguliere
et profonde, emplie d'un reve ardent de resurrection et de represailles.
C'est la que naquit le fils de Jean Swalue, mort pour la patrie. C'est
la que sa veuve se souvient avec orgueil d'etre nee Anglaise pour pouvoir
donner a la Belgique heroique avec le fruit de son amour tous les tresors
de sa jeune vie ardente et genereuse.
258
THE FRUITS OF EXILE.
Translation by E. B. Osborn.
IN the art of Burne-Jones, which has influenced the imaginations of
some of our Belgian painters and writers more intimately perhaps
than that of other great artists, you find a favourite symbol. It is
the symbolical tree of mystery bearing golden fruit of a supernatural
perfection. You enter the visionary garden where it grows, and there
you see beautiful beings whose features have the clear outlines of a
cameo. With a gracious gesture they take hold of the branches within
reach, with still, calm fingers they touch the fruit without harming its
bloom of wonderment, they pluck it and offer it with a grave, mystical
smile — still withholding in their eyes the reflection of thoughts far
away.
How comes it that my dreaming mind runs so persistently on these
visions of the Pre-Raphaelites in a summer of warfare, at a time when the
grateful spirit of one living in a land of refuge must needs be visited by
haunting questions of the fate of fellow-exiles, the future of our nation ?
It is because this long sojourn on British soil — an autumn of storm and
stress, a v^dnter of resignation and a spring-tide of hopefulness, issuing
at last in a summer of pregnant resolution — seems to me to have resulted
already in the ripening of much mystical fruit.
Belgium has been cleft through all her vital parts by the sharp plough-
share of this most terrible war. And yet, like the strong, rich, ancient
and abysmal land that we know her to be, she has imparted a principle
of life to the bleeding grain sown in the furrows of her still open wounds.
Whether oppressed by a sacrilegious occupation or obsessed by the
sorrows of exile, my compatriots are at one, and the sap rises in them all.
For reaping, for wine-growing, and for the gathering of other fruits of
the soil there is ample opportunity. Barn and vwne-press and store-
room shall be well filled. Let there be no talk of impoverishment, of
sterility, of death. Belgium has increase, brings forth, and lives anew
for her new destinies.
Already, in her nine crucified provinces, the blood of martyrs
engenders a brotherhood of heroes, and this new generation bears our
people onwards and upwards — to a loftier unselfishness, a larger soli-
darity, a more lavish access of that just pride which gives to nations
259
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
their sense of nationality. The Belgian in exile does not undervalue
this expansion of the mother-life nor the new power, beaten out by
strokes of doom, which comes of perseverance in self-sacrifice. Far
from it — ^he envies, respects, and admires the heroism of his compatriots
under the yoke of occupation and modestly asks to co-operate in their
travail. Belgium in exile, be it remembered, is also acquiring a new
sense of the future. It is my present task to explain this new sense —
to appraise the inestimable contribution of the United Kingdom to
this wider understanding and show how it must constitute hereafter
a constant factor in our national greatness.
I.
In the past we Belgians were not great travellers. The favourites of
fortune, it is true, might spend a small portion of the winter on the
shores of the Mediterranean or take the usual kind of summer trips in
Switzerland, the Black Forest, or the Rhine country. Apart from these,
vety few indeed of us cared about entering into the occluded life of
other peoples. In the far distances of time, when our race came into
being, Flemings and Walloons must have made a vow not to cross the
horizons of their home life. The citizen of Brussels, product \^s he
was of social centralisation, might have a liking for Paris, but even he
was never quite at home there. And nothing in the world would have
persuaded a family living at Ghent or Liege to settle in cities where
unknown languages were spoken. Nay, more, removing from one
Belgian town to another — the transference of household goods from
Bruges to Arlon, from Louvain to Mons — was an event only to be
justified by the weightiest reasons which would be pondered long
beforehand and even become the theme of public comment.
Certain professions suffered an obvious loss of popularity as a result
of the ancient habit of home-keeping. The profession of arms, in
which promotion involves transference from one provincial command
to another, was a case in point. So was the diplomatic and consular
service, which necessitates the separation of families for long periods
and causes those employed in it to lose touch with the average Belgian's
260
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
environment. Both of these professions are to-day lifted to the lofties
plane of national interest and the nation's grateful regard. More
than a year has passed since the instantaneous change of outlook which
has made them envied and exalted. To-day it seems that the future
well-being, nay the very existence, of every member of the community
depends on the efforts of our soldiers and our diplomatists and, as an
immediate consequence, a new sanctity attaches to public vocations
which, before the War, nobody undertook save for special reasons.
Their sojourn in England has greatly assisted in deepening this new
impression among the Belgian exiles. Nowhere else in the world,
as a matter of fact, does public opinion honour the soldier's vocation
and the zest for distant adventure with the almost adoring unanimity
observed in this country. Here the voluntary system, too long regarded
by Belgians as a convenient means of evading the burdens of military
service, is guaranteed by a lively and continuous action of public opinion
on the best spirits of the nation. It is in the moral sense that such
service is compulsory. And if, in the dreadful crisis in which the
world is struggling, time is lacking for the full action of this spiritual
compulsion, one must nevertheless admit that the English method
has its moral grandeur, that it recognises in the humblest soldier a
capacity for supreme self-sacrifice and a peculiar glory and surrounds
him with that atmosphere of civic esteem and the individual's sense
of right in which the sentiment of nationality is magnified.
The Belgian fugitive, safe in this unknown island, found out forth-
with that necessity has its burdens and that they must be voluntarily
shouldered. After the praiseworthy acceptance by the whole Belgian
race of the impossible struggle so heroically undertaken by their King
and Government, after the close and painful participation of civilians
in the sufferings and enduring resistance of our soldiers, the asylum, the
citadel of refuge provided by England for the gasping victims enabled
us to widen and deepen the force of the example of dignified self-
sacrifice and martyrdom undaunted. Belgium, though crushed and
conquered, brought new legions to birth on the soil of a hospitable
nation. The army which she revered, which is now and for ever the
centre of her aspirations — this little Belgian army served as a stimvdus
261
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
to the creation and development of Kitchener's huge force. Of its
own free will, first of all to right the wrongs of Belgium and, in the
next place, to save civilisation, a vast world-embracing Empire, which
looks to realities and is utilitarian in policy, placed on the highest
plane of its world-wide activities and interests — the soldier !
It is the soldier, as you see, who, as the long months of exile went by
in town and countryside, revived in the Belgian mind a sense of the
timeless and unalterable necessity of military power. Ever since the
attack on Liege we have been heart and soul with our infantry, our
artillery, our cavalry, watching them at work on the fortress-banks of
the Meuse. After the fall of Antwerp, during the fighting on the
Yser and through the months that saw the reorganisation of our
shattered army on the sea-coast, it has been ever more clearly revealed
to the exile, ever more distinctly understood and cheerfully accepted
that no nation deserves to live which cannot fight for its life. Military
service is a national necessity, whether a nation is confined to sixty
miles of coast-line or has dominion over three oceans.
When Ypres received the first incendiary bomb, aimed with diabolical
deliberation at the heart of the famous belfry, all Belgium was seared
to the soul. Then, indeed, the people of Antwerp, of Ghent, and of
Bruges, the inhabitants of Liege, Mons, Arlon, and Brussels, and those
of little towns such as Stavelot and Audenarde, Binche and Poperinghe,
fully understood that the barbarians were out for sheer murder. Unable
to make a triumphal entry into Ypres, the last city in our land of ancient
liberties, they wished to rase it to the ground in order to convince all
who lay beneath the Prussian jack-boot that independence was dead in
Belgium. The shuddering outcry, not to be repressed, of Belgians at
home was echoed by the heart-rending appeal of Belgians abroad —
or even outside Belgium the very voice of those time-ennobled stones
was audible, as they were bleeding with blood of their antiquity, five
centuries of glory and civilisation. As in the case of the criminal
conflagration in which perished the library of the University of Louvain,
the whole world shuddered at the destruction of the famous Hall which
has done more to lower the prestige of Germany in the eyes of civilised
nations than all the victorious efforts of the Allies from the sea-coast
262
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
to Alsace. The whole story of Belgium stood at the stake amidst
the flames of Ypres, and, even in the most distant parts of the New
World, men knew that great and undying fragment of the past, in a
little corner of the Old World, had provoked the blind fury, colossal
and colossally absurd, of the Teuton monster. There and then the
diplomatists of the Allies gained a new ally on whom they could count.
At last, at a single stroke, the ultimatum of the second of August and
the violation of right it involved, for a time not clearly understood
owing to vague German calumnies and an insufficient knowledge of
the question of Belgian neutrality, had for the world their full and foul
significance. The might of a nation which had fought for Freedom
centuries before and built in her name those noble flights of stairs,
those belfries and city halls, stood out with singular distinction among
the economic and political rivalries of neighbouring peoples. Thus
at the very moment that saw the loss of her territory, her Govern-
ment receiving the benefit of a diplomatic fiction, her King pitching
his tent on the sea sands, her people paying tribute to the invader,
Belgium was a more imposing and vital member than she had ever
been before of the fellowship of nations. Her representatives abroad
enjoyed a prestige and an authority beyond all precedent. They
were able to borrow millions on a non-existent credit and begin the
working-out of a programme of rebuilding and renewals though no
practical starting-point was yet apparent.
Nowhere was the feeling that Belgium's greatness was growing
more keenly felt by Belgians than in England. There they heard the
speeches of public men, there they followed the negotiations of which
the British Foreign Office, now as at all times a lighthouse in the
darkness of the world's destinies, was the chief focus. All they heard
bade them look to the future. Hitherto the Belgian exile in England
had been absorbed in his daily toil at home, in the honourable ambition
of securing the greatest possible harvest from his fertile lands and
teeming waters. He had never dreamed of enjoying a life released
from the encircling pressure of the individual's aims and interests.
So that he was amazed to find himself the centre of a world-wide
conflict, to see the sympathies of all humanity assisting in his deliverance,
263
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
and to hear the defence of his honour spoken of as a task entrusted to
the representatives of the world's greatest Empire.
It is to England that the Belgian owes this new sense of his inter-
national consequence. Now that he has acquired it, his envoys will
be plenipotentiaries indeed, having the support of universal sympathy
and the complete confidence which is indispensable in such cases. Let
English diplomatists rest assured that this support wiU not only provide
all the consolation they may require in carrying out a difficult and
obdurate mission, but also the stimulating certainty that they have
the grateful good wishes of the whole Belgian nation.
II,
Nowhere else in the world, I am convinced, is an anxious interest in
public affairs as widespread as it is in Great Britain, and so great a
part of the ordinary citizen's daily preoccupations. No doubt this
zeal has its inconveniences. We Belgians think ourselves more deeply
divided by party controversies than any other nation, and there is no
denying, when we consider the infinitesimal evils of our political strife
and the narrowness of its territorial scope, that Belgian public life
suffers from the effects of an excess of domestic politics. And the
United Kingdom is not free (far from it !) from these imperfections,
which are perhaps inherent in a democracy under the parliamentary
system. Nevertheless it must be admitted that there is ample compen-
sation for such defects in the universal and profound sense, which
is evolved under such a system, of every individual's responsibility
for the progress of the nation as a whole. As soon as the exiled Belgian
landed in this country he found himself involved in the vast concussion
which shook the British political regime to its very foundations, but at
the same time caused him to hear the ringing sound which proved its
soundness and solidity. So it came about that the spectacle before
his eyes fitted in well with all he had heard said of the mother
country of that traditional, democratic organization which the Belgian
Constituent Assembly of 1830 wished to make the model of their own
political installation. The false ideal of international pacifism,
264
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
cosmopolitan fraternity, which had deluded so many of our people,
has crumbled into dust since the second of August. But the interplay
of Parliamentary institutions has proved itself a reality and resisted the
effects of a critical contest of men and ideas. As remote from dictator-
ship as from the rule of demagogues, the British system of governance
remained what it had been — a freely-operating union of the King's
permanent authority and of a responsible Government created according
to the nation's will expressed in the selection of two Chambers, in which
tradition and democratic ideas meet in useful rivalry.
In spite of discussions of principle and the illogical inconstancies
of human nature, in spite of the chopping and changing of opinion and
its bitter outbursts, in spite of blundering, self-seeking, and slackness —
nay, actually because of these things — the national system proved
itself so supple, so well-balanced, and so adaptable to the times that
it was universally accepted by the whole nation. And, finding himself
in touch with it, the Belgian exile overhauls his old, cherished convic-
tions. He takes delight in assisting, with that heartfelt emulation so
fertile in mental activity and the exercise of will-power, the operation
of those principles which are the basal motives of the British nation's
vigorous national life : the unquestioned regard for religious emotion
as the best safeguard for private morality ; an attitude of toleration
in regard to all sincere manifestations of opinion ; and the universal
conviction that the nation's welfare must take precedence of all other
interests.
How zealously the English people participate in public affairs is
a matter to which those Belgians can bear witness who have been
hospitably admitted to the intimacies of English family life. English-
women, even more than Englishmen, are keenly interested in adminis-
trative principles and are fond of criticising responsible administrat ors.
Moreover they are women of action ; in the sphere of charity they ar e
admirable workers. Indeed, it is to them that we owe this ingenious,
swiftly-improvised, and many-sided adaptation of English hospitality
to the needs of a plundered people, tui'ned out of house and home
and cast away on the shores of a foreign country by so terrible a social
cataclysm. They have received us, these hostesses of ours, as if the
265
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
reception were a simple, everyday affair — ^without losing that smiling
and alert graciousness, which is a characteristic of British woman-
hood.
Ah ! the English girl, she who is called " the Miss " by Continental
folk, and is invariably depicted, in accordance with a popular literary
convention, as slender, blooming, independent and given over to
sport — ^what unsuspected treasures of delicate and joyous sympathy
she has revealed to the Belgians whom she has adopted ! She has made
them a present of her very self in a way which seemed impossible to
those who knew her from our French novels — novels that represent
her as created for flirtation rather than love, a votary of sport and caring
little for motherhood, maddened with " suffragism " and indifferent
to all undisplayed self-devotion, moulded to the rites of a formal
elegance and unable to adapt herself to the untidiness and trifling
troubles of humble Continental folks. But I have seen these English
girls with their dainty hands washing up the crockery in a " home "
they had got ready for three Flemish families. I have seen ladies
of position regularly visiting poor Walloon townsfolk and trying to
adapt their schoolroom French to the endless outpourings of our
gossips. And I have known instances in which zealous committee
ladies have most tactfully restrained their zeal for beneficence as soon
as they noticed that their most discreet visits set up insurmountable
barriers of constraint in households which had at last been arranged
according to the ideas of Belgians living at home. These ladies have
then refrained from even crossing the thresholds of homes furnished
and fed by themselves, but have continued to go the round of trades-
men's shops so as to make sure that the housewives had no cause for
complaint.
The exiled Belgian cannot give an account of what has been done
for him, of what is still being done for him every hour of the day. The
deep and inexpugnable sadness of exile ; anguished grieving over
a hearth forsaken, destroyed perhaps, or desecrated by the invader's
presence ; ineradicable remembrance, like a nightmare's obsession,
of the horrors he had lived through, a fiery ordeal of barbarian cruelty ; a
haunting dread of the future — these unhappy feelings weave about
266
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
him a veil of gloom as impalpable and abiding as fog on the river in
November. Pondering over the beneficence of others and his own
gratitude, he sees on every side obstacles to the clear recognition of
the one and a frank expression of the other. None the less, both are
registered in the soul's subconsciousness and so stored up abundantly,
mingled with visions which the tiniest tot of a child-fugitive remembers,
which even the infants who have only seen the day dawn on English
soil breathe in with the English air.
I remember meeting three little children, holding one another by
the hand, in the course of a Sunday expedition in Surrey which, before
sloping in the direction of the sea, displays hill-tops very like those of
the Ardennes. They had neatly bobbed-up flaxen tresses, cheeks
rosy as apples and pretty print dresses, and they walked along the level
road like little ladies. I inquired my way of them, but they could not
understand either my French or my English. A sudden, happy thought
caused me to ask my question in Flemish. They were not in the least
surprised and gravely assured me that they only knew the way to the
" casteel," in the shadow of which they lived. Following their gaze
I then discovered their smiling, red-brick cottage, half hidden under
the branches of an oak such as is only seen in England. I let them go
home all three still holding hands, looking like grave little ladies — these
poor children of exile, children of our Flanders which has neither hills
nor trees, children of a race brought up in one-storey cabins crouched
against the thankless soil that can only be fertilised by toil and moil
unknown in England. When they return home and are recaptured,
with their relations, by a life of hardships, will they remember the park
full of venerable trees, the hill that overhangs the plain, and the shep-
herds and tenders of cattle in meadows so easily manured, and the
jam on their daily bread, and the cold, but comfortable churches, and
the clean clothes worn even on week-days, and the great country so
strangely reserved, yet so generous-hearted ?
Who knows ? Here we come to the mighty mysterious influences
of earth and sky, of those earliest memories which have more tenacity
than anything learnt from books or taught by experience of human
nature. But I am sure that none of my compatriots, of whatsoever
267
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
age or origin, will ever shake off the various, but inevitable, gift that
is given in these days of exile. There will be visions of England in
the very veins of our children.
Will youthful hearts receive in this land the revelation of love which
is so perturbing and so fateful ? We Belgians know nothing of marriages
that are made beyond our boundaries. This is one of the striking
characteristics of our racial individuality. Except for the few French
alliances of our aristocracy and a very occasional treaty of sentiment
with the Dutch, it may be said that the Belgian finds a wife among his
own people. No Walloon living on the frontier extending from Aubel
to Trois-Ponts has ever married a German woman. Thank God for
sparing us that ! It is much more surprising that Anglo- Belgian
marriages have been hitherto very rare indeed. I have known one
such union ; it shocked people when it came to pass. It was bound
to prove a failure, so they said, at the end of a year. It has just come to
an end, a conclusion as beautiful as it was tragical. When the course
of the War allows me to remember that I am a novelist, I hope to tell
the story of this marriage. May I give its outline here in a very brief
narrative. It will form a logical Jinis to these reflections, which are,
I fear, a little too bold and far too desultory.
Her name was Madge. He was Jean Swalue, the son of the keeper
of the Gruuthuse Museum at Bruges, which is now a barracks for
Heaven knows what species of soldiers. They met in the tennis
tournament at Ostend in the summer preceding that which saw the
outbreak of hostilities. She noticed him because he looked like an
Englishman, being tall, well set up, clean shaven, and no talker. Sport
brought them together in that closed social circle of Flemish country
squires. But he could dream of nothing but her, and in his simple
and tenacious heart the dream of making her a part of his life had
already become a living and passionate reality. Madge permitted
herself the pleasure of a flirtation which the aspect and atmosphere
of Bruges changed into something more romantic and fateful than she
had expected. He talked of marriage and the spell should have been
broken. But it went on working, all the more potently because of the
occluded complicity of that land of ancient tradition and a stubborn
268
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
people's conquering will-power. Madge found herself engaged almost
before she thought of an engagement. She assured herself that she
had lost nothing of her former Uberty, and that this betrothal would be
but a part of the enchanting episode of Bruges, the city of a dream.
But when she was taken back there, after a wedding in England where
her husband had looked so like an islander, by degrees she understood
how exacting the city was and how all-engrossing. Bruges was not the
trappings of a dream but the immovable and petrified expression of a
mode of living, very old and set in its ways, which insisted that work,
manners, and human beings should conform to rules of such rigour
that only the consent of a whole society could overrule them.
When Madge felt that the position was impossible, like a frank and
free Englishwoman she spoke plainly : " I cannot stay here ; I have
tried and find I cannot. If we are to be happy together, we must go
back to England. I shall start to-night."
And she left that night. After a spell of revolt, an agonising interval,
Jean followed her. He became a complete Englishman. They were
awaiting the arrival of the son they hoped for when the cruel and
incredible tidings of the German invasion burst on them.
After a long moment of uncertainty and confusion the man rejoined
the Belgian Army. Only a last shred of territory beyond the Yser
was left for him to defend ; he died in its defence. His body, so like
a big, fair-haired boy's, rests somewhere in the cemetery of Adinkerke.
For a long time Madge pondered the question : what should she do
to pay the tribute due to his memory. She did not shed many tears ;
Jean's lot seemed to her beautiful beyond all others. She gave up the
idea of placing flowers on his grave among the sand dunes of the coast.
With the same swift and sudden resolution which marked her departure
she went back to Bruges. It was no easy matter. The city is isolated
and jealously guarded by the enemy, whose fierce hearts are full of super-
stitious fear owing to the nearness of the Yser. But nothing is
impossible to an Englishwoman who knows what she wants. Alone and
already heavy with child she contrived to enter the sleeping city. The
presence of the Germans is felt as an outrage, yet life in Bruges proceeds
with its old orderliness and profound flow, possessed with a fervid
269
THE FRUITS OF EXILE
dream of resurrection and reprisals. In Bruges was born the son of
Jean Swalue, who died for his native land. And his widow lives in
Bruges, proudly remembering that she was born in England that she
might give to Belgium, a land of heroes, the fruit of her love-marriage
and with it all the treasures of her glowing and generous youth.
270
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Impressions d'un Historien Belge : 1914-1915.
Par le Professeur Moeller,
De VUniversite Catholique de Louvain.
L'UNIVERSITE d'Oxford, en recueillant les epaves des
universites beiges, a donne une manifestation nouvelle de la
liberalite qui est un trait saillant de la nation britannique.
II est assez connu que cette genereuse nation n'hesite devant
aucun sacrifice chaque fois qu'il s'agit de venir en aide ^ une
soufFrance ou de soutenir une entreprise scientifique ou de propager
la religion.
L'Universite d'Oxford, avec ses riches fondations, est une demon-
stration eclatante de ce que cette liberalite a ete dans le passe. Dans
cette magnifique floraison de dotations et d'instituts, I'Etat, le Gou-
vernement n'est presque pour rien. A cote des sept chaires dites
royales — les seules dont le Gouvernement fasse les frais — il existe trente
chaires dotees par des particuliers, et cette annee encore, une 31*"*
chaire vient d'etre ouverte, par la fondation Bywater, ^ I'etude de la
langue, des tettres et de la civilisation byzantines.
Les 21 colleges, dont I'ensemble forme, pour ainsi parler, la con-
stellation universitaire, mais dont chacun vit, autonome, sur un patri-
moine seculaire, doivent leur existence et leur prosperite ^ des fondations
perpetuelles et aux dons volontaires qui continuent a y affluer.
L'Universite d'Oxford, ^ son tour, n'est etrangere ^ aucune des
manifestations ou se deploie la generosite du pays. Emue par la
detresse de sa soeur I'Universite de Louvain, enveloppee dans le sac
de cette ville, elle a ete la premiere ^ offrir un abri hospitalier aux
professeurs echappes au desastre. Elle a accueilli avec la meme bonne
grace des professeurs d'autres universites beiges frappes egalement dans
leur situation par la suspension de I'enseignement superieur durant
I'occupation etrangere.
Pour faire face aux frais de cette hospitalite, un comite universitaire
for assisting Belgian Professors s'est forme, ay ant pour president
Sir William Osier, une illustration medicale, et pour secretaire
271
OXFORD
Mme. Wanda Max-Miiller, la vaillante belle-fille du celebre orientaliste
de ce nom.
Un deuxieme comite, constitue sous la direction de Sir Herbert
Warren, President du Magdalen College, et avec la collaboration, en
qualite de secretaire, de M. Urquhart, maitre-es-arts de Balliol, s'est
occupe specialement des etudiants qui ont suivi leurs maitres a
Oxford.
II s'agissait de faire face h des situations diverses : il en est qui avaient
tout perdu dans I'incendie de leur maison, dont ils n'avaient pas eu le
temps de sauver le necessaire. D'autres ont ete heureux de trouver
dans I'hospitalite d'Oxford le moyen de demeurer en contact avec
leurs fils ou leurs freres combattant de I'autre cote de la mer pour dis-
puter k I'ennemi le dernier lambeau de la patrie. Des peres de famille
arrivaient avec le souci d'epargner h. leurs femmes et a leurs enfants le
spectacle des horreurs de la presente guerre. II fut pourvu a tout.
Les Bachelors et les etudiants sont recueiUis soit dans les installations
spacieuses des colleges, soit dans la charmante intimite des families
universitaires. Pour ceux qui amenaient une famille entiere, comptant
de 4 a 8 personnes, sans les sujets, des cottages meubles et entierement
montes ont ete mis k leur disposition dans la riante ceinture de jar dins
qui est une des beautes de la ville d'Oxford.
Nous renon^ons k detailler les attentions delicates dont ces refugies
ont ete I'objet de la part de leurs hotes. Pour n'en signaler qu'un
trait, les Beiges ne peuvent pas se passer de la vie de societe ; ils ont
besoin de se voir et de causer, et, a defaut d'un cercle, ils se retrouvent
volontiers le soir dans les cafes ou les brasseries de leur pays. Ils
n'avaient pourtant manifeste aucun desir ni aucun regret a cet egard
lorsqu'un beau jour ils ont appris qu'on mettait gratuitement k leur
disposition une salle particuliere ou ils pourraient lire les journaux du
matin et tenir leurs reunions du soir : le Club of Belgian Professors
etait fonde.
Non moins large a ete ce que j'appelerais I'hospitalite scientifique de
rUniversite. L'acces des ressources en tout genre dont la science
dispose a Oxford a ete ouvert gratuitement aux professeurs et aux
etudiants beiges, plus favorises sous ce rapport que les etudiants anglais,
272
MA(;i)AI,KN" COLI.EGK, OXFORD
jitlp:s dk kruvcker
OXFORD
qui doivent faire des frais pour jouir des memes avantages. Les richesses
de la Bibliotheque dite " Bodleienne " sont assez connues dans le monde
savant : 40,000 manuscrits et un million et demi de volumes relies et de
brochures cataloguees, ou toutes les litteratures anciennes et modernes
de I'Europe et du monde sont representees, fournissent aux etudes
les plus diverses un aliment inepuisable. Le catalogue manuscrit
comporte plus de 900 volumes in folio, repertoire alphabetique de la
bibliographie non seulement des auteurs, mais de matieres ; grace k
cet admirable instrument de travail, nulle part les recherches ne sont
plus aisees que dans cet immense depot.
Dans les laboratoires parfaitement outilles de I'Universite, les Beiges
ont ete admis k travailler k cote des specialistes des sciences techniques.
Les colleges ont mis gracieusement h la dispositions des professeurs
leurs halls et leurs auditoires en vue d'organiser des conferences propres
k fournir un aliment intellectuel h la colonic beige d'Oxford.
L'Universite par elle-meme, dans son organisation comme dans son
passe, offre un sujet interessant d'etudes k I'historien, au juriste et k
Peconomiste. Le passe et le present se rejoignent dans la continuite
de sa vie corporative, comme dans I'aspect exterieur de ses colleges
leurs murs noircis par le temps sont rajeunis par la vegetation toujours
fraiche qui les tapisse.
Du passe, Oxford a retenu I'union etroite de la religion et de la
science qui est aussi la raison d'etre de I'Universite catholique de Lou-
vain. Des 21 colleges d'Oxford, 12 sont des fondations episcopales et
I'un des archeveques ou eveques actuels y conserve un patronage
honoraire sous le titre de " Visitor.''^
Chaque college, k son tour, exerce le patronnat ecclesiastique sur
certaines paroisses disseminees au nombre de plus de deux cents dans
toute I'etendue de I'Angleterre. A ccte de I'Eglise St.-Mary-the-Virgiriy
qui est la paroisse officielle de I'Universite, chaque college a sa chapelle
ou le service Divin, selon le rite anglican, est celebre le matin et le soir
avec autant de decence que de ponctualite. Dans un pareil milieu,
les sciences sacrees sont cultivees avec le meme zele que les sciences
profanes, et Oxford est un foyer intense d'etudes et de publications
bibliques, patristiques, theologiques et liturgiques, auxquelles les
273 U
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celebres presses universitaires de Clarendon pretent le concours de leur
expansion mondiale.
On retrouve ici trait pour trait une image toujours vivante de ce
qu'etaient, dans les anciens Pays-Bas, les Universites de Louvain et de
Douai, avec leur faculte de theologie, leurs nombreux colleges, leurs
fondations en bourses d'etudes, leurs chaires royales, leurs rentes
foncieres et leurs cures patronnees. De cette similitude resultait, a
I'epoque deja lointaine d'Erasme, les relations les plus cordiales entre
Oxford et Louvain. La scission religieuse de xvi^ siecle y a mis fin.
Les catholiques recusants d'Oxford et Cambridge, Thomas Allen, le
futur cardinal a leur tete, ont demande alors un refuge hospitaller a
I'Universite de Louvain, ou ils ont fait une station avant de trouver leur
siege definitif ^ Douai. Ce fut la derniere manifestation de I'entente
qui avait regne jusque Ik entre les Universites d'Angleterre et I'Uni-
versite de Louvain. Depuis, ces corps savants ont marche dans des
voies divergentes. II a fallu la catastrophe actuelle pour renouer leurs
rapports, mais avec les roles intervertis. Aujourd'hui c'est Oxford qui
regoit les recusants beiges contre la domination de I'etranger, et combien
plus beau est son geste. Car Louvain recueillit apres tout des corre-
ligionnaires — Oxford tend la main k des adeptes d'une autre ecole, qui ne
professe pas les memes doctrines. Ces deux ecoles ont pourtant maints
points de contact, et leur accord, en se perpetuant, pourrait produire
des fruits durables : ce serait d'opposer une digue commune contre
le flot montant des doctrines agnostiques qui menacent les fondations
seculaires de la civilisation chretienne.
Cette tenacite d'Oxford dans le maintien de ses traditions a eu pour
effet d'y perpetuer d'anciennes methodes qui, depuis moins d'un siecle,
ont ete reprises dans nos Universites les plus modernes comme le
dernier mot du progres. Je veux parler de la collaboration des maitres
et de leurs disciples telle qu'elle se pratique dans les Seminaires scien-
tijiques de I'Allemagne et k V Ecole Pratique des Hautes-Etudes de Paris.
Le regime coUegial qui est reste la regie des Universites anglaises etablit
entre professeurs et etudiants vivant sous le meme toit un rapprochement
du meme genre et des plus fructueux pour ceux qui veulent se specialiser
dans une science. Ce travail s'accomplit sans bruit et sans reclame dans
274
OXFORD
les modestes classes d'un college. Rien ici des foules melees qui se
pressent au pied des chaires de la Sorbonne ou du College de France
rien non plus de la concurrence que se font les professeurs allemands
pour accaparer le plus possible d'etudiants. Toute recherche de la
popularite est inconnue k Oxford. Les maitres de la science, dont les
travaux sont reputes dans les deux mondes, se perdent ici dans la
foule, et il m'est arrive, dans plus d'une rencontre fortuite, en apprenant
le nom de mon interlocuteur, de lui demander s'il etait apparente a telle
celebrite europeenne du meme nom et d'en recevoir cette reponse :
" mais ce professeur, c'est moi."
Le merite d'une enseignement superieur se mesure ^ la valeur des
productions qui en sont le fruit. On n'a pas oublie la boutade de
Renan* :
" Une universite allemande de dernier ordre, Giessen ou Greifswald,
avec ses petites habitudes etroites, ses pauvres professeurs a la mine
gauche et effaree, ses frivat-docent haves et fameliques, fait plus pour
I'esprit humain que I'aristocratique universite d'Oxford, avec ses
millions de revenu, ses colleges splendides, ses riches traitements, ses
jellows paresseux."
Cette condamnation sommaire, si elle a pu etre vraie il y a un siecle,
serait profondement injuste aujourd'hui. Quel est d'ailleurs I'esprit
assez vaste pour juger une institution qui embrasse toutes les con-
naissances humaines ? A m'en tenir a mon horizon borne aux sciences
historiques, je ne suis pas seul a constater le progres remarquable
realise \ Oxford et \ Cambridge depuis que I'ecole oratoire de Gibbon
et de Macaulay a fait place a I'ecole critique de William Stubbs et de
Samuel Gardiner, pour ne citer que les morts. Qui a utilise, soit leurs
recherches speciales, soit VEnglish Historical Review, soit leurs pub-
lications collectives, telles que le Dictionary of National Biography, leur
rendra cette justice, que ces travaux, sans negliger la forme, se distinguent
par un souci constant de la precision objective qui est une garantie
d'impartialite ; et si cette impartialite, plus difficile que jamais, demeure
I'ideal auquel doit tendre I'historien digne de ce nom, I'ecole historique
allemande est singulierement distancee, car ses meilleurs travaux actuels
* Renan. Questions ConUmporaines, p. 84. Ecrit en 1854.
275
OXFORD
sont infectes d'un esprit sectaire de nationalisme aveugle et mesquin*
qui fait contraste avec la sympathie genereuse et cosmopolite des grands
classiques allemands, dont Leopold Ranke aura ete le dernier echo.t
Dans ce cadre historique d'Oxford, qui se relie par une chaine con-
tinue au moyen age, le monde des etudiants jette la note moderne ;
ils y apportent la vie et I'animation de la jeunesse, qui se deploie tour
k tour au debating club, sur le play-ground et dans les concours nautiques.
Cette annee, il ne nous en a pas ete donne d'en etre temoin. Cette
vaillante jeunesse nous a donne un plus grand spectacle : tout a coup les
colleges se sont vides, les auditoires sont rentres dans le silence, les
sports sont delaisses ; et ces etudiants, transformes en soldats, avec
nombre de leurs fellows, I'heritier du Trone, etudiant de Magdalen
College, en tete, se sont repandus sur les champs de bataille depuis
la Flandre jusqu'aux Dardanelles pour aller defendre le droit inter-
national et la justice brutalement foules aux pieds, pour retablir
I'equilibre europeen, qui est rompu chaque fois que notre petit pays
est envahi et occupe par une grande puissance, et pour sauver la liberte
du monde, mise en peril par un imperialisme outrecuidant et sans
autre titre que d'avoir enrichi ou perfectionne nos engins de des-
truction.
Cette adaptation si rapide a un genre de vie si different est le fruit de
I'education anglaise, qui donne une grande part au developpement du
corps en meme temps que de I'esprit. En Belgique, nous etions, sous
ce rapport, arrieres et ce n'est que depuis quelques annees que les sports
physiques ont ete mis en honneur dans nos centres universitaires.
(*) Ajoutez-y un defautplus ancien signale depuis 1867 par le meme Renan : " Le grand
defaut de I'Allemagne est cet empressement fievreux d'annoncer des resultats nouveaux et
de depasser les maitres, qui produit un deluge de theses hardies et de paradoxes, De la
ces travaux hatifs par lesquels une jeunesse intelligente, mais trop nombreuse et trop em-
pressee, cherche a se frayer une route vers les fonctions salariees." — Questions Contem-
poratnes, p. 256.
Ce fleau de Varrivisme ne sevit pas en Angleterre.
(f) On sait comment Ranke a traite successivement et avec la meme impartialite I'Espagne
de Philippe II, la France des Bourbons, 1' Angleterre des Tudor et des Stuart, I'histoire des
Papes, consider ee comme son chef d'ceuvre, Ainsi le theatre de Schiller nous transporte
tour a tour en Italic avec son Fiesco, en Suisse avec Guillaume Tell, en Espagne avec Don
Carlos, en Angleterre avec Marie Stuart, en France avec Jeanne (TArc. De meme Goethe
a mis en scene les Fran^ais dans Clavigo, les Espagnols dans Egmont, les Italiens dans lasso,
les Grecs dans son Ifhigenie. Telle etait la largeur d'esprit de ces grands Allemands.
276
OXFORD
La vraie culture n'est que 14, dans ce que les Grecs appelaient VEuryth-
miey c'est-a-dire, le developpement harmonieux de toutes lesfacultes de
rhomrae : du corps, de I'intelligence et, surtout, du coeur. Ailleurs, on
constate une atrophie du coeur qui est comme la contrepartie de I'hyper-
trophie du cerveau ; il semble que toute la Kultur allemande en soit
arrivee la. A Oxford, au contraire, le culte des choses de I'esprit n'a
pas desseche les sentiments du cceur ; nous I'eprouvons en ce moment.
La meme generosite du coeur a inspire I'elan de cette jeunesse aris-
tocratique des universites qui sacrifie tant de faveurs de la nature,
de la fortune et du rang et jusqu'4 la vie pour le salut de tous, sacrifice
d'autant plus meritoire qu'il est volontaire et non obligatoire. Et ces
colleges, naguere si vivants, en deuil maintenant, etalent k I'entree
de leur chapelle la liste glorieuse, mais funebre, de leurs victimes de la
guerre. J'y releve dej4 le chiffre de deux cents morts, et combien ce
nombre ne suppose-t-il pas de blesses ou de mutiles. Le coeur se serre
devant cette hecatombe, a la pensee de ce qu'elle ensevelit d'avenir,
d'esperances, de talents naissants, de genie peut-etre !
II en est resulte que la population de I'Universite est tombee k
Oxford de 3,000 k 700 et au debut du present terme on ne compte pas
plus de 300 inscriptions nouvelles. II en resulte encore que I'Universite
est egalement atteinte dans ses ressources financieres si bien que pour
faire face a ses frais il a fallu que le Parlement I'autorise a ajourner les
services susceptibles de reductions. Ajoutons que spontanement les
membres du corps enseignant se sont accordes a faire le sacrifice d'un
quart de leur traitement, afin de diminuer les charges de Tuniversite.
Est-il necessaire de rappeler tout ce que la Belgique doit k I'Angleterre
dans le passe, combien de fois celle-ci est intervenue pour nous de-
livrer du joug intolerable du despotisme etranger ?
Au XVII* siecle, pour ne pas remonter plus haut, c'est Marlborough
dont I'epee victorieuse refoule de nos provinces les armees de Louis
XIV. Au XIX®, c'est Wellington brisant k Waterloo le dernier effort
de Napoleon pour ressaisir avec la Belgique I'empire du continent.
C'est encore I'Angleterre qui, apres 1830, a preside au berceau de
notre nouveau royaume de Belgique et qui lui a donne sa premiere
dynastie. Car si Leopold de Saxe-Cobourg etait allemand d'origine, il
OXFORD
etait devenu prince anglais par son premier mariage avec I'heritiere de la
Couronne britannique et par son sejour prolonge depuis lors ^ la Cour
d'Angleterre.
Notre constitution elle-meme, la plus liberale du continent et qui a
servi de modele aux autres constitutions europeennes, notre constitu-
tion avec sa royaute limitee, son ministere responsable et ses deux
chambres, n'est, au fond, qu'un decalque des institutions libres de
I'Angleterre, et cet amour de la liberte, profondement ancre dans le
ccEur des Beiges, et qui se cabre contre toute tentative d'asservisse-
ment, nous sommes venus le retremper dans Fair libre qu'on respire
ici.
Ce qui frappe le plus les Beiges aujourd'hui, c'est I'heure critique ou
la liberalite britannique se manifeste, alors que des charges ecrasantes
sont imposees h toutes les classes de la societe par cette gigantesque
guerre des nations. C'est au milieu de cette crise effrayante que FAngle-
terre, et en particulier Oxford, n'ont pas hesite a tendre un main
secourable ^ la Belgique en detresse.
A tant de coeur, le coeur seul peut repondre par I'hommage d'une
gratitude eternelle.
278
OXFORD.
Impressions of a Belgian Professor: 1914-1915.
Translation by the Right Hon. Herbert Samuel, M.A., M.P.
THE University of Oxford, by receiving into its fold the
waifs and strays of the Belgian universities, has given a
fresh example of that generosity w^hich is so striking a
characteristic of the British nation. That high-souled
people lives up to its reputation of never hesitating at
sacrifice, if it is a question of helping sufferers, of advancing science,
or of propagating religion.
The University of Oxford, with its wealthy foundations, is in itself
a brilliant proof of what that generosity has been in the past. In this
splendid efflorescence of endowments and academic institutions, the
State, the Government, has had hardly any part. Side by side v^rith
the seven professorships that bear the title of Royal — the only ones
maintained by the Government — there are thirty others privately
endowed ; and in this very year a thirty-first has been established
by the Bywater Foundation, for the study of the language, Uterature,
and civilisation of the Byzantines.
The twenty-one colleges, which together form, so to speak, the
constellation of the University, but each of which Uves, self-
governing, on its own ancient patrimony, owe their existence and
their prosperity to perpetual endowments and to voluntary gifts which
still continue to accrue.
The University of Oxford, in return, never fails to play its part
whenever a call is made on the generosity of the nation. Profoundly
affected by the distress of the sister-University of Louvain, over-
whelmed in the sack of that town, Oxford was the first to offer shelter
and hospitality to the professors who had escaped from the catastrophe.
With equal kindness she received and welcomed the professors of
other Belgian universities hardly less affected by the suspension of
higher education during the occupation of the country by a foreign
Power.
To provide for the expenses of the hospitality so offered, a University
Committee for Assisting Belgian Professors was formed, under the
chairmanship of Sir William Osier, one of the most distinguished
279
OXFORD
men of the world of medicine, and having as its secretary Mrs. Wanda
Max-Miiller, the indefatigable daughter-in-law of the celebrated
Orientalist of that name. A second committee was constituted,
under the leadership of Sir Herbert Warren, President of Magdalen
College, assisted hy Mr. Urquhart, of Balliol, as secretary, with the
special duty of caring for the students who had followed their teachers
to Oxford.
It was necessary to deal with a variety of circumstances. Some had
lost everything in the burning of their houses, from which they had
not had time to save even the most necessary articles. Some were
glad to embrace, through the hospitality of Oxford, the opportunity
of keeping in touch with sons or brothers across the Channel fighting
to save from the enemy the last shred of their country's territory.
Fathers of families came in order to spare their vdves and children
the sight of the horrors of this war. Provision was made for each
and all. Graduates and undergraduates were received either in the
roomy buildings of the colleges or else as guests in the charming homes
of the university families. Those who came in family groups of four
to eight persons, sometimes with servants as well, had placed at their
disposal cottages, furnished, and fully equipped, in the smiling border-
land of gardens which is one of the beauties of the town of Oxford.
It is impossible to describe in detail the delicate kindnesses shown
to these refugees by their hosts. To give only a single example —
Belgians cannot do without social life ; they must see one another and
talk to one another, and, when there is no club, they take pleasure
in meeting in the evenings in the cafes or taverns of their country.
They had, however, expressed no virish and had made no complaint
in this connection, when one fine day they learnt that a room had been
placed gratuitously at their entire disposal, where they could read the
papers in the morning and hold their gatherings in the evening : the
Club of Belgian Professors was founded.
On the scholastic side the hospitality of the University was not less
extensive. All Oxford's resources were thrown open gratuitously
to the Belgian professors and students, more favoured in this respect
than the British students, who are required to pay fees for the enjoy-
280
MEKTt^N COI.l.KllK. OXKOKI'
IIJI.KS DK HRl'VCKKk
OXFORD
ment of the same privileges. The riches of the Bodleian Library are
famous throughout the learned world ; 40,000 manuscripts and a
million and a half of bound volumes and pamphlets, all catalogued,
representing all the literatures, ancient and modern, of Europe and of
the world, provide an inexhaustible material for the most diverse
studies. The manuscript catalogue extends to more than nine hundred
folio volumes ; it is an alphabetical bibliographical index not only of
authors, but also of subjects. Thanks to this admirable instrument
of study, nowhere is research more easy than in this vast library.
In the perfectly equipped laboratories of the University the Belgians
were allowed to work side by side with the specialists in technical
sciences.
The Colleges kindly lent their halls and their lecture-rooms to our
professors with a view to the organisation of lectures for the intellectual
entertainment of the Belgian Colony in Oxford.
The University itself, its present organisation as well as its past
records, offers an interesting subject of study to the historian, to the
lawyer, and to the economist. Past and present meet in the current
of its corporate life, as they meet in the external aspect of its colleges,
whose walls, blackened by time, are rejuvenated by the drapery of a
vegetation that ever renews.
Oxford still cherishes that close union between religion and science
which was characteristic of her past, and which is also the principle
on which the Catholic University of Louvain is founded. Of the
twenty-one colleges of Oxford, twelve are episcopal foundations, and
one of the archbishops or bishops for the time being maintains an
honorary connection with each under the title of Visitor. Similarly
each college owns the advowson of certain parishes, the total number
scattered throughout England, exceeding two hundred. In addition
to the Church of St. Mary-the- Virgin, which is the University Church,
each college has its chapel, where Divine service, according to the Anglican
rite, is celebrated morning and evening with equal seemliness and regu-
larity. In such an atmosphere divinity is cultivated with the same
zeal as secular science, and in the spheres of biblical, national, theological,
and ecclesiastical thought Oxford is a living centre of study and of
281
OXFORD
literary output to which the famous Clarendon Press of the
University gives the advantage of a world-wide diffusion.
Feature by feature one finds repeated here a living picture of the
characteristics of the Universities of Louvain and Douai as they
were in the Low Countries in earlier days, with their theological
faculties, their numerous colleges, their scholarships, their royal
professorships, their landed properties, and their ecclesiastical patronage.
In the time, now remote, of Erasmus there sprang from this resem-
blance relations of warm cordiality between Oxford and Louvain.
The religious rupture of the sixteenth century put an end to those
relations. The Catholic " recusants " of Oxford and Cambridge,
with Thomas Allen, the future cardinal, at their head, found at that
time a hospitable refuge at the University of Louvain, where they
stayed for a period before settling finally at Douai. This was the
last instance of the spirit of the fellowship which had existed till then
between the English universities and the University of Louvain.
From that time onwards these learned bodies have trodden divergent
paths. It needed the catastrophe of our own day to renew their old
connection ; but with inverted relations. Now it is Oxford which
receives " recusants " from Belgium, in revolt against an alien domina-
tion. And how much the finer is her attitude ! For, after all, those
whom Louvain sheltered were her own co-religionists ; it is to the
adherents of another school, to men professing a different creed, that
Oxford stretches out her hand. Yet the two have many points in
common, and their connection, if it were lasting, might have per-
manent results for good ; together they might erect a dyke against the
flood of agnostic doctrines which, ever rising, imperils the ancient
foundations of Christian civilisation.
This tenacity on the part of Oxford in maintaining her traditions
has resulted in the preservation there of old methods of teaching,
which, during the last hundred years or less, have been revived in our
most modern universities as the last word of progress : I mean the
collaboration of teachers and pupils as it is practised in the seminaries
of Germany and in the Ecole Pratique des Hautes-Etudes of Paris.
The collegiate regime, which has remained the rule in the English
282
OXFORD
universities, brings together tutors and students, living under the
same roof, in much the same way, and with great advantage to those
who are specialising in a subject.
Without noise or advertisement this effective work is done in the
unpretending classrooms of a college. We do not find here the mixed
crowds who crush round the Chairs of the Sorbonne or the College de
France ; we see no signs of competition such as prevails among the
professors of Germany, each seeking to attract to himself the greatest
number of students. Popularity-hunting is unknown at Oxford.
Leaders of science, whose works are famous in both hemispheres,
efface themselves here in the crowd ; and it has occurred to me more
than once in a chance meeting, on hearing the name of my interlocutor,
to ask him if he were related to the man of European celebrity of the
same name, and to be told in reply, " I am the professor you're refer-
ring to."
The worth of a system of higher education may be measured by the
value of its products. The ill-humoured attack of Renan will not be
forgotten : *
" A German university of the lowest rank, a Giessen or a Greisswald,
with its narrow little ways, its poverty-stricken professors of shy and
awkward mien, its frivat-docent wan and cadaverous, does more for
the human mind than the lordly University of Oxford, with its millions
of income, its magnificent colleges, its large emoluments, and its lazy
Fellows."
This summary condemnation, even if it were true a century
ago, would be profoundly unjust now. But where is the mind
wide enough to be entitled to pass judgment on an institution
which embraces every branch of human knowledge ? Confining
myself to my own sphere of historical science, I am not alone in bearing
witness to the remarkable progress achieved at Oxford and at Cam-
bridge since the oratorical school of Gibbon and Macaulay gave place
to the critical school of William Stubbs and Samuel Gardiner — to
mention only the dead. Whoever has made use, either of their spe-
cialised research work, or of the English Historical Review, or of their
• Renan, Questions Contemforainesy p. 84 ; written in 1834.
283
OXFORD
collective publications, such as the Dictionary of National Biography,
will do them the justice of saying that these works, without neglecting
style, are distinguished by a constant care for objective accuracy which
is itself a guarantee of impartiality. And if that impartiality, now more
difficult to attain than ever, is still the ideal at which any historian
worthy of the title should aim, the German historical school is left
far behind ; for the best of its present-day works are infected by a
bigoted spirit of nationalism, blind and ignoble*, which contrasts with
the broad and sympathetic cosmopolitanism of the great German
classics, who found their last echo in Leopold Ranke.f In this historic
setting of Oxford, which is linked without break of continuity to the
Middle Ages, the undergraduate world strikes the modern note ;
it imparts the life and animation of youth, in the debating club, on the
playing-fields, on the river. But it was not for us this year to watch
it. The young men in their gallantry have shown us a finer sight.
In a moment the colleges were emptied, the lecture halls sank into
silence, sport was put aside ; and these students, transformed into
soldiers, the heir to the Throne, an undergraduate of Magdalen College,
at their head, eagerly hastened to every field of battle from Flanders
to the Dardanelles, in order to defend the law of nations and the prin-
ciples of justice foully trodden underfoot ; in order to re-establish the
equilibrium of Europe, overthrown each time that our little country is
invaded and occupied by one of the Great Powers ; and in order to save
(*) Add to that an earlier weakness remarked by the same Renan in 1867 : " The great
fault of Germany is a feverish eagerness to proclaim fresh results and to surpass the masters
who have gone before, which gives rise to a flood of audacious theses and paradoxes. . . .
Hence these precocious works, by the aid of which the younger generation, intelligent but
over-numerous and too eager, seeks to fray for itself a path to the salaried offices." — Questions
Contemporaines, p. 256.
England is free from the plague of academic place-hunters.
("I") One knows that Ranke has dealt in succession and with equal impartiality with the
Spain of Philip II., the France of the Bourbons, the England of the Tudors and Stuarts,
and with the history of the Popes, this last being regarded as his finest work. So also the
drama of Schiller takes us in turn to Italy with his Fiesco, to Switzerland with William Tell,
to Spain vdth Don Carlos, to England with Mary Stuart, to France with Joan of Arc. Simi-
larly Goethe has brought on to the stage the French in Clavigo, the Spanish in Egmont, the
Italians in Tasso, the Greeks in his Ifhigenia. Such was the breadth of mind of those great
Germans.
284
OXFORD
the freedom of the world, imperilled by an overweening Caesarism based
on no better title than the invention or perfecting of engines of
destruction.
So rapid an adaptation to so different a life is the outcome of the
English system of education, which lays much stress on a parallel
development of body and mind. In Belgium we were behindhand
in this respect, and it is only in recent years that athletic sports have
been held in esteem in our university centres.
It is there, and there alone, that true culture lies, in what the Greeks
called eurythmia — that is to say, the harmonious development of all
the faculties of man, of the body, of the intelligence, and, above all,
of the heart. In other quarters there is evidence of an atrophy of the
heart that is in effect a counterpart of a hypertrophy of the brain ;
it seems as though the whole Kultur of Germany had reached that
stage. At Oxford, on the other hand, the pursuit of the things of the
mind has by no means dried up the feelings of the heart ; at this very
time we ourselves have the best proof of it. It was a true nobility
of soul that inspired the aristocratic youth of the universities to spring
to arms, to sacrifice all the gifts of Nature, of fortune and of rank, even
life itself, for the redemption of the world, a sacrifice all the more to
be admired since it was made of free will and unconstrained. And these
colleges, lately so full of life, so desolate now, post on the doors of
their chapels the glorious but mournful list of their sons fallen in the
war. I find that the total already reaches two hundred dead, and
what a toll of maimed and wounded this figure impHes ? The heart
turns chill before this slaughter, and at the thought of all the bright
prospects, the budding talents, perhaps the genius, that has been swept
down into the tomb.
The consequence has been that the university population at Oxford
has sunk from 3,000 to 700, and that at the beginning of the present
term the Freshmen numbered no more than 300. There is the further
consequence that the University has suffered to a corresponding
extent in its finances, to such a degree, indeed, that Parliament has
had to authorise it to suspend all departments whose expenses can
be curtailed. Furthermore, the members of the teaching body agreed,
285
OXFORD
of their own accord, to sacrifice a quarter of their salaries, in order
to reduce the financial burden of the University.
Is it necessary to recall all that Belgium has owed to England in the
past ? To say how often the latter has intervened to rescue us from
the intolerable yoke of a foreign domination ?
In the eighteenth century, to go no farther back, it was Marlborough
whose conquering sword drove back from our lands the armies of
Louis XIV. In .the nineteenth it was Wellington who shattered at
Waterloo the last effort of Napoleon to recover Belgium, and vdth it
the Continent.
It was England again who, after 1830, watched over the cradle of
our new-born Kingdom of Belgium and endowed it with its first dynasty.
For, if Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was by origin a German, his first marriage
with the heiress to the British Crown and his lengthy residence from
that date at the British Court, had made him an English prince.
Our Constitution itself, which is the most liberal on the Continent,
and which has served as a model for other European constitutions,
with its limited monarchy, its responsible ministry, and its two houses,
is, at bottom, nothing more than a reproduction of the free institutions
of England ; and the love of liberty, deep-rooted in the heart of the
Belgians, which revolts against every attempt at enslavement, in the
free air of this free country we come to replenish its strength.
What impresses most the Belgian of to-day is the fact that the
generosity of Britain is readily forthcoming even in this critical time,
at a moment when this gigantic war of nations is imposing on all classes
of society a crushing burden. It is in the midst of this terrible crisis
that England, and Oxford in particular, has not hesitated to stretch
out a helping hand to Belgium in her distress.
To such kindness the heart alone can give answer with a gratitude
that will always endure.
286
L'UNIVERSITE BELGE DE CAMBRIDGE.
Par Ch. Dejace,
Professeur a VUniversitS de Liige^ PrSsident du Groufe
Professoral Beige de Cambridge.
CAMBRIDGE ! a ce nom, le coeur de tout Anglais tressaille,
et c'est comme une vision rapide de jeunesse et de gaite
insouciante, en meme temps que de travail et de vie
scientifique, qui passe devant ses yeux.
Cambridge partage en effet avec Oxford en Angleterre,
la Sorbonne en France, Bologne en Italie, Louvain en Belgique,
I'honneur de constituer un des centres les plus anciens et les plus
celebres de la haute culture.
Depuis I'epoque lointaine ou H. de Balsham, eveque d'Ely, fondait
en 1 28 1 Peterhouse, le premier college de la ville, jusqu'aux jours
recents ou le progres des sciences a necessite I'erection des somf>-
tueux musees et laboratoires qui bordent Pembroke Street, que de
generations de Fellows et de Scholars se sont succedes dans les
beaux colleges qui le long de la Cam developpent leur riche architecture,
au milieu de pares aux frondaisons superbes ! En parcourant ces
aUees et ces jardins ou ont reve Milton et Gray, Wordsworth et Cole-
ridge ; en entrant dans ces chapelles ou se dressent les statues des
Bacon et des Newton, des Macaulay et des Tennyson ; en visitant les
halls que decorent les portraits des fondateurs et des hommes illustres
qui ont vecu ou enseigne a Cambridge, les Harvey, Pitt, Whewell,
Darwin, Adams, Kelvin — c'est en quelque sorte I'histoire toute entiere
de P Angleterre inteUectuelle que Pon revit. Et je ne connais pas de
jouissance plus exquise, que d'errer a travers ce decor artistique, ou le
passe et le present se donnent la main.
En temps normal, Cambridge compte de trois a quatre mille etudiants.
Le matin, vetus du gown flottant aux epaules et coiffes de la cafy ils se
repandent d'auditoires en auditoires, animant la ville de leur course
rapide. L'apres-midi, la flanelle blanche a remplace le manteau sombre
et sur les verdoyants Courts de Tennis, ou dans les fragiles embarcations
de la Cam, les jeunes gens manient la raquette et I'aviron, developpant
leur gout du sport et des exercices physiques.
287
L'UNIVERSITE BELGE DE CAMBRIDGE
Mais helas ! a ces heures de vie joyeuse ont succede des heures
d'angoisse. La guerre la plus effroyable bouleverse I'Europe. Le
pays a fait appel au concours de ses enfants. Et a cet appel, la jeunesse
a repondu avec un genereux enthousiasme. Les colleges se vident,
les chaires sont desertees, et un calme inaccoutume plane sur la vieille
ville universitaire.
Plus peut-etre que toute autre localite d'Angleterre, Cambridge a
souffert de la guerre et cette crise ne rend que plus meritoire le mag-
nifique elan de generosite deploye par les comites en faveur des refugies
beiges.
Parmi ces comites, il faut citer en premier lieu celui du baron Anatole
von Hiigel, president de la conference de St. Vincent de Paul de Cam-
bridge. Ce fut lui et la baronne von Hugel qui les premiers, aides
de quelques amis, songerent a organiser I'oeuvre du logement et a
fournir un abri aux malheureux qui avaient fui devant les horreurs de
I'invasion.
Grace a leurs soins de nombreuses families furent recueillies des
le debut des hostilites, et traitees avec une bonte et un tact sans egal.
De leur cote, les autorites de la ville et de I'universite ne
tarderent pas h constituer deux organismes paralleles, le Town et
V University Committee en vue de venir en aide aux refugies qui con-
tinuaient a affluer. De toutes parts les concours les plus genereux
s'offrirent. Particuliers, families, associations, paroisses, rivaliserent
d'activite et Ton vit une fois de plus ce spectacle que I'Angleterre nous
a si souvent donne d'un peuple cherchant dans la voie de la liberte
et de I'initiative privee, la solution des difficultes en presence desquelles
il se trouve.
Ajoutons, pour etre complet et donner une idee d'ensemble de Pac-
tivite de nos amis de Cambridge, qu'un dernier comite, le County
Committee, s'est organise pour le placement et la protection des Beiges
dans les villages du Cambridgeshire. Plus de 500 refugies ont eu recours
aux bons offices de cet organisme, qui par la dispersion meme de ses
services avait assume une tache particulierement delicate.
Mais parmi les manifestations si diverses de la bienveillance anglaise,
la plus remarquable assurement et qui restera peut-etre unique dans
288
:~vy c'=\6^-"nioe^i^
KINC. S C0I.I,K(;K CHAI'r.I., CAMHKIDCK
ALJ'.KRT CI.AKS
L'UNIVERSITE BELGE DE CAMBRIDGE
les fastes du haut enseignement, c'est I'organisation d'une universite
beige k. Cambridge.
Au lendemain du sac de Louvain, emue du malheur qui frappait
la noble cite universitaire, I'autorite academique de Cambridge decida
d'ouvrir ses portes au corps professoral disperse, et aux etudiants dont
les etudes venaient d'etre brutalement interrompues.
Une invitation fut adressee par le vice chancelier au Cardinal Mercier
et successivement etendue aux autres universites beiges que les rigueurs
de la guerre et de I'invasion allemande avaient condamnees au meme
triste sort.
Si le projet primitif tel qu'en avait trace les grandes lignes le Dr.
Shipley, Master du Christ^s College, avait pu etre suivi, c'eut ete le
transfert officiel de I'enseignement superieur dote d'un veritable
droit d'exterritorialite, avec ses cours, ses programmes, ses examens
et ses diplomes, quelque chose d'analogue au transfert au Havre, du
Gouvernement beige et des grands services administratifs du pays.
Les circonstances ne permirent pas de donner ^ ce plan toute son
ampleur. II fallait eviter de desavantager ou de mettre en etat d'infe-
riorite vis-^-vis de leurs condisciples les jeunes gens qui, appeles sous
les armes ou ayant contracte un engagement volontaire, ne pouvaient
profiter de cette reorganisation des etudes superieures.
L'appel du Roi ^ la jeunesse du pays nous faisait d'ailleurs un
devoir patriotique de n'admettre comme etudiants que les jeunes gens
ages de moins de i8 ans, ou justifiant par certificat medical officiel
qu'ils etaient impropres au service, ou reformes jusqu'^ Pexpiration
des hostihtes.
Dans ces conditions, la tentative de creer une universite beige ne
pouvait aboutir ^ I'organisation complete des cours. Moins encore
pouvait-elle viser ^ faire subir des examens et ^ delivrer des diplomes.
La genereuse invitation de Cambridge n'en eut pas moins un reten-
tissement considerable et, des les premieres semaines d'octobre 1914,
un noyau suffisant de professeurs et d'etudiants se trouva constitue
pour entreprendre I'oeuvre, si fragmentaire dut-elle etre.
Les autorites academiques apporterent le concours le plus empresse k
faciliter notre tache.
289 X
L'UNIVERSITE BELGE DE CAMBRIDGE
Une salle de deliberation et de reunion fut amenagee ^ notre intention
h. Emmanuel College, des auditoires mis a notre disposition. L'acces
des laboratoires nous fut accorde et par faveur speciale le senat nous
conceda I'usage le plus large et le plus complet de la riche bibliotheque
universitaire.
Des subsides speciaux nous permirent d'acquerir les ouvrages
didactiques, codes, manuels, traites, dont nos etudiants pouvaient
avoir besoin. Afin de faciliter a tous, professeurs et etudiants, la
connaissance de la langue anglaise, des cours gratuits furent institues
aux trois degres : elementaire, moyen, et superieur.
En meme temps V Union Society, le club academique le mieux installe
et le plus richement pourvu en livres, revues, journaux, et illustres de
toute espece nous accueillait comme membres, et nous permettait
de jouir de tous ses services, k titre gracieux.
II en fut de meme d'un grand nombre de clubs sportifs, ou nos jeunes
gens eurent I'occasion de s'adonner aux exercices physiques trop souvent
negliges ou dedaignes jusqu'ici dans nos milieux pedagogiques beiges.
Ainsi, soutenus et encourages de toutes parts, nous pouvions deS
les premiers jours de Novembre ouvrir les cours dans les quatre facultes
de philosophic et lettres, de droit, de science et de medecine et bientot
apres, dans les ecoles speciales pour ingenieurs et I'ecole de commerce.
Aux cours furent annexees de nombreuses conferences sur des sujets
d'interet general, qui regurent du public le meiUeur accueil.
Le succes de cette tentative interessante ne tarda pas k etre connu
et de divers points de I'Angleterre, de la France, de la Hollande, et
des pays etrangers ou se trouvaient nos compatriotes, affluerent des
demandes d'admission qui grossirent rapidement I'effectif des etudiants
et porterent au deU de deux cents le chiffre des inscriptions. Ce que
represente de sollicitude, de demarches, de soins de tous genres, I'orga-
nisation d'une hospitalite aussi large, il est difficile de se I'imaginer.
Et pour en avoir une idee, il faut avoir ete mele de pres a I'activite
laborieuse des divers comites et plus particulierement de V University
Belgian Committee* ^ la tete duquel se trouvaient Madame Verrall,
* Un compte rendu tres detaille de I'activite de ce comite a paru dans le Bulletin de
VUniversity Extension (Janvier, 191 5), sous le titre Cambridge and the Belgian Universities.
II est du a la plume autoris6e de M. E. BuUough, qui en qualite de Secretaire de I'Academic
Committee, n'a cesse de rendre les plus signales services a I'organisation de nos cours.
290
L'UNIVERSITE BELGE DE CAMBRIDGE
secondee par Mile Ruth Darwin et par tout un groupe de dames de
la viUe, M. Sheppard, qui avait assume au debut les fonctions de Secre-
taire-general, et Sir Harry Stephen, dont la tutelle bienfaisante s'exergait
de maniere speciale sur les etudiants.
II serait trop long d'exposer en detail Phistoire de ces dix mois de vie
academique.
Tout ce que peut imaginer la delicatesse la plus touchante fut mis
en oeuvre pour nous faire oublier les rigueurs de I'exil et nous donner
la bienfaisante illusion de la vie au pays. Les divers colleges s'empres-
serent a Penvi de nous ouvrir leurs portes et d'organiser les reunions
les plus varices. Sous la conduite d'archeologues et d'historiens
distingues nous avons pu visiter successivement Christ's, Emmanuel,
Pembroke, Peterhouse, et gouter le charme profond de ces retraites
studieuses.
Le Vice-Chancelier, Dr. James, a voulu nous faire lui-meme les
honneurs de son college et ses invites ont conserve le souvenir de
I'interessante causerie qu'il nous donna sur les splendides vitraux de
la chapelle royale du Kin^s.
II en fut de meme \ Jesus College, ou, par une delicate attention, le
Master avait groupe la colonic universitaire beige pour celebrer en
famille la f^te du premier de I'an.
^t. John agrementa d'une partie musicale la reception de ses hotes.
Quant k Magdalene un diner d'une gaite toute estudiantine y rassembla
le long des tables du Hall, maitres et etudiants ^ I'occasion des fetes
de Noel.
La reception la plus solennelle fut celle de Trinity, oii un banquet
de plusieurs centaines de converts reunit autour des professeurs beiges
et de leurs families, tons ceux qui avaient coopere au succes de I'oeuvre
universitaire.
Ce fut une manifestation grandiose des sympathies de I'Angleterre
intellectuelle ^ I'egard de notre petit pays et nul ne se rappellera sans
emotion le toast du venerable Master, Dr. Montagu Butler, " felicitant
la Belgique de sa noble attitude et affirmant son indefectible espoir
de la voir reprendre son rang, plus entouree que jamais de respect et de
consideration, au sein des nations libres et maitresses de leurs destinees."
291
L'UNIVERSITE BELGE DE CAMBRIDGE
Pourquoi faut il, helas ! qu'un deuil cruel ait assombri ces iours de
travail et de vie en commun ?
Le 9 decembre 1914 la mort nous enlevait un de nos collegues les
plus distingues, M. le Docteur Arthur van Gehuchten. La haute
renommee du neurologue de I'universite de Louvain avait depasse
depuis longtemps les frontieres de notre pays et la disparition de ce
savant, frappe en pleine carriere, a cause un douloureux emoi dans tous
les milieux scientifiques.
Comme nous avons eu dej^ I'occasion de le dire, I'universite dut
s'abstenir de delivrer des diplomes officiels. Mais elle ne put cependant
refuser aux eleves la satisfaction legitime de faire constater par certi-
ficat leur assiduite aux cours et meme, pour les plus studieux d'entre
eux, d'attester la valeur de leurs etudes. C'est ainsi que 142 certificats
furent delivres, dont 80 de simple frequentation reguliere et 62 accom-
pagnes de la mention " avec fruit," obtenue h la suite de travaux
pratiques et d'interrogations.
Imprimes aux armes de I'Universite de Cambridge delivres sous la
signature de leurs professeurs et contresignes par le Vice-Chancelier,
ces parchemins, sans avoir de valeur officielle, constitueront pour les
jeunes gens qui ont suivi nos cours, un souvenir durable de leurs etudes
en Angleterre.
Telle est, en quelques mots, I'histoire rapide de I'universite beige de
Cambridge.
II serait assurement premature de rechercher dans quelle mesure
cet enseignement a porte ses fruits.
Nous pouvons affirmer toutefois qu'il a sauve nombre de jeunes
gens des effets demoralisants et dangereux d'un desoeuvrement force,
qu'en leur fournissant un centre de vie intellectuelle, un guide et un
soutien, il les a preserves du decouragement, et surtout qu'il a constitue
une manifestation consolante d'activite patriotique et comme une
affirmation a travers toutes les epreuves, des droits imprescriptibles
et des esperances sacrees du pays.
C'est de tout cela que nous sommes profondement reconnaissants
h la grande et noble universite anglaise. Son hospitalite, comme I'ecri-
vait le Cardinal Mercier en reponse k I'invitation du vice chancelier,
292
I
L'UNIVERSITE BELGE DE CAMBRIDGE
" constitue le temoignage le plus imposant de sympathie que la Belgique
ait regu depuis les jours douloureux de la crise qu'elle traverse."
Nous qui avons vecu cette hospitalite, nous en conservons le souvenir
emu. Au nom du corps professoral et de la jeunesse universitaire beige,
nous prions les autorites academiques de Cambridge de recevoir id
I'expression de notre plus profonde gratitude.
9
THE BELGIAN UNIVERSITY AT CAMBRIDGE.
Translation by Edward Marsh, C.M.G.
CAMBRIDGE ! the name thrills every EngKshman's heart,
and brings before his eyes a swift vision of youth and
careless gaiety, combined vsdth work and the pursuit of
knowledge. In England Cambridge and Oxford, in France
the Sorbonne, in Italy Bologna, and in Belgium Louvain,
share between them the honours of the world's oldest and most famous
seats of learning.
Since the far-away year 1281, when Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of
Ely, founded Peterhouse, the oldest of the colleges, down to the recent
time when the progress of science called for the building of the splendid
museums and laboratories which now stand in Pembroke Street, how
many generations of Fellows and Scholars have succeeded one another
in the beautiful colleges which display their rich architecture along the
banks of the Cam among the leafy backs ? To walk in these alleys,
where Milton and Gray, Wordsworth and Coleridge dreamt their
dreams ; to enter the chapels where stand the statues of Bacon and
Newton, Macaulay, and Tennyson ; to visit the halls, hung with the
portraits of Founders and of the illustrious men who have lived or
taught at Cambridge — the Harveys, the Pitts, the Whewells, the
Darvdns, the Adamses, the Kelvins — is to live, as it were, through the
whole story of intellectual England ; and I know no more exquisite
enjoyment than to wander through these lovely scenes in which the
present joins hands with the past.
In ordinary times Cambridge counts three or four thousand students.
In the morning the town is busy with their quick coming and going,
in cap and gown, from lecture-room to lecture-room. In the afternoon
the sombre gowns are changed for white flannels, and the youths
follow their taste for sport and exercise on the green tennis-courts or
in the light boats which crowd the Cam.
But now those joyous days are over, and days of sorrow have come
in their place. Europe is shaken by the most terrible of wars. The
country has called on her children to help her, and her young men have
answered the summons •with, generous enthusiasm. The Colleges are
empty, the Chairs of the Professors are deserted, and an unaccustomed
294
THE BELGIAN UNIVERSITY AT CAMBRIDGE
calm rules in the old University town. Perhaps no place in England
has suffered as Cambridge has from the war.
All the nobler is the magnificent generosity displayed at such a
time by her committees towards the Belgian refugees. First among
these I must mention the committee presided over by Baron Anatole
von Hugel, President of the Cambridge Branch of the Society of
St. Vincent de Paul. It was he and the Baroness von Hugel who,
with the help of their friends, took the first steps to offer lodging and
shelter to the unfortunate fugitives from the horrors of invasion.
Thanks to their exertions, numerous families were made welcome to
Cambridge at the outbreak of hostilities and treated vdth incomparable
tact and kindness. The town and University authorities hastened
to set on foot two similar organisations, the " Town Committee " and
the " University Committee," for the assistance of the refugees, who
arrived in ever-increasing numbers. By this time the impetus had
been given. Generous offers of help flowed in from all sides. Private
individuals, families, associations, parishes — all set zealously to
work, and England showed us yet once again the spectacle of a
people finding a solution of pressing difficulties in free individual
initiative.
Lastly, to finish the picture and give a complete view of the activity
of our Cambridge friends, I must speak of the " County Committee,"
which undertook to provide lodging and protection for Belgians in the
villages of Cambridgeshire. More than 500 refugees have benefited
by the good offices of this organisation, whose task was an especially
deHcate one owing to the extended field of its work.
But among all the varied manifestations of English benevolence, the
most remarkable, beyond question, is the establishment of a Belgian
University at Cambridge — an undertaking which will probably remain
unique in the annals of higher education. On the morrow of the sack
of Louvain, the academic authorities of Cambridge, touched by the
misfortune which had overtaken that noble University City, resolved
to open their doors to the disbanded professors, and to the students
whose studies had been so brutally interrupted. The Vice-Chancellor
addressed his invitation, first to Cardinal Mercier, and then one by
295
THE BELGIAN UNIVERSITY AT CAMBRIDGE
one to each of the other Belgian universities as their turn came to be
destroyed.
If the original plan outlined by the Master of Christ's College, Dr.
Shipley, could have been carried out, the whole higher education of
Belgium, endowed with extra-territorial jurisdiction, with its courses,
its programmes, its examinations, its diplomas, would have been
officially transferred to Cambridge, just as the Belgian Government
and the great administrative services were transferred to Havre. But
circumstances imposed restrictions. The young men who had been
called to arms, or had enlisted voluntarily, could not profit by this
organisation of the higher studies, and it would not have been fair to
place them at a disadvantage compared with their fellow-students.
Moreover, the King's appeal to the youth of the country made it a
patriotic duty to limit the entry of students to youths under eighteen
years old, to those who were medically certified as unfit for service,
and to those who had been discharged till the end of the war.
In these conditions, the attempt to establish a Belgian University
had to stop short of a complete organisation of courses ; still less could
it aim at holding examinations or conferring diplomas. None the less,
the generous invitation given by Cambridge roused a widespread
interest, and no later than the first weeks of October, 1914, a sufficient
nucleus of professors and students was assembled to undertake the work,
incomplete as it was bound to be.
The academic authorities facilitated our task with the utmost zeal.
A hall at Emmanuel College was put at our disposal as a place of counsel
and meeting, lecture-rooms were allotted to us, we were made free of
the laboratories, and, as a peculiar favour, the Senate opened its doors
to us and allowed us the fullest and most liberal use of the rich Univer-
sity Library. Special grants permitted us to purchase educational
works, codes, manuals, and treatises which might be needed by our
students ; and free lessons in EngHsh — elementary, higher, and advanced
— ^were instituted for the benefit of the professors and the students.
At the same time we were generously admitted to all the privileges
of the " Union," the best-equipped club at the University and the
best provided vnth. books and periodicals of all kinds ; and we were
296
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biifjr0*^<^^
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COIKT Ol KINCS ( CTl.l.K(;i;, CAMKKIDGK
AI.r.KRT (I.AKS
THE BELGIAN UNIVERSITY AT CAMBRIDGE
welcomed by many athletic clubs, which gave our young men oppor-
tunities of practising the physical exercises which had hitherto been
too often neglected or despised in Belgian educational circles.
Thus assisted and encouraged on every side, we were able from the
beginning of November onwards to carry on courses in the four faculties
of philosophy and literature, law, science, and medicine ; and soon
afterwards in the special schools of engineering and in the school of
commerce. To these courses were added lectures on subjects of
general interest which met with a cordial reception by the public.
It was not long before the success of this interesting enterprise
became widely known, and applications for admission began to pour
in from different parts of England, France, and Holland, and other
foreign countries where Belgians had taken refuge. Our numbers
grew quickly to over two hundred. It is difficult to form an idea of the
trouble, the energy, and the care for detail involved in the organisation
of such extensive hospitality ; and no one can have any conception of
it without having been at close quarters with the laborious activity of
the different committees, especially the " University Belgian Com-
mittee " * under the leadership of Mrs. Verrall, assisted by Miss
Ruth Darmn and a number of other Cambridge ladies ; of Mrs. Shep-
pard, who undertook from the first the duties of Secretary ; and of Sir
Harry Stephen, who took the students under his guardianship v^ith
especial kindliness.
It would take too long to give a detailed narrative of these ten months
of academic life. Everything that the most delicate tact could suggest
was done to banish from our minds the hardships of exile and to
give us the pleasant illusion of being incorporated into the national
life. The Colleges vied with each other in opening their doors to
us and in organising all sorts of gatherings for our entertainment.
Distinguished archaeologists and historians guided us through the
studious retreats of Christ's, Emmanuel, Pembroke, and Peterhouse,
and taught us to appreciate their profound charm. The Vice-Chan-
• A very detailed account of this Committee's activities appeared in the University Extension
Bulletin for January, 191 5, under the title " Cambridge and the Belgian Universities." It
is written with authority by Mr. E. Bullough, who, as Secretary of the Academic Committee,
was unsparing of his help in the organisation of our courses.
297
THE BELGIAN UNIVERSITY AT CAMBRIDGE
cellor, Dr. James, was good enough to do us the honours of his College
in person, and his guests will not forget the interesting account which
he gave them of the marvellous windows in the Royal Chapel of King's.
It was the same at Jesus College, where the Master had the graceful
thought of inviting the Belgian University Colony to join, like members
of the family, in the celebration of New Year's Day. John's gave us a
delightful musical party, and at Christmas Magdalene asked both
teachers and students to a dinner in Hall, which was a scene of typical
undergraduate gaiety.
The most ceremonious entertainment was at Trinity, where, at a
dinner of several hundreds of guests, the Belgian professors and their
families met all those who had helped to make the Belgian University
a success. It was an impressive manifestation of the sympathy felt
by intellectual England for our little country, and no one who was
present can recall without emotion the toast given by the venerable
Master, Dr. Montagu Butler, " congratulating Belgium on her noble
attitude, and affirming his unconquerable hope of seeing her regain
her rank, more regarded and more honoured than ever, among the free
nations of Europe, mistresses of their destinies."
But these days of work and pleasant intercourse were to be sadly
darkened by the death on December 9th, 191 4, of one of our most
distinguished colleagues. Dr. Arthur van Gehuchten, the neurologist
of Louvain University, whose fame had long passed beyond the limits
of our country. The loss of this learned man, cut off in the midst of
his career, caused widespread grief in the scientific world.
It has already been mentioned that the University was debarred
from conferring official diplomas. But she could not deny her pupils
the legitimate satisfaction of certificates marking their diligence and,
in the case of the most earnest students, the value of their work. One
hundred and forty-two certificates were thus given, of which eighty
were for regular attendance, and sixty-three bore the additional words
" with good results," on the strength of examinations and practical
tests. Stamped with the arms of Cambridge University, signed by
the professors and countersigned by the Vice-Chancellor, these parch-
ments, though without official validity, will serve the young men
298
THE BELGIAN UNIVERSITY AT CAMBRIDGE
who have taken our courses as a lasting remembrance of their studies
in England.
The story of the Belgian University at Cambridge has now been
briefly sketched. It would no doubt be premature to enquire how far
the system of instruction has borne fruit. But we may safely say
that it has preserved a large number of young men from the demora-
lising and dangerous effects of enforced idleness ; that by providing
them with a centre of intellectual life and with guidance and support,
it has saved them from discouragement ; and, above all, that it has
afforded a consoling manifestation of patriotic activity, and a sign that
the imprescriptible rights and the sacred hopes of our country have
come through all her trials undiminished.
For all this we are profoundly thankful to the great and noble English
University, whose hospitality, in the words of Cardinal Mercier in
his reply to the Vice-Chancellor's invitation, " is the most impressive
mark of sympathy which Belgium has received since the terrible days
of the crisis through which she has passed."
We who have experienced this hospitality in our own persons cannot
think of it without deep feeling ; and on behalf of Belgian professors and
students alike we ask the academic authorities of Cambridge to accept
this expression of our most profound gratitude.
299
EN ECOSSE.
Par Ant. Borboux,
Depute Beige, Secretaire de la Chambre.
S'lL pent etre apporte quelqu'allegement aux souffrances injustes
d'un peuple mutile et ensanglante pour avoir fait legalement
son devoir, rien ne soutiendra son ame endolorie comme la
fraternelle affection des grandes ames soeurs. La Grande
Bretagne fut, pour la Belgique, la grande ame soeur. Compatis-
sant toute entiere ^ ses tortures, etreignant dans sa large main la main
du petit peuple martyr, elle a contribue ainsi ^ reudre plus profonde
encore la fierte de son sacrifice. La Belgique a senti grandir en elle
la joie d'un heroisme douloureux quand elle a entendu retentir, d'un
bout a I'autre du Royaume-Uni, I'acclamation qui saluait la virilite de
son courage et la loyaute de son ame.
H n'est pas, je pense, un coin de I'Angleterre ou les couleurs beiges
ne regoivent les hommages de la gratitude la plus affectueuse.
L'Ecosse, terre grave et douce, ou les esprits sont froids et les cceurs
chauds, dont la bonte d'ame a rendu I'hospitalite proverbiale, dont la
delicatesse sentimentale s'apparente si completement ^ I'aspect roman-
tique de ses sites, I'Ecosse semble avoir ete particulierement touchee
de la droiture avec laquelle nous avons choisi la souff ranee pour con-
server I'honneur.
J'eus I'occasion, en une serie de conferences faites a Edimbourg, k
Aberdeen et ^ Glasgow, de me trouver en contact avec de nombreuses
assemblees. Ce sera pour les Beiges presents un souvenir inoubliable
que les acclamations interminables que soulevaient le nom de notre
Roi et le simple recit de nos faits de guerre.
A Aberdeen, presqu'^ 1' extreme Nord de I'Ecosse, lorsque sur I'ecran
lumineux parut, en fin de seance, I'image du Roi Albert, toute la salle
se dressa en un hommage de respectueuse admiration.
Un fait touchant m'avait montre quelques heures auparavant combien
cette affection pour mon pays avait penetre profondement jusqu'aux
couches populaires. Le tres aimable correspondant dont j'etais I'hote,
s'empressait a me conduire vers les parties les plus pittoresques de la
ville et les monuments les plus eloquents d'un passe plein d'austere
grandeur. Nous arrivions \ I'antique Cathedrale de St. Macaire,
300
EN ECOSSE
qui dresse au centre du cimetiere la severe purete de ses lignes de
pierre. La porte du temple etait fermee.
" J'aper^ois d'ici le fossoyeur," me dit mon nouvel ami ; " aliens
lui demander la clef."
Le portier du temple, belle tete expressive de vieiUard, aux yeux
profonds abrites sous des sourcils touffus, achevait de creuser une
tombe.
" Je voudrais, mon brave, faire voir notre beau temple k ce Beige,
qui doit quitter Aberdeen demain tres tot."
Mon ami avait k peine acheve que les yeux bleus du vieiUard s'attache-
rent k moi avec une telle expression de bonte ravie que je ne les oublierai
jamais. II deposa sa beche et, s'approchant de mon ami, lui dit, presque
k I'oreille, quelques mots que je n'entendis pas.
" Qu'y a-t-il ? " dis-je k mon compagnon, qui me paraissait touche.
" II me demande si vous permettriez qu'il vous baise les mains."
Nous nous sommes embrasses comme deux freres.
A Glasgov?^ j'eus la bonne fortune d'etre I'hote d'un professeur de
rUniversite aussi erudit que modeste et distingue d'esprit. Nous
achevions, au fumoir, en griUant une derniere cigarette, une soiree ou
I'auditoire s*etait montre particulierement sympathique k la cause beige.
" Voyez-vous," me dit M. B. S., " il n'y a pas que les peuples qui
doivent leur reconnaissance k votre Roi ; il y a encore tous les rois
actuels. En ces temps ou I'idee republicaine a secoue bien des trones,
il a, lui, consolide I'idee royaliste. En ramenant le type du roi
^ ce qu'il doit etre, il en a demontre par le fait I'excellence, I'utilite et
la grandeur. S'il a droit aux hommages des nations, il a aussi droit
aux remerciements des rois."
Et ce n'est pas sans orgueil que j'entendis le professeur B. S. resumer,
en ces termes, 1' opinion ecossaise h I'egard de la Belgique :
" Quant k vous autres Beiges, nous pensons que vous pouvez dore-
navant renoncer k tout titre nobiliaire : les Armes de Belgique sont
desormais un ecusson de noblesse pour toutes les nations du monde."
Et c'est assurement k cette haute consideration dont jouit le nom
Beige que je dus d'etre prie de signer au Livre d'Or de la Municipalite
de Glasgow avant de quitter la grave, douce, et loyale Ecosse.
301
IN SCOTLAND.
Translation by Professor Grierson, LL.D.
IF any alleviation can be afforded to the unjust sufferings of a
people torn and bleeding for the discharge of its duty, there is
nothing which will sustain the soul in its sorrow like the affection,
rooted in kinship, of great sister souls. Great Britain has been for
Belgium that great sister-soul. Extending to her in her torments
an entire and perfect sympathy, pressing in her large hand the
hand of the small martyred people, she has contributed to render more
profound the pride with which she contemplates her sacrifice. Belgium
has felt swell within her the joy of a dolorous heroism as she heard
reverberate from one end of the United Kingdom to the other the
acclamations which hailed the virility of her courage and the loyalty
of her soul.
There is not, I believe, a corner of England where the Belgian colours
do not receive the homage of the most whole-hearted gratitude and
affection.
Scotland, stern and lovely country, where heads are cool and hearts
are warm, whose natural kindliness has made her hospitality a proverb,
whose delicacy of feeling is so perfectly akin to the romantic character
of her scenery — Scotland especially seems to have been moved by the
uprightness with which we chose to suffer that we might preserve our
honour.
I had the good fortune, at a series of lectures delivered in
Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Glasgow, to find myself in touch
with large gatherings. For the Belgians present the interminable
applause evoked by the mere name of our King, by the bare recital
of our achievement in the war, will prove an imperishable
memory.
At Aberdeen, almost the extreme north of Scotland, when at the
close of the meeting there appeared on the lantern screen a picture of
King Albert, the whole hall rose as a mark of respectful homage and
admiration.
A touching incident which occurred some hours earlier had revealed
to me how deeply that affection for my country had penetrated among
even the working classes. The kind and courteous citizen whose guest
302
IN SCOTLAND
I was put himself to much trouble to show me the most picturesque
parts of the town and the most eloquent monuments of a past full of
austere grandeur. We came to the ancient cathedral of St. Machar,
which rears in the middle of a cemetery the severe purity of its granite
lines. The door of the church was closed.
" I see the grave-digger," said my friend ; " let us go and ask him
for the key."
The sexton, an old man with a fine, expressive head, deep-sunken eyes
shaded by bushy eyebrows, had just finished digging a grave.
" I should like, my good man, to show my Belgian friend our beautiful
church. He has to leave Aberdeen very early to-morrow."
My friend had hardly finished speaking when the blue eyes of the
old man were fastened on me in an ecstasy of good will which I shall
never forget. He laid down his spade and, going close to my friend,
whispered some words which I did not overhear.
" What is it ? " I said to my companion, who appeared to be moved.
" He asks if you would allow him to kiss your hand."
We embraced like brothers.
At Glasgow I had the good fortune to be the guest of a professor
in the University, whose learning and distinction of mind are equalled
by his modesty.
Over a last cigarette in the smoking-room we were finishing an
evening in which the audience had shown itself particularly sympathetic
to the Belgian cause.
" Look here ! " said Mr. B. S. " It is not the peoples only who owe
a debt of gratitude to your King ; it is the kings now reigning themselves.
In these days, when the republican idea has shaken many thrones,
he, your King, has consolidated the idea of kingship. In restoring the
kingly type to what it should be, he has by that act demonstrated
its excellence, its utility, and its greatness. If he has a rightful claim
to the homage of the nations, he has also a claim to the gratitude of
the kings."
It was not without pride that I heard Professor B. S. sum up in these
words the opinion of Scotland with regard to Belgium :
" As for you Belgians, we think that you may from now renounce
303
IN SCOTLAND
all titular nobility. The Arms of Belgium are henceforth a scutcheon
of nobility among all the nations of the world."
It was, without doubt, to the high consideration which the name of
Belgium thus enjoys that I owe the request to sign my name in the
Golden Book of the Municipality of Glasgow before leaving stern,
lovely, and loyal Scotland.
304
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DOLF VAN ROY
COMMENT ILS MEURENT.
Par la Comtesse van den Steen de Jehay.
P , 8 Aout, 191 5.
Au Captain Winthrop- Young, Souvenir de Guerre et d'Amitie.
QUAND on n'est pas mort, on aime evoquer, avec un
grain de snobisme, le souvenir du moment ou on a failli
I'etre.
Avec humilite, on s'apergoit que les gestes instinc-
tivement accomplis alors furent influences par la men-
talite, par la nationalite des compagnons " ante-mortem" que les
circonstances nous donnerent.
J'ai vu mourir des Anglais, des Frangais, des Beiges. J'ai cru mourir
avec des Beiges, des Frangais, des Anglais. Ce n'est pas du tout la
meme chose.
Dans la litterature fran^aise. Particle de revue, la nouvelle, semble
n'etre qu'une preparation a la peroraison, au mot de la fin, satisfaisant
s'il est attendu, seduisant s'il est paradoxal.
De meme, le Fran^ais aime poser en point d'exclamation au terme
de sa vie, un mot, le mot qui le resume, Fenleve avec chic. Inconsciem-
ment soucieux du panache, tout son cceur monte h ses levres blemes
en un cri d'amour, de piete ou de blague heroique.
Le 15 aout de I'annee derniere un jeune et beau dragon du 16*™^ —
il s'appelait Maurice Rolant et etait conducteur d'autobus h, Paris —
fut transporte dans mon ambulance pres de Dinant, le corps perce
d'une balle explosible. Subitement, I'hemorragie qu'on prevoyait se
produisit. Rolant regarda le flot rouge qui s'ecoulait, et, se soulevant
sur les poignetS; vibrant d'enthousiasme, s'ecria: "Que Dieu prenne
mon sang, mais que la France soit victorieuse! "
C'est la mort k la frangaise !
Longtemps j'ai cru — mea culpa — que I'impassibilite de 1' Anglais
etait de la pose. Et je pense encore que c'est de la pose, mais une pose
atavique, datant d'une epoque ou il fut de bon ton, k la Cour, de paraitre
insensible, et qui, filtrant de generation en generation, est devenue
partie integrale de I'individu. Peu imaginatif, la sensibilite n'existe
guere k fleur de peau chez notre allie; elle n'en est peut-etre que plus
sincere et plus profonde.
COMMENT ILS MEURENT
" Ces hommes," me dit une jolie femme, " ignorent la galanterie au
point que, dans leur langue, ce mot meme a change de sens."
De grace, madame, considerez la courtoisie des passagers du Titanic
et remarquez aussi que leurs compatriotes ne leur decernerent point
le titre de heros, mais dirent d'eux tout simplement : " C'etaient des
gentlemen." Admettez-vous que si ces hommes-1^ ignorent comment
on baise la main d'une femme, ils savent — et fort elegamment — la
faire passer devant pour mourir ^ sa place.
Ces bons Tommies, ces jolis officiers, qui semblent sur leurs hunters,
aller a un rendez-vous de chasse ^ courre plutot qu'^ la bataille, sont
plus sportsmen que militaires, leur ambition est moins de devenir des
heros que de rester des gentlemen.
D'ailleurs, Facte heroique n'est pas un geste d'exception dans une
vie. II en est la resultante logique. L'homme qui aura eu I'habitude
d'agir sans preoccupation de recherche personnelle, se conduira, quand
brusquement I'occasion se presente et que le raisonnement n'a plus
le temps d'intervenir, comme une machine bien reglee. Revelation
pour autrui peut-etre, mais pour lui consequence naturelle de ses
habitudes anterieures.
Le vantard recherche une gloire individuelle. Aussi faut-il voir sa
fuite les jours de panique!
Le silence, le recueillement, la non-exteriorisation de 1' Anglo-Saxon
disposeraient-ils son ame mieux que d'autres aux devouements ignores?
Une societe, comme seul le sol biblique de la Grande-Bretagne pent
en produire, s'est, au mois de Novembre, transportee, sur le sol de la
Belgique restee libre. Elle a pris ^ ses charges le soin de la population
civile. Devant les bombardements incessants, devant la misere et les
contagions, presque tout avait fui. II restait les pauvres, les refugies,
les paysans accroches a leur glebe, quelques gendarmes beiges esclaves de
leur consigne, parfois un pretre, jamais un medecin. On souffrait, on
mourait, on naissait meme.
Samaritains de I'Evangile, les membres des Friends' Unit sont venus.
Dans leurs mains expertes aux soins medicaux et hospitallers ils appor-
taient ce qui guerit ; dans leur coeur, ce qui console ; dans leur esprit,
tout ce qui est organisation, adaptation, prevoyance.
306
COMMENT ILS MEURENT
Un homme, un chef, restait dans Ypres-la-Martyre : TAbbe Delaere,
cure de St. Pierre. Sa soutane, trouee en maints endroits par des eclats
d'obus, etait populaire. On I'a vue partout ou il y avait un danger k
courir, un blesse k sauver, une ame h secourir, un mort i inhumer.
On I'a vue partout avec les uniformes kaki du Friends^ Unit.
Aujourd'hui, le bon pasteur, oublieux de lui-meme, se plait ^ repeter:
" Ce sont les Anglais qui ont sauve les Yprois ! "
La recherche et le soin des blesses et des malades, la desinfection des
eaux, les lois de Phygiene appliquees k un grand nombre de localites,
trente miUe vaccinations anti-typhiques, huit mille quatre cents maisons
desinfectees, I'evacuation de centaines de refugies, le sauvetage des
objets de valeur dans les maisons detruites, la creation d'h6pitaux,
d'orphelinats et d'ecoles, des distributions de lait dans un grand nombre
de localites, du travail donne h. des centaines d'ouvrieres sans ouvrage,
la vitalite rendue k Industrie de la dentelle, voil^ I'actif des Friends*
Unit et de leurs collaborateurs. Travail accompli, non pas parmi les
facilites d'une epoque paisible et reglee, mais dans le desordre de la
panique, dans la desorganisation des services publics. . . .
Un psychologue a dit:
" Un homme en kaki, qui fume sa pipe dans un courant d'air; c*est
un Anglais."
La pipe, thermometre moral, symbole du " self-control." Le nuage
blanc de sa pipe, seul p anache de 1' Anglo-Saxon. Nous sommes loin
de la cigarette rageusement machonnee entre des levres nerveuses ou
de la fumee, impertinemment soufflee au nez de I'ennemi.
Impertinence, nervosite, choses malseantes en Grande-Bretagne !
La pipe ne quitte pas les dents, elle est fumee posement, placidement,
en bouffees regulieres, attestant un pouls normal, une respiration egale,
un cerveau calme.
Un jour k Ypres j'etais de service — on duty — avec un membre du
Friends* Unit, avec un interprete beige, des ces linguistes-soldats qui
connaissent par experience en frangais, anglais, flamand le nom de
tous les projectiles et que les ronds-de-cuir de I'arriere — au courant
COMMENT ILS MEURENT
seulement de V Anglais tel qu'on le farle — s'imaginent embusques si
I'abri de leurs dictionnaires.
C'etait au printemps. Des effluves passaient, suaves et malsains,
emanations combinees de cadavres et de lilas. Sous nos pieds, les cendres
etaient chaudes des incendies qui s'eteignent d'eux-memes. Personne
dans la ville agonisante. Un chat parfois — de ces chats devenus hyenes
— se faufilant sous les decombres a la recherche d'un festin. Le silence.
Fragile, dans le lointain du ciel paisible et pur, le bourdonnement d'un
Taube. II approche, gracieux, vire au-dessus de nos tetes . . . disparait.
Puis, tout ^ coup, coup sur coup, miaulante, crepitante, detonnante,
explosante, la bacchanale des obus. Des fumees s'elevent comme de
crateres brusquement ouverts, des pans de murs s'effondrent, une
poussiere de briques, poudre de riz rose, nous enveloppe.
L'interprete et I'infirmiere au seuil de la maison qui tremble, incon-
sciemment, se sont recules dans un angle, attendant la fin de la rafale.
Au milieu de la rue, la ou on lui avait dit d'attendre, I'homme en kaki
n'a pas leve les yeux. Bien campe sur ses longues jambes emmaiUotees
de leggings, consciencieusement, avec methode, il bourre son brule-
gueule et craque une allumette.
Mon compagnon me I'indique: " Chic type! Capable de se faire
tuer sans casser sa pipe! "
C'est la mort a I'anglaise.
Et les Beiges? demandez-vous comment meurent-ils?
D'autres le diront. Devant le souvenir de leur agonie, mes doigts
laissent echapper la plume. lis ne peuvent que se joindre en un geste
d'admiration, de pitie, de priere. Une mere raconte-t-elle comment
ses petits sont morts!
308
HOW THEY DIE.
Translation by Lady Meriel Bathurst.
P , August 8, 191 5.
To Captain Winthrop- Young, Souvenir of War and Friendship.
WHEN you have escaped Death, you like to
recall with a touch of pride the moment
when he nearly overtook you.
You realise with humility how much your
instinctive behaviour was influenced by the
mentality, the nationality of those comrades " ante-mortem " that
Fate gave you.
I have seen the death of Englishmen, of Frenchmen, and of Belgians.
I have faced death with Belgians, with Frenchmen, with Englishmen.
It is quite another matter.
In French literature, the review article, the short story, seem to be
but a leading up to the peroration, the final word, satisfying if it is
expected, fascinating if it is paradoxical.
Even so, the Frenchman loves to seal his dying hour with a word,
a word which sums him up and carries him off with a flourish. Striving
unconsciously after effect, his whole soul rises to his white lips in a
cry of love, piety, or heroic mockery.
On the 15th August last year a young, handsome Dragoon of the
1 6th Regiment — Maurice Rolant was his name, and he had been a
motor-bus driver in Paris — ^was conveyed in my ambulance, near
Dinant, shot through the body by an explosive bullet. Suddenly the
inevitable haemorrhage set in. Rolant watched the flowing red tide,
and, raising himself on his wrists, quivering with enthusiasm, cried
out: " Let God take my blood, but may France be victorious."
So die the sons of France !
I believed for a long time — mea cul-pa — that the Briton's impassive-
ness was simply a pose. I still think it is a pose, but an hereditary pose,
dating from a time when it was considered good manners, at Court,
to appear indifferent, which, handed down from generation to genera-
tion, has become part and parcel of the individual. Somewhat unimagina-
tive, our Ally shows his feelings but Httle on the surface; perhaps they
are all the deeper and more sincere for that.
HOW raEY DIE
" These men," a pretty woman said to me, " are to such a degree
ignorant of * gallantry ' that even the word has changed its meaning
in their language."
For goodness' sake, Madame, consider the courtliness of the Titanic* s
passengers, and remember that their fellow-countrymen did not award
them the title of heroes, but simply said of them : " They behaved
like gentlemen." Admit, then, that if " these men " do not know how
to kiss a woman's hand, they know — and very gracefully, too — how to
make her pass before them, while they remain to die in her stead.
Those worthy Tommies, those charming officers, who, mounted on
their hunters, seem to be riding to hounds, rather than into battle, are
sportsmen first and soldiers afterwards, and their aim is less to become
heroes than to remain gentlemen.
Furthermore, an heroic deed is not an exceptional action in a
life. It is that life's logical resultant. A man who has been accus-
tomed to act without any thought of self-seeking will act, on a sudden
emergency when there is no time for reasoning, like a well-regulated
machine. It vdll be a revelation to others, perhaps, but to him it is
the natural outcome of his previous life.
The braggart seeks his personal glory. But you shall see him take to
his heels in days of panic.
Can it be, then, that the taciturnity, the concentration, the reserve
of the Anglo-Saxon more especially move his soul to acts of silent
heroism?
A society, such as only the Biblical soil of Great Britain can produce,
transplanted itself in the month of November to that part of Belgium
which had remained inviolate. It took upon itself the care of the civilian
population. In the face of unceasing bombardment, of poverty and
disease almost all had fled. There remained the poor, the refugees,
the peasants clinging to their bit of land, a few gendarmes, slaves to
their duty, here and there a priest — never a doctor. And people suffered,
and died, and were even born.
Samaritans of the Gospel, came the members of the Friends* Unit,
In their kind and skilful hands they brought healing; in their hearts,
consolation; in their brains, organisation, adaptation, foresight.
310
HOW THEY DIE
One man, one leader, remained in Ypres the Martyred: the Abbe
Delaere, cure of St. Pierre. His cassock, pierced in many places by
splinters of shells, was a familiar sight. It was seen wherever there was
a risk to run, a wounded man to save, a soul to help, a corpse to bury.
And it was seen everywhere with the khaki uniforms of the Friendi
Unit,
To-day the good pastor, forgetful of himself, delights in repeating:
" It is the English who saved the people of Ypres ! "
The search for and the care of the sick and wounded, the piurification
of water, the laws of hygiene applied to a great number of districts,
thirty thousand anti- typhoid inoculations, eight thousand four hundred
houses disinfected, the evacuation of thousands of refugees, the pre-
servation of valuables out of wrecked houses, the creation of hospitals,
orphanages, and schools, the distribution of milk in many localities,
work given to hundreds of unemployed women, vitality restored to the
lace-making industry — such was the task of the Friends' Unit and their
collaborators. And it was a task accomplished not amidst the facilities
given in peace-time, but amidst the disorder of panic, the disorganisa-
tion of the pubHc services.
# » # *
A psychologist has said: " A man in khaki who smokes his pipe in a
draught: that is an Englishman."
The pipe, a moral thermometer, a symbol of self-control ! A white
cloud of smoke the one and only plume of the Anglo-Saxon. We are
far from the cigarette feverishly mumbled between nervous Kps, or from
the smoke impertinently puffed in the enemy's face.
Impertinence, nerves, these things are looked on askance in Great
Britain. The pipe never leaves the teeth ; it is calmly, coolly smoked in
regular puffs, attesting to a normal pulse, an even breathing, a quiet mind.
One day at Ypres I was on duty with a member of the Friends^ Unit
and with a Belgian interpreter, one of those soldier-linguists who know,
by experience, the French, EngKsh, and Flemish names of all the
projectiles, and whom the red-tape officials of bureaucracy only acquainted
with " English as she is spoke " fondly imagine as sheltering in safety
behind their dictionaries.
HOW THEY DIE
It was Spring-time. Strange effluvia, sweet and tainted, were borne
through the air; combined emanations from corpses and lilac blossoms.
Beneath our feet were cinders yet warm from fires burning themselves
out.
Not a soul in the death-stricken town. Sometimes a cat — one of those
cats turned hyena — creeping under the wreckage in search of a banquet.
Silence. Faint in the calm blue distance — the whirr of a Taube.
It approaches, circles gracefully over our heads — disappears. Then
all of a sudden, shot upon shot, screaming, crackHng, booming, burst-
ing, a bacchanal of shells. Smoke rises as if from abruptly opened
craters, bits of wall crumble away, a shower of brick-dust, like pink
face-powder, envelops us. The interpreter and the hospital nurse, on
the threshold of the rocking house, have instinctively drawn back into
a corner waiting for the storm to pass.
There, in the middle of the street, just where he had been told
to wait, the man in khaki has not raised his eyes. Standing stoUdly
on his long legs swathed in puttees, he slowly, deHberately fills his pipe
and lights a match.
My companion points him out to me: "A good sort that; quite
capable of getting himself knocked out without breaking his pipe."
So do Britons die!
And what of the Belgians? you ask; how do they die?
Others than I will tell you. At the thought of their death-throes
the pen falls from my fingers; I can only clasp them in a gesture of
admiration, of pity, of prayer. Does a mother tell how her Httle ones
have died?
312
COMMENT ELLES LES SOIGNENT !
Par Maria BiERMfe.
AUSSITOT que fut connu le geste des Beiges devant
Liege, une effervescence de generosite et de bonte
remplit Tame, le coeur et I'esprit de toutes les femmes
du Royaume-Uni. De I'enfant k I'aieule, chacune
youlut faire quelque chose pour la vaillante armee, qui
venait d'aneantir, en une heure d'heroisme, le complot inique et vieux
de combien d'ans de Guillaume-Attila.
Des la mi-aout 1914 quelques uns de nos blesses furent transportes
en Angleterre ou, non seulement les hopitaux, mais les maisons et les
chateaux s'ouvrirent tout grands pour les recevoir. On ne se plaignait
que d'une chose, c'est qu'il en arrivait trop peu.
En effet, tant que nos soldats conserverent I'espoir fou, s'il n'eut
ete sublime, de vaincre, en quelques semaines, I'ennemi le plus formid-
ablement arme du monde, tant qu'ils crurent ^ la prompte arrivee des
allies pour les aider a repousser les hordes germaniques, nos blesses
prefererent rester au pays et, au fur et a mesure de I'invasion, on les trans-
porta, au prix de quelles souffrances, de Liege k Bruxelles, de Bruxelles
k Gand, puis k Anvers et au Littoral. La chute des forts et la retraite
d'Anvers amenerent I'evacuation de nos hopitaux et les blesses etroite-
ment serres, les uns contre les autres, remplissaient jusqu'^ fond de
cale, les bateaux a destination de 1' Angleterre ou, k toutes les heures
du jour et de la nuit, ils etaient accueillis avec le meme enthousiasme,
par les Dames de la Croix Rouge, les sisters, et les nurses des hopitaux
qui, non seulement savaient panser leurs plaies, mais verser le baume
de leur compatissante bonte dans leur coeur endolori par I'exil, la sepa-
ration, les mille angoisses morales qui s'ajoutaient, pour nos braves,
k leur souffrance physique. Helas ! le sanglant pelerinage allait
s'accentuer encore. Les Allies n'etant point prets, on demandait
aux Beiges masses pres de I'Yser de s'opposer, durant quarante-huit
heures, avec quelques fusiliers frangais, au passage de 1' armee allemande.
Ils etaient dix contre cent mais, durant sept jours et sept nuits, ils
resisterent aux assauts des Barbares, et de quarante mille qu'ils etaient
vingt-cinq mille furent tues ou blesses, mais Calais n'etait pas atteint,
la France et TAngleterre etaient sauvees par eux, une fois encore.
COMMENT ELLES LES SOIGNENT !
Ceux qui survecurent k I'horrible hecatombe furent diriges vers
Calais prise au depourvu de tout ce qu'il eut fallu, pour secourir
pareil nombre de blesses. Ceux-ci, I'hopital rempli, furent deposes
sur de la paille dans les hangars, les garages, les ecoles, voire meme
des batisses en construction et ceux qui passaient leur donnait a boire
et soignaient, comme ils le pouvaient, leurs blessures. On vit, meme,
des medecins obliges d'amputer dans les rues.
C'etait affreux ! et le frisson de I'horreur se melait aux larmes de la
pitie pour tous ceux qui souifraient, gemissaient ou ralaient sans qu'il
fut possible, malgre les bonnes volontes reunies, de tous les secourir.
Qui done, allait les arracher k cette gehenne ? Les nobles femmes
de I'Angleterre.
" Qu'ils viennent ici," disaient-elles, " ces heros qui nous ont sauves !
qu'ils arrivent, done, tous ceux qui ont verse leur sang non seulement
pour leur Patrie, mais pour le Droit et la Justice ! "
Et avec ce merveilleux esprit de promptitude et d'organisation qui
caracterise leur race, en un jour ou deux, parfois en quelques heures,
elles avaient transforme leur maison, leur chateau ou leur villa en un
hopital moderne pourvu de toutes les installations les plus parfaites,
tant au point de vue de I'hygiene que de la therapeutique et de la
chirurgie.
Vetues de I'uniforme de la Croix Rouge, elles allaient attendre sur
les quais des ports et des gates tous les mutiles et tous les souffrants
qu'elles adoptaient comme des fils ou comme des freres. Jour et nuit,
elles se relayaient aupres des couchettes toute blanches ou ceux qui,
depuis plus de deux mois, n'avaient connu d'autre lit que la tranchee
boueuse et obscure etendaient avec delices leurs membres endoloris
entre les draps qui fleuraient la lavande.
C'etait I'Eden apres I'enfer !
La canonnade furieuse ne troublait plus leur sommeil ; ils n'enten-
daient que des voix douces comme celles des anges et, par la fenetre
entr'ouverte, les gazouillis des derniers oiseaux blottis dans les cimes
dej^ parees de teintes automnales.
L'odeur de la poudre avait fait place au parfum des coroUes que des
mains attentives avaient disposees, un peu partout, dans les vastes
COMMENT ELLES LES SOIGNENT !
salles. Nulle vision d'horreur ne troublait plus leurs yeux ; s'ils
s'eveillaient d'un lourd cauchemar, ils ne rencontraient que le doux
visage d'une femme se penchant vers eux avec une sollicitude maternelle
et dont le regard etait tout plein non seulement de pitie, mais d'admira-
tion pour le pauvre soldat au visage terreux et souvent defigure par
d'horribles blessures.
Lorsque des mains delicates et compatissantes avaient renouvele
un pansement ou verse la potion calmante et que les levres du blesse
s'entrouvraient pour dire " merci." *' Chut ! " interrompait la noble
femme, " il ne faut point nous remercier, nous vous devons cela, n'avez-
vous point sauve I'Angleterre ? " Et le brave de repondre, surpris,
" Mais, je n'ai fait que mon devoir."
Les attentions se multipliaient pour ces vaillants si modestes et si
courageux qu'ils accueillaient, avec gaite, les pires aventures.
La Superieure d'un couvent catholique d'Ecosse qui s'etait devouee,
elle aussi, avec toutes ses religieuses, k secourir nos soldats, nous racon-
tait que, comme elle plaignait I'un d'eux dont la tete etait trouee par
une balle qui I'avait transpercee, de part en part, il lui repondit en
riant : " Mais, ma Soeur, comment voulez-vous qu'un Beige conserve
une balle boche dans la tete ? " Cette denomination de " Ma Soeur,"
nos soldats habitues ^ etre, la plupart du temps, soignes chez nous
par des religieuses, I'appliquaient aux nurses qu'ils traitaient avec
le meme respect.
Rien que dans le " London Hospital " que nous avons visite et qui
est, pensons-nous, le plus important de la metropole et le plus magni-
fiquement installe, au point de vue de toutes les exigences de la science
moderne, quatre cent soixante-douze soldats beiges blesses ont ete
re^us, du 14 octobre 1914 au 15 fevrier 1915, soignes avec un devoue-
ment admirable et combles des plus delicates attentions. Rien n'etait
trop bon pour nos soldats, les primeurs les plus rares, les vins les
meilleurs, les fruits les plus succulents leur etaient offerts.
On ne se bornait pas seulement ^ leur procurer le bien etre materiel
le plus grand, mais Ton s'effor9ait encore de leur apporter le plus de
reconfort moral possible. C'est ainsi que, pour qu'ils ne souffrissent
point de ne pas savoir s'exprimer en anglais, des dames et des jeunes
COMMENT ELLES LES SOIGNENT I
fiUes connaissant le frangais et le flamand venaient passer la journee
h. I'hopital ou elles servaient d'interpretes entre nos soldats, les medecins
et les nurses. Elles faisaient leur correspondance, se plaisaieiit a
converse! avec eux de tout ce qui leur etait cher et faisaient toutes les
demarches necessaires pour decouvrir le lieu de residence de leurs
proches et pour les faire venir aupres d'eux. De plus, les pretres qui
pouvaient les encourager et les consoler avaient libre acces aupres
d'eux et tous ceux qui les venaient visiter etaient accueillis avec la plus
grande bienveillance par les nurses, heureuses de les voir jouir de quelque
distraction. Nuls visiteurs, cependant, n'etaient mieux accueillis
par ces dames que les membres de la famille royale S.A.I, et R. Madame
la Princesse Clementine, S.A.R. Madame la Duchesse de Vendome et
surtout LL.AA.RR. Les Princes Leopold et Charles Theodore et la
Princesse Marie-Jose qui economisaient leur argent de poche pour
pouvoir I'offrir a leurs chers soldats beiges. Au St. Bartholomew's,
au St. Andrew's, comme au London Hospital et comme partout ailleurs,
c'etait le meme empressement k deviner et a satisfaire les desirs de nos
braves.
Voici, d' ailleurs, la copie de deux lettres prises aux hasard parmi
des centaines d'autres envoyees aux " sisters " et aux " nurses " du
London Hospital, par nos soldats blesses qui etaient admis a considerer
I'hopital comme leur " home " ou ils pouvaient toujours revenir plus
tard, non seulement s'ils ne se sentaient pas tout a fait bien, mais
s'ils etaient sans logis ou sans travail.
" CniiRE Sister, — Nous sommes arrives, tous, en bonne sante, apres
un magnifique voyage d'une heure en auto et de trois heures en chemin
de fer. Partout, sur notre passage, ce ne furent que ' hourra ! ' et
* bravo ! ' mais vraiment, je ne sais si nous avons merite tant de gratitude,
nous avons fait notre devoir, rien de plus. La vie ici est tout autre,
les vagues de la mer arrivent jusqu'au jardin du sanatorium, la tempera-
ture est plus douce et, naturellement une immense tristesse nous
envahit. C'est toujours I'image de la patrie qui nous revient ; on en
est si eloigne, alors qu'elle se meurt. . . .
" Encore une fois, merci a ce grand et fier peuple anglais et surtout
316
COMMENT ELLES LES SOIGNENT !
^ vous, Sister et nurses, qui nous avez si bien soignes ; toujours, je vous
en serai reconnaissant et je garderai, de mon sejour en Angleterre,
un imperissable souvenir.
" Ad. Falaise."
" Madame la Soeur de la salle Cambridge, — Je ne puis m'abstenir
de vous remercier encore pour les bons soins devoues que vous m'avez
prodigues, lors de mon sejour a I'hopital. J'ai ete soigne par vous
on ne peut mieux et comme pourrait I'etre, par sa maman, un enfant
gate.
" Merci, chere Soeur, et puissent mes compagnons de guerre et des
tranchees etre soignes, comme je ?ai ete, par vous dont je n'oublierai
jamais I'admirable soUicitude.
" E. Raynaud."
Apres I'hopital, c'etait la maison de convalescence installee dans la
propriete estivale de quelque genereuse chatelaine d' Angleterre,
d'Ecosse ou d'lrlande qui mettait son luxueux " home " avec tout son
personnel a la disposition de nos soldats.
" II n'est point de roi,'* nous disait I'un d'eux, " qui puisse etre
mieux servi, plus finement nourri, plus agreablement distrait et
soigne avec un devouement plus grand que nous le fumes, durant
notre convalescence, et, jamais, nous n'oublierons ce que les Dames
et les jeunes fiUes du Royaume-Uni ont fait pour nous ! Meme, aux
bebes blonds et roses des maisons, ou nous etions choyes comme des
enfants gates, on enseignait k venir nous saluer chaque matin par
ces mots aimes qui nous attendrissaient toujours * Vive la Belgique !
Vive le roi Albert ! ' en meme temps qu'ils nous apportaient un bouquet
des plus belles fleurs du jardin ou de la serre.
" Si notre etat le permettait, on nous faisait faire de longues excur-
sions en automobile ou nous allions k la peche, nous jouions au tennis.
L'hiver, les chatelaines organisaient toutes sortes de parties de plaisir
pour nous, des thes, des seances de prestidigitation, des comedies, des
concerts. Jamais, nous n'aurions passe de plus heureux temps, si nous
COMMENT ELLES LES SOIGNENT !
n'avions ete tourmentes par le sort de nos proches et le souvenir de
I'epouvantable tragedie qui mettait a feu et k sang notre bien aimee
patrie ! "
On nous a conte aussi que, quand le medecin militaire beige venait
examiner Tetat des convalescents, afin de savoir s'ils n'etaient point
capables de reprendre leur service, les chatelaines et les nurses rivali-
saient de ruses afin d'obtenir, pour ceux qui devaient partir, une
prolongation de sejour. Lorsqu'ils repartaient pour le front, ces dames
leur recommandaient de rester en correspondance avec elles et de leur
faire savoir ce qui pourrait leur manquer la bas et ils recevaient, a tout
instant, des colis contenant des vetements chauds, du chocolat, des
cigarettes qui devaient adoucir, pour eux, la rude vie des tranchees.
Nos soldats n'ont jamais manque, d'ailleurs, de temoigner la plus vive
reconnaissance a leurs genereuses bienfaitrices.
Voici une lettre, cueillie entre mille, qui en fait foi :
" Pervyse, le 7 juillet 191 5.
" Ch^re Demoiselle, — ^J'ai bien re9u, il y a deux jours, les deux
petits paquets contenant vos bons et beaux cadeaux, je vous remercie
infiniment de votre bon coeur pour les petits Beiges. Souvent,
assis au fond de ma tranchee, je pense k la bonne terre d'Angleterre,
ou je me plaisais si bien. . . . Que la guerre finisse bien vite
afin d'y pouvoir retourner encore. Vraiment, on devient presque
sauvage ; voilk pres de deux mois que je vis dans les tranchees,
toujours expose. Que 9a finisse vite, car 9a commence a nous
ennuyer. Les Allemands nous arrosent souvent avec leurs gros
obus de 420. Heureusement, que nous avons une meilleure
artillerie maintenant, les Boches commencent a avoir peur. U y a
une dizaine de jours, nous avons attaque les Prussiens, ils ont eu une
vingtaine de tues et une cinquante de blesses. C'est dommage qu'il
n'y a pas de gare ici, sinon je vous aurais reserve un beau casque k
pointe.
" Mademoiselle, nous avons toujours bon courage. Pourvu qu'on
puisse bien vite faire I'offensive generale, car c'est tout ce que nous
demandons.
318
COMMENT ELLES LES SOIGNENT !
" En vous remerciant encore beaucoup pour vos constantes bontes,
Mademoiselle, je reste
" Votre devoue petit Beige,
" V. M., Sergent 4e Division.
" P.S. — Fait-il aussi chaud k Londres qu'ici ou la chaleur est insup-
portable. Je me croyais presqu'en Afrique (Vive les Anglais !).
Demain, je pars, de nouveau, pour les tranchees ; ne m'oubliez pas
dans vos prieres. Au re voir ! "
Si leurs membres s'etaient ankyloses, les convalescents allaient en
rechercher la vie encore chez de bonnes dames anglaises qui avaient
monte, dans leur propre maison, des installations d'electrotherapie et
de mecanotherapie k leur usage.
Enfin, nous avons visite, dans le Nord de I'Angleterre, de grandes
proprietes dont des dames de I'aristocratie obtenaient le pret et ou
elles installaient plusieurs soldats reformes. Elles avaient fait venir la
femme, les enfants, voire meme les parents de ces braves et elles
veillaient k ce que le confort le plus parfait regnat dans les appartements
qui leur etaient reserves, comme h ce que les reformes obtinssent, le
plus tot possible, un travail bien remunere.
Les dames irlandaises souhaitaient vivement, elles aussi, oflFrir un
" home " aux blesses, mais on n'aimait point d'exposer ceux-ci k la
traversee, et les dames d'Irlande se dedommageaient en recueillant le
plus d'argent possible pour eux, dans toutes les classes de la societe et
meme les plus pauvres femmes d'Irlande avaient a coeur d'apporter,
au moins, leur penny pour grossir le montant de la somme destinee k
aider les soldats beiges.
Oui, avec quel tact infini, quelle simplicite charmante, quelle douceur
exquise, elles se sont acquittees et s'acquittent encore, tous les jours,
de leur tache de lumineuse bonte, les femmes de la Grande Bretagne,
au noble coeur et k I'esprit clair, qui ont rendu h. leur patrie les heros
de la Meuse et de I'Yser !
319
HOW THEY TENDED US.
Translation by Lady Byron.
DIRECTLY the attitude of the Belgians before Liege
became known the women of Great Britain were
filled heart and soul with an effervescence of generosity
and goodness. All of them, from the grandmother
to the smallest child, were eager to do something
for the gallant army which, in an heroic hour, had annihilated the
iniquitous scheme conceived so many years ago by William Attila !
So early as the middle of August our wounded were being brought to
England, where not only hospitals, but private houses and mansions,
were opened wide to receive them and where only one complaint was
heard — ^that too few were sent. As a matter of fact, whilst our soldiers,
in their subHme folly, still had hopes of conquering, in a few weeks,
the most formidably armed enemy in the world — ^whilst they still
believed in the prompt arrival of the Allies to help them in their task
of repelling the German hordes — our wounded preferred to remain
in their own country ; and only when invasion extended were they
moved, with terrible sufferings, from Liege to Brussels, from Brussels
to Ghent, then on to Antwerp and to the coast. The fall of the
forts and the retreat from Antwerp brought about the evacuation of
our hospitals, and our wounded, crowded together, filled to over-
flowing the boats bound for England, where, at all hours of the day
and night, they were received with the same enthusiasm by the ladies
of the Red Cross, the Sisters, and the hospital nurses, who bound up
their wounds and strove to console hearts agonised by exile, separa-
tion, and the moral anguish which was added to the physical sufferings
of our heroes.
Alas ! the bloody pilgrimage was to be prolonged : the Allies were
not yet in readiness, and it was required of the Belgians, massed near
to the Yser, that for forty-eight hours, together with some French
Fusiliers, they should oppose the passage of the German Army. They
were ten against a hundred, but for seven days and seven nights they
resisted the assaults of the Barbarians. Of their number, 40,000, there
were 25,000 killed and wounded, but Calais was not reached, and France
and England, once more, were saved by them. Those who survived this
320
'f: '•J
- X
HOW THEY TENDED US
horrible hecatomb were taken to Calais, where there were no facilities
to relieve so great a number of wounded. The hospitals were so crowded
that men lay on straw, in sheds, garages, schools, even buildings in
process of construction, and passing strangers gave them drink and
dressed their wounds as best they could. Doctors were compelled to
perform amputations even in the streets. It was a scene of horror,
quite indescribable, and many, alas ! lying groaning in their death
agony it was impossible to succour.
Who, then, was to rescue these martyrs from such a Gehenna ? The
noble women of England. " Let them come here," they said, " those
heroes, who have saved us. Let them come, those who have shed their
blood, not only for their country, but for the Right and for Justice."
And, with the marvellous spirit of promptitude and organisation
characteristic of their race, in a day or two, sometimes even in a few
hours, these Englishwomen transformed their homes into modern
hospitals, fitted with all the most perfect appliances, from the point of
view of hygiene, as well as of therapeutics and surgery.
Dressed in the Red Cross uniform they would await at the landing
stage or railway platform the arrival of the maimed and suffering —
their adopted sons or brothers — and, relieving each other day and night,
nursed and attended to those who for more than two months had
known no couch but the dark and muddy trenches, but who now
stretched their aching limbs, luxuriously, between lavender-scented
sheets.
No longer did the furious cannonade disturb their slumbers, they
heard only voices soft as those of angels ; and through the half-opened
windows came the twittering of birds sheltering in the tree-tops
already decked with the tints of Autumn. The smell of gunpowder
was replaced by the scent of flowers which careful hands had placed
here and there in the spacious wards. Horrible visions appeared no
more to them, and, waking from a nightmare, they saw only some sweet
woman's face bending over them, with maternal solicitude, and looks
expressive not only of pity, but of admiration, for the poor, haggard
soldier frequently disfigured by hideous wounds.
When delicate and compassionate hands had renewed a dressing, or
321 z
HOW THEY TENDED US
administered a soothing potion, and the lips of the wounded man
parted feebly to murmur his thanks, " Hush ! " the noble woman would
interrupt gently, " you must not thank me ; we owe this to you : have you
not saved England ? " And in surprise the brave man would reply, " I
have only done my duty." The tenderest care was bestowed on
the brave soldiers, so modest and courageous, who had so cheerfully
braved the most perilous adventures.
The Mother Superior of a Catholic convent in Scotland, who, together
with her nuns, had devoted herself to the service of our soldiers, told
us that, as she was commiserating one of them who had been shot clean
through the head, he answered gaily, " But, Sister, how could you expect
a Belgian soldier to retain a Boche bullet in his skull ? "
The name " Sister " was always applied by our soldiers to the nurses,
whom they treated with the same respect as the nuns, to whose ministra-
tions they were accustomed at home.
In the London Hospital, which we visited, the most important, we
imagine, in the Metropolis and the most magnificently fitted up as
regards all exigencies of modern science, 472 wounded Belgians were
received from October 14th, 1914, to February 15th, 191 5, and were
cared for vdth admirable devotion, the most deUcate attentions being
lavished upon them. Nothing was too good for our soldiers — the best
and earliest vegetables, the finest wines, the choicest fruits — and, not only
were material comforts provided, but every effort was made to administer
spiritual aid and consolation. Thus, in order that they might not suffer
through being unable to express themselves in English, some ladies and
young girls, knowing both the French and the Flemish languages, used
to spend the day at the hospital acting as interpreters for our soldiers,
with the nurses and the doctors, writing letters for them, talking to
them of their dear ones, taking measures to discover the addresses of
their relatives and bring them to their side.
The priests, moreover, who could encourage and comfort the wounded
had free access to them, and all visitors were received with the greatest
kindness by the nurses, glad to see their patients enjoy a little distraction ;
but none received a warmer welcome from these ladies than the members
of the Royal Family, H.I. and R.H. Princess Clementine, H.R.H. the
322
HOW THEY TENDED US
Duchess of Vendome, and, above all, their Royal Highnesses Princes
Leopold and Charles Theodore and Princess Marie-Jose, who saved up
their pocket-money in order to be able to offer it to their dear Belgian
soldiers. At St. Bartholomew's, St. Andrew's and the London Hospital
there was the same eagerness to divine and to gratify the wishes of our
brave soldiers.
Here are copies of two letters, taken at random from hundreds of
others, sent to the Sisters and Nurses of the London Hospital
by our wounded soldiers, who were allowed to consider the hospital as
their " home," where they could return later on, not only if they did
not feel well, but if they were without home or work : —
" Dear Sister, — We all arrived in good health, after a splendid
journey of an hour in a motor-car and three hours by train. Every-
where on our way we heard nothing but * Hurrah ! ' and * Bravo ! '
I really wonder whether we deserve so much gratitude ; we did our
duty, nothing more. Life here is quite different ; the sea waves come
up to the garden of the sanatorium ; the temperature is milder, but
we are naturally overwhelmed by a great sadness. The picture of our
country is always before us, one is so far away from her, whilst she is
dying.
" Once more, many thanks to the great and proud EngHsh people,
and especially to you. Sister, and to the nurses who nursed us so well.
I shall always be grateful to you, and I shall keep an imperishable
memory of my stay in England.
"Ad. Falise."
" To the Sister of the Cambridge Ward.
" Madam, — I cannot refrain from thanking you again and again
for the devoted care you lavished on me while I was in the hospital.
I could not have been better nursed, and I was treated as is a spoiled
child by his mother.
" Thank you, dear Sister. May my war and trench comrades be
nursed as I was by you, whose admirable solicitude I shall never forget.
" E. Raymond."
323
HOW THEY TENDED US
After the hospital came the convalescent home, installed in the
summer abode of some generous lady, English, Scotch, or Irish, who
placed her luxurious house, with its entire sitaff, at the disposal of our
soldiers.
" There is no king," one of them said to us, " who could be better
served or more delicately fed, agreeably amused, and nursed with a
greater devotion, than we were during our convalescence. We shall
never forget what the ladies and young girls of the United Kingdom
have done for us ! Even the fair and rosy babies of the houses where
we were tenderly nursed like spoilt children were taught to come and
greet us every morning with these kind words which always moved us,
' Long live Belgium ! Long live King Albert ! ' At the same time
they would bring us a bouquet composed of the most beautiful flowers
in the garden or in the conservatory.
" Our health permitting, we were either taken for long motor drives
or went fishing or played tennis. In the winter time the ladies would
organise all sorts of pleasure parties, plays, and concerts. Never should
we have spent a happier time, had we not been troubled by the fate of
our relatives and the recollection of the awful tragedy which was
putting our beloved country to fire and sword."
When the Belgian military doctor would arrive to visit the convales-
cents, in order to find out whether they were in a fit condition to resume
their duties, we were told that the ladies and nurses artfully vied with
one another to obtain for those who had to leave a longer stay.
When they departed for the front these ladies would recommend
them to keep up a correspondence and let them know anything they
might want over there ; then they would receive, at every moment,
parcels containing warm clothes, chocolates, and cigarettes, which
smoothed their rough life in the trenches. Our soldiers have never
missed an opportunity of showing the greatest thankfulness to their
generous benefactresses.
The following letter, which was picked out from a thousand, testifies
to this : —
" Pervyse, July 7th, 191 5.
" Dear Lady, — I received, two days ago, the two small parcels
324
HOW THEY TENDED US
containing your kind and beautiful presents. I thank you infinitely
for the goodness to us Belgians ; seated in my trench I very often
think of the good land of England, where I was so happy. May the
war end soon, so that I may go back there. Really one becomes almost
savage-like ; for nearly two months I have been living constantly
exposed in the trenches. May all this end soon, for it begins to weary
us. The Germans often send us their big 420 shells. Happily our
artillery is far better now, and the * Boches ' begin to be afraid of it.
Ten days ago we attacked the Prussians ; about twenty of them were
killed and fifty wounded. It is a pity there is no station here, otherwise
I should have kept a beautiful Prussian helmet for you.
" Mademoiselle, we still keep up our courage. May we be able to
take up the general offensive very quickly, for it is all that we ask.
" In thanking you again very much for your repeated kindnesses, I
remain, Mademoiselle,
" Your devoted little Belgian,
" V. M.,
" Sergeant 4th Division."
" P.S. — Is it as warm in London as here ? The heat is unbearable.
I could almost believe myself in Africa. (Long live the English !)
To-morrow I leave again for the trenches. Do not forget me in your
prayers. Good-bye ! "
If their joints were ankylosed, the convalescents went for further cure
to English ladies who had set up complete installations for electrical
treatment in their own houses.
Finally, in the north of England, we visited large properties which
had been lent to some ladies for the establishment of soldiers invalided
out of the service. The soldiers' wives and children, even the parents
of these brave men, had been told to come and stay with them. The
ladies arranged that they all had the greatest comfort in the rooms
reserved to them, and they also helped the invalided soldiers to obtain
well-remunerated work as soon as possible.
The Irish ladies also wanted to offer a home to the wounded, but
we did not like to expose the latter to the crossing. They contented
3^5
HOW THEY TENDED US
themselves, therefore, with collecting as much money as possible,
in all classes of society ; and even the poorest peasant women of Ireland
set their heart on contributing at least their penny to increase the
fund in aid of the Belgian soldiers.
Oh, with what infinite tact, with what charming simplicity and
exquisite grace, they have performed, and are still every day per-
forming, their errand of mercy — these women of Great Britain, noble-
hearted, clear visioned, who have restored to their country the Heroes
of the Meuse and the Yser !
326
IMPRESSIONS DE GUERRE.
Par Madame E. Carton de Wiart.
I.
A Miss Margaret Jacob.
LA porte s'ouvrit toute grande et dans le cadre un fouillis de
gaze bleue s'engouffra. Doucement, avec un soupir qui
chassa dans la chambre une brise legere, la porte se referma.
Le fouillis bleu s'arrete et, comme des enfants pris en faute,
les plis de I'etoffe se remettent en place, les cheveux cessent
de voler au vent. Une main se leve brandissant un paquet : " Des
lettres de Belgique ! Aoh . . . tres beaucoup ! " Vingt paires d'yeux
s*allument au-dessus des tables convenes de lettres, des lettres du
front celles-1^, dont on prepare Penvoi vers la grande prison, vers la
Belgique ! " C'est-7 quand meme qu'on se la paie la tete des Bodies !
C'est pas pour rien qu'y-z-ont une queue de poire sur le casque ! "
Au fond de la salle un rire tres jeune a fuse et une frimousse eveillee
de jeune fiUe emerge des paperasses. Mais des voix angoissees ques-
tionnent : " De quelles regions les lettres ? " Le paquet est ouvert
sur la table, une avalanche de petits billets, pattes de mouches sur
papier pelure, se repand : " Bruxelles, Louvain, Namur, . . . ."
" Et Termonde ? " fait la voix anxieuse, " depuis six mois je suis sans
nouvelles ? " "Termonde . . . non, rien!" Les yeux sont de
nouveau penches sur le travail, un peu humides, et seule, I'annonciatrice
de la bonne nouvelle poursuit son triage. " Deux cent dix lettres
pour le front, soixante-deux pour Londres .... tiens une lettre pour
moi . . . ^ remettre a M. Pieter Van Ravensteen : " Mon cher
mari, — Tu ne dois pas t'ennuyer de moi, parce que je vais bien et aussi
la petite est bien. On a rien regu de toi depuis la guerre. J'espere
que tu es comme ^ ton ordinaire. J'ai bien de la peine d'etre loin de toi,
mais 9a me console de penser que tu es un brave soldat qui sert bien
son pays. Je t'embrasse pour moi et pour Marieke. Tu verras comme
elle devient jolie. Je n'ai plus rien a te dire. Ta femme pour la vie,
Carolintje.' " La Hseuse s'est arretee, son coeur bat. Ce Pieter un
brave soldat du I2e de Ligne, est aveugle. Un jour, sur I'Yser, un
eclat d'obus lui a coute les deux yeux. Sa femme et sa fiUette, demeurees
\ Louvain, avaient, disait la rumeur publique, peri dans I'incendie
327
IMPRESSIONS DE GUERRE
allume par les Allemands et les yeux morts du pauvre aveugle rendaient
plus tragique encore son expression desesperee et farouche. En une
minute la bonne nouvelle a fait le tour du bureau. II faut de suite
prevenir Pieter. "Alio! Mayfair 4315. . . . St. Dunstan's Hospital?
Est-ce que Pieter Van Ravensteen est la ? Pouvez-vous I'envoyer
de suite ici, au Bureau de la Correspondance Beige ? Oui ? Oh, merci."
# # # *
La porte s'ouvre toute grande et dans le cadre un homme jeune
s*avance, les yeux fixes, conduit par un soldat anglais au teint frais,
k I'ceil vif, ampute d'une jambe. Douce ment, avec un soupir qui
chasse dans la chambre une brise legere, la porte se referme. Cette
fois encore, tous les regards se sont leves : regards fatigues des vieux
travailleurs, regards brillants des mutiles qui ont frole la mort, regards
attendris des jeunes fiUes. Le silence s'est fait dans le " Bureau."
La jeune Anglaise s'approche : " Pieter, c'est moi, votre grande amie,
' Miss.* J'ai quelque chose a vous annoncer. Votre femme, votre
petite, elles vont bien, nous avons pu avoir des nouvelles." Le regard
n'a pas brille, mais I'homme est tombe, affale sur une chaise, les mains
jointes dans une extase de bonheur . . . et dans la grande salle sombre
tout le mond pleure, tandis que " Miss " lit au pauvre Pieter, avec
son joli accent anglais, la simple et touchante lettre de la brave
Louvaniste.
II.
A Lady Constance Hatch.
Mornes, silencieux, le pas pesant, le regard rive ^ des images d'epou-
vante, c'est le cortege des " Belgian Refugees " qui passe. Ames de
la patrie outragee et des vieilles cites detruites . . . debris des cam-
pagnes ravagees . . . spectres des enfants assassines. . . . Ignominie
des serments violes ! Foule anonyme ou personne n'est quelqu'un,
ou le pauvre prete au riche, ou le noble sert le manant, ou I'on souffre
sans guere se plaindre, mais ou I'on ne se plaint pas sans souffrir.
Terre d'Angleterre, qu'avez-vous dit a ces proscrits ? Je leur ai
dit : " Viens, je t'accueillerai, je te donnerai mon pain blanc, les
fruits de mes vergers et la chair savoureuse de mes moutons. Je te
328
IMPRESSIONS DE GUERRE
devoilerai le charme intime et profond de mes vieilles maisons, et la
douceur de ma campagne qui est un jardin sans limites. Pour tes
petits enfants, je ressusciterai toutes mes legendes et pour les plus
grands, je fortifierai leurs esperances en leur lisant les pages de ma
glorieuse histoire, et en leur disant mes victoires contre des ennemis
plus puissants que ceux d'aujourd'hui ! "
Femmes d'Angleterre, que ferez-vous pour ces malheureux ? " Nous
les prendrons par la main et dans nos plus belles demeures, nous les
conduirons. Nous tacherons de connaitre leurs gouts et leurs coutumes
et jusqu'^ leurs prejuges pour diminuer s'il se peut I'amertume de leur
exil."
Hommes d'Angleterre, que direz-vous k ces infortunes ? Nous
leur dirons : " Freres, vous avez souffert pour le Droit et I'Honneur !
Vous futes le premier rempart contre I'ennemi commun. Nos fils
iront combattre et mourir k cote des votres dans les plaines des Flandres,
et leur nombre grandira chaque jour, jusqu'^ ce que leur puissance
ecrase les Huns, et vous restitue votre patrie liberee."
Et au devant de ce long cortege de deux cent mille exiles, s'est
avance, les mains tendues, un autre cortege qui comprenait des millions
de bienfaiteurs !
329
WAR IMPRESSIONS.
Translation by John Buchan.
I.
To Miss Margaret Jacob.
THE door opens wide, and a vision of blue gauze flutters
through the doorway. Gently, with a sigh that seems to
wake a soft breeze in the room, the door closes again.
The blue vision stops, and, like children caught in the act
of wrong-doing, the folds of the gauze settle in their place,
the hair ceases to float in the wind. A hand is raised, brandishing a
packet. " Letters from Belgium ! Oh, a lot ! "
Twenty pairs of eyes light up above tables covered with letters,
letters from the Front, which are being got ready for despatch to the
great prison — Belgium. " The Boches are ' done ' all the same. It is
not for nothing that they wear a donkey's tail on their helmets." Inside
the room young laughter sounds, and the bright face of a girl
rises out of the papers. Strained voices are asking : " From which
districts are the letters ? " The packet is opened on the table. A
perfect flood of small notes, fine writing on thin paper, is poured out :
" Brussels, Louvain, Namur . . ."
" And Termonde ? " anxiously enquires a voice, " I have not heard
anything for six months." " Termonde — no, nothing." The eyes
are again lowered to their work, a little wet now.
The bearer of the good news pursues her sorting. " Two hundred
and ten letters for the Front, sixty-two for liondon. Hallo, here's a
letter for myself .... to be forwarded to Mr. Pieter Van Ravensteen :
" My dear husband, you must not bother about me, as I am all right,
and the little girl is well, too. Nothing has been heard from you since
the war. I hope that you are as usual. It is very hard for me to be
separated from you, but it is a consolation to me to think that you are
a good soldier, serving your country well. Fond kisses from myself
and Marieke. You will see how pretty she is getting. I have nothing
more to tell you. Your wife for ever, Carolintje.' "
The reader stops ; her heart is beating. This Pieter, a brave soldier
of the 1 2th Regiment of the Line, is blind. One day on the Yser a
shell splinter destroyed both his eyes. His wife and daughter who
WAR IMPRESSIONS
had remained at Louvain were said to have perished in the incendiary
fires lit by the Germans, and the dead eyes of the poor blind man made
his wild and hopeless expression the more tragic.
The good news spreads like wildfire in the office. Pieter must be
told at once. " Hallo ! Mayfair 4315. . . . St. Dunstan's Hospital ? Is
Pieter Van Ravensteen there ? Could you send him at once here, to the
Bureau de Correspondance Beige ? Yes ? Thanks."
♦ ♦ ♦ :|c
Again the door opens wide, and in the doorway appears a young man.
He comes forward with his eyes fixed, led by a fresh-faced, bright-eyed
English soldier who has lost a leg. Slowly, with a sigh that wakes a
soft breeze in the room, the door closes. Again all eyes are raised :
tired eyes of old workers, brilliant eyes of the maimed who have looked
close on death, soft eyes of the young girls. Silence reigns in the
office.
The young English girl comes nearer : " Pieter, it is I, your great
friend, ' Miss.' I have something to tell you. Your wife, your Uttle
girl are well. We have succeeded in getting news." The eyes did not
brighten, but the man sank in a chair, his hands clasped together in an
ecstasy of happiness. . . . And in the large, dark room everybody is
weeping, whilst " Miss " reads to poor Pieter, with her pretty English
accent, the simple and touching letter of the brave woman from Louvain.
II.
To Lady Constance Hatch.
Gloomy, silent, with heavy step, the eyes riveted to pictures of horror,
is passing the procession of Belgian refugees. Souls of the outraged
country and of ancient cities destroyed — debris of ravaged fields — ghosts
of murdered children — the shame of broken oaths. Nameless crowd
in which all distinctions have disappeared, in which the poor lends to
the rich, the nobleman serves the peasant, in which suifering is borne
without a cry, but in which no cry is heard without suffering.
England, what hast thou said to these exiles ? She hath said unto
them : " Come, I will receive you, I will give you my white bread, the
WAR IMPRESSIONS
fruits of my orchards and the flesh of my flocks. I will show you the
inner charm of my ancient dwelling-places, and the sweetness of my
country which is all a garden. For your little children, I will bring out
again my fairy tales, and I will strengthen the hopes of their elders by
reading them pages of my famous history, and by telling them of my
victories over foes more puissant than those of to-day."
Englishwomen, what will you do for these unfortunate people ? " We
will take them by the hand and lead them into our fairest houses. We
will try to learn their tastes and their customs, and even their prejudices,
in order to sweeten, if we can, the bitterness of their exile."
Englishmen, what will you say to these hapless people ? " Brothers,
you have suffered in the cause of justice and honour. You were the
first bulwark against our common enemy. Our sons will go and fight
by the side of yours in the plains of Flanders, and their number will
grow daily, until their power crushes the Huns and gives you back your
liberated land."
And towards this long procession of two hundred thousand exiles
advances with outstretched hands another procession of millions of
benefactors.
332
IMAGES ANGLAISES, 1914.
Par L. Dumont-Wilden.
C'ETAIT en Juin 1914. . . . Un comitc s'etait forme en
Angleterre, et dans le but de resserrer encore I'Entente
Cordiale, avait invite un certain nombre d'hommes de
lettres fran^ais k visiter "Tile inconnue." Quelques
Beiges avaient ete convies k faire partie du voyage comme
si, par une heureuse entrevision de I'avenir, ce comite, qui avait
d'ailleurs k sa tete un Anglo-Beige, M. Sarolea, professeur k I'universite
d'Edimbourg, avait devine le role que notre pays jouerait un jour dans
I'Alliance franco-anglaise.
Ce fut, en verite, un charmant voyage de decouverte. Pendant
deux semaines environ, en trains speciaux, en automobile, notre petite
caravane parcourut toute la Grande Bretagne, des vertes campagnes du
Kent aux rochers sauvages du pays de Galles, et comme aussitot rentres
chez eux, tous ceux qui participerent a cette excursion furent brusque-
ment precipites dans I'horrible drame de la guerre, elle a laisse dans leur
memoire comme I'image des derniers jours d'insouciance, de vacances
et de paisible bonheur qu'ils aient connus depuis des mois.
Des Fran9ais en voyage, des Beiges aussi, ont evidemment le tort de
s'interesser d'abord ^ eux-memes. lis jouissent de la vie, ils cherchent
dans la succession des paysages nouveaux une agreable diversion au
travail quotidien, et s'ils sont nombreux, un excitant ^ la conversation,
ils ne font du voyage une etude que quand ils y sont absolument obliges.
Ces ecrivains, ces artistes, ces journalistes, parmi lesquels il y avait
beaucoup de dames, formaient en quelque sorte un raccourci du tout-
Paris : c'etait le " Tout-Paris " en voyage, et aucun d'eux n'etait
d'humeur k se livrer aux graves preoccupations d'une enquete sociolo-
gique. lis se laissaient aller au charme de I'heure, et, courant de ville
en ville, de plage en plage, sous la bienviellante autorite de M. Sarolea
et de M. Davis, les organisateurs de I'excursion, ils voyaient passer
devant leurs yeux la vie anglaise comme les vues mouvementees d'un
cinematographe : campagnes verdoyantes de I'East-Anglia, cathedrales
de Canterbury, d'York, et de Norwich, emouvant paysage historique
d'Edimbourg, lacs romanesques du Cumberland ou flotte le souvenir
de Wordsworth, apres rochers du pays de Galles, tout cela passait sous
333
IMAGES ANGLAISES, 1914
leurs yeux comme un panorama mouvant. Et un peu etourdis d'avoir
ete promenes ainsi d'hote] en hotel et de ville en ville, ils se demandaient
ce qui allait rester dans leur esprit de tant de visions rapides. lis
s'en rendent compte aujourd'hui : I'impression qui demeure, c'est
celle de I'hospitalite, de la cordialite anglaise.
Le plus souvent, nos voyageurs etaient les hotes des municipalites.
A peine arrives, ils etaient conduits a FHotel de Ville ou dans la salle
du principal hotel, ou ils trouvaient le maire et les notables qui leur
adressait un discours et leur offrait un verre de champagne. Le discours
etait presque toujours en anglais, et ceux a qui il s'adressait ne le
comprenaient qu'^ moitie ou ne le comprenaient pas du tout. Celui des
voyageurs qui etait charge de repondre, le faisait generalement en
frangais, car on ne pouvait raisonnablement obliger le professeur
Legouis ou M. Paul Hyacinthe Loyson — ^les seuls d'entre nous qui
parlassent suffisamment I'anglais pour discourir en public — a prendre la
parole deux fois par jour. Mais tout le monde savait qu'il n'y avait dans
ces toasts et ces allocutions que mille choses agreables. Tout le monde
applaudissait de bon coeur, et Ton s'en allait prendre place pour le lunch.
Apres le lunch, c'etait la collation, apres la collation, le diner. Ah !
certes ! nous avons eu I'occasion d'apprecier la bonne chere que I'on
fait dans la joyeuse Angleterre ! Tant de diners, tant de banquets,
on eut pu croire qu'il y avait 1^ de quoi donner une maladie d'estomac
k un solide mangeur, mais il faut croire que le regime anglais est excep-
tionnellement sain, car il y avait parmi nous des dyspeptiques qui
s'etonnaient de ne s'etre jamais si bien portes.
D'autres fois, h Edimbourg notamment, nous etions regus chez les
habitants, nous avions nos billets de logement comme des soldats, et
alors, c'est la vie familiale britannique que nous apprenions a connaitre
dans son intimite. Et nous admirions qu'en I'honneur de I'Entente
Cordiale tant de gens aient consenti a ouvrir toute large leur maison
a des gens qu'ils ne connaissaient pas.
Les charmantes demeures, accueillantes et confortables, ou nous
nous eiforcions naivement de retrouver les souvenirs et I'atmosphere
de Dickens, du Dickens de notre adolescence ! Je les ai revues en imagi-
nation quand, apres I'occupation d'Anvers et d'Ostende, eut lieu le
334
'i
i 335
IMAGES ANGLAISES, 1914
grand exode de la Belgique vers I'Angleterre, et c*est sans etonnement
que j'ai appris avec quelle cordialite, avec quelle amitie, mes malheureux
compatriotes etaient re^us dans tant de families du Royaume-Uni.
# * * *
Mais d'autres images encore se presentent h. mon esprit quand
je me rememore ce voyage qui fut en quelque sorte pour moi le dernier
plaisir d'avant la guerre, mais k quoi la guerre seule a donne sa pleine
signification. C'etait k Edimbourg : nous avions vainement essaye
d'obtenir I'autorisation de visiter le vieux palais d'Holyrood, temoin de
tant de drames romanesques que Walter Scott a su rendre populaires,
meme sur le Continent. Le palais etait ferme, k cause des Suffragettes.
En ce temps-1^, la Grande Bretagne craignait plus les Suffragettes
qu'elle ne . semble craindre aujourd'hui les Zeppelins. . . . Nous
nous disposions k nous en aller, un peu de^us quand, tout k coup,
deboucha sur la place une compagnie de Highlanders qui venait relever
la garde. Qu'ils etaient beaux dans leurs habits rouges et leur kilt,
Pair martial, vigoureux, content de vivre, avec, dans I'allure, je ne
sais quoi d'altier qui rappelait les soldats d'autrefois!
" Quelle splendide armee," dit I'un de nous.
" Si splendide," ajouta un autre, "qu'on voit bien qu'elle est faite pour
ne jamais servir ! " . . .
Je me suis souvenu de cette plaisanterie, quelques mois apres quand,
revenant du front franco-beige des Flandres, je traversal les cantonne-
ments anglais. Dans un pauvre village du Nord qui semblait tout
noye de boue, j'ai revu des Highlanders. lis n'avaient plus leurs
beaux habits rouges, ils etaient en kaki, un kaki que la boue des tranchees
avait fait encore plus neutre. Mais ils avaient toujours leur air de
bonne sante et de bonne humeur tranquille. C'etait toujours la meme
magnifique armee, mais elle avait servi. Elle avait servi sur la Marne
et sur I'Ourcq, elle avait servi en Artois et en Flandre, elle avait mele
son sang au plus noble sang de France et de Belgique. Et k comparer
les magnifiques soldats de parade d'Edimbourg et ces rudes soldats
de la tranchee, on pouvait mesurer tout I'effort de I'Angleterre qui,
de son elegante petite armee, a su faire en quelques mois une formidable
armee de combat.
IMAGES ANGLAISES, 1914
Mais ce qui domine tous ces souvenirs d'Angleterre, c'est celui de
ma derniere soiree de Londres. Un banquet au Savoy devait clore
le voyage. Avant de nous y rendre, nous avions flane separement dans
Londres. II faisait tres beau, quantite de robes blanches piquaient
les pelouses de Hyde-Park comme de grandes fleurs joyeuses, une atmo-
sphere paisible et heureuse, presque meridionale, baignait la grande
viUe ; nous avions tous un peu de melancolie a nous quitter pour nous
revoir Dieu sait quand, apres nous etre tant vus durant quinze jours.
Mais nous ne nous en laissions aller que plus insoucieusement au charme
de I'heure. Et, tout \ coup, comme je penetrais dans le Strand \ la
recherche de mon hotel, voici que les cris aigus des marchands de
journaux viennent rompre la paix de la soiree commen^ante. lis
brandissent des affiches, ils arretent les passants. . . . C'etait
I'attentat de Sarajevo.
Au diner, dans la grande salle du Savoy etincelante de lumiere et de
fleurs, on ne parla que de cela. Quelques-uns, les plus clairvoyants,
disaient deja : " C'est la guerre! " et mon voisin, un vieux gentleman, qui
me paraissait avoir assez exactement la physionomie que mon imagination
d'enfant donnait a M. Pickwick, me dit avec un large sourire : " Si c'est
la guerre, ce sera la guerre de toute I'Europe contre le Prussien (on ne
disait pas encore le Boche). Et si c'est la guerre de I'Europe contre le
Prussien, je regretterai amerement d'etre trop vieux, car j'ai toujours
reve de faire le coup de fusil contre le Prussien."
Mais ce discours fut interrompu par des toasts. Ce furent des toasts
tres officiels. M. Herbert Samuel parla de I'Entente Cordiale, M. d'Es-
tournelles de Constant parla de la paix, et aussi M. Vandervelde qui
declara que, pour la paix, il faudrait reconcilier I'Allemagne avec I'En-
tente Cordiale, et qui assura qu'il ne fallait pas avoir de haine contre
la grande Allemagne ouvriere. En ce temps-la, les discours pacifistes
etaient encore de saison. On pouvait tres raisonnablement esperer
conjurer I'orage. Mais, tout de meme, il m'est apparu depuis, que
c'etait mon voisin, le vieux gentleman, qui exprimait la vraie voix de
I'Angleterre. La vieille Angleterre, la joyeuse Angleterre qui est cordiale
et confiante, qui aime la vie et la liberte, qui n'a jamais aime le Prussien
parce qu'il est pedant, servile et interesse.
^1
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a: as
ENGLISH IMPRESSIONS, 1914.
Translation by Lady Charnwood.
IT was June 191 4. A Committee had been formed in England and
had asked a certain number of French men of letters to visit the
" He Inconnue " in order to draw the ties of the Entente Cordiale
still closer. A few Belgians were invited to join the expedition,
just as though, by a fortunate gUmpse into the future, the Com-
mittee— presided over, by the way, by Monsieur Sarolea, an Anglo-
Belgian and a professor in the University of Edinburgh — ^guessed the
part that our country would one day play in the Anglo-French aUiance.
We enjoyed, in fact, a delightful voyage of discovery. For about a
fortnight our little company, in special trains and motors, scoured
Great Britain from the green fields of Kent to the wild rocks of Wales,
and as all, immediately on their return home, were suddenly plunged
into the horrible drama of the war, this excursion is left in their memory
as an impression of the last days of gaiety, relaxation and untroubled
delight that they were to know for many months.
Both French and Belgians when they travel make the mistake of
being chiefly interested in themselves. They enjoy life ; in the suc-
cession of fresh scenes they seek an agreeable diversion to their daily
task, and, if they are numerous, an incitement to talk ; they only make a
study of their journey when they are absolutely obHged. These
authors, artists, journalists, among whom were many ladies, formed as
it were Paris in miniature ; it was " Tout Paris en voyage,'* and none
of them were incHned to give themselves up to the serious business
of sociological study. They abandoned themselves to the pleasure of
the moment, and rushing from town to town and from one seaside
place to another, under the kindly guidance of Monsieur Sarolea and
Mr. Davis, the organisers of the excursion, they saw English life
unfolded before them Hke the scenes of a cinematograph ; the verdant
fields of East Anglia, the Cathedrals of Canterbury, York and Norwich,
the stirring and historic view of Edinburgh, the romantic lakes of
Cumberland with memories of Wordsworth hovering over them, the
stern rocks of Wales, all this passed before their eyes Hke a moving
panorama, and, somewhat dazed with being hurried from hotel to
hotel and from city to city, they wondered what would stick m their
337 A^
ENGLISH IMPRESSIONS, 1914
minds after so many lightning glimpses. To-day they realise it ; the
impression they retain is of hospitality and of English heartiness.
As a rule our travellers were the guests of municipalities. As soon
as they had arrived they were taken to the Town Hall or to the chief
hotel, where they met the Mayor and people of note, who made them a
speech and offered them a glass of champagne. The speech was
almost always in English, and those to whom it was addressed only
half understood it or failed to understand it at all. The traveller who
undertook to reply generally did so in French, for it would not have
been fair to make Professor Legouis or Monsieur Paul Hyacinthe
Loyson — the only two among us who spoke English well enough to
discourse in pubUc — hold forth twice a day. But everyone knew
that in these toasts and speeches there was nothing but a thousand
pleasant thoughts. Everyone applauded heartily, and then turned
to luncheon.
After luncheon, tea ; after tea, dinner. Ah well, we had ample
opportunity to appreciate the good cheer that they enjoy in Merry
England ! One would have thought that so many dinners and banquets
would give indigestion to a serious eater, but it must be owned that
English fare is singularly wholesome, for we numbered several
dvspeptics among us who were surprised to find that they had never
felt so well.
On other occasions, notably at Edinburgh, we were the guests of the
inhabitants ; we were billeted out like soldiers, and it was there that we
learned to know British family life intimately. And we marvelled at the
number of people who in honour of the Entente Cordiale threw open
their doors to persons whom they did not know.
What charming homes, hospitable and comfortable, were those where
we artlessly tried to recapture the memories and the atmosphere of
Dickens, of the Dickens of our youth ! I saw them again in imagination
when the great exodus from Belgium to England took place after the
occupation of Antwerp and Ostend, and without surprise I heard of the
cordiality and the friendship with which my unhappy countrymen
were received into so many households of the United Kingdom.
# * # #
338
ENGLISH IMPRESSIONS, 1914
But other impressions come to my mind when I recall that journey,
which in a way was my last pleasure before the war, but to which only
the war itself gave full meaning. It was at Edinburgh ; we had tried
in vain to obtain permission to visit the old Palace of Holyrood, the
witness of so many romantic dramas which Walter Scott has made
popular even on the Continent. The palace was closed because of
the Suffragettes. In those days Great Britain was more afraid of the
Suffragettes than she seems now to be of the Zeppelins. We were
preparing to go away rather disappointed, when suddenly a company of
Highlanders swung into the square to reHeve guard. How handsome
they were in their red coats and- kilts, looking warlike, vigorous, and glad
to be alive, with an indescribable alertness in their march, which
recalled the soldiers of bygone times.
" What a splendid army ! " said one of us. " So splendid," said
another, " that it's obvious it's never intended to serve."
I remembered that just a few months later, when coming back from
the Franco-Belgian front in Flanders, I went through the English lines.
In a poor village in the North, which seemed swimming in mud, I saw
the Highlanders again. They no longer had their handsome red coats,
they were in khaki, a khaki to which the mud of the trenches had given
a yet more neutral tint. But they still had their look of fine health and
of quiet good-humour. It was still the same magnificent army, but it
had served. It had served on the Marne and the Ourcq, it had served
in Artois and in Flanders, it had mingled its blood with the noblest
blood of France and of Belgium. And, in comparing those magnificent
soldiers on parade at Edinburgh vdth these rugged soldiers from the
trenches, one could measure all the strength of England, who in a few
months had turned her elegant little army into a formidable fighting
force.
* # * *
But the most vivid of all my recollections of England is that of my
last evening in London. A big dinner at the Savoy was to bring the
excursion to an end. Before meeting there we had sauntered singly
about London. The weather was lovely ; numbers of white dresses
starred the grass of Hyde Park like great gay flowers ; a peaceful and
339
ENGLISH IMPRESSIONS, 1914
happy atmosphere almost like that of the South bathed the great
city ; we were all a little sad at parting, none of us knowing when we
should meet again, after being so much together for a fortnight. But
we only gave ourselves up the more unconstrainedly to the pleasure of
the moment. And suddenly as I entered the Strand to look for my
hotel the shrill cries of the newspaper boys broke the peace of the
evening hour. They brandished posters, they stopped the passers by.
It was the crime of Sarajevo.
At dinner in the great hall of the Savoy, sparkling with lights and
flowers, everyone talked of this. A few, the most far-seeing, said at
once, " This means war ! " And my neighbour, an old gentleman,
who seemed to have pretty much the physiognomy with which my
childish imagination had endowed Mr. Pickwick, remarked to me with
a broad smile, " If this means war, it wiW be a war of the whole of
Europe against the Prussians " (one didn't yet speak of the Boches).
" And if it's a war of the whole of Europe against the Prussians I shall
bitterly regret being too old, for I've always wanted to have a shot
at the Prussians."
But this talk was interrupted by toasts. The toasts were thoroughly
official. Mr. Herbert Samuel spoke about the Entente Cordiale, Mon-
sieur d'Estournelles de Constant spoke about peace, and so did Mon-
sieur Vandervelde, who declared that to ensure peace Germany must
be reconciled with the Entente Cordiale, and assured us that we ought
not to hate the great Germany of the working classes. In those days
pacifist speeches were still the fashion. One might quite reasonably
hope to avert the storm. But all the same it has struck me since that
it was my neighbour, the old gentleman, who expressed the real feeling
of England. Old England, Merry England, which is hearty and trust-
ful, which loves Hfe and Hberty, has never loved the Prussian, because he
is pedantic, servile and self-interested.
340
LETTRE DE LTSER.
Par Jean Francois Fonson.
Le 9 Octobre, 1914.
Jef Spieckart, sergent major, au premier chasseurs h. pied, de I'armee
Beige, k Mrs. B., X Square, London.
CHERE MADAME,— Vous ne devez pas m*en vouloir
si je ne t'ai pas ecrit plus tot ; mais depuis dix jours que je
suis revenu sur la ligne de I'Yser, c'est k peine si j'ai
eu le temps de penser h tout le bonheur que j'ai eu chez
vous en Angleterre, tellement les Boches nous envoient
des marmites, jour et nuit. ^a n'est pas que leurs gros obus nous
derangent autant qu'ils le pensent, et qu'ils fassent tous les ravages
qu'ils esperent. Ainsi, depuis que je vous ai quittee a Londres, je
n'ai vu que deux camarades qui ont ete tues dans ma tranchee. II y
en avait un qui venait d'arriver de I'arriere, depuis la veille. II etait
tout jeune, oh ! oui, beaucoup plus jeune que moi. Moi, j'ai 21 ans,
comme vous savez, depuis le jour ou vous avez si gentiment fete mon
anniversaire, quand vos enfants m'ont apporte ce joli bouquet tricolore,
avec des pavots noirs, des boutons d'or, et des coquelicots. Lui etait
un engage volontaire, et il n'avait que 18 ans ! Quand il a regu, dans
la poitrine, I'eclat d'obus qui I'a tue, il a dit, tout bas, " Maman ! " il
a etendu les bras, comme s'il voulait embrasser quelqu'un pour la
derniere fois, et puis, ses paupieres se sont fermees sur ses grands
yeux bleus d 'enfant — c'etait fini ! Je le connaissais k peine, ce petit,
eh ! bien, tu le croiras si vous voulez, j'ai ete si emu que je n'ai pas
su me retenir de pleurer. Oui, je sais bien, un soldat ne devrait
jamais pleurer ; la guerre, c'est la guerre, et tous les jours des milliers
d'hommes meurent comme cela ; et ce qui doit nous consoler, c'est
que peut-etre ce sera notre tour demain ! Seulement celui-U, tout
mince, dans sa capote trop large, avait I'air d'un enfant ; il me rappelait
ta petite fille Jenny, le jour ou nous avons joue charade, et ou elle
avait mis mon kepi sur la gentille petite tete blonde. C'est peut-
etre k cause de cela aussi, que j'ai pleure. . . . Oui, dans votre
joli maison tapissee de lierres, il faisait si bon, si doux de vivre, que
mon coeur s'en est attendri ; et il m'a fallu, tout le temps que je suis
reste sans vous donner de mes nouvelles, pour le durcir un peu ; car
LETTRE DE L'YSER
vous le comprenez, n'est-ce pas, il n'est pas possible qu'un militaire
verse des larraes, comme ga, a la moindre occasion ? Maintenant,
gsL y est, je suis de nouveau habitue, et je puis vous ecrire sans crainte
que I'emotion ne me fasse perdre un peu de mon courage.
Si vous saviez combien je pense a vous, et a Monsieur B., qui ne com-
prenait pas le fran^ais, mais qui m'ecoutait si attentivement, quand
je racontais des histoires, et qui souriait, quand vous souriez, avant
meme que vous ayez traduit ce que je vous disais. Et Jenny ! si douce,
avec ses cheveux crolles, ses grands yeux bleus, du meme bleu que ceux
du petit soldat qui mourait en appelant sa maman ; et Boby ! mon
ami Boby ! mon grand ami Boby ! qui me faisait faire I'exercice, et
pretendait que mes bequilles ne marchaient pas au pas ; et Daisy !
qui me comprenait deja ! tu te rappelles, madame, quand je lui
apprenais le frangais ? Oui, enfin le fran^ais ... si j'ose dire, car je
vous I'avoue, je ne suis pas tres instruit en frangais, en flamand non
plus, d'ailleurs, non, je ne suis pas tres instruit, mais qu'est-ce que 9a
peut faire, puisque, comme vous dites, nous sommes quand meme
des heros ! Vous voyez, 9a vous apprendra de nous gater ; et je vous
previens que si ga continue, nous finirons par le croire que nous sommes
des heros. Moi, je commence deja a me faire a cette idee, et je crois
que c'est un bon moyen de ranimer notre courage. Car parfois, je
te dis ga, a vous seulement, il arrive tout de meme, quand on est
teste quelques jours et quelques nuits sans dormir, parce que les
canons boches font trop de bruit, qu'on a les nerfs un peu fatigues,
alors on a, comme disent nos camarades, les fusiliers marins, un
peu le cafard ; oui, toutes sortes d'idees qui vous trottent dans la
tete ; on pense au pays, a ses parents, qui sont testes de I'autre cote
des tranchees boches, ^ sa bonne amie, pour ceux qui ont une bonne
amie, a ses amis, a ses camarades d'atelier ; on se demande s'ils sont
morts ou vivants, s'ils pensent a nous, s'ils nous aiment toujours !
Alors moi, je me dis : " Qu'est-ce que tu as besoin de penser
a tout 5a ? Bats-toi, tue des Boches, tue tellement de Boches qu'il
n'en restera plus sur ton chemin ; jusqu'^ ta maison." Alors il faut
voir, quand il y a une attaque, comme je saute hors de ma tranchee,
comme je bondis avec mes camarades aussi loin que nous pouvons pour
342
LETTRE DE L'YSER
nous coucher dans I'herbe, tirer, et rebondir apres. Chaque bond que
nous faisons nous rapproche de chez nous, et c'est pour cela que nous
voudrions qu'ils seraient des pas de geants. Quand il m'arrive de
penser que je serais peut-etre blesse encore une fois, je me console, oh !
tres vite, en songeant que je me ferais transporter de nouveau chez vous,
Madame. Alors je revois la jolie petite chambre claire que tu m'avais
donnee, le jardin plein de fleurs, les oiseaux si familiers qu'on sentait
qu'eux aussi etaient comme chez eux dans ta maison. Je refais dans
ma pensee toute ma convalescence, apres mon operation ; c'est comme
si de nouveau je renaissais k la vie, avec une maman aussi bonne que
la mienne, et plus jolie et qui aurait da vantage le temps de s'occuper
de moi, de me panser, de me gater. Tenez, il vaut mieux que je ne
songe plus a cela, c^r vous avez ete si bonne, si douce, que je finirais
par souhaiter de recevoir encore une balle qui me briserait la cuisse
pour avoir de nouveau ce bonheur-la. Et 9a, n'est-ce pas, je n'ai pas le
droit de la souhaiter ? Ca serait une vilaine pensee, car on a besoin
ici des bras de tous ceux qui peuvent tenir un fusil. Le plaisir
d'etre blesse, 9a est un luxe pour les temps de paix ! Maintenant,
laisse moi te parler de quelque chose que je n'ai pas ose vous dire
quand j'etaispres detoi a Londres, parce que tu aurais trouve ga, com-
ment est-ce que je dirais ? trop . . . des enfantillages enfin ; mais
par lettre j'ai moins peur que tu trouves ga ridicule. Un jour,
que je me promenais seul dans New Bond Street, je suis entre
chez un photographe, et j'ai fait tirer mon portrait dans mon bel
uniforme, tu sais le nouveau, celui qui ressemble si fort a I'uniforme
des Anglais et que Monsieur B m'avait donne. II est tres bien reussi,
mon portrait ; tres ressemblant ! Mes camarades trouvent qu'il est
un peu flatte, mais ils ne m'ont pas vu quand mon costume etait tout
neuf et que j'avais ete faire couper mes cheveux; mais toi, vous m'avez
vu et je suis sur que tu me trouveras la dessus tout h fait comme j'etais.
J'ai cru que 9a te ferait peut-etre plaiser que je vous envoie ce portrait
comme un souvenir de moi, car on ne sait jamais ce qui peut arriver
. . . et je ne voudrais pas que tu oublies trop vite le petit soldat
beige que tu as si tendrement soigne ! Quand je dis que je ne voudrais
pas que tu oublies, je me trompe, car maintenant je connais trop ton
343
LETTRE DE L'YSER
coeur pour croire qu'il oublierait, mais c'est pour les petits : Jenny,
Bobby et Daisy ; ils sont encore si jeunes, la vie, pour eux, aupres
de toi et de Monsieur B. sera si belle que, qui sait? si vous ne leur
montrez pas quelques fois mon portrait, qui sait si, eux, ils ne
m'oublieraient peut-etre pas ? et cela me ferait trop de peine ! C'est
pour cela, chere Madame B., que je vous envoie cette photographic
ou je n'ai pas ose mettre une dedicace parce que j 'avals peur d'ecrire
des fautes et qu'alors tu ne pourras pas la montrer ou la mettre sur
le beau piano de votre salon. Au revoir, chere Mistress B. — du moins
je I'espere. ... Et permettez, en vous remerciant encore de tout
ce que vous avez fait pour moi, que je vous embrasse de tout mon
cceur avec le grand respect que je vous dois et en criant : Hip ! Hip !
Hurrah ! for England !
Jef Spieckart.
P.S. — Est-ce que vous ne saurez pas demander au photographe s'il
ne pourrait pas ajouter sur mon portrait la croix de chevalier de I'ordre
de Leopold, que je viens de recevoir ? Oui, parce que j'ai fait sauter,
k moi tout seul, un pont sous le feu de I'ennemi. Figurez-vous que
le general m'a embrasse et felicite devant tout le regiment pour mon
courage et cependant je n'ai jamais eu aussi peur de ma vie !
Controle par le censeur.
Le censeur :
Jean Franqois Fonson.
344
LETTER FROM THE YSER.
Translation by J. Lewis May.
Jef Spieckart, Sergeant-Major in the ist Chasseurs k pied, Belgian
Army, to Mrs. B., X Square, London.
DEAR MADAM,— You must not be offended with me
for not writing to you sooner, but during the ten days
that have elapsed since I returned to the Yser lines I
have scarcely had time even to think of all the happiness
that was mine in your house, so incessantly have the
Boches rained " coal-boxes " upon us, day and night. Not that these
great shells of theirs disturb us as much as they think, or do as much
damage as they hope. Since I said good-bye to you in London I have
seen but two of my comrades who were killed in my trench. One of them
had only come up to the front the day before. He was quite a youngster ;
oh, yes, much younger than L I am twenty-one, as you have been
aware ever since the day you so kindly celebrated my birthday, when
your children brought me that pretty tricolour bouquet of black and
crimson poppies and buttercups. He had joined as a volunteer and
was only eighteen. When the piece of shell that killed him struck
him in the breast, he murmured very softly " Maman," and stretched
out his arms as though to embrace her for the last time, and then the
lids closed over his big blue childish eyes and all was over. I hardly
knew the poor little chap, but — ^well, you may beHeve it or not, as you
you please — I was so moved that I could not help weeping. Of course,
I know well enough that a soldier should never shed tears. War is
war, and every day thousands of men die like that, and what should
console us is the thought that perhaps it will be our turn to-morrow.
But he was so slight, and his military great-coat, that was too big for
him, made him look such a child ! He reminded me of your Uttle
daughter Jenny, that day we had charades and she put my kepi on her
little fair head. Perhaps that, too, had something to do with my
weeping. Yes, in your pretty ivy-covered house life was so good and
so pleasant that my heart melted at the thoughts of it, and all the time
that I refrained from writing to you I was trying to harden it a little,
for you know, don't you, that it would never do for a soldier to shed
tears like that on the slightest occasion ? Now it's all right again, I
345
LETTER FROM THE YSER
have got into the swing once more and I can write to you without
being afraid that my feelings will make my courage waver.
If you knew what a lot I have been thinking about you, and about
Mr. B., who did not understand French yet Hstened so kindly to the
tales I had to tell and smiled when you smiled, even before you had
had time to translate what I had said. And Jenny, too, what a sweet
Httle thing she was with her curly hair and her big blue eyes ; just the
same blue as those of the little soldier who died calling out for his
" Maman." And then Bobby, my friend Bobby, my great friend
Bobby ! Bobby, who insisted on drilling me, and made out that I
didn't keep step with my crutches. And Daisy, who was already able
to understand what I said. You remember, Madame, when I used to
teach her French. Yes, French, if I may make so bold as to call it so,
for I confess to you that I am not very learned in French, nor in Flemish
either. No, I am not much of a " scholard " ; but what matter, since,
as you say, we are heroes all ! There, you see, that will show you
how you are spoiHng us, and I warn you that if it goes on we shall
really come to believe it! As for myself, the idea is rather getting
hold of me, and I think it's a good way of restoring our courage. For —
I am telling you this in confidence — it does sometimes happen that
when one has been some days and nights without sleep because of the
din of the Boches' guns one's nerves get rather overstrained. Then,
as our friends the marines say, one gets a touch of the " maggots " —
all sorts of fancies start running in your head. You think of home, of
your people left behind on the other side of the German trenches, of
your sweetheart, if you have one, of your friends and the fellows you
used to work with. You wonder whether they're alive or dead, and
if they're thinking of you, if they still care for you. At times like that
I say to myself: "What business have you to be thinking of that sort
of thing ? Fight hard and kill the Boches, kiU such heaps of them
that not a sohtary one shall be left on the road that leads back home ! "
Then, when there's an attack, you should see me clear my trench ; you
should see how we leap, the other fellows and I, as far as we can and then
fling ourselves flat down, fire, and then make another dash onward
again. Every rush we make brings us nearer home, and that's why we
LETTER FROM THE YSER
wish they were giant strides. And when I remember that I may,
perhaps, get wounded again, I comfort myself, and quickly too, by
thinking, " I'll get them to take me back to Mrs. B.'s again!" Then,
in my mind's eye, I see the bright little room you let me have once
more ; the garden filled with flowers, the birds so friendly that one
felt that they, too, knew they were at home in your house. I go over
again, in thought, the whole period of convalescence that followed my
operation. It was like beginning life anew, with a mother just as kind
as my own, and prettier ; a mother with leisure, too, to look after me,
to nurse me and to spoil me. But come ! I had better not think any
more about that, for you were so kind, so gentle, that, in the end, I
should be wanting to get my thigh broken by another bullet in order
to enjoy such happiness over again, and I have no right to wish that,
have I ? That would be an ignoble idea to entertain, wouldn't it ?
For every man who can handle a rifle is needed here. The pleasure of
being wounded is a luxury for times of peace.
Now let me tell you about something I dared not mention when I
was with you in London because you would have thought it too — ^what
shall I say ? — oh, well, too childish. But in the case of a letter I don't
mind being laughed at so much. Well then, one day, when I was
walking alone down New Bond Street, I went into a photographer's
and had my portrait taken in my swell uniform, the new one, you know,
which looks so much like the English uniforms, and which Mrs. B. gave
me. The portrait was a great success, a very good likeness. The other
fellows think it rather flattering, but then they did not see me when my
uniform was quite new and I had just had my hair cut. You saw me
then, though, and I am quite sure you will think it just like what I
was. I thought perhaps it would give you pleasure if I sent you this
portrait to remember me by, for one never knows what may happen —
and I shouldn't like you to forget too soon the little Belgian soldier
whom you locked after so tenderly. When I say I should not like you
to forget, I am wrong, for now I know your heart too well to think you
would forget ; but it is for the little ones, Jenny, Bobby and Daisy.
They are still so young, and life for them with you and Mr. B. will be
so happy that — ^who knows ? — ^if you didn't show them my likeness
347
LETTER FROM THE YSER
sometimes, they would forget me perhaps, and that would be painful
for me to think of. That, dear Mrs. B., is why I am sending you this
photograph. I have not written any inscription on it for fear I should
make a mistake, and then you could not show it to anyone or put it on
that beautiful piano in your drawing-room. Au revoir, dear Mrs. B.
— at least, I hope it may be " au revoir " — and in thanking you once more
for all you have done for me, suffer me to embrace you with all my
heart with the deep respect I owe you, and with a " Hip ! Hip ! Hurrah
for England ! "
Jef Spieckart.
P.S. — Do you think you could ask the photographer whether he could
manage to add to my photograph the Cross of the Chevalier de I'Ordre
de Leopold, which I have just had granted to me ? Yes, it was because
I blew up a bridge, all alone, under the enemy's fire. Just imagine !
The General embraced me and congratulated me on my bravery before
the whole regiment, and yet I was never in such a fright in my life !
Passed the Censorship. — J. F. Fonson, Censor.
348
CE QUE JE DOIS A L'ANGLETERRE !
Par LioN Souguenet.
J'AI partage les 30 premieres annees de ma vie entre la France,
la Belgique et I'Angleterre. Je dois une egale gratitude k ces
trois pays. J'ai voulu il y a quelques dix ans m'acquitter partielle-
ment envers I'Angleterre. Homme de lettres, j'ecrivis un livre.
La constatation essentielle que j'y consignai fut celle-ci :
" La Grande Bretagne est une ile." C'est une forte verite dont il
importe qu'on soit penetre.
Sur le quai de Folkestone, en Octobre 1914, une dame beige, jaunie
par la traversee, me demanda : " Monsieur est-ce que pour rentrer
chez nous, il me faudra encore traverser la mer ...,?" " Helas !
Madame," lui dis-je, " la Grande Bretagne est une ile. . . ." La voyant
desemparee je voulus I'initier de suite un peu brutalement aux faits
ineluctables, j'ajoutai — " et c'est plein d' Anglais."
Ces deux notions sont, je crois, indispensables ^ ceux qui veulent
vivre en Angleterre. Apres cela il ne reste plus qu'^ se familiariser
avec le mutton chop, la Worcestershire sauce, le porridge et les puddings.
Alors, tot ou tard, on aime I'Angleterre ; on I'aime sans expansion,
sans cris, sans gestes, comme une de ces vieilles parentes qui ne vous
embrassent pas beaucoup, qui ne prodiguent pas les mots d'affection mais
dont on salt toujours la maison ouverte, I'accueil sur, calme et reposant.
II m'est arrive comme a tout le monde d'eprouver des chagrins, de
sentir la vanite des choses, d'etre degu en mes sentiments et de rever
cloitre et exil. Je ne suis pas fait pour le cloitre. Alors je pensais :
" J'irai a Londres et j'irai tous les jours ^ la bibliotheque du British
Museum. J'entamerai d'interminables travaux, assis dans de bons
fauteuils, sous la lampe electrique dont I'eclairage circulaire delimitera
pour moi le monde, mon univers. Et ce sera au dehors le brouillard,
I'orage, la pluie — et la mechancete humaine ; j'aurai la paix de I'ame,
dans un des plus sublimes asiles qu'ait eleve I'humanite."
Je dois beaucoup a I'Angleterre et aux Anglais. Eleve avec des
Anglais, un de mes petits camarades anglais m'initia ^ la boxe en me
pochant I'ceil. J'en vois encore douze mille chandelles rien qu'en y
pensant ; il m'avait accuse de manger des grenouilles, je lui rendis son
coup de poing, mais d'une fa^on molle et nous fumes bons amis.
349
CE QUE JE DOIS A L'ANGLETERRE !
J'eus d'autres amis a Londres : les daims de Bushey Park, les ecureuils
de Regent's Park, les moineaux et les canards de Hyde Park, les mouettes
du London Bridge et de I'Embankment ; j'allais oublier un cormoran
de Kew Gardens qui a une dignite de clergyman.
J'aime Londres parce que je ne trouve qu'a Londres la solitude
totale, profonde dont j'ai parfois besoin. J'ai essaye parfois du Sahara
mais comme dit I'autre : " Je reviens du desert ; il y avait un monde ! "
II me semble qu'a Londres je redeviens maitre de moi-meme, parmi
des gens qui savent dominer leurs sentiments.
En Octobre dernier j'y accedai, comme tout le monde, en tenue de
refugie : une casquette venerable, des souliers qui baillaient d'ennui
tant la vie leur pesait et un impermeable dont une dechirure avait ete
raccommodee par le fils de mon ami Jean Dardenne avec un fragment
de pneu de bicyclette.
Je rencontrai un " old fellow " qui me demonta le bras d'un shake
hand en coup de pompe. . . . C'etait devant une gare ou il me poussa
sans ecouter ce que je lui disais. Nous arrivames dans un cottage au
faitage normand tapisse chaudement de vigne de Veitch. Une jeune
femme et six enfants nous attendaient pour le diner.
J'etais bien embarrasse. Faute d' " evening dress " je me demandais
s'il ne serait pas opportun de garder k table mon v^^aterproof. Mon
ami se mit, sans rire, en bras de chemise.
Apres diner nous fumames, enfonces en de larges fauteuils de cuir,
une serie de pipes de " navy cut." Et pendant toute la soiree nous ne
nous dimes rien ou presque rien. Nous ne parlames ni de la guerre,
ni d'une certaine bibliotheque eparpillee, ni d'un vieux jardin qui
m'est cher et ou des bombes ont fait de grands trous, non plus de ceux
ou de celles qui sont testes la-bas.
A minuit mon ami me mena dans une chambre h coucher, me demonta
k nouveau I'epaule par un shake hand en coup de pompe et me dit ces
simples mots : " Le bain a 7 heures."
J'en fus ragaillardi. II n'y a qu'un Anglais et en Angleterre qui
puisse vous remonter par une phrase aussi denuee d'eloquence.
Vive a jamais la vieille Angleterre !
WHAT I OWE TO ENGLAND.
Translation by Sir Hercules Read,
Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries.
THE first thirty years of my life have been shared between
France, Belgium, and England. I owe the same grati-
tude to all three countries. For about ten years past
I have wanted to pay, in some measure, my debt to
England. As a man of letters I wrote a book.
The governing idea that in this way I wanted to bring out was this :
" Great Britain is an island : it is a vigorous truth with which it is
necessary that one should be saturated."
As I landed on Folkestone pier in October, 191 4, a Belgian
lady, sallow from the crossing, asked me " whether it was necessary
to cross the sea again in order to get home." -'Alas, madame,"
I replied, "Great Britain is an island," and seeing her much
disturbed, and wishing to let her grasp at once, and somewhat
uncompromisingly, the inevitable facts, I added, " and it is full of
Enghsh."
These two convictions are, I believe, absolutely necessary for all who
wish to live in England. Beyond that it is only needful to make
friends with the "mutton chop," with "Worcester sauce," porridge
and puddings.
In this wise, sooner or later, one loves England, loves her with effu-
siveness, not crying it aloud, without gestures, as one loves old relatives
who are not over ready with their kisses nor too prodigal of affectionate
phrases, but where one is sure of an open house, of a welcome certain,
calm and restful.
It has happened to me, as to the rest of the world, to pass through
troublous times, to feel the vanity of all things, to be led astray by my
feelings, and to dream of cloister and exile. I am not built for the
cloister. Then my thoughts would run thus :
" I will go over to London, and every day I will go to the library
of the British Museum. I will begin interminable researches, seated
in one of those comfortable chairs, under an electric lamp whose circle
of light will limit for me my world, my whole universe. And without
will be the fog, storms, and rain and the ill-humours of mankind. I
WHAT I OWE TO ENGLAND
shall find peace for my spirit in one of the most sublime retreats that
humanity has ever set up."
I owe much to England and the English. Brought up with them,
one of my little English comrades instilled into me an idea of boxing
by giving me at the same time a black eye. I can still see ten thousand
stars when I think of it ! He had accused me of eating frogs and I
hit him back, but in a half-hearted fashion ; we became good
friends.
I had other friends in London : the deer in Bushey Park, the squirrels
in Regent's Park, the sparrows and ducks of Hyde Park, the -gulls on
London Bridge and the Embankment. I had nearly forgotten a cor-
morant in Kew Gardens — as dignified as a clergyman. I love London
because it is only there that I can find the profound and total solitude
that is at times a necessity to me. I have tried the Sahara, but, as another
has already said, " I am back from the desert — there were too many
people there."
It seems to me that in London I become again master of myself
among people who are capable of controlling their feelings.
In the October of last year I came over, like the rest of the world, in
the garb of a refugee, dressed in an old cap, a pair of shoes gaping with
fatigue and the boredom of life, and a waterproof in which a rent had
been mended with a piece of bicycle tyre by the aid of my friend,
Jean Dardenne.
I met an " old fellow," who nearly dislocated my arm by shaking my
hand as if it were a pump handle. This was in front of a railway station
into which he pushed me without listening to what I said. We arrived
at a cottage with a Norman gable thickly draped with Virginia creeper.
A young woman and six children were waiting for us to come to dinner.
I was considerably embarrassed, having no evening clothes. I was
asking myself would it not be well to keep on my waterproof? My
friend, however, sat down in his shirt-sleeves, without a smile.
After dinner we sat, buried in ample leather-covered armchairs,
smoking pipe after pipe of " Navy cut," and during the whole evening
we hardly interchanged a word. We spoke neither of the war, nor
of a certain scattered library, nor of an old garden, dear to my heart.
> —
WHAT I OWE TO ENGLAND
in which the shells had made great pits, nor even of those, men or women,
whom we had left behind.
At midnight my friend showed me my room, again nearly tearing
my arm from its socket, and uttered these simple words : " Your
bath will be ready at seven."
I was greatly heartened by this. Only an Englishman, in England,
can cheer one up by a phrase so bare of eloquence.
Long live old England !
J 353 ^^
DANS LA GALLES DU SUD.
Par Richard Dupierreux.
AUX premieres heures de I'emigration beige, Tintelli-
gente initiative de M. Tom Jones — un nom que nos
compatriotes doivent retenir comme celui d'un de
leurs plus affectueux protecteurs, pendant leur dure
epreuve — avait reve de constituer, en Pays de Galles,
une sorte de phalanstere ou les artistes et les intellectuels de chez nous
eussent pu recuperer le calme necessaire pour reprendre leur oeuvre
interrompue par la bataille. Reve genereux, encore qu'un peu
utopique, car quelle ame eut reussi, quelle ame eut consenti, a
s'abstraire des preoccupations de I'annee et a se reprendre ^ vivre
au-dessus d'un siecle aussi tragique ! Le projet, d'ailleurs, en vint,
par la force meme des choses, a se reduire et k se transformer. Emile
Verhaeren a trouve un abri et une amitie dans une campagne de pres
feconds et d'arbres verts entre Cardiff et Newport, non loin du village
ou se trouvait Emile Claus. Souguenet, y fixa pendant quelques
semaines sa goguenardise un peu amertumee, avant d'etre porte par sa
passion du voyage vers le midi ensoleille et le Sahara brulant. Fabry
et Ottevaere resterent longtemps dans les coUines de Hereford. Minne,
de Sadeleer et Van de Woestyne s'etablirent au bord de la mer, dans
la Galles du Nord.
Mais si I'hospitalite accordee a ces grands noms ne realisa qu'en
partie le projet primitif, celui-ci s'elargit coneiderablement. Les
comites locaux ont reuni a Cardiff et dans les environs un chiffre
de refugies de toutes classes, qui n'est pas loin, je crois, d'etre
le plus eleve qu'on ait atteint dans le Royaume-Uni, Londres mis
a part.
Le double caractere confere de la sorte a I'hospitalite galloise
s'explique, du reste, parfaitement. La Principaute de Galles est,
en effet, un pays d'initiatives k la fois democratiques et intellectuelles.
Cette vieille terre, ou s'est conservee pure I'immemoriale race celtique,
a acquis en moins de cent annees un prodigieux developpement.
La ville de Cardiff, il y a un siecle, n'etait qu'une bourgade de
pecheurs : I'historique chateau de Lord Bute, avec sa tour blasonnee,
le clocher de I'eglise, et quelques maisons paysannes, tel etait I'embryon
354
DANS LA GALLES DU SUD
de cite jete au bord du golfe de Bristol, et qui y vegetait, sans espoir
de progres. Mais, dans les collines, le fer du mineur mettait k nu
un filon de houiUe. Bientot, I'extraction prit k Pontypridd, k
Pontypool, un caractere intensif. Des wagons trainerent vers la
mer I'une des plus grandes quantites de combustible qu'on fasse
sortir, en Europe, des entrailles de la terre. La fortune de Cardiff
etait nee : les maisons s'agglomererent, les docks jeterent dans les flots
leurs bras noirs, pour accueillir les navires destines a charrier jusqu'au
bout des oceans le tresor de Galles, et bientot Cardiff merita, par
sa richesse, par sa population, par son Industrie, de devenir la capitale
effective du pays cymrique.
Mais, a mesure que s'agrandissait la cite des marchands et des
armateurs, a mesure que la population ouvriere devenait plus dense,
Cardiff prenait conscience de la necessite de s'elever dans I'ordre de
^intelligence et des beaux-arts. L'Universite de Cardiff, troisieme
branche de I'Universite de Galles, acquit rapidement une grande
reputation, qui s'accroit chaque annee. La Municipalite erigea de
somptueux edifices, pour les differents services de ^administration, de
la Justice, de I'enseignement ; elle crea de grands pares publics, avec
un vif souci de la beaute et de I'hygiene, si bien que cette vaste agglo-
meration put eviter de subir la loi de laideur qui pese d'ordinaire sur
les cites k la trop hative croissance. Le culte des ancetres, la tradition
galloise, se maintinrent, grace a I'effort perseverant d'esprits compre-
hensifs. Le Musee de Galles, pour lequel on erige aujourd'hui un
royal edifice, garde intacts, dans ses collections de tableaux et de porce-
laines, I'image de la vieille terre et le souvenir de I'activite industrielle
de la race.
Nous devions aimer cette race aussitot que nous la connumes. Elle
n'a point la reserve anglo-saxonne, qui a souvent deconcerte d'autres
compatriotes. Mais elle est, au contraire, prompte a temoigner ses
sentiments, encline a les poetiser, d'imagination genereuse et fraiche,
toute nourrie de legendes et j'ai eu, pour ma part, I'emotion d'y retrouver
bien des traits de notre race wallonne.
Dans les paysages eux-memes, I'identite s'afiirmait parfois. II y a,
dans les collines du Glamorgan, toutes couvertes, I'automne venu,
355
DANS LA GALLES DU SUD
de rose fougere fanee, une inflexion de lignes qui m'a rappele notre
Ardenne liegeoise. II s'est fait qu'aujourd'hui, aimable affirmation
de I'oubli de nos querelles anciennes, ce soit le maitre flamand, Emile
Claus, qui ait conserve I'image de cette Wallonie inattendue.
Le jour ou I'on voudra reunir une galerie de I'Art en exil, ses pastels
gallois y prendront tout naturellement une place eminente. Nul —
meme les artistes locaux — n'a mieux compris que lui la mobile beaute
des sites inondes de changeantes lumieres, la grandeur decorative des
arbres et la splendeur tragique des ciels au-dessus des monts depouilles
par I'hiver.
Ces pastels seront, pour moi, des evocateurs sentimentaux de la plus
etrange puissance. Us me rappelleront certains soirs, dans la petite
maison blanche que le maitre habitait la-bas, au creux d'une coUine ;
Claus y parlait de son art, de ses voyages et du beau pays d'ou les
barbares I'avaient chasse. II y avait, dans le geste, dans la parole, dans
les regards du causeur, tant de vie et tant d'espoir, qu'on ne pouvait
s'empecher de se faire des reproches, si parfois, on avait eu la faiblesse
d'un decouragement.
Le Pays de Galles me serait cher, pour ces heures-la, et pour la
profonde et respectueuse affection qu'elles consacrent, si tant d'autres
raisons deja ne me le rendaient sacre. II m'est comme une seconde
patrie et j'y ai des amis qui me sont comme des parents. Nombreux
sont ceux qui ont connu I'hospitalite de ce pays et qui peuvent en dire
autant.
356
IN SOUTH WALES.
Translation by Henry D. Roberts,
Director of the Public Library, Museum and Art Galleries, Brighton.
AT the beginning of the Belgian emigration it had
been the dream of Mr. Tom Jones — a name which
our countrymen should ever remember as that of
one of their most warm-hearted protectors during
their severe trial — to establish in Wales a kind of
settlement where our artists and writers might be able to regain the
necessary quietude of mind to enable them to take up their work
interrupted by the war. A generous dream, although a little Utopian,
for who could succeed in withdrawing, or would even consent to
withdraw himself from the anxieties of the time, and take up his life
outside a century so tragic ? The scheme besides was considerably
modified by the force of circumstances.
Emile Verhaeren found shelter and friendship in a country of fruitful
fields and green trees, between Cardiff and Newport, not far from the
village where Emile Claus was to be found. Souguenet stayed there
for some weeks, his jovial nature somewhat embittered, before being
carried away by his fondness for travel towards the sun-filled south
and the scorching Sahara. Fabry and Ottevaere remained for some time
amongst the hills of Hereford. Minne, de Sadeleer and Van de Woe-
styne settled near the sea in North Wales. But if the hospitality
oflFered to these great names only partially fulfilled the original pro-
posal, the latter was considerably extended. Local Committees had
brought together at Cardiff and in its suburbs a number of refugees
of all classes, which, with the exception of London, is not far, I believe,
from being the highest reached in the United Kingdom.
The two-fold character thus assumed by Welsh hospitality is easily
understood. Wales is a land of originality, at once democratic and
intellectual. This historic country, where the ancient Celtic race is
preserved in all its purity, has wonderfully developed during the last
100 years. The town of Cardiff a century ago was nothing more than
a small fishing village ; the historic castle of the Marquis of Bute, with
its blazoned tower, the steeple of the Church, and a few country houses,
such was the nucleus of the city which arose on the banks of the Bristol
357
IN SOUTH WALES
Channel, and vegetated there without hope of progress. But, in the
hills, the pick of the miner laid bare a seam of coal. Trucks carried
towards the sea the greatest mass of fuel in Europe that could be dug
out of the bowels of the earth. The fortune of Cardiff was born.
Houses sprang up everywhere, the docks threw out their black arms
into the waters to welcome the vessels that were to convey the treasures
of Wales to the ends of the oceans, and soon Cardiff, through its richness,
population, and industry, became the actual capital of the Cymric
country.
But as the city of merchants and shipowners spread, and as the
working population became more dense, Cardiff became alive to the
necessity of advancing in education and the fine arts. The University
of Cardiff, the third branch of the University of Wales, rapidly acquired
a great reputation which increased every year. The Municipality
erected sumptuous buildings for the different branches of the adminis-
tration, for justice and for education ; it laid out large public parks,
with such keen regard for beauty and hygiene that this vast agglomera-
tion was able to avoid submitting to the law of ugliness which is the usual
fate of cities ofsudden growth. The worship of ancestors, the Welsh
tradition, preserved itself, thanks to the untiring efforts of enthusiasts.
The National Museum of Wales, for which has been erected a building
of royal proportions, keeps intact in its collections of paintings and china
the picture of olden times and a memorial of the industrial activity of
the race. We had to love this race as soon as we knew it. It has not
the Anglo-Saxon reserve which has often puzzled other compatriots,
but it is, on the contrary, quick to show its feelings, apt to translate
them into poetry, with a free and generous imagination fed on legends ;
and, for my part, I have had the delight of finding there traces of our
Walloon race. In the natural scenery itself this resemblance is occa-
sionally found. In the hills of Glamorganshire, all covered in the
autumn with red, faded fern, there are contours which recall to me
our own Ardennes.
It is an interesting commentary on the desire to forget our ancient
quarrels that the Flemish master, Emile Claus, should have recorded
the features of this unexpected Walloon district.
358
IN SOUTH WALES
Some day, when an exhibition of " Art in Exile " is brought together,
his Welsh paintings will naturally take a prominent place. No one,
not even artists of the land, has understood better than he the mobile
beauty of the scenery flooded with changing light, the decorative
grandeur of the trees and the tragic spendour of the skies above the
mountains stripped bare by the winter.
These pastels will recall to me strange deep memories. They
will bring back to me certain evenings in the little white house in
which the master lived down in the hollow of the hill ; Claus would
speak of his art, his travels, and the beautiful country from which
the barbarians had driven him. In the gestures, in the words, in
the looks of the speaker, there were so much life and so much hope
that one could not refrain from reproaching oneself if now and then
one had given way to despondency.
The country of Wales will be dear to me for these hours and for the
deep and sincere affection which they perpetuate, if there were not
already so many other reasons to render them sacred for me. It is to
me like a second Fatherland, and I have there many friends who are to
me as my own people ; many are those who have known the hospitality
of this country and who are able to say the same.
359
ASPECTS ET LEgONS DE LONDRES.
Par Charles Delchevalerie.
AU bord de I'avenue bourdonnante ou cent vehicules se
croisent en glissant sur le pave de bois, voici que le
nettoyeur de la voirie a termine sa tache. Delaissant
ses outils, il s'est assis sur un banc encastre dans les
dalles du trottoir. II tire d'une poche le briquet de
son dejeuner. C'est comme un signal : il est aussitot entoure d'un
peuple pepiant et vorace de moineaux arrives h. tire d'aile du square
d'en face.
Le pauvre diable a des yeux jeunes dans sa face tannee et sous ses
cheveux blancs. C'est une idylle en plein vent que nous offre, sans
s'en douter ce bon Samaritain du carrefour, heureux de partager chaque
matin son pain avec les oiseaux familiers. Qu'on le regarde ou non, il
accomplit pour son plaisir intime ce rite de la journee. II jouit en
souriant de la gourmandise de ses hotes en bataille autour de chaque
miette. Et si quelque passant s'arrete a contempler le festin, le brave
homme en son jargon continue sa pensee en articulant quelques mots
qui signifient a peu pres : " Ce sont de si bonnes petites betes. . . ."
Cette bienveillance envers " Nos freres inferieurs " n'est pas, sans
doute, un monopole britannique. Mais elle est pratiquee en Angle-
terre avec une attention particuliere, et c'est ainsi qu'on n'y rencontre
guere d'animaux mefiants. Le chien hargneux et le chat craintif y
sont un mythe. Les betes domestiques sont telles que I'homme les
eduque. II n'y a ni peur, ni revolte la ou il n'y a pas de violence.
A Hampton Court on verra des troupeaux de daims s'ebattre sans
alarmes sur les pelouses ou les families dinent en pique-nique. A
Kensington Gardens des moutons a lourde toison, qui fourniront les
" mutton chops " d'un prochain avenir, broutent dans la meme libre
securite a dix pas des omnibus et de I'Underground. II y a done dans
les mceurs un mot d'ordre, de bonte et de respect.
• • • •
Les animaux n'en sont pas seuls beneficiaires. L' Anglais a le sens
de la nature. II lui fait sa part dans les agglomerations les plus sur-
peuplees. II fait jaillir les fleurs autour de ses cottages dont la muraille
360
ASPECTS ET LEgONS DE LONDRES
s*eclabousse du sang vermeils des vignes vierges, et sous sa loi I'arbre
peut pousser k sa guise. 11 sait le bienfait social des vegetations abon-
dantes, repos pour la vue, tonique apte a vivifier, k rafraichir I'atmo-
sphere viciee des grandes villes. La merveille de Londres, ce sont ces
jardins ou tiendraient des villages, ces vastes terrains plantes et gazonnes,
ces echappees de plein air et de verdure, ces oasis au milieu du morose
ocean de briques noircies. II faut aux populations amassees ce voisinage
reparateur, et c'est un sens pratique a courte vue que celui qui con-
damnerait les esplanades ombragees ou peut jouer et se delasser un
peuple, parce qu'elles representent un capital improductif. L'hygiene
collective — autant morale que physique — impose ces reserves de
salubrite.
Aussi bien, si la ville geante est morne en son cadre hivernal, quand
la brume de ses fumees rabattues la couvre d'un manteau couleur de
cendre et d'amadou, ses pares et ses jardins lui font au printemps une
couronne de sourires. Quelle douce fete que la floraison des azalees
dans les jardins de Kew ! et qu'ils sont beaux, les arbres anglais, parce
qu'ils ont cru librement ! lis sont plus que les notres majestueux et
vivants, parce que I'emondeur — ce censeur ! — n'a pas contrarie les
poussees de leur seve. lis n'ont pas comme tant d'arbres de chez nous
I'air de victimes torturees et lentes a se remettre de leurs blessures.
lis sont puissants et venerables dans I'expansion de leurs frondaisons.
lis ont la beaute de ce qui s'est developpe sans contrainte, dans une
naturelle harmonic.
* * * *
On peut, semble-t-il, discerner dans cette protection des etres et des
choses une affirmation du sentiment jaloux qu'a 1' Anglais de la liberte
individuelle et du respect qu'il professe pour la liberte d'autrui. Sa
tolerance est organique et instinctive. Dans le prestigieux decor de
Hyde Park, avez-vous ecoute parfois les orateurs de plein air ? Les
opinions contradictoires peuvent voisiner, il n'y aura pas de bagarre.
Au plus eloquent de convaincre ceux qui I'entourent. Les flaneurs
vont de Pun k Tautre : tel qui se voit delaisse n*a pas su persuader et
ne peut s'en prendre qu*^ lui-meme. C'est au public h choisir entre
les theses qu'on lui propose. La plus saugrenue a le droit de se produire :
361
ASPECTS ET LEfONS DE LONDRES
au bon sens de Pauditeur k en faire justice. Si elle est mauvaise, il
n'est point de dispute qui la puisse rendre meilleure. . . .
.... Cependant, au dela des grilles, la cohue des autos, des omnibus,
des cabs et des fringants attelages deferle sans repit autour de I'Arche
de Marbre. Cela fait un chaos organise, une ruee methodique dans
les accaimies de laquelle un flot de passants s'aventure. Un policeman
gigantesque et tutelaire, tranquille comme une bouee au milieu du
peril, assure I'ordre aux courants entrecroises de cette maree humaine.
Et voyez, tout s'arrete a son signal. Les rouges autobus, avec leur
imperiale ou les toilettes claires composent un eventaire de bouquetiere,
stoppent en trepidant, et aussi les lourds camions de guerre, et les
carrosses de luxe aux metaux etincelants. Le policeman a vu, perdue
sur I'ilot d'un refuge, une petite fille portant sa poupee et son cerceau.
II Fa prise par la main, sans se presser, le geant et I'enfant passent la
revue des monstres domptes, traversent la chaussee et gagnent le
trottoir. La petite est en surete. L'ange gardien au casque noir
fait un autre geste de la main : la voie est libre. On pent repartir,
et tout s'ebranle. La plus belle des libertes, c'est la discipline consentie,
qui garantit jusqu'au droit du plus faible. . . .
La rue et le pare offrent ainsi de muettes legons h I'observateur venu
du continent. II en est bien d'autres encore qu'on pourrait signaler,
et qui prouvent qu'on peut s'ameliorer en regardant vivre nos grands
amis d'Angleterre. Londres n'a pas le charme de Paris, et se livre
moins vite. Mais que d'aspects grandioses et impressionnants dans
son immensite !
Une manifestation patriotique dans le decor ensoleille de Trafalgar
Square, I'animation de la Tamise sous la grisaille du matin, le paysage
d'edifices, de fleches, de domes et de cheminees qui se deroule de
Westminster a la Tour, le sombre fourmillement des arteres de la Cite,
le tumulte des grandes gares, la vaste splendeur des jardins d'ete, les
foules elegantes, affairees, cosmopolites qui grouillent dans le West End,
cceur battant de la metropole, tout cela forme pour I'etranger un tresor
d'impressions et de souvenirs capables d'enrichir singulierement sa
362
ASPECTS ET LEgONS DE LONDRES
mentalite. II y a dans ces visions la marque d'une grandeur formidable
et sure d'elle-meme. Pour les citoyens d'un petit pays ou certains
vecurent souvent confines dans le cercle restreint de leurs habitudes,
c'est un sejour certes profitable aux meilleures facultes que celui de la
cite la plus demesuree qu'ait bati I'effort des hommes. Elle resume,
dans le passe et le present, le labeur et I'orgueil d'une race qui a su se
suffire a elle-meme, et fonder une force exempte de despotisme sur
les reserves du plus bel empire qui soit sous le ciel. lis ont raison k
coup sur, ceux qui, dans Piccadilly, songent k leur clocher de Flandre
ou de WaUonie. Mais ils perdront peut-etre quelques-unes des etroitesses
inherentes a la chere vie du terroir, s'ils veulent bien se donner la peine de
comprendre le spectacle de Londres.
363
LONDON OBJECT LESSONS.
Translation by Horace Annesley Vachell.
HERE, by the side of a roaring thoroughfare, where
hundreds of vehicles gUde and cross upon the wooden
roadway, a scavenger has finished his " job." Drop-
ping his tools, he sinks upon a bench embedded in the
paving-stones and takes from his pocket a packet of
" grub.'' Behold ! A signal ! Immediately he is assailed by a
twittering and voracious battalion of sparrows on wing from the square
hard by.
Beneath grizzled locks a pair of still youthful eyes shine out of a
seamed face. This Good Samaritan of the Crossways, happy to share
his daily bread with these friendly birds, presents an open-air idyll.
Whether you take note of him or not, he is devoting himself to a matutinal
rite for his own particular gratification. He delights in the greediness
of guests who fight hard for each crumb. And should some passer-by
pause to watch the banquet, the scavenger — in Cockney phrase — ^will
give expression to some such thought as this : " What price these
cheery little beggars ! "
A benevolence exercising itself on behalf of these little brothers of
the air is no British monopoly ; but it is practised in England with
assiduity. And that is why one rarely finds there distrust on the part
of the lower animals. The snarling dog, the hissing cat are conspicuously
absent. For domestic beasts become what man makes of them. Elimi-
nate violence, and you banish fear and defiance !
At Hampton Court look at the herds of fallow deer fearlessly bounding
about lawns where trippers are picknicking. And in Kensington
Gardens, thick-fleeced sheep — providers in the near future of mutton
chops for the million — graze quietly within a few rods of omnibus
routes and the Underground. Goodwill and respect for others are the
A B C of the common code.
* # # *
Nor are animals the sole beneficiaries. Englishmen have an understand-
ing of and for Nature. They " do their bit " under complex and over-
crowded conditions. Flowers bloom about their cottages. The leaves
of the wild vine rust red upon their walls. Under British rule a tree
364
LONDON OBJECT LESSONS
grows unpruned. Our Allies apprehend what abundant vegetation
signifies to the commonwealth, a restful, tonic landscape likely to
fortify and correct the vitiated atmosphere of large towns. The
miracle of London is beheld in its parks. What wide pleasaunces of lawn
and plantation ! What spaces of open air and verdure — oases in a
wilderness of soot and bricks ! Densely populated districts need such
compensating surroundings. How shortsighted and unpractical to
condemn shady walks merely because they represent capital lying idle !
Millions find recreation in them. The pubHc health, alike moral and
physical, exacts such life-distilling reservations.
More, granting that Babylon stands grim in its winter's setting,
when the wind-driven soot drapes it with a funereal livery, do not the
parks and gardens smile the more sweetly when Spring comes back f
What a holiday may be spent in Kew Gardens what time the azaleas
are in full bloom ! And how fine the English trees look. Fine because
they are free, more majestic, more alive than our trees, inasmuch as
the pruner — the Censor ! — has not suppressed the rising sap. English
trees, unlike so many of ours, never present themselves as tormented
victims slowly recovering from mutilation. No ; they reign as monarchs
even in their green old age, setting forth the beauty which develops
naturally and harmoniously.
* * • •
It seems to me that in this solicitude for creatures and things, one
may catch a glimpse of a sense of jealousy which so many Englishmen
feel for their own liberty and for the Uberty of others, a toleration
organic and illuminating. In the bewitching glades of Hyde Park
have you ever listened to the out-o'-door spouters ? The most con-
tradictory opinions flourish cheek by jowl — and never a scrimmage !
The pubHc strolls from one orator to the other. The fellow who fails
to convince has nobody to blame but himself. The public takes choice
of the wares submitted. The most risky theme has right of expression.
Let the good sense of the audience decide upon its merit. If it be
unsound argument no patter will make it palatable. . . .
And yet, behind the park gates, a surging wave of motors, 'buses,
cabs, smart equipages is swirling around the Marble Arch. Organised
LONDON OBJECT LESSONS
chaos ! At ordered intervals the tide of traffic races on. An immense
policeman — tutelary deity ! — immovable as a buoy in a sea-way, directs
the cross currents of this human flood.
Mark, please, that all and sundry halt at his raised hand. The red
motor 'bus, with its main-deck of frocks blazing like the broad basket
of a flower girl, stops still — quivering. So do the military lorries
and the resplendent car of the millionaire. The " Bobby " has per-
ceived a tiny girl carrying her doll and hoop, a waif derelict upon a
refuge in mid-stream. He takes her hand. Very leisurely, Triton and
Minnow survey the tamed monsters of the deep. They cross the river
and regain the shore. The child is safe. Her guardian angel, he of the
black helmet, raises his hand. The tideway is open. Traffic begins
again and becomes conglomerate. Liberty is never so beautiful as when,
under the guise of an acclaimed discipline, she assures the rights of the
weak and frail. . . .
* * * *
Street and highway, then, present object lessons to the observer
from overseas. Other lessons could be indicated to demonstrate the
expediency of taking note how our English friends live. London
lacks the lure of Paris, and surrenders herself more primly to the stranger.
But her immense size inspires a deep and soul-stirring point of view.
A patriotic meeting in the sunny spaces of Trafalgar Square, the busy
shimmer of the Thames in the grey hush of the morning, the panorama
of buildings, spires, domes and chimneys which unrolls itself from
Westminster to the Tower, the swarming, sombre arteries of the City,
the blare of the great stations, the splendour of the gardens in summer-
time, the smart crowds busy vdth their own affairs, cosmopolitans who
revel in Mayfair, the core of the metropolis — these form for the stranger
a treasure-house of impressions and memories which enrich his men-
tality. In such a " show " as this we may envisage a tremendous and
intrinsic grandeur. For the citizens of a small country, where, perforce,
many are cribbed in the ring fence of habit, a sojourn in the most
immeasurable city which the efforts of mankind have built will surely
tune them to higher issues. For London, both in her past and present,
synchronises the labour and pride of a race that has learnt to be self-
366
LONDON OBJECT LESSONS
sufficing and to create a force free from tyranny out of the resources
of the greatest empire under high heaven. Some of us, as we stroll
down Piccadilly, have poignant reason to think of our own chiming
bells in Flanders and Hainault ; but we shall cast off, maybe, a
cramped narrowness of outlook if we take pains to interpret London as
a stupendous spectacle.
; 367
LA TAMISE A LONDRES.
Par Jean de BosscniRE.
LE fleuve a Londres est une des merveilles du monde. C'est un
corps gigantesque qui court sur son lit de boue, entre ses rives
de pierres grises. Tous les pouvoirs des elements se sont
associes a I'homme, des I'origine de la viile immense. Ni les
elements, ni les hommes ne sont rois ici. Les uns collaborent
avec les autres. Pour batir ceci, au cours des siecles, ils se sont pousses en
avant. Tantot I'homme demandait simplement le secours de la force
naturelle de I'eau ou sinon il la multipliait par le feu. Sur ses rives
majestueuses, il n'y a pas un edifice qui soit une ceuvre d'art ou
d'architecture indifferente a la puissance et a la signification de I'eau.
Aujourd'hui, le fleuve genereux semble n'etre la que pour servir la
bouche ouverte des entrepots, la main crochue des grues, le plateau
des wagons. Et le ciel opaque, mais brillant, acheve de faire I'accord
parmi les details.
Harmonic dans le monde du travail sur notre terre ; profonde
harmonic nee des choses, des metiers et des industries. Effort des
collectivites minces d'abord, puis puUulantes, qui se sont arretees
devant la simple fente du sol qu'est un fleuve. Cette dechirure est
devenue une artere vive. Sur les deux bords de la plaie, il n'y a point
assez de place pour tous ceux qui sont accouru. lis se pressent. Et,
comme dans les villes fortifiees ou dans celles ou le terrain est k un haut
prix, ils ont construit des maisons elevees et etroites pour leurs mar-
chandises. lis ont reduit a I'etat de minces boyaux des rues qui n'etaient
deja que des ruelles. Puis, afin de ne point perdre un temps precieux,
ils ont tendu des passerelles aux sommets des hautes batisses.
Plus loin, derriere les entrepots on devine les offices, et plus loin
encore, la Bourse. Une parole a la Bourse precede un coup de plume
dans les offices ; le coup de plume declanche un mouvement dans
I'entrepot ; d'ici, la marchandise coule dans le navire ; les flots empor-
tent la cargaison. Vous voyez bien que dans tout cela il n'y a point de
place pour I'inutile : Westminster et le Parlement, voil^ qui est fort
sufl&sant ; quant aux gares, on les a construites au dessus du fleuve et
des maisons. Rien n'est perdu ; cela est merveilleux !
La dechirure ou coule le fleuve est large. Et le peuple industrieux
368
LA TAMISE A LONDRES
veut k tout instant passer d'une rive k Tautre. II a done relie entre
elles les deux rives, comme on agrafe les deux pans d'un manteau. U
s'est construit plus d'une douzaine de ponts. Plusieurs sont des con-
structions de fer. Le tablier et les parapets sont raides et sans un seul
ornement. C'est une barre immense de fer rouge brun, reposant sur
des pilones monstrueux accouples. lis rappellent, ces ponts que
Londres seule a construits, la passerelle primitive. Quelques madriers
des poutres qui les relient, une couverture de planches. En somme, le
pont ou la passerelle, c'est le chemin prolonge au-dessus du fleuve.
Nulle architecture ne denature la purete de cette idee. Ce n'est point
meme une idee, c'est le resultat d'un geste collectif des instincts. Les
ponts de Lambeth et de Charing-Crosse, par exemple, semblent avoir
ete construits par les hommes memes qui etablirent leur commerce aux
bords du fleuve. lis semblent I'avoir fait, pousses par le besoin, et avec
puissance et ingenuite.
Certains ponts offrent un large tablier sur des arches de pierre. Les
piles sont comme des torses robustes de geants. Les arches etendent
leurs bras pour retrouver ceux des voisins. A distance, des ponts —
Waterloo, Blackfriars, Vauxhall, par exemple — font songer k une guir-
lande de dieux qui se donnent la main afin que les hommes, ces pigmees,
puissent traverser le fleuve sur leurs bras reunis. Ce sont de grandes
et larges routes. Parfois c'est un territoire egal k celui d'un village.
Des corteges de " bus," de tramways, de grands trains ^ vapeur, de cars,
de charrettes y coulent comme une eau au dessus de I'eau. Mais cette
multitude de vehicules ne parvient pas a le couvrir. De petites voitures
chargees de pains, des enfants et des vieillards y peuvent trouver une
sorte de securite. Et des spectateurs, indigenes ou etrangers, appuyes
aux parapets, y contemplent paisiblement les merveilleux paysages
d'eau, de ciel et de pierre. lis regardent de hautes grues noires, aux
arbres plus gros que des cheminees, qui retirent un poing plein de
charbon du ventre d'une des cent barges noires qui se pressent k la
base du pont. Ailleurs, les spectateurs admirent le jeu des nuages se
refletant dans la boue luisante qui prolonge les berges.
Des rues trepidantes s'etendent pres des entrepots. Par le tunnel de
Blackfriars, sombre et lugubre comme celui d'une prison, on descend
369 cc
LA TAMISE A LONDRES
dans le quartier fievreux de vie sous la cendre, que I'on appelle Southwark.
L^, les rues sont reduites h. la stricte largeur necessaire au passage des
gros chars atteles de puissants chevaux. Ces rueUes sont de profondes
crevasses. En haut, au bord des hangars, le ciel n'est qu'un etroit
ruban. Par les bouches ouvertes des entrepots, les paquets de caisses
et les balots de toile descendent vers les chars. On passe sous des
voutes ou la nuit est presque totale ^ midi. On est brusquement pris
dans des ruelles bourbeuses qui semblent ne point avoir d'issue dans un
monde ou il soit possible de respirer. Ou bien, un arbre perdu \h, le
miserable, vous rappelle inopinement les brises fraiches et les rayons du
soleil.
Et puis, soudain, entre deux ponts, se deploie une rive batie de hauts
entrepots, plus graves certes et plus majestueux qu'une suite de palais
de Venise. A ce moment I'eau meme qui reflete les fagades evoque le
Grand Canal, tandis que les barges, telles qu'elles s'alignent au long des
facades, font se souvenir des flottilles de Venise au crepuscule.
Mais partout nous sentons le squelette utile et splendide de la
Tamise. C'est du present ; ce n'est pas une ceuvre d'art ; entre elle
et nous, pas de voile esthetique. Rien que la grandeur d'un vaste effort
ancien a la fois et tout moderne. Ici, nous retrouvons nos- aspirations
vers la verite, et notre lassitude de Part conventionnel s'explique en se
justifiant.
La Tamise est notre Pays Noir amplifie. L'industrie des hommes se
presse sur ses bords avec tous ses engins. A Paris, la Seine coule avec
joie, sous le ciel gris et fin et transparent ; des Palais se rangent sur son
passage, et des jardins. Pas d'entrepots, mais parfois quelques barques
isolees, chargees de bois ou de ciment nous rappellent qu'il y a la-bas,
hors de la ville, un port qui fait large usage du fleuve.
A Londres, au contraire, Pentrepot est le coeur de la ville. Ici le fer,
le bois et la pierre sont conduits selon des routes choisies par I'activite
de la fourmiliere humaine.
370
LONDON AND ITS THAMES.
Translation by the Right Hon. Sir John Simon, K.C, M.P.
" The Thames is liquid history,^* — ^John Burns.
IT is one of the wonders of the world, this London river, a huge mass
moving on its bed of mud, between its banks of grey stone. From
the beginnings of the mighty city, all the elemental powers of Nature
have entered into partnership with man. Neither Nature nor man
here rules alone : • they work together. To accomplish the building
of London, century after century, man and the elements have urged
each other on. Time was when man asked of the stream nothing but
the help of its natural force ; or, if that failed, he called in fire to multiply
the water's strength. There is not a building that art or architecture
has raised on these majestic banks which is not influenced by the power
and the meaning of the river. To-day, the Thames at London seems to
exist only to spend itself in feeding the greedy mouths of the warehouses,
in filling the grasping claws of the cranes, in loading the trays of the
trucks. And the sky above, bright without being clear, brings a sense
of unity to the various features of the scene.
It is the harmony which on this earth of ours work brings to mankind
— ^that deep harmony which emerges from the facts of Business and of
Industry. Watch the efforts of these groups, so tiny at first, but soon
swarming like ants that are pulled up on the march by a mere cleft in the
earth's crust ; for that is what a river is. This gash becomes an artery
of life. No room now on the edges of the scar for all who have run up.
They crowd upon each other. And they have built (just as men build
in fortified cities or in towns where sites cost great sums) high and
narrow houses for their merchandise. Streets that were never more than
lanes they have narrowed to the dimensions of constricted passages.
And then, to lose not a moment of precious time, they have stretched
footbridges to join the tops of their lofty buildings.
Farther back, behind the warehouses, you may descry the offices ;
farther back again, the Exchange. One word on 'Change is followed by
a pen-stroke in the office ; one pen-stroke releases the machinery of the
warehouse ; thence the merchandise pours into the ship's hold ; and
lo ! the cargo is afloat on the waves. You see clearly that in all this
LONDON AND ITS THAMES
nothing can find a place but what is utilitarian — ^Westminster Abbey
and the Houses of Parliament suffice for exception — ^while as for the
railway stations, they are built on top of the river and the houses. Not
an inch wasted — ^there's the marvel of it.
This gash along which the river flows is wide, and the busy populace
needs to be able at any moment to cross from side to side. So they have
fastened together the two banks, as you might hook the two edges of a
cloak. They have built a dozen bridges, and more. Many of them are
of iron : floors and parapets stiff and undecorated ; vast bars of brownish-
red metal, resting on huge piers lashed side by side. They recall, these
bridges that London alone of cities has built, primitive footbridges — a
few joists, girders to bind them together, and a covering of planks ; in
a word, be it bridge or footbridge, a mere prolongation of the road to
stretch above the stream. No architect's fancy disturbs the simplicity
of this conception — nay, it is not even a conception, it is the resultant
of a combined instinctive movement. Lambeth Bridge and Charing
Cross Bridge, for example, seem to have been built by the very men who
first set up their trade on the river banks. It was necessity, as one
might suppose, which made them apply all their strength and sHU
to do it.
Other of these bridges spread a spacious platform above their arches
of stone. Their piers stand like sturdy giants with palms outstretched,
feeHng for their neighbour on either side. Viewed from a distance
bridges like these — ^Waterloo, Blackfriars, Vauxhall, and others — suggest a
chain of deities, hand in hand, affording to these pigmies of man a passage
over their interlacing arms. The highroad across these bridges is wide
— so wide that in some cases you might find room for a whole village
on its surface. 'Buses, trams, trains, motors, carts, pour over it in a
ceaseless flow — a stream above the stream. But this crowd of vehicles
does not fill the space : the costers' Httle carts, children, and greybeards
can all thread their way across in safety. The lookers-on. Cockneys and
globe-trotters alike, lean against the parapet and composedly gaze on
the panorama of water and sky and stone. They watch tall black derricks,
with arms thicker than chimney-stacks, drawing fistfuls of coal out of
the belly of some black barge — one of the hundred that cluster round the
LONDON AND ITS THAMES
foundations of the bridge ; and then they turn to watch the play of the
clouds reflected in the shiny mud that lines the river banks.
A string of bustling thoroughfares runs past the wharves. Blackfriars
Tunnel, gloomy and dark as the archway of a gaol, takes you down to the
district called Southwark, where the pulse of life beats in fever beneath
the smoke. There the streets are narrowed till there is only just room
for big lorries to pass vrith their teams of strong horses. They are not
so much streets as deep crevices ; and looking up you can see only a
ribbon-strip of sky between the roofs. Watch the bundles of packing-
cases and the canvas bales being lowered from the open mouths of
warehouses down to the drays below. Under the archways where you
pass you might mistake midday for midnight. Suddenly you are trapped
in slushy alleys that seem to have no outlet where you can breathe again.
Or perhaps an unhappy tree, lost in these surroundings, strangely recalls
the freshness of the breeze and the brightness of the sun.
And then, in a moment, between two of the bridges, there unfolds
a row of lofty warehouses lining the bank with a sweep more noble
and impressive than Venetian palaces. The Pool, as it reflects the
frontages, recalls the Grand Canal ; the long rows of barges lining
these frontages bring back memories of the gondolas of Venice in the
twilight.
Yet nowhere as we trace its bold outline can we forget that this
splendid Thames is for man's daily use. It is nothing if not modern.
It wears no shimmering veil to hide itself, like a new thing of beauty,
from our gaze. It is great with the greatness that springs from ancient
effort, and yet is ever new. Here we can lift up our hearts to Truth,
and we realise why we grow weary, and rightly weary, of the conventions
of mere Art.
The Thames is the Black Country of Belgium on a large scale. Man-
kind crowds its banks vrith all the implements of industry. At Paris
the Seine flows joyously on beneath a grey sky that is pellucid and bright ;
on it goes, past the palaces and the gardens. No warehouses there, but
now and then a stray craft loaded vrith wood or with cement, which
serves to remind us that below Paris, far away, there is a port that
exacts fuU service from the river.
373
LONDON AND ITS THAMES
But here in London the warehouse is the very heart of the city.
Here in their citadel the human ants bustle along their appointed
passages with their loads of iron and wood and stone. Here along the
appointed corridors of their ant-hill the busy workers draw, without
ceasing, their loads of metal, wood, and stone.
374
LA JONCTION DES TROUPES BRITANNIQUES ET BELGES
SOUS LA MITRAILLE.
Par le Comte Renaud de Briey.
NOTRE premiere rencontre avec Parmee anglaise marque
pour moi, dans la campagne de 1914, une date inou-
bliable, moins peut-etre h cause du concours immediat
que ces troupes representaient, que par I'effet moral de leur
presence, k une heure tragique, derriere Anvers agonisante.
Les uns apres les autres, les forts de premiere ligne succombent et dans
la nuit du 6 au 7 octobre, les Allemands parviennent k franchir I'Escaut
entre Termonde et Wetteren, mena9ant la retraite de notre armee de
campagne. Dans I'ignorance de la situation generale ou, modestes
cavaliers, nous sommes laisses, toutes les hypotheses se dressent, egale-
ment redoutables. Serons-nous pousses vers la Hollande ou accules k la
mer, forces de noyer nos armes et de tuer nos chevaux, braves
compagnons des longues etapes poussiereuses ?
Le Vendredi 9 octobre, la division de cavalerie h. laquelle j'appartiens,
protege aux abords de Gand, le repli de I'armee.
Soudain, vers 4 heures de I'apres-midi, le feu s'arrete; la division se
rassemble, elle s'ebranle; vers ou ? La tete de colonne contourne la
ville; dej^, elle passe le Canal de Terneuzen. Devant nous, k seize
kilometres, c'est la frontiere. . . . Comment exprimer les sentiments
qui nous etreignent en franchissant ce pont qui marque la derniere
etape peut-etre avant la captivite? C'est un accablement morne et
stupide, une rage froide avec le desir d'en finir au plus vite. . . . Mais
k peine, le canal est-il franchi, que le nouveaux ordres sont donnes et
nous revenons vers Gand d'ou monte tout h coup, portee par le vent,
sourde d'abord, puis plus precise et prenant, dans le rougeoiment du
soleil couchant, un caractere d'apotheose, une formidable et triomphale
acclamation :
"lis sont 1^! lis sont 1^!"
Malgre la fatigue extreme, les corps se redressent sur la selle; les
physionomies se rasserenent; les hommes sifflent et chantent. Espoirs
peut-etre hatifs mais combien salutaires !
. . . lis sont U en effet, et voici que sur la route, ils debouchent
devant nous: cyclistes rapides repondant a peine, par monosyllabes, aux
375
LA JONCTION DES TROUPES BRITANNIQUES ET BELGES
questions posees, puis Ecossais d'allure magnifique, aux jambes nues,
au " kilt " cadence sous le rythme du pas, chantant a pleine voix, " le
long chemin " du cher Tipperary qui dans le dur calvaire subi par la
Belgique pour la cause commune, revet une signification si tragiquement
ironique.
Mais personne n'y prend garde. Sans attendre aucun ordre, les hommes
sautent a terre, les mains se tendent, les bras s'ouvrent : I'amitie anglo-
belge est nee; elle ne se dementira plus, se traduisant de mille manieres
differentes, parfois pittoresques et souvent touchantes.
La nouvelle s'est repandue comme une trainee de poudre, de regiment
en regiment, laissant encore des sceptiques parmi ceux qui depuis pres
de trois mois, en attendent la realisation et dans I'obscurite qui tombe,
autour des bivouacs, en entend la question anxieuse posee par les
troupes qui passent : " Est-ce bien vrai quells sont la ? "
Des ce moment, la cooperation intime et amicale des deux armees
s'etablit; elle se poursuit pendant la retraite vers I'Yser jusqu'au jour
ou dans les environs de Roulers, au petit village de West-Roosebeke —
nid de fleurs et d'oiseaux jadis, devenu un lieu de devastation — trois
etats majors de trois pays allies fraternisent dans un melange original
et si imprevu au milieu de ces paisibles paysages flamands, d'uniformes
de toutes les couleurs: Anglais en tenue kaki, cuirassiers, spahis au
grand manteau bleu, guides et lanciers beiges, goumiers, Arabes. . . .
Retour impressionnant des choses humaines dans ces memes plaines
de Roosebeke, qui ont entendu, au xiv^^ siecle, le serment des Com-
muniers luttant pour la liberte: " Nous combattrons jusqu'a la mort
et si nous mourons, nos ossements se leveront pour combattre encore ! "
Scenes furtives, entr'actes imprevus du grand drame mais qui marquent
une heure au cadran de I'histoire. L'histoire racontera sans doute qu'au
milieu du plus effroyable conflit que ses annales aient enregistre, sur la
vieille terre flamande ensanglantee, les ames de trois nobles nations se
sont rapprochees, se sont comprises, et scellant leur union, ont prepare
la paix du monde.
37^
THE UNION OF THE BRITISH AND BELGIAN TROOPS
UNDER FIRE.
Translation by Sir Home Gordon, Bt.
OUR first meeting with the British Army, in the campaign
of 1 914, formed a memorable occasion, less perhaps
because of the immediate co-operation denoted by these
troops than because of the moral effect of their presence,
in a tragic hour, behind Antwerp in her agony.
One after the other fell the forts of the foremost Hne, and on the
night of October 6th and 7th the Germans succeeded in crossing
the Scheldt between Termonde and Wetteren, threatening the
retreat of our own field army. In our ignorance of the general
situation in which we, as unpretentious cavalrymen, found ourselves
involved, every hypothesis suggested itself, each equally alarming.
Should we be pressed towards Holland or be driven to the sea,
compelled to throw our weapons into the waves and to kill our horses,
those brave comrades in long, dusty stages?
On Friday, October 9th, the cavalry division, to which I belonged,
protected the retirement of the army in the vicinity of Ghent.
Suddenly, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the firing ceased, the
division reformed and marched — ^whither? The head of the column
circumvented the town, thence crossed the canal of Ternenzen. Before
us, at a distance of sixteen kilometres, lay the frontier. How is it possible
to express the feeling that overpowered us as we passed over the bridge
which perchance marked the last lap before captivity? It was a dull and
dejected despondency, a fury penetrated with the desire to have every-
thing over as speedily as might be. But hardly was the canal crossed
than fresh orders were given, and we returned towards Ghent, whence
suddenly, borne on the wind, dully at first, then with more decisiveness
and, in the reddening of the setting sun acquiring an air of apotheosis,
arose a tremendous and triumphant acclamation: " There they are!
There they are! "
In spite of extreme fatigue, our bodies were braced on our saddles,
our faces grew calmer : men whistled and sang. Hope — perhaps transitory
— but how helpful !
. . . They are there, really ; and here on the road they defile before
377
THE UNION OF THE BRITISH AND BELGIAN TROOPS
us; swift cyclists hardly replying in monosyllables to questions put to
them; then Highlanders, superb in appearance, bare legged with kilts
keeping time in the rhythm of the march, lustily singing " the long
way " of that popular Tipperary which has acquired such an ironically
tragic significance in the stern calvary endured by Belgium for the
common cause.
But to that no one gave heed. Without waiting for the word of
command, our men sprang from their saddles with extended hands,
with open arms: the Anglo-Belgian friendship was born, never again
to be denied, expressing itself in a thousand different ways, sometimes
picturesque and often pathetic.
The news spread like wildfire from regiment to regiment, though
some individuals were still left sceptical after nearly three months'
waiting for the realisation ; and in the falling light around the bivouacs
could be heard the question anxiously put to the troops who passed:
" Is it really true that they are here? "
From that moment was established the intimate and friendly
co-operation of the two armies ; it continued during the retreat towards
the Yser to the day when, in the vicinity of Roulers, in the little village
of West Roosebekc — formerly a bower of flowers and birds, now
converted into a region of desolation — three General Staffs of three allied
nations fraternised in novel and unforeseen comradeship, in uniforms
of all hues, British in khaki. Cuirassiers, Spahis in their big blue cloaks,
Belgian Guides and Lancers, Arab troopers, all in these placid lowlands.
An impressive return of human events on these same plains of
Roosebeke, which, in the fourteenth century, heard the oath of the
Burghers fighting for liberty: " We fight to the bitter end, and, if we
die, our bones will rise to fight again."
Stray scenes, unforeseen incidents in the great drama, but marking
an hour on the dial of history — history which, without doubt, will relate
how, in the fiercest conflict which its annals record, on that old bloody
Flemish soil, the souls of three nations came together and understood
one another, thus sealing their alliance, and thereby preparing the peace
of the world.
378
Part III
ANECDOTES BY VARI0U8
DELCJIAN WRriERS
Ifith TronsliitioHt hy
F. ANSTEY
LE DOCKER ANVERSOIS ET LA DAME ANGLAISE.
LA scene se passe dans le refectoire du refuge d'EarPs Court.
Les emigrants beiges achevent leur repas. Une jeune fille,
armee d'un crayon et d'un carnet de papier, s*empresse,
affairee. On lui a demande de dresser une liste provisoire
des refugies et elle profite de I'instant favorable qui les
reunit autour de la table. Tout va bien, ou relativement bien, en
depit des difficultes que presente, pour une oreille anglaise, Tortho-
graphe flamande (qui n'a d'egale que la difficulte que presente, pour une
oreille flamande, I'orthographe anglaise) — jusqu'au moment ou la
" Miss " se trouve en presence d'un docker anversois, assis au bas bout
de la table, dont Tattention est entierement absorbee par un os de
c6telette qu'il acheve de ronger:
" Votre nom, s'il vous plait ? " {d^une voix un feu tremblantg, avec
un Uger accent).
Grognement de satisfaction du docker qui croit, sans doute, qu*on
le complimente sur son bon appetit.
" Votre nom, s'il vous plait? " (d^une voix plus tremblante^ avec un
accent plus accusi).
Grognement tout aussi indistinct ou, ^ la satisfaction exprimee
anterieurement, se mele une certaine dose d'impatience.
Enfin, apres I'intervention de voisins charitables, Fhomme, entre
deux bouchees, articule quelque chose de confus et de guttural qui
n'eclaire pas davantage la conscience de la jeune " Miss." Apres diverses
tentatives infructueuses, celle-ci tend au docker son carnet du papier
et afin qu'il y inscrive lui-meme ce nom barbare qu'elle ne peut epeler.
Le refugie comprend enfin ce qu'on lui veut. D*une main il saisit
le carnet et, de Pautre, il tend ^ la jeune fille, en echange du crayon, I'os
de cotelette auquel pendillent encore quelques friands morceaux.
Quelqu'un qui assista ^ cette scene m'assure que cette jeune personne
ne laissa rien paraitre de son etonnement, qu'elle, attendit, avec une
patience angelique, que le docker eut fini son laborieux travail, et qu'elle
lui remit enfin, avec un gracieux sourire, le tresor precieux qu'il avait
bien voulu lui confier.
381
THE ANTWERP DOCKER AND THE ENGLISH LADY.
SCENE: A dining-room at the Earl's Court Refuge. Belgian
emigrants are nearing the end of their meal. Enter hurriedly a
young lady, armed with notebook and pencil, who has been asked
to make out a provisional list of refugees, and takes advantage
of the opportunity of finding them assembled at table. In
spite of the difficulty presented by Flemish spelling to an English ear
(a difficulty which is, to say the least of it, reciprocal), she manages
fairly well, until she encounters an Antwerp docker, who is seated at
the end of the table, his entire attention absorbed by the cutlet-bone he
is gnawing.
Young Lady (^ith some trepidation and a slight Britannic accent):
" Votre nom, s'il vous plait ? "
(Gratified grunt from docker, who is apparently under the impression
that she is congratulating him on the excellence of his appetite.)
Young Lady {with more trepidation and a still worse accent) : " Votre
nom, s'il vous plait ? "
(Grunt from docker as before, but with a slight dash of impatience.
Eventually, owing to the kindly intervention of neighbours, he is induced,
between two mouthfuls, to utter some guttural and confused reply,
which nevertheless fails to convey any enlightenment to the young
lady. After several futile attempts to catch his barbaric and unspellable
name, she hands him her notebook so that he can write it down himself.
Then at last he understands what she wants, and seizing the notebook
with one hand, with the other he offers her, in exchange for her pencil
the cutlet-bone to which some succulent fragments are still adhering.)
I am assured by a spectator that this heroic young person, far from,
betraying the slightest astonishment, waited with angelic patience until
the docker had finished his laborious task, whereupon with a gracious
smile she returned to him the treasure which he had been good enough
to entrust to her keeping.
382
UN BELGE OU LA VIE.
LA situation des quelques Beiges residant k Londres avant la
guerre devint peu enviable apres la retraite de notre armee
sur Anvers. Le nombre des immigrants etait encore restreint
et, I'enthousiasme du public anglais aidant, Poffre depassait
encore de beaucoup la demande. Le telephone ne chomait pas.
R-r-r-r-r !
"A116!"
" C'est Madame X. qui vous parle."
" Oui, j'ecoute."
" M'avez-vous envoye quelqu'un ? "
"Pas encore, chere Madame, je n'ai pas Encore trouve . . . j'y
songe. . . . Des que je verrai quelqu'un qui vous convienne, je vous
promets . ..."
"Vous m'avez dej^ promis. Voil^ huit jours que j'attends, les
chambres son pretes."
" Mais, je vous assure . . ."
"J'avais compte sur vous . . . ce n'est pas gentil. Madame Y. a
dej^ une famille, Madame Z. a tout un village. Si je n'ai pas deux ou
trois Beiges d'ici k deux jours, je ne pourrai plus me montrer dans
la rue."
" Mais je ne puis pourtant connaitre tous ceux qui debarquent ! "
"Peu importe! D'ailleurs je suis convaincue que vous en envoyez
^ d'autres. Je vous donne jusqu'^ demain. Si demain je ne vois rien
venir, j'irai les chercher moi-meme a Aldwych."
" Mais je vous repete . . ."
" Depechez-vous, au revoir . . ."
" Attendez done ! . . ."
La communication etait interrompue. Et voiU comment on se fait
des ennemies !
383
A BELGIAN— OR YOUR LIFE!
I HOSE Belgians who were already living in London
before the war found themselves in a very trying
situation after the retreat of our army from Antwerp.
For^ as the number of refugees from Belgium was still
restricted, and the British public were enthusiastic in
their offers of hospitality, the demand considerably exceeded the
supply.
So this was the kind of thing that was constantly to be heard on the
telephone :
R-r-r-r-r !
" Alio."
" I am Mrs. X."
" Yes. I hear you."
" Have you sent me anyone? "
" Not yet, dear madam ; I haven't found one yet. . . . Yes, Pm
attending to it. . . . Yes, the moment I come across a suitable person,
I promise you. . . ."
" You promised me that before! I've been waiting for a whole week,
and the rooms all ready for them ! "
" But I assure you . . ."
" I've been depending on you. . . . It's really too bad of you!
Mrs. Y. has a family staying with her already, and Mrs. Z. has
a whole village! If I haven't two or three Belgians by the day after
to-morrow, I shan't dare to show my face anywhere ! "
" But I really can't be expected to know all the people who are
landing here ! "
" What does that matter? Besides, I'm sure you're sending them on
to other people ! I'll give you till to-morrow. If I don't get anybody by
then, I shall go to Aldwych and find some for myself! So there ! "
" But I can only say once more . . ."
"Make haste! Good-bye!"
" Just one moment ! " {Communication cut off. And this is how one
makes enemies /)
384
u
y. c/:
z O
L'INSTINCT DE LA PROPRIETE.
'E crois, Monsieur le President, que vous ne me reconnaissez
pas ? Je suis deja venue \'ous voir — avec mon mari —
pauvre cher homme ! — meme que vous lui avez remis un
secours. Quatre livres sterling. Vous ne vous rappelez
pas ? Houffaliers, son nom. Un peintre ! Enfin un amateur
peintre — de Fosses. Vous savez bien? Ah — je vois — vous vous souvenez.
Mon mari a ete bien mal, mon bon Monsieur le President, depuis qu'il
a eu I'honneur de venir vous saluer. II a passe trois semaines au lit.
Ah, c'est triste d'etre malade au lit loin de chez soi. Son lit est si
dur ! II n'aime pas la cuisine anglaise, pauvre cher homme. II est tout
demoralise. Je viens vous dire que nous voulons retourner chez nous,
Pouvez vous me donner encore quelque chose. Monsieur le President,
pour nous aider? Le voyage est cher, il faut sejourner en HoUande avant
d'obtenir la permission de rentrer en Belgique. Nous aurons la per-
mission. Nous sommes de petites gens. Nous sommes inoffensifs. On
ne nous remarquera seulement pas. Qu'est-ce que c'est que deux
vieilles gens pauvres en voyage ? Rien du tout. Personne n'y prend garde.
Mon bon Monsieur, il faut que mon mari rentre chez lui a Fosses.
II est malade. II croit qu'il va mourir, pauvre cher homme ! Pour mourir
on n'est bien que chez soi, pas vrai. Monsieur le President ? Et puis
nous avons notre caveau — un beau caveau — au cimetiere de Fosses.
Cela nous a coute cher. Nous etions des rentiers chez nous vous savez.
Ce serait bete de se laisser mourir loin de chez soi, n'est-ce pas? Quand
on possede une * concession k perpetuite ' on doit en profiter. . . . C'est
aussi votre avis, Monsieur le President? "
38s
DD
THE PROPRIETARY INSTINCT.
DON'T think you remember me, M. le President ? I came to see
you before — with my husband, poor dear man ! — and you assisted
him, too — four pounds sterling. You don't remember ?
HouffaHers his name is. A painter — at least, an amateur painter
, — from Fosses. You know all about it ? Ah, I see you do
recollect ! Well, my good M. le President, my husband has been
very ill since he had the honour of coming to pay his respects to
you. He has spent three weeks in bed. Ah, it's a sad thing to be
ill in bed far from home ! His bed is so hard ! He doesn't like English
cookery, poor dear man, it quite upsets him. I've come to tell you
that we want to return to our own home. Could you give me some-
thing more to help us, M. le President? The voyage is expensive, and
one must stay in Holland till one obtains permission to re-enter Belgium.
We shall get permission — ^we're humble folk, so inoffensive — we shan't
be even noticed. What are two poor old people on a journey? Nothing
at all. Nobody pays any attention to them. My good Monsieur, my
husband really must go back to his home at Fosses. He is ill. He
believes he is dying, poor dear man ! One can't die comfortably anywhere
except at home, can one, M. le President? And besides, we have a tomb
of our own — a beautiful tomb — in the cemetery at Fosses. We paid a
good price for it. We had money in the Funds at home, you know.
It would be siUy to let oneself die far from one's country, wouldn't it?
And when one owns a freehold burial allotment one ought to take
advantage of it. . . . Don't you agree with me, M. le President ? "
386
FAUTE D'UN INTERPRETE!
ILS etaient parmi une foule de retugies debarques ensemble,
lis ne parlaient que le flamand. Et ce soir U personne precise-
ment ne comprenait un traitre mot de cette langue. Tous les
autres pauvres diables avaient fini de s'expliquer, avaient ete
enregistres et cases. lis restaient U, ahuris, toute Phorreur
des scenes qu'ils venaient de traverser encore empreinte dans leurs
yeux stupefaits. Lui, 45 ans environ, mediocre d'apparence, Pair
viUageois, elle un peu plus jeune, forte, rouge, rustique k souhait.
Les membres du Comite cherchaient en vain k deviner ce que I'un
ou Pautre, en phrases volubiles, s'efforgait de faire entendre. C'etait un
Samedi soir. On savait que le surlendemain Lundi un interprete devait
venir, et I'on se dit qu'il serait temps encore de comprendre alors les
discours des deux refugies. Par signes quelqu'un les mena jusqu'il un
reduit amenage en chambre pour deux personnes et apres avoir essuye
un nouveau deluge de phrases inintelligibles se retira decourage.
Les Beiges finirent par se taire et s'arranger. Le Dimanche s'ecoula
sans incidents.
Quand enfin Pinterprete flamand survint le Lundi il semblait que
le couple n'eut plus rien a lui dire. II fallut qu'il insist at pour obtenir
qu'on lui repetat les explications si verbeusement prodiguees Pavant
veille. Les deux paysans demeuraient intimides. A la fin la femme se
decida k parler.
Ce qu'elle avait voulu faire comprendre etait simple. Elle ne connaissait
pas du tout son compagnon, emigre d'un autre village. La communaute
de Pepreuve et Pignorance de toute autre langue que le flamand les
avait seuls rapproches. On les avait pris pour un menage et loges
ensemble, malgre leurs protestations. L'interprete pouffait de rire. II
narra Pincident aux membres presents du Comite qui se tordaient.
On chargea l'interprete de presenter au couple des excuses et des
regrets. On allait tout de suite leur donner des gites separes, dej^ on
leur montrait le chemin. Mais les braves gens, tres tranquillement,
declarerent que cela n'etait plus necessaire, qu'ils etaient maintenant
habitues Pun k Pautre, que parlant la meme langue ils voulaient
desormais rester ensemble. II a fallu les marier !
387
FOR WANT OF AN INTERPRETER !
THEY had come on shore together with a crowd of refugees.
They spoke nothing but Flemish, and on this particular
evening there was nobody who understood one single
word of that language. All the other poor devils had
ended in rendering themselves intelligible and been regis-
tered and allotted their quarters. These two remained where they
were in utter bewilderment, all the horror of the scenes through which
they had lately passed still impressed upon their dazed eyes. He
was about forty-five, of ordinary appearance, and the air of a villager ;
she was rather younger, as strong and ruddy and rustic a young woman
as you could wish to see. The members of the Committee tried in vain
to make out what each of the couple was volubly striving to explain.
It was a Saturday evening; the Committee knew that on the next day
but one, Monday, an interpreter would arrive, and they decided that
it would be time enough then to understand what the two refugees had
been saying. Someone conducted them by signs to a shelter which
had been arranged to accommodate two persons, and, after sustaining
another deluge of incomprehensible phrases, retired discouraged. The
Belgians finally became silent and settled down. Sunday passed
without incident. When the interpreter at last turned up on
Monday it appeared that the couple had no longer anything to tell
him. He had to insist before he could induce them to repeat the
explanations which on the previous Saturday had been so lavishly
verbose. Eventually the woman decided to speak. What she had
been trying to make clear was quite simple. She was an absolute
stranger to her companion, who came from another village. It was
merely fellowship in misfortune and ignorance of any language but
their own which had brought them in contact. And in spite of their
protestations they had been mistaken for a married couple and lodged
accordingly !
The interpreter was convulsed with laughter. The members of the
Committee whom he informed of the incident were similarly affected,
but instructed him to convey their regrets and apologies to the couple.
Preparations were at once made to give them separate billets, and they
were already being directed to them when the good people tranquilly
388
FOR WANT OF AN INTERPRETER !
remarked that it was no longer necessary. They had got accustomed to
one another, and, as they spoke the same language, they wished to
remain together.
So they had to be married!
389
"ZUSTER!"
C'EST un large gar^on de Flandre. Une balle lui a
perfore le poumon tandis que, ramassant a pleines mains
son fusil arme de la baionnette, il s'elan^ait sur I'Yser
pour prevenir la moUe et profonde attaque allemande.
On I'a ramene vers Calais, panse sommairement, puis
depose dans le bateau-hopital anglais pret a partir. II lui a semble
penetrer du coup dans un monde nouveau, clair, riant, parfume, aerien.
Lorsque, la traversee faite, il a ete dirige sur le bel hopital de
province, en ce Pays de Galles, rechauffe par le Gulf Stream, tant
de blanche ur, tant de ponctualite, tant d'intelligence ont precipite une
guerison dont la convalescence devrait etre delicieuse.
Cependant le gargon demeure melancolique et ferme. En vain
nurses et visiteuses ont mis en oeuvre les moyens les plus varies de
distraction, toutes ces ressources d'enjouement et de plaisir infaillibles
pour derider les Tommies et qui rendent Part du " Cheer up " insepar-
able de la science du " Nursing." Plusieurs jeunes et fraiches infir-
mieres ont fini par faire la moue, sous la coiffe posee a ravir parmi des
cheveux ondules. Decidement ce soldat beige est trop grave, reserve,
silencieux. II ne silfle pas avec le bruyant phonographe qui trone tout
en haut de la salle. II est gauche quand on lui allume, sous le plus
genereux sourire, la cigarette permise et pas une fois il n'a presse
familierement la main fine qu'on lui abandonnerait.
En desespoir de cause on en a parle a I'aumonier, ce benedictin
d'Afflighem, depayse lui aussi par I'exil. Manque-t-il quelque chose
au soldat beige ? Qu'est-ce qui I'amuserait ?
Dom Claes, apres un bout de conversation avec le blesse, a eu un
mysterieux colloque avec une petite infirmiere modeste, sans beaute
ni grace et qui applique rigoureusement sur ses tempes le bonnet blanc
au point qu'on ne voit plus rien de ses cheveux. Et comme le soir
venait dans la vaste salle, il I'a poussee vers le lit du Flamand, auquel
il a fait un signe affirmatif de la tete. Puis il s'est retire discretement, a
son tour.
L'ombre alors, qui me Pa repete, a entendu une chose etrange. Ce
sont sept petits mots confus, murmures dans la langue du terroir,
suivis de longs sanglots copieux, faciles et bruyants : " Och ! Zuster,
" ZUSTER ! »
laat my ne kier wijnen." (" Ah ! ma soeur, laisse-moi un peu pleurer ! ")
La nurse, modeste, qui ne comprend pourtant pas le flamand, a
repondu comme il le fallait, non pas avec les levres. Elle a pris dans
le creux de son bras frele la lourde tete du grand gar^on et elle s'est
contentee de la soutenir pendant qu'il pleurait tout son soul comme
une bete. . . .
Depuis ce soir c'est k la petite nurse insignifiante, au bonnet ferme
comme celui d'une religieuse, qu'on confie k I'hdpital de X. le soin des
blesses beiges melancoliques. Et j'ai surpris un jour deux Bruxellois
sentencieux, chauffant au soleil leurs membres encore endoloris par le
long sejour dans la tranchee ou on les avait releves sanglants, et qui la
voyant passer disaient gravement I'un a I'autre : " Celle 14, fieu, c'est
une vraie Zuster. On sait une fois pleurer avec elle tant qu'on pent. . . .
Apres on est de nouveau un homme pour aller taper sur les Boches."
Mystere d'une race fruste et sensible qui, comme le sol aride et doux,
a besoin de pluie pour fleurir !
391
" SISTER ! "
HE was a big fellow from Flanders. His lung was perforated
by a bullet whilst he was rushing with fixed bayonet
towards the Yser, to meet a languid but dense German
attack. He was taken to Calais, summarily bandaged,
and then put on board an English hospital ship which was
just about to leave harbour. It seemed to him as if he had suddenly
entered into a new world, bright, laughing, perfumed and airy.
When, at the end of the voyage, he was transferred to a fine hospital
in Wales, that country warmed by the Gulf Stream, the dazzling
cleanliness, the punctuaHty, and intelligence of his environment have
shortened a convalescence that should have been wholly delightful.
And yet he remains melancholy and unresponsive. In vain have
nurses and lady visitors employed the most varied methods to enliven
him, all the resources which are infallible with " Tommies," and which
render the art of " cheering up " so indispensable to the science of
nursing. More than one young and fresh-cheeked attendant has given up
the attempt with a little frown of despair beneath the cap so ravishingly
planted on her wavy hair. This Belgian soldier is decidedly too grave,
reserved and silent. He does not whistle in tune to the blaring gramo-
phone which dominates the ward. He is awkward when with the most
generous smile they light the permitted cigarette for him, and never
once has he familiarly pressed the delicate hand that surrendered itself
to his clasp. At a loss to account for all this, they have consulted the
Chaplain, a Benedictine monk from Afilighem, who, like the patient, was
an exile. Is there anything the Belgian soldier wants ? What is it
that would amuse him ?
Dom Claes, after a little conversation with the wounded man, has
had a mysterious colloquy with a humble little probationer, who is
neither beautiful nor graceful, and whose white cap is so rigorously
brought down over her forehead that her hair is invisible. And, as the
evening gathers in the great hall, he leads her towards the bed of the
Fleming, to whom he gives an affirmative nod and discreetly retires.
Then the shadows that encircled the couple (and told me afterwards
what took place) heard a strange thing — just seven short confused
words, murmured in native fatois, followed by a long fit of sobbing —
" SISTER ! "
copious, easy-flowing, and noisy. " Och ! Zuster, laat my ne kier
wijnen ! " (" Oh ! Sister, let me cry a bit ! ")
The nurse, though embarrassed and also unable to understand
Flemish, made just the right reply — but not in words. She drew
the big fellow's heavy head under her frail arm, and was content
with supporting him, while he wept his full with an animal-like
unrestraint. . . .
Ever since that evening it is that insignificant little nurse, vnth the
head-dress as severe as a nun's, who is entrusted at the X. Hospital vnth
the care of any wounded Belgians who are in low spirits.
And one day I overheard two sententious citizens of Brussels who
were sitting in the sun, warming limbs still sore from long sojourning
in the trenches from which they had been carried out bleeding, gravely
remark to one another as they saw the little probationer pass : " She's
a real Zuster, she is. One can have one's cry out with her once for all
. . . and after that, you know, one feels man enough again to have
another go at the Boches."
A strange race, which is both hard-bitten and sensitive, and, like its
soft and arid soil, needs rain before it can put forth flowers !
393
LA VOIX DES HUMBLES.
J'AI depouille, pendant quelques jours, pendant les premiers
temps, la correspondance du comite d'Aldwych. Parmi des
certaines d'offres d'hospitalite, j'ai surtout retenu celles que
nous firent, ^ cette epoque, une foule de gens, de condition
plus que modeste, qui n'hesiterent pas k. ouvrir leur porte
toute grande a nos malheureux concitoyens. II est vraiment regret-
table que certaines de ces lettres n'aient pas ete conservees.
EUes meriteraient d'etre reproduites, en fac-simile, ^ cote du
temoignage des plus grands personnages du Royaume-Uni, avec leur
ecriture laborieuse, leur orthographe boiteuse, et la touchante sincerite
de leur style. II en est une pourtant dont je me souviens et que je puis,
pour ainsi dire, transcrire ici mot pour mot, apres plus d'un an. Ces
souvenirs la sont a I'epreuve du temps.
La lettre etait datee d'une petite localite industrielle du Lancashire.
" Cher Monsieur,
" Nous n'avons pas d'enfant. Nous voudrions adopter un petit
Beige. Nous prefererions, si possible, une fille, mais un gargon serait
aussi le bien venu. Nous prefererions aussi que I'enfant ne soit pas
infirme ou gravement malade, parce que nous n'aurions pas peut-etre
les moyens de le soigner comme il faut. Comme nous n'avons pas de
quoi faire le voyage de Londres, voulez-vous^ I'envoyer k X. par le
train de trois heures. J'irai le chercher k la gare. C'est 14s. 6d. en
troisieme, que je vous envoie ci-joint.
" Avec mes remerciements anticipes pour le petit ou la petite Beige,
croyez-moi, cher Monsieur," etc.
394
THE CHARITY OF THE POOR.
DURING the first days of the Belgian immigration I
went through the letters received by the Aldwych Com-
mittee. Among hundreds of offers of hospitality I
especially recall those that came to us at that time from a
number of people whose station in life was humble, but
who hastened, nevertheless, to throw open their doors to our unfor-
tunate fellow-countrymen. It is much to be regretted that some of
these letters have not been preserved. They deserved, as much as
those of the highest personages in the United Kingdom, to be repro-
duced in facsimile, with their laboured handwriting, defective spelling,
and the touching sincerity of their style.
One of them in particular I remember so well that I can, so to speak,
transcribe it here, word for word, after more than a year. Such memories
are proof against time.
The letter was written from a small industrial town in Lancashire,
and was as follows : —
" Dear Sir,
" We have no child of our own. We should like to adopt a little
Belgian. We should prefer a girl, if possible, but a boy would be equally
welcome. We should also prefer that the child was not sickly or seriously
ill, because we shouldn't perhaps be able to take proper care of it. As
we cannot afford to travel to London, will you send it to X. by the
3 o'clock train ? I will meet it at the station. The third-class fare is
14s. 6d., which I enclose. Thanking you in advance for the little Belgian
boy, or girl, believe me, dear Sir," etc.
395
PRESS
BY EMILE CAMMAERTS
BrLLCjl AN r OrLMS. chants Pamotiques et Autrcs Poemes.
With English Translations by TITA BRAND-CAMMAERTS and a
Portrait in Photogravure from a Drawing specially made for this volume
by VERNON HILL. Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net.
Morning Post. — " The proceeds of the first edition are to go to the Belgian soldiers' fund for the
purchase of tobacco. . . . Buy, oh buy, that the pipes of the Belgian soldiers may send up blue wreaths
of sacramental smoke — and that you, too, may profit in a subtler way, by the rare perfume of the Muse's
flaming heart burning on many small altars ! All the offerings of faith are in this little book."
WAR POEMS, and Other Translations
By the EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON. Narrow Crown 8vo,
4s. 6d. net.
«*« Included in this volume, which was published in aid of the Belgian Relief Fund, to which the entire
profit of the book will be devoted, are translations from the French, Italian, Latin, and Greek into
English, and into Latin and Greek from the English.
Lord Cromer in "The Spectator " for July 17th, 1915, says: "Lord Curzon, in his brief preface,
almost apologizes for having joined in the throng of those statesmen and politicians who have preceded
him in falling victims to the * amiable hobby ' of translation. For two reasons no apology is necessary.
One is that the translations themselves possess great intrinsic merit. The other is that although Lord
Curzon has made himself the mouthpiece of ideas conceived by others, he has by no means, in assuming
the part of a translator, sunk his own vigorous personality. His unswerving patriotism, his high sense
of duty, his admiration and sympathy for all those deeds and thoughts which call forth eulogistic
or sympathetic treatment, are clearly discernible whether he is giving us an English version of the
French of Verhaeren and Cammaerts, or of the Greek of Demosthenes and the Anthologists,"
POEMS OF EMILE VERHAEREN.
Selected and Rendered into English by ALMA STRETTELL. With a
Portrait of the Author by JOHN SARGENT. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. net.
SONGS AND SONNETS FOR ENG-
LAND IN WAR TIME. Being a Collection of
Lyrics inspired by the Great War by Various Authors. With a Cover
Design by VERNON HILL. Crown 8vo, Paper, is. net ; Cloth, 2s. net.
Pall Mall Gazette.—" Altogether the book, with its 50 poets, its martial and humane spirit, its timely
appearance, and its artistic format, makes a singularly gratifying contribution to the literature of
the war."
Times. — "Competent verse written in a fine spirit .... a volume worth possessing."
Sunday Times. — " We have every reason to be proud of our poets, who in this volume are in truth
' the abstracts and chronicles of the time.' "
JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD, LONDON, W.
FRENCH NOVELISTS of TO-DAY {i^^:,)
By WINIFRED STEPHENS. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
MAURICE BARRES, REN^ BAZIN, PAUL BOURGET, PIERRE DE COULEVAIN, ANATOLE
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ROMAIN ROLLAND, MARCELLE TINAYRE, RENfi BOYLESVE, JEAN ET JER6mE
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THE WAY THEY HAVE IN THE
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♦** A list of its chapters gives an adequate description of this splendid little booh. It is both
interesting and informing, The chapters are as follows :
1. Difference between the Soldier and the 11. The Regimental Sergeant-Major
Civilian 12. Tommy's Grub
2. The New Recruit 13. The Soldier's Wife
3. Tommy's Private Language 14. Non-Commissioned Officers
4. How the Army is arranged * 15. Officers
5. Cinderellas of the Army 16. Nicknames and other Distinctions
6. Sentry Go. 17. Regimental Colours
7. Officers' Badges of Rank 18. Courts-martial
8. Military Etiquette 19. The Soldier's Rank, Ribbons, etc.
9. 1 he Commanding Officer 20. The Wounded
10. Private Tommy Atkins, C.B. 21. Odds and Ends.
SONGS FROM THE TRENCHES
By CAPT BLACKALL. Crown 8vo. Cloth 2s. net. Also stiff paper
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♦** Captain Blackall wrote many of these poems while actually at the front, and his fellow officers were
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front. Since his poems were so popular in the Army, Captain Blackall was persuaded by his friends to
publish them, and he has done well to take their advice, for undoubtedly his poems are unique in their
way. They have all the intense reality and excitement of the firing line, and they go with a swing and
rhythm which quite carry one away.
ZEPPELINS AND SUPER-ZEPPELINS
By R. P. HEARNE, Author of "Aerial Warfare." Crown 8vo. 2S. net.
JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD, LONDON, W.
NOVELS BY WILLIAM J. LOCKE
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KITCHENER CHAPS. By a. neil lyons,
Author of "Arthurs," &c. Cloth, Crown 8vo, ix. net.
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Morning Post. — ** It is on the one side an antidote to the sentimental and mawkish, and on another a
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Outlook. — "A writer who, in such times as these, sets out to make us laugh — and succeeds in his
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Crown 8vo, ix. net.
Mr. Pierre Mille has already made a name for himself as a writer about the French " Tommies," more
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is a collection of stories recording their sayings and doings on various occasions daring the present
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JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD, LONDON, W.
THE WORKS OF
ANATOLE FRANCE
IN AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
EDITED BY FREDERIC CHAPMAN
Uniform, Demy 8vo. 6/-
♦THE RED LILY
A Translation by Winifred Stephens
MOTHER OF PEARL
A Translation by the Editor
THE GARDEN OF EPICURUS
A Translation by Alfred Allinson
♦THE CRIME OF SYLVESTRE
BONNARD
A Translation by Lafcadio Hearn
THE WELL OF ST. CLARE
A Translation by Alfred Allinson
THAIS
A Translation by Robert Bruce Douglas
THE WICKER-WORK WOMAN
A Translation by M. P. Willcocks
THE WHITE STONE
A Translation by C. E. Roche
PENGUIN ISLAND
A Translation by A. W. Evans
BALTHASAR
A Translation by Mrs. John Lane
THE ELM TREE ON THE MALL
A Translation by M. P. Willcocks
ON LIFE AND LETTERS 2 Vols.
First and Second Series. A Translation by
A. W. Evans.
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JACQUES TOURNEBROCHE
A Translation by Alfred Allinson
AT THE SIGN OF THE REINE
PEDAUQUE
A Translation by Mrs. Wilfrid Jacksoh
♦ Also Cheap Edition, bound in cloth, with illustrated
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JOCASTA AND THE FAMISHED
CAT
A Translation by Mrs. Farlev
THE ASPIRATIONS OF JEAN
SERVIEN
A Translation by Alfred Allinson
THE OPINIONS OF JEROME
COIGNARD
A Translation by Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson
MY FRIEND'S BOOK
A Translation by J, Lewis May
THE GODS ARE ATHIRST
A Translation by Alfred Allinson
THE REVOLT OF THE ANGELS
A Translation by Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson
CRAINQUEBILLE
A Translation by Winifred Stephens
THE PATH OF GLORY
A Translation by Alfred Allinson. With
Illustrat ons. Written by Anatole France
to be sold for the benefit of French disabled
soldiers.
THE AMETHYST RING
A Translation by Bj^reng^re Drillien
[In the press
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A Translation by J. Lewis May \ln the press
FOUR PLAYS
A Translation by Mr. and Mrs. Wilfrid
Jackson [/» preparation
Also uniform in size :
JOAN OF ARC
A Translation by Winifred Stephens
With 8 Illustrations. Two Vols. 25s. net.
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638 ^ ^°°^ °^ Belgium »s gratitude
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