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Belgium in war time, 




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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028358798 







IN 
WAR TIME 

byGomtnandant 
de Qevtache de Qotnevy 











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BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



TRANSLATION OF NOTE TO THE 
FRENCH EDITION 

Published in October, 1915, in the Norwegian and 
Swedish Languages, in Christiania and Stockholm, 
UNDER the Title : " The Country that will not 
Die," the Present Work was set up by Joseph van 
Melle, Printer, of Brussels, attached during the 
War to the Publishing House of Berger-Levrault. 
Printing was completed on the 15TH of June, 1916, 
BY Berger-Levrault, at Nancy, after the Fuftm 
Bombardment of the City. 



BELGIUM IN 
WAR TIME 

BY 

COMMANDANT DE GERLACHE DE GOMERY 

DR. HONORIS CAUSA OF THE UNIVERSITY OP LOUVAIN 
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES OF LONDON AND PARIS 
HONORARY UEMBBR OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETIES OF BRUSSELS, COPENHAGEN, GENEVA, 
PHILADELPHIA, RIO DE JANEIRO, ROME, ETC. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH EDITION BY 

BERNARD MIALL 



WITH S8 ILLUSTRATIONS, 6 MAPS 
AND MANY FACSIMILES 




NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 






\ 1 L 



THIS BOOK IS PIOUSLY DEDICATED 
TO THE 
MEMORY OF MY BROTHER 

GASTON DE GERLACHE DE GOMERY 

WHO DIED FOR OUR COUNTRY 
THE 2ND OF AUGUST, I915 



CONTENTS 

I 



PAGE 
BELGIUM I 



II 

THE NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM 7 

III 

THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM i . . . . 13 

iv; 

BY FORCE OF ARMS 27 

Vi 

BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 45 

VI 

STILL erect! 99 

VII 

IN THE LANDS OF REFUGE 132 

VIII 

INVIOLATE BELGIUM 145 

IX 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM . . . . 

vii 



168 



yiii CONTENTS 

X 

PACB 
RUIN AND WASTE AND DEVASTATION . 225 

XI 

THE SOUL OF BELGIUM ■ • 228 

APPENDICES— 

I TRANSLATION OF THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM . . . 239 

II THE CIVIC GUARD OF BELGIUM 24O 

III — DECLARATION OF MME. TIELEMANS (WIDOW) CONCERN- 
ING THE HAPPENINGS AT AERSCHOT .... 24I 

IV — CIVIL PRISONERS . . . .... . . . 242 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

TT-H • /-I t TAI Ti 1 ^° rOLLOW PAGE 

Hotel de Ville and Grand Place, Brussels 20 

The King goes to Parliament, 4th of August, 1914 . . . . 20 

The Cloth Hall, Belfry, Hotel de Ville and Cathedral, Ypres . . 20 

German Troops Crossing the Belgian Frontier, 4th of August, 19 14 20 

One of the Forts of Liege after the Bombardment .... 20 

Living Shields 20 

Page from the Notebook of Adolph Schliiter 52 

The Church, at Vise, Burned loth August, 1914 .... 52 

The Population took refuge in the Woods 52 

At Tamines 52 

Civilians Deported to Germany 52 

At Louvain 52 

In Louvain 52 

The Crypt of the Library, Louvain, after the Tragedy ... 84 

A Brabant Farmhouse, after the Germans had Passed ... 84 

Foundry at Montigny-sur-Sambre, Burned by the Germans . . 84 

Place de la Station, Louvain 84 

A " Faked " German Postcard 84 

Antwerp Raided by a Zeppelin 84 

MM. de Sadeleer, Vandervelde, Carton de Wiart, De Lichtervelde 

and Hymans, Pilgrims of Justice 84 

A Sample of the Work of the German " Pioneers " at Termonde 1 16 

The Hotel de Ville, Termonde, after the 17th of September, 1914 116 

Artistic Treasures were removed to a Place of Safety . . . 116 
Exodus from Malines, 27th of September, 1914 . . . .116 

At Malines, after the Bombardment of 27th of September, 1914 . 116 

The Duffel Bridge over the Nethe, Destroyed by the Belgians . 116 

Our Soldiers helping the Poor Fugitives as far as they were able 116 
The Bathing-machines . . . like so many little Caravans . .116 

Ostend, the 13th of October 148 

Country folk forsaking their Burning Villages 148 

Refugees' Camp at Bergen-op-Zoom 148 

Who will Help Us to Search? 148 

Belgian Postage-stamp, Havre 148 

The Hostelry, Saint-Adresse 148 

is 



S LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

TO FOLLOW PACS 

The Yser Countryside 148 

The Yser before the War 148 

Whence emerge the Ruins of Farmhouses, and often Corpses . • 148 
The Inundations have Produced Great Sheets of Water . . .148 

During the Battle of the Yser 180 

A German Villa, Prepared for Heavy Howritzers, Destroyed by the 

Belgian Engineers 180 

Ypres . . . They Have Burned the Cloth Hall . . • .180 
Ypres — ^A Chamber in the Cloth Hall before the War . . .180 

The Same Chamber in November, 1915 180 

He never, on the Yser any more than at Antwerp, leaves his Army 

for a Day nor an Hour 180 

Elisabeth, Queen of the Belgians 212 

At Dinant 212 

Chateau near Malines Plundered and Burned by the Germans . .212 
Inspection of Belgians capable of Military Service .... 2i3 
Studio of a Belgian Artist Visited by Germans . . . .212 

Safe Broken Open by German Soldiers 212 

Traces of their Passage 212 

Belgium became a vast Prison 212 

Farm-houses, Cottages, and Windmills Demolished . . . .212 

Brussels — Reading the German Telegrams 212 

In the Palais de Justice, Brussels 228 

The Yser is Bordered with Ruins 228 

The Germans have Completely Destroyed Ypres .... 228 
What the Germans Cannot Conquer ...... ,., . . 228 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

I 

BELGIUM 

When Belgium was separated from Holland, to which coun- 
try she had been arbitrarily united in 1814, she set up an ex- 
tremely liberal Constitution. 

This constitution, promulgated on the 7th of February, 1831, 
made Belgium a representative monarchy, under a hereditary 
ruler whose title is "The King of the Belgians" (not "the 
King of Belgium "; there is a distinction). 

Administratively speaking, Belgium is divided into nine prov- 
inces. The province of Brabant — whose chief city, Brussels, is 
also the capital of the kingdom — is the heart of the organism. 
Around it lie the provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liege, Namur, 
Hainault, and East Flanders. The two remaining provinces — 
Luxemburg and West Flanders — lie in the south-east and the 
north-west of the kingdom respectively. 

Considered from the standpoint of its area merely, Belgium 
is a very small country. 

Her surface measures, indeed, only 10,340 square miles, or 
rather less than one-eighteenth of Germany or France, her two 
powerful neighbours to the east and the south. 

Belgium is smaller than Denmark; smaller even than Holland, 
her northern sister. To cross the country by rail along its great- 
est diameter, from Arlon to Ostend, that is, from the south-east 
to the north-west, requires only four or five hours. 

Yet the soil of this little country presents a most remarkable 
variety of aspects. 

To begin with, there are the mountainous, wooded Ardennes ; 
the banks of the Meuse, with an infinite variety of wild land- 
scapes; the fertile table-lands of Coudroy and the Sambre-et- 
Meuse; the rolling, verdant landscapes of La Hesbaye and 



2 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Brabant; the rugged Borinage or " Black Country " with its sul- 
len slag-heaps ; and, on the other hand, the melancholy Campine, 
with its heaths and pine-woods and sheets of water ; and, lastly, 
bordered by a strip of sand-hills which protect them froni the 
sea, the fertile plains of Flanders, traversed by the majestic 
Scheldt and the tiny Yser. 

If in place of considering her territorial dimensions we judge 
Belgium by the number of her inhabitants, we must at once as- 
sign her a more important position among the countries of Eu- 
rope. 

Her population, in short, on the 31st of December, 19 13, 
numbered 7,658,000 souls/ 

From the ethnical point of view there is, it is true, a distinc- 
tion between the Flemings and the Walloons. But in spite of all 
that has been said of this distinction, and in spite of a duality of 
language, common aspirations and common destinies have given 
them one single soul. When the vital interests of the country 
are at stake, all hearts beat in unison, and then, according to the 
happy expression of a national poet, " Fleming and Walloon 
are only baptismal names: Belgian is our family name." 

The same love of industry actuates the two races. Both dis- 
play in an equal degree the energy of action and the persevering 
determination which are the predominant qualities of the Belgian 
people. 

Again, if we consider Belgium from the economic point of 
view, we shall see that she bulks still larger; indeed, this time 
the increase will be prodigious. 

We shall find that the country is covered by a network of 
railways, covering a total length of 2,899 miles, over which — 
before the 3rd of August, 19 14 — several thousands of trains ran 
daily, carrying annually nearly 100 miUions of passengers.^ 

We shall find that beside this principal railway system there 
are numerous railways of secondary importance, covering a total 
of 2,608 miles, and in connection with our rivers and navigable 
waterways ' there are many canals. 

We shall find that Belgium is full of factories, workshops, 
foundries, etc., which consume 2,500,000 h.p., provided by 

' This means an average of 676 inhabitants to the square mile. At this 
rate Norway would contain nearly 85 millions of inhabitants, Sweden 116 
millions, and France 137 millions. 

' The first Continental railway was built in Belgium in 1835, between Brus- 
sels and Malines. 

° Rivers which have been dredged, deepened, or embanked, or otherwise 
made navigable. 



BELGIUM 3 

30,000 engines. We shall find that the Belgian coal-mines yield 
about 25 million tons of coal each year, while the annual pro- 
duction of cast-iron is more than 2,500,000 tons. 

We shall find that the ever-increasing movement of shipping 
in the port of Antwerp — the commercial metropolis of the coun- 
try — amounted, in 1913, to more than 16 millions of tons, so 
that Antwerp is one of the leading ports of the world. 

Finally, we shall find that the national trade of Belgium — that 
is, the sum of her imports and exports (through freights being 
deducted) — amounted in 1913 to £350,000,000, or £46 5s. 7d. 
per inhabitant, which was — proportionately — three times the 
trade of France or of Germany: an enormous figure, which gives 
Belgium the fifth place in the statistical table of the world's com- 
merce. 

Yes; from the absolute economic standpoint little Belgium 
stands — or rather stood, in 19 13-14 — immediately beneath Eng- 
land, Germany, the United States, and France. From this point 

of view, then, Belgium is quite one of the " Great Powers." 

* * * 

This sketch would be too rudimentary did I not add a few 
data by w^ich I shall attempt to define the soul of my country. 

Here, to begin with, is an essential trait: the Belgians' love 
of liberty. 

If we go back to the origins of the Belgian people, and follow 
its history down to modern times, we shall often behold it in 
arms, but we shall find that it was always fighting for liberty. 

From the time of Caesar, who declared the Belgians to be the 
most valiant among the Gauls, throughout the course of the cen- 
turies, it was for independence and liberty alone that the Bel- 
gians fought. Sometimes it was to preserve rights already ac- 
quired; sometimes it was to obtain some additional franchise; 
but it was never to increase their territory or to dominate their 
neighbours. 

In all times the Belgians have loved liberty with a fervour 
which has often inspired them to deeds of the noblest heroism. 

The wonderful Hotels de Ville ( i ) ,' with their stately towers, 
which our ancestors have bequeathed to us — what are they but 
temples raised to liberty? 

Here is another trait of the Belgian character: the love of the 
arts, the worship of the Beautiful. Always the Belgians have 
loved the arts and have excelled in them. 

' The figures in brackets refer to the illustrations. 



4 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

The Hotels de Ville, the belfries, the guild-halls and market- 
houses, the ancient churches (3), and all those stirring records of 
the past with which our native soil is covered, are so many mas- 
terpieces of the art of architecture. 

And what inestimable jewels in these superb caskets — ^what 
wonders too in our museums! The works of the brothers Van 
Eyck — the inventors of oil-painting; of Van der Weyden, Mem- 
ling, Quentin Matsys, and other masters of the primitive Flem- 
ish school; the works of the fertile enchanter Rubens, of the 
graceful Van Dyck, and of the Breughels — a long and glorious 
line of painters; the works of Jordaens and Teniers, eloquent of 
the joy of life, which again is one of the characteristics of the 
Belgian soul; the works of De Vos, Snyders, and of many another 
master, whose famous names no Belgian can pronounce unmoved. 
How many other specimens of national art: tapestries, laces, 
stained-glass windows, household furniture, altar-screens, and 
what not; how many more specimens, carefully treasured up, 
which make Belgium one of those corners of the world in which 
is collected the greatest abundance of artistic wealth! 

As for music, here again — as a learned German writer upon 
music has very truly said — " this little out-of-the-way corner of 
the north-west of Europe, this land of alluvial deposits, a land of 
laborious industry and flourishing commerce, is the veritable 
home of the most bewitching of all the arts." Polyphony was of 
Belgian origin. Ludwig van Beethoven was of Flemish origin. 
" We must not overlook this fact," says Romain RoUand, " if we 
wish to understand the fiery independence of his character, and 
many peculiarities which are not properly German." Gretry 
was born at Liege. 

Ancient though it is, Belgian art has not degenerated. It 
remains worthy of its noble and most ancient traditions. 

The pictorial art of Leys, Charles Degroux, Stevens, Bou- 
lenger, Courtens, Gilsoul, Frederic, Baertsoen, Claus, Van Rys- 
selberghe, and I know not how many more; the sculptural art 
of Constantin Meunler, Jef Lambeaux, Victor Rousseau, and 
George Minnie, to name only these ; the musical art of Gevaert, 
Peter Benoit, and Cesar Franck, shine in the first rank amid the 
productions of contemporary art. And all those who follow 
the movements of international literature will also place in the 
front rank the work of Georges Rodenbach, CamlUe Lemonnler, 
Emile Verhaeren, and Maurice Maeterlinck. 

In the domain of the sciences many Belgians have distinguished 



BELGIUM 5 

themselves, in the past as well as in the present. We may men- 
tion Mercator, who invented mathematical geography, and whose 
system of projections is still employed for the preparation of 
marine charts; Ortelius, who made the first geographical atlas; 
Vesalius and Van Helmont, who created anatomy and physiology 
respectively; Stevin, who invented the decimal calculus; Minckel- 
ers, who invented coal-gas in its application to lighting purposes ; 
all these were Belgians. Nearer our own days are other Belgian 
names radiant with the purest scientific glory : Quetelet, Plateau, 
Stas, Houzeau de Lehaye, Renard, the Van Benedens, etc. I 
am speaking only of the dead, and not all of them; but among 
these illustrious Belgians I must mention Brialmont, who was 
incontestably the greatest military engineer of the second half 
of the nineteenth century. 

Let us note also that for a long time Belgium has applied 
herself with victorious activity to " maturing the formulae of 
international law, and instituting laboratories of jurisprudence. 
Did she not dream of creating for the peoples a common intelli- 
gence, a human patrimony, a res communis omnium? The 
Institute of International Law was born of the initiative of an 
eminent Belgian, Rolin^Jacquemyns. The International Law 
Association was founded in Brussels in 1873. Two Belgians — 
A. Beernaert, the illustrious statesman, and M. Louis Franck — 
were present at the beginning of the conference on maritime law. 
The Institute of Comparative Law, more recently, has made it its 
business to give juridical studies a peculiar breadth, introducing 
an original and more profound method." ' 

There are in Belgium two State Universities, one at Liege and 
one at Gand, as well as three private universities: the Catholic 
University at Louvain, the Free University in Brussels, and the 
New University in Brussels. Besides these universities there are 
various scientific institutes and technical colleges, as well as schools 
of art and musical conservatories, and the majority of these es- 
tablishments are attended by numbers of foreign students, which 
is the best proof of the excellence of their teaching.^ 

A very old Flemish proverb, which is found also in Scotland : 
Oost, West, fhuis best—" East, West, hame's best "—proclaims 
the Belgian's love of his home and his country. 

Flemings or Walloons, the Belgians are a domestic, stay-at- 
home people. And although they have distinguished themselves 
in many overseas enterprises — such as the creation, in Central 
'Eugene Baie, Le Droit des Natiomlitcs, Paris, 191S (Felix Alcan). 



6 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Africa, of a colony eighty times larger than the mother country, 
the organisation of the public services in Persia, and the con- 
struction of important railways in China — as a general thing they 
do not often emigrate, and when they do so it is rarely without 
the intention to return. 

Life in Belgium, moreover, is — or was — pleasant, and it was 
for this reason, and because they were cordially welcomed, that 
so many foreigners have settled in the country. There were in 
Belgium, at the time of the last ten-yearly census (31st of De- 
cember, 1910), 248,562 foreigners, of whom 80,765 were 
French, 70,950 Dutch, 57,010 German, 6,974 English, 5,927 
Austro-Hungarian, and 26,936 of other nationalities. 

To close this chapter I will make one more remark, to which 
present circumstances give especial interest. 

The Treaty of 1839, which ratified the separation of Belgium 
and Holland, gave to Holland the north of Flanders. It results 
from this fact that the mouth of the Scheldt is entirely Dutch. 
Holland commands the mouth of the Scheldt, and, therefore, 
holds the key of the two great Belgian ports, Antwerp and Gand. 



II 

THE NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM 

When the delegates from the United Kingdom, France, 
Austria-Hungary^, Prussia, and Russia assembled in London, in 
December, 1830, to consider the conditions under which the 
Belgian provinces tnight be constituted an independent State, 
they put their heads together in order to inquire into " the new 
arrangements best adapted to combine the independence of Bel- 
gium with the interest of the security of the other Powers and 
the preservation of the European balance." 

Their labours bore fruit, on the 20th of January, 1831, in 
the shape of a draft treaty, which stated, in Article 5, that Bel- 
gium " should form an independent and perpetually neutral 
State," and that "the five (contracting) Powers would guaran- 
tee this perpetual neutrality as well as the integrity and inviolabil- 
ity of its territory." 

The treaty now known as the "Treaty of the XVIII Ar- 
ticles," which ratified this arrangement, recognised Belgium's 
" right to defend herself against all foreign aggression." 

A later treaty, knovm as the " Treaty of the XXIV Articles," 
which, being finally accepted by Holland, became, in April, 1839, 
the definitive international statute of Belgium, proclaims, in no 
less definite terms, the principle of Belgian neutrality. 

Their Majesties the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, the 
Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary and Bohemia, the 
King of France, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of All the 
Russias declare. In Article I of this treaty, that the articles ap- 
pended to the text of the treaty concluded between their Majes- 
ties the King of the Belgians and the King of the Netherlands, 
Grand Duke of Luxemburg, are regarded as having the same 
force and validity as though they were inserted in the treaty itself, 
and that they are thus placed under the guarantee of their afore- 
said Majesties. And Article VII of an appendix to the treaty 
stipulates that : 

7 



8 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

" Belgium, within the limits indicated by Articles I, II, and 
IV (of the appendix), shall form an independent and perpetu- 
ally neutral State," 

And that: 

" Belgium shall be required to observe this same neutrality in 
respect of all other States." 

Belgium could not, therefore, in the case of any conflict what- 
soever, dispose of herself to her own liking, declaring herself 
neutral or participating in the conflict. Neutrality was imposed 



CUid, 



"VIT 



£fmsfi\if(twti^f' Mc«c4v' . , /22L Jtffi, CSvuutf X 'gnt<v»r aMit *i\»*ut> 

FACSIMILE OF ARTICLE VII OF AN APPENDIX TO THE TREATY OF 1839. 

Upon her perpetually, and this neutrality was guaranteed by Eng- 
land, Austria-Hungary, France, Prussia, and Russia. 

Before the present war there were only two other European 
States which were by treaty declared " perpetually neutral." 
These were Switzerland and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. 
But there were distinctions in the character of these so-called 
" perpetual " neutralities. Switzerland had been bound to neu- 
trality — since 1815 — only by her own will; while Luxemburg and 
Belgium were compelled to accept neutrality by the express will 
of the Powers. 

" Belgian neutrality," says Colonel F. Feyler, the eminent 
editor of the Revue militaire Suisse, " is a creation of the Pow- 
ers, among them the German Empire, which succeeded to the 
obligations of Prussia. Belgium is not, properly speaking, a 
neutral State ; she is a neutralised State ; but she is also an armed 
State, with the reservation that she is armed exclusively in order 
to defend herself in case of attack. 

"As for the neutrality of Luxemburg, it dates from 1867, 
the year in which the Grand Duchy was in danger of kindling the 



THE NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM 9 

war which three years later broke out between France and Ger- 
many. 

" The King of Holland was Grand Duke of Luxemburg. 
Napoleon III arranged that he should sell the Grand Duchy to 
France. This was a menace to the Prussian frontier, and Prussia 
prepared for war. The areopagus of the five European Powers 
intervened, as in 1830, in respect of Belgium. A treaty was 
signed in London, on the nth of May, 1807. 

" ' The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg,' says this treaty, * will 
henceforth form a perpetually neutral State. It will be required 
to observe this neutrality toward all States. The high contract- 
ing parties undertake to respect the privilege of neutrality stipu- 
lated by the present Article.' 

"And the treaty adds: 'Luxemburg being neutralised, the 
maintenance of fortresses upon its territory becomes unnecessary 
and objectless.' 

" Consequently the fortress of Luxemburg was demolished. 

" To sum up : The Swiss Confederation is a deliberately 
neutral State, armed as much in defence of this neutrality as in 
case circumstances independent of its desires and its will should 
make a change of policy a matter of obligation. Its sovereignty 
is complete. 

"The Kingdom of Belgium is a neutralised State; that is, its 
neutrality is a condition of sovereignty, and it is armed in de- 
fence of this neutrality. 

"The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg is a neutralised State; it 
is also disarmed, the Powers having undertaken to watch over its 
security themselves." ' 

Article II of the Treaty of the nth of May, 1867, declares: 

"This principle (of the neutrality of the Grand Duchy of 
Luxemburg) is and remains under the collective guarantee of 
the Powers signatory to the present treaty, with the exception 
of Belgium, which is itself a neutral State." 

Thus, incidentally, after the lapse of thirty years, the Treaty 
of the XXIV Articles was ratified. 

Three years later, it was confirmed and ratified anew, and this 
time in far more serious circumstances. The Franco-Prussian 
War had just broken out. Great Britain considered that the 
time had come to determine, for this particular case, the execu- 
tive details of the Treaty of 1839. Further treaties were con- 
cluded on the 9th of August, 1870, between Great Britain and 

^Journal de Genhe, 27th January, 191S, 2nd edition. 



lo BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

France on the one hand, and between Great Britain and Prussia 
on the other, with the " firm intention of maintaining the neu- 
trality of Belgium, as it was established by Article VII of the 
treaty signed in London on the 19th of April, 1839." The term 
of the validity of these new treaties was fixed at twelve months 
after the ratification of the treaty of peace, and it was expressly 
stipulated that after the expiration of this term " the independ- 
ence and neutrality of Belgium would continue as before to be 
based upon Article I of the five-fold treaty of the 19th of April, 
1839" — that is, upon the guarantee of the same five Powers. 

What was the import of these new treaties? Baron Anethan, 
the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, defined it, on the i6th 
of August, 1870, before' the Chamber of Representatives: 
" The separate and identical treaties concluded by England with 
the two Powers at war neither establish nor modify the obliga- 
tions resulting from the Treaty of 1839; they determine, for a 
given case, the practical method of executing these obligations; 
they by no means invalidate the engagements of the other guar- 
antee Powers, and, as their text testifies, they leave untouched 
as regards the future, the obligatory character of the previous 
treaty, with all its consequences." 

Whatever might be the nature of these private agreements 
between those of the Powers which guaranteed her neutrality, 
Belgium, being also fully determined to honour her engagements, 
remained mobilised throughout the entire duration of hostilities. 



With very few exceptions our statesmen, even until the last 
few years, have been intimately convinced that our neutrality 
would never be violated. 

One of them, M. Beernaert, who played a remarkable part in 
the deliberations of The Hague Conferences, even remarked, in 
the course of a debate upon the rules conditioning the occupation 
of invaded territory: " As for Belgium, her position is peculiar. 
Belgium is neutral, and this neutrality is guaranteed . . . 
notably by our powerful neighbours. Consequently we cannot be 
invaded." (First Conference, session of the 6th of June, 1899.) 

It is true that of late years some did on occasion venture to 
suspect the intentions of Germany. But on each of these occa- 
sions the leaders of German politics gave Belgium — directly or 
indirectly — the most definite assurances that her neutrality would 
be respected. 



THE NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM ii 

In 19 1 1, in the course of the controversy excited by the pro- 
motion of the Dutch proposals concerning the fortifications of 
Flushing, certain newspapers asserted that in case of a Franco- 
German war the neutrality of Belgium would be violated by 
Germany. The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs then sug- 
gested that a declaration made in the German Parliament, on the 
occasion of a debate on foreign policy, would be calculated to 
appease public opinion, and to allay public suspicion, which was 
greatly to be regretted from the point of view of the relations 
between the two countries. Herr Bethmann-HoUweg, who was 
sounded upon this subject, replied that Germany had no inten- 
tion of violating Belgian neutrality, but that he was of opinion 
that by making a public declaration to this effect he would en- 
feeble the military situation of the Empire in respect to France, 
who, being reassured as to her northern frontier, would concen- 
trate all her forces upon the east. 

On the 29th of April, 19 13, there was a debate in the Reichs- 
tag, in the course of a session of the Commission for the Budget, 
on the subject of Belgian neutrality. According to the officially 
inspired Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Baron Beyens,' the 
Belgian Minister in Berlin, gave the following account of the 
debate : 

" A member of the Social Democratic Party remarked : ' In 
Belgium the approach of a Franco-German war is regarded with 
apprehension, for it is feared that Germany will not respect the 
neutrality of Belgium,' Herr von Jagow, Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs, replied: 'The neutrality of Belgium is deter- 
mined by international conventions, and Germany is determined 
to respect these conventions.' 

"This declaration failed to satisfy another member of the 
Social Democratic Party. Herr von Jagow observed that he had 
nothing to add to the plain statement which he had made respect- 
ing the relations between Germany and Belgium. 

" To renewed interrogations of a member of the Social Demo- 
cratic Party, Herr von Heeringen, Minister of War, replied: 
' Belgium has no part in the vindication of the German scheme 
of military reorganisation; the latter is vindicated by the situa- 
tion in the East. Germany will not lose sight of the fact that 
Belgian neutrality is guaranteed by international treaties.' 

" A member of the Progressive Party having also spoken of 

'To-day Minister of Foreign Affairs, having replaced M. Davignon, who 
was obliged to retire for reasons of health. 



12 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Belgium, Herr von Jagow remarked once more that his declara- 
tion in respect of Belgium was sufficiently definite." ' 

At the same time, in certain quarters anxiety was felt as to 
the possible attitude of England. Vague rumours had been cir- 
culated of a possible landing of British troops in Belgium, to 
forestall, if need should arise, the passage of German troops. 

Now here, in this connection, are extracts from a letter ad- 
dressed by the head of the Foreign OSice to the British Minister 
in Brussels: a letter dated the 7th of April, 19 13, which de- 
scribes a conversation which Sir Edward Grey had had with 
the Belgian Minister in London: 

" I told him," writes Sir Edward Grey, " that he might with 
certainty assert that the present Government would never be the 
first to violate Belgian neutrality, and that I did not believe that 
any British Government would take such a step, that public 
opinion would never approve of it. . . . What we had con- 
sidered — and the question was rather embarrassing — was, what 
it would be desirable and necessary that we should do, as one 
of the guarantors of Belgian neutrality, if this neutrality should 
be violated by any other Power. . . . What we desired, for 
Belgium as for any other neutral country, was that her neutral- 
ity should be respected, and so long as it was not violated by any 
other Power, we certainly should not ourselves send troops across 
Belgian territory." ' 

* * * 

Not only was our neutrality guaranteed by the five Great 
Powers which were signatories of the Treaties of 1 83 1 and 1839; 
it was also guaranteed, morally at least, by all the other States 
which adhered to the second Peace Conference at The Hague in 
1907. The Convention relating to the rights and duties of neu- 
tral Powers, which bears the signatures of the delegates of the 
forty-four States represented at the Conference, states, in its 
first Article : 

" The territory of neutral Powers is inviolable." 

' Correspondence diplomatique relative d la guerre de 1914 (Second Belgian 
Grey Book). 
" The Times, 7th December, 1914. 



Ill 

THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM 

When, towards the end of July, 19 14, gloomy clouds, which 
grew more and more threatening, began to pile themselves up 
on the political horizon of Europe, Belgium became alarmed, 
and her uneasiness increased from hour to hour. 

Germany, however, down to the very eve of hostilities, en- 
deavoured to conceal her intentions. 

On the 1st of August, war being imminent, M. Klobukowski, 
the French Minister in Brussels, officially declared to M. Davig- 
non, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, that France would re- 
spect the neutrality of Belgium. 

Informed of this declaration by M. Davignon, Herr von 
Below-Saleske, the German Minister to Belgium, replied that 
he had not been instructed to make a similar declaration to the 
Belgian Government, but that the latter was aware of " his 
personal opinion as to the security with which Belgium was 
justified in regarding her Eastern neighbours." 

Moreover, on the preceding day Baron van der Elst, the 
Secretary-General to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had had 
a long conversation with Herr von Below, and had reminded 
him of the remarks made by Herr Bethmann-HoUweg In 191 1, 
and the public declarations made by Herr von Jagow in 19 13. 
Von Below not only admitted the accuracy of these statements, 
but added that he was " certain that the sentiments then ex- 
pressed had not been modified." 

Again, on the ist of August the Military Attache to the Ger- 
man Legation spontaneously congratulated the departmental 
head of the Ministry of War upon the rapid and remarkable 
progress of our mobilisation. For we had, as a special precau- 
tion, just mobilised our army, as Holland had done, for that 
matter. 

On the and of August, between 10 and 11 o'clock in the 
morning, this same attache telephoned to the office of the XX " 
Steele (a Catholic newspaper, published in Brussels, which had 

13 



14 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Governmental tendencies), when the substance of his message 
was as follows: 

" Your newspaper announces this morning that war has been 
declared between Germany and Russia. This is quite untrue: 
there is no war. This news is certainly issued by interested 
persons. I beg you, therefore, to be so good as to contradict it, 
in the largest possible type, in your next edition." ' 

Stupefied, those members of the staff who were present asked 
one another whether they were not dealing with a practical 
joker, and for a moment they were inclined to decide to ignore 
this communication. But reflecting upon the grave responsibil- 
ity of suppressing such a contradiction, supposing it should have 
any foundation, they decided to telephone to the German Lega- 
tion for confirmation of the message. 

At this moment they received, from a reliable source, the 
news that the German troops — as had been rumoured in the city 
all the morning — had violated the Luxemburg frontier and had 
entered the , Grand Duchy : yet another reason, to their think- 
ing, for questioning the statement of the German Attache. 
M. Passelecq,^ who had received the first communication (and 
from whom I have received these details), then called up the 
attache on the telephone, gave his name, and reminded the 
former of his recent communication, complaining that it was 
difficult to believe it, and that it was, moreover, ambiguous. 
" The telegrams reporting the declaration of war have been very 
explicit," he said. " And what precisely do you mean to say? 
That the declaration of war does not emanate from Germany? 
That war has broken out without a preliminary declaration? 
Or that there is no war at all? " 

" I repeat," replied the Military Attache, speaking with en- 
ergy and emphasis, " that there is no war, that Germany is not 
at war, that the report of war is false, issued by interested 
persons who wish to embroil Germany with her neighbours, 

' The German Ambassador in Petrograd notified M. Sazonov, on the ist of 
August, at 7.10 p.m., of Germany's declaration of war upon Russia. He left 
Petrograd on the 2nd of August. On the morning of the 2nd of August 
German troops invaded the neutral territory of the Grand Duchy of Luxem- 
burg, while others invaded French territory at a number of points. 

" M. Fernand Passelecq, advocate in the Brussels Court of Appeal, and at 
present Director of the " Belgian Documentary Bureau " at Havre, was not a 
member of the ordinary staff of the XX « Sihle, but on account of the gravity 
of the circumstances he was, that morning, as an exceptional thing, at work in 
the offices of the newspaper. Owing to this chance, and being close to the 
telephone at the moment of the first call, it was he who received the com- 
munication of the German Military Attache, which was officially intended for 
the Editor of the XX e Sihle. 



THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM 15 

f.nd I beg you once again to deny the statement in the largest 
possible type." 

" But, M. le capitaine!" replied M. Passelecq, "we have this 
moment received, from the most reliable source, that your troops 
have already invaded the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and have 
seized its railways! " 

" Ah! I know nothing about that. I do not believe \t. Wait 
a moment; I will inquire here. ..." 

Silence; the attache, it seemed, had gone away; then, very 
shortly, he continued: 

"Well, it is as I told you: there is beside me someone who 
has just come from Germany and who confirms our statement 
that there is no war. As for Luxemburg, nothing is known 
about that here ; but everything leads us to believe that there is 
no more truth in that news than in the other, and that both re- 
ports have the same origin. Besides, the attitude of Germany 
toward Luxemburg is not the same as her attitude toward Bel- 
gium. . ,. ." 

" Then," concluded M. Passelecq, " can we say that this 
double contradiction comes from you, the German Military At- 
tache?" 

"Certainly!" 

There was no longer room for hesitation; information of 
such importance must of necessity be published. However, the 
editor of the newspaper, M. Neuray, who arrived shortly after- 
wards, wanted to judge for himself of the rights of the matter, 
so he, too, called up the German Attache. The reply was: 
" No, no war ; the invasion of the Grand Duchy Is most improb- 
able; please deny reports! " 

This time the German officer expatiated upon the different 
situation of the Grand Duchy and of Belgium, stating that the 
Belgians must not be uneasy; that the railways of the Grand 
Duchy were German; that Germany might, therefore, have to 
make herself secure in that direction; that It was not the same 
in Belgium; and he ended by confirming his authorisation to 
support the denial by the mention of his official quality. 

The XX ^ Steele, therefore. Inserted a brief report of this 
communication in the special edition which was then in prepara- 
tion, and which Issued from the press about 2.00 or 3.00 p.m. 

Almost at the same moment the Soir appeared. This gave a 
report, in a prominent position, of an interview which a mem- 
ber of its staff had had that morning with the German Minister 



1 6 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

himself. The latter had given the Belgian journalist the most 
definite assurance as to the eventual attitude of Germany toward 
Belgium, and he concluded with the words : " We have never 
dreamed of violating your neutrality. You may perhaps see 
your neighbour's house on fire, but your own home will be i^- 
touched." 

These reassuring declarations assuaged the prevailing anxiety. 

Now at 7.00 p.m. Herr von Below handed to M. Davignon, 
in the name of the Imperial German Government, an insulting 
ultimatum, and he demanded a reply within twelve hours — 
within tl\s space of a night ! ' 

What a night it was M. Hymans, the Minister of State, has 
told us. What a night — what a tragic night! How could it 
ever be forgotten? 

"The Ministers with portfolios and. the Ministers of State 
met in the Palace (5), the King presiding. 

" We deliberated. 

" There were two solutions : one, to grant passage to the 
German armies marching upon France, and to obtain heavy 
indemnities for the loss and injury suffered. . . . This would 
be to tear up the statute of the Belgian nation, to violate, of 
our own accord, the neutrality decreed by Europe and accepted 
by Belgium; to betray the. obligations which this neutrality im- 
poses upon us. 

"The other solution was to risk war and invasion; to af- 
front the most formidable military Power in the world; but 
honour would be saved, the Belgian Statute maintained, and 
the treaties respected. 

" There was hardly any discussion. The decision forced it- 
self upon us. It was formed immediately: we should protest, 
and we should resist. 

" The reply was drafted in the Department of Foreign Af- 
fairs. It was taken to the Palace, and approved unanimously 
by the King and Council." ^ 

It had been necessary to translate the ultimatum, the original 
text being in German. On the other hand, the Minister of the 
Interior, M. Berryer, who had lately gone to Liege, there to 

' We have a right to ask ourselves whether this document, which must as- 
suredly have been brought to Brussels by special messenger, was not brought 
by that very person who had "just arrived from Germany" about 1 1 in the 
morning, and who was mentioned as being in the Legation in the course of the 
telephonic conversation which we have just recorded. 

' Preface to La Neutralite de la Belgique, Berger-Levrault, Paris, 1915. 



THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM 17 

confer with the Military Governor and various civil officials, 
could not rejoin his colleagues until an advanced hour of the 
night, so that the day was beginning to dawn when the Minis- 
ters took leave of the King. Great clouds were gliding across 
the sky. "It is a gloomy day, indeed, that is dawning I " said 
the King, who had approached a window. "Yet," he added, 
after a moment's pause, " it has begun as though it was to be 
brilliant!" 

While this meeting was being held in the Palace, the 'German 
Minister, about half-past one in the morning, visited the Sec- 
retary-General for Foreign Affairs. He stated that he was in- 
structed by his Government to inform the Belgian Government 
that French dirigibles had thrown bombs, and that a French 
cavalry patrol had crossed the frontier, thereby violating the 
law of nations, as war had not been declared. 

Baron van der Elst inquired of Herr von Below where these 
incidents had occurred. 

" In Germany." 

" In that case I do not understand the object of your com- 
munication." 

Herr von Below replied, in substance, that these actions, be- 
ing contrary to the law of nations, were of a nature to lead 
one to suppose that France would not hesitate to infringe inter- 
national conventions in other ways. . . . 

At seven o'clock in the morning the Belgian reply to the 
German proposition was handed to Herr von Below. 

I will confine myself to transcribing this reply, which repro- 
duces the essential terms of the German ultimatum,' and will 
therefore make my narrative sufficiently clear: 

In its note of the 2nd of August, 19 14, the German Government has 
stated that, according to reliable information, the French forces are said 
to intend marching upon the Meuse by way of Givet and Namur, and 
that Belgium, despite her best intentions, would not be in a position to 
repulse an advance of the French troops without assistance. 

The German Government would hold itself obliged to forestall this 
attack, and to violate Belgian territory. Under these conditions Germany 
proposes to assume a friendly attitude toward the Government of the 
King, and engages itself, upon the conclusion of peace, to guarantee the 
integrity of the kingdom and of the whole extent of its possessions. The 
note adds that if Belgium places obstacles in the way of the advance of 
the German troops, Germany will be forced to regard her as an enemy 
and to leave the eventual settlement between the two States to the de- 
cision of arms. 

' The entire text of this ultimatum will be found in the Appendix. 



1 8 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

This note has profoundly and painfully astonished the King's Govern- 
ment. 

The intentions which it attributes to France are contrary to the precise 
declarations which were made to us on the ist of August in the name of 
the Government of the Republic. 

Moreover, if, contrary to our expectation, a violation of Belgian neu- 
trality should be committed by France, Belgium would fulfil all her in- 
ternational obligations, and her army would oppose the invader by the 
most vigorous resistance. 

The Treaties of 1839, confirmed by the Treaties of 1870, ratify the 
independence of Belgium under the guarantee of the Powers, and notably 
of the Government of His Majesty the King of Prussia. 

Belgium has always been faithful to her international obligations; she 
has neglected no effort to maintain her neutrality or to cause it to be 
respected. 

The attack upon her independence with which the German Govern- 
ment threatens her would constitute a flagrant violation of the law of 
nations. No strategic interest justifies the violation of justice. The Bel- 
gian Government, by accepting the proposals which have been put before 
it, would sacrifice the honour of the nation, while at the same time it 
would betray its obligations to Europe. 

' Conscious of the part which Belgium has played for more than eighty 
years in the civilisation of the world, it refuses to believe that the inde- 
pendence of Belgium can be preserved only at the cost of a violation of 
her neutrality. 

If this hope should be betrayed, the Belgian Government is firmly de- 
termined to repulse by all means in its power every attack upon its au- 
tftiority. 

During the morning of the 3rd of August there was a meet- 
ing of the members of the Government, when they discussed, in 
particular, the expediency of an appeal to the Powers which, 
with Prussia, had guaranteed our independence and neutrality. 
But as our territory had not as yet been invaded, it was decided 
that this appeal would be premature. 

On the same day the King of the Belgians despatched the 
following appealing telegram to the King of England : 

Recalling to my mind the numerous marks of friendship vouchsafed 
by your Majesty and his predecessors, of the friendly attitude of England 
in 1870, and of the proof of sympathy which she now again gives us, I 
make a supreme appeal to the diplomatic intervention of your Majesty's 
Government to safeguard the neutrality of Belgium. Albert. 

But it was too late. Diplomatically, England could do no 
more; Germany wanted war, that war for which she had so 
long been preparing. 

"1^ •!■ T* 

Early on the 4th of August Baron Beyens had an interview 



THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM 19 

with Herr von Jagow, which he reported to M. Davignon in 
the following terms: 

Well ! what have you to say to me? ' These were his first 
words, as he came forward with alacrity to meet me. 

" ' I have to ask you for an explanation in respect of the ulti- 
matum which the German Minister presented to my Government 
on Sunday evening. I suppose you have something to add to it, 
some reason to give, to explain such an action.' 

" ' An absolute necessity has compelled us to make this de- 
mand of you. The Emperor and his Government are intensely 
grieved that they have been forced to resign themselves to it. 
As for me, it is most painful, the cruellest decision I have ever 
had to form in all my career. But the passage through Belgium 
is for Germany a matter of life or death. Germany must de- 
stroy France as quickly as possible, crush her completely, so 
that she can then turn back to Russia, or she herself will be 
caught between the hammer and the anvil. We have learned 
that the French Army was preparing to pass through Belgium 
and attack us upon our flank. We must forestall her.' 

" ' But,' I replied, ' you are in direct contact with France 
along a frontier of 125 miles. Why, in order to settle your quar- 
rel, do you need to go a roundabout way through our country? ' 

" ' The French frontier is too strongly fortified, and we are 
obliged, I repeat, to act as quickly as possible, before Russia can 
have time to mobilise her army.' 

" ' Contrary to what you imagine, France has explicitly prom- 
ised us to respect our neutrality, provided you yourselves respect 
it. What would you have said if, instead of spontaneously 
making us this promise, she had made the same demand of us 
before you, if she had demanded passage through our country, 
and if we had yielded to her threats ? That we were cowards, 
incapable of defending our neutrality, and unworthy of inde- 
pendent existence ? ' 

" Herr von Jagow made no reply to this question. 

" ' Have you,' I continued, ' any cause to reproach us? Have 
we not always fulfilled the obligations which the neutrality of 
Belgium has imposed upon us correctly and scrupulously toward 
Germany, as toward the other guarantor Powers? Have we 
not been loyal and reliable neighbours to you since the founda- 
tion of our kingdom ? ' 

" ' Germany has no complaint to make of Belgium; her atti- 
tude has always been extremely correct.' 



20 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

" ' Then in recognition of our loyalty you wish to make our 
country the battlefield of your struggle with France, the battle-, , 
field of Europe, and we know what devastation and ruin a mod- 
ern war involves ! Have you thought of that ? ' 

" ' If the Belgian Army,' replied the Secretary of State, 'al- 
lows us to pass freely, without destroying the railways, with- 
out blowing up the bridges and the tunnels, and falls back upon 
Antwerp without attempting to defend Liege, we promise not 
only to respect the independence of Belgium and the life and 
property of the inhabitants, but also to indemnify you for the 
losses you will have suffered.' 

" ' Sir,' I replied, ' the Belgian Government, conscious of its 
obligations toward all the guarantors of its neutrality, could 
only meet such a proposal by the reply which It has unhesitat- 
ingly made. The entire nation will approve of the action of its 
King and Government. You must yourself recognise that any 
other reply was impossible.' 

" As I pressed him to speak, Herr von Jagow, as a result of 
my insistence, eventually said: 

" ' I do recognise it. I understand your reply; I understand 
it as a private individual, but as Secretary of State I have no 
opinion to express.' 

" Then he again expressed his concern that matters should 
have reached such a stage after so many years of amicable rela- 
tions. But a rapid march through Belgium was for Germany 
a matter of life and death. We in our turn ought to understand 
this. I replied immediately: 

" ' Belgium would have lost her honour if she had listened 
to you, and a nation cannot live without honour, any more than 
a private person can do so. Europe will judge us. However,' 
I added, ' you will not take Liege as easily as you think, and 
you will have to face England, the faithful guarantor of our 
neutrality.' 

" At these words Herr von Jagow shrugged his shoulders. 
This movement might be interpreted in two fashions. It might 
have meant : ' What an idea ! Impossible I ' or else : * The 
die is cast; we cannot draw back! ' 

" I said once more, before withdrawing, that I was ready to 
leave Berlin with my staff and to ask for my passports. 

" ' But I do not wish to break off our relations like this 1 ' 
cried the Secretary of State. ' We may still perhaps have 
something to discuss.' 




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I. HOTEL DE VILLE AND GRAND PLACE, BRUSSELS. {Page 3) 




2. THE KING GOES TO PARLIAMENT, 4TH OF AUGUST, I914. {Page 21 ) 




3. THE CLOTH HALL, BELFRY, HOTEL DE VILLE AND CATHEDRAL, YPRES. {Page 3) 




^^^^^^^^^^^A^^^i^^' m 



4. GERMAN TROOPS CROSSING THE BELGIAN FRONTIER, 4TH OF AUGUST, I914. 

{Page 24) 







5- ONE OF THE FORTS OF LIEGE AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT, {Page 36) 




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^^—-\ 




6. LIVING SHIELDS. (Page 33) 

(From a Drawing by Louis Raemaekers.) 



THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM 21 

" ' It Is for my Government to decide upon that point,' I 
replied. ' It does not rest with you or with me. I shall await its 
orders to demand my passports.' 

" On leaving Herr von Jagow after this painful interview, 
which was to be our last, I came away with the impression that 
he had expected something different when I had asked to see 
him; some unexpected proposition, perhaps a request that the 
Belgian Army should be allowed to retire in safety upon Ant- 
werp, when It had made a show of resistance upon the Meuse, 
and had, as a matter of form, defended the principle of neutral- 
ity and the entrance to Belgium. My interlocutor's face, it 
seemed to me, betrayed disappointment after my first few words, 
and his insistence in asking me not to break off our relations 
just yet fortified the Idea which occurred to me at the beginning 
of our conversation." ' 

* * * 

The Belgian people approved unreservedly of the proud and 
dignified reply which Its rulers had made to the German pro- 
posals. 

Immediately and unanimously It felt that It represented jus- 
tice, that Its mission was a holy one, and that it could not fail 
to accomplish it. 

So, on the morning of the 4th of August, when the King, in 
campaigning kit, visited Parliament, where all the represen- 
tatives of the nation were awaiting him, there were frantic ac- 
clamations all along his route (2). 

Never had our handsome monarch appeared to greater 
advantage. On horseback, riding with a firm seat, he towered 
above the crowd, giving it the military salute, identifying him- 
self, by that martial gesture, with the feelings of all. And it 
was our sole voice, the voice of an entire people, which rose, 
vibrating, in a single impulse of patriotism, hailing him who, in 
that solemn moment, symbolised it with unexampled majesty. 

In Parliament the session was unforgettable. The great white 
hall had been arranged and decorated with great restraint, the 
effect being at once simple and impressive. In the place of the 
desk the royal throne had been installed — a large gilt armchair, 
upholstered in red velvet, on the back of which Is embroidered, 
in letters of gold, the national motto: L' Union fait la Force. 
Above the throne was an escutcheon with the national coat o^ 

' Correspondence diplomatique relative a la guerre de 1914-15, II. (Second 
Belgian Grey Book, No. 51). Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1916. 



22 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

arms, surrounded by the folds of the Belgian flag — ^black, yel- 
low, and red — and the colonial flag — ^blue with golden stars. 

On either side of the steps leading to the throne was a Bel- 
gian flag. 

The President and his assessors sat at the table which is 
generally used by the reporters. 

An extraordinary animation prevailed in the semi-circle of 
benches; the tribunes were overflowing. 

At ten o'clock the Queen arrived, accompanied by the little 
Princes. 

Greeted by an enthusiastic acclamation, she took her place in 
an armchair to the right of the throne ; her children were beside 
her. Then the King entered, and the cheering broke out again, 
prolonged and vibrating. 

But the President rapped with his maUet. Silence ensued, 
and the King, standing upright before the throne, deeply moved, 
delivered this speech: — 

Gentlemen : 

Never, since 1830, has a more solemn hour struck for Belgium: the 
integrity of our territory is threatened. 

The very force of our righteous cause, the sympathy which Belgium, 
proud of her free institutions and her moral victories, has always re- 
ceived from other nations, and the necessity of our autonomous existence 
in respect of the equilibrium of Europe, make us still hopeful that the 
dreaded emergency will not be realised. 

But if our hopes are betrayed, if we are forced to resist the invasion 
of our soil, and to defend our threatened homes, this duty, however hard 
it may be, will find us armed and resolved upon the greatest sacrifices. 

Even now, in readiness for any eventuality, our vailiant youth is up in 
arms, firmly resolved, with the traditional tenacity and composure of the 
Belgians, to defend our threatened country. 

In the name of the nation, I give it a brotherly greeting. Everywhere 
in Flanders and Wallonia, in the towns and in the countryside, one single 
feeling binds all hearts together: the sense of patriotism. One single 
vision fills all minds: that of our independence endangered. One single 
duty imposes itself upon our wills: the duty of stubborn resistance. 

In these solemn circumstances two virtues are indispensable: a calm 
but unshaken courage, and the close union of all Belgians. 

Both virtues have already asserted themselves, in a brilliant fashion, 
before the eyes of a nation full of enthusiasm. 

The irreproachable mobilisation of our army, the multitude of volun- 
tary enlistments, the devotion of the civil population, the abnegation of 
our soldiers' families, have revealed in an unquestionable manner the re- 
assuring courage which inspires the Belgian people. 

It is the moment for action. 

I have called you together, gentlemen, in order to enable the Legisla- 



THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM 23 

tive Chambers to associate themselves with the impulse of the people in 
one and the same sentiment of sacrifice. 

You will understand, gentlemen, how to take all those immediate 
measures which the situation requires, in respect both of the war and of 
public order. 

No one in this country will fail in his duty. 

If the foreigner, in defiance of that neutrality whose demands we have 
always scrupulously observed, violates our territory, he will find all the 
Belgians gathered about their sovereign, who will never betray his con- 
stitutional oath, and their Government, invested with the absolute confi- 
dence of the entire nation. 

I have faith in our destinies; a country which is defending itself con- 
quers the respect of all; such a country does not perish! 

This speech, need we say, was frequently interrupted by the 
cheers of the whole Assembly, and the peroration was greeted 
by a stirring acclamation, such as had never before been heard 
within those walls. 

After the King had withdrawn with the Queen and the 
Princes, Baron de Broqueville, President of the Council and Min- 
ister of War, acquainted the Chambers with the events which 
had occurred during the last few days. He also read a Note 
which the German Minister had forwarded at six o'clock that 
very morning to the Belgian Government, in which Germany 
declared her determination to cross our territory by force of 
arms. 

This was war! 

" We shall defend ourselves," said M. de Broqueville finally, 
" and even if we are defeated we shall never be conquered." 

Various legislative proposals, inspired by the circumstances, 
were adopted immediately without debate. 

In particular the Chamber voted unanimously a credit of 200 
million francs with which to meet the first expenses. Then, 
about eleven o'cloclc, the President of the Council, with tears in 
his eyes, announced that the national territory had just been 
invaded. He further announced, amid indescribable enthusiasm, 
that "the King, wishing to recognise the patriotic assistance 
which the Opposition had afforded the Government, had decided 
to appoint M. Emile Vandervelde Minister of State." ' 

This historic session was terminated shortly before noon. 

A few hours later words were spoken in Berlin which had 

'■ In Belgium, the Ministers of State have no portfolio ; selected from among 
those statesmen who have been of eminent service to the country, they form, 
so to speak, a Privy Council of the Crown. 



24 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

less nobility than those which had rung through the Belgian 
Parliament. 

The Chancellor of the Empire, in short, made the following 
declaration from the tribune of the Reichstag: — 

Our troops have occupied Luxemburg and it may be (sic) that they 
have already entered Belgium. This is contrary to the prescriptions of 
international law. France, it is true, assured Brussels that she was de- 
termined to respect the neutrality of Belgium as long as her adversary 
did so. But we knew that France was holding herself in readiness to 
invade Belgium. ... In this way we have been forced to override the 
justified protests of the Belgian and Luxemburg Governments. 

We shall repair the injustice which we are committing as soon as our 
military object, is attained. 

That same afternoon the British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir 
Edward Goschen, had an interview with Herr von Jagow, which 
he reported to Sir Edward Grey in the following terms: — 

" In conformity with the instructions contained in your tele- 
gram of the 4th of August, I went to see the Secretary of State 
in the afternoon, and in the name of His Majesty's Government 
I inquired whether the Imperial Government would refrain from 
violating Belgian neutrality. Herr von Jagow immediately re- 
plied that he regretted to say that his reply must be ' No ' ; that 
the German troops had crossed the frontier this morning (4), 
and that the neutrality of Belgium had already been violated. 
Herr von Jagow then spoke once more of the reasons why the 
Imperial Government had been obliged to take this measure; he 
said in particular that the Germans were obliged to enter France 
by the quickest and easiest route, so that they could hasten their 
operations and endeavour to strike a decisive blow as quickly as 
possible. This was for them a question of life or death, for if 
they had followed a path further to the south they could not 
have hoped, owing to the scarcity of roads and the strength of 
the fortresses, to penetrate into France without encountering a 
formidable opposition, which would have resulted in a great 
loss of time. This loss of time on the German side would have 
been time gained by the Russians, who would be marching their 
troops upon the German frontier. Rapidity of action was Ger- 
many's strength, while Russia's consisted in an inexhaustible re- 
serve of troops. 

" I pointed out to Herr von Jagow that the fait accompli of 
the violation of the Belgian frontier rendered the situation ex- 
tremely serious, and I asked him if it was not still possible to 



THE GERMAN ULTIMATUM 25 

turn back and avoid the consequences, which we should both 
have reason to deplore. He replied that for the reasons already 
given it was not possible for Germany to retrace her steps." 

After this interview Sir Edward Goschen had another inter- 
view with the Chancellor of the Empire himself. 

He found that " the Chancellor was greatly agitated." 
" His Excellency began a harangue which lasted about twenty 
minutes. He said the step taken by His Majesty's Government 
(the British Government) was terrible to a degree: just for a 
word — ' neutrality ' — a word which in war-time had so often 
been disregarded^ust for a ' scrap of paper,' Great Britain 
was going to make war on a kindred nation." 

There was no longer a question of a French attack by way 
of the Meuse.' Throwing off the mask, Herr von Bethmann- 
HoUweg cynically declared, as Herr von Jagow had done, that 
Germany was thinking only of her own interest, and that she 
would follow the plan of campaign worked out by her General 

Staff without troubling herself about treaties! 

* * * 

On the 4th of August M. Davignon telegraphed to Baron 
Beyens advising him to apply for his passports. He also begged 
Spain to watch over Belgian interests in Germany, to which the 
Spanish Government immediately agreed. 

On the 5th of August the Dutch Government notified the 
Belgian Government that it was establishing a system of " war 
sea-marks " in the estuary of the Scheldt, so contrived that it 
would still be possible to navigate the river in order to make 
Antwerp or to sail from it, but only during the day and with 
the aid of Dutch pilots provided with the necessary data. 

Navigation upon the Scheldt was, of course, forbidden, not 
only to warships, but also to vessels carrying troops, munitions ^ 
of war, or any kind of contraband of war. 

On the same date M. Davignon wrote as follows to all the 
diplomatic representatives of Belgium: — 

" By the Treaty of the i8th of April, 1839, Prussia, France, 
Great Britain, Austria, and Russia declared themselves guaran- 
tors of the treaty concluded the same day between His Majesty 
the King of the Belgians and His Majesty the King of the 
Netherlands. This treaty states: 'Belgium will form an in- 
dependent and perpetually neutral State.' 

"Belgium has fulfilled all her international obligations, she 

'■ Events, moreover, gave superabundant proof of the inanity of this pretext. 



26 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

has accomplished her duty in a spirit of loyal impartiality, and 
has neglected no effort to maintain her neutrality and cause it 
to be respected. 

" Thus it is with a painful emotion that the King's Govern- 
ment has learned that the armed forces of Germany, a Power 
guaranteeing our neutrality, have penetrated Belgian territory 
in violation of the engagements which she has entered into by 
treaty. 

" It is our duty to protest with indignation against an in- 
fringement of the law of nations which no action of ours could 
have provoked. His Majesty's Government is firmly deter- 
mined to repulse by all the means in its power the attack made 
upon its neutrality, and recalls the fact that by virtue of Article 
lo of The Hague Convention of 1907, concerning the rights and 
obligations of neutral Powers and persons in case of war on land, 
the fact that a neutral Power resists, even by force, the attacks 
made upon its neutrality, cannot be regarded as a hostile action. 

" You will please immediately request an audience with the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and will read to His Excellency 
the present letter, a copy of which you will leave with him. 

" If the audience cannot be immediately granted, you will 
make the communication in question in writing." 

It was not until after the German troops had invaded her 
territory — and about forty hours after the presentation of the 
ultimatum — that Belgium requested Great Britain, France, and 
Russia, co-signatories with Prussia and Austria-Hungary of the 
Treaties of 1831 and 1839, to aid her in her resistance. More- 
over, she declared that she herself was prepared to undertake 
the defence of her fortresses. 

But, alas! events followed one another with such rapidity 
that neither France nor England could give us help which was 
sufficiently prompt to be useful. In the words and according to 
the desire of the masters of German strategy, the attack was 
overwhelming. 



IV 

BY FORCE OF ARMS 

Between the German threats and their execution scarcely a 
day elapsed. 

We had to improvise everything, to organise everything, in 
a few hours. Yet nowhere in Belgium — and this may be as- 
serted emphatically — nowhere and in no department was there 
the least hesitation or the least confusion. 

Without faltering, and even with serenity, the little Belgian 
people prepared for the gigantic conflict. The long peace which 
it had enjoyed and the great prosperity which had resulted there- 
from had not enervated it; they had not destroyed the spirit of 
combat for justice and liberty which is characteristic of its entire 
history. For the rest, there was not a single Belgian who did 
not at once intuitively feel that the German proposals endan- 
gered the very independence of the nation, and that to subscribe 
to them would have been to forfeit our honour and to sign our 
own death-warrant. 

The whole nation, therefore, mindful of its noble traditions, 
came forward as one man ; and as in the heroic ages long ago, its 
first thought and its first care were to make ready for battle. 
Everywhere, in the villages as in the cities, the national flag was 
hoisted. 

Belgium had the appearance of a country making holiday. 
But it was only an appearance ; the nation was fully conscious of 
the gravity of the moment. 

Instantaneously, moreover, and without any hint from the 
authorities, all places of amusement were closed, and all bands 
and orchestras were silent. 

* * * 

The King left Brussels to place himself at the head of the 
army in the field. He addressed to his soldiers a proclamation 
which was inspired by the purest patriotism. 

The Queen, for the time being, remained in the Palace, but 

27 



28 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

she transformed it into a hospital. Never had the noble daugh- 
ter of a princely doctor, the medical philanthropist, felt so com- 
pletely at home ; but this did not prevent her from undertaking 
activities outside the Palace, and visiting other hospitals. One 
hospital in particular she visited on the very first day: it was 
that installed in the Maison du Peuple. 

In addition to the hospitals, v?hich were improvised and or- 
ganised on every hand, all kinds of organisations for aid and 
relief, responding to all the emergencies of the situation, came 
spontaneously into being everywhere. 

From every corner of the country, from all classes of society, 
came volunteers to swell the ranks of the army. 

Everybody wanted to be of use, down to the Boy Scouts, who, 
with touching conscientiousness and remarkable enthusiasm, un- 
dertook the duties of messenger, orderly, etc. 

Finally, in order to place as many obstacles as possible 
in the way of the invasion, railways, bridges and tunnels 
were blown up in the neighbourhood of the frontier, while 
within the range of the Liege forts farms, villas and chateaux 
were blown up in order to clear the line of fire. 

Unanimously, without hesitation or delay, the country made 

the greatest sacrifices. 

* * * 

I should not be speaking the truth were I to tell you that all 
the Germans who were living in Belgium were secretly betray- 
ing our confidence. There were some who deeply loved our 
country, who had become very sincerely attached to it, and who 
would never on any account have consented to betray it. But 
these, alas! were only honourable exceptions. 

Our eyes were suddenly opened, and we quickly realised that 
the great majority of these Germans, whom we had welcomed 
with such friendly simplicity, were the agents, of Pan-Germanism, 
who, slowly, patiently, and with great skill, had been preparing 
the way for the invasion and conquest of our country. There 
were thousands on thousands of them, and profiting by our too 
great confidence they had organised in the midst of us the most 
varied means of espionage and of gathering information. They 
were everywhere, and they first contrived to feel their way into, 
and then to impose themselves upon, all classes of society. 

In the interests of the national defence it was necessary to ex- 
pel all Germans from the country, or at least to endeavour to 
do so. There was no time to make inquiries, to sift the sheep 



BY FORCE OF ARMS 29 

from the goats; besides, how could we still trust them, and how 
for certain tell the good from the bad? 

The people — justly indignant at the duplicity of these crafty 
aliens — gave themselves up, in the great cities, to noisy demon- 
strations which assuredly were not of a friendly nature. Win- 
dows were broken even, and shop-signs forcibly removed. But, 
in spite of all that has been said since then to inculpate us, the 
Germans who lived in Belgium were not the object of inhuman 
treatment; neither in Brussels, nor in Antwerp, nor anywhere 
else. 

Here, for that matter, is how one of these Germans describes 
of his own accord, in the Kolnische V olkszeitung of the loth of 
September, 19 14, the manner in which he left Brussels. 

To begin with, he says that as he had to leave on Friday, the 
7th of August, at one o'clock in the morning, he repaired on 
Thursday evening to the German Consulate — which was already 
under the protection of the United States — but so many of his 
compatriots were there that some measure of organisation had to 
be taken, so it was decided to transfer all these people to the 
Royal Circus, " a large building, very spacious and well venti- 
lated " ; then he continues, " During this transfer, just as sub- 
sequently in the circus itself, and on the following day, at dawn, 
during the journey to the railway station, we were guarded by 
soldiers of the civic guard,' who behaved with such consideration 
that one would have thought they were instructed to look after 
us rather than to guard us. 

" They certainly made a lamentable spectacle, these innumer- 
able fugitives, with their wives and children, and we heard, in 
spite of the early hour, the pitying exclamations of the inhabi- 
tants at the windows of their houses. The civic guards were 
equally compassionate; there was not one among them whose 
expression, words and gestures did not betray a human pity. 
Many of them made themselves helpful to the fugitives by car- 
rying their portmanteaux or their children. Burgomaster Max 
himself came about two o'clock in the morning to make 
sure that everythirtg was being done in an orderly fashion.^ In 
the circus again there were soldiers who were looking after the 
children, distributing milk and food. An eye-witness told me that 

'As to the civic guard, see the note in the Appendix. 

' 1 might add that Mme. Henry Carton de Wiart, the wife of the Minister 
of Justice, passed a portion of this night at the Royal Circus, going from 
group to group, and attending with maternal solicitude to the more unfortu- 
nate. 



30 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

he saw them taking up a collection for the benefit of a family 
without resources. . , . In a word, everybody did all that was 
in his power to help the fugitives." 

This disinterested narrative proves conclusively that the Ger- 
mans in Brussels were treated not only with every considera- 
tion which the circumstances permitted, but with real solicitude. 
It was precisely the same in the other Belgian cities. 

It was not possible to expel all the Germans residing in Bel- 
gium during the first few days of the war. Many slipped through 
the meshes of the net, and these, naturally, were the most dan- 
gerous, including spies of all species. 

They had to be hunted down. It was necessary, moreover, 
to discover and suppress their means of information. Accident 
favoured the search, which revealed surprise upon surprise, dis- 
covery upon discovery. 

It was noticed, quite accidentally, for instance, that certain 
advertising placards, which were posted more or less all over 
the country, were designed, according to the manner in which 
they were placed, to give such-or-such information to the enemy. 
They were veritable sign-posts ! 

But it was in the domain of wireless telegraphy that the most 
unexpected discoveries were made. Here was a telephone cir- 
cuit, cunningly insulated from the earth; there was a metallic 
weather-cock, a zinc cornice, a trellis of copper-wire fitted under 
the roof, or a wire mattress found in a garret, which served as 
antenns ; or kites of the Farman type were flown at night, or the 
stays of flag-staffs affixed on the roofs of certain industrial estab- 
lishments provided ideal antennae. 

Spies were discovered who, furnished with portable appara- 
tus, used to install themselves on the roofs at night in the heart 
of Brussels. 

There were spies everywhere, and they employed the most 
varied means to deceive us. 

Ah! This invasion of our poor too-trusting Belgium had 
been long and minutely prepared for, with astonishing treachery 
and cunning, and we entered the conflict under conditions of 
very great material inferiority. 

* * * 

Only a year had passed since military service had been made 
universal, compulsory for all; the new military law would not 
produce its effect for four or five years. And not only was 



BY FORCE OF ARMS 



31 



our army too small: it was lacking in almost everything. Cer- 
tain forts were hardly armed/ and our field artillery, too, was 
utterly insufficient. 

How would our troops behave under these conditions? 

The moment hostilities commenced we were completely re- 
assured, and we felt proud indeed : the Belgian Army was doing 
its utmost duty; was doing 
it courageously and nobly. jj|| P^Uplc BelgC! 

A large body of German 
cavalry — about twelve regi- 
ments — crossed the fron- 
tier early in the morning of 
the 4th of August, making 
for the Meuse. On the 
way thither they distributed 
in the villages which they 
passed through a proclama- 
tion, in which General von 
Emmich, " Commander-in- 
Chief of the Army of the 
Meuse," declared that he 
must have an " open road," 
and that " the destruction 
of bridges, tunnels, and 
railways " would be re- 
garded as " hostile acts." 
(This General von Em- 
mich, let us remark in pass- 
ing, was he who, the preceding year, had represented the Kaiser 
at the festival held at Liege on the occasion of the " Joyous 
Entry " of our young Sovereigns.) 

Behind this large body of cavalry troops of all arms, forming 

' Many large pieces of artillery ordered from Krupp's, and paid for long ago, 
had not been delivered. 

' To THE Belgian People ! — To my very great regret the German troops find 
themselves forced to cross the Belgian frontier. They are acting under the 
constraint of an unavoidable necessity, the neutrality of Belgium having al- 
ready been violated by French officers who, in disguise, crossed Belgian terri- 
tory in motor-cars in order to penetrate into Germany. 

Belgians ! It is our chief desire that there should still be a means of avoiding 
a conflict between two peoples who up to the present have been friends, even 
allies. Remember the glorious day of Waterloo, when the German arms 
contributed to found and establish the independence and prosperity of your 
country. 

But we must have an open road. The destruction of bridges, tunnels, or 



frvckr ■> rrmUft dt la Bttgiqn tlM Igluul Mu 1* coinnMi rw Mcnltt fr 
•«iuu* la MMlrtlllt tt U Balgiqu ayvt lU Mji ffuN* tu Su officiara ftwcaa «« 
uw H MguJHmal Mit trmna b liiTllDn Mga to HIBonbda Mv paaltrv * 
ASmagna 

Iilfit' tu urn |lK inii 0* 111 , a vn uiB nuiT ■ mtit an *■ 
(npu «l liitii ■■ jwi' I irtinl |Ka hm iDlt bnuo mi li t^tu fr k 
lUi/lM il I'lljttit la na tfmida «a at cMHtf I M« n ^Mr rMfateu M li 
rnitnll II ntrt fUrft 

Mill InwtullecMalilrillntatnellM kyiAi k IweIl k nia 
firrbi dtiroit llri rtgirdia uiiuii In iclliai bMtln. Ufu. no am 1 cliliir 

<riit«rt<giK (n rirnli iScmdi <■ k than H sn fv cMnMi M mn 
CMbtta UgdxoliBnfNritt^u«ciU«ilnAttamilti|Hr.c'alliilcr 
^HfsdMrfH. 

Je ium fci garantlaa f opmoliss I h i^ihlln b4a *!'■■> ' 
■am no i uoffrlr fit itmin li ta fan: (u un payeran* ai» 
ormonnayihiiMnfi'ilfaiti pmln ii pip; qm m giMiU u 
■tatrirmt Ici niinn uiH! f u |iii|k BEV ligol int ipiiwi It (liii lull utiH 
b flui gniidt i)fiii!iiltil£ 

Cast da votra aasaese at d'un pafrtoUama' 
blen oomprla qu'll lUpend d'ivltar * vatrw 
paya lea herreurs da la guorre. 

U UtinI tmiabix ea Bit rhak da ta liM 
von Emmloh. 

PROCLAMATION DISTRIBUTED IN THE PROVINCE 
OF LiflGE, 4TH OF AUGUST, I9I4." 



32 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

the yilth, Vlllth, IXth, Xth, and Xlth Army Corps, entered 
Belgium. 

Early in the afternoon considerable forces reached the bank 
of the Meuse, at Vise, without having struck a blow. There 
they found the bridge blown up, and the crossing guarded on 
the left bank by the 2nd Battalion of the 1 2th Regiment of the 
line. This battalion resisted the hostile forces so valiantly that, 
although the latter were greatly superior both in numbers and 
in armament, they had to extend their movement toward the 
north. Two regiments of Hussars crossed the Meuse at the 
ford of Lixhe (close to the Dutch frontier), and thereupon the 
Belgian infantry posted at Vise were forced to fall back upon 
the line of the Meuse forts, or their left would have been turned. 

On the 5th of August a bridge was thrown over the river at 
Lixhe, and advanced bodies of the German cavalry made their 
appearance at Tongres. At the same time a regiment of enemy 
cavalry collided, to the south of Liege, at Plainevaux, with a 
squadron of the 2nd Regiment of Belgian Lancers, who charged 
them furiously, and lost in this unequal conflict three-fourths of 
its effectives. 

In the morning the bearer of a flag of truce was sent to Gen- 
eral Leman, the Governor of the fortified position of Liege, 
and requested him to allow the Germans to pass. They received 
a categorical refusal, upon which they proceeded to attack the 
forts of Chaudfontaine, Fleron, Evegnee, Barchon, and Pontlsse. 

Although supported by powerful heavy artillery, the assailants 
were everywhere repulsed with very heavy losses. There were 
epic struggles, especially between the Barchon fort and the 
Meuse. 

The enemy was finally thrown back In disorder beyond his 
original positions; his attack upon the Vesdre — Lower Meuse 
sector had miscarried. 

railways will be regarded as hostile acts. Belgians, it is for you to 
choose. 

I hope, then, that the German Army of the Meuse will not be compelled to 
fight you. An open road to attack those who wished to attack us — that is all 
we desire. 

I give the Belgian population definite guarantees that it will have to suffer 
nothing of the horrors of war; that we shall pay in minted gold for the pro- 
visions which it will be necessary to take from the country; that our soldiers 
will prove to be the best friends of a people for whom we feel the highest 
esteem and the greatest sympathy. 

It rests with your wisdom and patriotism, properly understood, to save your 
country from the horrors of war. 

The General Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Meuse, 

VON Emmich, 



BY FORCE OF ARMS 



33 



Fresh troops were then brought to bear upon the Ourthe — 
Meuse sector, which they violently attacked during the night of 
the 5th of August. At the same time two German officers and 
eight cavalrymen made a surprise entrance into Liege and at- 
tempted to assassinate General Leman ; Commandant Marchant, 
the General's aide-de-camp, was killed while endeavouring to 
protect his General. But the ten Germans who took part in 
this hateful attempt were all cut down. 

Between the Ourthe and the Meuse the assaults of the Xth 
German Army Corps forced the defenders of the intervals be- 
tween the forts to fall back; 
but the available elements 
of the 4th Division, sent 
from Huy, stemmed these 
assaults by counter-offen- 
sives. 



AUX HABITANTS 
PAYS DE LIEGE 



La gnaie Allaugge entVit Bttre ierritoin aprtt 
u nlliiutan qni ctostitoe id tiitngt 

La felHe Belgiqoe .3 relevi Gerenenl h wL 

Larnie va fiire soo devoir! 

La popglalioo it pays it higt aeeomplira 1e nen ! 

Aiissi ne tessera-1-elle de dooaer I'exeniple dn caloa 
d da respect aox loil 

Sob ardent patriotisoe en riponl 

Vive le Roi. coniaanlaot a ckef de raniia) 

Vive la Belgiqie ! 



Ulp is 4 AoOl 1014 



UlSAH. 



But the struggle was far 
too unequal. It was un- 
equal not only by reason of 
the crushing numerical su- 
periority of our enemies, 
but also, and especially, by 
reason of the disloyalty of 
the " ruses " which they 
used and abused from the 
very first moments of the 
war; the improper em- 
ployment of the white flag 
and the flag of the Geneva 

Convention; the placing of luc ™i9°4 '''°^^^° "'^ "^'^^' ''^^ "'^ 
Belgian civilians in huddled 

ranks before attacking troops (6), pretended surrenders, by 
means of which the German " kamerads " approached, conceal- 
ing their machine-guns; the imitation, in the darkness, of Bel- 
gian bugle-calls; and I know not what other examples of deceit 
and cunning. 

' To THE Inhabitants of the Li£ge District. — Great Germany is invading 
our territory after an ultimatum which constitutes a gross insult. Little 
Belgium has proudly taken up the gauntlet. The.Army will do its duty! The 
population of the Liege district will do the same! Therefore it will constantly 
set an example of tranquillity and respect for the laws. Its ardent patriotism 
will be answerable for this. Long live the King, the Commander-in-Chief 
of the Army! Long live Belgium! Liege, 4th August, 1914. — Lieutenant- 
General Leman, Military Governor of Liege. 



34 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Literally overwhelmed, the troops of the 3rd Division, which 
since the 4th had been fighting necessarily at every point of a 
widely-extended front — placing more than 60,000 Germans out 
of action — were forced to fall back, on the evening of the 6th of 
August, to the left bank of the Meuse in order to link forces on 
the Gette with the main body of the army in the field, whose 
concentration upon this line was by then completed. 

The Germans entered Liege. This meant the taking of 
hostages, the posting of a proclamation — the first of a long 
series — requisitions, war-taxes, and what not. . . . 

At this moment the King issued the following " Order of 
the Day " :— 

Our comrades of the 3rd Division of the Army and of the 15th 
Combined Brigade are about to rejoin our lines after heroically defending 
the fortified position of Liege. 

No fort has been captured ; the fortified, position of Liege is still in our 
possession; standards and a quantity of prisoners form the trophies of 
these days. 

In the name of the nation I salute you, officers and soldiers of the 3rd 
Division and the 15th Combined Brigade; you have fulfilled your utmost 
duty; you have honoured our arms and have shown the enemy what it 
costs him unjustly to attack a peaceful nation, but a nation which derives 
an invincible strength from the justice of its cause. 

The country has the right to be proud of you. 

Soldiers of the Belgian Army, do not forget that you are in the van- 
guard of immense armies in this gigantic conflict, and that we are only 
awaiting the arrival of our brothers in arms in order to march to victory. 

The whole world has its eyes fixed upon you. Show it, by the might 
of your blows, that you mean to live free and independent. 

France, that noble country, which in history we find associated with 
just and generous causes, is rushing to help us, and her armies are enter- 
ing our territory. 

In your name I give them a brotherly greeting. Albert. 

On the 9th of August the following overtures were made to 
our Government by the agency of the Dutch Government: — 

Now that the Belgian Army has, by its heroic opposition to greatly 
superior German troops, maintained the honour of its arms, the German 
Government begs the King of the Belgians and the Belgian Government 
to save Belgium from the utmost horrors of warfare. 

The German Government is prepared to make any agreement with 
Belgium which can be reconciled with its quarrel with France. 

Germany solemnly asserts that she has no intention of appropriating Bel- 
gian territory, and that she is far from conceiving such intention.'' 

'Author's italics. 






■•^ r3 



iM^. 






«.' 



.\ 



^^' 












Ji" 









*v 






.9=*' 






1 



Mtricht . 






X 



igr» 







!^: 




n^m 









/ -ivJ', 






v^? 












?VITH 



MAP OF THE Ui.CE COUNTRYSIDE. 



35 



36 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Germany is always ready to evacuate Belgium immediately the state of 
the war will permit. 

To this fresh hypocrisy the Belgian Government proudly re- 
plied : — 

The proposal made to us by the German Government reproduces the 
proposal which was formulated in the ultimatum of the and of August. 

Faithful to her international obligations, Belgium can only repeat her 
reply to this ultimatum, the more so in that since the 4th of August her 
neutrality has been violated, a grievous war has been carried into her 
territory, and the guarantors of her neutrality have loyally and imme- 
diately responded to her appeal. 

The struggle therefore continued. 

Before Liege, on the 12th and 13th of August, guns of 21 
centimetres' calibre were brought up, and on the 14th these 
pieces bombarded the forts of the left bank. Then howitzers of 
42 centimetres arrived (16.5 inches), which came into action on 
the afternoon of the 14th of August (5). 

These howitzers threw projectiles weighing nearly a ton, their 
explosive power being unheard of. 

" We used to hear them travelling through the air," said 
General Leman, the valiant defender of Liege, in a report. At 
this moment he was in the Loncin fort, to the north-west of 
Liege. " Finally there was the sound of a furious hurricane, 
which ended in a terrifying thunderclap ; then gigantic clouds of 
smoke and dust rose from the trembling earth." 

Shortly after five o'clock on the afternoon of the 14th the 
fort of Loncin was blown up.^ General Leman, who was found 
unconscious under the ruins, was taken prisoner without having 
really " surrendered " ; and he insisted upon a statement to the 
effect that he was found unconscious. He was allowed to retain 
his sword in consideration of his valour. 

On the following day, before leaving Belgium as a captive, 
the heroic defender of Liege wrote this noble letter to the King: 

Sire, 

After honourable battles delivered on the 4th, Sth and 6th of August 
by the 3rd division of the army, reinforced from the 5th onwards by the 
15th Brigade, I judged that the forts of Liege could no longer do more 
than play the part of barrier forts. I nevertheless maintained the military 
government of the fortified positions in order to co-ordinate the defence 

' Some forts held out until the i6th and 17th of August. 



BY FORCE OF ARMS 37 

as far as it was possible for me to do so, and in order to exert a moral 
influence over the garrisons of the forts. 

The propriety of these decisions was amply proved by the results. 

Your Majesty is aware that I took up my post in the Loncin fort from 
about noon on the 6th of August. 

Sire, you will learn with sorrow that this fort was blown up yesterday 
at about twenty minutes past five, burying under its ruins the greater part 
of the garrison, perhaps four-fifths. 

If I did not lose my life in this catastrophe it was because my escort, 
composed as follows: Captain-Commandant CoUard, a non-commissioned 
officer of infantry, who has doubtless perished, the gendarme Thevenin, and 
my two orderlies (Ch. Vandenbossche and Jos. Lecocq), dragged me from 
a part of the fort where I was on the point of being asphyxiated by the 
gases of the explosion. I was carried into the moat, where I fell. A 
German captain, by the name of Grusen, gave me something to drink, but 
I was made a prisoner, and then taken into Liege in an ambulance. 

I am confident of having maintained the honour of our arms. I sur- 
rendered neither the fortified position nor the forts. 

Deign to pardon me, Sire, for the carelessness of this letter; I am 
physically greatly shattered by the explosion at Loncin. 

In Germany, whither I am about to be sent, my thoughts will be what 
they have always been: of Belgium and her King. I would gladly have 
given my life to serve them better, but death would not have me. 

Lieutenant-General 
G. Leman. 

The German forces which had crossed to the left bank of the 
Meuse to the north of Liege, tried in the first place to outflank 
the left wing of our army in the field. 

On the 1 2th of August the German cavalry attempted to 
force the passage of the Gette at Haelen; six regiments of 
cavalry, supportd by two battalions of Chasseurs and three bat- 
teries, took part in this action. To these 4,000 cavalry, 2,000 
infantry, and 18 guns the Belgian cavalry division could oppose 
only 2,400 cavalry, 410 cyclists, and 12 guns. At first these 
forces alone sustained the enemy's attack, giving way only step 
by step; about 3 o'clock the arrival on the battlefield of the 
4th Combined Brigade enabled our troops themselves to take 
the offensive; at 6 o'clock the enemy fell back, abandoning his 
dead and his wounded. On the following day 3,000 corpses of 
men and horses were buried. Our losses were some 1,200 killed, 
wounded, and missing. 

However, the thrust of the enemy forces became more and 
more irresistible, and, despite the heroism which they displayed 
in many an advance-guard engagement, our brave soldiers were 
continually forced to fall back. On the 1 6th of August the rather 
serious action of Eghezee took place; the Germans, who had 



38 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

taken the offensive at this point of our extreme right wing, were 
forced to withdraw, and our troops pursued them for two days. 

On Tuesday, the i8th of August — note the date' — the 6th 
Division, drawn up on the plain of Walhain-Saint-Paul, effected 
its junction with a division of French cavalry. 

But violent German attacks were delivered in the direction 
of Tirlemont on the previous night, and this town had to be 
evacuated on the Tuesday in question. The German forces were 
in such numerical superiority that our army was in danger of 
being cut in two and destroyed. Our right wing and our centre 
fell back in consequence upon Antwerp, while the French cavalry 
withdrew toward Charleroi. 

But in order that this retreat upon Antwerp might be accom- 
plished, the left wing of the Belgian Army and a portion of the 
centre had still to fight desperate battles. Near Louvain, in par- 
ticular, and above all at Aerschot, our soldiers fought with ad- 
mirable valour. 

* * * 

Yet Nature continued her eternal poem. The weather was 
radiant; never within the memory of man had there been a finer 
summer. 

The harvest was abundant. 

Everywhere in the countryside the peasants, hardly conscious 
of any unusual anxiety, were busy with their peaceful tasks. 

Communications with the occupied districts were gradually 
cut; sometimes at a distance of only a few miles nothing was 
known of the horrible crimes which were being committed in 
the east. 

But suddenly the scene changed: Mars arrived, expelling 
Ceres. Horrible massacres took place. These warriors from 
Germany respected nothing, destroyed everything. And those 

' On the 4th of August an order of the French Ministry of War de- 
clared : — 

" Germany is about to endeavour, by means of false news, to lead us to 
violate Belgian neutrality. 

" It is strictly and explicitly forbidden, until a contrary order is given, to 
penetrate, even by means of patrols or single cavalrymen, into Belgian terri- 
tory, and aviators are also forbidden to fly over such territory." 

Only on the 5th of August, on the demand of the Belgian Government 
(formulated on the 4th), were French dirigibles and aeroplanes authorised to 
fly over Belgian territory, and French patrols to enter it. 

On the 6th of August a corps of French cavalry received orders to enter 
Belgium in order to reconnoitre the German columns and hamper their move- 
ments. 

The German allegations of the and and 4th of August were thus entirely 
untrue. 



BY FORCE OF ARMS 



39 



of the poor country-folk who escaped massacre or captivity had 
to flee in haste, far away, and always farther. 

"To understand what this invasion was," said M. Roland 
de Mares, in the Temps of the 27th of August, 1914, "you 
would have to see, as I have seen, the bewildered flight of old 
men, women, and children in the rear of the Belgian Army. 
Along the roads, across the fields, through the woods, they 




MAP OF THE COUNTRY CROSSED BY THE ARMY IN ITS RETIREMENT UPON ANTWERP. 

dragged themselves in compact masses, their shoulders burdened 
with their pitiful possessions, the children, barefoot, clinging to 
the skirts of their mothers. They marched without a cry, with- 
out a tear, with haggard eyes and pale faces, and nothing could 
have been more tragic than this distressful crowd, marching per- 
sistently toward the wide horizon." 



Our enemies advanced in Increasingly compact masses toward 
the south-west, and also toward the west. It became obvious 
that they intended to enter Brussels. 



40 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Now it was impossible to think of defending this great city, 
which was not fortified. It would have been sheer madness. 

On the 1 8th, therefore, the Government, a portion of the 
functionaries of the Central Administration of the State, most 
of the Ministers of State, the Queen, and the Royal children, as 
well as several of the representatives of foreign Powers, left 
for Antwerp. 

To Antwerp also were removed all those of the wounded in 
the hospitals of the capital who were fit to be moved; and the 
funds of the National Bank were removed, with the plates in- 
tended for the printing of bank-notes. And in the precious, 
lamentable convoy, which for two days passed from one city to 
the other, which contained all that the fugitives hoped to save 
from the cupidity or ambition of the enemy, were also the 
horses, carriages, and automobiles of the Court: it would not 
have done for our enemies to seize them and exhibit them in 
Berlin! 

On the 19th the Burgomaster of Brussels posted this fine 
proclamation on the walls of the city: — 

Fellow-Citizens, 

Despite the heroic resistance of our troops, seconded by the Allied 
Armies, it is to be feared that the enemy may invade Brussels 

If such an eventuality should be realised, I trust that I may count upon 
the tranquillity and coolness of the population. 

Let all panic and disorder be guarded against. 

The communal authorities will not desert their posts. 

They will continue to fuliil their functions with the firmness which 
you have a right to expect of them under such serious circumstances. 

I need hardly recall to my fellow-citizens the duty of all toward their 
country. 

The laws of war forbid the enemy to compel the population to give 
information as to the national army and its means of defence. The in- 
habitants of Brussels must understand that they are right to refuse to give 
the invader any information whatsoever upon this subject. This 
refusal is obligatory upon them in the interests of the country. 

Let none of you consent to serve as guides to the enemy. 

Let everyone be on his guard against spies and foreign agents, who 
might seek to collect information or to provoke manifestations of some 
kind. 

The enemy cannot legitimately commit offences against the honour of 
the family, nor private property, nor religious or philosophic convictions, 
nor the free exercise of religious worship. 

Let any abuse committed by the invader be immediately reported to 
me. As long as I am alive and at liberty I shall protect the rights and 
the dignity of my fellow-citizens with all my energies. 



BY FORCE OF ARMS 41 

I beg the inhabitants to facilitate my task by abstaining from all acts 
of hostility, all use of arms, and all intervention in battles or encounters. 

Fellow-Citizens, 

Whatever happens, listen to the voice of your burgomaster, and put 
your trust in him: he will not betray it. 

Long live Belgium, free and independent! 

Long live Brussels! 

Adolphe Max. 

The Government, for its part, informed the public that it 
found it necessary to leave the capital. " A laconic statement 
announced the retreat upon Antwerp ; not a sounding phrase, not 
a word of oratory. No effort was made to magnify the or- 
deal! " ' 

During the night of the 19th of August the Civic Guard of 
Brussels was disbanded and disarmed. 

The newspapers printed their last issues; then, stoically, they 
' destroyed their presses, rendering them useless. Only the In- 
dependance Beige removed to Gand, declaring that *' as long as 
there is a corner of free soil in Belgium and a printing-press, it 
would continue to appear in order to proclaim to the world the 
suffering and the glory of the Belgian nation." 

As the free soil of Belgium grew less, the rolling-stock of our 
railways was evacuated into France or Holland, but up to the 
last moment and the extreme limits of possibility communication 
by railway was maintained. It was only when the occupation 
was imminent that the trains ceased to run in this or that dis- 
trict. Thus even on the evening of the 19th of August trains 
were still running between Brussels and the non-occupied portion 
of the country. 

On the morning of the 20th, although the Germans were 
then at the gates of the city, people were still leaving for Hal- 
nault and Flanders. 

On this date — the 20th — M. Max set out in good time to 
meet the German advance-guard, which he knew to be quite 
close at hand. He was provided with a white flag, hastily fash- 
ioned of a bedrom towel and a rough cane. The sheriff's Stiens 
and Jacqmain, as well as the communal secretary, accompanied 
him. 

The conditions of the surrender of the city were discussed, and 
the valiant burgomaster upheld the interests of his fellow-citi- 
zens with superb energy and dignity. 

' Jacques Bardoux {Opinion, Paris, 29th August, 1914)- 



42 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

About 1 1 o'clock the first German cyclists arrived. 

" From that moment," relates M. Louis Dumont-Wilden, 
" the conditions of the surrender were known. It was known 
that General Sixt von Arnim, in consideration of enormous requi- 
sitions, had promised that no attempt would be made upon the 
persons or the property of the people of Brussels. 

" Little was known of the murder, pillage, and incendiarism 
committed in the Walloon country. . . . So at first the en- 
trance of the Prussians was observed with more curiosity and 
astonishment than uneasiness. 

" It was the ' knock-out ' blow of which one at first feels only 
the shock. 

" But the invasion commenced immediately. . . . For three 
days they passed in their thousands upon thousands, a dejected 
herd, resigned, formidable, marching toward crime and death, 
without revolt, without ideas, under the command of remote 
and imperious officers. .1. ."^ 

Like huge birds of prey, aeroplanes hovered over the city, 
completing the painful impression. 

A relatively small force remained in Brussels, installed itself 
in our barracks, and made itself comfortable in our superb 
Palais de Justice, whose beautiful audience-halls and council- 
halls were shamelessly turned into barrack-rooms and guard- 
houses. Force paraded itself in the Temple of Justice. . . ,. 

The bulk of the troops — several hundreds of thousands — 
merely passed through before turning toward the south. 
* * * 

In the suburbs of Namur it was necessary, as in Liege, to 
free the line of fire from the forts, and to make great sacrifices : 
dwelling-houses, farms, and chateaux were levelled to the ground, 
and, which was even more distressing, quantities of beautiful 
trees had to be felled. 

The Germans arrived there in considerable force on the 19th 
of August, and immediately, at long range, began the siege. 

On the 2 1 St, without previous warning, they bombarded the 
city itself for twenty minutes; projectiles fell on the prison, the 
hospital, and the burgomaster's house, causing fires and claiming 
many victims. 

On the 23rd they succeeded in forcing the outer line of de- 
fences, and while the 4th Belgian Division began to fall back in 

'Louis Dumont-Wilden {Opinion, Paris, October 31st, 1914.) 



BY FORCE OF ARMS 43 

the sector between the Sambre and the Meuse, they entered 
the city about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. 

At the same moment violent encounters were taking place in 
Hainault between the Germans on the one hand and the French 
and English on the other hand. Like stupendous torches, towns 
and villages burst into flames, lighting the advance of German- 
ism with the sinister glow of their fires. The Germans, arrogant, 
cruel, and implacable, already occupied two-thirds of our terri- 
tory. They had not found the " open road," but they passed 
on, as they had threatened, " by force of arms." 

" The German plan has succeeded in its entirety," so a certain 
General Spohn thought it safe to proclaim in the official organ of 
the German Military Union. In his enthusiasm he praised the 
skill with which this plan had been elaborated. " The plan for 
the invasion of France was definitely laid down long beforehand," 
he said; "it was arranged to be carried out successfully in the 
north through Belgium, avoiding the line of barrier-forts with 
which the enemy had protected his frontiers on the German side, 
and which would have been very difficult to break through." ' 

As a matter of fact, the little Belgian Army had held the 
German forces in check so long that this famous plan of the 
Imperial Great General Staff, so " definitely laid down," was 
irrevocably spoiled. 

This is expressed in the following terms, under the title of 
" Honour to Belgium," in the Bulletin des Armies de la Repub- 
lique: — 

" If we had been told three weeks ago, on the first Sunday 
of the war, when France was awaiting the decision of London, 
and was still able to doubt whether she would see beside her the 
Army and the Navy of England — if we had been told that twen- 
ty-two days later we should have been able to complete our last 
preparations, and that along the entire front, or almost the en- 
tire front, our national soil would be untouched, who would 
have believed it without dispute? 

" Oh, we know at what a cost our present security was pur- 
chased ! 

" We know who are the true authors of this security. 

" Our troops have done their duty, but the heroic Belgian 
nation has done more than its duty. 

^Parole, Deutsche Krieger Zeitung (edition for the armies in the field, 
Berlin, September 2nd, 1914). 



44 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

" It owed it to itself, it owed it also to us, to defend its 
neutrality. 

" We expected everything of its loyalty and valour. But it 
has surpassed all expectation; by its determined resistance it has 
rendered possible our mobilisation, our concentration, the dis- 
embarkation of our Allies in our ports, their arrival on the front 
of battle, and the systematic organisation of this war in com- 
mon: our outer rampart was made of the breasts of the men 
of Liege, and the entire Belgian nation, yielding up its capital, 
has determined that Liege and Antwerp shall become, in history, 
synonymous with Thermopylas and Marathon. ..." 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 

From the time of their entry into Belgium the German troops 
displayed in every way an absolute contempt for the laws and 
usages of war and the Law of Nations, 

Not only did they make abundant use of treacherous ruses, 
unworthy of a self-respecting army, but they rendered them- 
selves guilty of abominable crimes, and presently there was not 
a single prescription of The Hague Conventions which they had 
not outrageously violated/ 

It was obvious that they had resolved to shatter our resist- 
ance not only " by force of arms," but also by all and any 
means. 

For this reason, on the 8th of August, quite early in the course 
of the hostilities, M. Henry Carton de Wiart, the Belgian Min- 
ister of Justice, instituted a " Commission of Inquiry into the 
Violation of the Regulations of the Law of Nations and the 
Laws and Usages of War." 

This Commission was composed of magistrates, diplomatists, 
university professors, and jurisconsults, all men of ripe age, unfet- 
tered conscience, and well-balanced mind, who, moreover, made 
it a rule to include in the reports which they addressed to the 
Minister of Justice only those facts which were rigorously es- 
tablished by reliable and consistent evidence, subjected to a 
searching criticism. 

I have written this chapter principally by the aid of these re- 
ports. 

' Needless to say, Germany had subscribed to these conventions. For these 
early atrocities see The Road to Liege: The Path of Crime, by M. Gustave 
Somville, translated by B. Miall. Hodder and Stoughton, 1916. There is a 
preface by M. Carton de Wiart. 

45 



46 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



Living Shields (6) 

Counting on tKe nobility of Heart of their a3versaries, the 
German troops often endeavoured to protect themselves by driv- 
ing before them either Belgian soldiers who had been taken 
prisoners, or even civilians. 

Impossible as it may appear, soldiers and officers have fre- 
quently resorted to this vile stratagem; this cowardly and treach- 
erous manoeuvre has been practised in many different circum- 
stances since the beginning of the war. 

At the time of the fighting round Liege a body of German 
troops, passing through the interval between the Chaudfontaine 
and Fleron forts, had before it a number of civilians captured 
along the road; the majority had their hands tied behind their 
backs. Another group of civilians was forced to march in the 
midst of the troops, and among them was an old man of eighty 
years. 

German artillerymen firing upon the Carmelite convent at 
Chevremont secured themselves against the fire of the fort by 
placing all round their battery men, and even women and chil- 
dren, captured in the neighbourhood. 

On the 1 8th of August one Joseph Rymen, of Shaffen, was 
compelled, with two inhabitants of Meldert, to precede the 
German troops in their march through the town of Diest, and 
then to lead them to Montaigu. 

On the 23rd of August the Germans placed at the head of 
their attacking column at the bridge of Lives, below Namur, 
women and children, of whom several were wounded by the 
fire of the Belgian troops. 

In very many parts of Hainault the Germans forced civilians, 
men and women, to precede or accompany them. Thus a Ger- 
man column passing through Marchienne drove before it a group 
of several hundreds of civilians; it was marching upon Mon- 
tigny-le-Tilleul, where the first important engagement with the 
French took place. 

To guarantee a bridge over the Sambre from any attempt at 
destruction, the Germans placed upon it men and women — 
eight of whom were nuns — and children, who were forced to 
pass the night there. 

At Tamines also, during a fight between German and French 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 47 

troops, the former drove civilians on to the bridge. When these 
poor people tried to take refuge in the house of the opposite 
bank (of the Sambre), the Germans fired upon them and mor- 
tally wounded several of them. 

The German troops who entered Tournai on the 24th of 
August were preceded by several ranks of civilians. 

I might give many more such examples. 

This stratagem, which consists in its essentials in saying to 
the enemy : " I know you will not fire on these unfortunate 
people, and I hold you at my mercy, disarmed, because you are 
less craven than I " ' — this stratagem, so often employed by 
troops on the march, was also employed by patrols. 

In the suburbs of Malines six German soldiers who were 
carrying off five young girls encountered, on their way, a com- 
pany of Belgian soldiers. They kept in the midst of the young 
girls in order to prevent the Belgians from firing upon them. 

And at the very outset of the hostilities a bicyclist who was 
going homeward was arrested on the way by one officer and 
eight hussars, who forced him to walk beside them, threatening 
him with death if the Belgian troops fired upon them. 

Here again I could go on citing examples. I could also cite 
many cases in which — contrary to the laws of war — Belgian 
peasants were forced to execute defensive works for the Ger- 
mans, and in particular to dig trenches. 

Massacre and Incendiarism 

Just before crossing the frontier, on the 4th of August, the 
German oflicers harangued their men, informing them that the 
outposts had been attacked by the population, and recommend- 
ing them to punish the latter implacably at the firing of the first 
shot. From that moment, and during the whole period of the 
invasion, soldiers and non-commissioned officers lived in a con- 
tinual dread of the attacks of francs-tireurs . This fear re- 
sulted in unheard-of panics. If any shots were heard, except in 
set battles, civilians were massacred instantly — under the pre- 
text of repression — and houses burned. And as the burning of 
houses was generally preceded by systematic pillage, this pre- 
tended repression, as a result of being thus stimulated, would 
extend to a whole village or an entire town. 

In this way hundreds of peaceable Belgian citizens paid with 

'Joseph Bedier, Professor in the College de France, Les Crimes allemands 
d'apres des timoignages allemandes. (Armand Colin, Paris, igisO 



48 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

their lives or their liberty for the frenzied libations of the in- 
vaders and the brawls which inevitably followed. 

Others, in their hundreds again, expiated the resistance of 
the Belgian soldiers, that determined resistance which the Ger- 
mans had certainly not foreseen, and which, from the first hours 
of the war, disconcerted them. 

Some were even executed — after a summary trial — for giv- 
ing our own troops information as to the advance of the Ger- 
man troops. 

But in most cases these massacres, burnings, and all the rest 
were not committed as punishment or in revenge, but merely as 
a matter of preventive terrorisation ! 

I will try to give you here some idea of these horrible ex- 
cesses. 

On the 4th of August, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a 
few German officers arrived in a motor-car in the little town of 
Herve (4,700 inhabitants), which lies on the road from Aix-la- 
Chapelle to Liege. On their way they questioned two men whom 
they met upon a little bridge, and shot them down without giving 
them time to reply. Doubtless, in order to give themselves cour- 
age, these gentlemen had consumed a generous lunch before en- 
tering Belgium, and were now amusing themselves. 

A little later on the same day German troops entered Herve. 
They took a few hostages, but otherwise they behaved compara- 
tively well. 

On the 8th of August, about 10 o'clock in the morning, some 
fresh troops arrived, who immediately began to fire in every 
direction. They burned the railway station, as well as the house 
of Mme. Christophe, who was asphyxiated, with her daughter. 
Seeing that the fire was reaching her house, a neighbour, Mme. 
Hendrickx, rushed Into the street, a crucifix in her hand; she 
was immediately shot down. After -this, other murders took 
place; houses were sacked and burned; forty persons, of whom 
five were women, were assassinated; the town was pillaged from 
end to end, and more than 300 houses were burned. 

On the 6th of August the village of Battice, which lies a few 
miles to the east of Herve, was pillaged and burned by the 
Germans, who were thrown back by the fire of the forts; thirty- 
five persons, of whom three were women, were massacred. And 
here the tragic adventure acquires a touch of irony: on the day 
before the invasion the cure, who was something of a Germano- 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 49 

phile, felt It his duty to reassure his flock. " You have nothing 
to fear," he told them; " if you do not attack the soldiers, they 
will do nothing to you. Do you suppose they are going to sack 
your houses, burn the village, and assassinate the women and 
children? The Germans are not savages!"' Now not only 
were these soothing statements promptly contradicted by facts, 
but the priest who had made them with such serene conviction 
escaped death only by a miracle I 

Between Battice and Herve the majority of the houses which 
bordered the road here and there were reduced to ashes. 

The road running from Herve, through Melen-la-Bouxhe, 
to Micheroux, was also bordered by ruins. 

At Melen-la-Bouxhe the victims were no fewer than 120. 
Entire families were exterminated, on the 5th and 8th of August, 
by German troops infuriated by the resistance of the forts. 
Among the victims were old men of eighty years and children 
of five or six. One young girl, Marguerite W , was sacri- 
ficed to the lust of twenty soldiers before she was shot beside 
her father and mother. , 

On the 5th of August, about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, some 
German troops, repulsed and thrown into confusion by the fire 
of the Fleron fort, entered Soumagne, a large village of 4,750 
inhabitants. " It's your brothers who are firing on us from the 
forts! " they cried. " We are going to take our revenge ! " 

They arrested a hundred of the Inhabitants, led them into a 
meadow, and there killed them by rifle-bullet or bayonet. The 
village was partially burned. 

In the list of 105 victims I find the names of a baby of eleven 
months, a little boy of three years, a girl of thirteen, and sev- 
eral aged persons of either sex. 

And everywhere, all along the great highways of the inva- 
sion, there were, with a few variations, the same excesses. 

At Warsage six men were hanged. 

At Micheroux an infant of seven weeks, Pierre Gores, was 
violently torn from the arms of the woman who was carrying 
him and thrown to the ground; when it was possible to pick 
him up the poor little thing was dead. 

At Francorchamps, out of twelve persons shot, one was a 
little boy of six years, and four were old people. Of these latter 
two were women. 

' Extract from a letter sent by M. I'Abbe Voisin, cure of Battice, to the Tijd, 
of Amsterdam. 



50 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

At Foret thirty-six Belgian soldiers passed the night of the 
4th of August at the farm of the Delvaux family. On the 5th, 
about 8 o'clock in the morning, the Germans arrived in force. 
While retiring, the Belgian soldiers fired upon them, coming off 
pretty well. Result : vengeance. The farm was spt on fire, and 
two of the farmer's sons were killed. The farmer and two sur- 
viving sons were driven before the troops, who were marching 
upon Liege. The communal schoolmaster, M. Rougy, was shot 
for refusing to trample underfoot the national flag, which had 
been torn down from the front of his school. 

At 01m, M. Rensonnet, the vicar, and the communal secre- 
tary, M. Fondenir, raised the blind of a window to watch the 
troops passing; they were instantly arrested, dragged out of the 
village, and shot. This was on the 5 th of August. In the even- 
ing, before proceeding to the assault of the Fleron and Chaud- 
fontaine forts, the Germans — no doubt to stimulate their valour 
— assassinated a poor old paralytic woman, the widow Desoray, 
as well as her daughter Josephine; they then set fire to their 
house. They drove M. Warnier, the schoolmaster, and his 
family out of their house, and shot M. Warnier before the 
eyes of his wife. " At a few paces distance," relates an eye- 
witness, " his two young daughters were treacherously shot from 
behind. The elder, her skull being merely grazed by a bullet, 
recovered consciousness in the ditch beside the road; a body 
was weighing upon her, that of her sister, killed outright by a 
bullet in the nape of the neck. The survivor remained where 
she was until the last of the soldiers had gone. She could hear, 
at a short distance, the death-rattle of one of her brothers. 
Not until later did this vigorous young girl notice that her left 
arm was broken in two places, while she had a wound in the 
head and bruises all over her body. Later still she found her 
mother and her little sister. The father, her sister, aged eight- 
een, and her two brothers, aged eighteen and seventeen, lay 
stretched upon the road with two inhabitants of Fairon and three 
of Foret. All the houses in the neighbourhood were reduced to 
ashes." 

On the heights of the left bank of the Vesdre the village of 
Louveigne is in ruins. It was completely pillaged, and the 
greater part was burned. One hundred and fifty houses were 
burned; only a few were left standing. A certain number of 
men were shut up in a forge; then, after the lapse of some hours, 
the Germans drove them out into the open. " In other words," 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 51 

says a witness, " they opened the door of the cage, as in pigeon- 
shooting. The marksmen were waiting, and they brought down 
as many as they could; seventeen fell, never to rise again." 

" Pepinster, August 12. Burgomaster, cure, schoolmaster shot 
and houses reduced to ashes," writes Adolf Schliiter, of the 39th 
Regiment of Fusiliers, in his memorandum book (7). "We 
resume our march." 

At Sprimont, the owner of a chateau, M. Poirnez, and his son, 
were killed at the very moment when they were doing their ut- 
most to satisfy the demands of the invader as to requisitions ! 

Vise was a delightful little town of 4,000 inhabitants, built 
on the flank of a hill overhanging the Meuse, some ten miles 
below Liege, and quite close to the Dutch frontier. It was more 
than a thousand years old. Princess Bertha, daughter of Charle- 
magne, built a church there about 800 a.d., and since then, of 
course, the little town had known many vicissitudes. In par- 
ticular, for example, on the 30th of January, 1396, it was sur- 
prised in the night by a troop of German brigands, who sacked 
and pillaged it. But this was more than five hundred years ago, 
and in those days many things used to happen which in our times 
seemed impossible. 

Fresh German troops coming from Gemmenich, by way of 
Warsage, Berneau, and Mouland, reached Vise on the 4th of 
August, about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The bridge by which 
they expected to cross the Meuse had been destroyed; moreover, 
some Belgian soldiers, who were in ambush on the left bank 'of 
the river, opened a well-sustained fire upon them. Enraged by 
this resistance, the Germans spread through the little town, 
shooting half a score of the inhabitants, and then began to pillage. 

On the loth of August they set fire to the church (8), pre- 
tending that the town formed a mark for the guns of the Pontisse 
fort. On the following day the Dean and M. Meurisse, Profes- 
sor in the University of Liege, and Burgomaster of Vise, were 
arrested as hostages. 

On the 15 th the inhabitants were forced to work upon the 
construction of bridges over the Meuse. Numerous troops ar- 
rived from the east. In the evening there were brawls between 
drunken soldiers; some shots were fired. . . . Hundreds of 
the inhabitants were immediately driven from their homes ; men, 
women, children, old people, sick people, all were driven by 
blows of the rifle-butt, and even by thrusts of the bayonet, to the 



52 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

open place by the railway station, where, under a strong guard, 
they were made to pass the rest of the night. 

On the following day a poor old man, more than seventy 
years of age, one Duchesne, was shot — why, no one knows — 
having first been tied to a tree, his hands bound behind his 
back. His body was left on the spot. A man named RoujoUe 
also was executed under similar conditions, and with no more 
reason. 

A few hours later the men were ranged on one side, the 
women on the other. The women were authorised to take 
refuge in Holland. Three hundred to four hundred of the men 
were sent to Germany and interned in the Miinster camp. Others 
were forced to execute military works at Navagne. 

All this time the troops were pillaging, loading their booty 
upon waggons, which took the road for Aix-la-Chapelle. Then, 
systematically, by means of reservoirs of benzine and hand- 
pumps, they sprinkled the houses and set fire to them. When 
the flames were slow in spreading they helped them by throwing 
incendiary pastilles into their midst. 

Such was the end of Vise. 

From the 15th to the i8th of August the Germans gave them- 
selves up to all kinds of excesses on the left bank of the Meuse 
as well. 

At Haccourt, on the i8th, they pretended that the old farmer 
Colson had killed (or wounded) one of their horses. Without 
making any inquiry, and ignoring the denials of the accused, 
they set fire to his farm, after shutting his son and his daughter- 
in-law indoors. These two contrived to escape and hide them- 
selves, but old Colson was unable to endure the shock, and a few 
days later he died. 

At Heure-le-Romain 72 houses were burned; 27 persons were 
assassinated; among them a Mme. Fasset, and her child, five 
months of age. 

At Hermee 12 persons were shot and 46 houses were burned. 

Flemalle-Grande was the scene of unashamed pillage, incen- 
diarism and murder. A man's head was cleft by the blow of a 
sabre in the presence of his wife and child; his death-rattle was 
still audible when the soldiers removed his watch and all else 
that he had about him. 

At Tongres, on the i8th of August, some working-men's 
houses were sacked and burned, no one knew why. In the even- 
ing the most terrific drinking was followed by scandalous scenes; 



/'/ 



■ ■ > ' - . ^ - ■ " ' V 

- ' ' ' ' > ' 



1 / : 



. y . ^ 



■^ 



/: 



/'^ .^ 






/ -.'■'. 



■ / 



-7 



^^>i' 






H '///..• 












7. PAGE FKOM THE NOTEBOOK UF ADOLF bClILI lER. 

(I' age si) 










8. THE CHURCH, VISE, BURNED lOTH OF AUGUST, I9I4. (Page Si) 




9. THE POPULATION TOOK REFUGE IN THE WOODS. (Page 56) 




S;; 



I- 



10. AT TAMINES. (Page 6i) 

Corpses of inhabitants on the ruins of a house. 




II. . CIVILIANS DEPORTED TO GERMANY. 





12. AT LouvAiN. {Pdge 75) 










13. IN LOUVAIN. {Page 78) 

The house on the right was spared on account of its name. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 



53 



German soldiers, outrageously drunk, donned feminine clothing 
— Oh, much-vaunted Prussian discipline ! — and so showed them- 
selves in the streets. Others began to fire into the houses, killing 
ten persons thereby. Then, in the middle of the night, the town 
had to be evacuated, on the pretext that it was about to be bom- 
barded. In all haste the 
mothers aroused their 
children; the sick had 
perforce to leave their 



Chers Concitoyens. 



O'accord svep I'sutorite iiulitaire superieure elle> 
mande.j'ai rbonneurdevous recomoiander k nouvcau 
d« vous absteiiir d£ toute manifestation provocanle 
et de tout actes d'hostilite qui pourraient attirer ft 
notre ville de terribles repretailleis. 

Vous VOUS abstiendrez surtuut de 
Bt^viceii contre les troupes aUemaades et 
notamment de tirer sur elles. 

Oins IB cat fib dss habitants tireraieni sur das 
ssldats da i'armia alleniaiida. le tiers de la populatiOD 



tfe coni rappelle que let raiaemblemenli it ptut it 
dm/ ftmoanet miU atriclement defendiu et gue lei 
ptrionnet fin' eonlivehiu/raUnl a celte de/tnu, uront 
, arreitt tiance leaaale. , 



Hamlt, le 17 soat 1914. 



beds, and there was a 
desperate flight into the 
open country. One sick 
man died at the gates of 
the town; the Germans 
immediately buried him, 
under the eyes of his 
wife and daughter. 

Once masters of the 
place, officers and sol- 
diers alike began to pil- 
lage at their ease. On 
the 20th they allowed 
the inhabitants to return 
to their homes. Six pri- 
vate houses had been 
burned; in particular that 
of M. Huybrigts, which 
contained a remarkable 
collection of vases, coins, 
inscriptions, and tombs 
of Roman colonists 

(Tongres dating from before the Roman invasion). These 
treasures had disappeared: the fruit of forty years' patient re- 
search! Why? 

" Dear Fellow-Citizens, — In agreement with the superior German military- 
authority, I have the honour to recommend you once more to abstain from 
all provocative manifestations, and from all hostile acts, which might bring 
terrible reprisals upon our town. — ^You will, above all, abstain from attacks upon 
the German troops, and especially from firing, on them. — Should the inhabi- 
tants fire on the soldiers of the German Arnry, the third part of the male 
population will be put to death. — I will remind you that all gatherings of 
more than five persons are strictly forbidden and that persons who disobey this 
prohibition will be arrested on the spot. 

Hasselt, the 17th of August, 1914. — The Burgomaster, P'erd. Portmans. — 

By order of the German Military Authority. 



1« Bourgnufin 

Febo. POBTUANS. 



>ar ordre de I'Autorlti mUttalre aliemande. 



FACSIMILE OF A PLACARD POSTED AT HASSELT.' 



54 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

As for Hasselt, the market-town of Limburg, read the plac- 
ard reproduced above, which Burgomaster Portmans had posted 
by order of the invader. 

Aerschot. — The enemy troops entered Aerschot, a town 
of 8,000 inhabitants, lying to the north-east of Louvain, on the 
19th of August, in the morning. No Belgian force was left 
there. Suddenly the Germans shot six of the inhabitants and set 
fire to a number of houses. 

In the afternoon the church was bombarded for two hours; 
then the soldiers ran through the town firing in all directions at 
random. 

Suddenly some officers declared that their superior, a general, 
had been killed by the son of the burgomaster, a boy of fifteen ! 
In his capacity as father and as burgomaster, M. Tieleraans was 
doubly responsible. He was doubly deserving of death! It 
was for this reason, doubtless, that his brother was arrested 
simultaneously with his son and hiftiself. 

A large number of their fellow-townsmen were arrested at the 
same time. Forty were killed the same night. The rest, who 
were imprisoned, were not to be executed until the following day. 

During the night the soldiers invaded the houses, turning 
everything upside down, breaking up furniture and strong-boxes, 
and starting fires. 

Then, on the morning of the 20th, the burgomaster, with his 
son and his brother, and all their companions in misfortune, were 
led into a field beside the Louvain high road. They were lined 
up at random, and while the burgomaster, with his son and 
brother, were kept in the line, of the rest two men out of every 
three were made to step forward, the soldiers counting " One, 
two, three," and each time the third man was left in the row. 
Then all who remained — who were selected by fate alone — ^were 
shot! 

Thus, with those killed in the town, nearly 150 victims were 
executed! And all this because the son of the burgomaster, a 
child, was said to have killed a German oflicer, which, by the 
way, was never proved! ' 

But this was not all. The " repression " was not suflicient. 

The houses of the Grande Place were fired, and the wives of 

the prominent citizens were forced to look on, holding their 

arms in the air. This torture lasted for six hours. During this 

' See in respect of the Aerschot tragedy, the affecting letter of the widow, 
Mme. Tielemans, which will be found in the Appendix. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 55 

time the men who had been spared by fate were forced to dig 
great trenches, and to throw into them, pell-mell, the bodies 
of their unhappy fellow-townsmen. 

And while the pillage and the flames were at their height, 
men, women and children were shut into the church, where they 
were left for several days, suffering from thirst and hunger. 

It Is impossible to tell all; one would fill a volume in relat- 
ing the details of what each of these martyred towns endured. 
And what would it be if we had to enumerate the crimes com- 
mitted in all the villages? But I will say a few words more, still 
guided by reliable documents, of what happened in the region, 
of old so flourishing, to which we have now come. 

At Hasselt, to the north of Aerschot, 32 houses were burned; 
23 persons were shot. 

At Rotselaer 15 houses were burned, after suffering pillage. 

At Schaffen, not far from Diest, at Lummen, Molenstede, 
and yet other communes, houses, farms and haystacks were 
burned, and everywhere hideous torments were inflicted. 

" A little before Diest," writes the German lieutenant, Kietz- 
mann (2nd Company, ist Battalion of the 49th Regiment of In- 
fantry), "a little before Diest," he says in his note-book, 
" lies the village of Schaffen. About fifty civilians were hiding 
in the church tower, and fired on our troops from above with a 
machine-gun. All the civilians were shot." ' 

Now nearly all the inhabitants of Schaffen had taken flight 
upon the approach of the Germans. When the latter arrived 
In the villages they found only a very few persons, whom they 
immediately massacred. And, If, instead of describing this 
tragedy as briefly as Herr Kietzmann has done, I were to enter 
into a few details, this is what I should tell you: 

The Germans found, In a cellar, Mme. F. Luykx and her 
daughter, aged twelve; they were shot. A little girl named 
Ooyen, aged nine, was shot; Joseph Reynders, aged forty, was 
shot; his little nephew, a boy of ten, suffered the same fate; 
Andre WlUem, aged twenty-three, was tied to a tree and burned 
alive; Gustav Lodtz and Jean Mahren, both aged forty years, 
were buried alive. 

But what a singular country Is Belgium! It has not enough 

rifles for Its army — for such was the case at the beginning of the 

campaign ^ — and yet every citizen in the tiniest village, every 

' Bedier, op. cit. 

' Owing to the quite recent reorganisation of the army, and the great num- 
ber of volunteers who came forward. 



56 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

man and woman, every little boy, every little girl, is armed! 
For it will, of course, be understood that the little Luykx and 
Ooyen girls, and their little comrade, the nephew of Joseph 
Reynders, were "executed" as francs-tireurs ! 

There are not enough guns in the forts, but the last village 
belfry is armed! Moreover, the cures too are francs-tireurs. 
At Gelrode-lez-Aerschot the cure was arrested by a German 
patrol as he was helping two sick people to enter a house. Ac- 
cused of having fired on the German soldiers, he was imprisoned 
in the church at Aerschot. On the following day his hands were 
tied behind his back and his ankles were bound with iron wire. 
He was then placed with his face to a wall, and after several 
bullets had penetrated his head and back he was thrown into the 
river (the Demer). 

In many rural districts in the neighbourhood of Aerschot, 
Diest, Malines, and Louvain the devastation was, compara- 
tively speaking, greater than at Aerschot. 

" Whole villages have been annihilated," we read in the fifth 
Report of the Commission of Inquiry. " The population took 
refuge in the woods (9). They had neither food nor shelter. 
In the ditches by the roadside lie unburied unfortunate peasants, 
women, and children who were killed by the Germans. Bodies 
have been thrown into the wells, contaminating the water. 
Wounded men have been abandoned without attention. A peas- 
ant took refuge, with his little family, in a manure-pit which he 
had first emptied. The Germans came, lifted the cover of the 
pit, and fired into the group. The man was terribly wounded 
in several places. He remained five days in this condition. 
When he was rescued, which was when the Antwerp garrison 
made a successful sortie, it was necessary to amputate one leg 
above the knee. ..." 

In the whole of this district men were requisitioned in large 
numbers; in defiance of the laws of war, the Germans forced 
them to dig trenches and carry out defensive works to be em- 
ployed against our troops, their own compatriots! 

Andenne. — On the 22nd of August a proclamation was 
posted upon the walls of Liege, bearing the signature of the 
General and Commander-in-Chief von Biilow, of which we give 
a reproduction. 

Delightfully situated In a semi-circular sweep of hills on the 
right bank of the Meuse, between Huy and Namur, Andenne 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 



57 



& 



CSttUOTtaiA 



£bleiloDgnb.InLlf ISO. 




, DtlM 





was, in the Middle Ages, one of the favourite meeting-places of 
the chivalry of the neighbouring counties and duchies, which 
made the place famous by the tournaments held there. 

In the nineteenth century Andenne had become an industrial 
and commercial country; boat-builders' yards, paper-mills, porce- 
lain factories, pot-banks, chemical works, etc., were established 
there. 

Andenne, which numbered 7,500 inhabitants, was connected 
by a bridge with the vil- 
lage of Seilles, which 
was built facing it upon 
the left bank of the 
Meuse. 

Some Uhlans came to 
Andenne as scouts on the 
morning of the 19th of 
August. They could not 
cross the river, as Bel- 
gian soldiers had blown 
up the bridge some few 
hours earlier. They 
therefore withdrew — 
after seizing the com- 
munal funds and bullying 
the burgomaster. Dr. 
Camus, a man of nearly 
seventy years of age. 

The main body of the 
German troops arrived 
in the afternoon. The 
regiments spread 
through the town and the 
outskirts, waiting for the 
completion of a bridge 
of boats. 

On Thursday, the 20th of August, this bridge being com- 

'To the Communal authorities of the City of Liege,— The inhabitants of 
the town of Andenne, after having proclaimed their pacific intentions, have 
made a treacherous attack upon our troops. It is with my consent that the 
General in Chief Command has had the entire locality burned and that about 
100 persons have been shot. 

I bring this fact to the attention of the City of Liege, in order that the peo- 
ple of Liege may realise the fate with which they are threatened if they as- 
sume such an attitude. 

Then dum-dum bullets were found in an armourer's shop in Huy, etc., etc. 



X^es habitants de la ville d Andenne. apre* 
ftTOir protests de leura intdntions pacifiquea 
ont <ait une surprise traltre sur nos troupes. 
Cast avec mdn consentement que le C£n6ral 
«a chef a fait brdlor toute la localitA «t que 
cent personnes environ ont 6tA fusilUes. 

Je porte ce bit a la coonaissance dr !• Ville 
de Liege pour que lea Liegeoisse i«| entent 
le sort dont ils sent menaces, ails 
pareille attituda 

Ensuita II a ete trouvd dans u 
d'armes a Huy das projectiles • dum 
la genre du a<)6 non joint a la prA 
%ii cap qiv vai 

JSf t 



oaisnt 

agasin 

, I dans 

e lettre. 



PART OF A PLACARD 
IN LliGE.' 



TORN FROM A WALL 



58 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

pleted, the troops moved off toward the left bank. They made 
a lengthy procession, at which the inhabitants of Andenne and 
Seilles looked on from their windows. 

Suddenly a shot rang out, immediately followed by a terrify- 
ing rattle of rifle-fire. The troops stopped short; disorder ap- 
peared in the ranks. The maddened soldiers began to fire at 
random. The massacre had commenced. 

A machine-gun was posted at the cross-roads, and was used 
for firing upon the houses. A gun fired three shells into the 
town in three different directions. 

A certain number of men who would not or could not escape 
were killed in their own houses. 

Simultaneously with the massacre the sack and pillage of the 
unhappy town were commenced. Windows, doors, shutters were 
broken in with hatchets ; articles of furniture were broken open 
and destroyed. 

The soldiers rushed into the cellars, drinking to intoxication, 
smashing such bottles as they could not carry away, and finally 
setting fire to a certain number of houses. During the night the 
shooting broke out again at intervals. 

On the following day, Friday, at 4 o'clock in the morning, 
the troops drove into the streets those who had remained in 
their houses, forcing men, women, and children to march with 
raised hands. Those who did not obey quickly enough, or did 
not understand the orders which were given them in German, 
were immediately shot. Those who attempted to escape were 
also shot down as though they had been dangerous wild beasts. 
Dr. Camus, against whom the Germans appeared to entertain 
a peculiar hatred, was wounded by a rifle-bullet and killed with 
an axe. His body was dragged some distance by the feet, and 
left on the edge of the pavement. 

" It was a vision of hell," writes an eye-witness. " By the 
light of the flames I seemed to see soldiers driving back with 
their bayonets those who were trying to escape from their burn- 
ing houses. To the crack of the rifles was added the sharp re- 
port of the machine-guns and the explosion of hand-grenades. 
It was an affecting sight to see all these old men, women, and 
children forced to march toward the Place des Tilleuls, where 
the population was rounded up ; a paralytic was taken thither in 
a wheeled chair; others were carried." 

The men were separated from the women and children. All 
were searched, but not a weapon was found. Then, at random, 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 59 

at the order of their officers, the soldiers set apart forty or fifty 
men, who were taken away and shot, some on the bank of the 
Meuse, some near the police-station. 

While these horrible scenes were being enacted, soldiers were 
scattering through the town, killing, plundering, and burning. 

Eight men belonging to the same family were led into a field; 
some were shot, others were killed and mutilated by hatchet- 
blows. 

A child was killed by the blows of an axe while in Its moth- 
er's arms; a little boy and a woman were shot. 

About 10 o'clock in the morning the officers sent the women 
back, ordering them to pick up the dead and remove the pools 
of blood that reddened the streets and houses. 

At noon some 800 men were shut up as hostages in three 
small houses near the bridge. 

" In the evening," relates an ex-sheriff of the town of 
Andenne, " Colonel Schumann, commanding the Potsdam Chas- 
seurs, had an immense bonfire lit in the Place des TlUeuls and 
organised a concert. The festival was terminated by a 
prayer. . . ." 

A prayer I A holy man, this Colonel Schumann 1 

All this time the " hostages " remained Imprisoned, so 
crushed together that they could not sit down. Their torment 
lasted for four days. 

To sum up, and to end this recital of horrors, we may say 
that those massacred at Andenne were not " about one hundred 
persons," but more than two hundred, and that If we add those 
killed in the suburbs of Sellles we arrive at a total of nearly 
three hundred victims. 

As for the town, If It was not entirely burned, as von Biilow 
asserted In his proclamation, it very nearly amounted to that; 
several hundreds of houses, among them a number of working- 
class houses, were completely destroyed. Lastly, numerous in- 
habitants have disappeared. 

Yet no German soldier was killed, either in Andenne 
OR in the neighbourhood. 

Tamines, Monceau-sur-Sambre, and Nimy are other sor- 
rowful stations of my country's grievous Calvary. 

French detachments occupied Tamines on the 17th, i8th, and 
19th of August. 

On Thursday, the 20th of August, a German patrol advanced 



6o BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

toward the suburb of Vilaines. It was received by the fire of 
some French soldiers and a body of Civic Guards from Charleroi. 
A few Uhlans were killed or wounded; the others took to flight. 
The inhabitants, with enthusiasm, began to shout, " Vive la 
Belgique! Vive la France! " 

But the Germans very soon arrived in a body at the hamlet 
of Les AUoux. There they burned two houses and made all the 
inhabitants prisoners. 

An action commenced between their artillery, posted at 
Vilaines and Les AUoux, and the French artillery, which was 
firing from Arsimont and Ham-sur-Heure. 

On the 2 1st of August, about 5 o'clock, they seized the bridge 
at Tamines, crossed the Sambre, and marched through the 
streets of the village. About 8 o'clock in the evening some sol- 
diers began to enter the houses, driving out the inmates and pro- 
ceeding to pljjnder and to burn everything. " Not being able 
to get at those who had fired," says a correspondent of the 
Kolnische Zeitung, " the rage of the troops turned against the 
little town; it was pitilessly given to the flames, and has become 
a heap of ruins," ' 

The pillage and incendiarism continued through the whole 
of the 22nd. 

About 7 o'clock on the evening of the 22nd a body of 400 to 
450 men was massed in two groups before the church, at a 
short distance from the Sambre. A detachment of troops opened 
fire upon them, but as they did not fall quickly enough, the of- 
ficers had a machine-gun brought forward, which soon cut them 
all down. 

Some, however, were only wounded. Groans and supplica- 
tions arose from the bleeding mass. A few energetic bayonet 
thrusts put an end to these unseemly complaints. 

That night some victims who had simulated death were able 
to escape by crawling; some, crazed with agony, threw them- 
selves into the water to make an end of it all. 

On the following day, Sunday, the 23 rd, about 6 o'clock in 
the morning, some men who had been taken prisoner in the 
village and the neighbourhood were led into the Place. This 
is the narrative of one of these men: — 

" One of the officers came to ask for willing men to dig pits 
and bury the corpses. I stepped forward, as well as my broth- 
er-in-law and a few others; we were led to a piece of ground 
' No. 1,009, loth of September, 1914. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 6i 

beside the Place, and made to dig a pit some i6 yards long, ii 
yards wide, and 6 feet deep. 

" We received a spade apiece. While we were digging the 
pit soldiers, with fixed bayonets, gave us orders. 

" When the pit was completed it was at least twelve o'clock. 

" They gave us some planks. We placed the bodies on 
these ; then we threw them into the pit. So fathers carried the 
bodies of their sons, and sons the bodies of their fathers. 

" The women had been brought into the Place and were 
watching us at work. AH the houses around us were burned. 

" There were soldiers and officers in the Place. They were 
drinking champagne. As the day drew on they became more 
and more intoxicated; and we became more and more inclined 
to believe that we should be shot. 

" We buried 300 to 400 bodies " ^ ( 10) . 

There was no fighting at Monceau-sur-Sambre, nor in the 
immediate neighbourhood. 

Yet the 56th Infantry and the 15 th Light Infantry committed 
— ^when in drink — the most frightful crimes. Three hundred 
houses were burned and sixty-one civilians murdered, some in 

the most horrible manner. The brothers S , who had taken 

refuge in a shed, were shut up in it and burned alive. Frangois 

P , hidden in a cellar with his wife and child, was deliberately 

shot point-blank while holding the poor little thing in his 
arms. 

An old man of seventy years, Jean Pierre H , was killed 

just as he was crossing the threshold of his house, which the 

Germans had fired. The K family, father, mother, and 

children, were killed in their garden, where they thought they 

would be in safety. M. and Mme. H , hidden in a cistern, 

were driven out of it by German soldiers; these latter dragged 
the husband away to shoot him; the wife they shut in a room, 
where they tore the clothes off her. ... In the middle of the 
night the unhappy woman, stark naked, succeeded in escaping, 
but some soldiers fired at her and she was grievously wounded. 

Mme. D was horribly tortured before being killed; her 

butchers drew obscene pictures upon the walls of her room with 
her blood. 

At Nimy, near Mons, more nameless horrors were committed. 

The British and German troops had for some time been 

' As a matter of fact, nearly 600 inhabitants of Tamines were massacred 
during these bloody days (Author). 



62 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

within a short distance of one another. The 23rd saw a violent 
engagement between them. 

About 2.30 p.m. the inhabitants heard the sound of cheering; 
the Germans had crossed the bridge over the canal and entered 
the commune. 

Murder, pillage, incendiarism, and the rest commenced im- 
mediately; 85 houses were reduced to ashes and 17 persons, 
four of them women, were murdered. One young girl, Irma 

G , was odiously outraged; her martyrdom lasted six hours, 

and only death put an end to her sufferings. Her father, who 
had tried to rush to her assistance, was shot; her mother and 
sister were seriously wounded. 

Five hundred persons, men, women, and children, were united 
in a procession and driven, by blows of the rifle-butt, before the 
troops which desired to pursue the English. The latter, on 
seeing these civilians, of course abstained from firing; the 84th 
and 85th Schleswig Regiments were able, sheltered by their 
living bucklers, to continue their heroic and triumphant march 
nearly to Maubeugel 

Namur. — As we saw at the end of the preceding chapter, the 
Germans entered Namur on Sunday, the 23rd of August, at 
4 o'clock in the afternoon. 

All went well that day; officers and soldiers requisitioned 
food and drink, paying sometimes in silver, more often in 
vouchers. These were for the most part fraudulent; but the 
trusting population, knowing nothing of the German language, 
accepted them without demur. 

Tranquillity prevailed until the 24th. Precisely at 9 o'clock 
in the evening firing broke out simultaneously in two different 
places, and soldiers were seen advancing In skirmishing order 
up the principal streets. A huge column of flames and smoke 
was rising from the centre of the town; the Germans had started 
fires in the Place d'Armes and four other points: the Place 
Leopold, the Rue Rogier, the Rue Saint-Nicolas, and the Ave- 
nue de la Plante. 

In the Rue Rogier six persons who were escaping from their 
burning houses were shot point-blank. The other inhabitants of 
this street, to avoid the same fate, escaped through their gar- 
dens, mostly in their nightgowns, having no time to collect 
money or clothing. 

In the Rue Saint-Nicolas a number of working-class homes 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 63 

were burned. A larger number of houses and some timber-yards 
were destroyed in the Avenue de la Plante. 

The fire in the Place d'Armes continued until Wednesday, 
the 26th. It destroyed the Hotel de Ville, with its archives and 
its pictures, the group of houses adjacent thereto, and the whole 
quarter included between the Rue du Pont, the Rue des Bras- 
seurs, and the Rue du Bailly, with the exception of the Hotel 
des Quatre-Fils-Aymon. 

The firing and the incendiarism claimed about 75 victims. 
I will only refer in passing to the taking of hostages, the rapes, 
and all the nameless infamies which, at Namur as elsewhere, 
marked the beginning of the German occupation. 

DiNANT was a pretty little town of some 8,000 inhabitants — 
a place of great antiquity, built principally on the right bank of 
the Meuse, some 17 miles above Namur. 

Picturesquely situated in a pleasant landscape, this charming 
town enjoyed a well-merited renown among tourists, and this 
renown was one of its chief resources. The whole town con- 
tained only some two or three factories, and these were quite 
modest and retiring, doing no serious injury to the singularly 
charming beauty of the whole. 

Like all old Belgian cities, whether Flemish or Walloon, 
small or great, Dinant had at times been the scene of sanguinary 
conflicts. But never, in all the course of the centuries, did any- 
thing befall the town comparable to the hideous drama which 
was unfolded there during several days at the end of August, 
1914. 

On the 15th of August there was in Dinant a violent engage- 
ment between French and German troops, which terminated in 
favour of the troops of the Republic. The town suffered little 
from this encounter; a few houses only were destroyed by Ger- 
man shells. 

On the following day tranquillity returned. The hostile 
troops departed in opposite directions. 

But this period of calm, alas! was only a lull in the 
storm. 

On Friday, the 21st of August, about 9 o'clock at night, some 
German soldiers, coming from the east, fell upon the town as it 
was about to retire to rest, peaceful and unsuspecting. 

Without any reason, without the occurrence of any incident 
either on this or on the preceding days which could be interpreted 



64 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

as an act of hostility on the part of the inhabitants, the German 
troops began to fire into the windows. 

They killed a respectable working-man who was going home, 
and wounded another, whom they afterwards forced to shout 
" Hoch der Kaiser!" with them. 

They they invaded the cafes, " requisitioning " all that they 
could find in the way of liquor, and becoming intoxicated. 

When they at last withdrew, completely drunk, they set fire 
to a number of houses. 

On the following day nothing unusual happened; except that 
many inhabitants, guided by the instinct of self-preservation, 
were happily inspired to flee and to gain the heights of the left 
bank. 

On Sunday, the 23rd, some soldiers of the io8th Regiment 
of Infantry appeared in the early morning. 

At 6.30 they entered the Church of the Premonstrants, driving 
out those of the faithful who were there assembled'; they divided 
the women from the men, and immediately shot fifty of the latter 
without trial and without distinction of age. Then, between 
7 and 9 o'clock, they scattered through the town, giving them- 
selves up to pillage and incendiarism, driving the inhabitants 
from their homes and shooting on the spot those who attempted 
to escape. 

They seized in this way a large number of men, women and 
children of all ages and conditions, and, driving them before 
them with clubbed rifles, they assembled them in the Place 
d'Armes, where they kept them prisoners all day, amusing them- 
selves by incessantly informing them that they would soon be 
shot. 

At 6 o'clock in the evening a captain divided the men from 
the women and children and made them stand in two ranks along 
one of the walls of the estate of M. Tschoffen, a State Attorney. 
Those in the front rank had to kneel, while the rest had to stand 
upright against the wall. A platoon of soldiers was placed fac- 
ing the group, and it was in vain that the women pleaded for 
mercy for their husbands, sons, or brothers; the officer gave 
the order to fire. . . . Dead and wounded fell in confusion. 
For greater certainty the Germans fired again into the heap of 
bodies. 

However, a few victims had escaped this double volley. They 
simulated death for more than two hours, remaining motionless 
among the corpses ; then, at nightfall, they succeeded in escaping 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 65 

into the hills. But a hundred bodies remained in the Place 
d'Armes. 

This was a bloody Sunday in many parts of Dinant. 

M. Himmer, Consul of the Argentine Republic, with his 
wife, his children, his workpeople and their families, had all 
taken refuge in the cloth factory of which he was manager. 
Some neighbours had just joined them there. Now at the very 
time when the tragedy of the Place d'Armes was being enacted 
these unhappy people decided to leave their retreat. They gath- 
ered about a white flag, but hardly had they gone a few steps 
when the soldiers surrounded them; they were taken before an 
oificer, who separated from the group M. Himmer and all the 
men and youths over sixteen years of age. In vain did M. Him- 
mer refer to his position as Argentine Consul; without inquiry, 
without a trial, he was shot with his clerks, workmen, and fore- 
men. 

And in every direction this unhappy little town was the scene, 
on this day and the whole of the next day, of pitiless butcheries. 

M. Xavier Wasseige, manager of the Banque Centrale de la 
Meuse, was led with his two elder sons — they were boys — to 
the Place d'Armes, where they were executed. One of these chil- 
dren (he was fifteen) lay dying for hours, begging for some- 
thing to drink. 

Four young men were shut up In a first-floor room; the 
Germans opened the windows and warned their victims that they 
would fire upon the first who leaned out ; then they set fire to the 
house. Twelve persons were massacred in a cellar in which they 
had taken refuge. A poor old man, Edmond Manteaux, aged 
sixty-one, an invalid who had not for months left his room, was 
carried out in his armchair and shot in front of his house. 

Six old women, all over seventy-five, and eight old men, all 
over seventy, were murdered in cold blood. Whole families were 
wiped out. In the list of the victims of this hideous butchery I 
find the names of ten children of less than five years of age. 
Poor little " francs-tireurs "! 

At Neffe-lez-Dinant nearly all the men were executed in a 
body. An old woman and all her children were killed in a cellar. 
Other inhabitants of this suburb were led as far as Rocher- 
Bayard, and were there executed without trial. 

Such was the case, notably, with M. Alfred Baujot, his wife, 
and three of their children: Marthe, Marie, and Bertha. M. 
Baujot succeeded in Jiiding behind him the youngest of his daugh- 



66 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



ters, Bertha, a child of three and a half years. ... On the 
following day she was found covered with blood, but alive, un- 



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ta enfanU Jeanne, MARCaxeet BfTHA BAUJOtj i 


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Dlnant. le 24 aoQt 1914, 


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ceiibri le mardl 17 novcmbre, A 9 heiires du'matbi (heure beige); 

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CAKD OF INVITATION TO MEMORIAL SERVICE SENT AFTER THE DINANT MASSACRES. 



der the bodies of he'r parents. And only in November did this 
tragedy come to the knowledge of relatives living in Brussels. 
By means of a memorial card, which we reproduce in facsimile, 
these latter announced to their friends and acquaintances " the 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 67 

cruel and irreparable loss which they had suffered in respect of 
M. Alfred Baujot, his wife, nee Anne Marie Looze, and their 
children, Marthe and Marie Baujot, aged respectively 46, 37, 14, 
and 6 years, deceased at Neffe-Dinant, the 24th of August, 

1914." 

And what moral tortures were suffered in connection with 
these massacres! How many tragic episodes there were of 
which the whole can never be told ! 

Here is the case of Dr. L who was torn from the bed- 
side of his wife, brought to bed only the day before. He was 
led out into the public square, and there put against a wall with 
three fellow-townsmen. 

The Germans were about to shoot him, when suddenly he 
saw his wife appear, his wife, with her child, carried on a mat- 
tress by four soldiers ! He begged the officer in command of the 
executions to allow him to embrace them one last time; he 
obtained this favour, and was even permitted, after much en- 
treaty, to accompany them to the prison to which they were be-- 
ing taken. Just as the sad procession reached the Place d'Armes 
a lively outburst of rifle-fire was heard. "It's the French 1" 
cried the soldiers. They abandoned the mattress, taking to 
flight. The little family was saved! 

Dr. L ■- carried his wife and child to the entrance of an 

aqueduct recently constructed beside the Meuse. He lived there 
with her for three days and three nights, stifling the cries of the 
poor infant lest they should betray their retreat, venturing out at 
night, along the river, to pluck the weeds which were their 
nourishment, and to scoop up in his hat the dirty water which 
quenched their thirst. . . . 

Then there were those unhappy women who, imprisoned at 
first in the Convent of the Premonstrants, where there was no 
food for so many people, were afterwards compelled, themselves 
half-dead with starvation, grief, and terror, to bury their hus- 
bands and fathers and brothers and sons. 

And while they were engaged in this cruel task German troops 
went by in parade order, with bands playing at their head I 

But, indeed, was not their triumph complete ? Was not this, 
if ever, the time to shout a hymn of victory: Deutschland, 
Deutschland, iiber J lies f 

Nearly 700 Belgians, of whom 73 were women and 39 chil- 
dren, had been killed; and some 600 others who had been made 
prisoners had been sent to Germany, where they would be taught 



68 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

to live. Of the 1,400 houses which Dinant contained 1,200 were 
destroyed, burned from top to bottom, having first been pillaged; 
and the factories which had afforded a livelihood for several 
hundreds of hands, were now but heaps of ashes. 

Round about Dinant. — Those who succeeded in escaping 
during the massacres in Dinant did not all escape death. 

Some were hidden in the surrounding mountains, living on 
roots and herbs. When they ventured to leave their retreat they 
were tracked and shot down like beasts of prey. And of those 
who crossed the Meuse and sought asylum in the villages which 
occupied the plateaux of the left bank, many had no happier 
lot. 

From Namur, which had just fallen, and from Dinant, the 
Germans had overrun all the country between the Sambre and 
the Meuse. And wherever they met with opposition on the part 
of the French — who, alas ! were all too few, and were always, 
despite their heroism, compelled to fall back — wherever the Ger- 
mans had been received by the fire of the French, they avenged 
themselves, as at Dinant, upon the civil population, drenching 
whole villages with blood and fire. 

So, if we climb the heights of the left bank where it faces 
Dinant, we shall everywhere encounter desolation and devasta- 
tion. 

Of 200 houses which formed the wealthy agricultural village 
of Onhaye we shall find that hardly 20 were spared. Further, at 
Anthee, where there were at least 150 houses, we shall see that 
only five have remained standing. 

And further still, in whatever direction we go, we shall again 
and again encounter the same spectacles of " the day after the 
cataclysm." Everywhere, even in isolated spots, we find nothing 
but ruins and charnel houses. 

Here, for example, is what hapened at the end of August, 
1 9 14, in a pretty, well-to-do village of 600 inhabitants situated 
in the canton of Florennes. 

Surice — this was its name — lay apart from the main high- 
ways, and was traversed only by roads of secondary impor- 
tance. It would have seemed, therefore, that this little village 
should have remained a peaceful oasis in the midst of this 
ravaged countryside, which was turned into a desert. " So," 
says a witness. Mile. Dieriex de Tenham, " whole caravans of 
fugitives arrived there on Sunday, the 23rd of August, from 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 69 

DInant and the surrounding district. We gave them shelter. 
However, on the following day a great many of our refugees 
thought better of it, and decided to go to Romedenne. 

" On Monday afternoon, about 6 o'clock, we heard shots. It 
was the French machine-guns installed on the height between 
Surice and Romedenne ; they were firing on the Germans coming 
from Soulme. 

" This lasted about an hour, and when the French fell back 
they had, it was said, killed great numbers of their enemies. 

" During the night there was more firing; guns were thunder- 
ing. The Germans invaded the village and set fire to a number 
of houses. It was a night of dread for us. 

" About 6 o'clock in the morning of the 25th some soldiers 
broke our doors and windows into fragments and, with fixed 
bayonets, they entered our house and forced us to leave. 

" We were driven into the middle of the road and sent to 
the church, our lamentable procession increasing as it advanced. 
Among those who came to join us in this way were our cure, 
M. Poskin, with his aged mother, who was eighty years of age, 
his sister Therese, and his other sister Marie, with her husband, 
M. Schmidt, the Inspector of Schools from Gerpinnes, and their 
four children. The Schmidt family had come to the Surice 
presbytery on the previous day, thinking to take refuge there. 

" Soldiers were setting fire to houses as yet untouched, and 
committing all sorts of atrocities before our eyes. 

" We saw M. Ch. Colot, an old man of eighty-eight, shot 
on his doorstep. Further on, as we were passing the house of 
the postman, Leopold Burniaux, we heard piercing shrieks; 
Mme. Burniaux, whose husband had just been killed, was im- 
ploring mercy for her sons. Her supplications were useless; her 
sons, Armand, a young priest who had come to spend a few days' 
holiday with his parents, and Albert, were both murdered before 
her eyes. And as Albert Burniaux had just broken his leg, so 
that he could not stand, he was shot sitting in a chair. The 
unfortunate woman had one son left, Gaston, a teacher in the 
College de Malonne; clinging together, more dead than alive, 
they were forced to join our procession. ... A little further 
on we saw in a garden, which was at a lower level than the road, 
two little children crying by the body of their mother. 

" From the church we were despatched along the Romedenne 
road, and were thus brought to a field of fallow land which lay 
beside this rpad. 



70 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

" There were fifty to sixty of us there, men, women, and 
children. 

" It was a little after 7 o'clock in the morning. 

" An officer come up, who informed us : 'A young girl has 
fired on one of our superior officers ; you ought all to be executed, 
but the court-martial (sic) has decided that only the men are to 
be shot.' 

" Then the men, and even the boys, were detached from 
our mournful company, and what was done then cannot be de- 
scribed. 

" There were eighteen. Besides the cures of Onhaye and 
Anthee, who had arrived the day before from their burning 
villages, besides Abbe Gaspard, who had come from Dinant, 
there was our good cure, M. Poskin, and his brother-in-law, 
M. Schmidt; then there was Dr. Jacques, of Anthee, who had 
taken refuge at Surice with all his family; there was Dr. Jacques' 
eldest son, a boy of barely sixteen; in addition to these, among 
those whose names I knew, there was Gaston Burniaux, the only 
man surviving of the unfortunate postman's family, M. Billy 
and his son, aged seventeen, and, among others, a man from 
Dinant and one from Onhaye. . . . 

" A few minutes elapsed. Then, before our eyes, and in 
spite of our pleading, the unhappy victims were drawn up by 
the side of the road. 

" At this moment — I say it in all sincerity — I saw one young 
soldier who was so affected that great tears were falling on his 
tunic. . . . 

" Young Henri Jacques cried out: ' I am too young to die. 
... I have not the courage to die.' The others made us signs 
of farewell, some with their hands, other with their hats or 
caps. ..." 

" And from the tragic, bewildered group of women and chil- 
dren, who were kept at a distance from the men by the German 
rifles, a voice was heard, the voice, infinitely sweet, of a little 
girl. ' Papa, papa I ' she said, ' you are going to die ; forgive 
me if I have sometimes given you trouble.' 

" Unable to bear the sight any longer," writes Mile. Dieriex, 
" I turned away, covering my eyes with my hands. 

" The soldiers fired a volley, and all the men fell. Someone 
said to me : ' Look, they have fallen ! ' But some, who were 
not killed outright, were still moving; the soldiers finished them 
by blows of the rifle-butt on the head. . . ,. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 71 

" Our hearts were wrung with agony and fear. 

" There was not one of us but witnessed, in .that unforgettable 
moment, the death of someone dear to her. The aged mother 
of our good cure saw her son and her son-in-law killed; Mme. 
Jacques witnessed the deaths of her husband and her eldest son; 
but the most sorely tried was the wife of the postman: this 
unhappy woman had witnessed in succession the violent deaths 
of her husband and her three sons — men brought into the world 
and educated at the cost of what sacrifices God alone knows. . . . 

" The moment the massacre was over the Germans began to 
despoil the bodies, taking their watches, rings, purses, and 
pocketbooks. Many of the victims were refugees, who had 
brought with them all the notes or securities they had at hand; 
Dr. Jacques and M. Schmidt in particular were carrying on them 
relatively large sums of money, of which their widows and chil- 
dren were deprived. . . . 

" Our beloved village was still burning. Our house caught 
fire in its turn; then the church and the school. And seeing 
so many things disappear for ever to which, for me, so many 
dear memories were attached, I felt more heart-broken than 
ever. 

" Not all the men had been brought together in this place of 
torment. There were some — like my brother — who had suc- 
ceeded in making their escape; others were killed in their own 
homes; the sick were even burned alive in their beds." 

Of one hundred and thirty houses only eight escaped burning. 
And all this because a young girl of fifteen, a child, was said to 
have killed a German officer. All without trial, without any sort 
of inquiry. 

Mile. Aline Dieriex asserts, moreover, that from the first days 
of the invasion the authorities had demanded the surrender, of 
all weapons. " Even old fowling-pieces were thus collected and 
placed under lock and key in the communal offices." ' 

It is therefore highly improbable that the young girl in ques- 
tion could have committed the offence imputed to her. But, 
after all, how many women in our poor, ravaged, bruised, pol- 
luted Belgium, how many women and young girls were the vic- 
tims of assaults which would legitimise any means of defence I 

If, instead of climbing the hills of the left bank of the Meuse 

' One German newspaper at least referred to the piles of arms, all ticketed 
with the names of individual citizens, which were found in the communal 
ofBces, as proof that the Belgian Government had organised the entire nation as 
francs-tireurs. — B. M. See p. 93. 



72 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

opposite Dinant, we had ascended the course of the river, we 
should have heard of and observed the same crimes, the same 
abominations. 

There is not one of these charming villages of the Meuse 
basin, so peaceful and smiling in ordinary times, that has not 
suffered cruelly from the passing of the German troops. 

At Anseremme fifteen houses were burned, and some of the 
inhabitants were assassinated. 

At JVaulsort six men were executed, and twenty houses were 
destroyed. 

Farther up the river, at Hastiere-par-dela, that delightful 
village which was the favourite summer residence of many citi- 
zens of Brussels, twenty persons were shot, one of whom was 
Dr. Halloy, a Red Cross physician. One unhappy woman saw 
her husband, son, and father-in-law killed. Only some ten 
houses and the old church were left standing. But this church, 
a beautiful monument of the fourteenth century, which the cure, 
M. Schloegel, had loved with intelligent solicitude, causing it to 
be restored according to the original plans, was pillaged and 
polluted in a hateful fashion. Not only did it serve, as many 
others, as a lodging for men and horses, but the tables of the 
altar were broken, the relics were scattered, and the sacerdotal 
ornaments were subjected to the basest usage. 

On the opposite bank of the river, at Has tier e-Lavaux, some 
houses were destroyed. 

Further still up-stream we come to Hermeton, where of a 
hundred and ten houses eighty were burned and ten civilians 
were put to death. ■ This was on the 24th of August, about 
5.30 p.m. The cure of Hastiere-par-dela was in the basement 
of the church with his brother-in-law, M. Ponthiere, Professor 
in the University of Louvain, Mme. and Mile. Ponthiere, and 
two servants; the communal schoolmaster was there also, with 
his wife and children, and a few more inhabitants of the village. 
The Germans, having discovered them, made them all come up 
into the road, where they were confronted by some officers, some 
of whom were drunk. "Are you the cure here?" one of these 
scoundrels inquired of the Abbe Schloegel. " No, I am the cure 
of Hastiere." " Ah, we've got you at last 1 They've been firing 
from your village 1 " At this the women were separated from 
the men; the cure, M. Ponthiere, the schoolmaster, and seven or 
eight other men were shot. Now if shots were fired from 
Hastiere it was because the French troops had taken up their 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 73 

position in this village and defended it until the 22nd of Au- 
gust. Not a single shot was fired by the inhabitants. 

Below Dinant what happened was equally atrocious. 

In the Province of Luxemburg the Germans burned, 
without any mihtary necessity, more than 3,000 houses. Here 
are some details: — 

Neuf chateau, 21 houses burned; Etalle, 30 houses burned; 
Hondemont, 64 houses bui:ped; Rulle is half destroyed; Ansart 
is completely destroyed; at Tintigny only three houses are left; 
Jamoigne is half destroyed; Les Bulles also; 2it Moyen 42 
houses are destroyed; Rossignol is entirely burned; at Mussy-la- 
Ville 20 houses are destroyed; at Bertrix, 15; Bleid is largely 
burned; at Signeulx there is the same almost complete destruc- 
tion; at Ethe five-sixths of the village is burned; at Belief ontaine 
6 houses are destroyed; at Masson half the village is destroyed; 
at Baranzy 4 houses are left; at Saint-Leger 6 houses are burned; 
Semel is razed to the ground; at Maissain 64 houses out of 100 
have been burned; at Villance nine houses are burned; at Aulay, 
6. . . . 

As for the number of inhabitants shot, it amounts to about 
1,200.' Here are some figures: — 

Neuf chateau, 18 shot; Etalle, 30; Houdemont, 11 ; Tintigny, 
157; Izel, 9; Rossignol, 106; Bertrix, 21 ; Ethe, about 300 shot, 
while 530 persons are missing; at Latour, 11 shot; at Maissain, 
10 men, i woman, and i young girl shot, 2 men and 2 young 
people wounded; Villance, 2 men shot, i young girl wounded; 
at Auloy, 52 men and women shot; at Clair euse, 2 men were 
shot and 2 hanged. Everywhere hostages were taken. 

At Arlon — the chief town of the province — 300 persons were 
publicly shot, " in order to make an example," who were brought 
expressly for the purpose from the communes of Ethe and Ros- 
signol. They also shot without trial, and for a reason which was 
afterwards recognised as unfounded, a gallant police-officer. 

At Le Pin, near Izel, some Uhlans captured in passing two 
young boys whom they found on the road. They tied them by 
the arms to their horses, and put the latter to the gallop. . . . 
The bodies of the unfortunate children were found in a ditch, at 
a distance of some miles; their knees, a witness reported, were 
" literally worn through " ; one of them had his throat cut and 
his breast laid open; both had been shot through the head. 

'The province of Luxemburg, which is the least densely populated in the 
kingdom, contains only 232,500 inhabitants. 



74 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

"Near Lisogne," relates an officer of the 178th Saxon Regi- 
ment in his note-book, " a chasseur of Marburg placed three 
women one behind the other and killed them with the same 
shot"; and at Villers-en-Fagne the same officer saw " cure and 
other residents shot " because " grenadiers of the Guard had 
been found killed and wounded." 

In Luxemburg, as in the other Belgian provinces, the German 
troops pillaged, burned, and decimated the villages on whose ter- 
ritory certain of their soldiers had been killed, even when they 
knew that these deaths resulted from battles with regular troops 
of the enemy army. This is why the north of the province was 
spared, while the south, on the contrary, was abominably treated : 
here the French opposed the advance of the German Army while 
there the way was open. 

Poor French soldiers ! How they, too, were maltreated ! 

At Gomery — the cradle of my family — on the 23rd of August, 
some Germans broke into a hospital in which were numerous 
French wounded. " Es ist der Kreig des Tods!" — "It is the 
war of death ! " — they bawled. And they immediately gave 
themselves up to the most horrible carnage, killing wounded and 
surgeons indiscriminately, and ending by burning the hospital. 
Those victims who attempted to escape from this hell were shot 
by sentinels posted outside. Many remained in the furnace, and 
over one hundred were shot ! 

LouvAiN. — When the entrance of the Germans into Louvain 
appeared immediate, the burgomaster, M. Colins, had a notice 
posted on the walls of the city exhorting his fellow-citizens to 
keep calm. Quite needless advice, for that matter, since those 
who had had the courage to remain were fully determined to 
submit to the inevitable occupation with dignity and composure. 
Moreover, all firearms, and even fencing foils, had been handed 
over to the communal administration, which had them stored in 
the Church of Saint-Pierre. 

On the 19th of August, about two in the afternoon, a German 
advance-guard entered the city. 

It immediately proceeded to make enormous requisitions of 
provisions. About 2.30 p.m. the bulk of the troops arrived, 
making a triumphal entry with bands at their head. 

Officers and soldiers billeted themselves, by preference, in the 
houses of the citizens, leaving the barracks unoccupied, as well as 
the majority of the public buildings which had been placed at 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 75 

their disposal. They forced their way into deserted houses, 
breaking in the doors with their hatchets. 

On the following day, the 20th of August, M. van der Kelen, 
senator, and M. Colins, burgomaster, were detained as hostages. 
Proclamations were posted on the walls: these forbade civilians 
to move about the city after 8.00 p.m., required them — ^under 
pain of death — to deliver at the Hotel de Ville all weapons, 
munitions, and benzine for motor-cars, and ordered the inhabi- 
tants of certain streets to leave their doors open all night and 
their windows lit up. 

Moreover, Major Manteuffel, the " District Commandant," 
demanded the payment of a war indemnity, and liberated all 
offenders of German nationality who were confined in the prison 
for offences against the common law.' 

During the succeeding days fresh requisitions were made and 
more hostages were taken: the Rector of the University, the 
Vice-President of the Law Courts, a notary, and other notabili- 
ties. There were numerous cases of rape. 

On the 25th, at nightfall, groups of non-commissioned officers 
and privates of the 165th Hanoverian Regiment began to scour 
the principal streets, entering some of the houses, and firing 
through the windows in all directions. A panic followed, and 
indescribable confusion. Fires broke out (12). The infuriated 
soldiery broke in the doors and started fires on every hand by 
means of incendiary grenades or rockets, or pastilles of gelat- 
inous nitro-cellulose. If the unhappy townspeople tried to es- 
cape they were shot; many were thus killed on their doorsteps. 
Others, hidden in their cellars, were stifled, or even burned alive. 

It was a tragic night, which I do not feel competent to de- 
scribe. 

On the 26th of August, in the morning, a group of a hundred 
persons, including priests and various notabilities of the city, 
was led to the Place de la Station. The men were brutally 
separated from their wives and children; and, after having been 
stripped of all their possessions and subjected to the most abom- 
inable treatment, they were driven in front of the German troops 
as far as the village of Campenhout. There they were confined 
in the church. On the following morning, about 4 o'clock, an 
officer came to say that they would be shot in half an hour's 
time. But about 4.30 they were simply set freel However, 
they were not at the end of their trials ; shortly afterwards they 
^ Louvain prison is one of the largest in the country. 



76 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

were again arrested, and were forced to march in front of the 
troops in the direction of Malines. " They are going to give 
you a taste of Belgian machine-gun fire in front of Antwerp," 
an officer told them. Nevertheless, they were released in the 
afternoon, at the gates of Malines. 

The women and children remained, without food, in the Place 
de la Station (17), during the whole of the 26th. They were 
present at the execution of twenty of their fellow-townsmen, 
among whom were several priests. A pretended execution of 
the Vice-Rector of the University was gone through in front 
of them. Convinced of the reality of the tragedy, they were 
forced to applaud when the volley rang out. . . . These 
women and children were released during the night of the 
26th. 

A large number of persons were escorted to the railway sta- 
tion,, crammed into cattle-trucks, and taken to Cologne, in order 
that the Cologne public might be able to see these famous 
" francs-tireurs." The following passages from a letter sent 
by a Belgian physician to his friend. Professor Deboir, Perma- 
nent Secretary of the Academy of Medicine in Paris, gives some 
idea of the adventures of these unfortunates: — 

" You ask me for news of my father- and mother-in-law. 
Here it is : 

" They were in Louvain at the time of the sack of that city. 
The Germans separated them; my father-in-law, who is sixty- 
five years of age, was sent, although a civilian, to Cologne, as a 
prisoner of war. First, they forced him to make ... a tour 
of the city, in order to show him the fires; then they crammed 
him with thirty-nine other prominent citizens into a cattle-truck. 
. . . After four days' confinement in this truck they reached 
Cologne. Three of them had become insane. During these four 
days they had nothing but a loaf of black bread and a litre of 
water.' They were released owing to the representations of the 
United States Consul. 

" As for my mother-in-law, who is also sixty-five years of age, 
the Germans forced her for four days to wander through the 
countryside. As each party of troops passed she had to kneel 
and raise her arms. . . . Finally, exhausted, she fell into a 
ditch. There the horde left her. She was able, by dragging 
herself along, to reach Brussels, where she still is. 

" I have not told you the half of their sufferings, for all this 
^ Not quite three tumblersful. — B. M. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 77 

was accompanied by blows of clubbed rifles, threats of death, 
etc." 

Finally, among those who were arrested on the 20th, several 
persons, and especially some of the priests, were led in the direc- 
tion of Brussels. One of them. Father Dupierreux, was shot by 
the roadside. 

The officer in charge of the escort had observed that Father 
Dupierreux possessed a note-book. He seized it, examined it, 
and read in it the following observation: "Omar destroyed 
Alexandria; the Huns have destroyed Louvain." No more was 
required to decide the fate of the unhappy priest; he was placed 
against a wall; on his back the officer drew with chalk a white 
cross, which the firing platoon were to take as their target. The 
other priests, drawn up in line a few paces distant, were forced 
to witness the sufferings of their colleague. Those who lowered 
or turned away their eyes, they were told, would be shot on 
the spot. 

The pillage, the Incendiarism, and the wholesale orgies of 
drunkenness continued for several days. Reinforcements arrived. 

" We came to Louvain," wrote Gaston Klein, of the Land- 
sturm of Halle, in his note-book, " on the 29th of August. . . . 

" Blazing and falling houses lined the streets. . . . The 
battalion went forward with close-packed ranks to break Into 
the nearest houses, to steal wine and other things too — pardon, 
to ' requisition ' them. They were like a pack of hounds broken 
loose ; everyone did as he pleased. The officers led the way and 
set a good example." And another German soldier wrote to 
his wife, Anna Manniget, at Magdeburg: — "We reached Lou- 
vain at 7.00 in the evening. I could not write to you on account 
of the dismal appearance of the city. It was burning in all di- 
rections. Where it was not burning there was nothing but 
destruction; we got into the cellars, and we got well filled up 
there!" 

In order that the Germans might proceed to plunder the 
city more easily, the inhabitants were expelled from their 
houses. 

Six to eight thousand persons — men, women, and children — 
were escorted to the riding-school, where they had to pass a 
night before they were released. They were so closely packed, 
crushed one against another, and endured such sufferings, that 
several women became insane, and young children died in their 
mothers' arms. 



78 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

More than 10,000 other townsfolk were driven as far as 
TIrlemont, which lies at a distance of 12 or 13 miles. How 
describe their Calvary — how speak of all the outrages to which 
they were subjected? Here is one example: Having been sub- 
jected to the grossest insults, thirteen priests, of whom one was a 
professor in the University of Louvain, were imprisoned in a 
pig-sty, from which the Germans had expelled the pig before 
their eyes; then certain among them were forced to remove all 
their clothing. All were robbed of the money and valuables 
which they had on them. 

Finally, several hundred inhabitants of Louvain and the sur- 
rounding parts were deported as prisoners to Germany, where 
they were confined in concentration camps; a certain number of 
these became insane and had to be confined in cells. 

The work of devastation lasted a week, pillage, as a rule, 
preceding incendiarism. 

And here is the balance sheet: 

Eighteen hundred houses were destroyed in Louvain and its 
suburbs (13). The Palais de Justice and the theatre were 
burned down. The majestic Church of Saint-Pierre, dating from 
the fifteenth century, has been severely damaged. 

Of the University buildings nothing is left but a few of the 
columns of the crypt and a heap of bricks, stone, and calcined 
beams. Here is a description of these buildings from the pen 
of M. Paul Delaunoy, librarian of the University: — 

" The ancient halls of the library and the ' Hall of Promo- 
tions ' occupied all the upper story; they were at once a gem 
of eighteenth-century architecture and a museum of relics col- 
lected by generoi:? hands since the foundation of the Univer- 
sity. 

" The principal hall of the library (14), which was of enor- 
mous size, was altogether imposing in appearance; superb oak 
wainscoting, covering all the walls, presented a series of porti- 
coes, with columns, of composite order, surmounted by canopies 
enshrining life-size statues of the most famous philosophers of 
antiquity; a ceiling covered with stucco decorations, a floor of 
oak parquet, and an iron door, a remarkable piece of workman- 
ship, completed this wonderful interior. Another hall full of 
books, transformed a year ago into a workroom for the profes- 
sors . . . presented, with its fine oak woodwork and its grace- 
ful arches, a most delicate and intimate aspect. 

" The so-called ' Hall of Portraits ' was a real historical 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 79 

museum, in which were assembled the severe and sombre por- 
traits of the illustrious professors of the ancient University. 
. . . I see them all, these masters who made the chairs of our 
University illustrious! There, in the centre of the hall, was 
Justus Lipsius; there, among so many others, Erasmus; Puteanus 
Jansenius, whose ascetic features lead us back as at a bound into 
the midst of the religious conflicts of the seventeenth century; 
and that old gloomy canvas of Andraeus Vesalius, which an 
English scientist had just had photographed as being one of the 
best of the creator of anatomy. 

" The collection of books and manuscripts in our library 
formed a collection which was too little known; every visitor 
was shown one small manuscript from the hand of Thomas a 
Kempis, and the example on vellum of the famous work of 
Vesalius: De hutnani corporis fabrica, given to the University 
by Charles V. 

" Five years ago the original bull of the foundation of the 
University in 1425 came into our possession. But I will pass 
over these bibliographical curiosities, which formed a trust that 
any ancient foundation would have esteemed an honour. At 
Louvain it was the collection of old printed books which formed 
the rarest and most precious possession of the University: old 
books on theology, old historical volumes, old works of litera- 
ture. 

" Two years ago we were able to begin the cataloguing of 
these treasures, and we received surprise after surprise; the 
whole religious history of the sixteenth and the first half of the 
seventeenth century was comprised in this ancient medley of 
documents, these Var'ia reformatoria. 

"Our collection formerly contained more than 350 in- 
cunabula, and every day almost we discovered new editions. 
What a beautiful catalogue we could have published a few years 
hence ! My private residence having suffered the same fate as 
the library, nearly all the notes collected on this subject have 
perished. ..." 

Here is a detail which at once forced itself on the attention 
of those who were able to visit Louvain shortly after the 
disaster : 

On many of those houses which were spared, and principally 
on those belonging to the Duke of Arenburg, a German subject, 
was observed the small adhesive placard which we reproduce in 
facsimile — a placard which, even if it had not been printed in 



8o BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Germany well in advance of advents, would yet have been evi- 
dence of premeditation. 

Certain houses which were spared, in Louvain as well as in 
Heverle, where the chateau of the Duke of Arenburg stands, 
merely bore in large letters the word " Heverle." 



Dieses Haus ist 
zu Schiitzen 

Es ist streng verboien, ohne 
Genehmigung der Komman- 
danlur, Hauser zu belrelen 
Oder in Brand zusetzen. 



rvR^/>. 



TTM^i^^ 




Kaiserlicbes Gamison^Kommaodo. 



PLACARD (reduced) FOUND ON HOUSES LEFT INTACT.' 

These facts, with many others, enable us to assert that the 
burning of Louvain was carefully prepared. 

Confronted by the indignation of the whole civilised world 
the Germans, of course, pretended that the " punishment " in- 
flicted on Louvain was perfectly justified, that " francs-tireurs " 
had fired on the German troops. They have even gone so far as 
to pretend ^ that at Louvain many of the houses were prepared 
in view of a war of francs-tireurs ; that they had openings in the 
house-fronts through which the barrel of a rifle could be passed, 

' "This house is to be Protected. It is strictly forbidden to enter Houses 
or to set fire to them without permission of the Kommandantur. 

" Imperial Garrison Command." 
'Die Wafurheit titer den Krieg, p. 60. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 8i 

and which were closed by movable metal covers/ These open- 
ings must have been contrived by technical specialists (sic) with 
a view to the systematic (sic) organisation of the war! 

If we are to believe our adversaries, we must certainly have 
entertained the most singular ideas as to the means of defend- 
ing ourselves against their colossal and formidable military or- 
ganisation ! 

The fact is that not a single civilian was found with weapons 
in his hands — neither in Louvain, Vise, Aerschot, Andenne, 
Dinant, Tamines, nor in any of the other martyred towns or 
villages. 

However, I propose to relate, a little further on, a few epi- 
sodes of this pretended " war of francs-tireurs," which will en- 
able you to judge of the value of German assertions. 

In the Neighbourhood of Louvain. — On the 25th and 
26th of August the Belgian troops made a sortie from the en- 
trenched camp of Antwerp, and succeeded, after desperate fight- 
ing, in repulsing the Germans who were before Malines as far 
as Vilvord and Louvain. 

Unfortunately the Germans, as they retreated, destroyed 
everything in their path, and in this district, which had been one 
of the most prosperous and thickly populated in Belgium, our 
soldiers found nothing but ruins. Villages had been given over 
to pillage ; then they were wholly or partially burned, their popu- 
lations were dispersed, while of such inhabitants as were met by 
chance many were arrested and shot without trial and without 
apparent motive. 

At Hofstade, on the 25th of August, our soldiers found the 
body of an old woman who had been killed with the bayonet; 
she still held in her hand the needle with which she had been 
sewing when she was struck down. A woman and her son, aged 
fifteen or sixteen years, were lying side by side, pierced through 
by bayonet-wounds ; and a man had been hanged. 

At Sempst were found the partially carbonised bodies of two 
men. The legs of one had been cut off at the knees; the other 
had had his legs and arms cut off. A woman had been killed as 
she was leaving her house. A workman, whose body had been 
drenched with petroleum, had been shut up in a house to which 
the Germans had set fire. . . . 

' The reference is obviously to those apertures which are found directly un- 
der the cornice of most Belgian houses, and which serve to support scaffoldings 
when the house-front is to be painted or repaired. As a rule, of course, they 
are as old as the houses! — B. M. 



82 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

At Bueken many of the inhabitants had been killed, including 
the cure, who was over eighty years of age. Horrors were com- 
mitted here such as the pen refuses to describe. 

Everywhere about the countryside were found the bodies of 
peasants lying in attitudes of supplication, their arms raised or 
their hands clasped. . . . 

Other Crimes. — I might go on to tell you of what happened 
in many another village of Brabant or Limburg; and of the do- 
ings at Liege, where the Germans, one night at the end of Au- 
gust — why, no one ever knew — set fire to the houses on the Quai 
des Pecheurs and the Place de I'Universite, and fired on those 
who emerged from their burning houses, killing seventeen of 
them; ^ of what passed at Charleroi, too, and in many parts of 
Hainault; here, in particular, many well-equipped workshops and 
factories were burned, on the pretext that French soldiers were 
hiding in them. And I might tell you of the abominable tortures 
inflicted on many of our wounded soldiers. But I should never 
come to an end were I to give you the full details of the martyr- 
dom of my country. I will therefore refer those who wish to 
be more completely informed as to this painful subject to the 
reports of the British and Belgian Commissions of Inquiry. 

* * * 

Although I have scrupulously confined myself to the relation 
of such facts as are irrefutably established, and although, on the 
other hand, I have abstained from recording here such actions 
as were — although only too real — too incredibly cruel or un- 
natural, I think I ought to put before you, in the way of con- 
firmation, some passages from the courageous pastoral letter of 
Cardinal Mercier, the Archbishop of Malines.^ 

" I have travelled through the majority of the worst ravaged 
districts of the diocese," says the eminent prelate, " and what I 
saw in the way of ruins and ashes exceeds all that I could have 
imagined, despite my apprehensions, although these were suffi- 
ciently keen. . . . There are certain parts of my diocese which 
I have not yet found time to revisit which have suffered the 
same devastation. A considerable number of churches, schools, 
asylums, hospitals, convents are rendered useless or are in ruins. 

' For full details of all that happened in Liege and the surrounding country- 
side see The Road to Liege: the Path of Crime, by Gustave Somville, trans- 
lated by B. Miall, published by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. 

" The Pastoral Letter written by His Eminence Cardinal Mercier, Arch- 
bishop of Malines, at Christmas, 1914, the reading of which in the churches was 
prohibited by the German Governor-General. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 83 

" Whole villages have all but disappeared. At Werchter- 
Wackerzeel, for example, of 380 homes 130 remain; at Treme- 
loo two-thirds of the commune are razed to the ground; at 
Bueken, of 100 houses 20 are left; at Schaffen, of a total of 200 
houses 189 have disappeared and 11 are left. At Louvain a 
third part of the city has been destroyed; 1,074 buildings have 
disappeared, and in the area of the city and its suburban com- 
munes combined the total of houses destroyed by fire is 1,823. 

" Of that beloved city of Louvain, which I cannot put out 
of my mind, the superb collegiate church of Saint-Pierre will 
never again recover its pristine splendour; the ancient college of 
Saint-Ives, the Municipal School of Arts, the commercial and 
consular college of the University, the old market buildings, our 
wealthy library with its collections, its early printed books, its 
unpublished manuscripts, its archives, and the gallery recording 
its glories since the first days of its foundation, the portraits of 
rectors, chancellors, illustrious professors ... all is anni- 
hilated. 

" Many parishes were deprived of their shepherds. I still 
hear the sorrowful tones of an old man of whom I asked if Mass 
had been held on Sunday in his battered church. ' It is two 
months,' he told me, ' since we have seen a priest.' The cure 
and the vicar were in a concentration camp at Miinster. 

" Thousands of Belgian citizens have thus been deported to 
the prisons of Germany, to Miinster, Celle, Magdeburg. The 
Miinster camp alone contains 3,100 civilian prisoners. History 
will record the physical and moral torments of their long Cal- 
vary." 

" Hundreds of innocent persons were shot; ^ I do not possess 
the whole of this sinister necrology, but I know that 91 were shot 
at Aerschot in particular, and that their fellow-citizens were 
forced, under the menace of death, to dig the pits for their 
burial. In Louvain and the adjacent communes 176 persons, 
men and women, old folks, and children still at the breast, rich 
and poor, sick and whole, were shot down or burned. 

" In my diocese alone I knew that thirteen priests or monks 

were put to death. One of them, the cure of Gelrode, In all 

probability died as a martyr. . . . To my actual knowledge 

more than thirty were killed in the dioceses of Namur, Tournai, 

and Liege. . . . 

' Concerning civil prisoners see Appendix IV. (Author.) 
^The number of Belgian civilians massacred by the German troops in 1914 
is estimated at about 6,000— six thousand. (Author.) 



84 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

" We can neither count our dead nor measure the extent of 
our ruin. What would it be were we to turn our steps toward 
the districts of Liege, Namur, Andenne, Dinant, Tamines, and 
Charleroi; toward Vitron, La Semoy and the whole of Luxem- 
burg? ..." 

Cardinal Mercier continues: 

" Many circumstances lead us to believe that the cure of 
Herent Van Bladel, a venerable old man of seventy-one years, 
has also been killed; up to this present, however, his body has 
not been found." 

Since then the bodies of those persons have been exhumed 
who were shot at Louvain and buried in the Place de la Gare, in 
the space surrounding the statue of Sylvain Van de Weyer.' A 
correspondent of the great Dutch Catholic newspaper, De Tjid, 
was present at the mournful operation, and here are some ex- 
tracts from the account he gives of it: — 

"Twenty bodies were exhumed; it was a horrible piece of 
work. Twenty bodies crammed into a hole which did not meas- 
ure more than four yards square! We were all overcome by 
emotion. . . . The majority of the victims lay there with 
fractured skulls — fractured not only by bullets, but by blows 
of the clubbed rifle as well ! And that was not enough. All the 
bodies recovered had been thrust through with the bayonet. 
Some had the legs and arms broken. ..." 

The correspondent of De Tjid gives the names of the victims; 
among them were old men, and " a little boy not fifteen"; he 
tells how, beside this grave, they found a second, " which con- 
tained seven more bodies hidden beneath a foot of earth." Fi- 
nally he ends his dismal narrative as follows : — 

"On the following day the work was resumed; two more 
bodies were brought to light from quite a small grave ; they were 
those of Henri De Corte, a working-man of Kessel-Loo, and M. 
Van Bladel, the cure of Herent. Not a sound was heard 
when the tall body of the unfortunate priest was exhumed. 
Only Father Claes uttered these words: ' The cure of 
Herent! ' " ^ 

Have we not here a striking but wholly accidental proof of 
the extreme circumspection with which Cardinal Mercier formu- 

* Sylvain Van de Weyer, 'born at Louvain, was one of those who most 
ardently prepared the way for the events of 1830. It was he who signed, in 
the name of Belgium, the treaty of 1839. His statue still rises intact in the 
midst of the Place de la Station (17), which is destroyed on every side. 

• De Tijd, Amsterdam, 23rd of January, 1915. 




14. THE CRYPT OF THE LIBRARY, LOUVAIN, AFTER THE TRAGEDY. (Page 78) 




15. A BRABANT FARMHOUSE, AFTER THE GERMANS HAD PASSED. 




l6. FOUNDRY AT MONTIGNY-SUR-SAMBRE, BURNED BY THE GERMANS. 



{Page 76) 




17. PLACE DE LA STATION, LOUVAIN. {Page 76) 




l8. A " FAKED " GERMAN POSTCARD. {Page 94) 




19. MM. DE SADELEER, VANDERVELDE, CARTON DE WIART, DE LICHTERVELDE AND 
HYMANS, PILGR IMS OF JUSTICE. (Page IPS) 




20. ANTWERP RAIDED BY A ZEPPELIN. {Page IO4) 

(From a German Postcard.) 



t 



Le CoWige des Provisata JSe&hr-Mcn. 
As-Belga o VkonneuT de com inciter au 
aenke rdigteux <ju'i! fcta cilebrer U yen- 
dmU 22 Janoier, & II htuns, pour It npos 
dt Vame des PriUa et Religieux, mis d 
morf par les l/oapes aUemandes eu court de 
Vintfasion de la Belglque. 

Vous en 'Irotwerez- ct'contre tme prtmi&n 
tiste, 

A cause deTexigum de VtgtlseNaUonate, 
le seroice relt^aix aura lieu dans r£cuse 
DES StigmaTCS; d Vangle de la Via del 
Cestati e? da Corso VUlorio Emarmde. 

Li hifnDwr: 
BARON D'ERP.Miniitn^BclMwpritUStiat'&tay. 

U ScntTAISE: 
C D£ rSERCLAES. Pitmiaitim CoIUii Bil«« 

M.' VACS. Redflor it SiiM-Jiilica*du-8c^ 
OSCAR BOLLE. 

C. KURTH, DEncMsf de risnitul tiiuriqw Brifft 
A. POTTIER. ChuMiM dc SunlfrMwlfMajmt. 



DIOC^ t)E UfiOE.' 

L Mtt 0; CfUMT. «ar< di Fortt. 
Labb< J. DosocN^ «bN Me Hocliy. 
L'ebbe F Janbin. «ur* da Hcur«>lt-RflniUB 
L ibb* R. Liam. taU d« Blcfny. 
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L'ebbI E. TnuN, tuti dt Kkmur. 

OIOCtSE PE UALINES, 

LabU R. Ckum; pfsffMC^r n.CBn)s«S«n)t<Pi«TTtt 

beuTua. 
L abb4 H Dl Cuw. cur< da Bodtil, pth it LoMfUfl. 
L'abb< P. DoiCHT. cur< i» Calrodt. 
L abbt |. CotU, out da Autgwden. 
L'abbt -E. LoMlAlBn. cart de Borenlos. prtt d« Louvbi'd 
L'tbht VtH BUDIL. curC da Htrtat. fHa de Lnvu'n. 
La R. P OuriDWiux, jCiuite de Louaain,. 
La R, P ViKCTNT SoMuQiK. cenvantaal. de LauVaia. 
La R P Van Holmdi. capucin. de Louveis. 
La R. ChanfttqfPrCmoBtr* J. Vovma, cur<>da Peatt 

OniI«. 
La Frdra AtUU (duia lltnonde. F, Forpr}. r^Iicicui 
, toitpMlede Leovain. 
La FrireSfiitfnEK(danateinonde:Mr Strutnun), tf li* 

fieiit toiJpbite de Lmivun. 
La Fr^fe CandIDB (dam leman^eiMr. Pint). drr^Crea 

it U Mitiricerde de filauwpot, ftii do. Louvain 

D10C£SE pE TOUHNAL 

t'thhi e. DRnr.-nffI d'Awt. 
L'ibbj J.BKLAn. art it RoMtfci 



OIOC£S£ DE NAMUR., 

L'abfcl t. AUXiWDU onl da Mauy-la-Vnifc 
L*abb( A. Amhoih. eur« d'Onhaya. 
L'abbcBuADDt. aunbiict dc* mirds-mneU I Bouire 
L'abbA BuimAUi. prvUiMar eu CoUtga Saint* Lavta 

kNaSHV 
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L abb! C. CjOHM, proTaMur «v Coli««« da Bella* Vut 

i tKoanl. 
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Labb< P CiLU, doGteui en Th<«tofie d( IVunrni* 

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L'abbA MAkteKU. •iraiRariira. dc Mtincil 
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L'abbi Piacr. *tcaira d'Eialle. 
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L'abb* Plitr. out d'Anihla. 
L'ibbt PosilH. curl de Suriea 
i.'%bbi E. ScHLdCEL. nri de HiitiUet 
L'lbbt ZlNDOU curt retrain. 

L. R. P Ciurr. benedictia de I'tbbaye de Maredaovft 
Le Cbanoina Nicoua. d« l'«bba/e dca Prilnontria dt 

^^- .^„.^ 

La Collige dea Pirovisrari recommanda ^atcmrat t vol 

chariubin priire* I ame 
tfa Meniieur N FonthiEk ct dc Mannnir V. Lomn. 

pTofeiMurB i lllniveriitl Caiboli^iw de Uxmia. 

fwU^ par tc* troupes aUcnande*. 



ANNOUNCEMENT OF A FUNERAL SERVICE CELEBRATED IN ROME, IN MEMORY OF 
THE BELGIAN PRIESTS KILLED BY THE GERMANS. 

85 



86 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

lated the accusations which I have just reproduced in support of 
my own ? 

Another proof: In a letter addressed on the 24th of January, 
19 1 5, to Colonel Count Wengersky, District Commander at 
Malines, the eminent prelate says : — 

"... Other figures mentioned in my pastoral letter must 
to-day be increased; thus for Aerschot I gave the number of 
victims as 91; now the total number of the inhabitants of 
Aerschot whose bodies have been exhumed had increased, a few 
days ago, to 143." 

In this same letter Cardinal Mercier says again : " The 
moment has not come to lay stress upon these individual facts. 
Their relation will find place in the inquiry which you give me 
grounds to hope for. It will be a consolation to me to see the 
full light thrown on the events to which I was forced to refer in 
my pastoral letter and others of the same kind. But it is es- 
sential that the results of this inquiry should appear to all as 
invested with indisputable authority. 

" To this end I have the honour to propose to you, M. le 
Comte, and to propose, through your kindly offices, to the Ger- 
man authorities, that the Commission of Inquiry should be com- 
posed in equal proportions of German delegates and Belgian 
magistrates, and that the president should be the representative 
of a neutral country. . . . " ^ 

The Germans would not hear of any such commission — and 
with reason ! 

But the British Government, which wanted to know what to 
think of " the crimes which are said to have been committed by 
the German troops," instituted a Commission of Inquiry on the 
15th of December, 1914, which Commission was composed of 
eminent lawyers, and presided over by Viscount Bryce. 

It commenced its labours in a spirit of scepticism bordering 
on incredulity. Then, as it heard the depositions of more than 

' This proposal v/as repeated verbally on the 8th of February, 1915, by 
Mgr. Van Rosy, Vicar-General, who was sent for by the Malines Komman- 
dantur. Cardinal Mercier repeated it in writing on the loth of February. 

On the I2th of April the Bishop of Namur proposed to the Military Gov- 
ernor of his province the formation of a court of inquiry composed of Ger- 
man and Belgian arbitrators, the president to be a delegate from a neutral 
State. 

Finally, on the 24th of November, 1915, the Cardinal-Archbishop and the 
five bishops of Belgium addressed to the cardinals and bishops of Germany, 
Bavaria, and Austria a letter full of cricumstantial details which contained the 
same proposals. This collective letter — which, despite the great sobriety of its 
tone, constitutes the most crushing indictment against the whole German pro- 
cedure in Belgium — received no reply. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 87 

twelve hundred witnesses, Belgian civilians who had entered the 
United Kingdom as refugees, with British soldiers and officers 
who had taken part in the military operations in Belgium, and as 
it analysed this evidence and compared it with the service note- 
books found on German soldiers, its conviction of the truth was 
established and confirmed. And its report, which appeared a few 
months ago, corroborated the Belgian Commission in every re- 
spect. 

Although numbers of priests were either killed — sometimes 
with incredible refinements of cruelty — or led into captivity, 
there were also, among the thousands of Belgian victims of this 
German war, a number of doctors. Dr. Philippe, of Brussels, 
the President of the " Association of Belgian Physicians refugees 
in England," writes to me on this subject: "Thirty-seven doc- 
tors were shot in the small communes (they were nearly all 
burgomasters). A large number of doctors' houses were 
burned. In the large towns more than 150 doctors have disap- 
peared." 

As for the military doctors, if those who fell into the hands 
of the Germans had their lives spared, they were, nevertheless, 
subjected to all sorts of exactions. Many of them were even 
taken to Germany. The Oberarzt who was in charge at Namur 
at the beginning of September, 19 14, declared, moreover, that 
it was plainly in the interest of the Germans to refuse to allow 
the Belgian doctors to rejoin the army in Antwerp, for by de- 
priving the army of medical attention the Germans would find 
yet another trump card in sickness and epidemics ! 

Francs-Tireurs 

I promised the reader some stories of francs-tireurs. Here 
they are: — 

On the 8th of August, 19 14, the beautiful village of Francor- 
champs, which lies in the neighbourhood of Spa, quite close to 
the frontier, was drenched with blood and fire. Why? 

For four days the German columns had been passing through 
the village in a perfectly peaceable manner. It was hot weather, 
and the peasants had placed pails of water along the roadside so 
that the men might quench their thirst. The officers ate at the 
hotel; already the villagers and the holiday visitors from Brus- 
sels were growing accustomed to the passing of the troops. 

But then, suddenly, about 9 o'clock in the morning, a few 



88 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

shots rang out. And at once the fatal cry was heard : " Man 
hat geschossen! " 

The innocent must suffer for the guilty. The Germans began 
to shoot '- and plunder and burn. The village was wiped out. 

Now it happens that we know to-day what was the origin of 
the few shots fired at Francorchamps on the morning of the 8 th 
of August, 

" Until mid-August," M. Waxweiler tells us,^ " small de- 
tachments of Belgian cavalry pushed their reconnaissances to 
the rear of the German lines, thanks to the woods, which are 
very plentiful in this district. This is how it was that early on 
the morning of the 8th of August two gendarmes and two 
lancers were hidden in the thickets of Francorchamps. Seeing 
a German column, they fired upon it. 

" On the other hand, the Germans, not having encountered 
any Belgian troops in these parts since entering the country, 
immediately imagined that the shots fired could only be the work 
of civilians, and at once, without inquiry, a pitiless collective re- 
pression broke upon the village." 

Another episode of the same kind: — 

On the loth of August a German detachment found, upon 
entering Linsmeau, a little village in Brabant, a few peasants 
gathered about a freshly dug grave. Beside them lay the body 
of a German officer, which they were about to bury. The body 
was examined : the temple was pierced by a revolver bullet, and 
the wound was not such as would be received in battle. And 
the watch, the papers, and all the personal belongings of the 
dead man had disappeared. Thus there was no possible^ doubt: 
it was these peasants who had killed the German officer. 

Now this is what the Germans would have learned had they 
made the slightest inquiry: — 

On that very morning a Belgian patrol, on the outskirts of 
Linsmeau, had encountered an officer and some German soldiers 
on reconnaissance. Shots were exchanged; the German officer 
fell, and his men fled. The Belgians, whose first taste of action 
this was, were much affected; they drew near to the officer who 
lay stretched upon the ground, and their own officer bent over 

' Among the victims of this " collective repression " was M. Laude, a young 
advocate of Brussels, full of talent. 

' Emile Waxweiler, member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, author of 
La Belgique neutre et loyale. Paris and Lausanne: Payot et Cie, 1915. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 89 

him with solicitude. Then the German suddenly raised himself, 
and, seizing his revolver, took aim at the Belgian officer. After 
this it was the most legitimate thing imaginable for the latter 
to fire. Struck in the temple, his treacherous adversary fell, 
this time to rise no more. 

However, before this lifeless corpse the pity of the little 
party of Belgians increased; and their commander compassion- 
ately conceived the idea of having all the personal belongings of 
the dead man taken to the cure of a neighbouring village, in or- 
der that they might be sent to his family. Then, calling some 
peasants who were passing, and who were inhabitants of Lins- 
meau, he instructed them to dig a grave for the body. 

This is what an inquiry would have revealed. 

But the Germans made no inquiry; they never do make in- 
quiries, for that matter, until it is too late, when the supposedly 
guilty persons can no longer be heard. 

No inquiry was made; but ten farms were immediately given 
to the flames; the entire village was sacked; women were 
raped, and fifteen persons, of whom one was a woman, were 
shotl 

At Dolhain a German sentinel, fatigued by the long day's 
march, fired into the darkness, obsessed by some hallucination. 

The guard immediately turned out, there was a terrible burst 
of firing, and the principal street was burned. 

At the end of August Liebknecht was travelling by motor-car 
to Louvain. He came to a place where great excitement pre- 
vailed; he inquired what was happening; the Germans there 
had found three of their soldiers killed in the road, and accused 
the peasants of having shot them. Liebknecht questioned the 
peasants, and proof was quickly forthcoming that the German 
soldiers had been killed by Belgian carabineers. This inter- 
vention on the part of the Socialist deputy saved the supposed 
francs-tireurs from death. 

At Huy shots were fired during the night; two Germans, a 
non-commissioned officer and a soldier, were seriously wounded. 
Naturally the civil population was immediately accused of the 
crime. The burgomaster was arrested. " Shoot me," he said, 
" but I beg you will not do so before the bullets have been ex- 
tracted from the wounded." 

His request was granted. The bullets were found to be Ger- 
man. 

Thanks to the burgomaster's presence of mind, thanks also, 



90 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

one must admit, to the good will of the district commander, 
the pretty little town was spared. 

One of the highest dignitaries In the kingdom was dragged 
from his chateau and imprisoned all night in a cellar, with all his 
family, because of a rumour that twenty-five German corpses had 
been discovered in one of his woods. On the following day he 
and his only escaped the death hanging over their heads thanks 
to his insistence In causing it to be established that there was 
not a single corpse either in the wood in question or anywhere 
round about! 

One last anecdote — wholly horrible this time. The Saxon 
officer from whom we have already cited a few notes will tell It : 

" August 26th. — The delightful village of Gue-d'Hossus 
(Ardennes) was given over to the flames, although innocent, as 
it seems to me. I was told that a cyclist fell from his machine, 
and that in the fall his rifle discharged Itself; whereupon they 
fired in his direction. At this they simply threw the male in- 
habitants into the flames." ^ 

* * * 

The truth Is that the German troops, who were, with extreme 
skill, " suggestionlsed " at the time of their entrance into Bel- 
gium, went about, while within our frontiers, in constant dread 
of the franc-tireur. " Away from the battlefield," says the Com- 
mission of Inquiry (12th Report), " the least sound makes them 
start and tremble. A bicycle tyre bursting; a detonator exploding 
under a tram, as at Jurbize; the explosions of a gas-engine, as 
at Alost; the detonation of chemical products in a burning labo- 
ratory, as at Louvain, invariably result In the cry, ' Man hat 
geschossen! ' with all its sinister consequences. 

" Throughout the Aerschot district it was forbidden to grind 
the corn necessary for the sustenance of the inhabitants, on the 
pretext that the sails of the windmills might be used for signal- 
ling. At Limburg it was pretended that the reflection of the 
moon in the windows of the church was providing the enemy 
with information. At Izel a flag which had been floating above 
the belfry provoked the same fear. At SItaert the bows and 
arrows of an archery club were confiscated, on the pretext that 
the arrows might be poisoned and employed against the Ger- 
man troops! 

" Is it surprising that In this mental condition the soldiers, 
suspecting ambushes in every direction, eventually get to firing 

'J. Bedier, op. cit. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 



91 



at one another, or even at their officers . . . while the civil 
population, previously disarmed by the care of the local authori- 
ties, are the trembling witnesses, through the cellar air-holes, of a 
bloody struggle of which it will presently have to pay the price ? 
" Directly order is re- 

rtmty "4.h; -."i I»ibhW Prowal dt Km 

will be to conceal, or 
rather to distort, the in- 
cident, and the legend of 
an attack by civilians will 
be created." 

One unhappy woman, 
confronted by the body 
of her husband, asked an 
officer: "What had he 
done to you?" — "He 
fired."— "And that 
one?" she cried, point- 
ing to the body of a little 
child, massacred by the 
side of his father. " Did 
he fire too?" The offi- 
cer made off without re- 
plying. 

No, it is not pleasant 
to contemplate, and it is 
not the mark of a truly 
strong nation, the man- 
ner in which the Germans have made war upon us! 

No, there was no war of francs-tireurs in Belgium. Every- 
thing goes to disprove the German allegations in this connection. 

The Belgian Government did not " publicly encourage the 
population to take part in the war," ^ as the Kaiser asserted 

' " Provincial Government of Namur. — Most Important Notice. — The civil 
Governor draws the most serious attention of the inhabitants of the province 
to the very grave danger which might result if civilians were to make use of 
weapons against the enemy. In this respect they must observe, as is, moreover, 
proper, the most complete abstention. It is for the national forces alone to 
defend our territory. Any infringement of this prohibition would be likely to 
provoke reprisals, incendiarism, etc. — Namur, the 7th of August, 1914. Baron 
de Montpellie. Seen and approved by the Military Governor, Michel." 

' But it might have done so with perfect legality, according to The Hague 
Conventions and the German Usages of War on Land. The levee en ma~sse 
and the arming of irregular troops is perfectly lawful in case of invasion. 



Avis fres important 



Le Gouverneur clvU attire la tris s^rieuse 
attention des habitants de U province sur le 
trfes grave danger qui pourrait rtsulter pour 
les dvils flo se sorvir rfarmes centre renneinL 

Us doivent ^ cet Sgard. observer, comme il 
convient du xeste. Tabstention la plus complete. 
^C'est k la lorce publique seule qu'J appafti^nt 
de d^fendre le territoira 

To«te inobservation de cette recotnman- 
dation Serah de nature ^ provoquer. le cas 
«ob£ant. des repr^sailles, des incendies, eta 

Namur; le 7 aoot t914. 

B^on de Montpellie. 

Vu rt upimjuvi :, 
Jiaamr.tBlmatlOii. 

' £« Boartmfur mililau^ 

MICHEL. 



i^TRe.- 



MWvUK « Hl». N 



PLACARD POSTED AT NAMUR URGING CIVILIANS TO 
KEEP THE PEACE.' 



92 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



AVIS 



Tons d^teoieun d'arnK» A tea (lusilt» carabines. rtvoU 
vers\ p&rticuliers et n^riiiiiis. sooi icous oblig&toiremeat 
d'eo (aire remise h IHdiel <lc* \iile, ftu plus tard Luodi IT 
icouraal, de 10 heures 6 nidi. 

Les Brmes d^pos^s devroni porter Tadresse da propn> 
taire. It sera delivre rec^pissedu dep6L 



to MiBlaUB im ITaMrlawtwomjBuMMsatviUtM riiMa 
daao losr r40ioa 

O* w pr«r«r«r si lajvofc at nwtuii 

0«Miaair eilaurlMT «^r«ra>«r lu tettru all qv'fts M pBlMo 4ir« 

L'%M» 4* TtAiAoon ««u»u pur as •MvietvUMrait oo ttnu^srlm* qv* la 
iiM«tMio. •ap&iloe«M«asoanw« Ao UpepoiUwa UiBBwn;^ 



in a message to the President of the United States; ^ It had not 
" for a long time been making careful preparations for such 

participation." 

It is not true that " a 
general rising of the peo- 
ple against the enemy 
was organised long ago," 
as an official German 
communique pretended, 
and that " stores of 
weapons were established 
in which each rifle bore 
the name of the citizen 
for whom it was in- 
tended." 

On the contrary, if 
any reproach could, 
strictly speaking, be 
brought against those 
who " for a long time 
past " have succeeded to 
power In Belgium, it 
would be that they were 
not sufficiently disturbed 
by the preparations for 
invasion and conquest 
which " for a long time 
past " — in spite of ex- 
plicit and reiterated as- 
surances — have been made by one of those Powers which guar- 
anteed our neutrality and our Independence ! 

Probably the bad record of the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war prevented 
the Belgian Government from meditating any such step. — B. M. 

' Who might well have seized this occasion to ask his Imperial correspondent 
— in the name of the signatories of The Hague Conventions — what his troops 
were doing in this " perpetually neutral country." 

' " Notice. — All persons in possession of weapons (rifles, carbines, revolv- 
ers), private persons or dealers, are required under compulsion to deposit 
them at the Hotel de Ville, on Monday, the 17th, at latest, between 10 o'clock 
and noon. 

" The arms deposited must bear the address of the owner. Receipts will be 
given upon deposit. 

" The Minister of the Interior urges civilians — should the enemy appear in 
their district — 

" Not to fight. — Not to offer insults or threats. — To keep indoors and close 
the windows so that no one can say that provocation was given. — If the sol- 



negm. le 14 AoOt 1914. 



LsSMrfB 

O" EVERAEBTS. 



nsusikJap- Lvam BM4aart>We<tta 

PLACARD POSTED AT FLEURUS REQUI8ING THE IN- 
HABITANTS TO SURRENDER ANY WEAPONS IN THEIR 
POSSESSION.^ 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 93 

But this is a matter of the past, and we must confine our- 
selves to present facts. Now these are such facts, essential and 
undeniable : the German invasion surprised the Belgian Govern- 
ment as it was beginning to reorganise Its army, and, far from 
being able to distribute arms to the civil population, it was 
unable, owing to an insufficiency of rifles, to accept at the mo- 
ment all the volunteers who offered themselves, or to call to the 
colours the class of 1914.^ Far from organising the armed re- 
sistance of the civil population — although by the terms of The 
Hague Conventions such " organisation " would have been per- 
fectly lawful ^ — the Government, on the 4th of August, sent to 
the 2,700 communes of the kingdom the most categorical in- 
structions which absolutely forbade civilians to take part in the 
hostilities. Everywhere, on the approach of the enemy, the 
governors of provinces and the burgomasters communicated 
these instructions to their fellow-citizens by means of placards 
such as those we have reproduced. Lastly, if the Germans 
discovered " stores of weapons in which each rifle bore the name 
of the citizen for whom it was intended," it was precisely be- 

diers occupy a house or an isolated village to defend themselves, to evacuate it, 
so that no one can say civilians have fired. — An act of violence committed by 
a single civilian might be a veritable crime which the law would punish by 
arrest and would condemn, for it might serve as pretext to a bloody repres- 
sion, pillage, and the massacre of the innocent population, women and chil- 
dren included. — Fleurus, the 14th August, 1914. — The Burgomaster, Dr. 
Everaerts." 

' Several weeks after the opening of hostilities I saw ten thousand Lebel 
rifles arrive at Ostend, for which the Belgian Government had been obliged 
to apply to France. Munitions of French manufacture, of course, accom- 
panied these weapons, which explains why, at the time of the fighting round 
Antwerp, our enemies were able to pick up French cartridges dated 1912 — from 
which they inferred that we had conducted secret arrangements with France 
at that date. 

' Convention Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed 
at The Hague, the i8th of October, 1907. 

Regulation respecting the Laws and Customs of Wcur on Land. 

Article I. — The laws, rights, and duties of war apply not only to the army, 
but also to militia and volunteer corps fulfilling all the following conditions : — 

1. They must be commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates; 

2. They must have a fixed distinctive sign recognisable at a distance; 

3. They must carry arms openly; and 

4. They must conduct their operations in accordance with the laws and 
customs of war. 

Article II. — The inhabitants of a territory not under occupation who, on the 
approach of the enemy, spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading 
troops without having had time to organise themselves in accordance with 
Article I., shall be regarded as belligerents if they carry arms openly, and if 
they respect the laws and customs of war. 

(See Manual of Military Law, War Office, 1914.) 

(These Articles, it may be remarked, are practically the modern equivalent 
of the old German law of the Landstrum. As usual, Germany claims for 
herself rights which she regards as criminal in others, — B. M.) 



94 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

cause, as a measure of precaution, the communal authorities had 
ordered private Individuals to surrender such weapons as they 
possessed. Did not the very fact that these rifles bore the names 
of individual citizens prove most obviously that they were 
weapons which, having been taken from private persons, would 
be restored to them at the close of hostilities ? It Is not the cus- 
tom, In arsenals, to mark weapons In advance with the names 
of the soldiers who are to bear them. 

In reahty, the extremely prudent measures which were taken 
by the Government and the communal authorities most unhap- 
pily delivered thousands of defenceless victims to the rage of 
the invaders. 

A System 

It was the regular forces alone which, valiantly and loyally, 
resisted the advance of the invaders. 

Is it not significant, by the way, that, excepting at Aerschot, 
where — wholly without justification — they accused the burgo- 
master's son of killing one of their officers,^ the Germans never 
designated any guilty or supposedly guilty person by name? 

But supposing that It could be established that Belgian civilians 
had fired on the German troops: nothing would authorise the 
latter to commit collective reprisals.^ Here, by the way, is one 
of the numerous drawings — not from life — by means of which 
our treacherous enemies have spread the legend of Belgian 
francs-ttreurs through Germany (i8). In the matter of com- 
position and execution there is not much to be said for it. But 
let us suppose for a moment that it is genuine, and corresponds 
with some actual event. Well, frankly, considering the two sol- 
diers with spiked helmets, and the " civilian," armed with 
Heaven knows what blunderbuss, who is emerging as an avenger 
from the ruins of his village, do you not think the civilian would 
make the best showing in face of the universal conscience? 

But in the majority of cases, and precisely in the worst 
cases of all — it was not in expiation of crimes, imaginary or real, 
that the German Army drenched my poor country with blood and 

' It is infinitely likely that this officer was struck by a stray German bullet. — 
For the happenings at Aerschot see the moving letter from the widow of 
Burgomaster Tielemans (Appendix). 

' Regulation respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, Art. L. — 
No collective penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the popu- 
lation on account of the acts of individuals for which it cannot be regarded as 
collectively responsible. {Manual of Military Law, p. 344.) 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 95 

fire; but in virtue of a system, of a rigorous application of the 
principles of Bismarck: to do the greatest possible injury to the 
civil population of the enemy country, to torture it in every pos- 
sible way, in order to force it to bring pressure upon its rulers 
in favour of capitulation. These principles, I may say, have 
been codified. " The horrible things which have happened in 
Belgium," says an Italian publicist, Luigi Barzini, a close ob- 
server of that work of devastation of which I have been able to 
give but the slightest notion, " the horrible things which have 
happened in Belgium were merely the application of a rule es- 
tablished by the German Great General Staff. It rejects as detri- 
mental all the chivalrous, generous, and noble elements which 
had survived in warfare. Germany has created her own theory 
of war, absolute, rigid, inhuman, monstrous; ... it com- 
prises, from the military point of view, all those elements which 
are able to contribute to a speedy victory: terror, suffering, de- 
portation. . . . 

" It was desired to give the soldier the momentum, blind, 
awful, and impetuous, but direct and efficacious, of a projectile. 
He must no longer be a man, but a pitiless machine; no feeling 
must hamper or divert his actions; his individual consciousness 
must be replaced by the collective consciousness, a thing of just, 
meritorious, and necessary fury. Tradition Is suppressed; the 
law of nations is suppressed; sensitiveness, compassion, and hu- 
manity are attacked as an evil, a weakness, a mistake. The 
moral code of war has been simplified by instituting a new and 
facile concept of the lawful and unlawful: all that may conduce 
to success Is lawful, all that may fetter It is unlawful. . . . 
This enormity was prepared without hatred, in the midst of 
peace, assiduously, scientifically, not in a spirit of violence, but 
as a matter of calculation, contemning all that does not conduce 
to victory, and insulating military matters from all considerations 
unconnected with efficacy of action. . . . 

" Led onward by the rigid. Implacable, and ferocious logic of 
its formulas, the Great General Staff, in its Kriegsbrauch im Land- 
kriege, has finally created a hideous code of reasoned and dis- 
ciplined savagery, which proposes the application of many means 
which can produce a stupendous outbreak of systematic atrocity, 
all the more terrible because impersonal, mechanical, and inevi- 
table. The German military conscience is based upon the con- 
cepts of this system. The soldier burns and massacres in certain 
pre-determlned cases as In others he fights and manoeuvres. For 



96 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

him this is warfare, the only warfare, the true warfare. H 
obeys; he does not judge, because to judge is an offence. Th 
word of command is as sacred as a dogma. The regulations o 
the Staff are the soldier's Bible., He acts within the law. 

" What does the world accuse him of? Krieg ist Krieg! " ^ 

Some women of Dinant were lamenting over the bodies o 
their husbands. One of the officer-executioners approached then 
and spoke to them almost with courtesy: " Come, look yoi 
ladies, you must be reasonable ; it is war ! " And to the wome 
of Andenne some soldiers spoke, saying: " Don't cry like thai 
We aren't doing the quarter of what we ought to do ! " 

The German Army was marching to victory — or believei 
that it was doing so — and the end would justify the means— 
any means ! When the Bishop of Liege told Marshal von de 
Goltz his opinion of the crimes committed in his diocese b 
German soldiers, and remarked that History, the impartial 
would record these crimes to the eternal shame of Germany, th 
gentle Marshal repHed: "History, Monseigneur? We sha] 
be the ones to write it, for we shall be the victors ! " 

Now as it was conceived and anticipated by the military leader 
and the rulers of Germany, victory meant the territorial diminv 
tion of France and Russia, together with their material and pc 
litical ruin; in the meantime, until something better could be ac 
complished, the prestige of England would be seriously damaged 
Belgium was to be annexed, and — to begin with — Switzerlanc 
Holland, and Denmark. The political vassalage of Austria 
Hungary and the Ottoman Empire being from the outset a 
accomplished fact, the dreamed-of victory would have meant 
little by little, and without long delay, the certain domination o 
the whole of Europe : a glorious goal in the eyes of the Germa 
rulers, which to their thinking was well worth the employmer 
of all and any means. 

Yes: the German troops resorted to terrorism according t 
system, in order to induce us to capitulate, to leave them " a 
open road." 

Apart from the similarity of the methods employed and th 
coincidence of dates, there are facts which enable us to assei 
that the massacres and burnings at Dinant, Andenne, Namui 
Aerschot, and Louvain, in particular, were premeditated in col 
blood. 

On the 17th of August a German officer found lodgings i 
'Luigi Barzini, Co^riere della Sera, Milan, 22nd and 23rd of April, 1915. 



BY ALL AND ANY MEANS 97 

the house of a Belgian magistrate in the Ardennes. In conversa- 
tion, speaking of various charming spots in the Walloon country- 
side, my compatriot mentioned Dinant. " Dinant, a town con- 
demned," said the officer, perhaps unthinkingly. This was a 
week before the martyrdom of the charming little city. 

M. X , of Dinant, at the time of the invasion, was in 

another part of the country. There he made the acquaintance of 
a German officer. Now about the 20th of August this officer said 
to him: " You come from Dinant? Don't go back then; it is a 
bad place; it will be destroyed." At the same time he asked M. 

X for details as to his home in Dinant. He went away, 

but returned after the 23rd. Extracting a statuette from his 

luggage, he showed it to M. X , saying, " Do you know 

this? " " Why, yes, it comes from my house! " " In that case 
I was not mistaken: I have saved your house; it has not been 
burned." 

The German troops marching toward Andenne announced, 
in the villages which they passed through, that they were going 
to burn the town and massacre the inhabitants. 

At Louvain, on the 25th of August, an officer who had been 
received with courtesy and kindness by a family of good standing 
called at the house of his hosts about 11.00 o'clock in the morn- 
ing and urged them all to leave for Brussels without delay. 
While apologising for the fact that he could give them no ex- 
planations, he insisted so that they finally decided to go. A sol- 
dier advised M. R van K to leave " because the town 

was going to be burned and levelled to the ground." A witness 
heard by the Commission of Inquiry declared upon oath that he 
heard an officer tell some of his men — this again was on the 
morning of the same day — that so far they had only seen vil- 
lages burning, but that soon they would see a city ablaze. 

And on the outbreak of the fire the German authorities had 
the fire-engines and fire-escapes destroyed. 

At Aerschot, several hours before the massacre, a soldier 
advised one of the residents to escape. " They are going to 
smash the town to pieces," he said. 

At Namur the chief of the fire brigade was arrested in the 
street just as he was making ready to do his duty and was sent 
home under escort ! 

It seems established, moreover, that Louvain was sacrificed 
in order to spare Brussels. At first the people of Brussels were 
most obligingly permitted to go to Louvain, there to contem- 



98 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

plate the smouldering ruins. It was a wonder that they were not 
urged to do so! No doubt it was considered that Louvain 
formed a salutary and educative spectacle for this refractory 
population. We read in the Kolnische Zeitung for the loth of 
February, 19 15 : — 

" The burning of Battice, Herve, Louvain, and Dinant had 
the effect of public warnings. The destruction effected, the rivers 
of blood shed during the first days of the war in Belgium, had 
saved the great Belgian cities from the temptation of attacking 
the weak garrisons which we were obliged to leave in them. 
Does anyone imagine that the capital of Belgium would have 
tolerated us, who to-day are living in Brussels as though in our 
own country, if the Belgians had not trembled, and did not still 
tremble, before our vengeance ? " 

Finally, it is asserted that all the great fires were started by 
specialists, who were stationed at given points, and who had at 
their disposal special implements and materials which were par- 
ticularly effectual: pumps to throw petrol, incendiary grenades 
and rockets, and compressed tablets of gelatinised nitro-cellulose. 
These implements and materials were not improvised. The 
invaders were furnished with them when they entered Belgium 
on the 4th of August. Such things formed part of their muni- 
tions of war. 



VI 
STILL ERECT 1 

"Already defeated Belgium has fallen on her knees! " So 
cried a great and semi-official Berlin newspaper the day after the 
Imperial troops had entered Brussels; ^ and all Germany rejoiced 
at the idea. 

On her knees ! No, not yet ! 

The German Army had passed, formidable and gigantic; it 
had devastated and soaked with blood a great part of the coun- 
try; everywhere it had left its uncouth garrisons; the capital it- 
self was occupied; Belgium was assuredly sorely wounded, but 
with a dignity equal to her valour she still kept her footing, 
proud and erect, her sword in her hand. 

For that matter, would any Power declare war upon a " de- 
feated " nation — even if that Power were Austria? For Aus- 
tria, in turn, declared war upon us. 

On the 28th of August Count Clary und Aldringen, H.I.M. 
the Austrian Emperor's Minister at the Belgian Court, des- 
patched to M. Davignon, through the agency of the Dutch Min- 
ister of Foreign Affairs, the telegram which I here reproduce : — 

By order of my Government I have the honour to notify Your Excel- 
lency as follows: Seeing that Belgium, after refusing to accept the pro- 
posals addressed to her on several occasions by Germany, is lending her 
military co-operation to France and Great Britain, both of which have 
declared war upon Austria-Hungary, and in consideration of the fact that, 
as has just been ascertained, the Austrian and Hungarian subjects in Bel- 
gium have, under the eyes of the Royal authorities, been forced to submit 
to treatment contrary to the most primitive requirements of humanity, 
and inadmissible even in respect of the subjects of an enemy State, Austria- 
Hungary finds herself compelled to break off diplomatic relations and to 
consider herself from this moment in a state of war against Belgium. 
I am leaving the country with the staff of the legation, and am confiding 
the protection of my countrymen to the United States Minister to Bel- 
gium. On the part of the Imperial and Royal Government passports 
have been handed to Count Errembault de Dudzeele. 

' Lokal-Ameiger, Berlin, 21st August, I9i4. 
99 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

the allegations contained in this Note the Minister of 
eign Affairs immediately replied as follows, through the 
icy of the Belgian Minister to The Hague and the Dutch 
lister of Foreign Affairs: — 

:lgium has always maintained friendly relations with all her neigh- 
s, without distinction. She has scrupulously fulfilled the obligations 
ised upon her by neutrality. If she considered that it was impossible 
;cept the proposals of Germany, it was because these had as their ob- 
the violation of the engagements into which she has entered in the face 
iurope, engagements which were the conditions of the creation of the 
ian Kingdom. She did not consider that a nation, however weak it 
be, should disregard its obligations and sacrifice its honour by bowing 
irce. The Government waited not only for the delay involved by the 
tiatum, but for the violation of its territory by the German troops 
re appealing to France and to England, the guarantors of her neutral- 
with Germany and Austria-Hungary, to co-operate, in the name and 
irtue of the Treaties, in the defence of Belgian territory. 

1 repelling the invaders by armed force Belgium was not even com- 
ing an act of hostility, according to the terms of Article X of The 
ue Convention concerning the rights and duties of neutral Powers, 
ermany has herself recognised that her aggresion constitutes a viola- 
of international law, and being unable to justify it she has invoked 

strategic interest. 

elgium meets the assertion that Austrian and Hungarian subjects have 
subjected in Belgium to treatment contrary to the most primitive 
irements of humanity with an explicit denial. 

he Royal Government gave the strictest orders at the outbreak of 
ilities as to the protection of the persons and property of Austro- 
igarian subjects. 

A. Davignon might have added — ^but perhaps he was not 
1 aware of it — that Austria-Hungary had virtually corn- 
iced hostilities already, since Austrian batteries of automobile 
?itzers had taken part in the bombardment of Namur, and 
Y greatly contributed to the fall of that position. 
)oes this assertion seem a little hazardous? Here are some 
of s : — 

n a bulletin of victory posted up in Brussels on the 3rd of 
tember, the Germans themselves declared that " when the 
rier-forts situated on the rocky heights of Givet were cap- 
id, just as at Namur, the heavy automobile batteries sent by 
itria distinguished themselves by their mobility, the accuracy 
their fire, and their effectiveness." 

Another proof: The Austrian Colonel Langer, who com- 
ided the batteries in question, himself related, in Vienna, on 



STILL ERECT! loi 

the 17th of February, 19 15, that these batteries, coming from 
different directions, were concentrated at Cologne on the 1 5th of 
August, and that it was there that he received the order to pro- 
ceed, on the night of the same day. " We were first of all sent to 
Verviers, where we detrained," he said; " from Verviers we set 
out on the 21st of August for Namur, where we went into action. 
Two days later, at i o'clock in the afternoon, the outer fort of 
Namur, the ' Cognelee,' fell; an hour later the next fort followed 
suit. The 12-inch howitzer was employed against the Cognelee 
fort; the 16.5-inch against the other." ^ 

Thus these famous batteries arrived in Belgium on the i6th 
or 17th of August; that is eleven or twelve days before the 
Austrian declaration of war, and in the meantime Count Clary 
und Aldringen continued to live in our midst as though nothing 
had happened; he even carried his impudence to the length of 
endeavouring to correspond with his Government in cipher! 

Antwerp 

Withdrawn into the shelter of the forts of Antwerp, after 
meeting the invasion by an admirable effort of resistance, the 
Belgian Army might have remained on the defensive. Neither 
our brave King, nor our upright Government, nor our heroic 
soldiers desired this, and the whole nation approved of their 
decision. Belgium considered that she was henceforth the com- 
rade-in-arms of Great Britain and France, and that she must to 
the end co-operate with them toward the liberation of her na- 
tional territory. 

Our Army, therefore, did not remain inactive. It harassed 
the enemy without respite, and even made important sorties. 

On the 25th and 26th of August — while the bulk of the Ger- 
man armies were at grips on the Sambre and in the vicinity of 
Mons with the French and British forces — the Belgian troops 
emerged from the entrenched camp and successfully attacked the 
German forces, which consisted of the Ilird and IVth Reserve 
Corps, which were on the watch before Malines, and were forced 
to fall back on Louvain. 

An officer who took part in this sortie published (in the 
-Courrier de I'Armee — Belgian — for the 28th of November, 
1914) an interesting account of his experiences: — 

" In August," he says, " marches and counter-marches, which 

^Neue Freie Presse, No. 18,136, Vienna, i8th February. 1915. 



102 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



finally brought us, on the 25th, to the Chateau Grisar, between 
Malines and Sempst, where we had our first ' affair.' Two com- 
mandants were killed there, and five men. I was in the front 




THE ENTRENCHED CAMP OF ANTWERP AND ITS APPROACHES. 

rank. In taking possession of a house which was to serve as a 
point of support I was fired at by a machine-gun, and received 
two bullets through my cloak. A young corporal behind me was 
hit in the throat. Before me I saw an officer, with legs a-straddle, 
examining us through his binoculars. I threw my rifle to my 
shoulder and brought him down. The soldier accompanying 
me, one Toussalnt, killed the officer's companion. 



STILL ERECT! 103 

" But we were overwhelmed, and had to fall back to the trench 
skirting the Chateau Grisar. Once there, Toussaint informed me 
that he was going to fetch the wounded corporal. He went, 
sure enough, and brought him back on his shoulders, despite a 
hail of bullets. Plucky lad! . . .A few moments later I 
turned round; I saw him lying on the ground, dead, a bullet 
through his brain. 

" Then, too. Major de Gerlache was wounded, behaving like 
a Stoic. . . . 

" At Hopstade I saw, in a small house, an old white-haired 
woman murdered, her throat gashed open. In a corner a boy of 
sixteen was on his knees, his hands still elapsed as though to im- 
plore mercy; he had received more than twenty bayonet thrusts 
in the body. In another place I saw a woman — enceinte — who 
had been disembowelled behind the counter of her grocery shop. 

" So it was to the end, as far as Berlaere and Schoonaerde, 
where I was wounded. . . . Marches, counter-marches, 
trenches held and abandoned, machine-gun fire, atrocities and 
sights unheard-of, like that of the field near the ' Jack Op ' brew- 
ery at Werchter — the Germans had passed that way — which 
was littered with thousands and thousands of empty bot- 
tles. ..." 

Our enemies displayed an increasing contempt for the law of 
nations and the laws of war. Attacks upon ambulance convoys ; 
the bombardment of hospitals and ambulances, over which 
the Red Cross flag was floating and plainly visible; civilians 
forced to dig trenches or to march in front of the troop* in order 
to screen them from fire; terrible acts of vengeance committed 
upon unoffending peasants for the slightest reverse suffered in 
battle or skirmish ; pillage and incendiarism ; all these crimes, and 
many others also, were becoming more and more frequent. 

At the end of August the Germans inaugurated a fresh system 
of terrorisation. 

On the night of the 24th of August a Zeppelin appeared above 
Antwerp, dropping, upon the slumbering city, nine bombs, which 
were obviously intended for the Palace, where the Queen and 
her children were in residence, and for the buildings which 
housed the various Governmental Departments. These bombs 
fell near these various buildings, or in the street, or on private 
houses, which were either entirely destroyed or badly damaged. 
Ten persons were kiVKtd; many more were grievously wounded. 

The "raid" hacf Mcceeded! As is shown by the German 



I04 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

postcard which is reproduced on a subsequent page, Germany 
applauded it, and in her enthusiasm associated the Emperor him- 
self with the glorification of this criminal crew (20). Note that 
the picture reveals the true character of the Zeppelin's work — 
which was the bombardment, from the upper sky, of the city 
itself, and not of the forts of Antwerp. 

Measures, of course, were taken — and they proved extremely 
efficacious — to render fresh attempts of the kind more diificult; 
all lights were extinguished by 8 or 9 o'clock at night, and at 
certain elevated points powerful searchlights and guns were in- 
stalled. 

As a matter of precaution the young Princes were taken 
to a place of safety. The Queen herself accompanied them to 
England ; but as soon as she had accomplished this maternal duty 
our courageous and beneficent Sovereign returned to Antwerp, to 
lavish her care upon the wounded, who day by day increased in 
numbers. 

There were then several bombardments of the open town of 
Malines — no previous warning was given, and no real strategic 
purpose was served; and these bombardments were accompanied 
by the further destruction of archasological prodigies and in- 
estimable artistic treasures. (In the beautiful church of Notre- 
Dame-au-dela-de-la-Dyle, which dates from 1255, and which was 
badly damaged, an admirable example of Rubens, the Peche 
miraculeuse, was riddled with splinters of shrapnel.) 

And amid this material destruction, what human tragedies I 
In the prison at Malines, on which the shells fell thick and fast, 
the little son of a warder, a child four years of age, became in- 
sane with terror. The prison had to be evacuated, and you can 
imagine what the march to Antwerp of prisoners and warders 
must have been beneath this rain of shells. But how imagine 
the transfer — which had to be effected under the same dramatic 
circumstances — of the inmates of a lunatic asylum? 

In order to inform neutral countries — and America in par- 
ticular, where the statements of German agencies were designed 
to mislead the public — what was our actual role in the great 
European conflict, the Belgian Government decided to send an 
official mission to the United States. This mission was composed 
of M. Carton de Wiart, Minister of Justice — who was president 
of the mission, with the title of Envoy Extraordinary of His 
Majesty the King of the Belgians to the P-esident of the United 
States — and of three Ministers of State, representing the three 



STILL ERECT! 105 

great Belgian political parties: MM. de Sadeleer, Hymans, and 
Emile Vandervelde. Count Lichtervelde was secretary (19). 
The mission left Antwerp on the 30th of August, and on the ist 
of September was received in special audience by the King of 
England, to whom it bore the expression of the gratitude of the 
Belgian nation for the fidelity and alacrity with which England 
had fulfilled her obligations as a guarantor of Belgian neutrality. 

The day before the mission landed in New York, with a view 
to discounting the impression it should have produced, the Em- 
peror of Germany sent to President Wilson his notorious tele- 
gram, in which he denounced the pretended acts of violence com- 
mitted by the Belgians, and notably by women, upon the German 
wounded. He added that such violence had necessitated acts of 
repression which pained him extremely: " My heart bleeds for 
Louvain ! " he said in this telegram, of which the most indulgent 
critic will admit that, at all events, it constitutes a masterpiece 
of effrontery. 

The Belgian mission was received at the White House on 
the 1 6th of September. Replying to the speech of M. Carton de 
Wiart, the President of the United States expressed, in significant 
terms, his keen admiration for the Belgian people and his respect 
for their King. It was only after he had received the Belgian 
mission and conferred with it that President Wilson replied to 
the Emperor's message, and his reply was couched in terms which 
betray neither admiration nor respect.^ 

The Belgian mission was then received by the principal Uni- 
versities of the United States : New York, Harvard, and Chicago. 
Then, having received in Canada a truly triumphant welcome 
from the authorities and the population of the Dominion, it had 
opportunities of conferring with a number of American notabili- 
ties — and with Mr. Roosevelt in particular — enlightening them 
as to the situation in Belgium, her loyalty, her courage, her mis- 
fortunes, and thereby contributing to create throughout the 
United States that potent and wonderful current of sympathy and 
solidarity which presently found expression in the organisation of 

relief for the population of the occupied provinces. 

* * * 

Further raids of German dirigibles upon Antwerp and the 
surrounding country were followed by the senseless destruction 
of Termonde. 

' The text of this speech and of the reply to the Imperial message will be 
found in the second Belgian Grey Book. 



io6 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Situated on the confluence of the Dendre and the Scheldt, 
Termonde, with the communes of Lebbeke and Saint-Gilles, 
numbered a total population of some 26,000 inhabitants. 

On the 2nd of September, 19 14, a German patrol penetrated 
as far as Lebbeke. Under the pretext of avenging the death of 
six soldiers killed by the Belgian troops on the territory of this 
commune, it set fire to three farmhouses. 

On the 4th of September the Germans arrived in force. Leb- 
beke, Saint-Gilles, and the little village of Appels were bom- 
barded, pillaged, and burned. Horrible- massacres were com- 
mitted; 25 civilians were killed by axe or bayonet. 

On the same day, about 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, our 
enemies bombarded Termonde; then they entered the town. 
They came to the civil hospital, where they seized — as hostages 
— Dr. Van Winckel, who was tending the sick. Father Van 
Poucke, the chaplain, and M. Schellekens, secretary to the Hos- 
pitals Commission. They also arrested a few townsfolk in the 
street and led them away. 

Twice over, at point-blank range, German soldiers fired at Dr. 
Hemeryck and his bearer, both of whom wore the Red Cross 
brassard. The bearer died five days later; one of his wounds 
was the work of an explosive bullet. 

While they were accomplishing these heroic feats of arms, 
and while the pillage of confectioners' and bakers' shops, gro- 
ceries, and, above all, of taverns and wine-cellars was at its 
height, General von Boehn, standing proudly on the steps of the 
Hotel de Ville, was posing before the lens of a photographer. 
His descendants will know that he " was at Termonde " ! 

In the afternoon — to keep their hand in — the " pioneers," 
those sinister specialists in incendiarism (21), set fire to the 
" Ateliers de Construction de Termonde," and a few houses as 
well. About 5 o'clock a German major released all the prisoners 
at common law who were then in the prison — they numbered 
about 135. At the same time the inhabitants were urged to de- 
part, as the town was to be destroyed. And, indeed, on the 5th 
of September the Germans began a pitiless and systematic de- 
struction of the town by fire. 

Yes, systematic; for the pioneers had at their disposal "cen- 
tral reservoirs at which each man, carrying a pneumatic ap- 
paratus affixed to his body, obtained a quantity of incendiary 
fluid with which to sprinkle the outer woodwork of the houses; 
another man, provided with a special glove smeared with phos- 



STILL ERECT! 107 

phorus, passed along the sprinkled houses, rubbing his glove on 
the woodwork, so that a whole street could be fired in a quarter 
of an hour. To accelerate the burning of the houses men threw 
inflammable matter into them." ^' 

Pitiless, too. To the burgomaster, who begged him to spare 
what remained of the already mutilated town, the major in 
charge of this " military operation" replied, with a surly jeer: 
" Nein ! Razieren! " 

Old and valuable communal documents were implacably given 
to the flames. Such was the case, in particular, with a charter of 
the thirteenth century, which granted the population certain 
privileges. The communal authorities were forced to witness 
the sacrifice without a word. One of them, who ventured to 
protest, was at once arrested, and had to pay a heavy ransom 
to escape execution ; he was deported to Germany, there to learn 
to submit himself to the demands and caprices of Pan-Ger- 
manism. 

The hospital met with no more consideration than the rest 
of the town. There was hardly time to get the patients out; one 
of them, an unfortunate epileptic, remained in the furnace. 

And now for three days there were truly infernal scenes. 
For two days the pioneers worked unremittingly, setting fire, by 
preference, to wealthy houses, whose previous pillage had been 
most fruitful. 

Here is the epilogue of this episode of the martyrdom of 
Belgium: the cure of Lebbeke, his vicar, and 450 of the in- 
habitants of Termonde were taken away to Germany. On the 
journey three of them, exhausted by hunger, began to rave in 
delirium; they were at once massacred with the bayonet. 

As for General von Boehn, who was on his way to France, 
he left it to his valiant pioneers to razieren Termonde, making 
only a short stay there himself. On the 6th of September, with 
the bulk of his troops, he appeared in the neighbourhood of 
Gand, some 12 miles to the south-east. He despatched a large 
detachment in the direction of Gand, but they encountered some 
Belgian infantry at Mille, and were forced to fall back after 
suffering serious losses. 

On the following day he threatened to bombard Gand; but 
the matter was arranged, thanks to the intervention of the burgo- 
master and the payment of large requisitions. 
* * * 

'Report of the Belgian Military Authority (19th September, 1914). 



io8 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

A second sortie from the entrenched camp of Antwerp (9th- 
13th of September) took place on a wider front than the first. 
Our troops once more made for Malines and the country to the 
south, but they also bore eastward as far as Aerschot. They in- 
flicted serious losses on the enemy, and advanced so far that they 
were able to destroy the railway from Brussels to Liege at 
several points. 

A volunteer, incorporated in a regiment which formed part 
of the 3rd Division — which at Liege won the nickname of the 
"Iron Division" — gives the following details of this sortie: — 

" The 3rd Division was placed about the centre of the attack- 
ing front, near Haecht, and had to face a formidable position, 
strengthened by means of concrete and iron plating, at the place 
called Over-de-Vaart. The battle lasted four days and nights. 

" First day : Aerschot was retaken. Many Germans re- 
mained in our hands. 

" Second day: The village of Haecht was taken by assault by 
the 3rd Division. The valiant General Bertrand marched at the 
head of his men, his eternal cigar between his lips I It was then 

that a great friend of mine was killed. Lieutenant R. L . 

Poor fellow! He had not been married a yearl Carried to- 
ward the rear of the battlefield, in the direction of Keerburghen, 
he died crying: 'Vive le Rot! Vive la Belgique!' I had an 
opportunity to pay my last respects at his grave. The King 
himself went the following day, baring his head before the little 
mound, which was adorned by a few flowers. 

" The battle raged for two days longer. The guns were fired 
with terrifying rapidity. The rifle fire was practically con- 
tinuous. . . . 

" However, on the afternoon of the fourth day the 3rd Divi- 
sion was given the order to retreat, as it was on the point of 
being turned. The regiment, which was placed in the trenches 
of the Nethe bridgehead, had to co-operate with the cyclists in 
order to protect this movement. Night came, pitch dark, and 
with it rain — cold, unending rain. . . . We remained a long 
time in the trenches, crouching in the mud, without capes or 
protection of any kind. . .' . Before us the crepitation of the 
rifles never ceased. At last we were replaced by the 12th Regi- 
ment of the Line. These good fellows had been led to the rear, 
towards Keerberghen, where they expected to be able to rest, 
when the order was given them to retrace their steps through the 
mud and the rajn. We marched along past this column of heroes, 



STILL ERECT! 109 

who were about to be sent back into the trenches after three 
days and nights of battle, and I did not hear a word of com- 
plaint; not a murmur. ..." 

A neutral eye-witness, Mr. Alexander Powell, war corre- 
spondent of the New York World, writes of the second sortie 
from the entrenched camp of Antwerp: — 

" For the strategic reasons the size and significance of the 
great four days' battle which was fought in mid-September be- 
tween the Belgian field army and all the German forces in the 
north of Belgium were withheld, at the time, in the official com- 
muniques, and in the rush of subsequent events its importance 
was lost to view. Yet the great flank movement of the Allies 
against the invaders of France owed its success to this energetic 
offensive on the part of the Belgians, who, as has since been 
proved, were acting in close co-operation with the French Gen- 
eral Staff. This sudden offensive, which took the Germans com- 
pletely by surprise, forced them to concentrate all their available 
forces in Belgium. . . . 

" It is, therefore, no exaggeration to say that the success of 
the Allies on the Marne was largely determined by the sacrifices 
made in this emergency by the Belgian Army. . . ." ^ 

This operation not only forced the enemy to recall the 6th 
Division of the Ilird Reserve Corps to the Belgian front, but 
also, as was learned later, to delay the southward march of the 
IXth Reserve Corps by two days, and this precisely at the mo- 
ment when the German armies, effecting their retreat from 
the Marne, had a pressing need of reinforcements. Moreover, 

even in Brussels it caused the enemy serious alarm. 

* * * 

However, the Belgian troops did not confine themselves to 
these sorties in force. Acting in small parties, they did not cease 
for a moment to harass the enemy in every possible manner. 

The " Minerva " workshops in Antwerp started building 
armoured motor-cars, which soon rendered great service. " Al- 
though the French and the Germans," says Mr. Powell, " had 
for some years been making trial of various types of armoured 
motor-car, the Belgians, who had never until then seriously con- 
sidered the question, were the first to produce and to send into 
action a really practical vehicle of this kind. . . . Driven by 
the most spirited chauffeurs in Belgium, manoeuvred by young 
men who had ' the devil in their bodies ' ; and armed with auto- 
" E. Alexander Powell, The War in Flander^. 



no BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

matic guns, these ' rolling forts ' rushed easily through the 
enemy's lines, decimated an outpost, wiped out a cavalry patrol, 
dynamited a bridge or a tunnel, and returned to the Belgian 
lines before the enemy had time to realise their ruthless attack." ' 

The cyclists and motor-cyclists also distinguished themselves 
in expeditions of this kind, and certain of their exploits, in- 
credibly audacious in conception, were also incredibly skilful in 
execution. 

But civilians, alas ! often paid with their lives or the loss 
of their possessions for the exploits of their fellow-countrymen. 

On the 25th of September, ten motor-cyclists pulled up a few 
rails on the railway from Bilsen to Tongres. Two hours later 
a train full of German troops was derailed. To avenge them- 
selves the Germans shot eight civilians and burned a portion of 
the neighbouring village. 

On the same day a similar expedition, composed of 200 Bel- 
gian cyclists, destroyed the railway from Brussels to Paris not 
far from Montigny-lez-Lens. In reprisal the Germans burned 
the house of the burgomaster (having first — need I remark? — 
broken open the safe and taken all they could carry away) ; 
they also set fire to the presbytery and to a few farmhouses in 
the neighbourhood. 

Then gendarmerie and the civic guard sometimes took part 
— and with brilliant success — in battle or skirmish; but they 
were also employed in searching for the spies who continued to 
pervade the country. Numbers of suspected persons were ar- 
rested, despite the ingenuity of their disguises. Some were ar- 
rested who were disguised as Belgian soldiers, as priests, as post- 
men, or even as nuns ! 

* * * 

About the middle of September fresh overtures — which on 
this occasion were indirect and semi-ofiicial — were made to M. 
Broqueville, who was in Antwerp. 

Someone who came expressly from Brussels, through the 
enemy's lines, had an interview with the President of the Council, 
in the course of which he insisted on the military power of Ger- 
many and the poverty of our chances of further resistance. The 
obliging messenger at the same time insinuated that Marshal 
von der Goltz would probably not refuse to enter into " con- 
versations " if the Belgian Government showed itself willing, 
and he even went so far as to sketch the foundations of a pos- 
' E. Alexander Powell, The War in Flanders. 



STILL ERECT iii 

sible settlement. But the President, that parfait gentilhomme, 
and our King, sans peur et sans reproche, who preside over the 
destinies of Belgium, received these suggestions with the disdain 
which they deserved, and all those who were aware of the inci- 
dent entirely approved of this attitude. 



On the 1 6th of September, about half-past five in the after- 
noon, the Germans, who had appeared in great strength before 
Termonde, once more bombarded what was left of this unhappy 
town. At 7.30 p.m. they entered the town. They immediately 
began to empty the cellars of a few houses of the better class 
which had been left intact during the events of the 4th, 5th, 6th, 
and 7th of September. 

Bonfires were lit, and all night long the officers presided over 
one of those ignoble bacchanalian orgies such as the gentry from 
beyond the Rhine understand how to organise. 

On the 17th, in the afternoon, Termonde was again bom- 
barded for three-quarters of an hour; one shell fell upon the 
Hotel de Ville, which caught fire (23). 

* * * 

The murderous raids of the Taubes and Zeppelins increased 
in frequency. They were directed not only against Antwerp 
and its suburbs, but also against Flanders. 

During the night of the 24th of September a Zeppelin flew 
over Ostend, releasing four bombs, which fortunately effected 
only material damage. 

Two days later, again under cover of darkness, a Zeppelin 
dropped its bombs on the little Flemish town of Deynze. Three 
of these bombs fell on a convent which was sheltering some two 
hundred sick. They did not result in any serious accident, but 
the alarm which they caused may be imagined. 

On the 29th there was another raid of the same kind, quite 
as futile from the military point of view; this time bombs were 
dropped on Dottignies and Thielt, towns as open and as un- 
defended as Deynze and Ostend. 

And what ruses the Germans employed — " frauds not in use 
among gentlemen and cavaliers," as Brantome would have said! 
In the course of a battle near Termonde a German oflicer headed 
his troops by a group of fifteen civilians, among whom were three 
ladies and two young girls. Lieutenant Soudart, who was en- 
trusted, on the 26th of September, with the defence of a bridge 



112 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

at Klein-Antwerpen, noticed that a German major of infantry, 
who was acting as observer not very far away, had surrounded 
himself by three children. Of course, the German ruse suc- 
ceeded; the Belgian officer refrained from giving the order to 
fire. On the 27th of September, at Alost, a company of German 
Infantry attacked the bridge at Zwartenhoek, driving before them 
thirty civilians, behind whom they were concealing a machine- 
gun. Two civilians were killed. 

* * * 

In Antwerp, where for weeks the heart of Belgium had been 
throbbing, preparations were being made for a desperate re- 
sistance. 

To facilitate the defence the dykes of the Scheldt, the Rupel, 
and the Nethe had been opened at several points, and in this 
way a large area of low-lying land had been inundated. Within 
a radius of many miles the Belgians had blown up luxurious 
country houses, ancient chateaux, charming villas, farms and 
windmills, and — ^which was an even more painful sacrifice — the 
thousands of superb trees, which were the only ornament of this 
level region, were felled. 

Trenches had been dug and works of all kinds had been con- 
structed. The armament of the forts had been completed and 
improved, as far as was possible, by means of cannon sent from 
France by way of Ostend. 

Two armoured trains, veritable moving fortresses, had been 
built in the Cockerill works at Hoboken-lez-Anvers ; they were 
armed with British naval guns of 4.7 inches calibre. 

On the other hand, as the Scheldt had remained open to 
merchant vessels, and as all sorts of provisions had been arriving 
in abundance, the city was secured against the rigours of a long 
siege. 

But how many things we had to think of; what anxieties were 
ours, from which our powerful enemies were exempt, and what 
distressing problems we had to solve ! 

Measures had to be taken to preserve from the risks of a 
possible bombardment the most valuable of the paintings which 
adorned the churches, the museums, and certain private houses. 
The " Descent from the Cross," the " Assumption of the Vir- 
gin," and other masterpieces of Rubens, the " Entombment of 
Christ " by Matsys, the " Temptation of St. Martin " by De Vos, 
and a number of no less inestimable treasures were transferred 
to places of safety (22). 



STILL ERECT! 113 

The metallic funds of the National Bank and the blocks used 
in printing paper-money was sent to England. 

All German prisoners were also evacuated and sent to England 
and the Belgian wounded were gradually transferred to Ostend 
and other places on the, coast. 

A further complication: homeless refugees were arriving in 
ever-increasing numbers from the surrounding country. It was 
not possible to allow them to remain more than three or four 
days in Antwerp, and it was therefore necessary to facilitate 
their exodus toward the coast or to Holland or England. 

On the 26th and 27th of September the Germans made fresh 
demonstrations in the direction of Termonde, obviously with the 
intention of crossing the Scheldt at this point. 

On the 26th they encountered at Andeghem (some two or 
three miles to the south-west of Termonde) a small body of 
Belgian infantry, which, although it had no artillery to support 
it, resisted them heroically until the arrival of reinforce- 
ments, which put the Germans to flight in the direction of 
Alost. 

The battle of Lebbeke was fought on the following day under 
similar conditions: the Belgians were at first weak in numbers, 
but resisted valiantly despite heavy losses; then reinforcements 
arrived, and the Germans finally scattered toward Maxenzele 
and Merchtem. 

But on the same day — it was Sunday, the 27th — additional 
German forces reached Malines. The cathedral was bombarded 
while full of worshippers (25) ; there was a general flight of the 
population toward Antwerp (24), which by no means facilitated 
the task, already so heavy, of the civil and military authorities. 

On the 28th heavy siege howitzers, coming from Maubeuge, 
German and Austrian, went into action, and thenceforth the 
tempo of events was accelerated. These terrible guns, which 
nothing could resist, were installed — as we afterwards discovered 
— upon concrete foundations prepared for that purpose long 
before the invasion of our too confiding country. Their fire 
was in the first place directed against the Waelhem and Wavre- 
Sainte-Catherine forts. 

On the 29th the Wavre-Sainte-Catherine fort was already 
reduced to silence ; by 6 o'clock in the evening the survivors of 
its valiant garrison were forced to evacuate the works. 



114 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

The German fire was then concentrated upon the Waelhem, 
Koningshoyckt, and Lierre forts. 

On the 30th the great reservoirs at Waelhem, which supplied 
Antwerp and the suburbs, were damaged by shells, and the water 
supply was seriously jeopardised. The Waelhem fort held out 
as long as possible, and when all that was left of its brave gar- 
rison at last abandoned it, it was only a heap of ruins. 

It became evident that the entrenched camp of Antwerp — 
contrary to the ideas generally entertained — would not prove in- 
vulnerable. The supreme command foresaw the moment ap- 
proaching when the army would be forced to abandon the 
fortress in order to avoid a surrender en masse. It was decided 
to transfer the base of operations westward to Ostend, and im- 
mediately the work of removal began : the transport of wounded, 
of sanitary material, of army corps depots, of the recruits of the 
new levy, as well as the corps of volunteers, who were as yet 
untrained, the army service corps,^ and more besides than I can 
tell. . . . 

Antwerp lies wholly on the right bank of the Scheldt, and 
there is no bridge to connect it with the left bank, whence a rail- 
way runs to Gand and Ostend. For freight of an awkward 
nature, which would not allow of trans-shipment, it was there- 
fore necessary to make use of the line which crosses the river by 
the Tamise railway bridge — some 12 miles up-stream — and 
T^hich crosses the Rupel at Willebroeck — that is, within range 
of the enemy's guns. But the railway precautions were so well 
conceived that trains- were able to run every night — of course 
with all lights extinguished — as late as the 7th of October. 

The forts of Koningshoyckt and Lierre were silenced in turn 
on the 2nd of October. The Belgian infantry fell back beyond 
the Nethe, blowing up the bridges across that river (26). 

On this day General de Guise, Commander-in-Chief of the 
fortress of Antwerp, published the following proclamation ad- 
dressed to the people of Antwerp : — 

I consider that it is my duty to inform the population inhabiting the ter- 
ritory of the fortress that the siege of the latter has for some days past 
entered upon an acute phase. 

As is proved by military history, in the course of a siege the fortified 
city itself may be exposed to the effects of the besieging artillery. Thus, 
in the present campaign, the fortified cities of Liege and Namur have been 

^Service d'intendance, practically answering to our Army Service Corps. 
— B.M. 



STILL ERECT! 115 

subjected to the early stages of bombardment. Aware of the patriotic 
sentiments of the valiant population of Antwerp, I am certain that it will 
rnaintain the calm and composure of which it has given so many proofs 
since the commencement of hostilities, and that it will thus assist me to 
accomplish the great task which has fallen to my lot. 

That same day — the 2nd of October — a Taube flew over 
Antwerp, dropping numerous copies of a strange bi-lingual proc- 
lamation, of which the more significant passages are here trans- 
lated ' : — 

Brussels, i October, 1914. 
Belgian Soldiers! 

Your blood and your whole salvation — you are not giving them to 
your beloved country at all; on the contrary, you are serving only the 
interest of Russia, a country which only desires to increase its already 
enormous power, and above all the interest of England, whose perfidious 
avarice has given birth to this cruel and unprecedented war. From the 
outset your newspapers, paid from French and English sources, have never 
ceased to deceive you, to tell you nothing but lies about the causes of the 
war and about the battles which have ensued, and this is still happening 
every day. . . . 

Each day of resistance malces you suffer irreparable losses, while after 
the capitulation of Antwerp you will be free from all anxiety. 

Belgian soldiers, you have fought enough for the interests of the Rus- 
sian princes, and for those of the capitalists of perfidious Albion. Your 
situation is one to despair of. 

If you desire to rejoin your wives and children, if you desire to return 
to your work, in a word, if you want peace, put an end to this useless 
struggle, which will only end in your ruin. Then you will quickly have 
all the benefits of a fortunate and perfect peace. 

VON Beseler, 
(Commander-in-Chief of the besieging Army.) 

Need I say that there was not one " Belgian soldier," nor one 
inhabitant of the besieged city, who did not read this impudent 
message with disdain? 

The outer forts once demolished, the German artillery was 
able to approach the Nethe. On the 2nd of October German 
shells fell on the village of Waerloos and set it on fire. On the 
4th Contich was shelled and burned. 

Under cover of their guns, which were so superior to ours in 
number, and, above all, in range, the Germans tried first to cross 
the Nethe by Waelhem; but the Belgian infantry, entrenched 
upon the opposite banlc, offered a brilliant resistance, and 

' I have translated this very literally, to preserve the original flavour ; this 
accounts for the peculiar style. — B.M. 



ii6 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

they were forced to transfer their efforts to Duffel and 
Lierre. 

At Lierre our enemies came into conflict with the English. 
England had sent us some reinforcements: a brigade of marine 
infantry and two naval brigades, or some 7,000 men in all. 
Seven thousand men : it was not much ; yet this scanty help meant 
to our exhausted troops, which were completely worn out, a ma- 
terial assistance, and, above all, an inestimable moral support. 

Ah ! if the left bank of the Scheldt had been ours all the way 
to the sea, how much more favourable the situation would have 
been! Our noble river would have been open to the warships 
of the Allies, which could have ascended it as far as Antwerp 
and beyond, and if a few gunboats of light draught, but power- 
fully armed, had been able to enter the Rupel and the Nethe, 
these two rivers would have been really impassable, and our 
" national fortress " would have been absolutely impreg- 
nable. . . . 

On the 4th of October the Communal Council unanimously 
voted a resolution which expressed to the Government and the 
military authorities " the unshakable desire of the population to 
see the defence of the fortified position of Antwerp continued to 
the end, without regard to anything but the national defensive 
and without considering the dangers incurred by private per- 
sons or property." 

The civil population of Belgium was truly admirable ! Care- 
less of danger, it thought only of the national defensive! And 
you must remember that, in order to facilitate the defence of 
Antwerp, it had been necessary within a radius of no less than 
twelve miles to raze to the ground hundreds of buildings, and 
that the officers who superintended these operations had the 
satisfaction of reporting that they did not hear a complaint — 
not a single complaint! 

Now what the Belgians themselves had not thought it neces- 
sary to demolish was being fired by the German shells, and they 
accepted the sacrifice with the same composed resignation " with- 
out regard to anything but the national defensive." It mattered 
little that the countryside which had formerly been so pleasant 
and cheerful was being transformed into a desert so long as it 
still remained Belgian soil! 

However, the situation grew worse from hour to hour. 

Shrapnel fell without intermission on the Belgian and English 
trenches; the hail of fire was infernal. 



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21. A SAMPLE OF THE WORK OF THE GERMAN " PIONEERS " AT TERMONDE. 



(Page io6) 




22. ARTISTIC 



TREASURES WERE REMOVED TO A PLACE OF SAFETY. (Page II3) 




23. THE HOTEL DE VILLE, TEEMONDE, AFTER THE I7TH OF SEPTEMBER, I914. 

(Page in) 



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24. EXODUS FROM MALINES, 27TH OF SEPTEMBER, I9I4. {Page II3) 




25- AT MALINES, AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT OF 27TH OF SEPTEMBER, I914. 

{Page 113) 




26. THE DUFFEL BRIDGE OVER THE NETHE, DESTROYED BY THE BELGIANS. 

{Page 114) 




^*fc/ . "^ 



27. OUR SOLDIERS HELPING THE POOR FUGITIVES AS FAR AS THEY WERE ABLE. . . . 

(Page 120) 




28. THE BATHING MACHINES 



. LIKE SO MANY LITTLE CARAVANS. 

{Page 122) 



STILL ERECT! 117 

On the 6th of October, about 4 o'clock in the morning, the 
Germans succeeded in crossing the Nethe. The defenders of 
Antwerp had to fall back to the forts of the inner defences. And 
the circle of steel and fire grew ever closer and closer. Soon 
there would be nothing for it but to seek to evade its embrace 
and save all that could be saved. 

General de Guise warned the population of Antwerp that the 
bombardment of the city was imminent, and urged all who could 
do so to leave without delay. 

Early on the 7th the members of the Government, the lega- 
tions, and the officials of the Central Administration left by 
water for Ostend. 

That morning the local newspapers openly admitted the grav- 
ity of the situation. But they suffered no loss of dignity. 
" Whatever fresh sacrifice the salvation of the country requires 
of us, we accept it." This, in substance, was what they said: 
" Belgium will emerge the greater for her trials." But the 
Belgian newspapers of Antwerp had been issued for the last 
time. 

During the day measures of precaution were taken in view 
of the bombardment; those who did not leave the city installed 
themselves in their cellars. At the Zoological Gardens, those 
beautiful gardens whose rich collections were the pride of Ant- 
werp, the animals were slaughtered and the reptiles poisoned. 
This meant a sacrifice of many hundreds of thousands of francs; 
but that was a trifle with matters as they were ! 

One of my compatriots, M. R de B , attached to the 

wireless telegraph service, has kindly favoured me with the fol- 
lowing personal narrative of the bombardment of Antwerp; — 

"... My superior officer had left two days earlier, sent 
into Flanders on a special mission. I remained alone at the 
' main post,' with our mechanic and a few men. We were in 
constant communication with the barracks of the engineers and 
the central telegraph and telephone office. 

" Late in the afternoon of the 7th I was given the order to 
make preparations for blowing up the whole post; we bored 
holes in the great masts, which would hold a good charge of 
powder. . . . 

" I was hardly in bed, about midnight, when I heard a formid- 
able explosion — the discharge of a heavy gun — followed by a 
shrill whistling, and then another explosion. Then the banging 



ii8 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

and whistling became continuous . . . shrapnel first, then 
shells — and what shells! ... 

" A telephone message to the Engineers — yes, we could blow 
the place to smitehereens ; some soldiers were sent with the neces- 
sary explosives. 

" We dismounted the petrol motor and the dynamo and the 
essential parts of the apparatus. In the transmitting and receiv- 
ing rooms we did the same, removing the precious instruments 
without which our apparatus would be useless to a place of 
safety. All the wires of the antennae were carefully cut and the 
secondary masts were sawed through. . . . For four hours we 
were working under an infernal rain of fire and steel. ... I 
was wounded, but not enough to prevent me from working. 

" Before leaving my beloved post I telephoned to the Engi- 
neers and then to the central office. The latter gave me the 
order to come at once with my men. It was at least thirty-five 
minutes' march, in the line of fire. ... So that we should not 
all be wounded simultaneously, supposing we had bad luck, we 
moved off in Indian file. I was at the head. Besides our per- 
sonal baggage — wretched little bags which didn't hold much of 
importance — we carried our precious receiving apparatus, which 
we wanted to save. . . . My feet caused me horrible suffer- 
ing. I did not yet know that I was wounded in the leg. But 
how tell you all that we went through during that trying march? 

" Near the point known as ' Warande ' in particular the 
spectacle was impressive. The shells, which were falling thick 
and fast, were demolishing whole houses, starting conflagrations 
before us and behind. . . . Everywhere there were great black 
holes, twisted tram-lines, broken gas-mains, bits of glass, zinc, 
and broken tiles, and the remains of furniture. Explosion after 
explosion — the din was frightful I And in the midst of all this, 
in the darkness, a general sauve-qui-peut; poor folk making for 
the quays, carrying or dragging after them terrified children, 
taking with them what they could in the way of clothing or other 
belongings. . . . We saw a military forage-waggon blown into 
the air; the two horses were killed outright; one of the men 
was hideously mutilated, the other untouched. 

"A little further we were able to breathe again; the shells 
were falling behind us only. 

"At the Central Office we were sent into the cellars; they 
cheered us up, and gave us the opportunity to get a little 
rest . . . 



STILL ERECT! 



119 



" About 7 o'clock on the morning of the 8th we took our 
treasures and set out for Ostend. 

" What an unforgettable spectacle in the streets of Antwerp ! 
The crowd making for the quays; the thousands of women and 
children and elderly men who wanted to escape from this hell, 
to take ship and sail for Holland! 

" My feet hurt me more and more, and my wounded leg be- 
gan to trouble me too. I dragged myself along as best I 
could. . . . 

" As we were on service we were allowed to pass over the 




MAP SHOWING THE LINE OF RETREAT FROM ANTWERP TO THE YSER. 

great bridge of boats thrown over the Scheldt opposite Stien, by 
which the army retreated. . . . 

"Having reached Beveren-Waes, I could manage no longer; 
I kept with me one of the telegraph employes who were accom- 
panying me, and instructed my other companions to push for- 
ward, arranging to rejoin them at Ostend. And I painfully con- 
tinued my journey. 

" The German guns did not cease to thunder. . . . The 
enemy had crossed the Scheldt at Schoonaerde In order to en- 
vebp the Belgian troops and cut off their retreat toward the 
coast, and advanced toward Lokeren, which he was already bom- 
barding. . . . 

" My companion and I turned our steps toward the north- 
west. 



I20 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

" At Moerbeke-Waes we saw a train full of wounded soldiers 
and refugees of all ages and conditions. They were everywhere 
— on the roofs of the carriages, on the engine, on the tender. 
. . . Despite my wounds, I preferred to continue on 
foot. . . . 

" I learned later that this train was attacked; a British bat- 
talion, which had already distinguished itself at Lierre, was in 
this engagement, and behaved heroically. 

" On the 9th, about 5 o'clock in the evening, we fihally 
reached Gand, where we were able to rest in the house of some 
friends. I was covered with mud and blood, and exhausted after 
this march of 34 miles. 

"I shall never forget what I saw by the way; here, an old 
peasant woman dragging a cow after her; there, some townsfolk 
transporting a piano and a bundle of clothing on a little hand- 
cart; then a young man who had put his old mother on a bicycle 
and was walking beside her, supporting her and pushing her 
forward as best he could. I saw respectable burghers eating 
turnips which they had pulled up in the fields. All along the 
road were anxious crowds. And troops — infantry, artillery, 
cavalry, motor-cars by the hundred, carrying wounded soldiers 
from the forts, and thousand of vehicles of every description. 
All these making for Gand: our soldiers helping the poor fugi- 
tives as far as they were able (27) — these brave fellows who 
were so exhausted and who had to make such long marches. . . ." 

The bombardment of Antwerp — by this I mean that of the 
city itself — commenced on the night of the 7th of October, 
towards midnight. It lasted all the next day and all the follow- 
ing night. 

" On the 9th of October, about 6 in the morning, there was a 
moment's respite," reports a native of Antwerp in a private 
letter. "Was this the end of it? No; the bombardment was 
resumed, and attained such an intensity that it was almost im- 
possible to distinguish the direction of the shells, which were 
now arriving from all sides at once. The enemy had been ad- 
vancing, which explained the respite." 

About 8 o'clock MM. Frank, deputy and President of the 
Intercommunal Commission (for Antwerp and the surrounding 
communes), De Vos, the burgomaster, and Ryckmans, a sen- 
ator, left the city in a motor-car to visit the German authorities 
and request them to put an end to this henceforth useless bom- 



STILL ERECT! 121 

bardment. The Consul-General for Spain accompanied them. 
After exciting adventures, over which I will not linger here, 
they had, at Contich, an interview with General von Beseler. 
The Commander of the besieging army hesitated for a long 
time to treat with these " civilians," stating that a fortress had 
never been surrendered under such conditions, etc., etc. How- 
ever, he finally yielded, and a treaty was signed, known as the 
Treaty of Contich, which settled the conditions under which 
the German troops were to enter Antwerp. 

On the afternoon of Friday, the 9th of October, the Ger- 
mans entered the great commercial city, for whose conquest 
they had schemed and prepared for a number of years. 

" They showed by their attitude," said an ocular witness, 
" that they were by no means comfortable in their minds. The 
deep silence which hung over the city made them uneasy. They 
carried their rifles handy, ready to fire as they went for- 
ward. ..." 

Their booty must have caused them some disillusion. Be- 
fore its cautious retreat the Belgian Army had destroyed all it 
could not carry away; a number of forts were blown up; the 
bridge of boats was destroyed; the German merchant vessels 
seized at the commencement of hostilities were sunk or rendered 
unnavigable; and the great petroleum reservoirs were fired. In 
a word, they had destroyed all they could, and had in every way 
done their best to reduce the significance of the German victory 
to a minimum. 

The retreat from Antwerp was covered and masked until the 
last moment, not only by the fire of the second ring of forts and 
by that of a few field batteries, but also by the Belgian and 
British detachments which courageously occupied the trenches 
between Contich and the Scheldt through the whole of 
the 8th. 

Nevertheless, the Germans, who had succeeded in crossing 
the Scheldt at Wetteren, Schoonaerde, and Termonde — where 
they had repaired the bridge destroyed by the Belgians — were 
exerting a strong pressure in the direction of Lokeren. The 
British and Belgian troops, in order to avoid being cut off, were 
obliged to divert their march across Flanders sensibly toward 
the north. 

Unhappily, despite the admirable order which presided during 
this henceforth famous retreat, several thousands of men 
avoided surrender only by entering Holland. A portion of our 



122 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

fortress troops was also forced to retire into Dutch territory in 
order not to surrender to the Germans/ 

The number of buildings damaged or destroyed during the 
bombardment of the town and its suburbs amounted to fourteen 
hundred. 

As for the total of the material losses experienced by the 
nation in Antwerp and the district, it may be estimated at 
£40,000,000. But what matter these losses, and those, at least 
five times as great, which the country had suffered during the 
past two months I^what matter all our grief and mourning even, 
if honour was saved! 

Moreover, the King — the soul of our resistance — and the 
bulk of his valiant legions had succeeded in gaining Ostend, 
where the Government was already installed. 

Ostend 

From the commencement of hostilities Ostend underwent a 
complete metamorphosis. The " Queen of Watering-Places," 
as a rule en fete the whole of the summer, became suddenly 
solemn and austere. 

At the height of the season the Kursaal and the great hotels 
closed their doors. Later, transformed into hospitals, some of 
these luxurious buildings, created for pleasure, gave shelter to 
every kind of suffering. 

The bathing-machines were removed from the beach and 
drawn up on a great level space, where — like so many little 
caravans (28)' — they were occupied for some weeks by poor 
refugees from the invaded territory, nomads against their will. 

In the town there were still plenty of people, but it was a 
world expurgated of every frivolous element, and in part made 
up of refugees, in ever-increasing numbers, who were awaiting 
the moment of their departure for England; wounded men, half 
cured, impatient to go back to the front; young men of the 19 14 
class, who came to equip themselves as well as they could before 
joining the little garrison of Flanders where they were to re- 
ceive their first training; while others, more particularly ambu- 
lance men and nurses, were newly landed from England. 

The sailings of the mail steamers had been reduced from 
three per diem to one. A cross-Channel boat left for Folkestone 

' Some 30,000 men thus entered Holland, where they will remain interned 
until the end of hostilities. 



STILL ERECT! 123 

every morning about 8 o'clock, and returned the same night. 
It no longer carried to England gay and noisy excursionists, but 
fugitives, of all classes of society, many of whom were without 
shelter, totally ruined, and were leaving, silent and gloomy, with 
the bitterness of death in their hearts. (On certain days these 
emigrants were so numerous that the service had to be doubled, 
two boats sailing in place of one.) At night those who dis- 
embarked at Ostend were no longer tourists, but doctors, nurses, 
ambulance-bearers, officers sometimes — all people connected in 
one way or another with the great drama. 

At the harbour station, even between the hours of de- 
parture and arrival, there was incessant movement: hundreds of 
refugees who came to register their names for the next crossing, 
foreign journalists in search of information, offi'cers, aviators, 
and what not. 

The fishermen rarely put to sea now save to satisfy the re- 
quirements of the local market. Most of the fishing-boats re- 
mained in the docks, whence, on the other hand, all yachts of 
every description had departed. 

About the loth of August some officers and men of the British 
Navy installed a hydroplane station on the beach near the light- 
house. This, however, was abandoned some ten or twelve days 
later. Then, on the 26th of August and the following days, as 
a result of the incursion of bodies of Uhlans into Flanders, and 
a skirmish in the neighbourhood of Ostend which cost the lives 
of some Belgian gendarmes, British cruisers appeared in the 
roadstead. (Among them were the Hogue and Aboukir, tor- 
pedoed and sunk a few weeks later.) British marines were 
landed — 3,500 to 4,000 of them — and a superb body of men 
(:hey were; and they immediately began to organise defensive 
works all round about the town. However, it was thought, on 
reflection, that if the Germans were to arrive in force it would 
be impossible to oppose them by a sufficient defensive, so that 
it was judged better, in view of such a contingency, to abandon 
any sort of defence. To the great disappointment of the Os- 
tenders the British troops re-embarked at the end of a few days 
and the cruisers departed. A fine dirigible, which in the intervals 
between the reconnaissances which it carried out at sea was 
anchored on one of the racecourses, returned to England at the 
same time. 

At the end of August several thousands of Belgian soldiers 
disembarked at Ostend, coming from Havre. They had been 



124 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

unable, after the fall of Namur, to rejoin the bulk of the Belgian 
Army, and had been forced to make a roundabout journey 
through France. They left at once for Antwerp. 

In September French and English transports arrived from 
time to time. Cargoes of arms and ammunition were landed, 
aeronautic material, and ambulances. Sometimes torpedo-boats 
or destroyers on special errands entered the harbour. 

At the beginning of October came the Naval Brigades which 
helped in the defence of Antwerp. What a reception they had 
while they were with us! But that was not long; only until the 
steam was up in the boilers of the engines which drew their 
trains. What an ardent welcome it was, and with what a fine 
enthusiasm they practised the rite they had lately adopted I One 
of their number, addressing his comrades, would inquire: " Are 
we downhearted?" and all would reply in unison, with the 
greatest • energy, "No!" Ten times, twenty times over, in- 
defatigably the same question was repeated, always followed by 
the same reply. 

Remounts for our cavalry, which had seen very hot service, 
reached us from England also. And then there were the pieces 
of heavy artlUey — very diiScult to disembark with the insufficient 

means at our disposal. 

* * * 

No one had lost confidence! And this optimism hardly di- 
minished when, on the 7th of October, towards midday, a 
steamer was seen to arrive from Antwerp, bringing the members 
of the Government, the diplomatic corps, and a number of State 
officials. No one doubted but that the " national fortress " 
was holding out, and this migration was regarded merely 
as a simple measure of prudence, and extreme prudence at 
that. 

Meanwhile an entire British Staff had arrived, in order to 
organise the " Ostend base " ; men of the Army Service Corps 
came, with their field-kitchens and bread-ovens; and all the 
wonderful organisation which supplies an army in the field — 
together with a branch of the Naval Transport Service — was 
installed in the port. And then, suddenly, there was a great 
arrival of troops. On the 8th of October alone sixteen trans- 
ports entered the port. Some were steamers of 5,000 or 
6,000 tons, bringing troops, horses (fine blood-horses for the 
cavalry, and enormous shire horses for draught purposes) , mu- 
nitions, provisions of all kinds (forage, flour, preserved foods, 



STILL ERECT! 125 

petrol), guns, motor-lorries and armoured motor-cars — all the 
imposing apparatus of war. 

This time there was no longer any doubt: the famous junction 
between our field army and the armies of the Allies so long 
longed for, was at last to be effected. Were not the " runners " ^ 
from Brussels telling all who would give ear that they had seen 
" red breeches " on the way? Yes, it was certain: the junction 
between our army and the French and British forces was at last 
a possibility; and it would be on the banks of the Dendre and the 
Scheldt — as far as Antwerp — or, at worst, a little further to the 
west, all along the Scheldt. . . . 

A few trains were still running, maintaining communications 
between the coast and the as yet unoccupied portion of the 
country. 

And now everything was converging upon Ostend : thousands 
of fugitives, the clothing depots and the supply services of the 
Belgian Army; wounded men, who were taken to the local hos- 
pitals, or forwarded to other points along the coast, or were even 
evacuated to France or England. 

Then came trains laden with troops, the first coming from 
Antwerp — from Antwerp, of whose fall Ostend had heard with 
stupefaction rather than anxiety. Troops arrived also by all the 
roads; thousands and thousands of exhausted infantrymen, 
covered with mud, almost in rags; cavalry, artillery, and an 
enormous number of waggons. 

In the streets and on the quays the swarms of people were 
incredible; and at night especially, the town being left in com- 
plete darkness owing to the accursed Taubes and Zeppelins, the 
congested little town presented an unprecedented and inde- 
scribable aspect. 

* * * 

The situation at Ostend was in reality extremely precarious, 
and was soon to become untenable. 

Despite the arrival and concentration of French and British 
troops in Flanders, no effectual " junction " could be accom- 
plished in time to be of service. It was thus essential to take 
certain requisite measures if the catastrophe was to be prevented 
which was so skilfully avoided at Antwerp, and these measures 
would have to be devised and executed without delay. 

On the loth of October a Cabinet Council was held, at which 

'Intrepid men who, at the peril of their lives, crossed the German lines, 
carrying letters and messages at a tariff of 2 or 3 francs per letter. 



126 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

General Pau and the British Commander were present/ It was 
decided to retreat upon the Yser, where the forces would be 
linked up, and the Government would retire to Havre. 

On the night of the loth of October I saw for the last time, 
for a few moments only, that were all too short, my beloved 
brother, who, not yet wholly recovered from a wound in the 
knee, was leaving for Cherbourg, where, while waiting until he 
could return to the front, he was to direct the training of new 
recruits with the help of two or three comrades. We even 
visited — not that we could see much of it — one of the famous 
armoured trains, which had arrived from Antwerp and was then 
on a siding on the quay, close to the English steamer on board 
of which my brother embarked with his pupils, to sail at day- 
break. 

Yes, I lived every moment of those last days at Ostend, and 
I shall always remember them. I was acting as interpreter be- 
tween the British military and naval services and the Belgian 
administration, and I was, in particular, in constant communi- 
cation with the Commissariat and the Naval Transport Service. 

We were continually meeting with every sort of difficulty, 
most of them resulting from the insufficient equipment of the 
port and the haste with which we had to do everything. But 
then, on the other hand, what universal good will we encountered 
in all those for whose assistance we had to apply — clerks and 
officials of the Marine, the Railways, the Telegraphs and Tele- 
phones,^ officers of all sorts of civil and military departments — 
contractors, pilots, mechanics, dock labourers! What a fine 
spirit of solidarity inspired all these people, and, above all, how 
swiftly and completely they adapted themselves to the most un- 
foreseen circumstances I 

When, on the 12th of October, the order was brought from 
London by the Naval Transport Service to evacuate the town 
completely by the following day, there were forty steamers in 
the outer harbour and the docks — six or seven times as many as 
usual. Some of these, which had served for the transport of 
troops or horses, were able to leave in ballast immediately. 
None the less, what block in that little port I Moreover, 
those vessels v/hich left were soon replaced by others which 
came from England to evacuate the wounded. And on the 

' M. Carton de Wiart and his companions had just returned from their 
American mission. The Belgian Ministry was thus present in its entirety at 
this memorable meeting. 

' Belgian Governmental Departments. 



STILL ERECT! 127 

quays, too, there was an accumulation of the most varied mate- 
rials, which had to be embarked with all possible speed, while all 
this chaos had to be reduced to order and all this disorganisation 
organised. 

Besides the boat which had just sailed with recruits, the Brit- 
ish Admiralty had placed at the disposal of the Belgian military 
authorities four great steamers, on which we had to embark and 
despatch to the north of France the inventory and stores of the 
supply corps and the clothing department; pneumatic tyres — 
representing a large sum of money; motor-cars, and all the equip- 
ment for repairing them; documents of all sorts, etc., etc., as 
well as 200 gendarmes who had to report themselves at Havre. 
Another steamer, the Orange Prince, was to carry the horses 
and carriages of the Court to England. 

Troops were still passing through Ostend, to continue their 
exhausting retreat towards Nieuport: Belgian and British troops 
coming from Antwerp, and British artillery which had landed at 
Zeebrugge. 

There was a great movement of wounded too ; thousands had 
to be sent into France by the light railway, or to England. 

And there was one interminable convoy of vehicles of every 
kind: private motor-cars, loaded with luggage and smothered 
with dust; lorries, drays, waggons, furniture removers' vans, 
carriages, motor-'buses (yes, the motor-'buses of London 
"mobilised"!), field-guns, machine-guns drawn by dogs (many 
of these poor brave dogs were lame). To complicate every- 
thing, there was an incessant movement of motor-cars on mili- 
tary service passing at a meteoric speed, and in the afternoon a 
Taube, flying over the town and harbour, dropped its bombs, 
which, happily, wounded no one, and did not even create the 
slightest panic. 

The Independance Beige, that valiant Brussels newspaper, 
which was first removed to Gand, and had now for some weeks 
been published in Ostend, appeared for the last time on Monday, 
the 1 2th of October. Its editors were aware of the gravity of 
the situation, but they said nothing; only a short, sober " Editor's 
Note " made the simple announcement : " Communications be- 
ing frequently interrupted for military reasons, we are no longer 
obtaining paper, and it also happens that we cannot send out our 
issues. To-day we were able to obtain, at the last moment, paper 
for the present number, but the late hour at which it arrived has 
allowed us to set up only one page. Under these conditions we 



128 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

notify our subscribers and readers that the publication of our 
journal will be interrupted for the time being." 

About 8 o'clock that evening we received, through the Trans- 
port Service, a fresh order from London : the English steamers 
were to put to sea not on the following day, but that very 
night I 

So we had to do in five or six hours what we thought it im- 
possible to complete in twenty or twenty-four! 

Counter-orders were immediately given everywhere. We had 
to split ourselves in two, to be everywhere at the same time .... 

There were not enough men to work the cranes, not enough 
pilots for all these departing steamers ; but we managed it, all the 
same. It was a matter of self-respect with everyone to save all 
that was in his charge ; but it had to be insisted that only what 
was strictly necessary should be put on board, and in many cases 
one had to speak a trifle harshly to all these busy people, so full 
of good will, but so inexperienced; these good people, of whom 
many had never seen a ship, and who were now entrusted with 
the stowing away of the most precious cargoes ! 

What a night! And what painful sights I witnessed during 
those last hours as I hurried along the quays 1 

Here were valiant but weary troopers, arriving on foot from 
Brussels ; some questioned me, asking me where they would find 
a little water to drink. There were a score of unfortunate 
wounded soldiers, some of whom were walking painfully with the 
help of crutches ; it was impossible to remove all the wounded in 
motor-cars or stretchers; so that those who could hobble had to 
look after themselves. These had mistaken their way; the ves- 
sel on which they have to embark, alas ! is yonder, a long way 
from them. 

And the embarkation, effected in all possible haste and in the 
darkness, of the beautiful Royal horses! An end of all 
things, one might have been tempted to say, if one had once 
lost heart I 

About 5.30 in the morning of the 13th of October I had to 
go to the harbour station. Day had hardly begun to dawn, yet 
there, crowded on to the quay, were 15,000 persons. Certainly 
there would be — as on the preceding days since the exodus from 
Antwerp — two, or perhaps even three, steamers leaving for 
Folkstone in the course of the morning; but, none the less, it 
was impossible to think of embarking a fourth part of all these 
poor people (29)- 



STILL ERECT! 129 

There were people I knew there, friends even, but no way of 
helping them. I advised them to leave, without hesitation, by 
the light railways running to France and Holland ; although this 
was no longer easy, as much of the rolling-stock had been requi- 
sitioned by the army. 

At 7 o'clock the packet-boat Pieter de Coninck got under way, 
proceeding to Havre with the members of the Belgian Govern- 
ment (excepting M. de Broqueville, Minister of War, who re- 
mained near the King and the Army) , the members of the Diplo- 
matic Corps, the President of the Chamber, some of the Min- 
isters of State, and a few officials. 

" How many emotions thrilled us," says one of these distin- 
guished exiles, the Minister of State, M. Hymans, " on this 
tragic day of exile, when in the morning we saw the beloved 
shores of our native land grow remote and disappear in the 
golden mist; and when, in the evening, we came to Havre, pass- 
ing before the shadowy quays, which were covered with a vast 
crowd that we guessed at without seeing, and whence rose, in the 
darkness, shouts of welcome : ' Vivent les Beiges! Vive la 
Belgique! ' " 

During the whole of that day, the 13th of October, Ostend 
continued to empty itself. There was a general exodus: by 
steamer, by fishing-boats, by the light railways, by every possible 
means of transport. 

In the morning a Taube hovered for a few moments 
above the town, like a sinister bird of prey. One hardly 
noticed it. 

All day long, and all the following night, boats were leaving, 
and there was an interminable procession of fugitives, too, on 
the roads leading to Holland and to France. (It was by way 
of Holland that I, my task once completed, rejoined my people 
in England). 

And when the Germans, having taken possession of Gand 
and Bruges, arrived at Ostend about 10 o'clock on the morning 
of the 14th of October, there were no longer ten thousand per- 
sons in this town of 40,000 inhabitants, which had at one mo- 
ment sheltered some 200,000 souls. As for the harbour, it was 

absolutely empty. 

* * * 

Before leaving Ostend the Government addressed to the Bel- 
gian people the following proclamation, signed by all the Min- 
isters : — ? 



I30 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Fellow-Citizens, 

For nearly two and a half months, at the cost of heroic efforts, the 
Belgian soldiers have foot by foot defended the soil of our native land. 

The enemy felt certain of annihilating our army at Antwerp. But a 
retreat, whose dignity and order were irreproachable, frustrated this hope, 
and assured us of the preservation of military forces which will continue 
without a pause to struggle for the noblest and most righteous of causes. 

Henceforth these forces are operating toward our southern frontier, 
where they are supported by the Allies. With their valiant assistance, 
the victory of Justice is certain. 

Nevertheless, to the sacrifices already accepted by the Belgian nation, 
with a courage only equalled by their extent, the circumstances of the 
moment have to-day added a fresh trial! 

Lest it should serve the designs of the invader, it is important that the 
Government should provisionally establish its seat in some locality where 
it will be able, in touch with the Belgian Army on the one hand, and 
with France and England on the other, to continue to exercise the powers 
of national sovereignty and to ensure their continuity. 

This is why the Government is to-day leaving Ostend, with a grateful 
memory of the welcome which the town has accorded it. It will establish 
itself provisionally at Havre, where the generous friendship of the Gov- 
ernment of the French Republic secures for it the plenitude of its sovereign 
right, and the complete exercise of its authority and its obligations. 

Fellow-citizens, 

This passing trial, to which our patriotism must for to-day submit, will, 
we are convinced, be quickly avenged. On the other hand, the public 
services of Belgium will continue in operation as far as circumstances will 
permit. The King and the Government rely upon your patriotism and 
your wisdom. On your side, rely upon our ardent devotion, upon the 
valour of our army, and the assistance of the Allies in hastening the hour 
of common deliverance. 

Our dear country, odiously treated and betrayed by one of the Powers 
which had sworn to guarantee its neutrality, is evoking a growing sense of 
admiration throughout the world. 

Thanks to the union, courage, and clear-sightedness of all its children, 
it will continue to deserve the admiration which encourages it to-day. 
To-morrow it will emerge from its trials greater in stature and more 
beautiful, having suffered for justice and the honour of civilisation itself! 

Long live free and independent Belgium! 

Ostend, I3tk October, 1914. 

" A proclamation," said M. Gabriel Hanotaux, a few days 
later, " consisting wholly of statements and records. No com- 
plaint, no harking back to the tragic events of yesterday; hardly 
an allusion to the bitterness of adding a fresh trial to so many 
others; and then, suddenly, a considered determination, hope, 
and unshakable confidence in the victory of Justice." 

Our confidence in victory — the victory of Justice — was indeed 
unshakable. 



STILL ERECT! 131 

Strong in the justice of her cause, Belgium, violated but not 
dishonoured, was still erect. 

Crushed, pressed back by overwhelming forces, the defence 
had been continually forced to retire; only a tiny corner of the 
conntry was still free ; barely the fortieth part. But the national 
honour was intact. The honour of Belgium had not yielded an 
inch; neither in mutilated Liege, Namur, or Antwerp, nor in op- 
pressed Brussels, nor in martyred Aerschot, Dinant, Termonde, 
or Louvain. 

Mutilated, oppressed, martyred, Belgium was not enslaved; 
nor will she ever be. 

Germany had not " dismayed " her, nor will she ever do so, 
because, for Belgium, the stake of the struggle is honour, and 
her honour is and will remain still erect. 

No, in truth the little kingdom was not " on its knees " be- 
fore the mighty Empire. 

Territorially the little kingdom was forty times smaller than 
of old; but morally it was immeasurably greater than ever be- 
fore. The King of the Belgians was reigning now over no more 
than a tiny strip of territory, but never was there Royalty more 
renowned than his had become. 



VII 
IN THE LANDS OF REFUGE 



THE GREAT EXODUS 



From the first days of the invasion thousands of the inhabi- 
tants of the provinces of Liege and Luxemburg emigrated : some 
to the north — where Dutch Limburg, quite close at hand, offered 
a safe asylum — or to the west, to the rear of the Belgian lines ; 
and others to the south, to France. 

Then, as the " Mailed Fist " multiplied its blows and 
showered them on a greater area of the violated soil, this sor- 
rowful exodus increased. At the same 
time the " western front " was formed, 
so that those who wished to enter 
France had to make a roundabout jour- 
ney in the west. 

It was a harrowing spectacle to see 
these poor folk — generally stricken in 
their dearest affections, and almost all 
ruined — departing along the roads with 
all they had managed to save from the 
rapine of our enemies; little groups or 
long processions of countryfolk for- 
saking their burning villages (30) ; and groups or convoys of 
townspeople, fleeing in all haste from their towns or cities, for 
these, too, were given over to pillage and incendiarism. It was 
an unspeakably painful sight, and to understand all its bitterness 
one must have known how deeply the Belgian is attached to his 
native soil and how dearly he loves his home. . . . 

Hundreds and thousands of unfortunates had been forced thus 
to fly in order to avoid death or deportation, and to seek some 
place of shelter; for whole villages and whole cities had been 
evacuated. 

At the beginning of October this lamentable exodus assumed, 
for a period of some days, such vast proportions that nothing in 

132 




THE MAILED FIST 
(a GERMAN VIGNETTE.) 



IN THE LANDS OF REFUGE 133 

the history of humanity can be compared with it. Between the 
first days of the month — when a great number of the houses in 
the outskirts of Antwerp had to be evacuated — and the 14th, 
when the Germans advanced as far as the coast, nearly a million 
persons emigrated. Trains crowded with passengers left for the 
coast and for Holland. On the Scheldt every means of trans- 
port was utilised; even lighters, which were towed by small 
steamers. And on the roads of Flanders, and in the north of the 
province of Antwerp, there was an unheard-of concourse of pe- 
destrians and vehicles of every species; immense processions in 
which all classes of society were mingled; in which there were 
rich people and invalids and wounded soldiers, infants in arms 
and poor old men at the end of their days, who would certainly 
never return from exile. 

To-day there are Belgian refugees almost everywhere; but it 
is in Holland, France, and England that they are most numerous. 

In Holland 

It was first of all Limburg, and then the provinces of Zeeland 
and North Brabant, which in Holland received the first streams 
of the Belgian Immigration. 

Into Dutch Limburg the tide of Immigration flowed without 
great variations; but this was not the case with Zeeland or 
Brabant, where the Belgian refugees arrived, at the time of the 
siege of Antwerp, at the rate of some hundreds of thousands 
(600,000, it is believed) in a few days. 

Zeeland received not only the fugitives from Antwerp, who 
arrived directly by boat, but also those from Gand, Bruges, Os- 
tend, and other parts of Flanders, who had travelled by road 
to the Dutch territory lying on the left bank of the Scheldt. 

Through Sluis, a little frontier town containing only a few 
hundreds of inhabitants, 60,000 persons passed In October; on 
certain days the little Zeeland town had its population increased 
tenfold. At Hontenisse, which contained rather more than five 
thousand inhabitants, there were, about the 15th of October, 
18,000 refugees; certain farmhouses gave shelter to as many 
as 300. 

The 2,000 inhabitants of Aardenburg had to entertain nearly 
3,obo Immigrants. The 1,200 Inhabitants of Hansweert — on the 
canal which joins the two arms of the Scheldt — saw 175,000 
fugitives pass by! On the 21st of December, 2,500 immigrants 



134 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

were still there, living, for the most part, on the big Rhine boats 
or barges. 

At Flushing, as at Hansweert, numbers of boats arrived from 
Antwerp, laden to the gunwale. Many people came, too, from 
Flanders, by steamer from Breskens. The more well-to-do era- 
barked, for the most part on steamers of the Flushing to Folke- 
stone line ; the rest remained in Zeeland or scattered through the 
interior of the country. 

In northern Brabant the fugitives made more especially for 
Roosendael and Bergen-op-Zoom, where they arrived in bodies 
of thousands at a time. 

During the first few days the little town of Bergen-op-Zoom 
had to entertain 50,000 refugees; about 10,000 of these lodged 
with the inhabitants, and the rest camped out as best they could, 
in the churches and schools, in available sheds or barns, in the 
tents sent as an emergency measure by the Dutch Ministry of 
War (31), and even in tilted waggons. 

At Roosendael, whence the refugees were sent by rail to all 
parts of Holland, there was at certain moments, especially at the 
railway station, a congestion and a confusion which no spectator 
could ever forget. 

In the course of this great and hurried exodus friends and 
relatives lost sight of one another. How were they to find one 
another again? 

At the time of their flight from Antwerp some fugitives were 
inspired to write in chalk, on the walls of the villages they passed 
through, such indications as this : " Marie van der Meylen is 
on her way to Capellen " ; " Charles Franken, your little boy is 
at Capellen with your brother Jean." 

This example was followed by many refugees. At Roosendael, 
a great cross-roads, the walls were covered with these original 
advertisements. At Roosendael, too, a worthy priest who 
had collected a few lost children had the idea of exhibiting these 
little ones, one by one, from the height of the pulpit: " Whose 
is this pretty little girl? Whose is this nice little boy? " 

The Dutch illustrated newspapers — Panorama in particular — 
did their best to facilitate these agonising quests by publishing — 
under the heading: " Who Will Help Us to Search? " or: (32) 
"Where is Mama?" — the portraits of lost children, some of 
whom were too young to give the slightest indication which 
would facilitate their identification. 

At the end of October a portion of these refugees — mostly 



IN THE LANDS OF REFUGE 135 

inhabitants of Antwerp — returned to their homes. At the same 
time others began to leave for England. But without counting 
the interned prisoners — soldiers who crossed the frontier to 
avoid being taken prisoner by the Germans — there still remained 
in Holland, at the beginning of 19 15, 200,000 Belgian refugees, 
distributed among 815 communes (there being 1,121 in the 
country) or in camps constructed for the purpose, which are 
perfect model villages. To-day this number is reduced to 
80,000, of whom 25,000 are indigent. 

Occupation is provided,- as far as possible, for all these poor 
uprooted people (refugees and interned prisoners). In some 
localities the men make articles of furniture, and even portable 
houses, which are immediately utilised, and will, moreover, be 
of service when the return to Belgium begins, when everything 
will have to be " remade " ; and the women almost everywhere 
are employed in dressmaking or tailoring, making clothes for 
the refugees themselves and also for those interned. 

Besides the Central Commission and some 850 local com- 
mittees or sub-committees, with which the official Commission 
is constantly in touch, all sorts of societies, inspired by the noblest 
sentiments, have been estabhshed to assist the Belgian refugees. 

The refugees themselves have founded several societies; they 
have established schools, too, and have started a number of news- 
papers published in French and in Flemish. 

Finally, an " Official Belgian Committee for the Netherlands " 
was established at The Hague some months ago. Its mission 
is to assist, under the direction of the Belgian Legation, " the 
numerous organisations which have been formed or will yet be 
formed for the amelioration of the moral and material position 
of the Belgians in Holland." 

In France 

Just as thfey fled to Holland, so thousands of Belgians who 
were driven from their homes by the German invasion entered 
France in the early days of the war. 

When the soil of France was itself invaded, this migration, 
which had become more difficult, was considerably lessened. 
But it rose again, attaining extraordinary figures, when the Ger- 
mans, after the fall of Antwerp, moved onward to the coast 
and to the Yser. 

On the day before the enemy reached Ostend, and even on 



136 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

the same day, there was a formidable exodus, chiefly along the 
road from Nieuport to Dunkirk, but also by sea. " At Calais," 
writes a correspondent of Le Temps, " one saw them entering 
the harbour — a host of small fishing-boats from the Belgian 
coast, from Blankenberghe, Heyst, Nieuport, Ostend, or La 
Panne. What a heart-breaking spectacle met the eyes when these 
poor people landed I They were packed together on the narrow 
decks of the small sailing-boats, unfortunate families who had 
been able to save and bring away with them only a little linen and 
the few trifling objects to which they were most attached." 

And what trials many of these unfortunate people had to 
undergo ! 

In October, 19 14, a train which was carrying several hundreds 
of Belgian refugees was derailed between Calais and Boulogne; 
twenty to thirty persons were killed or seriously wounded. A 
few days later a large French steamer, the Amiral Ganteaume, 
which was sailing from Calais to La Pallice with 2,500 passen- 
gers, of whom many were Belgian emigrants, was torpedoed by 
a German submarine. Thirty persons were either killed by the 
explosion or drowned during the salvage operations. 

On the I ith of December, 1915, the powder works established 
by the Belgian Staff at Graville-Sainte-Honorine, less than two 
miles from Havre, were destroyed by a terrible explosion, and 
there were hundreds of victims among the workers — nearly all 
refugees ! 

During the early months of the war M. Hymans, Minister 
of State,^ visited some of the French centres where numerous 
Belgian refugees had found asylum. He recorded his impres- 
sions in the following words : — 

" I was able to form an idea of the profound moral distress 
of our unfortunate exiles. The refugees whom I have seen are 
for the most part inhabitants of Hainault, the Borinage, or the 
Charleroi district, who fled before the horrors of the invasion. 
As far as is possible they are given occupation. But they are, in 
general, miners or metal-workers, little accustomed to agricul- 
tural labours and unskilled at such, and the total upheaval of all 
their habits and ways of life has completely disconcerted them. 
The old people especially are to be pitied. I had only to speak 
a few words, to refer — in very simple phrases — to their villages, 

' M. Paul Hymans is to-day the Belgian Minister in London. The King 
has lately invited him to participate with the two other Ministers of State of 
the parties of the Left — MM. le Comte Goblet d'Alviella and fimile Vander- 
velde — in the deliberations of the Council of Ministers. 



IN THE LANDS OF REFUGE 137 

to their native countryside, to our Belgium, and they all began 
to shed tears. Many of them moreover are anxious about their 
relatives of whom they have no news. ... I attempted every- 
where to give details and to reassure them. And everywhere 
there were the same frantic shouts of ' Vive la Belgique! ' and 
' Vive le Roi,' when I left a group of refugees, having comforted 
each of them as best I could." 

At the present time there are more than 200,000 Belgian 
refugees in France. 

All sorts of committees have been established in France, the 
most important being under the direction of M. Schollaert, Presi- 
dent of the Chamber of Representatives. This is the " Official 
Belgian Committee for the Assistance of Refugees." 

Thanks to the devotion and enterprise of these committees, 
and thanks also to the fraternal feeling of the French popula- 
tions, the Belgian refugees are to-day distributed, as judiciously 
as possible, throughout all the French Departments, and work 
has been found for nearly all those men whose age or physical 
inaptitude prevents them from rallying to the colours. 

But there are others in France besides the simple " refugees." 
In the hospitals there are thousands of Belgian wounded, and in 
the training camps — in Normandy and Brittany — thousands of 
young able-bodied Belgians have responded with patriotic en- 
thusiasm to this appeal of the Government {66) : — 

Driven from their towns and villages by the horrors of the invasion, 
numerous Belgian families have been forced to seek a refuge abroad. They 
have found this refuge in hospitable countries where the public authorities, 
like the populations, have shown them a degree of kindness of which the 
Nation will retain the most grateful memory. 

On all these families the same obligation is incumbent: 

Let them never forget their native country, where their kinsfolk, 
friends, and comrades are suffering so cruelly! Let them endeavour, by 
their courage and their dignity in these days of trial, still further to 
increase the sympathy with which Belgium is regarded all the world over 
by all upright minds and all generous hearts! Let their thoughts, their 
hopes, and their actions be always directed toward this sacred goal: the 
liberation of Belgian territory. . . . 

In the name of the King and of the Nation we address a solemn appeal 
to all able-bodied Belgians, and especially to those between the ages of 
eighteen and thirty years, that they will enlist as volunteers for the dura- 
tion of the war. . . . 

We rely upon all to do their duty. 

The victim of a crime to which History affords no parallel, Belgium 
had never greater claims and a greater right to the help of her children! 
Let them all, under the leadership of a King of whom we are proud, 



138 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

endeavour to hasten the hour when we shall once more stand united, free 
and independent on the soil of that beloved mother-country whose suffer- 
ings have rendered her still more dear! ' 

This " Appeal to Belgians Residing Aboard " was issued by 
the Belgian Government on the 26th of October from Sainte- 
Adresse, near Havre. 

There the Government had been installed since its departure 
from Ostend. 

M. Andre Tudesq has given in Le Journal a picturesque and 
very accurate description of the Government's temporary quar- 
ters. I quote a few passages : — 

" It is something better than a mere fiction, something more 
than a chance refuge: it is a veritable principality! 

" Here resides a Government with all its prerogatives. It is 
able to exercise the least of its rights. Its constitution is in force. 
It is limited only by its own laws. It is more than a guest; it is 
a sovereign. 

" After the fall of the Antwerp forts and the dangerous halt 
at Ostend, the Belgian Ministers, on the invitation of France, 
transferred their Council and their departments to Havre. Then 
we were in the grip of such perilous events that we regarded it 
as nothing more than a chance vicissitude of warfare. But this 
transfer of a Government beyond the frontiers of its country is 
without precedent in history. Moreover, have we not a mon- 
archical Government operating within the Republic? . . . 

"... Lodging having been found, and the protocol having 
said its say, a decree of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs con- 
ferred the privilege of extra-territoriality upon all the buildings 
which sheltered the Ministers and their staffs. This was not a 
mere act of politeness, but a genuine concession, with all the 
rights appertaining thereto. Thus at the very outset, as a sign 
of occupation, the national colours — the black, yellow, and red 
— were hoisted above each palace. 

" I have visited these administrative buildings and these pri- 
vate houses. Here they are as they appear to-day: 

" The Hostelry (37) , a charming manor-house in the Norman 
style, houses the majority of their Excellencies and their families. 
In a salon on the ground floor the Council of Ministers meets. 
. . . The Governmental departments, offices, and records are 
installed in the Place Frederic Sauvage, in a vast building which 
had never been occupied. Seven rooms go to each depart- 
ment. At the entrance is nailed the sign : ' Palace of the Minis- 



IN THE LANDS OF REFUGE 139 

tries.' On the ground floor a vast chamber has been reserved 
for the Chamber of Representatives; at the present moment a 
department directed by M. SchoUaert, President of the Chamber, 
and the record department of the Senate are at work here. Two 
Ministers are separately housed: the Ministry of Foreign Af- 
fairs and the Ministry of War, which occupy large villas. . . . 

" By the entrances of the villas and the Palace sentry-boxes 
have been erected, painted with the national colours. There 
Belgian gendarmes mount guard. Five hundred form the gar- 
rison. There are also police-stations in the Avenue des Regates, 
at the Hostelry, and in the Place Frederic-Sauvage. 

" But the principality does not end here. The Belgian Posts 
and Telegraphs have replaced the old French post-office; and a 
standard has been erected to carry the telephone wires connect- 
ing Ministry with Ministry. Letters arrive daily, by special 
couriers, from the General Headquarters and from Furnes. 
Here, too, are sold those curious stamps (36) which will one 
day be the joy of collectors; bearing the portrait of the King, 
they are post-marked ' Le Havre — Special.'^ 

" Beside every Government, to uphold its sovereignty, is a 
diplomatic corps. This is not lacking here; with the exception of 
the representative of France, M. Klobukowski, for whom the 
Villa Villeroy was reserved on the Boulevard Maritime, the 
Ministers Plenipotentiary, Ministers, and Military Attaches of 
other nations are housed in the Hotel des Regates. Here are 
represented the Holy See, Great Britain, Russia, Roumania, Hol- 
land, Italy, Brazil, Greece, Japan, Norway, Spain, Chili — in a 
word all the Allied and friendly nations. 

"There is also a Royal Palace. Albert I. has not yet in- 
augurated it; he will come here later on. And this is the reason 
— a touching one : since the Invasion the King has never left the 
soil of Belgium. He has always remained at the head of his 
troops, who are defending the last portion of Belgian territory. 
. . . The King remains in his kingdom ; so long as he is there 
Belgium stands with her face to the enemy, free and sove- 
reign. . . . 

" Created in theory, the principality has gradually come to 
life. Nearly 2,500 Belgians inhabit it, from the Minister to the 
simple militia-man waiting to be enrolled. Its rebaptised boule- 

'The Germans having trafficked in the stamps which they found in occu- 
pied territory, it was necessary to issue new Belgian stamps, which were given 
currency on the isth of October, 1915. The postmark is now " Sainte-Adresse- 
Poste, Beige." 



I40 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

vards, which will henceforth be known as Boulevard Albert I., 
Boulevard du Roi-des-Belges, are busy with a hurrying crowd, 
all of whom bear, in the buttonhole or on the bosom of the dress, 
the national colours. 

" Charity fetes are organised every week; here the exiled 
colony assembles. The Te Deum is sung in the church for the 
victory of the Allied arms and the speedy liberation of the 
mother country." 

In addition to the administrative departments of State there 
have also been created, in France, all sorts of official or semi- 
official departments, and a multitude of undertakings of which 
the mere catalogue would be eloquent of the noble valour and 
the methodical spirit with which the Belgians are striving to 
vanquish all the difficulties which confronted them so suddenly 
and implacably. 

In Switzerland 

In Switzerland also the Belgian refugees are comparatively 
numerous; there are some 2,500 who are provided with homes 
by the care of committees which have been formed in the cantons 
of Vaud, Geneva, Neuchatel, Fribourg, Le Valais, and Berne, 
and 1,000 who live upon their own resources. 

After their grievous adventures all find a safe and peaceful 
shelter on this hospitable soil, where they are surrounded by 
universal good will. Moreover, our cause has rallied the suf- 
frages of all the citizens of the Swiss Confederation, and their 
support finds free expression, for of all neutral countries Switzer- 
land has best understood that political neutrality does not ex- 
clude the manifestation of the sentiment of human solidarity. 

In England 

Necessarily limited to the capacity of a few cross-Channel 
steamers, the emigration to England could always be regulated, 
and it was always relatively moderate. 

None the less, at the time of the great exodus, between the 
7th and the 14th of October, 19 14, no less' than 26,000 fugitives 
were landed in Folkestone harbour. A large number arrived at 
Tilbury also, and on the 14th of October hundreds of fugitives 
who had embarked upon fishing-boats arrived at Ramsgate and 
other small harbours of the south-east coast. Finally, England 
received the surplus of the Dutch immigration. 



IN THE LANDS OF REFUGE 141 

At the present time more than 180,000 Belgian refugees are 
awaiting in England the liberation of their national territory; 
while many thousands of Belgian wounded are being treated in 
English hospitals. 

Wounded and refugees alike enjoy the most cordial hospitality 
in the bosom of the great friendly nation ; they are surrounded by 
touching solicitude and exquisite kindness. I have seen, in one of 
the great London railway stations, a numerous crowd, in 
which there were frock-coated, silk-hatted old gentlemen, form 
up in line and uncover at the passing of a miserable procession 
of humble Belgian countryfolk who had just arrived, and this si- 
lent sympathy, which so well displayed the British tact, was 
singularly affecting. I was by chance present at a little town in 
Surrey at the inauguration of a home for Belgian refugees. It 
was a pretty, cheerful villa which a local committee had placed 
at the disposal of four lower-middle-class families. In the com- 
mon dining-room there were flowers on all the tables, and on the 
walls were fine portraits of the King and Queen of the Belgians 
and of General Leman. And it is the same everywhere. 

And our dead, too, are honoured in a touching manner by 
this truly great nation. I have seen a private soldier, a little 
volunteer of seventeen years of age, given a funeral worthy of a 
general. Our poor, beloved dead ! They are so many already 
in certain English cemeteries that they have been united in the 
same corner of the soil. One day monuments will be erected; 
in the meantime there are simple crosses, with inscriptions such 
as this : " Here lie Belgian soldiers who died in defending the 
honour and the independence of their country." 

A number of institutions and societies, and hundreds upon 
hundreds of committees, of which the " War Refugee Com- 
mittee " is the most important, have been created in England 
for the benefit of the Belgian exiles. 

Once the first moment of stupefaction was over — and it was 
over quickly — the refugees themselves initiated numerous or- 
ganisations for mutual social assistance. They have even formed 
important professional organisations. 

All those who were capable of bearing arms eagerly re- 
sponded to the appeal of the Government, which was eloquently 
interpreted in England by M. Vandervelde. Others sought such 
work as they could obtain in factories, on the railways, etc. 
Thousands of men and women are to-day manufacturing muni- 
tions. 



142 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

The " intellectuals " and the business men, who are particu- 
larly numerous among the Belgians who have taken refuge in 
England, have from the first displayed remarkable activity, and 
have manifested in every imaginable fashion that indomitable 
will to live which will save our nation. 

Belgian companies of every nature — colonial and commercial, 
banks, shipbuilding companies, which build warships and even 
fishing-boats — are managed from London or other great English 
centres, while conferences, exhibitions, and all manner of mani- 
festations of Belgian courage and patriotism are continually held 
in all parts of the country. 

Those were truly no idle words with which our great Ver- 
haeren, a few months before the war, ended a lecture on one of 
the greatest painters of the Flemish school : " There is some- 
thing about this country which, though it be trampled underfoot 
by no matter what other of the world's nations, yet it always re- 
awakens, revives, and comes to life again. It is like the great 
popular hero, Tyl Uilenspiegel, who, in the depths of his tomb, 
stands erect once more, turning again to life, and who, suddenly 
taking the hand of the charming and candid Nele, departs under 
the eyes of the grave-diggers, crying to them : ' Do men bury 
Uilenspiegel, the spirit, and Nele, the heart of Mother Flan- 
ders ? They may slumber, but never die ! ' " 

The Refugee Press 

One of the most interesting manifestations of that ardent 
will to live which sustains us amid our misfortunes is the ap- 
pearance of Belgian newspapers in England, France, and Hol- 
land. 

Barely a week after the exodus from Ostend the Independance 
Beige reappeared in London. " Founded on the creation of the 
kingdom of Belgium," it said in the first number of the new 
series (on the 21st of October), "our old Independance Beige 
would not and could not disappear." At the end of a week it 
was printing editions of thirty thousand copies. 

During the first days of exile another important Belgian news- 
paper, the Antwerp Metropole, reappeared in London, when 
the Standard, whose circulation is a large one, reserved it a daily 
page for a period of some months. 

Later on a colonial newspaper, the Tribune Congolaise, of 
Antwerp, also appeared in London. Then new journals were 



IN THE LANDS OF REFUGE 143 

established, La Belgique Nouvelle and the Echo de Belgique, 
both of which are weeklies. 

I cite from memory the Franco-Beige and the Courrier Beige, 
both of which had only an ephemeral existence, one appearing at 
Folkestone and one at Derby. 

In France we have the XX^ Steele, of Brussels, which has 
appeared at Havre since the 12th of November, 19 14, its object 
being to " come to the help ... of the thousands of Belgians 
. . . driven from their homes and scattered through France, 
England, Switzerland, and Holland," and its ambition " to con- 
tribute to the maintenance of that concord which, from the first 
days of the war, has mitigated and ennobled our misfortunes, and 
which, to-day more than ever, is to our compatriots the most 
precious of all possessions." There are also published at Havre, 
besides the Moniteur Beige, which is an official journal, the 
Courrier de I'Armee, Het Vaderland, a Flemish journal, etc.; 
while in Paris there are the Patrie Beige and the Nouvelle 
Belgique. 

In Holland the Echo Beige is published in Amsterdam. This, 
in its first number, undertook to maintain in its readers " a 
patriotic hope and the certitude that our poor country will emerge 
the greater from the horrible cataclysm "; in Rotterdam appears 
La Belgique; at The Hague De Vlaamsche Stem, the Belgisch 
Dagblad, and Frij Belgie; at Bergen-op-Zoom the Echo d'An- 
vers, and at Maestricht Les Uouvelles. 

All these newspapers are of passionate interest to the Bel- 
gians. All speak with calm resignation of our trials and with a 
warm confidence of our hopes and aspirations. Each one is a 
free platform from which men of talent, who mean to remain 
free, attack with a radiant optimism all the social and economic 
questions which the renovation of our country will raise in the 
near future. 

In the early days of the war these Belgian newspapers appear- 
ing abroad used to print, under such headings as " On cherche," 
" Pour se retrouver," or the like, advertisements in which hus- 
bands, mothers, and children who had become separated sought 
to let one another know where they had found asylum. Here 
are a few examples: — 

" The Jonckheere children, of Eerneghem, ask for news of 
their mother and their brother Maurice. Write to ," etc. 

" Monfort, Joseph, Leuze, Longchamps, Namur, asks for 
news of wife and little girl, of whom nothing is known since end 



144 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

of August. Those who can give any information whatever are 
begged to write," etc. 

" M. and Mme. Feltesse ask for news of their son Lucien, 
boy scout, motor-cyclist, and orderly; with a Belgian ambulance 
at the front. Write," etc. 

" Dr. Deprez, of Kinshasa, Belgian Congo, asks for news of 
his parents, living at Wavre, Chaussee de Nivelles, 68. Write," 
etc. 

" Leonie Rousse, aged five years, ... is looking for her 
father, Joseph Rousse. The child is now with M. Ilmer, game- 
keeper, at Sint-Annaland." 

" Alphonse Janssen, now care of M. Lasaay, Walstraat, 78, 
Flushing, is seeking his wife and child." 

" Pierre Possemiers, 41 years, seeks his wife, nee Philomene 
Hallewaetters, and his seven children. He is at VoUenhoor." 

What anxiety, what anguish are expressed in these few lines, 
taken at random from some of these newspapers six months after 
the beginning of the war I 



VIII 
INVIOLATE BELGIUM 

THE YSER 

" Less than a year ago the region of the Yser * was assuredly 
one of the most peaceful and one of the happiest countries under 
God's sun (34). A country of rich pastures, intersected by 
ditches and canals, sown with towns and villages. Here and 
there, hidden in the verdure, were low, white farmhouses capped 
by red tiles. Rows of tall poplars, bent by the sea-winds, denote 
the course followed by the roads. A few thick-set towers, rustic 
steeples, and adorable belfries, of sculptured lace-like stone, re- 
called the old traditions — religious, corporative, communal, and 
artistic — which are still dear to the meditative and industrious 
Flemish race. Along the western horizon ran the pleasant 
girdle of the dunes, hiding the fashionable sea-fronts of La 
Panne, Saint-Idesbald, Coxyde. 

" To-day you must picture to yourself a bare, sinister plain, 
on which falls a rain of bombs and shells and shrapnel. The soil 
is broken by heavy traflSc, ploughed up by projectiles, watered 
with blood. Here and there the inundations have produced 
great sheets of water (38), whence emerge the ruins of farm- 
houses, and on which all sorts of rubbish is floating, and often 
corpses (35). And on this soil, since the i6th of October, 19 14, 
without respite, without interruption, men liave been fighting, 
and destroying, and slaughtering one another." 
* * * 

While the 7th Division of the British troops, which had just 
disembarked in Flanders, fell back by way of Thourout toward 
Ypres, and a brigade of French Marine Fusiliers, which was sent 
to cover the retreat from Antwerp, and behaved so admirably at 
Quatrecht, fell back upon Dixmude, what was left of the Belgian 

'Passages from a speech delivered in London on the 21st of June, 1915, at 
a meeting of La Belgica, one of the principal Belgian associations formed in 
England, by M. Carton de Wiart, Vice-President of the Council of Ministers. 

145 



146 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Army re-formed itself hastily on the Yser, between Nieuport and 
Dixmude, and once more faced the enemy. 

For the Germans had been swiftly diverted in considerable 
numbers from the approaches of Antwerp to West Flanders, in 
the hope of turning the left wing of the Allies and reaching 
Calais. 

" Reaching the Yser on the 15th of October/ the Belgian 
Army was attacked on the following day. On this day, indeed, 
the Germans endeavoured to dislodge the Marine Fusiliers, who 
had no artillery, from Dixmude ; it was the Belgian artillery, so 
renowned for the skill of its gun-layers and the efficiency of its 
fire, which supported the French. On the 17th <jerman shells 
were falling on the whole line of the advanced Belgian positions 
between Dixmude and the sea. These attacks were the prelude 
to a terrible battle, which, lasting from the i8th to the 30th of 
October, was to make the heroic defence of the Yser by the 
Belgian Army for ever renowned in history. 

"On the 1 8th the Germans, after a desperate struggle, suc- 
ceeded in carrying the advanced positions of Keyem and Manne- 
kensvere; but a brilliant attack by the Belgian Army recovered 
Keyem the same night. 

"On the 19th the intensity of the struggle was redoubled 
along the entire front. The Kaiser had ordered his troops to 
break through, cost what it might. Three times the German 
hordes were repulsed. Nevertheless, in their furious impetuosity 
the Germans succeeded in carrying the advanced position of 
Beerst, while that of Keyem held out. 

" The centre of the Belgian Army was the object of violent 
and repeated attacks. It was then that our Staff, in order to 
diminish the pressure on the centre, directed the French Marine 
Fusiliers and a Belgian division to make a sally from Dixmude, 
delivering a counter-attack on the Beerst — Vladsloo front. On 
the evening of the 19th we held Vladsloo and the outskirts of 
Beerst, and were threatening the flank of the enemy army. But 
it was learned that important German reinforcements were ar- 
riving from the direction of Roulers, and we withdrew. Keyem 
was thus reoccupied by the Germans. 

" The 20th was marked by a violent bombardment of our 
positions. 

" At Nieuport the Germans captured the Bamburg farm. We 
retook it the same evening; after a fresh assault the Germans 
" General X , La Bataille des Flanders. 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 147 

dislodged us yet again. The same day, at Dixmude, two Ger- 
man attacks were repelled. 

"On the 2 1st, in the morning, a fresh attempt to carry Dix- 
mude; and another check. The Germans commenced a formid- 
able general offensive. In the afternoon their attacks once again 
spent themselves upon Schoorbakke and Dixmude; they failed 
before the tenacity of our troops. 

" From the sea the British Fleet, which had come to our 
rescue, enfiladed the German forces with the murderous fire of 
its guns. But our enemies are courageous, and they sacrificed 
themselves with the fury of despair. On the 22nd of October, 
after a terrible bombardment, they succeeded at night in setting 
foot upon the left bank of the Yser at Tervaete; but we drove 
them into the river. 

" So many repeated attacks, and extremely violent attacks, 
delivered by a numerous and a desperate enemy would have got 
the upper hand of an army less brave than ours. ' French rein- 
forcements had been promised us. Our men knew this, and 
they held out. But these reinforcements were long in coming. 
On the 23rd of October, however, the first French reinforce- 
ments arrived on our left, and on the 24th the six Bel^an divi- 
sions were supported by one French division and a few battalions 
of Territorials. On the night of the 23rd a furious attack upon 
Dixmude was repelled by the Marine Fusiliers ^ and a couple of 
Belgian regiments; this was the sixth time that the German 
Army had attacked Dixmude within a week, and at each of these 
repeated assaults there were frightful hand-to-hand combats and 
hecatombs of dead ; and each time our valiant soldiers remained 
masters of the field. 

" The area conquered by the Germans on the 23rd, lying 
within the bend of the Yser between Schoorbakke and Tervaete, 
was violently bombarded and recaptured. Here it was that a 
note-book was found on a German corpse in which an officer of 
the XXIInd Reserve Corps recorded the dreadful moral and 
physical sufferings endured in that hell of bullets and fire and 
blood; companies reduced to half their strength, units mixed 
together, the ofllcers nearly all killed, famine and thirst and a 
sense of the uselessness of all efforts against our redoubtable 
little Army: such was the balance-sheet on the German side. 

" Yet the Kaiser's troops seemed to rise out of the ground. 
Fresh reinforcements came to fill the frightful gaps made by 

* Whose heroism will for ever remain legendary, and with justice. 



148 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

our fire and our bayonet attacks. Foot by foot the Belgian Army 
defended the soil lying between the left' bank of the Yser and the 
railway from Nieuport to Dixmude, behind which it organised 
a new line of defence. It was then that the Belgians, in this 
pitiless conflict, summoned to their aid a terrible and invincible 
assistant: the inundation of low-lying lands. The canals in the 
valley of the Yser spilled their water into the fields. The water 
rose and streamed along the German trenches ; while on the left 
bank, where the level of the soil was higher, the Belgians heroic- 
ally defended their positions. The Germans, threatened with 
death by drowning, rushed forward in a terrible offensive, seek- 
ing to break our lines, to conquer the dry land (39). In this 
unprecedented attempt they succeeded, on the 30th of October, 
in capturing one of our points of support, the village of Rams- 
cappelle; but this essential position was immeditely reccaptured 
by two Belgian divisions and a few French battalions. This 
was the coup de grace. On the 31st, decimated, dejected, de- 
feated, the Germans abandoned their project of crossing the 
Yser; they retreated, abandoning guns and mortars engulfed in 
mire, enormous quantities of weapons, thousands of corpses, 
and many wounded. 

" In this epic struggle the Belgians, who numbered 60,000, 
lost a fourth part of their effectives ; but they killed and wounded 
more Germans than there were soldiers in the Belgian Army; 
they had covered the left wing of the Allies, and shattered the 
German effort which had threatened Dunkirk and Calais." ^ 

This long and heroic resistance of the Belgian Army enabled 
the Franco-British forces to establish a solid front to the south, 
and thus to form a barrier upon which were shattered all the 
German attacks delivered during the great battle which took 
place in the neighbourhood of Ypres at the end of October and 
during the first half of September, 19 14. 

After this the war of the trenches began. AH operations 
were reduced to small advances or retirements. 

" It was not a fresh army which confronted the Germans on 
the Yser," very justly remarked Colonel Repington in the Times 
of the 9th of December, 19 14. "It was the remnant of an army, 
war-worn and weak in numbers. For two months and a half the 
Belgians at Liege, Namur, Louvain, Haelen, Aerschot, Malines, 
Termonde, and Antwerp had confronted the Germans almost 
alone, and it was only the shattered, but still unconquered, re- 
' From U Independence Beige, loth March, 1915. 




29. OSTEND, THE I3TH OF OCTOBER. {Page I28) 




30. COUNTRY FOLK FORSAKING THEIR BURNING VILLAGES. (Page I32) 




31. refugees' camp at bergen-op-zoom. {Page 134) 

(From a drawing by M. J. Quisthondt, who with his wife and three children 
lived in tent No. 2871.) 



? I WiE HELPT ONS ZOEKEN [j 





32. WHO WILL HELP US TO SEARCH? (Page 134) 



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34- THE YSER BEFORE THE WAR. (Page I45 ) 








3&. BELGIAN POSTAGE- 
STAMP, HAVRE. {Page 139) 



35. WHENCE EMERGE THE RUINS OF F,\RM- 
HOLSES, AND OFTEN CORPSES. {Page I4S) 




37. THE HOSTELRY, SAINT-AUKESSE. 

{Page 138) 





THE INUNDATIONS HAVE PRODUCED GREAT SHEETS OF WATER. {Page 145) 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 149 

mains of the field army which drew up behind the Yser after the 
retreat from the Scheldt. 

" In this fine defence, which did honour to all the troops and 
commanders engaged in it, the Belgians performed a signal serv- 
ice to the Allied cause." 

As a matter of fact, our enemies, had other advantages over 
us than those conferred upon them by numerical superiority 
and the enthusiasm of their advance: they were connected with 
their base by our splendid network of railways, which they had 
had plenty of time to repair; their supply services could be 
organised at leisure in Belgium, which was still a wealthy coun- 
try, and for the evacuation of their wounded they had at 
their disposal the excellent, capacious, and very numerous 
hospitals which we had installed at a short distance from one 
another at Bruges, Ostend, and all along the coast. Our ex- 
hausted troops had no base at all; and not only could they not 
count upon any immediate reinforcement, but their supply serv- 
ices had not had time, after their hasty retreat, to install or to 
reorganise themselves; and lastly, to fill the cup of misfortune, 
they could rely only upon distant hospitals, situated out of the 
country. 

Compare the opposing forces, then, and their means of action; 
then add to the account, on the one side — I need not tell you 
which — contempt and continual disregard for all the laws and 
rules of humanity and honour, and, on the other side, an absolute 
and religious respect for the same, and you will, I firmly believe, 
be amazed and full of admiration for the " remnant, shattered 
but still unconquered," of this tiny Belgian Army, which checked, 
on the banks of the Yser, the formidable and all-powerful Ger- 
man Army. 

* * * 

I have just alluded to the fresh crimes which marked the Ger- 
man advance to the Yser. Here are some details: — 

On the 20th of October, 19 14, about 3 o'clock in the morning, 

the Abbe Van C , chaplain, and a few soldiers of the 12th 

Regiment of the Line, found on a bridge at Dixmude the body 
of Second Lieutenant Poncin, of their regiment. The unfortu- 
nate man had been bound " by means of an iron wire wound 
ten times round his legs at the level of the ankles. This opera- 
tion completed, the victim was shot." 

On the same day the two little hands of a child were found 
upon a German taken prisoner at Pervyse. Doubtless the 



I50 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

monster intended to carry them home as glorious trophies of the 
war! 

" The cures of Saint-Georges, Mannekensvere, and Vladsloo 
are dead; the Abbe Deman, aged twenty-eight, who was vicar 
of Eessen, near Dixmude, was shot In his parish burying ground; 
the burgomaster of Handzaeme was shot because he defended 
his daughter from the violence of the German soldiers," relates 
the Abbe V , who was the vicar of Dixmude. . . . 

On the 19th of October the Germans bombarded the lltde 
town of Roulers, where there were a few French soldiers, for 
three hours. Then they entered the town. In great force, with 
fixed bayonets. Furious fighting ensued in the streets between 
the invaders and the retreating French. According to their 
favourite tactics, the Germans seized upon some unfortunate 
civilians, and, in order to protect themselves, forced them to 
march before them. " At the least recoil, at the slightest sign of 
flagging," says an inhabitant of Roulers, " they threatened us 
with their revolvers, shouting: ' Kein Mitleiden! Vorwdrts!' 
(' No pity! Forward! ') In this way several civilians — of the 
middle and working classes — were wounded. ..." 

Having rid themselves of the French, who had fallen back 
methodically, giving ground only foot by foot, the Germans 
avenged themselves for the losses which they had suffered upon 
the civilian population. A large number of houses were pillaged 
and afterwards burned, and a number of citizens were shot. 

" The Hostens-Houtsaeger, Debeukelaere and Dumoulin oil 
refineries, as well as the Dammen-Croes workshops, are in 

ashes," says an eye-witness of these excesses. " The R 

brewery escaped destruction by paying the Germans — of course, 
without an acknowledgment — a sum of £800." And having 
enumerated houses and farms which were burned, this witness 
adds: "Among those shot I may mention M. Deboisere, M. 
Dubois, M. Reynaert, M. Prencel and his wife; Mme. Dekeuke- 
laere, aged eighty years, was assassinated and her body thrown 
into the water; the proprietor of the ' De Tramstatle ' cafe was 
disembowelled by bayonet thrusts, having first seen his son, aged 
sixteen, shot before his eyes. The cafe-keeper BorrI was killed 
by a revolver bullet on the steps of his cellar. This done, the 
assassins forced his wife and his two children to look on at the 
burning of their house with all it contained. . . . Roulers was 
forced to pay a war contribution of £8,000; Rumbeke, one of 
£4,000. The Germans emptied all the cellars, requisitioned all 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 151 

the flour, bicycles, horses, carriages, and waggons, and carried 
off the furniture of numbers of houses." ^ 

At Staden, a large village which the Germans entered on the 
19th of October, at nightfall, more than 200 houses were given 
over to the flames and a number of civilians were shot. 

At Eessen, some two miles east of Dixmude, 500 persons were 
imprisoned for some days in the underground vaults of a brew- 
ery. Ten of them were shot, and fifteen died of privation. 

Always, too, there were infamous ruses, methods of warfare 
unworthy of a self-respecting army. 

At Dixmude, during a night engagement, a German Officer, 
Graf von Pourtales, cried to the French: " Don't fire; we are 
Belgians." Happily he was betrayed by two words of German 
spoken by one of his men, and was shot down. 

" We have taken prisoners a captain, a lieutenant, and 200 
men who ought to be shot, for It was found that they were car- 
rying Dum-Dum bullets," writes a French combatant to M. 
Emile Vedel, who tells, in L' Illustration for the 17th of April, 
19 15, the wonderful epic of Admiral Ronarch's six battalions of 
marine fusiliers. 

And always, and everywhere, there were spies. 

" A curious thing," says M. Vedel, " the sails of windmills 
begin to turn again after the exodus of the millers, and this every 
time our marines are preparing for any sort of movement, for 
the enemy manages to have his spies everywhere." 

Later a number of these individuals were unmasked. In 
particular, two German officers were arrested who, disguised as 
British doctors, were moving about Furnes unhindered. Two 
pretended pedlars were then arrested; one of them was an officer 
in the German Reserve, who had lived for many years on the 
banks of the Scheldt. Finally, two " Belgian " gendarmes were 
arrested just as they were going their rounds near Ramscapelle; 
they had carried their zeal to the length of soliciting their su- 
periors to entrust them with the duty of watching the Allied 
lines during the night, " so as to hunt out any suspects who might 
have managed to slip into them." These zealous gendarmes were 
Germans, who had succeeded, no one knew how, in getting them- 
selves incorporated in the Belgian forces. 

What shall we say of the villas which were built at various 
points of the Flemish coast, and which contained concrete plat- 
^ L'Independance Beige, London, 22nd January, 1915. 



152 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

forms of extraordinary thickness, which were intended to sup- 
port the famous heavy howitzers (40) ? 

What are we to say of all these clandestine preparations, save 
that they bear witness at once to our innocent blindness and the 
guilty premeditation of the Germans ? 

The Dead Cities of Flanders 

" They were not dead; ^ they were only asleep. And what a 
delightful sleep ! After a stirring life they slumbered in a peace 
which seemed as though it could never, never again be broken. 
They had retained exactly what was needful for our glory and 
our joy. Seven or eight centuries of the past lived again in 
these cities, and all the vicissitudes, all the revolutions, all the 
catastrophes of this past, disturbed as it was, had not been able 
to rob them of that which Germanic Kultur has but now de- 
stroyed — brutally, radically, stupidly." 

Dixmude. — " It was a little town of 5,000 inhabitants, the 
capital of the arrondissement. Many people only learned of its 
existence from the newspapers which announced its destruction. 
The little town slumbered in the midst of green meadows; but 
this rural peace had not always been its portion; in olden times 
there was a famous harbour here, and an important fortress; 
sieges and fires desolated it; in the time of the wars of Louis 
XIV. its Austrian governor surrendered it without striking a 
blow. Since then peace had never ceased to reign there. 

" After the withdrawal of the sea this flourishing maritime 
city of the Middle Ages gradually relapsed into the modest con- 
dition of a butter market, surrounded by rich and verdant 
meadows in which the milch-cows grazed. For Dixmude had 
come to this : it had in Flanders a renown like that of Isigny in 
the Norman country; its ' Boeter Markt,' in the angle of the 
great central Place, was indicated by a written sign affixed to a 
pole; all round was a crowd of black mantles and white bonnets, 
groups of grave, silent, motionless women, closely packed to- 
gether, each having her basket resting on the stones before her, 
while waiting for customers with that resigned and obstinate 
patience which is a racial characteristic. 

" In this Place rose the Hotel de Ville; it was not an ancient 
monument; an architect of Bruges — the creator of the pretty 

'Jean d'Ardenne (Leon Dommartin) in Le Figaro, 3rd December, 1914. 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 153 

Gothic church at Ostend — had built it about 1875, replacing the 
building burned in the time of Charles V. But authentic dwell- 
iog-houses of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with 
stepped gables, had survived on either side of it. Many more 
might be discovered upon exploring the silent streets and by- 
ways, and the Digue, which ran beside the canal, and was planted 
with venerable trees, afforded a bewitching view. A delightful 
Beguinage stood a little apart, discreetly, as though it had sought 
to conceal from the gaze of the profane the immaculate white- 
ness of its little houses, and the coolness of its gardens, still 
further accentuating the note of silence and religious peace of 
which the city itself gave an impression. 

" The monument whose disappearance is most of all to be 
regretted, is the church; not so much for its own sake, although 
it offered a curious specimen of the successive periods of the 
Pointed style, but on account of two masterpieces to which it 
gave shelter: its sixteenth-century rood-screen and its picture by 
Jordaens. The latter — the Adoration of the Magi — which 
adorned the chief altar, was one of the noble religious produc- 
tions of the powerful Naturalist, who, even in his sacred sub- 
jects, expressed only the exuberance of life and the glory of the 
ffesh. . . . 

" All this is reduced to fragments, to dust, to smoke. It 
required the latest productions of science to effect such destruc- 
tion." 

NiEUPORT. — ^" A glorious old fortress,^ and a famous old 
port, Nieuport was an adorable example of the deserted, silent, 
melancholy city, meditating, in a peace henceforth assured, upon 
the memories of a warhke history. 

" Heine said of the dogs of Aix-la-Chapelle that they had 
the air of imploring the traveller to kick them, in order to obtain 
a little distraction. Heine never knew Nieuport. But if the 
dogs there were bored, the mind attuned to dreams found abso- 
lute freedom and the full scope of its receptive powers, and no 
voice rose above that of the witnesses of the past. 

" Of these witnesses the most famous was the church of Notre 
Dame. Its three spacious naves retained the traces of innumer- 
able mutilations, and on its ancient walls the tombstones of all 
ages, with their suggested epitaphs, told the story of the 
city under its different rulers through a period of six centuries. 

'Jean d'Ardenne, Le Figaro, 27th December, 1914. 



154 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

The iconoclasts of the sixteenth century left only the bare walls; 
but it survived all disasters. However, the soldiers of Wilhelm 
II. got the better of it. 

" The neighbouring market-hall, a monument of the prosper- 
ity of Nieuport during the Burgundian period which preceded the 
Spanish domination, .was built between 1480 and 1484. It was 
a curious and delightful building of whitish brick, which was 
cut and moulded, with a high-pitched roof with a rail and a 
double row of dormer windows. Its lateral front, which faced 
the market-place, presented a series of projecting gables. In 
the midst of the principal front rose a square belfry with a grace- 
ful outline. The market-hall shared the fate of the church. 

"The Hotel de Ville, in the Grand' Rue, dated from 15 13. 
It contained precious pictures, portraits, and documents relating 
to the ancient Nieuport. I think these objects may have been 
preserved, but the Hotel is in ruins, with the majority of the 
houses round about it. Many of them still had the stepped 
gables of the Renaissance period. The Orphanage and the 
Hotel de I'Esperance were among the number. Others were ex- 
amples of the old fishermen's dwellings — simple one-storied 
buildings with tiled roofs, from which rose tall dormer win- 
dows — which seem natural products of the soil, so well do they 
adapt themselves to it and harmonise with it. But all con- 
tributed to the exquisite vision which a brutal aggression has 
now destroyed. 

" Only the Templar's Tower — the remnant of the ancient 
convent of the Order — the only relic of the primitive city, created 
and fortified in the twelfth century by the Count of Flanders, 
Philip of Alsace — seems to have resisted the supreme aggression. 
Its massive structure, the thickness of its walls, have always pre- 
served it. It rises, isolated, from the ancient rampart; a path 
leads to it across the shorn grass of the glacis. From the fif- 
teenth century it formed a portion of the enclosing walls. In 
1826 the Dutch, providing the town with a new system of bas- 
tions, used it as an arsenal. In 1856 the fortress was dismantled 
and the old town was abandoned. It now represents the phan- 
tom of a remote past in the midst of ruins." 

Ypres. — " . . . The indisputable queen ^ of these beautiful 
forsaken cities was Ypres, with its enormous market-place, bor- 

* Maurice Maeterlinck, in Le Figaro. The above translation is from " The 
Wrack of the Storm," by Maurice Maeterlinck, translated by A. Teixeira de 
Mattes, pub. Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1916, p. 28 et seq. 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 155 

dered by little dwelling-houses with stepped gables, and its pro- 
digious market buildings, which occupied one whole side of the 
immense oblong. This market-place haunted for ever the mem- 
ory of those who had seen it, were it but once, while waiting to 
change trains; it was so unexpected, so magical, so dream-like 
almost, in its disproportion to the rest of the town. While the 
ancient city, whose life had withdrawn itself from century to 
century, was gradually shrinking all round it, the Grand' Place 
itself remained an immovable, gigantic, magnifcent witness to 
the might and opulence of old, when Ypres was, with Gand and 
Bruges, one of the three queens of the Western world, one of the 
most strenuous centres of human industry and activity and the 
cradle of our great liberties. Such as it was yesterday — alas, 
that I cannot say as it is to-day! — this great square, with the 
enormous, unspeakably harmonious mass of these market build- 
ings, at once powerful and graceful, wild, gloomy, proud, yet 
genial, was one of the most wonderful and perfect spectacles 
that could be seen in any town on this old earth of ours. While 
of a different order of architecture, built of other elements and 
standing under sterner skies, it should have been as precious to 
man, as sacred, and as intangible as the Piazza di San Marco in 
Venice, the Signoria in Florence, or the Piazza del Duomo in 
Pisa. It constituted a peerless specimen of art, which at all 
times wrung a cry of admiration from the most indifferent — an 
ornament which men hoped was imperishable, one of those things 
of beauty which, in the words of the poet, are a joy for 
ever. ..." 

" The doorway of the Halles is a good hundred feet longer 
than Notre-Dame de Paris, seen from the side," says Michelet. 
" And there is something which we do not find in Notre Dame, 
nor in any other monument of the Middle Ages : this is, that all 
the windows and all the ornaments of the Market-HaU of Ypres 
are rigorously of the same style — the triple-rose style of the 
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries — so that all this fairyland of 
stone seems to have gushed forth from a single source. . . . 
A structure so spacious, so colossal as this would not have been 
intelligible had it been only a simple municipal hotel, or the seat 
of sovereignty, or even a place of popular assembly in this rainy 
climate. The arrangement of the building in itself indicates a 
different function; it is in two storeys. The first floor was 
intended to house the handicrafts of weaving — the weaving of 
cloths and serges. The ground floor was occupied by the comb- 



156 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

ers, carders, clothworkes, fullers, and dyers. The commune, at 
once the protector and the judge of their work, approved or re- 
jected it without appeal. 

"In the year 1200 the tower of Ypres was commenced. In 
1304, over a century later, the whole colossal building was 
thrown open to industry." ^ 

" In the finest of the halls of the Clothmarket ^ there was a 
vast mural painting, which was strikingly effective. It repre- 
sented the terrible plague which, in the middle of the fourteenth 
century, desolated, ravaged, and destroyed this flourishing city, 
which then contained 200,000 inhabitants. In this painting one 
saw a man, one of the few survivors who, with haggard eyes and 
terror-stricken face, is fleeing at the top of his speed, casting a 
last glance at the accursed city where no living person would 
henceforth linger. The title of the fresco was ' The Death of 
Ypres.' 

" The Death of Ypres — I have just seen it take place before 
my eyes. The Kaiser's shells and the savagery of his army have 
at last attained the desired result. The Cloth Hall and the mag- 
nificent Cathedral of St. Martin, which stood close by, and which 
were coldly and ferociously aimed at by the German guns, have 
been set on fire, and are now only a heap of ruins. 

" It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and I was returning from 
forwarding an order some distance to the north of Ypres, when 
my attention was drawn to a high column of very dense smoke 
which was rising into the heavens. 

" Astonished and anxious, I made for the town as quickly as 
possible. At the entrance of one of the suburbs, at the railway- 
crossing, there was, trailing on the ground, a quantity of iron 
wire torn from the telegraph poles. As I slackened my pace an 
old man appeared on a doorstep. ' They have burned the Cloth 
Hall,' (41) he told me, with an expression of infinite sadness. 

" Now I was in the Grand' Place, and the horror of the thing 
was suddenly apparent. The whole of the interior of the build- 
ing was nothing but a gigantic furnace. Only the outer shell, 
the Gothic side-walls, with the delicate curves of their arches, 
their muUioned windows, the statues which adorned the fagades, 
and the light turrets which flanked the angles, were still resist- 
ing. But how long would this last ? For the whole roof, outer 

' Michelet, Sur les chemins de I'Europe. 

' Extract from the narrative of an officer of the Staff of the Reserve of the 
French Army, published in Le Figaro, 27th November, 1914, under the head- 
ing, La Mart d' Ypres. 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 157 

and inner, was afire. It was a rare and precious example of car- 
penters' work, such as the artists of the Middle Ages knew how 
to construct; a prodigious forest of beams, skilfully clamped and 
jointed, of joists and rafters. . . . 

"... Now the fire was gaining more and more. . . . The 
flames bit greedily at the ancient stones, which were all dis- 
jointed; through the thousand openings of the fagade they began 
to lick at the statues, which seemed to be bound upon some in- 
fernal pyre. From time to time one of the huge beams would 
detach itself from the roof and collapse with a great crash. 

" A cloud of sparks escaped from the furnace, whirling in 
eddies. These sparks, falling upon the houses opposite, did 
their work. It was not long before the conflagration was raging 
on every side. ..." 

After this first bombardment Ypres was subjected to several 
others, which were equally devoid of any strategic interest. But 
it was not until the latter part of April, 19 15, that the Germans 
gave it the coup de grace, and finally murdered the dying city, 
which for five months they had been slowly and scientifically 
torturing with occasional projectiles. 

Mr. Arnold Bennett terminates by the following reflections a 
striking description of this " dead city," through which he wan- 
dered for several hours without encountering a living soul: — 

Ypres is entitled to rank as the very symbol of the German achieve- 
ment in Beligum. It stood upon the path to Calais; but that was not its 
crime. Even if German guns had not left one brick upon another in 
Ypres, the path to Calais would not thereby have been made any easier 
for the well-shod feet of the apostles of might, for Ypres never served as 
a military stronghold and could not possibly have so served; and had 
the Germans known how to beat the British Army in front of Ypres, they 
could have marched through the City as easily as a hyena through a rice- 
crop. The crime of Ypres was that it lay handy for the extreme irritation 
of an army which, with three times the men and three times the guns, and 
thirty times the vainglorious conceit, could not shift the trifling force 
opposed to it last autumn. Quite naturally the boasters were enraged. In 
the end, something had to give way. And the Cathedral and Cloth Hall 
and other defenceless splendours of Ypres gave way, not the trenches. 
The yearners after Calais did themselves no good by exterminating fine 
architecture and breaking up innocent homes, but they did experience the 
relief of smashing something. Therein lies the psychology of the affair of 
Ypres, and the reason why the Ypres of history has come to a sudden 
close. 

A few miles on the opposite sides of the town were the German ar- 
tillery positions, with guns well calculated to destroy Cathedrals and 
Cloth Halls. Around these guns were educated men who had spent years 



158 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

— indeed, most of their lives — in the scientific study of destruction. Un- 
der these men were slaves who, solely for the purposes of destruction, had 
ceased to be the free citizens they once were. These slaves were compelled 
to carry out any order given to them, under pain of death. They had, 
indeed, been explicitly told on the highest earthly authority that, if the 
order came to destroy their fathers and their brothers, they must destroy 
their fathers and their brothers: the instruction was p,ublic and his- 
toric. . . . 

The whole organism has worked and worked well, for the destruction 
of all that was beautiful in Ypres, and for the break-up of an honourable 
tradition extHiding over at least eight centuries. The operation was the 
direct result of an order. The order had been carefully weighed and con- 
sidered. The successful execution of it brought joy into many hearts high 
and low. "Another shell in the Cathedral!" And men shook hands 
ecstatically around the excellent guns. " A hole in the tower of the Cloth 
Hall!" General rejoicing! "The population has fled, and Ypres is a 
desert! " Inexpressible enthusiasm among specially educated men, from 
the highest to the lowest. So it must have been. There was no hazard 
about the treatment of Ypres. The shells did not come into Ypres out 
of nowhere. Each was the climax of a long, deliberate effort originating 
in the brains of the responsible leaders.^ 

FuRNES. — Of the four venerable cities drowsing in the plain 
of the Yser Furnes alone was as yet not mortally wounded. Com- 
pletely aroused by the uproar dose at hand, suddenly animated 
by an Intense life, this little town of 6,500 inhabitants enjoyed 
for some months the assuredly unforeseen privilege of being, in 
a sense, the capital of independent Belgium. Furnes became 
acquainted with military convoys, with motor-cars passing at full 
speed, with the incessant coming and going of troops, with 
convoys of prisoners. Its Grand' Place — exquisitely contained 
by the Hotel de Ville and the Palais de Justice, delightful speci- 
mens of Flemish architecture, and by delicious gabled dwelling- 
houses — was often the scene of fascinating and exciting reviews, 
in which Belgian troops marched past, and also French or British 
troops, both English and Colonial. 

It was at Furnes that the King of Belgium, on the 2nd of 
November, 19 14, received a visit from the President of the 
French Republic, and here again, two days later, he received at 
the hands of King George the investiture of the Order of the 
Garter. It was in the midst of the Grand' Place — a scene 
well worthy of such ceremonies — that our Sovereign conferred 
the National Order upon the colours of the most intrepid of his 
regiments, while at the same time he decorated the officers, 
non-commissioned officers, and soldiers who, brave among the 

' "The Unique Cit^." Illustrated London News, 2Sth September, 1915. 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 159 

brave, had displayed most valour in the course of the " affairs " 
in which these regiments had distinguished themselves. 

Since November, 19 14, Furnes has frequently experienced 
the horrors of bombardment, and finally had to be almost com- 
pletely evacuated. The troops avoid it now, in order to give the 
Germans no least pretext for fresh bombardments, and there 
are barely a few hundred inhabitants remaining: tenacious, not 
to be uprooted. Furnes has relapsed into slumber, f, ,.. m 

The Belgian Army of To-day 

After the sanguinary battle of the Yser the Belgian military 
authorities left no stone unturned to reconstitute our Army after 
its cruel ordeal. 

The efforts of the King and his lieutenants were crowned with 
success. The Belgian Army, which entered the field on the 4th 
of August, 1 9 14, with six divisions of infantry and one division 
of cavalry, has consisted, since the first few months of 19 15, of 
six divisions of infantry and two divisions of cavalry. Each unit 
possesses its normal effective and the necessary cadre. The artil- 
lery is at its full strength; it has even been reinforced by guns 
of large calibre ; and the number of machine-guns has been sensi- 
bly increased. All the supply services are perfectly organised, 
and, lastly, many thousands of young men, many of whom have 
already risked their lives in escaping from occupied Belgium, are 
now trained in our instruction camps, which are situated in Brit- 
tany and in Normandy. 

Here is what a neutral observer, M. Georges Batault, says of 
our troops: — "The Belgian Army, whose moral condition is 
excellent — one cannot imagine more resolute and energetic 
troops — is admirably revictualled and abundantly provided 
with artillery and munitions. 

" I expected to find an army diminished by privations, deci- 
mated by the terrible battles which it has had to sustain, and by 
the rigours of winter; I found an army composed of vigorous 
and resolute men, perfectly equipped, animated by a spirit of 
valour and heroism which never belies itself. 

" On the other hand, thanks to the patriotism of the young 
Belgians and the measures taken by the Government, recruiting 
continues, and fresh troops are being trained in several camps, 
which makes it possible to fill gaps as they are formed and to 
maintain effectives at full strength. 



i6o BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

" Despite all obstacles and menaces, the Belgian Army con- 
tinues to exist, stronger than it has ever been, proving the vitality 
of the country and the indomitable tenacity of its sons. 

" The spectacle which it offers to humanity is a noble one, 
and one encouraging to small nations, for it proves that courage 
and determination are always stronger than adversity." * 

Even when it was reduced to half its strength, this valiant 
little army never failed for a moment to hold its place in the 
van. 

Since the Battle of the Yser it has been occupying and guard- 
ing, without faltering, its share of the " Western front." At 
the time of the violent thrust which the Germans made toward 
Ypres — behind a curtain of poison-gas — the Belgians played a 
most effectual part in the defence. 

Yes; as my eminent friend, M. Carton de Wiart, recently 
remarked, with patriotic pride, it is there, on the Yser, " on this 
strip of sacred soil to which all our vital energy and all our certi- 
tude of victory cling, that our little army, whose gaps are daily 
filled by fresh recruits, must be seen. What a determination to 
hold out, an unshakable determination, transferred like a torch 
from the hand of the dying to that of the survivor. . . . And 
what pride to serve under a young King who never, on the Yser 
any more than at Antwerp or at Hofstade, leaves his army for a 
day nor an hour (44), who has no better palace for the moment 
than a modest presbytery; but who braves with his soldiers the 
dangers of the front and the trenches, and whose name will be 
blessed so long as honour shall blossom in the hearts of men." 

The youngest soldier of this national army is Prince Leopold 
Duke of Brabant, born in Brussels on the 3rd of Novem- 
ber, 1 90 1, who enlisted in the ranks as a simple infantry soldier 
at the beginning of April, 19 15. 

It was the 12th Regiment of the Line — a wonderful regiment 
which has covered itself with glory in many and many a battle 
— ^which the young Prince joined, at his own entreaty, on the 
occasion of the King his father's birthday. Do not imagine that 
this was the result of a mere juvenile caprice, nor even that of 
a very touching filial regard. Prince Leopold of Belgium is the 
worthy son of this model King, who is the very incarnation of 
civic duty; this philologist and sociologist of whom Bergson 
could say that because of him " We shall henceforth feel prouder 
of being a philosopher." The children of Albert and Elizabeth 
' Gazette de Lausanne, 8th of May 1915. 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM i6i 

if Belgium never " played at soldiers," never wore any sort of 
miform; and if the eldest has decided, although so young, to 
lecome a soldier, it was due to a decision which was duly de- 
iberated; because he was moved by a very high sence of civic 
luty. This is why the ceremony of the enrolment of the ycung 
i*rince was, despite a great simplicity of form, imbued with a 
'^ery profound and very moving moral significance. 

An eye-witness of this noble patriotic manifestation gave a 
iharming account of it in the XX^ Steele, from which I quote 
hese few lines : — " The King spoke. He spoke the proud words 
)f a general who is giving a soldier to the army, and also the 
vords, full of feeling, of a father who is entrusting his young son 
o his elders. And when the » King had finished speaking, and 
he Prince, with a deliberate step, leaving his parents, had taken 
lis place in the ranks of the ist Company, ahl then indeed their 
leads remained erect, and the soldiers continued to gaze straight 
n front ; but there were tears in their eyes, and their lips vibrated 
vith a hoarse acclamation. ..." 

Not only is our Army not annihilated, as our treacherous and 
mplacable enemies have so often rumoured, but it has been 
possible to spare from it, and to send to Russia, the best of our 
^nsmiths, whose reputation is world-wide. The skilled tech- 
lique and the methodical spirit of these Belgian auxiliaries are 
disciplining the Russian effort, and their assistance is enabling 
3ur Allies on the Eastern front very largely to increase their 
autput of arms and munitions. 

What is more, a large detachment of the Belgian corps of 
armoured motor-cars, armed with machine-guns and guns of 
larger calibre, is also with the Russian Army, where it will strike 
the Germans many a blow! 

The Queen's Hospital 

During the tragic days at the end of October, 19 14, the 
majority of the Belgian wounded had to be transported to Calais, 
ivhere Dr. Depage, the eminent Brussels surgeon, had hastily 
installed the Jeanne d'Arc Hospital. Now Calais is over forty 
niles from the Yser, and one may imagine the suffering that 
some of our brave fellows endured in the course of this long and 
liflicult journey. 

In addition to the splendid hospitals which are at our disposal 
n France and England, it was therefore important that we 



1 62 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

should have a well-organised hospital close to the front, where 
major operations could be performed and serious and urgent 
cases treated. Accordingly the " Ocean " Hospital was installed 
in a huge hotel standing by the sea-shore at La Panne. 
It was established as a result of the beneficent initiative 
of the Queen (45), and our soldiers call it the "Queen's 
Hospital." 

This hospital, by adding improvement to improvement, /has 
become a model of its kind. It now comprises, in addition to the 
principal building, which contans 150 beds, a number of portable 
wards, which contain altogether nearly a thousand beds, ten 
villas, which have been turned into wards for contagious dis- 
eases, a pharmacy, a laboratory, a linen-store, a laundry, a cloth- 
ing-store, and various other stores. Simple but well-arranged 
baths have been installed close at hand; nearly a thousand sol- 
diers can be accommodated in the course of the day. " Every- 
where," writes M. Georges Paquot, who has examined this fine 
hospital in detail, " we find the same love of order and hygiene, 
combined with the most delicate sense of philanthropy. Thus, 
while the wounded are in hospital, their torn and bloody gar- 
ments are disinfected with formol in an oven, washed, repaired, 
and at need replaced. Professor R. Petrucci, secretary to Dr. 
Depage, showed us a room in which, arranged in rows upon 
sets of shelves, there were more than 150 sacks containing the 
clothing of patients now under treatment in the hospital; there 
was not the slightest odour. Each soldier, as he leaves, receives 
his little bundle of clothes thoroughly cleansed and in perfect 
order; he understands that he is being looked after, that his 
services are appreciated, and his heart is warmed by the knowl- 
edge and his enthusiasm stimulated." 

Dr. Depage was at first actively assisted by his wife. Then 
Mme. Depage courageously departed to. America, where she 
wished to collect funds for the Belgian Red Cross, and particu- 
larly for the Queen's Hospital. 

Active, enterprising, and a good organiser, she had already 
collected nearly 100,000 dollars, when a Belgian friend who was 
in the States, and who was returning to Europe, urged her to 
return with her. " I should very much like to do so," replied 
Mme. Depage, " because I am anxious to see my husband and my 
children again; but I consider that my task will not be finished 
until I can take home a round sum of 500,000 francs for our 
iwounded." 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 163 

The noble and courageous woman finally obtained her 
£20,000, and sailed on the ist of May, 19 15, on the Lusitania. 

To-day she is at rest for ever in that little corner of free 
Belgium in which she had worked so much and so well. . . . 
Her name will always be mentioned with emotion among those 
of the noblest heroes of our great epic, for she was heroic to the 
end; after the first explosion — which was already fatal — instead 
of throwing herself into a lifeboat, as she was urged to do, she 
lingered to dress the wounds of a sailor who had just been 
wounded by her side. . . . 

It was in the Queen's Hospital that my dear brother died, 
after long sufferings. He was wounded by a shell-splinter on 
the 5th of May; he died on the 2nd of August, 1915. He had 
remained only three weeks at Cherbourg; as soon as he could he 
rejoined his beloved Carabineers on the Yser. He had just been 
appointed Officer of the Order of Leopold, for having — as the 
" Golden Book of the Belgian People " relates — " from the 5th 
to the 7th of April, 19 15, without a moment of repose, com- 
manded his battalion, engaged before Noordschote, Drie- 
Grachten, and the position of La Nacelle, in a hurricane of ma- 
chine-gun fire." 

* * * 

Many of the wounded, alas ! lose, for the rest of their lives, 
all physical aptitude for the calling which was theirs before the 
war. 

The " Belgian School for those Seriously Wounded in the 
War," established on a large estate at Port-Villez, near Vernon, 
the " Belgian Depot for War Cripples " at Sainte-Adresse, and 
another institute of the kind at Mortain for crippled " intellec- 
tuals," look after these unfortunate men from the moment they 
leave hospital, give them asylum, and, having with discernment 
assisted them to make choice of a new trade, make them follow 
this or that course of professional instruction. And thanks to 
these institutions, which in some sort form a corollary to the 
work of the Queen, the majority of these victims of duty will be 
able, while earning an honourable living, to contribute, with their 
more fortunate compatriots, to the material renovation of the 
country. They will still be useful citizens. 

The Uninvaded Belgian Territory 

The uninvaded Belgian territories are not limited to the region 
of the Yser where the German offensive has been broken. They 



1 64 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



ijIMraivtCk* 



also include the small enclave of Baerle-Duc and our vast African 
domain. 

Baerle-Duc is a small Belgian commune enclosed by Dutch 
territory, about two miles from the frontier. It is adjacent to 
Baerle-Nassau, which is Dutch, and through which the railway 
from Turnhout to Tilbourg passes. A strange situation, in truth, 
and infinitely more abnormal than it appears on the map here 
reproduced. In reality the two communes are dovetailed to- 
gether in such a manner that it is impossible for the burgomaster 
of Baerle-Duc to go from his villa to the communal offices with- 
out several times crossing Dutch territory. The railway station 

is Dutch, but the stationmaster's 
garden is on Belgian soil; while 
some houses are even partly Bel- 
gian and partly Dutch ! 

Baerle-Duc, which, adminis- 
tratively speaking, is a portion 
of the arrondissement of Turn- 
hout (province of Antwerp), 
has an area of about four square 
miles. Before the war it con- 
tained about 250 houses, which 
sheltered a thousand inhabit- 
tants; but since the invasion of 
the province of Antwerp the 
population of this curious en- 
clave is largely increased. 

And since the 4th of August, 
19 14, the black, yellow, and red 
flag has never ceased to float above the " communal house " of 
this Belgian village, whose peculiar geographical situation makes 
it, in a somewhat ironical manner, immune from the abhorred 
occupation. 




lOKn, 



THB BELGIAN ENCLAVE IN HOLLAND. 



Belgian Congo 

Actuated by a fine sense of humanity, our rulers did not wish 
our conflict with Germany to spread to Africa. 

On the 7th of August, 19 14, M. Davignon telegraphed to this 
effect to the Belgian Ministers in Paris and London, and on the 
same day he despatched a letter, which was more explicit, and 
of which I quote the essential portion: — 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 165 

While instructing the Governor-General of the Congo to take measures 
of defence upon the common frontiers of the Belgian colony and the 
German colonies of East Africa and the Cameroons, the King's Govern- 
ment has requested that high official to abstain from all offensive action 
against these colonies. 

Considering the civilising mission common to the colonising nations, the 
Belgian Government desires, indeed, out of regard for humanity, not to 
extend the field of hostilities to Central Africa. It will not, therefore, 
take the initiative in inflicting such an ordeal upon civilisation in this 
region, and the military forces which it possesses there will not enter into 
action unless they are obliged to repel a direct attack upon its African 
possessions. 

I should be extremely glad to know if the Government of the Republic 
(or of His Britannic Majesty) sees matters in the same light, and in that 
case whether it intends, on the occasion of the present conflict, to avail 
itself of Article 2 of the Berlin Act to place those of its colonies which are 
included in the Congo basin (as delimited by convention) in a condition 
of neutrality. 

But in Africa, as in Europe, we were drawn into the struggle 
despite ourselves. In Africa, as in Europe, it was the Germans 
who struck the first blow. Only, by a just restitution, while Ger- 
many lost all her colonies one by one, ours is left to us, and re- 
mains intact. Not only have all the attempts hitherto made by 
the German colonial forces to enter the Belgian Congo been 
attended by pitiful failure, but the Belgo-Congolese troops have 
participated, with valour and success, in the French and British 
operations in the Cameroons and in German East Africa. 

"At the end of October, 19 14," we read in a French official 
Note, " the Belgian steamer Luxemburg, manned by a detach- 
ment of 130 sharpshooters, with three guns and a machine-gun, 
played a very important part in the operations which were de- 
veloping against the Sangha at N'dzimon. . . . The steamer, 
proceeding less than 150 yards from the enemy's trenches, under 
a veritable hail of projectiles, stopped at a suitable point to dis- 
embark the Belgian sharpshooters. The fight was desperate ; it 
was necessary to struggle for three days and a night before we 
could hoist our flag over the position. ... It was by a furious 
bayonet charge that the Allied troops eventually forced the 
enemy to evacuate his last trenches. In this superb charge, un- 
der the fire of machine-guns, and despite the impediments of a 
marshy soil, the Belgian detachment was admirable. . . . The 
capture of the post of N'dzimon was the fortunate completion 
of the series of operations carried out in the Sangha, which made 
us the masters of almost the entire region. From this moment 



1 66 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



the assistance of the Belgians became pc nanent. The Belgian 
contingent attached to the Sangha c iumn was continually 
reinforced. It increased from i8o to 430, the effective 
total of the column being 1,100 men; then, at the beginning of 
January, it rose to 580. It took part in all the important opera- 
tions which ensued along the Middle N'goko, terminating in the 
capture of Tiboundi and Molundu, and recently of Lernie, after 
the severe battles of Monso and Besam." ^ 

On the 8th of February, 191 6, an official Belgian communique 
from Havre stated: — 

" The Commandant of the Belgian troops which are partici- 
pating in the Cameroons campaign announces that a detachment 
under his orders reached Yaounde on the 28th of January last, 
when it effected its junction with the French and British forces. 
" The flags of the three nations have been run up over the 
fort and military honours rendered to them." 

On the side of East Africa our colonial troops are defending a 
frontier of more than 320 miles. They 
have repelled the German troops in 
more than ten actions, although the lat- 
ter had made excellent preparations and 
were very well armed, and at present 
they have penetrated into German terri- 
tory at a number of points. On the 
southern portion of Lake Tanganyika a 
Belgian steamer recently took part, with 
British steamers, in the capture of the 
German steamer Kingani. 

As for the Belgian Congo, it is in- 
tact, and it therefore follows that, in 
spite of all, the Belgian colours are still 
floating above a territory four times as 
large as that of the predatory Empire 
which intended to commence the conquest of the world with 
Belgium 1 

Once transferred to Havre, the bureaux of our Colonial Office 
got busily to work again. Under the vigorous impetus given by 
the King and the Minister, M. Renkin, they have done so much 
and so excellently that it will soon be necessary to open a branch 
in London, the present centre of the great Belgo-Congolese enter- 
prises. Thus, in spite of the unspeakable difficulties which have 
'Le Temps, loth September, 1915. 







COVER OF A GERMAN 
COLONIAL REVIEW 



INVIOLATE BELGIUM 167 

enveloped the mother-country, the administration of the colony 
and the progress of colonial affairs have not been sensibly af- 
fected. To read the Tribune Congolaise, which now appears in 
London instead of Antwerp, one would hardly realise that Bel- 
gium is in the midst of a war with the most formidable military 
Power which has ever existed. The fine steamers of the Com- 
pagnie beige maritime du Congo continue their sailings, with the 
sole difference that Hull is for the time the home port of the 
line. The Congo railways and river services are still running. 
Officials, officers, missionaries, and business men come and go as 
before. In a word, the Belgian Congo is doing " business as 
usual." 

It would be childish to pretend that none of the numerous 
Belgo-Congolese enterprises are suffering from the unparalleled 
crisis which has so sorely wounded the mother-country as an ac- 
tive producer. Such a result was inevitable for most of them. 
But the mere fact that these enterprises still survive, that they 
continue in working order — is not this a fine testimonial to the 
fundamental qualities of our nation : energy in action and a perse- 
vering will? 



IX 

IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 

There are 7,000,000 Belgians in those parts of Belgium 
which are occupied by the Germans. Free but lately as but few 
peoples were free, they have now, for more than two years, 
been sequestered, immured in their own country, or even in their 
towns or villages if they are capable of military service. A wall 
of steel and fire on the one hand, and on the other a fence of 
iron wire through which a powerful electric current circulates, 
and along which pitiless sentinels are posted (52) — these di- 
vide them from civilisation. Morally and materially these seven 
millions of human beings are living a tragedy whose full horror 
it is difficult to conceive. 

" The despairing rumours of this tragedy," says Maeterlinck, 
" reach us only through the fissures of the bloody wall which 
isolates it from the rest of the world. . . . All Belgium is now 
no more than a vast Prussian prison, in which all cries are cruelly 
and methodically stifled, and where no other voices are heard 
but those of the gaolers. Only now and again, after a thousand 
adventures, after passing through a thousand dangers, a letter 
from a kinsman, from a captive friend, reaches us from the depth 
of this immense in pace and brings us a gleam of authentic 
truth. ..." 

Considering the material situation of our poor country, my 
eminent fellow-countryman continues: — "In a country before 
all else industrial, which normally, in time of peace, was already 
producing less than a quarter of the wheat necessary for its con- 
sumption, the enemy has systematically requisitioned everything, 
seized upon everything for the maintenance of his armies, and 
has sent into Germany what he could not consume on the spot. 
The result of so monstrous a manoeuvre may readily be im- 
agined : 

168 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 169 

in all this territory, lately so fortunate and so wealthy, to-day 
held to ransom, pillaged, and pillaged again, ravaged, devastated 
by steel and by fire, there is left — nothing." 

Words, perhaps you may say? Exaggerations? We shall 
see! 



Proclamations 

To give us some idea of what the German occupation of Bel- 
gium means, nothing can exceed the value of the notices, decrees, 
and proclamations drafted or inspired by the German rulers 
themselves. These are reliable and irrefutable witnesses. 

They refer to all the manifestations of the life of the op- 
pressed nation, and they are extremely numerous; a volume the 
size of this would certainly not suffice to contain them all. I 
will therefore confine myself to reproducing a few, which I 
shall comment upon only as far as is necessary. Read them 
attentively : — 

On the 2 1st of August, 19 14, a fortnight after the Germans 
had entered the city of Liege, the burgomaster, M. Kleyer, 
informed his fellow-citizens (by order) that: 

The front doors of houses must remain open all night. 

Windows overlooking the street must be lit up, shutters and blinds 
remaining undrawn. 

All movement in the streets must cease at 7 o'clock German time 
(6 p.m. by Belgian time). 

A proclamation posted up at Namur, on the 25th of August, 
1914, signed by the "Commandant of the Fortress," von 
Billow : 

French and Belgian soldiers must be given up as prisoners of war 
before 4 o'clock in front of the prison. Citizens who do not obey will be 
condemned to penal servitude for life in Germany. A rigorous search of 
buildings will commence at 4 o'clock. Any soldier found will be imme- 
diately shot. 

Arms, powder, dynamite must be given in at 4 o'clock. Penalty: 
shooting. Citizens knowing of any hiding-place must warn the burgo- 
master under penalty of penal servitude for life. 

AH streets will be occupied by a German guard, who will take ten 
hostages in each street, whom they will keep under observation. Should 
any disturbance occur in any street the ten hostages vnll be shot. 



I70 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Doors must not be locked, and from 8 o'clock at night three windows 
must be lit up in each house. 

It is forbidden to be in the streets after 8 o'clock. . . . &c., &c. 

On the 30th of August the following placard, signed hy the 
valiant Burgomaster of Brussels, was posted in the city. You 
would not ask me to comment upon it : 



. « r-i I'Vi VH I r- 



Le Gouverneur AllemantI de 
la ViHe de Lidge, Lleutenant->Gto4- 
ral von Kolewe, a fait affidior hier 
I'avis stiivant : 

♦• AuT habilanis de la \Hte de Liege. 
■ Le Bourgmesire de Broxella a laii savoii' av 

• Commandiint anemand que le Couverne«aeni 
r> Trancais a d^lare au Couvernement beigtr 

• i'impossibilile de I'assisler onensivemem en 

• aucune maniere. vu qu'il se voit lui-m^e iarce 

• a la defensive. » 

Xtfppose k cette; ASrmfttioa la 
dementi le plat (ormeL 



e>«iii>^-i« aotm i»M 



£e Bourgmesire, 

Adolpbe MAX. 



BURGOMASTER MAX GIVES THE LIE TO VON 
KOLEWE." 



The Germans replied on the following day with this bilingual 
placard : 

' " City of Brussels. — The German Governor of the City of Liege, Lieuten- 
ant-General von Kolewe, yesterday caused the following notice to be posted 
up: — 

" ' To the inhabitants of the City of Liege. — The Burgomaster of Brussels 
has informed the German Commandant that the French Government has de- 
clared to the Belgian Government that it is impossible for it to assist the 
said Government offensively in any manner, seeing that it finds itself com- 
pelled to assume the defensive.' — I meet this assertion with the most explicit 
denial. — The Burgomaster, Adolphe Max." 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 



171 



Wuitige 
DekannMiung 


viiponaiR 


Ich verbiete liierdurch fiul dat 
strengste einen jeden Maoeran- 
scUag, auch von seiten der Stadt* 
verwaltung, ohnemelne ausdnieck- 
Uohe Genehmigoni^ 

BrOiWl. SI. Aii^jiul I9I(. 


II eat ctriotement defendn, autsi 
k U municipality de la ville, de 
publier des alBcbes sans avoir recn 
ma permission speoiaIe.j 

Bnixtlles. \t St miiU 191 (.n 


Dti' Miliiavrgourtrimur, 

. ,«.JiLUETTWITZ. 

Oeaerala^or. 


£e Coiierrneiir aililiiire afhttand. 

(&^«^.vodLBETTW1TZ, 

fiteiraL 



A PLACARD PROHIBITING PLACARDS.' 

A proclamation, dated Brussels, 2nd of September, 19 14, 
informs the Belgians that: 

By the order of the 26th of August, 1914, given at the General Head- 
quarters of the Army, His Majesty the Emperor of Germany has deigned 
to appoint as Governor-General in Belgium His Excellency the Field- 
Marshall Baron von der Goltz, and as chief of the Civil Administration 
of the Governor-General His Excellency Herr von Sandt. 

On the 6th of September, 1914, Major Dieckmann installed 
himself in the Chateau des Bruyeres, at Grivegnee, not far from 
the Fleron fort. He immediately had posted in Grivegnee and 
several of the neighbouring communes a long proclamation in 
which are enumerated the offences against German soldiers of 
which a Belgian civilian can be guilty. 

" " Important notice. — It is strictly forbidden, to the municipality of the city 
also (.sic), to publish placards without having received my express permis- 
sion. — The German Military Governor, von Luettwitz, General." 



172 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



Commune de Grivegnde 



^i l B l » 




Moniieur le Mejor-Commandani DIECKMANN* du Chaieau des Bruytret. me prle de porter 
ce 4)ui suit a t« «onnali8ance dci habitants :, 



BatailtoD DIECKMANN.- 



Chateau dea Bruyeres. le Septembn 1914. 



A la pfeatnte dfscuMlon aMUtaient : 

H M. le Cure PRYNS. de 6oit-de-Breuxi 

a) M. le Oire PRANSSEN. de Beyfte; 

3) M. le Cure LEPROPRES. de Heusay» 

4> M. te Cure PAQUAY. de Orivegnee; 

5) M. le Bourgraestre DBJARDIN. de 

6» M. le Bourgmeatre HODEIQB,,d< Qrtvegnce; 

9> M le Major DIECKMANN* 

9> M' le LfeutenaiK d. K. REIU 

Par M. le Ma|o» OIBCKHANK. porta ce ^ul raU * to eoaaaiasanec dea paraenoalitea pftaentes« 

I. - ftMt'it • SfptMht nil, a « iMfiw it niwHm. *mm la u«a 

■MMIa«. Mptowb. fttaa 4k(ahe« ^al WM mcm* m poMaMoa dwcitogrvM 
<■»« nBM» M tt4i«a im Bnf^fm. i^u qii w li im» p* w*m pMubta 
«• b tmm 4« Ami H w» hMl(* m* ptaa «« pwM fu to tmm. • »■• 

% * Tmi I« hftbiucu d«« ■•«>«• oonpiM 4m toslMM 4t ttoywH— y. 
Cnti|B«( B«*^>-Btw Pt*fn«, (b^rMi fvMnl cW «•« • pww tk la rhaM 
4a tov (ta 9 aawnt • puu* 4» ' U«i«« 4« m»* — k«ar« alliHaadi). Laa 
MUaa n * pUJiiifiNi aafW fel*ir«a •■« lonfftaapa q«a ««ah)a'aa r Ma w fM4. 
Lib psnaa 4aBirta aanai tutntm- Ctlai qa) ■• ta Ga*lu>«Ma,pB* I tm 9tB» 
• npiMM i ^ wpaai * Am pnatg alairaa Ta«U iMfOVa faak'c*)** W"iia c* 
•fdnB (Mfwaan la aMA. 
t '& - 



ft • U «■ parala^ 
|«qa«a, aK.. 4a tMa to UWMI a» «)pwwa. T«M 1 
•n paMa itamMwi 

M-Criu q«la CaMtf 
pflnlf. haanaa. banMl n 4'avtira li^uiaa >r»li^w m tnatm t ■•. n4f«<l 
iliiiwli* 4aa CaMaaaai pMOWta « ^ai m U pM moom* m Gvm 
auinaiiv ^w r Maft. fa*MiaU t'f • vm^va 4(<«lf aai t» !■■ « I* n«ai)f 
aw«Mt la aan. Laa qaaaiMa tf ' ' 

•I. -Ctfat qtf •-•bwispffafw4tMtHHaHpaMdca«M ilnMlB lot* 



^^ 8pai(. m WMTdii*. aa« amm 4a aan, iiMH la <'t>*^>k 

■■aaJm aa 4ait w nn i i rar aaraw 4iaraM 4aaa aa *iMa>| j, « h«ww 4a aau « « hn*aa 4« mkw - twn t'rm I'r 
"* >^- —*' — ' "" ■■ *» -*"» *nvm to pan 4a tal^ » tm pm 4m «Mm 4i IvMa tfwwiai 




r 4. — A ptntr 4* 1 ■><■»>. 1 1 haaiaa 4« aatta, |a pawitaul 
/ » 4aa haXttuaai 4a Bafi^Mwr. Cmya. tau 4» Wwai. pai to 



ila(«allf4a 



«ti f 

naqaaaui «m t»aw atara «• 

ff * hmttm laafenMd 
Be tf^aalwi 4a Bi>aallawf « 4i CmafMa 

lirtM 4* fVMaaatoM «« ^m» oaawaaa ftt almasoi 4a •• _ _ 

m^ffg n FytdaPUr^ L>« 1 ijhabrt ttH. ppai to prMaim iom 4a 4 Warw 
tla'aati taiqaw t Sap*aattw 1 au4i 

II r *• 4a to *<a' 4a ■« atataa I ca ^tt n fayiHUM #■ — *■■» p«o>4» 



V na atoH 
aimai4 



Bai4n 



Ito4in to Mil. U an < n »awiii 4itoM «a pca4ato 4h rifua lamnan 
4««lc«4aar LaaKKtoUa»4aa tatoiyttoa«iMtgnM4«4aT bawwdavaiia 



a ' la 4Mf <ara>. %an 4m IMMI ^al M Mraai laiMtoi. topa m <aal«*a qa). 
a* toill « u law • todi 4a t aatn fmi. aM a il|a«faar a»m» aUpa- St to 
ttmf^mwmwm a*» pnp Mm m mmft aUa. tatiya n^a 4a aaataaa H toana 
n pMt 4ptta M aa»«atoa M tmm, I'fMr noMA I* V**" * ^Brt # 
l» nm$kmmm aaai pa> toN. 
* f - C«M> aa^w. aaM ytoM 



1 a - Jtolfa ««■ ana to ettla ^al nioJaw 4»A •■ OWMrtfUaa. fii 
«i|KU«Ml «m 4m ttmnm 4a a«]r«»HaMaf FUMa, «toM4a B iaai. Cmafii4a. 
itMa^aaai 4a tow aManaaa aaaan to aOoan •Il«aaaa4a, n «aai tow dM^aH 
•• a* niMM ta ••(« « la «■ am m t pwr to aalai aiUiaHa. ba cm 4a 
4afw. ei aMi Mlav H«i ■ilnaira liralfJ Cafai qai aa laaama paa 4a« 

««ttoRaii4«>4Mto oiiJia 



I& - IVa4Hi to pm, ra«*«» 4a Cta«a> • * AijMw «'«■ p— Iw 
qM rai I'Miraa Na^HJaatfU !!«■(• uw«* to b •* # paar uuai 4a pr> 

^U y • 4a tanw 4totoa 4Mntot» T» 'nmlUmm 
4a to C«r4p tai 4A*fa 4Ha I'totata 4i U papal*-* 

14 -'UMaa^aai, par to «Baaaa«ai)>« ap hmmn amvIlM <|*> wnIrM 
■aiara .4 aaua aa ««*. 4rt t r aay fc<^Htoaa, aa ■#■» ««lw M. 4a 




^■ilwuaa. taa m4mm '■'V'— ^n*a«, to(«ta da «• 

■nMnmi I— ihtoi ca«|4a( m to paflMlMa to plaa toaaaiUaara m to ■»••« 

i"«Ma «eaai"ni Inrafa'M hu tan aa paanM taw liua 4a ion 

Ml - Laa ttomandN da ftf«Ma 4* MuU pNt anf <|BaMi>J 4t*f«(a4a «* 

toM jaaraattaaMiN. 4a h* 4 If Vnna avial to4i « da t 4 a hrana wtotatfca 

I CUiaM 4aa Bfiptfa*. •api'* 4a to Ci— iwna 4* IimjiL 

II - Ctlai qat. mm I'an4a 4a r iWai at b Cffwaauaa Satoaa. am 
t wi4pl cW:W 4 awf * rAi**v aU t w t at «« «<• iltrtiawt. (« pmla. 

(4.1 DIECKMAMH. 
M4^«*iMia<iaAM 



Wa4arnMM' 

VMM Hooaiat 



Oftff«|ll4f. U I ItfkMitft IIM. 



A CHARACTERISTIC PRCXTLAMATION. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 



173 



I will reproduce a few of the more typical of the seventeen 
paragraphs of this monstrous lucubration: 

2. All the inhabitants of the occupied houses in the localities of Beyne- 
Heusay, Grivegnee, Bois-de-Breux, and Fleron must return to their homes 
by nightfall (at present by 7 p.m. German time). These houses will be 



yiLLB DB BRUXEi.LE8 



BEBSIiCIIIIIEliS. 



Vu nK Miit aafaunlM. 



nioiiMrn' nwint tm • |inni)niUiw • V <"* I'wipn' 

H|> ri'lil-NanVlul tm dw tmx. da*! m imrkmiiliua 
dll < unili'nilirr iIImiII pwibnl • iv drauwlrr ti |in<> 
tuonr or nirirrim anHwiiab iniHiiifaan •. Nmh up 
IMIvhiiu ikHir|if^iilritii*riiflIfiiaillMilr m ftMmntt* 
M>H Inuw laiiir Mar afliaar. 

IUIMk qui wiiiii fe tt*Hr u Mt.tr ir nnaatin. 
tliBffr «• Irtmm mtmii* •* nrr k mwrl it mrannrr 
aa mwrtiUUIIiAi. 

0h n'ra Unwm |iM main), irmv mnKrt ittlMlAv 
rinlml* rt lli«» |iD|ittlialMi d« IMxrIlni. 

*l*daan<lp*rMlii|iopiitaliw dr ihMMrr iw Mm*! 
Mm|ito ila NmHruM d.dv h umiMlnir ifAwr ihai rUa 
■ tani d^ lanl de'limiwiim an iMini dwlMHrm. 

•AiaqibHM iiMvlmlmnnil h> mrrlBi* i|ul um nl 
■Uraduai iwUmainil nnn « t» ttmnUim. 



amrilMicll 



1914 



ASOLPBB MAX. 



M. MAX's LAST ANNOUNCEMENT. 



STAP Bwuasaef. 




I')l <*■ hrrirlK, hnlru ii.iiiiii-|iUt. tmimira »1| dal 
dr Irkbrhr vIuk, ilir ;i;iii i|p urtrlx iwirr buixm |iri|kl. 
donf lir Uiiilsi'lir lnir|N'u ah rmr • iiildii|ti«|i • oordl 
bairimnrd. 

Vridimnnu'lialL Mm ilrr VMt, In iliw tmrtumllr 
siIh t Sriarndirr. irl nnrhlaiu i • Ik \rtmf, m » l riii i iu< 
illnr inlrliilbi'lH* RrvtiHmii \t wiIvkkiw •. MQ LMHlm 
dw uli'i tuHntpv diU aiwfM liriR4liradnrr irturi>«> 
rru hriiTdlmiid imAlrr ana Iwnrind «ucdnb 

llr (ilnilirlrf VBirbt wl| ndlH trrnrairii. K A krim 
bn. upKRiirlil la waimlulf wimdn m uwlrr krt 
loifrbl ia tiiui* itnurlrMH l« wHhii krrakm. 

S) ul nirilrttda dr larlur ra Btrr brtiilliiBii tM 
triMrl dkii liHrl'va. 

U 4ninKiiunilnrlmi4ila|trmalai«lir«l|(lriv>^tii 
too dr luHMwdiuMdmdr (nailaMa^iUirM wiunia 
ti| aanrrl Ulfkni krril «nnra la dnr dnir\r iQdra, 

ndtrdal tiaH<inn4rKd'«unll 

UaMVii liiliviini rat laihilaiini 

mi grduM M aiir ilcr «r«> 



fr %4iarlMMMni. m laal < 



Bnissrl. lira If Sr^tahV IU4 



Of ttHrynurtlfT, 

ADOir MAX 



n.« .« *f.4ati(«i,Mii<rr I'Bb.i^i^i'i 



lit up as long as anyone is moving about in them. . . . Any resistance 
against these orders will entail death. 



' " City of Brussels. — Dear Fellow-citizens, — A notice posted up yesterday 
informs us that the Belgian flag displayed upon our house-fronts is regarded 
as a 'provocation' by the German troops. 

" Field-Marshal von der Goltz, however, in his proclamation of the 2nd of 
September, stated that 'no one was to be required to deny his patriotic feel- 
ings.' We could not, therefore, foresee that the expression of these feelings 
would be regarded as an offence. 

" The placard which informs us of this fact has, I recognise, been drafted 
in measured language and with a wish to consider our susceptibilities. 

" None the less, it will be profoundly wounding to the proud and ardent 
population of Brussels. 

" I beg this population to give a fresh example of the composure and mag- 
nanimity of whidi it has already furnished so many proofs in these painful 
days. 

"Let us provisionally accept the sacrifice which is imposed upon us; let us 
withdraw our flags to avoid disputes, and wait patiently for the hour of 
reparation. — The Burgomaster, Adolphe Max." 



174 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



3. The commandant must meet with no difficulty on his domiciliary 
visits. Persons are requested without notice to show all the rooms of the 
house. Whosoever opposes this will be severely punished. 

6. I shall appoint, from the lists which will be submitted to me (by the 
burgomasters), those persons who from noon one day to noon the next 
will have to remain as hostages. If the hostage is not replaced in time 
he will have to remain a further 24 hours in the fort (of Fleron), After 
this second period of 24 hours the hostage will incur the death penalty if 
he is not replaced. 

8. I demand that all the civilians going to and fro in my district . . . 




.MilHlie mirli gaioiigi pseiiea. dm Baf>> 
frrtaceslerlIaxw«%eodieiBlwidr%eoVrrliaIl£os 
vooseinnB Anie zu su^Madicivn. Er beGodet 
tSdiJa ebrcovoller Ibli io doer Fcsung. 

•And. dn M. Scpimbre IM4 

Der MitttSr-Cmaenimr. 

Fniberr m ItlTTWlTZ. 

Gcwnlotior. 




I le BoaijERKsire lUitz. »yiDl feiidi&ut 
aa\ eqtiiieaieiiis enroara« covers le Coil* 
veneoKoi alhmaBd. jc nr suis tv iorc£ de 
ie suspeodre de scs louclioiiij. Moasieur Mu 
se Uwne eii dMenlioa bouotabfe daos oae 
lorleresse. 

Bmxdte lrS6 iqteiiihRl(t4 

Le GwKntfttr MOUatre, 

BaroQ ton LDTTWni 

GWnL 



REPLY TO M. MAx's ANNOUNCEMENT.^ 



shall show their deference to German officers by taking off their hat {sic) 
or lifting the hand to the head as in the military salute. In case of doubt 
any German soldier should be saluted. Those who do not do so (as re- 
quired) must expect the German soldiery to make themselves respected by 
all and any means. 

10. Anyone who has knowledge that quanties of petrol, benzine, benzol 
and other analogous liquids are to be found in a given place . . . 



' " Notice. — ^Burgomaster Max having failed to keep the pledges made to the 
German Government, I find myself compelled to suspend him from his func- 
tions. M. Max is in honourable detention in a fortress. — The Military Gov- 
ernor, Baron von Liittwitz, General." 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 175 

and who has not declared it to the military commandant, incurs the death 
penalty. 

II. Anyone who does not immediately comply with the order "raise 
the arms" renders himself guilty (sic) of the death penalty. 

14. Anyone who, by the communication of false news which would be 
of a nature to injure the moral of the German troops, and also anyone 
who, no matter in what manner, seeks to make preparations inimical to the 
German Army, renders himself suspect and runs the risk of being shot on 
the spot. 

17. Anyone who, under the protection of the sign of the Swiss Conven- 
tion, does anything or seeks to do anything prejudicial to the German 
Army . . . is hanged. 

What, to the German, mind, is " false news of a nature to 
injure the moral of the German troops " ? Would it not be, more 
often than otherwise, news that merely contradicts the news 
which the German leaders provide for their troops, to improve 
their moral, and which is an accurate representation of fact — 
the truth, in short, as opposed to lies? 

On the 1 6th of September, 19 14, a fresh placard from the 
pen of M. Max appeared upon the walls of Brussels (see p. 

173)- 

A few days later a German placard announced the arrest of 
this great Belgian citizen, who has since then been imprisoned in 
Germany, where " he patiently awaits the hour of reparation." ^ 
Adolphe Max is still ignorant — and so are all his compatriots — 
of the precise pretext for this measure; but it seems that his 
crime must have been that he scrupulously and unfalteringly kept 
his promise to defend " with all his energies the rights and digni- 
ties of his fellow-citizens " against the encroachment of the 
Germans. 

Here is a notice signed, like the preceding, by General von 
Liittwitz, " Governor of Brussels," and dated the 22nd of Sep- 
tember, 1 9 14: 

I remind the population of Brussels and the suburbs that it is strictly 
forbidden to sell or distribute newspapers which are not expressly permitted 
by the German Governor. 

Infringements will result in the immediate arrest of the vendors, as well 
as long sentences of imprisonment. 

This notice, dated Brussels, the 25th of September, 1914, is 
from the Governor-General himself: 

* First at Glatz, for more than a year, then at Lille. It has since been re- 
ported that he is in Switzerland. 



176 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



It has recently happened, in the regions which are not at present occu- 
pied by German troops in moderate strength, that convoys of waggons or 
patrols have been attacked by surprise by the inhabitants. 

I call the attention of the public to the fact that a register has been 
made of towns and communes in whose neighbourhood such attacks have 
been delivered, and that they will have to expect their punishment as soon 
as German troops are in their neighbourhood. 

'A few days later, on the ist of October, a fresh notice of this 
kind appeared: 



BEUHlMiilil 



tMV5..vphwtvralirntM*i iml ilrr Amir 
IJi(ra|Kl.Vfnri^ 4it BM-iriuIni- awl l^nn- 
idmUni^ VMM witohtL ItaRuifkla 4md 4tf 
IfMtlMfD IWd tfrtMiuHi-D flUt Sn. M^ritfillNV 
Marvw ur lli<(^ni!irtiii)l itiwim uthl i;t<l!ti4a 
pBlfHHIUIIfft wwnlnL 

9n 7AiLmiH mmtcii tfrfu ihi*>lrniTflh>n lOrtnl 
gH n w ' w" Ihtwlnllni — nnhrLnmnmn. mt illio 
N-lhra iW IMhailr arirnhfix i4n4 inIit iilriil -> 
wiiurkM)r% Iwrfrnh «c«i)rn fa ilimrM X«n<i 
■hHl ta iJhv iki^pokcn tMivtonrii, «Hrllt> inkr 
dnt |il>krr M-toiNi iliirrli InnrbflMr hnlniMni 
|liiliNtitit«<ii nntni.(M)wta CndmnwiiravnnHk 
«rIr|H- M Arm Brrht|Mn] Vifwirib wkr drr 
Wm-ffititlni OftM^HH tbihiK Tt^ntntilinf oilrr 
Trliiihiiulliilra a Bwinivtk whirl mwhttwrn 

FrmiT irfnl •nc »n tloliin<%tflt IwIIiimbImi 



Tht|iiir« 
MiiiinAirc.TH(i»whriiHiiMvUilmMi^ 




AVIS 



pRM III MNfrr ita 43 M^iiinbv. to Hop A 

HiMMla tk kr H |p irh^iihi' Mil M drlndm 
MirlNtliar lwt^Hil>\4>rir)ri.\liiMiilrdrirto. 
Ii« itnj\ liM-nlll^ dliv* Mil ru. b> 511 wjiliinlvf. 
iHiiiKidii.nroniiilfvninttil# r( uul lU Uinr 
dniiliimi- 

\ r(i\iiilr. Iralanrtftfiiln trtmraiiiirurfifnirir 
rrwtmll ii*tlf f>HM«ll»w<wrt|MMfei— ^m- 
bHpFrlf' ^'tllnk r« wti*! nin(iam wn mm,— 
wmil ^MHRM Ann MMi imrwp I crtlpmk nni 
Atoiem MM Mf rmmvi* ik tinrtn In IwqIMii 
t«MtiM 4r» tflkit ferrm HM-eiii'm fif dp fn> 
rrifk> of InqwK. rt ti U y rroi h^ 'inmrfhr rfp 
ilHnrifrriniiirffMikrhnnIn iti* kr. rfn Rinira 
ttn (^Vrnplir Ml <la irk|i(Mr.Ui MTuQI UumS 
rihtnanrt t^/UrK 

Ite tMirr. hnint In Inaifni rtoqifni MP to 
nfutm'tlmi 4p yiilfi hm/^ (Mi mv itfrifF mf 
laMllkr liMfp wy f satHtvliwI dr birM 
Mifprfp jk* (urn ik HinMia* (k lift <■ |]|f ||m)mi 





lk><»igylmbTh^<iHiUt wM 
Vmnd ^ MMr«tv> ra trlriVMlUa vnilptf 
- - bikaaffSr - ' • 



to iO(4fRn34 nfkn die dar)Mw ^ tfp phif « 
«nur nlLii luwanUi* mut irlfiira a^ Urn 
9UmfB*r itMnrit vonliM. mMatamrri ul 4 
H nkl door h^mA 9rhMMtiti(|ii. VM* MM 
nlka (n «Hp nllr ilttrpm «Hir Is &r wMfhM 
Onn un j|nanK<fH|iipfnnr rI 4iwr — wWiw 
b(K toMivM vonbii. dtt 'l ur m ««rtinMar« 
««4ra.i^i^ainiiUtMML nfflpoikn^nHialra 
ttnfikaU)&>rrmr|Ni|Un|i nabfi Ikl briivUo 
U|ir ilnrp ipnnnHiii 1i>k|^ifr ul li ' ' 



— U INMII'll. 

Vitdm krMni oDi* In 

Mmv iMMni ihiml Ir MWIfS dir tff wr* 
<H<ilr «l|lr iln NnnniqK tt IClmw •• 
KMwilllmaaikrlwa. 



» 6«mww ftwfirf ft JMA 

Vrltlntf WW taCOWt 



WILL BE PUNISHED WITHOUT MERCY — WHETHER GUILTY OR NOT. 



On the night of the 25 th of September the railway-line and the tele- 
graph were destroyed on the Lovenjoul-Vertryck line. As a result these 
two localities were obliged, on the morning of the 30th of September, 
to render themselves accountable and were forced to provide hostages. 

In future the localities nearest to the spot where such things have been 
done — it does not matter whether they are guilty of complicity or not — 
will be punished without mercy. To this end hostages have been taken 
from all localities in the neighbourhood of railways menaced by such at- 
tacks, and at the first attempt to destroy the railways or telegraph or tele- 
phone wires they will immediately be shot. 

Moreover, all troops entrusted with the protection of the railways have 
received orders to shoot any person approaching the railways or telegraph 
or telephone lines in a suspicious manner. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 177 

The Field-Marshal must certainly have been aware that these 
attacks upon German convoys or patrols, and this destruction of 
(Belgian) railways or (Belgian) telegraph lines, was the work 
of (Belgian) soldiers defending their country as best they could. 
But as it asserted at the outset, through one of its leaders, the 
German Army wanted an " open road," and the " Governor- 
General in Belgium," who had to see that it got this " open 
road," did not hesitate, with this end in view, to employ any 
means which he considered opportune, even to blackmail. All 
means, even the most infamous, the most profoundly disgraceful, 
were good in the eyes of the high military authorities of Ger- 
many, so long as they tended toward the supreme goal: the vic- 
tory of Germany. " To employ without mitigation the means 
of defence and intimidation is not only the right, but the duty of 
every army commander," says the Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege, 
treating of the relations between the army occupying a given 
territory and the inhabitants of that territory. 

Here is another order of Field-Marshal von der Goltz's, 
which tends to hamper and paralyse the defensive ; it is dated the 
7th of October, 19 14: 

In that portion of the country occupied by the German troops the 
Belgian Government has succeeded in forwarding to the militia of several 
classes orders to join the army. 

These Belgian orders are not valid. Only the orders of the German 
Government and of the authorities subordinated thereto are valid in the 
above portion of the country. 

All those who receive Belgian orders are strictly forbidden to carry 
them out. 

In future militiamen must not leave their present place of residence 
(town or commune) without being specially authorised so to do by the 
German Administration. 

In case of disobedience the family of the militiaman will be held equally 
responsible. _ • • . . 

Militiamen in possession of an order to join or a medal of registration 
will be treated as prisoners of war. 

On the 13th of October, 19 14, von der Goltz renewed and 
added further details to the prohibition, which had already been 
several times published, to sell or circulate newspapers or other 
" products of the printing-press " not passed by the censor. 

All products of the printing-press, as well as all other written reproduc- 
tions or pictures with or without descriptions, and musical compositions 
with text or commentary (printed) obtained by mechanical or chemical 



178 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

process and intended for distribution, are subject to the censorship of the 
General Imperial German Government (Civil Administration). 

Whosoever shall have fabricated or distributed printed matter as in- 
dicated in paragraph i without the permission of the censor vi^ill be pun- 
ished in conformity with martial law. The printed matter will be con- 
fiscated and the plates and cliches destined for reproduction will be ren- 
dered useless. 

The placarding, exhibition or exposure of printed matter prohibited by 
the present decree in places where the public is able to take note of it is 
also regarded as distribution. 

Von der Goltz Pasha left for Constantinople. General von 
Bissing, his successor, applied himself to consolidating the Ger- 
man domination. The mailed fist grew yet heavier. 

Here is the text of one of the first proclamations (Brussels, 
the 4th of January, 1915) of the new Governor-General: 

The public is reminded that in those portions of Belgium subject to the 
German Government, and since the day this Government was instituted, 
only the orders of the Governor-General and the authorities subordinate 
to him have the force of law. 

The decrees issued since this date or yet to be issued by the King of the 
Belgians and the Belgian Ministers have no legal force in the domain of 
the German Government in Belgium. I have determined to ensure by all 
the means at my disposal that Governmental powers shall be exercised 
exclusively by the German authorities instituted in Belgium. I expect the 
Belgian officials, in the admitted interests of the country, not to refuse to 
continue in the exercise of their functions, above all as I shall not require 
of them services directly benefiting the German Army. 

Salaries which are paid by the late Belgian authorities unknown to or 
contrary to the will of the German Government to Belgian officials are 
liable to confiscation. 

General von Bissing also endeavours by all means in his 
power to prevent young Belgians of an age to bear arms (50) 
from crossing the Dutch frontier in order to enrol themselves 
in what he called the " enemy army." Belgium literally became 
" a vast Prussian prison " (52). 

Read this notice of the 26th of January: 

Persons capable of military service have lately attempted on various 
occasions to cross the Dutch frontier in secret in order to join the enemy 
army. 

Consequently I decide as follows: 

1. All privileges in force as regards circulation in the regions bordering 
on the frontier are suppressed in the case of Belgians capable of rnilitary 
service. 

2. Belgians who attempt, in spite of prohibition, to cross the frontier to 
Holland run the risk of being killed by the sentinels on the frontier. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 179 

Belgians capable of military service captured under such circumstances 
will be punished and sent to Germany as prisoners of war. 

This applies equally to members of the family of any Belgian capable 
of military service as above who do not prevent the latter from entering 
Holland. 

4. All Belgians of male sex aged from sixteen to forty years are re- 
garded as capable of military service within the meaning of this decree. 

Not content with preventing Belgians from serving their 
country, the German authorities use all means in their power to 
force them to betray it by serving the interests of the German 
Army. Here, in this connection, is a very characteristic notice, 
dated from Gand, on the loth of June, 19 15, and signed by 
Lieut.-General von Westarp: 

By order of His Excellency the Inspector of the Station (Etape), I 
bring the following to the notice of the communes: 

The attitude of several factories, which, under the pretext of patriotism, 
and relying on The Hague Convention, have refused to work for the 
German Army, proves that there are tendencies among the population 
which aim at placing difficulties in the way of the Administration of the 
German Army. 

In this connection I make it known that I shall employ every means at 
my disposal in order to repress such underhand behaviour, which can only 
disturb the good understanding hitherto existing between the Adminis- 
tration of the German Army and the population. 

In the first place I make the communal authorities responsible for the 
spread of such tendencies, and I call attention to the fact that the popula- 
tion itself will cause the liberties hitherto accorded in the most generous 
manner to be withdrawn and replaced by restrictive measures necessitated 
by its own offence. 

I will not lay stress upon the graceful manner in which this 
von Westarp deals with Belgian patriotism and international con- 
ventions; but I cannot refrain from remarking that he truly 
exaggerates when he boasts of the " liberties accorded in the 
most generous fashion " to the Belgian population, and that he 
goes altogether astray when he brags of the good understanding 
existing between this population and the Administration of the 
German Army. 

Here, by the way, is one among many decrees which is signifi- 
cant of the " liberties so generously accorded " : 

Whosoever wears, exposes, or displays in public, in a provocative man- 
ner, the Belgian colours, or whosoever wears, exposes, or displays in public, 
even in a non-provocative manner, the colours of other countries at war 
with Germany and her Allies, is liable to a maximum fine of 600 marks, 
or a maximum sentence of six months' imjJrisonment. These two pen- 



i8o BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

allies may also be combined. Offenders will be tried by the German 
authorities or military courts. 
The present decree will enter into force on the ist of July, I9i5- 

On the I St of July — that is, three weeks before the national 
festival ! Von Bissing (for the decree was his) realised that " to 
govern is to foresee " I 

Here is something that will afford a still better idea of the 
aforesaid liberties: A decree posted on the walls of Menin (in 
West Flanders, ten miles to the east-south-east of Ypres) con- 
tains the following: 

From to-day the town can no longer grant relief — of whatever kind, 
even for families, women and children — except to those workers who 
are working regularly upon military work, and other prescribed tasks. AH 
other workers and their families cannot henceforth be relieved in any way 
whatever. 

Decrees of the Governor-General, dated the 14th and 15 th of 
August, 19 1 5, generalise and extend to the whole of the occupied 
territory the measures intended to ensure the execution of 
"works of public interest" (for which read: of military — Ger- 
man — interest), while others refer to " the strikers who through 
idleness refrain from work." 

Of the same order is the following decree, applicable to the 
region of Stapes (Flanders, East and West, and a portion of 
Hainault) . It was issued in Gand, on the 12th of October, 19 15, 
by Lieutenant-General von Unger, Etappeninspektor : 

Art. I. — ^Whosoever, without pretext, shall refuse to undertake or 
continue work in conformity with his calling and in the execution' of 
which the Military Administration is interested, work ordered by one or 
more military commandants, will be liable to a maximum term of one 
year's correctional imprisonment. He may also be deported to Germany. 

The fact of invoking Belgian laws to the contrary, or even international 
conventions, can in no case justify the refusal to work. 

As to the lawfulness of the work required, the military commandant 
alone has the right to form a decision. 

Art. 2. — ^Whosoever by constraint, threats, persuasion, or any other 
means attempts to induce another person to refuse to work as indicated in 
Art. I, is liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years. 

Art. 3. — ^Whosoever shall knowingly, by relief or other means, facili- 
tate the punishable refusal to work, will be liable to a fine which may 
amount to as much as 10,000 marks; he may in addition be condemned 
to one year's imprisonment. If communes or societies have rendered 
themselves guilty of such an offence the heads of the same will be pun- 
ished in consequence. 




-■•r 



39. DURING THE BATTLE OF THE YSER. (Page I4S) 




40. A GERMAN VILLA, PREPARED FOR HEAVY HOWITZERS, DESTROYED DY THE BELGIAN 

ENGINEERS. (Page 152) 




n n U 



41. VW<£b .... THLV H.WE BURNED THE CLOTH H.\LL. (fayc 150) 




42. YPRES — A CHAMBER IN THE CLOTH HALL BEFORE THE WAR. 




43- THE SAME CHAMBER IN NOVEMBER, I915. 




44- HE NEVER, ON THE YSEK ANY MOKE THAN AT ANTWERP, LEAVES His ARMY FoA 

A uAY NOR AN HOUR. {Page i6o) 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM i8i 

Art. 4. — Independently of the penalties threatened in articles i and 3, 
the German authorities may in case of need impose upon those communes 
in which the execution of a piece of work has been groundlessly refused a 
contribution or other coercive police measures. 

The present decree enters into force immediately. 

This is forced labour, slavery, naked and unashamed. Worse 
than this: it is treason rendered compulsory by means of an 
infamous blackmail, and in contempt of all international conven- 
tions. We have reached the zenith of Illegality: one could go 
no further. 



War Contributions 

Provinces and communes were burdened with formidable war 
contributions. Figures have been cited which one hesitates to 
believe correct, so exorbitant are they. 

Of the following figures, however, we may be certain, since 
we find them in the official documents : 

Brussels, £2,000,000; Antwerp, £2,000,000; province of 
Brabant, £18,000,000; Namur and seventeen surrounding com- 
munes, £1,280,000.^ 

We read in the report of the interview at which the condi- 
tions of the entry of the Germans into Brussels were discussed: 
" Captain Kriegsheim required the city of Brussels and the com- 
munes of the district of Brussels {agglomeration) to pay within 
three days, as a war contribution, a sum of 50 million francs, in 
gold, silver, or banknotes, the province of Brabant having to pay, 
In addition, as a war contribution, a sum of 450 millions of 
francs, which sum was payable by the ist of September at latest." 

And In the report of the College of the Burgomasters and 
Sheriffs of the City of Antwerp we read: "Despite our re- 
peated efforts, a war contribution of 50 millions of francs Im- 
posed on the city Independently of the daily requisitions, the 
burden of which is very great." 

As for the figure mentioned in the case of Namur (£1,280,- 
000), it is given in the nth Report of the Commission of In- 
quiry. 

M. Max obtained, subsequently, both an indispensable post- 
ponement and the reduction of the contribution Imposed on the 
city and district of Brussels to £1,800,000. 

*I think, if my memory serves me, that Liege, like Brussels and Antwerp, 
had to pay £2,000,000. 



1 82 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

As for the £i8,oop,ooo at first demanded of the province of 
Brabant, it was materially impossible for this single province 
(containing only 1,500,000 inhabitants) to pay it. The German 
Administration finally realised this fact, and it was under these 
circumstances that von Bissing, on the loth of December, 19 14, 
issued the following decree : 

A war contribution of the amount of £1,600,000, to be paid monthly 
for one year, is imposed upon the population of Belgium. 

The payment of these amounts is imposed upon the nine provinces, 
which are regarded as joint debitors. 

The two first monthly payments are to be made by the 15th of Janu- 
ary, 19 1 5, at latest, and the following monthly payments by the lOth of 
each following month, to the military chest of the field army of the 
General Imperial Government in Brussels. 

If the provinces are obliged to resort to the issue of stock with a view 
to procuring the necessary funds, the form and terms of these shares will 
be determined by the Commissary-General for the banks in Belgium. 

The Provincial Councils having been convoked by the Ger- 
man authorities to determine the mode of payment of this war 
contribution, the Vice-President of one of these assemblies de- 
clared : 

" The Germans demand these 480 million francs of the coun- 
try without right and without reason. Are we to sanction this 
enormous war-tax ? If we listened only to our hearts we should 
reply: No, 480 million times no; because our hearts would 
tell us: We were a small, honest nation; living happily by its 
free labour! We were a small, honest nation, having faith in 
treaties and believing in honour. We were a nation unarmed, 
but full of confidence, when Germany suddenly hurled two mil- 
lion men upon our frontiers, the most brutal army that the world 
has ever seen, and said to us: Betray the promise you have 
given.- Let my armies go by that I may crush France, and I will 
give you gold. 

"Belgium replied: Keep your gold; I prefer to die rather 
than live without honour. . . . 

" The German Army has therefore crushed our country In 
contempt of solemn treaties. ' It is an injustice,' said the Chan- 
cellor of the German Empire. ' The position of Germany has 
forced us to commit it. But we will repair the wrong we have 
done to Belgium by the passage of our armies.' 

" They want to repair this injustice as follows: Belgium will 
pay Germany 480 million francs 1 Give this proposal your vote I 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 1183 

" When Galileo had discovered the fact that the earth moved 
round the sun, he was forced, at the foot of the stake, to abjure 
his error. But he murmured: Nevertheless, it moves! Well, 
gentlemen, as I fear a still greater misfortune for my country, I 
consent to the payment of these 480 millions . . . and I cry: 
Nevertheless, it moves! Long live our country, in spite ofalll " 

A year had elapsed, and the 480 millions had been punctually 
paid, when von Bissing issued a fresh order: 

In virtue of Article 49 of The Hague Convention relating to the Laws 
and Usages of War on Land, there will henceforth be imposed,' until 
further notice, upon the Belgian population, a monthly war contribution 
of 40 millions of francs, in order to contribute to the expenses of the army 
and the administration of the occupied territories. 

The Administration reserves the right to levy the monthly payments 
wholly or partly in German money at the rate of 80 marks for 100 francs. 
The obligation of this payment is incumbent on the nine provinces of 
Belgium, which assume the responsibility of the sum due as joint debitors. 

The payment of the first monthly instalment must take place by the 
lOth of December, 1915, at latest, and that of succeeding instalments by 
the lOth of each month at latest, to the military chest of the General 
Imperial Government in Brussels. If the provinces issue stock in order 
to procure the resources necessary for payment, the Imperial Commissary- 
General of the Belgian banks will fix the form and the terms of the said 
stock. 

Germany appealing to The Hague Conventions: there, to 
say the least of it, is an unlooked-for spectacle ! But let us see 
what is the wording of this Article 49, which von Bissing invokes 
for his own purposes. Here it is : 

If, in addition to the taxes mentioned in the above Article, the occupant 
levies other money contributions in the occupied territory, they shall only 
be applied to the needs of the army or of the administration of the terri- 
tory in question. 

As for the preceding Article, it says : 

If, in the territory occupied, the occupant collects the taxes, dues and 
tolls payable to the State, he shall do so, as far as is possible, in accordance 
with the legal basis and assessment in force at the time, and shall in 
consequence be bound to defray the expenses of the administration of the 
occupied territory to the same extent as the national Government had 
been so bound. 

Now 40 million francs per month, or 480 millions per annum, 
is more than six times the amount of the direct taxes lately col- 



1 84 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

lected by the Belgian State — taxes which the German Adminis- 
tration, moreover, is collecting on its own account into the bar- 
gain. Four hundred and eighty millions of francs is five times 
as great as the ordinary expenditure of our War E)epartment. 

But in Germany they find that it is still insufficient! Is this 
because they Consider that this sum, large as it is, is not suffi- 
cient for " the needs of the army and of the administration " of 
the occupied territory? Who would be so simple as to believe 
this ? No, the fact is — and no one is ignorant of it, even in Ger- 
many — that by virtue of the principles with which the German 
Army and public are imbued, a great portion of this good Bel- 
gian money goes out of Belgium. 

The Fossische Zeitung feels impelled to explain to its readers 
that " the new monthly contribution of 40 millions corresponds 
to Belgium's capacity payment," which means — does it not? — 
that this is all that could be demanded of her. The worthy 
newspaper adds elsewhere: " Experts have expressed the opin- 
ion that Belgium has lost, since the war, a sixth of her national 
wealth ; ^ Belgian industry is paralysed for lack of raw mate- 
rials and means of export. The number of the unemployed and 
indigent is considerable. The exploitation of the mines and the 
alimentary industry alone yields a certain profit. Under these 
conditions one cannot demand a greater sacrifice from the nine 
occupied provinces." ^ 

Pillage 

On the 17th of January, 1915, one might read, on the walls 
of the good city of Brussels, a notice issued by the German mili- 
tary authorities, in which it was stated : 

The present events of this war prove that no army in the world has 
given proof of a spirit so ideally military, of so high a culture, and of a 
discipline so severe, as our Army; that nowhere are the laws of war 
which forbid theft, murder, and pillage, and the removal of the goods 
of others, respected with such sincerity and such rigour as in the German 
Army. 

An impudent lie, if ever such was ! 

At Vise, Aerschot, Andenne, Namur, Dinant, Louvain, Ter- 
monde, and many another town, and in numbers of villages the 

'A fortune which the German newspaper estimated at £1,200,000,000 to 
£1,400,000,000. 
' Vossische Zeitung, No. 596, 22nd of November, 191S. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 185 

Germans proceeded to devote themselves to a systematic pillage 
from the moment of their arrival. 

At Louvain the pillage began on Tuesday the 27th of August, 
19 14, and lasted a week. In bands of six or eight, the soldiers 
burst open the doors, smashed Uhe windows, ransacked the 
drawers, cupboards, etc., broken open the safes (48), stealing 
money, pictures, curios, silver, linen, clothing, wines, and food. 

Whole suites of furniture were packed and sent to the railway 
stations in military baggage waggons, thence to be despatched 
into Germany. 

" At Aerschot," says M. Orts, Councillor of Legation, in the 
4th Report of the Commission of Inquiry, " for three weeks the 
Germans were gradually emptying practically the whole of the 
houses in the town, everywhere destroying articles which did 
not satisfy their cupidity, while the officers kept the wealthier 
dwellings for themselves. All securities which the owners had 
had no time to place in safety, silver, family jewels, and money 
have disappeared; incendiarism often had no other object than 
to efface the proofs of particularly extensive thefts. Baggage 
waggons laden with booty set out from Aerschot in the direction 
of the Meuse. ..." 

At Namur a large number of houses were sacked. The funds 
of a private bank, the " Banque Generale Beige," were seized. 
In a number of houses where officers had lodged all the furni- 
ture was broken, and the wine, the linen, and even the women's 
clothing was stolen. A citizen of Namur saw the furniture of 
his country house going by on German waggons. Another had 
17,000 francs' worth of securities taken from his safe. 

At Dinant all the safes were opened by means of oxy-hydrogen 
blow-pipes brought for the purpose; before they were burned, 
all the houses were methodically emptied. 

" To my house," writes the State Attorney, M. Tschoffen, 
" they came with waggons to remove the silver, the bedding, the 
furniture, the clothing (men's and women's), the linen, the 
knick-knacks, the mantelpiece ornaments, a collection of weapons 
from the Congo, the pictures, the wines, and even my decora- 
tions, and those of my father and grandfather. . . . From 
the cellars of a wine-merchant, M. Piret, 60,000 bottles were 
stolen. There is not, to my knowledge, in the houses left stand- 
ing a single safe which has not been forced or which does not 
bear manifest traces of burglarious attempts ! " 

At Andenne the wine-cellars were all emptied (96) and the 



1 86 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

drapers' shops were sacked; wines, liquers, sheets, stuffs, etc., 
were taken away on motor-waggons. 

On entering Hasselt the Germans stole 2,075,000 francs from 
the branch of the " National Bank," which is really a private 
undertaking. 

At Liege they seized 4,000,000 francs In the same manner. 
Then, finding in the bank some new 5-franc notes which had 
not yet been signed, they went to the printer and forced him to 
add the missing facsimile signature. 

At Louvain they appropriated the funds of the " Banque de 
la Dyle " and those of the " Banque populaire." 

At Termonde, on the 4th of September, 19 14, a special gang 
entered the " Banque Centrale de la Dendre." In the office of 
the deputy-president they blew open a small safe, from which 
they removed a sum of 2,100 francs; then they attempted — ^but 
in vain — to force an entrance to the vaults where the safes of 
private persons were kept. 

At Termonde, again, the shop of Van den Durpel, a jeweller, 
was plundered, as well as a number of private houses. 

At Tongres the shops in the Rue de Maestricht were nearly 
all plundered; wines, stuffs, and goods of all kinds were carried 
off. 

And it was the same in very many other places. 

The Germans also stole the valuables from a number of 
churches. And whenever they could they possessed themselves 
of the contents of the post-office and railway-station safes. 

In many parts of the country chateau and villas were methodi- 
cally pillaged and completely emptied of all their furniture. 

Country people were despoiled of all they possessed. 

" I had placed in a trunk all our family silver, and a silver 
Christ, as well as our jewels, and I had had this trunk placed in 
the wine-cellar," says Mile. Diriex de Tenham, of Surice. "The 
Germans carried off the wine, the trunk, and all else that they 
fancied. . . . The pillage of all the houses, which began on 
Tuesday night, continued all through Wednesday. I have 
learned since that Mme. Laurent-Mineur's safe (she is a widow) 
was dynamited, and the silver plate which it contained all twisted 
out of shape; it was carried off, and so were the shares and se- 
curities, some of which were found, half-burned, on a stone not 
far away." 

Do not imagine that these offences were committed only by 
common soldiers and non-commissioned officers. On the 23rd of 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 187 

August, 19 14, a general, three colonels, and six majors installed 
themselves in the Chateau de Villers-Saint-Amand, near Ligne 
(Hainault), and, " guarded by a large number of soldiers," says 
the owner of the chateau, M. Delacroix, advocate in the Court 
of Appeal, " they gave themselves up to veritable acts of van- 
dalism." I have before me the inventory of their depredations 
and their plunder, drawn up by M. Delacroix himself, and I cite, 
from among many others, these few items: " 1,500 bottles of 
wine, I carriage, 3 bicycles, 3 gold watches, i typewriter." 

The Hospital of Saint Thomas at Louvain possessed a fine 
motor-car, quite new, a 40-h.p. model, which had been presented 
to it at the beginning of hostilities by M. Leon David (foully 
assassinated on the infernal night of the 25th of August, 19 14). 
On the 4th of September a German army doctor, who had no- 
ticed this fine motor-car, begged the loan of it " to visit the 
wounded at Aerschot." The motor-car did not return to Lou- 
vain. Questioned on the subject, the German doctor excused 
himself by saying that a superior officer had taken a fancy to it 
and appropriated it. (The number of motor-cars stolen by the 
Germans in Belgium is, by the way, considerable.) 

But here is something better still : After staying for a week 
In a chateau in the Liege district, His Imperial Highness Prince 
Eitel Fritz, the Duke of Brunswick, and a third person of less 
importance, had all the dresses which were found in the ward- 
robes packed under their own supervision, in order that they 
might be sent to Germany. The chatelaine and her daughters 
were famed for the richness of their toilettes.^ 

In a Belgian Chateau 

We must do the German officers the justice to admit that it 
was often for their wives that they committed these thefts; they 
sent them, from Belgium, dresses, laces, furs, jewels, pianos, and 
even sewing-machines. " A motor-car arrived at the hospital," 
wrote the soldier Johannes Thode (4th Reserve-Ersatz-Regi- 
ment) in his service note-book — he was then under treatment in 
Brussels. " It brought some war booty {Kriegsbeute) : a piano, 
two sewing-machines, a number of albums, and all sorts of other 
things." ' 

' I doubted the authenticity of this report, and I wished to obtain irrefutable 
proof of it before recording it here. Such proof has been placed before 
me. 

" BelJer, op. cit. 



i88 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Sewing-machines as " war booty " ! Is it not pitiful? 

Pianos are greatly in demand among the ladies of Germany. 
Here is an example : A German ofBcer left a letter from his wife 
in a drawer in one of the rooms of a chateau in which he had 
been lodging. In this letter occurred the passage : " A thousand 
thanks for the beautiful things you have sent me. The furs 
were magnificent. The tulip-wood furniture is exquisite ; but do 
not forget that Elsa is still waiting for her piano." 

Hundreds of pianos have been sent from Belgium by the 
Germans. Elsa may well have had hers by now. Perhaps she 
even came to choose it for herself, and profited by the occasion 
to take way a few fine dresses, for not a few German women 
have made the journey to Belgium in order to assist their men- 
folk to choose and pack their " war booty." 

Once the pillaging of a town or village had been begun the 
Germans destroyed or spoiled or soiled what they could not take 
away. 

" Although Aerschot was only partially destroyed by fire, it 
was sacked in its entirety," says M. Orts in his report; he visited 
the unfortunate little town after the second sortie from the en- 
trenched camp of Antwerp. " I went into several houses, chosen 
at random, and I went through the different storeys of these 
houses; while through broken doors and windows I looked into 
a number of others. Everywhere the furniture was in con- 
fusion, broken open, or defiled in an obscene manner; the wall- 
papers were hanging in strips from the walls; the doors of the 
cellars were burst open; wardrobes, chests of drawers, and cup- 
boards of all kinds had been opened and emptied of their con- 
tents. Linen and the most miscellaneous articles covered the 
ground, as well as an incredible number of empty bottles. 

" In the more wealthy houses the pictures were cut to pieces, 
and other works of art were smashed. On the door of one of 
these houses, a very large and handsome building belonging to 
Dr. X , one may still read the following half-effaced inscrip- 
tion, written with chalk: Bitte dieses Haus zu schonen, da 
mrklich friedliche gute Leute. . . . (5) Bannach, JVacht- 
meister. (Please protect this house, here really peaceful, honest 
people. . . . ) I entered this house. I was told it had been 
inhabited by some officers, and that the solicitude of one of them 
appeared to have saved it from the general devastation. On the 
very threshold a stale odour of spilt wine drew the attention to 
the hundreds of empty bottles which littered the hall, the stair- 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 189 

case, and even the courtyard giving access to the garden. In the 
rooms an indescribable disorder prevailed; I was treading on a 
layer of torn clothing, and flockers of wool escaped from ripped- 
up mattresses, and everywhere were gaping wardrobes or chests 
of drawers, while in every room, within reach of the bed, were 
yet more empty bottles. 

"The dining-room was littered with them; dozens of wine- 
glasses covered the dinner-table and smaller tables, which were 
surrounded by tattered sofas and armchairs, while in a corner of 
the room a piano, with a smutty keyboard, had apparently had 
the front kicked in. Everything went to prove that these rooms 
had been the scene, for many days and nights, of disgusting 
drunkenness and debauchery. In the market-place the house of 
M. X , the notary, offered a similar spectacle, and, accord- 
ing to what I was told by a sergeant of gendarmes who was en- 
deavouring with his men to bring a little order into all this 
chaos, it is the same with most of the houses belonging to the 
more prominent families, in which the German officers had 
elected to quarter themselves." 

How many other examples of such depredations I could cite ! 
Here is one among many: 

" At Lierre the Germans plundered the studio of Isidore 
Opsomer. ' On my pictures they painted in large letters : 
Deutschland, Deutschland iiber alles! (51). They amused them- 
selves by slitting canvases, tearing up my etchings, photographs, 
and documents, and breaking my antiquities,' wrote the unfor- 
tunate artist, some time later, to one of his friends." 

The inscription found by M. Orts on the house of an Aerschot 
doctor, and others, sometimes briefer, such as that to be seen in 
the above photograph, prove plainly that pillage forms an in- 
tegral part of the German methods of warfare. Nicht plundern 
— that is to say, " You are permitted — or ordered — to pillage 
everywhere but here." 

Ordered? Yes, precisely; the Mother Superior of a cpnvent 
near a village which had been plundered received a visit from a 
German non-commissioned officer and a soldier, who gave her, 
the first a watch, chain, and bracelet of gold, and the second a 
small sum of money, saying that, although pillage was imposed 
upon them, they at least did not wish to profit by it, not being 
thieves. 

Yes; pillage is a military operation — a part of German war- 
fare ! it is a veritable form of organised brigandage raised to the 



I90 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

level of a national institution; but do not imagine that it ceased 
after the first few days of the occupation I Far from it ! 

A Norwegian engineer, who was attached, with other foreign- 
ers, to a great factory in the suburbs of Brussels, and who re- 
mained there until December, 19 14, told me that the German 
officers who had for some time been billeted in the factory used 
often to set out in the morning with empty portmanteaux. When 
they returned in the evening these were stuffed with laces and 
valuable bibelots which these gentry, who were extremely proud 
of their exploits, used to display, complacently, before the eyes 
of their hosts, who were flabbergasted by such cynicism. " And 
you," I asked my informant — an absolutely honourable man, 
whose statements could not be questioned — " did they steal 
nothing from you?" "Not much; when they finally left us 
they contented themselves with taking the best of our boots ! " 

Krieg ist Krieg! 



Requisitions 
Article 52 of The Hague Convention says: — •- 

Requisitions in kind and services shall not be demanded from local 
authorities or inhabitants except for the needs of the army of occupation. 
They shall be in proportion to the resources of the country, and of such 
a nature as not to involve the inhabitants in the obligation of taking part 
in military operations against their own country. . . . 

Contributions in kind shall as far as possible be paid for in ready 
money: if not, a receipt shall be given and the payment of the amount 
due shall be made as soon as possible. 

These regulations — like nearly all the others — have been ab- 
solutely ignored by our enemies. 

When they entered a Belgian town or village the German 
troops proceeded to demand enormous requisitions of provisions, 
forage, wines, liquers, and tobaccos. These contributions in 
kind were very rarely paid for in money; as a rule, the Germans 
confined themselves to giving in exchange valueless scraps of 
paper, or vouchers payable in Berlin, or even — the height of 
impudence ! — in Paris. 

I could not if I wished tell the whole tale of these exactions 
here. I will confine myself to a few hints. 

On their arrival in Brussels the Germans requisitioned enor- 
mous quantities of provisions. " It is obvious," writes a jurist 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 191 

who remained in the capital, " that these were not intended for 
consumption on the spot by the army of occupation, but that 
they were destined to maintain enormous armies of invasion for 
a certain length of time. . . . Everybody saw these provisions 
being packed ; everybody remembers their significant destination. 
On the other hand, it is certain that these requisitions were not 
in proportion to the resources of the city, whose population was 
seriously threatened by famine after this infliction." 

In Antwerp, not content with seizing enormous stores of 
cereals as war booty, the Germans demanded, month after 
month, that the commune should provide daily for every man 
of the garrison — and it sometimes numbered 20,000 — 750 
grammes of bread, 800 grammes of meat, 780 grammes of po- 
tatoes; vegetables, coffee, sugar, cheese; half a bottle of wine, 5 
cigars, 15 cigarettes, and 100 grammes of tobacco. 

" Every day," wrote the correspondent of the Amsterdam 
Handelsblad, from L'Ecluse, in December, 19 14, " every day 
a score of officers come hustling into the Hotel de Ville of Gand 
in order to make their requisitions. The finest stoves are seized 
for use in the German trenches. They ask for everythnig — 
fruit, coffee, tea, cheese, clothing. . . . One officer even de- 
manded wristlet watches, but the communal administration 
kicked against such a demand, and the officer did not insist." 

At Gand, one day, some soldiers presented a distiller with a 
requisition voucher for 800 bottles of cognac. Having glanced 
at the paper our distiller requested the Germans to ask their 
officer if there was not some mistake. They returned with a 
demand for the delivery of 1,600 bottles! 

" At Ostend," writes the correspondent quoted above, " the 
situation is extremely critical. There is practically no more flour ; 
the bread is extremely bad, there is no petrol; cheese costs 4 
francs the kilo, and the livre of coffee costs 2fr.50. The gas- 
works have ceased operations owing to a lack of coal. In the 
cafes, of which some are lit with candles, one sees only German 
soldiers." 

The cause of this penury was the demands of the Germans. 
And it was of no use to employ ruses or expedients to evade these 
demands. " At Ostend, as the wine destined for our troops had 
become scarce, we decided to ransack the cellars," we read in Die 
JVoche for the 6th of March, 1915. " Very soon we obtained a 
splendid prize. We discovered 40,000 bottles which had been 
walled up." 



192 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Famous for their Burgundies, the cellars of Wallonia were, 
we surmise, very largely depleted. 

At Charleroi, on the i8th of November, 1914, the Kreigs- 
hauptmann ordered the inhabitants " to draw up a list of all the 
wines which they had in their cellars, indicating the number of 
barrels and bottles of the different vintages," and he added in 
his " Notice " that these wines, which were to be " reserved for 
the consumption of the field army " — you understand, the field 
army — ^must not be removed without his authorisation. 

At Tournai (36,000 inhabitants) 1 10,000 bottles of wine had 
to be provided at Christmas as an " extra." The Kaiser is so 
generous ! 

I have given a few examples of what happened in the towns. 
In the country matters were much worse. 

M. Hans, correspondent of the Amsterdam Telegraaf, wrote 
from L'Ecluse, on the 8th of January, 19 15 : — " On the maison 
communale of the little village of Middelburg, which contains 
only 850 inhabitants, a notice was pasted containing the list of 
all that had to be provided within a period of six weeks: 100 fat 
hogs, 100,000 kilos of wheat or rye, 50,000 kilos of beans or 
peas, 50,000 kilos of oats, and 150,000 kilos of straw.^ Now 
Middelburg has already provided the great army which is fight- 
ing for civilisation and justice with 50 cows, 35 hogs, 100 fowls, 
1,600 kilos of oats and 1,600 kilos of straw." 

At the same period an inhabitant of a little commune of the 
Campine wrote: — " Every day brings us fresh demands for hay, 
straw, oats, cattle, petrol, coal, etc. And what fresh vexatious 
regulations ! " 

From another small village in Flanders — a frontier village of 
1,200 inhabitants — a reliable person, an acquaintance of mine, 
wrote in February, 19 15, to his brother, a refugee in a Scan- 
dinavian country: 

" They loudly declare that they do not requisition either 
young animals or cows in calf. But the officers tell their men 
on the quiet that they must not take any notice of the protests 
of the peasants, so that among the 150 beasts which they took 
here yesterday there were a great many cows in calf and young 
calves. In this way we shall soon be without anything: butter, 
milk, meat; in this way, moreover, our agricultural industry is 
threatened with complete ruin. . . . Then they say that they 
pay 1 Yes, they give ' vouchers,' but when one wants to get the 
' 1,000 kilos is almost equivalent to the British ton. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 193 

amount settled one is sent from Herod to Pilate, and one day 
one has called too soon, and another day too late. 

" It is the Germans who, by their odious behaviour, are driv- 
ing numbers of volunteers to leave the country. Despite all 
sorts of difficulties, and in spite of the risk of being shot on the 
spot by the sentries, they are still crossing the frontier every day 
in order to enrol themselves in the ranks of our valiant 
army. ..." 

Here, finally, are some extracts from a letter written in the 
Walloon country : 

" The German occupation is oppressing us, pillaging our pos- 
sessions, stealing from us, meddling with the whole of our public 
life — and, above all, with our private life — and thrusting itself 
everywhere. Having taken our linen, they requisitioned the mat- 
tresses; then the blankets, leaving only two for each occupied 
bed — and one has to prove that the bed is occupied. Now they 
are scouring our Namur countryside in order to take everything 
that is made of brass or copper, in order to make cartridge-cases 
and shell-fuses ; saucepans, door-handles, curtain-rings, brass bed- 
steads, chandeliers — everything is taken — everything — and, 
naturally, nothing is paid for. The woods, too, are ravaged by 
poor people without coal . . . and very soon without 
bread. . . . 

" From the farmers in our district they have taken nearly all 
their horses, cattle, swine, fowls, carts, harness, forage, grain, 
etc., for which they give vouchers, but these vouchers will as- 
suredly never be paid. From Farmer F — — alone they have 

taken stock to the value of more than 40,000 francs ; from V 

(whose farm is one of 270 acres) the value of 60,000 francs; 
from G , nearly 30,000. 

" All the stud horses of which we were so proud have gone 
to Germany. Now the horned cattle are following the same 
road. There are poor, respectable people, refugees by the thou- 
sand, who had everything they possessed stolen or burned, and 
we no longer know what we are to do to help them. . . . 

" Nevertheless, our confidence remains untouched and abso- 
lute. . ,. ." 

As the writer of this letter very truly remarks, we were 
extremely proud of our heavy draught horses, and we had rea- 
son to be. Look at the portrait of " Reve d'Or," that superb 
stallion who, in 1900, in Paris, was proclaimed the champion of 
the world, and whose glorious perfection did so much to estab- 



194 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

lish, once for all, the superiority of the Belgian breed. It was 
a breed essentially national, its qualities resulting not from such 
or such a cross, but from a judicious and severe selection of na- 
tive stud-horses. 

We used to sell these admirable horses to Holland, the Scan- 
dinavian countries, Germany, Russia, Italy, and even the United 
States and Canada ; we sold them for good gold, and this trade, 
which was increasing from year to year, brought us in an annual 
average of £2,000,000. 

The Germans, and particularly the farmers of the Prussian 
Rhineland, were our most assiduous customers. Every year, at 
the same season, our best stables were visited by German horse- 
dealers, and notably by a certain Karl M — ■- — , an eminent expert, 
with the manners of a good fellow, wholly gemiitlich, who 
quickly became extremely popular in the horse-breeding world. 
Now during the early days of the invasion a number of our great 
farms were visited one by one by grey motor-cars — preceded by 
an armoured motor-car provided with machine-guns — from 
which alighted the said Karl M , clad, this time, in the uni- 
form of a cavalry officer, and a whole band of . . . collabo- 
rators, who, with the audacity of bandits armed to the teeth, 
who are confident in advance of impunity, seized upon the finest 
of these famous horses. 

Other officers operated in other localities, sometimes indicat- 
ing by name the horses which they wished to take ! 

In the majority of cases no requisition voucher was given, or 
if they gave such vouchers these were, as a rule, irregular vouch- 
ers bearing neither a description of the horse, nor mention of 
the price, nor seals, nor signatures. These worthy officers even 
profited, at times, by their victims' ignorance of the German 
language by adding irony — or worse — to spoliation. One 
farmer, from whom two beautiful horses were taken, received a 
voucher for "two rabbits"; another was given a voucher for 
" cuts with a whip " ; some vouchers bear the words " payable 
in Paris," or even " payable by the French Republic." In a 
certain locality in Limburg some brutes burned in his stable a 
stallion worth £2,000, forcing the farmer, his wife, and his chil- 
dren, kneeling, with raised hands, to witness this horrible spec- 
tacle. Elsewhere officers and soldiers amused themselves by 
killing horses grazing in the fields with shots from their rifles 
or revolvers. 

This was during the period of invasion. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 



195 



From the beginning of October, 19 14, competent officials 
came expressly from Germany to organise systematic raids, 
fallaciously described by them as " cash purchases." Their of- 
ficial label was " The Commission for the Purchase of Horses " ; 
and these gentry used to inform the farmers, by means of plac- 
ards that they would sit, on such or such a date, at such or such 

MalmeJe & GcissenJorfer, Kola a« RIu 



Verkauf 



von Beutepferden 

darcb die Landwirtschaftskammer nnter 
initwirkungderRheiniscben Pferdezentrale 

am Dienstag den 27. Oktober u. Mittwach 

den 28. Oktober, von iO Uhr ab 

auf dam Schfachthof in Coin. 

Es gelangen 400 Bcutepferde (Absalzfohirn, Jdhrlinge, 
Zweijaiiiige, GebrauchspfereJe. 8 Hengste) zur Vetste^gerung. 

Als Ankauier sind nur Landwlrte aus der Rheiivprovin« 
UDd den beoachbarten Provinzen zugelassen, die sich aJ3 
sotche dnrch erne amtliche Bescheinigung ausweisen kOnnen, 
und die sich sjliriftlich verpfhchten, die Pferde aut itn eigenen 
landwirtschaillichen Bctricbe zu verwenden. 

Die genauen Bedingungen werden vor Beginn der Ver- 
tteigerung vertesen. 

Der Verkaui erlolgt ohne Qaraatle oar gegea Bar- 
zahiiu^. 

Zum Verstcigerxtngsplat2e haben nuf Lantfwirte, die sich 
ala solche durcti >eine amttiche Bescheiriigung ausweisen 
mussen, Zutritt. Re 

Hebel-Stanzmaschinen 

4 Sick, (neu), auch z. PrSgeq, Presseo, Schneiden eiozuiicliten, 
lUr 1600^ z. verk. NSheres PostscblleBIacb 130. Kola, (la 



10 d 

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se 



sue 
Nr 
«e 
so 



zn 

I 

zu 

ru 

A. 



so 
Ki 

di$ 



ADVERTISEMENT FROM THE " KOLNISCHE ZEITUNG " ANNOUNCING SALE 
OF " BOOTY HORSES." 

a place, where all horses, as well as yearling foals, must be 
brought before them under penalty of confiscation, and even of 
a fine into the bargain. The " Commission " then retained the 
best horses, while the unwilling vendors — who received in ex- 
change nothing better than a requisition voucher — were not al- 
lowed to fix any prices. In many cases, moreover, the vouchers 
bore no hint as to the value of the horses. These latter were at 
once sent to Germany, where they were publicly sold. The Ger- 
man newspapers have on many occasions announced the public 



196 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

auctions of these " booty horses." One such advertisement, 
which appeared in the Kolnische Zeitung for the 29th of Octo- 
ber, 19 14, is here reproduced. 

The horned cattle were carried off and raided just as the 
horses were, and here again the finest specimens were sent to 
Germany. 

What are we to say of such spoliation? What are we to say, 
again, of the felling of beautiful trees — notably of a large num- 
ber of walnut trees, destined to make rifle-stocks at our expense ; 
and of the disappearance of all articles made of brass, copper, 
or tin — plates, chandeliers, and crucifixes, delightful old stuff 
which, under our grey skies, brought sunshine and joy into the 

humblest of our farmhouses? I leave the reader to reply. 
* * * 

The Nieume Rotterdamsche Courant, of which one cannot 
pretend that it is hostile to Germany, stated in its issue for the 
24th of January, 19 15 : — 

" Of the farmers' stores of grain, hay, and straw, and of their 
stock, they leave nothing. They requisition the stocks of the 
wholesale and retail merchants as well. It is the same, moreover, 
all through East Flanders with cotton, linen, cloth, and thread. 
Goods to the value of millions are requisitioned and paid in 
vouchers; in the factories raw material intended to last more 
than three months is seized, and everything that is being manu- 
factured is for Germany too." 

The Germans also " requisitioned " great quantities of guano 
and nitrates in Flanders. 

In Antwerp they seized cereals to the value of £720,000; 
nitrates to the value of £160,000; £240,000 worth of animal 
and vegetable oils; £400,000 worth of rubber; £800,000 worth 
of foreign hides; £52,000 worth of cotton, etc., etc.; the value 
of the merchandise requisitioned merely in the warehouses of 
our great port amounting to a total of £3,500,000 to 
£4,000,000. 

" Eight hundred thousand pounds is the most that can have 
been paid," said the President of the Antwerp Chamber of Com- 
merce, in a fully detailed report. " There will, therefore, be at 
least £2,600,000 still to be paid, or about 80 per cent., of which 
£2,400,000 represents merchandise for which no price has been 
fixed." ^ 

'Report addressed to the Intercommunal Commission by M. Castelein, act- 
ing President of the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 197 

Everywhere it is the same. The country is being exhausted. 

" The requisitions made by the Germans in Belgium," said 
the same Dutch newspaper, " have lately reached unprecedented 
proportions. Thus a large manufacturer of Verviers had to 
furnish £50,000 worth of leather. After this requisition he 
closed his works, but the Germans demanded that he should 
resume work, or they would carry off everything. He was 
therefore forced to resume operations, and is obliged to give 
the Germans the half of all the leather he prepares. A cloth- 
maker of Verviers, fearing the same treatment, sent for two 
thousand poor women, and gave each sufficient cloth to make a 
cloak." ^ 

" Civilians, accompanipc* and assisted by military detachments, 
have entered the factories and workshops, selecting and appro- 
priating the machine-tools, many of which have been removed 
and sent to Germany." ^ 

Worse still: the Germans have appropriated whole factories 
as well as workshops belonging to private persons, and they have 
even gone so far as to tear up the rails of some of our light 
railways. Yes, these rails were removed in pairs, still attached 
to their sleepers, and, loaded on trucks in this condition, they 
were sent to the Eastern front! 

Herr Ludwig Ganghofer, in the Munchner Neueste Nach- 
richten (No. 103, the 26th of February, 1915), boasts of the 
organisation of this systematic pillage. 

" For three months," he writes, " the occupied country pro- 
vided four-fifths of the requirements of the army. Even now, 
although the resources of the occupied country are beginning 
to yield less abundantly, our Western army still draws from it 
three-fifths of the necessary subsistence. Germany, therefore, 
according to a calculation based upon the average, has saved 
from £175,000 to £200,000 per diem. 

" The profits of victory are still further increased by the 
profits of the economic war waged conformably with the law of 
nations (sic) against the conquered territory — that is, by the 
utilisation of the immense resources transported from Belgium 
and the North of France into Germany : such as war booty, the 
stores of fortresses, cereals, woollens, metals, timber. What 
Germany is saving or gaining by this economic war, which is di- 

^ Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, i8th of January, 1915. 
' See the complaint addressed on the 22nd of January, 1915, to the German 
Governor-General by the Federation des Constructeurs de Belgique. 



198 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

rected with commercial intelligence, may be estimated at 
£240,000 to £280,000 per diem, and the total profit which Ger- 
many has reaped behind the Western front from the operations 
undertaken since the beginning of the war must be something 
like £80,000,000." 

And this Ludwig Ganghofer adds, without shame: 
" An officer of high rank remarked to me at Saint-Quentin, 
half -jesting, half-thoughtful : ' Astonishing what a man can 
learn. In reality I am an officer of the Bodyguard at Potsdam, 
but now I am dealing in timber and wool. And am even making 
a good thing of it ! ' " 

Extortion and Spoliation 

The " Military Interpreter for Use m the Enemy's Country," 
published in Berlin in 1906, describes in meticulous fashion the 
regime to be imposed upon the populations of occupied terri- 
tories. Everything has been foreseen by this little manual, which 
must certainly have served as a guide on many occasions to 
German officers operating in Belgium. 

" One means of obtaining money is the fine," is one notable 
statement. " Every commune being, in principle, declared liable 
for the acts of hostility or malevolence committed upon its terri- 
tory . . . the slightest injury may be the occasion of a fine." 

This " means of obtaining money " was applied in Belgium 
under the most various pretexts, and with much energy. 

At Arlon, on the eleventh day of occupation, a telephone wire 
having been broken, the town was given four hours to pay a fine 
of 100,000 francs in gold, in default of which lOO houses would 
be sacked. When the payment was made 47 houses had already 
been pillaged ! 

Moreover, the German authorities held no inquiry into the 
breaking of this wire ; this would have been to look a gift horse 
in the mouth! But in Brussels, where a similar incident had 
occurred, M. Max, confronted by the reprisals with which the 
city had been threatened, demanded that an inquiry should be 
held, and it was thereby discvered that the wire in question — 
put up by the Germans to connect two of their posts — was abso- 
lutely worn out and had broken spontaneously 1 

At Hargimont, a village in Belgian Luxemburg, some officers 
quartered themselyes in the presbytery. They were finishing a 
savoury meal when a lively volleying was heard. All leapt to 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 199 

their feet, and their leader declared: " My men have been fired 
on, Monsieur le Cure! You are my prisoner; I must have ten 
hostages, and, in two hours, a sum of 100,000 francs! " 

In vain did the cure protest the innocence of his parishioners. 
He was met always by these words: " We must have 100,000 
francs ! " 

The chatelaine of the district, who was the only person in a 
position to find such a sum, was forced to intervene and to sign 
a cheque upon a Brussels bank. Now the truth was this : it was 
a drunken soldier who had fired in the air, and his comrades, 
believing themselves to be attacked, had immediately begun to 
fire in all directions, even killing (but that was a detail!) the 
burgomaster, who was passing, leading the horses which had 
been requisitioned. 

At Wavre, a small town in Brabant, a German soldier was 
wounded by a bullet. The commune (containing barely 8,000 
inhabitants) was punished with a fine of three million francs — 
£120,000! A few days later Lieutenant-General von Nieber 
wrote to the burgomaster: 

On the 22nd of August, 1914, the General commanding the Ilnd 
Army, Herr von Biilow, imposed upon the town of Wavre a war con- 
tribution of three million francs, payable by the ist of September, in ex- 
piation of (its) unqualifiable conduct, contrary to the law of nations and 
the usages of war, in attacking German troops by surprise. 

The General commanding the Ilnd Army Corps has given the General 
commanding the etape of the Ilnd Army the order to obtain the said con- 
tribution without delay, which it (sic) must pay on account of its conduct. 

I order and summon you to hand to the bearer of the present the two 
first instalments or two million francs (£80,000) in gold. 

I demand also that you give to the bearer a letter duly sealed with the 
seal of the town declaring that the balance, or one million francs, will be 
paid without any default on the ist of September. 

I draw the attention of the town that it cannot in any case count upon 
a prolongation of the term of delay, for the civil population of the town 
has placed itself outside the law of nations (sic) by firing on German sol- 
diers. 

The town of Wavre will be burned and destroyed if the payment is not 
made in time, without regard for anyone; the innocent will suffer with the 
guilty. 

The unhappy little city not having been able to pay this exorbi- 
tant fine in time, fifty houses were burned down. A few days later 
a German bullet was extracted from the wounds of the precious 
German soldier! 

The city of Brussels "without the suburbs" (about 180,000 



200 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

inhabitants) was condemned to pay a fine of £200,000 because 
two police agents had refused to arrest — upon the injunctions of 
" an agent the depositary of the German authority " — for which 
read German spy — an urchin who was indiscreetly selling foreign 
newspapers. In Antwerp the commune was forced to pay a fine 
of £2,000 — which was particularly favourable tariff — because 
a placard announcing a German victory in Poland had been torn. 
The little town of Lierre — almost completely destroyed at the 
time of the siege of Antwerp — had to pay £40 for a similar 
reason. 

At Schellebelle (2,200 inhabitants) a telephone wire was 
bi'oken; a fine of £4,000. 

At Selzaete (5,500 inhabitants) a telephone wire was broken; 
a fine of £600 was Imposed. It is claimed — but, of course, by 
malicious tongues — that here the German soldiers cut the wire 
by order. 

At Puers the commune was condemned to pay a fine of £150 
— for the same reason. However, It was proved that corrosion 
was the cause of the break in the wire. 

Mallnes was forced to pay a fine of £1,000 because the burgo- 
master did not warn the military authority of a journey which 
the Cardinal Archbishop, deprived of his motor-car, was forced 
to make on foot. (The eminent prelate had received an ovation 
from the peasants along the road.) 

At Bruges two young children — it appears — dirtied a German 
flag. The commune had to pay £20,000 to expiate this abomi- 
nable crime 1 

The city of Brussels, required to repair the road from Ma- 
lines, a labour In no way incumbent upon It, refused to submit to 
this demand; It was condemned (in April, 19 15) to pay a fine of 
500,000 marks (£25,000). One remark in this connection: At 
present fines are usually reckoned in marks, but payment Is 
demanded in francs. Now a decree of the 6th of October, 19 14, 
fixed the price of the mark at ifr.25 (whereas it Is never worth 
more than ifr.24) ; 500,000 marks therefore means in reality 
625,000 francs to be paid by the Belgians affected, whatever 
may be the rate of exchange In the International markets. 

At Middelkerke some German soldiers shot a carrier pigeon 
arriving from Ostend; under the pretext that this pigeon was 
carrying a letter, the town of Ostend was compelled to pay a 
fine of one million marks (£50,000). The burgomaster de- 
manded a sight of the letter. He was refused; his rights were 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 201 

confined to payment! (At the same period — the end of May, 
19 1 5 — the Germans, always haunted by the fear of espionage, 
ordered a general massacre of carrier pigeons at Bruges and 
Ostend. And some of the Bruges fanciers had pigeon-lofts 
worth £2,000 and more.)^ 

The town of Courtrai was forced, some months ago, to pay 
a fine of ten million marks (yes, £500,000) because a pretended 
secret store of weapons was found there. Now these were 
weapons belonging to private persons, collected and stored by the 
communal administration — according to the instructions of the 
German Administration itself — in a communal building. 

A last example, not to prolong this summary indefinitely: 
The administrators of the National Bank urged the Provincial 
Councillors, who had consulted them on this subject, not to 
acquiesce in the renewal, then lately decreed, of the monthly 
payment of £1,600,000. Von Bissing (104) got wind of the 
incident, and as a result the National Bank had to pay the Ger- 
man Administration — by way of a fine — a sum of £120,000. A 
mere trifle, is it not? 

Among other " means of obtaining money " which the Ger- 
mans use and abuse are these: 

Passports, without which it is forbidden, In many parts of 
the country, to move from one locality to another (these pass- 
ports are expensive, and at the end of a few days they lapse) 

(99). 

Confiscations and seizures of all kinds; the Central Com- 
mittee of the Belgian Red Cross refusing to occupy itself with 
undertakings which, although worthy of attention, were none the 
less entirely outside its province, von Bissing confiscated (on the 
14th of April, 1915) the whole of its loose cash, or nearly 
£8,000. When a Belgian wishes to leave the country he has to 
pay — lest he should be suspected of wishing to go to France or 
England — a large deposit. If he does not return within the 
prescribed time, or If he really goes to the " enemy country " — 
and the Germans are always very exactly Informed In these 
matters — the deposit Is confiscated. 

Then in certain cases of infractions of the German military 
law — which Is Interfering and fantastic to excess — the prisoner Is 
condemned to a term of Imprisonment or a fine; a prolonged 

'The breeding of carrier pigeons was much in vogue in Belgium, where 
everyone still remembers the famous flight accomplished twenty years ago by 
some picked birds. Sent by rail to Madrid, they returned in an extraordinarily 
short space of time to their lofts in Belgium. 



202 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

t 

sentence of imprisonment, or a relatively light fine, matters being 
so arranged that the delinquent usually prefers to pay the fine. 
At least, it was so in the beginning; now the manoeuvre seldom 
succeeds, and it is rarely that the offender does not choose im- 
prisonment. 

Blackmail — a method of the same category — ^used also to yield 
an excellent profit. You were searched, and under the pretext 
that you had compromising papers on you, you were threatened 
with prison, but were given to understand that " this time " you 
would be left at liberty if you gave ... all that you could 
give. 

There is still the tax on absentees. Belgians who left the 
country at the commencement of hostilities, and who have not 
returned by a given date, are forced, under penalty of the seiz- 
ure of their personal property, to pay a supplementary tax equiv- 
alent to ten times the amount of the taxes which they paid to the 
Belgian State before the war. This fiscal measure is absolutely 
illegal, from whatever point of view we consider it; even if we 
were regarded as ordinary belligerents whose territory was 
legally occupied, it could not be legitimately applied to us. Now, 
to justify it, the German casuists have gone to the length of in- 
voking I know not what regulations of The Hague Conventions ; 
as though there had not been an essential crime committed at 
the very beginning of the German occupation, which — ^because 
unforeseen and unforeseeable — falsifies all the dispositions of 
these Conventions; and as though the whole subsequent conduct 
of Germany as far as we are concerned had not been a constant 
and absolute disregard of all Conventions and all legality I 

The Martial Law of Germany 

The proclamations of which we have already seen a few 
examples have not remained dead letters. Martial law is ap- 
plied in Belgium with a severity which is equalled only by the 
tranquil dignity of those whom it strikes. The military tribunals 
are virtually in permanent session, and they strike without pity 
and without appeal. It would be difficult to-day to number the 
sentences which they have pronounced, the sentences of imprison- 
ment, sentences of deportation, sentences of penal servitude, 
sentences of death. For lack of space, and also for lack of suffi- 
cient documentation, I will do no more here than mention a few 
typical cases. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 



203 



Despite all risks, intrepid couriers — known as passeurs — are 
at work introducing foreign newspapers into the occupied terri- 
tory. The calling is profitable : certain English newspapers, and 
the Times in particular, are often sold at a very high price to the 
sequestered citizens, who are hungry for accurate news. (At the 
time of the fall of Antwerp a copy of the Times was sold for £4 
and over.) But there are spies everywhere, and swarms of 
agents provocateurs. One day one of these individuals laid his 



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SENTENCES PUBLISHED IN BRUSSELS, NOVEMBER, I9I4. 

hand upon the collar of a little colporteur who had, in all confi- 
dence, discreetly offered him an example of one of these pro- 
hibited newspapers. A policeman was close at hand; the spy re- 
quested him to arrest the delinquent; the worthy and paternal 
policeman refused; whereupon invectives, blows, the interven- 
tion of the crowd, the arrival of another policeman, and then 
the appearance of German soldiers. . . . 

A few days later the inhabitants of Brussels learned the sequel 
by means of the placard here reproduced : 

Notice: A war tribunal legally convoked pronounced, on the 28th of 
October, the following sentences: 

I. In the case of the police agent De Ryckere, for having attacked, in 



204 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

the exercise of his duty, an agent the depositary of the German authority, 
for wilful bodily injuries committed in two cases, in concert with others, 
for having procured the escape of a prisoner in the case and for having 
attacked a German soldier: five years' imprisonment. 

2. In the case of the police agent Segers, for having attacked, in 
the exercise of his duty, an agent the depositary of the German authority, 
for wilful bodily injuries inflicted on this German agent, and for having 
procured the escape of a prisoner (all these infractions constituting a 
single action): three years' imprisonment. 

The sentences were confirmed on the 31st of October by the Governor- 
General, Baron von der Goltz. 

The city of Brussels, without the suburbs, has been punished for the 
crimes committed by its police agent De Ryckere against a German soldiej- 
by an additional tax of £200,000. 

General Five and Lieutenant Gille were retired Belgian offi- 
cers living in Liege. Being themselves unable to serve in the 
army, they decided, in concert with some of their fellow-citizens, 
to help young men who wished to cross the frontier in order to 
enrol themselves in our army. They were unhappily betrayed 
by a piece of stupidity on the part of one of these young men, 
and after a longish term of " preventive detention " they were 
brought before a military tribunal, whose sentence was as fol- 
lows (dated Liege, the 7th of January, 1915; signed, von 
Bissing) : — 

By judgment of the war tribunal at Liege the persons whose names 
follow have been sentenced for (crime of) war treason and for having 
participated in the crime: i, the Belgian Lieutenant Gustave Gille, of 
Liege, to penal servitude for life; 2, the Belgian Brigadier-General (un- 
attached) Gustive Five, of Liege, to penal servitude for life; 3, the tailor 
Ferdinand L'Homme, of Liege ; and 4, the merchant Alfred Transquet of 
Liege, each to eight years' imprisonment; 5, the lithographer Guillaume 
Yerna, of Witte, to four years' imprisonment; 6, the artisan Ferdinant 
Wilde, of Liege, to three years' imprisonment. 

The attitude of the two Belgian officers before their judges 
was superb. " You are accused of having assisted' the escape of 
thirty-five young men who have gone to enrol themselves in the 
enemy army," said the president of the Court, a colonel. They 
smiled disdainfully; then, in virile tones, the elder of the two, 
the old General, replied : " You are mistaken ; it is not thirty- 
five, but a full three hundred soldiers that we have had the 
honour to recruit for the country 1 As for the enemy, you are 
he!" 

Among many others sentenced for similar actions I will men- 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 205 

tion Father Van Bambeke, of the Society of Jesus, whose attitude 
before the Court was equally fine. 

When the President asked him what he would do if acquitted, 
he replied without hesitation: "I should begin again. You 
thought you did your duty in arresting me; I know that I am 
doing mine in urging my young compatriots to join those who 
are fighting for the liberation of our territory." Father Van 
Bambeke was sentenced to two and a half years' penal servitude. 
But owing to influence — I do not know whose — he was released 
after a few weeks' imprisonment. 

At Roulers, in the latter half of May, 19 15, a man named 
Carbonnez shouted, " Vive la France! " as a small convoy of 
French prisoners was passing. Arrested immediately, he was 
sentenced to three years' imprisonment and was deported to 
Germany. 

The town was threatened with destruction should such a thing 
occur again. 

On the 2 1 St of May Mme. Henry Carton de Wiart was 
sentenced to three and a half months' imprisonment. On the 
following day she was deported to Germany. 

This sentence was brought to the knowledge of the popula- 
tion of Brussels in the following terms : — 

Mme. Carton de Wiart, wife of the ex-Minister of Justice, was 
sentenced, on the 21st of May, by the military tribunal of the Govern- 
ment, to three months' and two weeks' imprisonment. Mme. Carton de 
Wiart has herself confessed that she has continually, in a large number of 
cases, and by evading the German post, caused letters to be forwarded to 
herself and to others in Belgium and across the Dutch frontier. She has 
thus withheld letters from the censorship and has rendered possible their 
utilisation for purposes of espionage and the transmission of forbidden news. 
She has, moreover, according to her own confession, distributed forbidden 
writings, while perfectly well aware of their offensive character. She has, 
lastly, and still according to her own confession, withheld and _ destroyed 
a letter addressed to the Kommandantur and placed by mistake in her let- 
ter-box. By such procedures it is possible to endanger the security of the 
German troops. 

Consequently Mme. Carton de Wiart has had to be sentenced and 
transported to Germany. 

When the Belgian Government was forced to leave Brussels, 
Mme. Carton de Wiart wished to remain in the capital, with her 
six children, in order to continue her activities in connection with 
the charitable undertakings over which she presided, and which, 
she considered with reason, would need her services more than 



2o6 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

ever. Generous and compassionate to a fault, if she secretly 
received and forwarded letters it was only to enable Belgian 
families which had remained in the occupied territory to obtain 
news of those at the front. As for the " forbidden writings " 
which Mme. Carton de Wiart confessed to having distributed, 
these were copies of the Pastoral Letter of Cardinal Mercier. 
Lastly, if this Belgian lady threw into her waste-paper basket a 
letter addressed to the Kommandantur, which the German post 
had, by mistake, delivered at her private house, it was because 
she quite rightly considered that it was no business of hers to 
repair the blunders of her country's enemies. Once and for all, 
it is the Germans who, in our country, are perpetually in the 
wrong, at every moment and in every action, and no well-born 
Belgian would consent to assist them in any way whatever. 

The examination of Mme. Carton de Wiart lasted seven or 
eight hours, during which this noble lady did not for a moment 
depart from her smiling composure and her fine courage. After 
passing sentence, the presiding officer asked her. " Have you 
anything further to say, Frau Excellenz? " " I have this to 
add," she, said, " that I disavow beforehand any intervention 
which might be made in my favour. I regard the penalty in- 
flicted upon me as an honour, and I wish to undergo it to the 
end." ^ 

Wishing to recognise, by discreet but suitable acknowledg- 
ment, the inestimable services which the Spanish authorities, in 
concurrence with the Americans, have rendered us In the matter 
of revictualling our poor country, the communal administration 
of Charleroi decided to celebrate the birthday of King Alfonso 
in the schools of the town. A programme was drawn up ; there 
would be a short talk about Spain, songs, and games (indoors) ; 
finally the school-children were to proceed in a body — ^but in small 
groups, a class at a time, and in silence — past the Spanish Con- 
sulate, just to see, without even saluting it, the Spanish flag 
which would be flying above the Consulate on the King's birthday. 
It would have been an extremely discreet demonstration, which 
could not in any way have given umbrage to the sullen " occu- 
pants." ' 

Unhappily the rumour got about that all the school-children 

' At the expiration of her sentence — which she had to serve in Berlin in a 
civil prison — Mme. Carton de Wiart was sent to Switzerland, where her hus- 
band went to meet her and escort her to Havre. He is fgrbiddeii to enter 
Belgium, so that she is virtually banished, 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 207 

of the town were to be massed in front of the Consulate, where 
they were to sing a cantata and cheer the Consul ! 

The result was that on the day of the celebration (the 17th 
of May) there were at one moment a thousand curious watch- 
ers before the Spanish Consulate awaiting the arrival of the 
school-children. Suddenly some German soldiers from the 
neighbouring barracks, commanded by a non-commissioned of- 
ficer, came running up, and fell upon the inoffensive crowd, even 
releasing a huge unmuzzled watch-dog, which bit several persons. 

The epilogue of this spoilt celebration was the following sen- 
tence : 

The advocate Dewandre, Franz, of Charleroi, rue de Brabant, No. i, 
acting as burgomaster in Charleroi, Belgium, is condemned, by virtue of 
paragraph 18, Chapter II. of the Imperial decree respecting the extraordi- 
nary legal regulations in time of war as affecting foreigners, dated the 
28th of December, 1899, to pay a fine of two thousand marks (£100), 
payable to the funds of the arrondissement on or before the loth of June, 
1915. In case of non-payment within the time required a term of three 
years' imprisonent, because on the 17th of May, 1915, he did, at Charleroi, 
at the time of the anniversary of the birthday of the King of Spain, 
permit the schoolmistress of this town to repair with the children of the 
schools before the house of the Spanish Consul in this town for the purpose 
of (holding) a demonstration and for having accorded him a private ova- 
tion, and because he caused thereby a gathering of men and excited the 
local population. . . . 

So it was as a " foreigner," and for a crime — or pretended 
crime — which he did not commit that this Belgian burgomaster 
was sentenced, on Belgian soil, and in the Belgian town under 
his administration! 

A few months ago the Comte George de Beaufort, burgo- 
master of Onoz (in the province of Namur), was condemned to 
ten years' penal servitude. His offence? He had nursed and 
kept in his house a wounded French soldier: an act of treason 
in the eyes of the scoundrels who are masters of our country — 
for the time being — only by virtue of the vilest and most cow- 
ardly act of treason I 

M. Maurice Lippens, who managed an important factory in 
the north of East Flanders, obstinately refused to furnish electric 
current for the famous iron wire stretched along the frontier 
between Belgium and Holland; he was deported to Germany. 

M. Arthur Verhaegen, deputy for Gand, protested against the 
efforts of the Germans to force the workers of Gand to make 



208 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

sacks for the trenches; he was sentenced to two years' imprison- 
ment in a German fortress. 

On the 8th of September, 19 15, a telegram from the Wolff 
Agency informed neutrals that Maitre Theodor, President of the 
Order of Advocates, in Brussels, having forbidden a Brussels 
advocate to refer, in defending a client, to a decree issued by the 
German Governor-General, the latter considered that Maitre 
Theodor had " injured the interests of those amenable to jus- 
tice," and had, for that reason, transported him to Germany 
until the close of hostilities. Now it should be said that some 
time earlier some documents had been seized on the premises of 
Maitre Francis Wiener,^ of the Brussels Bar, and as President 
of the Bar Maitre Theodor had addressed to the Governor-Gen- 
eral a vehement protest against this abuse of power. This was 
the second time the courageous advocate permitted himself such 
an outburst, and it was evidently too much in von Bissing's 
opinion. 

Here, by the way, is a typical example of the manner in which 
the said Governor-General and his satellites conceive of the " in- 
terests bf those amenable to justice." 

M. Jacques Timmermans, a Brussels manufacturer, was con- 
demned to one year's imprisonment for giving information to 
two young men who wished to enrol themselves in our army. 
And to the sentence was added a statement that if the punish- 
ment inflicted was only one year's imprisonment, it was because, 
although the presumption of his guilt was grave enough, the 
facts were not absolutely established I 

About the middle of November, 19 15, some German soldiers 
invaded a communal soup-kitchen in Liege and proceeded to 
arrest M. Digneffe, deputy and communal councillor, one of the 
most highly respected figures in the industrial society of the city, 
and also the advocate, Paul Philippart-Staes, and several other 
persons who had been led thither by their evil star. The reason 
for this measure, which was revoked only upon payment of enor- 
mous sureties, was that these gentlemen were accused of giving 
" criminal " aid to the railway workers, who obstinately refused 
to work for the German Army. 

In Brussels all Belgian ex-offilcers have to present themselves 
at the Kommandantur daily. 

' Maitre Francis Wierner had inherited the practice of his father, Maitre 
Sam Wiener, Senator, who was advocate for the Civil List and for His 
Majesty King Leopold II. He was therefore in charge of important docu- 
ments, which the Germans seized and pried into. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 209 

One fine day the Germans had something to say to General 
de Fauconval, General Janssens, General van Sprang, and Colo- 
nel Brassine : " Remain here : it has been decided to remove you 
to Germany." The officers were amazed, and demanded an ex- 
planation. No reply was vouchsafed them. " At least," de- 
manded one of the prisoners, " let us go home for a few min- 
utes so that we can bid our families good-bye and take a few 
things away with us ! " This satisfaction was refused them. All 
that they could obtain, after lengthy discussion, was that they 
might send their families short notes — which were carried by sol- 
diers — to inform them of their departure and to ask for a change 
of linen. 

On the following day they were in Germany. 

Hundreds of persons have been imprisoned or forced to pay 
heavy fines because they have received letters from abroad 
through blockade-runners. 

Many, again, have been condemned to terms of ten and fifteen 
years' penal servitude, or even to penal servitude for life — when 
it was not simply to death — for having helped young men who 
were impatient to serve in our army to cross the frontier. The 
crime is known as " war treason " ! 

Capital Punishment 

By judgment of the German Council of War of the 13th of April, 1915, 
confirmed by the commandant of the etape, the divisional chief of the 
Ministry of Railways, in Brussels, Lenoir, has been condemned to death 
for espionage. The sentence was carried out to-day, the 14th of April, 
1915. The condemned man was shot. 

So reads a communique issued at Gand, where the execution 
took place. 

M. Lenoir had sent " abroad " — that is, to the Belgian Gov- 
ernment — some notes referring to the German military trans- 
ports in Belgium. Before execution his butchers made him pass 
before the coffin and hearse which were intended for him! As 
for his widow, she was immediately deported to Germany. 

A notice posted on the walls of Liege on the 7th of June : 

(The following) were shot to-day, the 7th of June, 1915, by virtue of 
the finding of the Council of War of the 5th of June, 1915: 

Louise Frenay, nee Derache, shopkeeper, of Liege; Jean-Victor Bour- 
seaux, shopkeeper, of Liege; Julies Descheulter, shopkeeper, of Liers; 
Pierre Pfeifler, artisan, of Haunt-Pre; Oscar Delarge, railway employe. 



2IO BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

of Statte (Huy) ; Justin Lenders, of Liege; Frangois Barthelemy, shop- 
keeper, of Grivegne; Charles Simon, draughtsman, of Namur; all Belgian 
subjects, except Simon, a British subject. They had taken an active part 
in an organisation which forwarded to the enemy information as to the 
movements of our troops (obtained) from the military service of our rail- 
ways. They were found guilty of espionage. 

The execution of Mme. Frenay and Justin Lenders appears 
to have been attended by particularly harrowing details. Va- 
rious reports have been circulated whose veracity it was not al- 
ways possible entirely to verify. According to one of these, 
which the Record Advertiser of Boston, U.S.A., reproduced, 
Mme. Frenay, only wounded by the first volley, and lying on 
the ground, was killed by a bullet from the revolver of the offi- 
cer commanding the firing platoon. We record this detail with 
the necessary reservations. 

About the middle of September, 19 15, two citizens of Ant- 
werp — M. Joseph Baeckelmans, architect, and M. Alexandre 
Franck, merchant — were executed " for espionage " in the court- 
yard of the prison of Saint-Gilles-lez-Bruxelles. For espionage 
— that is, for services rendered — while in territory improperly 
occupied — to their betrayed and mutilated country. 

On their urgent petition the brother and the two sisters of 
Joseph Baeckelmans had obtained permission to bid him a last 
farewell. At the appointed time they reached the prison; they 
were brutally repulsed. They insisted, but it was of no use. . . . 
Hardly had they retired a few steps when they heard the shots 
of the firing platoon ! One of the martyred man's sisters fainted 
in the street. ... . 

About the same time we learned that the " war tribunal " 
sitting in Brussels had passed sentence of death upon one Laurent 
Debakker, a commercial traveller of Uccle. 

At the same time the station-master of Cuesmes was sentenced 
to penal servitude for life, and eight other persons, one of whom 
was a woman, were condemned to terms of ten and fifteen years' 
penal servitude. Their crimes were " espionage " and " com- 
plicity in the crime of espionage." 

Lastly, " for having harboured a spy," a woman of Tournal 
was sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. 

Early in October M. Nachtergael, son of the commandant 
of the fire brigade of Gand, and five other Belgian citizens were 
executed at Bruges. 

At Hasselt, the chief town of the province of Limburg: 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 211 

By the finding of the 7th of October of the field tribunal of the 
military government of Limburg, Pierre- Joseph Claes, of Belgian nation- 
ality, born the 8th of May, 1887, at Schaerbeek, near Brussels, was sen- 
tenced to death for espionage. 

Claes confessed that in his capacity of Belgian soldier he came to 
Belgium dressed as a civilian with the object of practising espionage there. 

The condemned man was shot to-day, the 8th of October, 1915. 

Five other accused persons were sentenced each to fifteen years' penal 
servitude. 

It is not true that Claes confessed that he entered Belgium 
to practise espionage. He simply admitted that he was a Bel- 
gian soldier: no more. As a brave Belgian soldier Claes re- 
fused to have his eyes bandaged. And in the act of protesting his 
innocence he died erect, fierce and superb, shouting, " Vive la 
Belgique I Vive la Liberie ! " His bearing was so splendid that 
it affected the dozen slaves who were to shoot him; they had not 
the courage to aim at him, and as only one bullet wounded him, 
and that not fatally, the non-commissioned officer in command 
of the platoon had to kill him by firing a revolver into his 
ear. . . . 

In Brussels: 

By its finding of the 9th of October, 19 15, the war tribunal has pro- 
nounced the following sentences for treason committed during a state of 
war (for forwarding recruits to the enemy) : 

1. Philippe Baucq, architect, of Brussels. 

2. Louise Thuliez, professor at Lille. 

3. Edith Cavell, superintendent of a medical institute in Brussels. 

4. Louis Severin, chemist, of Brussels. 

5. Comtesse Jeanne de Belleville, of Montignies. 

All five sentenced to death. 

6. Herman Capiau, engineer, of Wasmes. 

7. Mme. Ada Bodart, of Brussels. 

8. Albert Libier, advocate, of Wasmes. 

9. Georges Derveau, chemist, of Paturages 

All four sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude. 

10. Princess Maria de Croy, of Bellignies. 

To ten years' penal servitude. 

Seventeen other accused persons were sentenced to penal servitude or 
imprisonment varying from two to eight years. 

Eight other persons accused of treason committed during a state of 
war were acquitted. 

The sentence passed against Baucq and Cavell has already been carried 
out. 

Brussels, I2th of October, 1915. The General Government. 



212 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Philippe Baucq and Edith Cavell alone were executed, 
and this a few hours only after the passing of sentence. Sen- 
tence was passed on the 9th of October, at 5 o'clock in the after- 
noon. At 2 o'clock in the morning of the loth they were led to 
the public shooting-ground — the Tir National. Then the last 
act of this gloomy tragedy was unfolded. Baucq was shot first, 
in the presence of Miss Cavell, who fainted at the sight and fell. 
The officer-executioner then ordered his men to carry the con- 
demned woman to the spot indicated for the execution; they 
obeyed, but when they received the order to fire upon the unfor- 
tunate woman they obstinately refused. Then the officer whose 
part it was to carry out the noble works of His Majesty the 
Emperor Wilhelm leaned over the poor little motionless body 
and coolly discharged his revolver into the ear. 

Amid the horrors of this Germanic war the fate of this noble 
woman is symbolic. " The story of this English nurse," M. 
Ferdinand Buisson, President of " The French League for the 
Defence of the Rights of the Man and the Citizen," has very 
justly observed, " the story of this English nurse is that of the 
conflict between two moralities : the one is a return to primitive 
barbarism, scientifically perfected by the military caste of Prus- 
sia; the other, which responds to the aspirations of the best of 
humanity, was, on the eve of the tempest, on the way to con- 
quering the peoples, and it will, you may be confident, become 
the rule of humanity when German militarism has indeed been 
annihilated by the victory of justice in arms. 

" Miss Cavell was condemned in the name of the pretended 
military law which the Germans oppose to The Hague Conven- 
tions. According to them a neutral country invaded and ravaged 
by one of the guarantors of its neutrality commits a crime if it 
attempts to resist the invader, a crime deserving the punishment 
of extermination. Let a citizen or a friend of this country abet 
this resistance even indirectly, and he commits not a crime, but a 
treason. They have invented a special term, * war treason ! ' 
Consequently there is only one penalty for this offence : the pen- 
alty suffered by traitors — death. . . . " ^ 

" The sentence passed upon Miss Cavell is the most brutal, 
the most insolent defiance of ordinary justice ever offered by the 
justice of militarism. If there existed a man knowing nothing 

* From a speech delivered at the Trocadero on the 28th of November, 191 S, 
on the occasion of the impressive demonstration organised by the League of 
the Rights of Man in honour of Miss Cavell's memory. 



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45. ELISABETH, QUEEN OF THE 


BELGIANS. 




"She is yonder, with King Albert, in the midst of the battling 


troops. . . . 5Ae 


consoles men in life and in death; 


i'/ie' smiles, she dresses wounds. She is all 


sweetness and all pity in this land of 


Flanders, where the heavy 


mist enwraps the 


mournful landscape, a shroud of grey 


over so many, many shrouds of linen. . . . 


A queen errant, yet such a queen as 


was never the spouse of the 


mightiest of kings, 


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'd but refusing to die." — Roland de Mares. 






Page 162 



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47. CHATEAU NEAR MALINES PLUNDERED 
AND BURNED BY THE GERMANS. 



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' (Page 185) 49- traces of their passage. {Page 185) 







So. INSPECTION OF BELGIANS CAPABLE OF M 




51. STUDIO OF A BELGIAN ARTIST VISITED BY GERMANS. {Page l8g) 




52. BELGIUM BECAME A VAST PRISON. {Page I78) 



4 




S3- FARMHOUSES AND COTTAGES AND WINDMILLS DEMOLISHED, (Page 22$) 




54. BRUSSELS — READING THE GERMAN TELEGRAMS. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 213 

of the war, it would be enough to tell him of the trial of Miss 
Cavell, and he would hold the name of German in abhorrence. 

" Every possible aggravating circumstance would seem to 
have been purposely combined in order to render the murderous 
procedure more abominable; the cold and bloodthirsty premedi- 
tation ; the examination, circumstantial and secret, to facilitate the 
sentence ; the crafty and dastardly dissimulation intended to avert 
all clemency, to hold the victim safely until the last moment. 
She must die, and die at once. Never, since the virgin of Lor- 
raine appeared before the infamous Bishop of Beauvais, has the 
sun shone upon a more sinister parody of justice. 

" And who then is the dangerous criminal against whom the 
whole bristling arsenal of this pitiless inquisition is invoked? 
A woman who for twenty years has unrestingly devoted herself 
to solacing all our human miseries ; in Brussels, quivering under 
the heel of the conqueror, she nursed with equal devotion the 
sick and wounded of all the armies; the victors and the van- 
quished, the invaded and the invaders." ' 

If the assassination of Miss Cavell was not the first of its 
kind, neither, alas! was it the last; and this in spite of the con- 
sternation and indignation which it produced throughout the 
civilised world. 

On the 17th of October, 1915, the " war tribunal" of Liege 
condemned to death: 

1. Simon Orfal, Belgian subject, warehouseman, of Verviers; 

2. Anna Benazet, of French nationality, tailoress, of Verviers; 

3. Amedee Hesse, native of Luxemburg, dentist, of Spa; 

4. Constant Herk, Belgian, merchant, of Baelen, near Dol- 
hain. 

They had " undertaken, for the benefit of the Allies, the task 
of watching the railways." (Five other prisoners were sentenced 
to terms of ten and fifteen years' penal servitude.) 

A few days later, on the 27th of October, 19 15, the same 
tribunal sentenced to death: 

1. Leon Francois, tramway inspector ,of Larraeken; 

2. Felix Van der Snoeck, tramway inspector, of Glain; 

3. Henri Noirfalize, blacksmith, of Chenee; 

4. Oscar Sacre, drayman, of Ongree ; 

5. Henri Defechereux, gate-keeper, of Kinkempois; 

6. Auguste Beguin, poHceman, of Liege; 

' Speech delivered by M. Paul Painleve at the Trocadero, 28th of Novem- 
ber, 1915. 



214 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

7. Lucien Gillet, blacksmith, of Graux (France) ; 

8. Joseph GlUot, painter and glazier, of Liege; 

9. Jean Legros, mechanician, of Liege. 

Their crime? Always the same — "war treason"! They 
were all shot on the 28th of October. The soldiers told off for 
their execution were divided into three platoons, which stood 
back to back in the form of a triangle, each platoon having be- 
fore it three of the condemned prisoners. Frangois died shout- 
ing, "Vive mon pays!" Gillet, who was secretary to the Syn- 
dicat des Metallurgistes du Nord, cried, " Five la France! " 

On the 2nd of November, 19 15, the following were executed: 

1. Jules Legay, platelayer, of Cuesmes; 

2. Joseph Delsant, manufacturer of shoemakers' sundries, of 
Cuesmes; and 

3. Charles Simonet, labourer, of Mons; 

who were tried in Brussels by the valiant champions of German 
Kultur, and were sentenced to death for having noted the passing 
of " the convoys of troops on two of the principal lines running 
to the front." 

And this is not alll The foregoing summary is necessarily 
incomplete; it contains many lacunae. 

And the same sort of thing is still going on I 

And the neutral nations continue to . . . hold their peace. 
They persist in the silence and reserve which they believe to be 
prudent and discreet, but which in reality constitute a slow moral 
suicide. 

And the brigand who governs Belgium and presides over these 
crimes has allowed himself to be created — ^by I forget which 
Teutonic university — a doctor, honoris causa, of juridical science. 
Yes, of juridical science I 



Civil Justice in Belgium 

I extract the following lines from a courageosu protest ad- 
dressed to General von Bissing, some time last year, by Maitre 
Theodor, President of the Order of Advocates in Brussels : 

" Many protests have been addressed to me, in my capacity 
of President of the Order of Advocates, by compatriots who 
complain of grave abuses, particularly in the matter of repres- 
sive measures. It is not my place to judge of these protests; 
none the less, they reveal a situation which it is no longer possible 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 215 

to ignore. It is incumbent upon the Bar to consider this situa- 
tion. . . . 

" Regarding matters as a whole, without passion or partiality, 
the lawyer cannot fail to recognise that everything, in the Ger- 
man judicial organisation in Belgium, is contrary to the princi- 
ples of justice. . . . It is justice without a check; the judge is 
committed to himself — that is, to his impressions, his prejudices, 
and his environment. The prisoner is abandoned in his distress 
to an unaided struggle with his all-powerful adversary. 

" This justice, which is uncontrolled, and therefore without 
guarantee, constitutes for us the most dangerous and oppressive 
illegality. We do not regard justice as a juridical or moral pos- 
sibility without freedom of defence. Freedom of defence — that 
is to say, light shed upon all the elements of the trial: the public 
conscience making itself heard in the heart of the praetorium ; the 
right to say everything in the most respectful manner, and also 
the courage to dare everything, placed at the service of misfor- 
tune, justice, and the law. It is one of the great conquests of our 
domestic history; it is the foundation-stone of individual liberty. 

" What are your means of information? 

" Apart from the judges of the court, they are the secret police 
and the informers. 

" The secret police, without external marks or badges, ming- 
ling with the population in the streets, in the cafes, on the plat- 
form of the tramway stations, listening to conversations, ready 
to pounce upon their secrets ; on the watch not only for actions, 
but for intentions. 

" The race of informers, it is said, has increased. What value 
can their declarations possess, inspired as they are by hatred or 
rancour or base cupidity? Such auxiliaries could offer no useful 
aid to the task of justice. 

" If we add to this total absence of control and defence the 
preventive arrests and the long periods of detention, and if to 
these we add the domiciliary searches, we shall have almost a 
complete vision of the mortal torture to which our aspirations, 
our thoughts, and our liberties are at present subjected. . . . 

" Among the moral forces is there one which is superior to 
justice? . . . It is the basis of all civilisation; art and science 
are its tributaries; religions live and prosper in its shadow. It 
is not in itself a religion? 

" Belgium has raised a temple to this religion in her capital. 

"This temple, which is our pride, has been turned into a 



2i6 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

barracks (55). A small portion, still further reduced from day 
to day, is reserved for the courts and tribunals. Magistrates 
and advocates have access to It by a servants' staircase. ..." 
Force installed in the temple of the Law — is this not the per- 
fect symbol of the German occupation in Belgium? 

The Occupation as Seen by Neutrals 

At the end of December, 19 14, a Norwegian lady living in 
Belgium wrote to one of her friends in Christiania, who had 
herself in the past made a long stay in our midst. 

" I have been," she wrote, " to see the B 's. They had 

received neither your letters nor your telegrams; but they had, 
quite recently, an opportunity to ask a Norwegian who was 
leaving to remember them to you. 

" The Germans are insanely strict, and before our departure 

from Antwerp I was searched all over. Mme. C , who 

wanted to rejoin her husband here in Holland, was arrested at 
the frontier and sent back under escort to Antwerp, where she 
was imprisoned for twenty-four hours; she had some letters 
on her, and an old passport. Happily we were able to continue 
our journey and warn her husband. He will remain for the 
time being in Holland. The Germans no longer allow them to 
leave the country; consequently those who can remain abroad 
do not run the risk of re-entering Belgium. 

" We made a harrowing and rather lengthy journey lately 
from Antwerp to Louvain — 3rd class; ist and 2nd nur fur 
Offizieren (for officers only) I A stop of an hour and a half 
before arriving at M alines; there were, quite close to the rail- 
way, six common burial-pits. . . . AH along the line from 
Malines to Louvain grave upon grave . . . the fields 
trampled, great yawning holes made by the shells, a true chaos ; 
all the houses, too, were ruined on either side of the line, and 
the woods cut down. As for the aspect of Louvain, it was 
enough to make one weep tears of blood. . . . We conversed 
with a great many inhabitants, and what they told us would 
have moved a stone. . . . Their composure was especially 
impressive. . . . We shall remain In Holland until after the 
New Year in order to write our letters, for It is impossible to 
write from Belgium. . . . " 

A few days later a friend — a Dutchman who had lived In 
Brussels for a number of years — wrote to me from The Hague : 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 217 

" We left Brussels in December. One could no longer breathe 
there. There are spies everywhere; they listen to you in the 
trams in order to trap you. . . . After a disagreeable jour- 
ney, which lasted three days, we arrived here. ..." 

On the 13th of January, 19 15, M. Andreas Buntzen said in 
the Berlin ffske Tidende of Copenhagen: 

" When one travels through Belgium at express speed in a 
motor-car one's impression is that of bowling down a long road 
bordered by ruined houses. The whole country, moreover, is 
one huge graveyard." 

One huge graveyard! That Belgium which was formerly so 
smiling a country, of which men said, with due reason, that it 
was the kitchen-garden of Europe, Is transformed into one huge 
graveyard I 

There are witnesses in abundance to confirm what Maeter- 
linck told us. 

Here, among other documents of the kind, is a report ad- 
dressed on the 1st of January, 19 15, to the Rockefeller Founda- 
tion by its Relief Committee, which is composed of Messrs. 
Wickliffe, Rose, Director-General of the International Commis- 
sion of Hygiene; Ernest P. Bicknell, Secretary of the American 
Red Cross Society; and Henry James, Director of the Rocke- 
feller Institute for Medical Research: 

" To understand the Belgian problem it is necessary to insist 
not so much on the poverty of a few hundred thousand men as 
upon the sudden inactivity imposed upon a healthy and vigour- 
ous nation of seven million souls. It is this that makes the sit- 
uation of Belgium an example without precedent in his- 
tory. . . . 

" The use of the telegraph and the telephone is strictly pro- 
hibited as far as the population is concerned. There is no in- 
ternational postal service, no communication with the outer 
world except by means of letters passing through the hands 
of the Germans. 

" If anyone wishes to travel from one town to another 
he must, as a rule, obtain a special passport. He is com- 
pelled to waste hours in obtaining it. This is one reason why 
the Americans, who are authorised to move about with greater 
freedom, are employed to distribute provisions. The trains run 
practically for the Germans only. 

" The obstacles which block certain canals have not yet been 
removed. A number of electric tramways providing a local 



2i8 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

service are running, and the main roads are still accessible; but 
most of the draught animals have been requisitioned. The cir- 
culation of automobiles is forbidden, 

" The cash reserves and a large proportion of the negotiable 
securities of the banks were removed before the invasion. The 
issue of bank-notes by the National Bank has been stopped; but 
a number of towns and communes are issuing vouchers payable 
within the limits of their own territory.^ 

" The German requisitions are paid for, not in cash, but by 
means of vouchers, which, according to report, more often than 
not assume the most invalid forms. Paper currency is itself so 
rare that the German occupation has been forced to exert its 
arbitrary authority in order to maintain the rate of exchange 
between the mark and the franc at the rate of ifr.25. 

" The banks have either interrupted their payments or have 
limited them to very small sums. The depositors of the savings 
banks cannot make withdrawals sufficient to cover the weekly 
expenses corresponding to the indispensable needs of a working- 
class family. The wealthy are not in a position to negotiate any 
of their investments (except, perhaps, through Germany), and 
they may literally find themselves without a sou. 

" Modern society has obviously evolved in the direction of 
an extremely complicated mechanism of transport, communica- 
tions, and credit. In Belgium this mechanism has been com- 
pletely annihilated. It results from this that commerce and in- 
dustry are completely at a standstill. The only tradesmen who 
still do a little business are those who sell alimentary products 
or clothing. 

" In a few months' time the Industrial populations will prob- 
ably be suffering from the most incredible poverty. In centres 
such as Liege, Brussels, Louvain, and Malines bread is dis- 
tributed gratuitously to a quarter or half the population. 

" As for the agricultural districts in general, it seems that the 
destruction of food stores is of greater importance than the 
destruction of the houses. When the latter are burned their 
former occupants install themselves in the houses of their more 
fortunate neighbours ; or they often continue to live within their 
own walls — even under the most inconvenient conditions and 

" The German Governor-General deprived the National Bank of the privilege 
of issuing bank-notes. But at the same time (22nd of December, 1914), "to 
avoid an economic catastrophe to the country" {sic) — read: in order not to 
kill the goose that lays the golden eggs— he granted this privilege to , the 
Societe (Snerale de Belgique. 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 219 

without the least sign of comfort. But without draught horses 
they are scarcely in a position to plough, sow, or reap. Now the 
country has been almost completely drained of horses and cattle. 
The armies have not even refrained from requisitioning milch 
cows. 

" The German occupation has requisitioiied grain, provisions, 
cattle, and horses in the towns and in the country. It has also 
requisitioned the stocks of cotton and wool, and of raw materials 
as well as of manufactured products, brass and copper fixtures, 
the plant of certain factories, motor-cars, benzine, and all plant 
which can serve for the manufacture of arms and munitions. 

" In the course of our journeys through Belgium we have 
seen hardly any cattle, and, indeed, no swine and no horses. Some 
villages have been completely destroyed. A certain number of 
houses have been burned in nearly all the towns and villages 
along the principal paths of the invasion. The Inhabitants, as a 
rule, have had no time to save anything except the few clothes on 
their backs. . . . 

" The destruction of implements and equipment cannot be 
estimated. In the smallest localities through which the army 
has passed, just as In some of the great cities, such as Louvain 
and Mallnes, all the houses which are left have been pillaged. 
We have observed In many houses that pieces of furniture im- 
possible to carry away had been broken to pieces. ..." 

Here, lastly, is a more recent sketch, taken from another 
point of view. It was published In the Telegraaf by M. Hans, 
and was based upon the information supplied by a Dutch water- 
man. He had travelled with his barge from Holland to Ant- 
werp, then to Termonde and Into Flanders, and the" Impressions 
which he received In the course of this voyage were so painful 
that he resolved to navigate through Belgium no longer while 
the Germans were there: 

" It Is miserable to navigate the Scheldt or the Lys now," 
says this humble but very sincere observer. " The sight of Ant- 
werp gives you the hump. You've been so used to the bustle 
and movement there, the basins full of barges, the quays loaded 
with merchandise, where you had to keep a good look-out In 
order not to get knocked over by a train. . . . You can still 
hear, In your mind, the noise of the drays, the whistling of the 
tug-boats, the creaking of the chains, the singing of the barge- 
men. , . . Now It is death! Yes, Antwerp Is dead. ..." 



220 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

As for Termonde, which had also been familiar to him — 
Termonde, so full of movement, so gracious of aspect — this is 
what he says: 

*' It looked to me entirely destroyed. What ruin, what mis- 
ery! . . . Lots of people live together in one room, or in a 
cellar, or a stable. . . . They repair everything with tarred 
paper. If there's a hole the wind blows through, they stick 
tarred paper over it; if there's a window gone, more tarred 
paper ! . . . What a wretched sight I . . . 

" At the sight of all that ruin, at the sight of so much poverty 
and such wretchedness, I cried more than once, and I was glad 
to get out of the town. I passed under the bridge w .. . but the 
permit cost me five marks. , . . 

" There are sentinels at all the bridges, at all the locks. You 
have the feeling you're navigating in another country. Before, 
one was so free and comfortable there. Now you have to be 
always minding what you're doing, and every minute there are 
fresh orders. Sometimes I've had to stop to make way for a 
submarine going to Bruges^ — had to wait till the monster had 
passed. Who would ever have thought it? — submarines in the 
Belgian canals! 'i., . ." 

Then the good man gives some professional details. There 
is little money to be made. It is true that the Germans would 
very much like to make use of the barges, but the Belgian barge- 
men, despite enticing offers, refuse to serve the enemy. The 
only work they consent to do, he explains, is to navigate the 
canals for the American Relief Committee. In this way they 
are helping their poor countrymen, and in the towns where 
they discharge their cargoes they receive many manifestations 
of gratitude and fraternity. And this lover of the green waters 
and the wandering life ends on a note of disenchantment: " It's 
done with 1 It's no longer the Belgium it was ! " 

Relief and Mutual Aid 

Squeezed almost to death, and isolated from the outer world, 
Belgium would die of starvation without the intervention of two 
admirable organisations of which I want to tell you something: 
the " National Committee of Relief and Alimentation " and the 
*' Commission for Relief in Belgium." 

The National Committee is the result of an extension of the 
" Central Committee " constituted in Brussels early in Septem- 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 221 

ber, 1914, upon the initiative of an eminent citizen, M. Ernest 
Solvay, and a few other men of action, heart, and energy — an 
undertaking whose activity was at first confined to the city and 
district of Brussels. 

It was Ernest Solvay himself who recommended this exten- 
sion, having foreseen the necessity of it immediately. Then, at 
his request, the Marquis de Villalobar, the Spanish Minister, 
and Mr. Brand Whitlock, the United States Minister in Brus- 
sels, who had already consented to patronise the work of the 
Central Committee, opened negotiations with von der Goltz, and 
obtained from him " the assurance that the provisions of all 
kinds imported by the Committee for the alimentation of Bel- 
gium should be exempt from requisitions on the part of the 
military authorities and should remain at the exclusive disposal 
of the Committee." 

A delegation was sent to London in order to request the 
British Government to authorise the importation into Belgium 
of all provision proceeding from neutral countries which should 
be intended for the civil population of Belgium. 

The British Government granted this authorisation, subject 
always to the condition that as far as the Belgian frontier the 
products imported should be placed under the supervision of the 
representatives of Spain and the United States in London and 
The Hague, and that from the frontier to the distributing ware- 
houses in Belgium the transport of these products should be 
effected under the protection of the Spanish and United States 
Ministers in Brussels. 

Under these conditions there came into being, on the one 
hand, the " National Committee for Relief and Alimentation," 
a Belgian organisation, and, on the other hand, the " Commis- 
sion for Relief in Belgium" (or the C.R.B.), an American or- 
ganisation. 

The C.R.B. undertakes the collection of foreign donations, 
and also the purchase and transport of provisions for the relief 
of Belgium. It fulfils its mission with the assistance of three 
principal offices: the London office purchases the provisions and 
collects donations in kind and sends them to Rotterdam, while 
the Rotterdam office receives and tranships the goods and for- 
wards them into Belgium by way of the Scheldt or the 
Meuse, and, lastly, the Brussels office, by means of its delegates 
— who are American subjects — sees that the German authorities 
respect the engagements into which they have entered with the 



222 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

Governments of Spain and the United States. Services of mes- 
sengers transported by motor-car facilitate the admirably or- 
ganised work of the Brussels office. 

The " National Committee for Relief and Alimentation " 
undertakes — by agreement with the C.R.B. — the distribution of 
provisions throughout the whole of the occupied portion of Bel- 
gium. It fulfils its mission by means of ten provincial commit- 
tees, or one per province, the tenth looking after the city and 
district of Brussels. These provincial committees, acting in 
concert with the communal administrations, ensure the distribu- 
tion of provisions in every arrondissement, taking due note of 
the number of the inhabitants and the local wants and conditions. 

The National Committee lived at first from hand to mouth, 
thanks to the small reserves which still existed in the country, 
and the small quantities of foodstuffs which it was able to pro- 
cure in Holland and in England. Then about the middle of De- 
cember, 19 14, large cargoes of foodstuffs began to arrive from 
America. 

By the 15th of July, 1915, the two Commissions had managed 
to import into Belgium 530,000 tons of wheat and flour, 50,000 
tons of rice, about 35,000 tons of bacon, and more than 750,000 
tons of other foodstuffs. 

The National Committee had at its disposal, to begin with, 
a sum of £640,000, Since then fresh funds have come into its 
possession — millions and millions of francs — principally froni 
England and the British colonies and from America. 

The National Commission assumes, in short, the tutelary 
function of the temporarily exiled State. Without replacing the 
communes, it supplements their activities in many instances. In 
particular, it assists them to make provision for the distributions 
of foodstuffs which are known by the denomination of the " com- 
munal soup." 

This " communal soup " consists of a daily distribution 
(gratuitous) of half a litre of soup and 250 grammes of bread,^ 
with a weekly distribution of 3.5 kilos of potatoes, 50 grammes 
of coffee, and 50 grammes of chicory for each person registered, 
and in winter 40 kilos of coal per household.^ 

In September, 19 14, 16.2 per cent, of the population of Brus- 
sels were receiving these gratuitous distributions. At the end of 

' 17.6 oz. of soup (a little less than a pint) and rather more than half a 
pound of bread. 

''Weekly supplies: 7J4 lb. of potatoes, 154 oz. of coffee, ij4 oz. of chicory, 
and 88 lb- of coa,l, 



IN OCCUPIED BELGIUM 223 

November the proportion was 23.8 per cent.; at the end of 
February, 19 15, it was 25.9 per cent; at the end of March it 
was nearly 30 per cent. ; and it continued to increase, so that in 
Greater Brussels alone more than 250,000 persons — a great 
number of whom are small tradesmen or clerks, drawing neither 
dividends nor salary — are at present reduced to living upon 
public charity. 

In the provinces the situation is equally lamentable. Thus a 
statement published in June, 19 15, gave the number of Belgians 
who were completely destitute and were living entirely on the 
"communal soup" as 1,500,000. To maintain them it was 
necessary to find £500,000 monthly I And the wonderful thing 
is that it was found I 

In order to avoid the moral and professional decadence of the 
thousands and thousands of artisans condemned to idleness, the 
city of Brussels, in July, 19 15, introduced a measure of compul- 
sory technical instruction for the unemployed in receipt of relief; 
and the National Committee immediately sought to extend the 
application of this beneficent measure to the entire country. 

It was decided, on principle, that all the unemployed must 
henceforth, in order to obtain relief in respect of enforced idle- 
ness, attend the classes of this new system of instruction. The 
instruction is given in French and Flemish, and comprises ele- 
mentary technology, or industrial design, hygiene, and working- 
class lesgislation. Of course, these subjects are treated in an 
exclusively practical manner. 

The teaching staff for instruction in technology has been 
recruited from among the employers and artisans of sixteen pro- 
fessional groups. Hygiene is taught by physicians, and working- 
class legislation by members of the junior Bar. 

As admirable an organisation as it is gigantic (for some 
75,000 persons devote their energies to it), this " National Com- 
mittee for Relief and Alimentation " may at a later date, when 
we have recovered the plenitude of our resources, serve as the 
foundation and framework of a new economic organisation of 
the nation. Born of the most precarious circumstances in which 
a great human collectivity has ever found itself, this organism 
might readily be adapted to happier conditions, and who knows 
but that there will then emerge from it, quite naturally, the germ 
of a highly satisfactory solution of the social question ? Then, if 
ever, we should be entitled to say: " It's an ill wind that blows 
nobody any good "1 



224 



BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 



" La Libre Belgique " 

Only German newspapers — and, what comes to the same 
thing, newspapers printed in French or Flemish under the con- 
trol of the German authorities — are authorised in occupied Bel- 
gium. Yet there is one Belgian newspaper appearing in Belgium 
— only one — La Libre Belgique. 

It is a poor little newspaper, which for excellent reasons has 
no " special wire " at its disposal, nor has it any connection with 
any international news agency. Its means of information, on 
account of the " wall of blood," are infinitely more limited than 
were those even of the founders of the first printed news-sheets 
four hundred years ago. But in the absence of news from the 
outer world it offers its readers cheerful and witty sarcasms con- 



NUMtRO iO 



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AOut.in$ 



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BUREAtlJt rr ADMn«ISTRATION 

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dim une cave lutomobilr. 



ANNONCES 1 Ln ifUiei tuu gullu in* 
lA'domioittOD iTIcinindc. mu» tvou MtppifaA 
It pajre d'anupAccs CI coDHlttou 4 not clieau 
it (tf server leur irfe&i pour in ttnpf i6«llleBfi. 



cerning the present regime, and while it nourishes their good 
humour it also sustains their optimism. 

" Not submitting itself to any censorship," La Libre Belgique 
is necessarily anonymous, and is printed on a secret press; but 
von Bissing received a copy as soon as it appeared. Some months 
ago the impertinent little sheet even published, on the first page, 
a photograph — evidently " faked " — showing the Governor- 
General reading . ,. . La Libre Belgique. 

The heading — here reproduced — of this newspaper — unique 
of its kind — will dispense us from giving fuller details. We 
may add, however, that the German authorities have in vain 
promised a large reward to anyone who shall assist them to dis- 
cover the editor or editors. This reward, which was at first 
fixed at £i,ooo, is said to have been trebled of late. As though 
honour, for us, could be reduced to a question of money, of more 
or less money 1 Baron von Bissing, " Governor-General in Bel- 
gium," is assuredly a very poor psychologist! 



X 

RUIN AND WASTE AND DEVASTATION 

Some estimates made at the end of 19 14 which were as mod- 
erate as they are competent, and were the work of M. Henri 
Masson, advocate in the Appeal Court of Brussels, placed the 
material damage and devastation caused in Belgium by the 
German invasion at £220,000,000. 

A few weeks later we learned that the Germans themselves 
estimated this sum at £280,000,000. And there is every reason 
to suppose that this valuation is nearer the truth than that of 
M. Masson, for the latter was extremely moderate in his cal- 
culations, and our enemies, moreover, were obviously better in- 
formed than we as to the extent of their depredations. 

Since then there has been continuous fighting in Belgium; 
without let and without mercy the Germans have been killing 
and destroying. 

The Germans have completed the destruction of Ypres and 
DIxmude and Nieuport; and they have seriously damaged 
Furnes. The Yser is bordered with ruins (56) ; to a great dis- 
tance on either side of it farmhouses and cottages, windmills and 
inns, have been demolished (53) ; certain villages are now no 
more than heaps of rubbish, with here and there the remains of 
a wall emerging, and I know of certain splendid chateau — which 
within were full of works of art, and were surrounded by magni- 
ficent parks — of which nothing is left to-day but a few stones in 
the midst of a great bare plain intersected by trenches. 

The Belgians themselves, and the Allies, have been obliged 
to bombard and destroy. Their aviators often fly over the inte- 
terior of Belgium in order to demolish railways, bridges, and 
dockyards by means of their bombs. In order to dislodge or 
annoy the enemy the Allies have bombarded one by one, from the 
sea, all the large towns upon the Belgian coast, and they have se- 
riously damaged the naval establishment at Zeebrugge, lately 
created at a cost of millions of francs. Our friends and our- 
selves are under the cruel necessity of assisting in the destruc- 

325 



226 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

tion of our poor Belgium — a cruel but unavoidable necessity, 
against which we must bravely and stoically harden our hearts. 

And, alas, the end is not yet ! 

If we were to estimate this recent havoc, and that caused in 
our fields by inundation and in our woods and forests by brutal 
felling; if we were to make a return of the innumerable requisi- 
tions which the Germans have not paid for, and of the war con- 
tributions and fines which we have been forced to pay them, and 
also that of all the sums which have been extorted from us un- 
der the most varied pretexts, or simply stolen; if we were to 
estimate the total of the losses caused by the stagnation of busi- 
ness, taking into account the great length of time which will be 
required to restore it to its former activity; if we were to esti- 
mate all this loss and arrive at the total, we should, I am con- 
vinced, obtain a figure double that to which the Germans con- 
fessed a year ago. 

If to this figure we added our military expenditure, which is 
enormous, and of which very little goes to the country, since we 
have to obtain our supplies almost exclusively from abroad; if 
we were to capitalise all that we shall have to pay, for many long 
years to come, to widows, orphans, cripples, discharged soldiers, 
and all the victims of this abominable war — we should obtain, 
unless I am greatly mistaken, a sum nearer £800,000,000 than 
£600,000,000. 

And this, of course, supposing that the war were to end 
shortly, which will certainly not be the case. 

This is the sole result, the sole definite achievement of the 
German activities in Belgium: ruin, waste, and devastation to 
the tune of perhaps a thousand million pounds ! 

How, " supermen " though they profess to be, will our ene- 
mies ever contrive to indemnify us in full — us and all the other 
victims of their tentacular politics and their demoniac Kultur? 
For that is how the horrible tragedy will end; the Germans, who 
asked for it, will have to pay the cost. The few lucid thinkers in 
their midst, the few men (without prefix) whom their tempo- 
rarily victorious militarism has not completely stupefied, are well 
aware of this, and are troubled accordingly. One of my Nor- 
wegian friends, by no means a man of ordinary calibre, nor one 
whose memory or sincerity could be regarded as suspect, in- 
formed me, on returning from a visit to Germany, that a deputy 
(Socialist, of course) had remarked to him, without circumlocu- 
tion: "We shall lose the game, and it is, at bottom, the best 



RUIN AND WASTE AND DEVASTATION 227 

thing that can happen to us (the crushing of Prussian militar- 
ism). But how shall we manage to indemnify France and Bel- 
gium? If the war were to end now, £1,000,000,000 would 
scarcely suffice." And that was in April, 1915! 

Be this as it may, they can never restore to us those young 
men who were our hope, those in the full development of their 
faculties, those thousands upon thousands of industrious citizens 
who contributed to the unparalleled prosperity of our country; 
they will not diminish, neither by millions nor hundreds of mil- 
lions, the anguish that we have suffered by their death, and by 
the death of all those women, young girls, growing boys, little 
children, and old men who were the victims of a delirious Pan- 
Germanism. 

And the works of art destroyed, and the priceless documents; 
the rarest of books, early first editions, old communal charters — » 
which were stupidly given to the flames, as so many common 
" scraps of paper " — where is the human power that can restore 
them? It would, in any case, be an insult merely to suppose that 
indemnities in hard cash could console us for their loss. 

As for certain of our towns which have been destroyed, neither 
millions nor hundreds of millions will avail to restore the ex- 
quisite charm which only the accumulation of years could ever 
have given them. Some of them there are that will never again 
recover that air and those vistas of candid picturesqueness which 
made them dear to artists, and which, no less than the artistic 
jewels with which our fathers had so munificently adorned them, 
made them infinitely precious to us. How rebuild, as they were, 
Dinant, Vise, certain parts of Louvain, Malines, Lierre, Ter- 
monde, Ypres (57), Dixmude, or Nieuport? It is not possible I 
Certain of these little Belgian cities are indeed, alas I as some 
American observed, " finished." 

It is improbable that we shall undertake to rebuild all the 
monuments destroyed. As for me, in the case of some of them 
at least I should like to see what is left made secure, and at the 
foot of these glorious remnants I should like to see a slab of 
marble, on which would be graven a chronological inscription, 
very brief, ending with these words : 

Burned by the Germans, 
The Day of , 1914 (or 1915). 



XI 
THE SOUL OF BELGIUM 

" Writing, In a tragic hour, a solemn page of our history, 
we resolved that it should be sincere and glorious." So wrote 
Cardinal Mercier more than two years ago, and he added: 
" And we shall be able to give proof of endurance for so long as 
shall be needful." 

More than two years ago! And the Belgian people, despite 
Its incessant and unspeakable sufferings, remains unconquerably 
stoical. Without faltering, it continues to " give proof of endur- 
ance." And it will be so " for so long as shall be needful." I 
will convince you of this by asking you to read its soul, the soul 
of the Belgian people. 

I will not speak now of those, whether soldiers or civilians, 
who — each In his own fashion^ but each with all his might — are 
fighting on the front or outside the occupied territory. You are 
familiar with their valour and their tenacity. You have assur- 
edly felt that this valour and this tenacity will remain such as 
they are to-day, such as they were yesterday, " for so long as 
shall be needful." And you know, for you have plainly heard 
its echoes, that fine optimism which these Belgians derive 
from their determination to conquer, and the illimitable con- 
fidence with which those who are helping them have Inspired 
them. 

But what you are not sufficiently aware of, and what I wish 
I could make you understand more fully, is the noble stoicism 
of those of my compatriots who are inside the " wall of blood " ; 
the ardent patriotism and the serene confidence of those seven 
millions of Belgians who are subjected to all the severities of a 
medlasval regime, and who, for more than two years, have been 
enduring the twofold and almost inconceivable moral torture of 
being at once deprived of encouraging news and overwhelmed 
by depressing reports. 

Try, then, to Imagine the environment in which these unhappy 
prisoners are vegetating; and then, but only then, read the fol- 

228 




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58. WHAT THE GERMANS CANNOT CONQUER. (Page 228) 



The Kaiser. — Well! you see, you've lost everything! 
The King of the Belgians.— Hot my soul! 

Sire your name will henceforth be among the greatest. To such a point are you one 
with your people, that you will in future be its symbol, its courage, its tenacity. Its 
silent suffering, its pride, its future greatness, its immortality, reside in you. Our 
inmost soul is yours. ... v5 ,, 

EuiLE Verhaeren. 



THE SOUL OF BELGIUM 229 

lowing pages, in which their admirable frame of mind is re- 
vealed. 

" For seven months," wrote in March, 1915, a certain Belgian, 
who, thanks to his peculiar circumstances and his perfect knowl- 
edge of the German tongue, had since the outbreak of the war 
been continually travelling through Belgium in every direction — 
" for seven months I have been travelling through our beautiful 
land of Belgium, from Gand to Arlon, from Liege to Mons; 
going on foot or by tram from town to town, from village to 
village. I have seen and spoken with hundreds of men of all 
classes and all parts of the country. And all these people, taken 
singly or united in groups, display a very definite frame of mind. 
To describe this new psychology we must record the incontestably 
closer union which has been formed between the different sec- 
tions of the country; there are no longer any political parties; 
there are Belgians in Belgium, and that is all; Belgians better 
acquainted with their country, feeling for it an impulse of pas- 
sionate tenderness such as a child might feel who saw his mother 
suffering for the first time and on his account. Walloons and 
Flemings, Catholics and Liberals or Socialists, all are more and 
more frankly united in all that concerns the national life and de- 
cisions for the future. 

" By uniting the whole nation In its army, by shedding the 
blood of all our Belgians in every corner of the country, by 
forcing all hearts, all families to follow with anguish the move- 
ments of those soldiers who fought from Liege to Namur, from 
Wavre to Antwerp 'or the Yser, the war has suddenly imposed 
wider horizons upon all, has inspired all minds with noble and 
ardent passions, has compelled the good will of all to combine 
and act in concert in order to defend the common interests. 

" Of these profoundly tried minds, of these wonderful ener- 
gies, now employed for the first time, of these atrocious suffer- 
ings which have brought all hearts into closer contact, a new 
Belgium is born, a greater, more generous, more ideal Belgium. 

" I invite those who doubt this to take a walk through Brus- 
sels — supposing that they do not find it too inconvenient to do 
so. Not only will they see the street-urchins imitating the pa- 
rade-step under the noses of the German officers ; but they will 
find the whole population, admirable in its dignity, implacable 
in its contempt for the enemy who holds it under the threat of 
his regiments, as disdainful of advances as they are proud when 
threatened. They will see in our trams the young girl who 



230 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

pushes into a corner the German soldiers who incommode her, 
and displays under their eyes the portrait of the King, which, at 
the risk of getting into trouble,^ she wears always, faithfully, 
pinned upon her bosom. They will see men affecting to ignore, 
or slighting, or at least avoiding the German soldier or civilian. 

" Go to Mons or into the Borinage, into the famine country, 
where, despite the admirable American organisation, people are 
still dying of starvation, of slow starvation, of an insufficient 
diet; anger and scorn are visible in the eyes of the young men, 
as in those of the women, and the Germans openly declare that 
they greatly fear the idea of retreating through these districts; 
so at the slightest disturbance they will make terrible examples 
there.^ 

" Go to Arlon, go to Namur, all along the great Belgian 
Calvary, through the martyred Ardennes ; the inhabitants have 
resumed work there, and even when they are suffering they 
cherish an invincible hope, an unshaken confidence. . . . 

" This union pf all Belgians is centred upon a name which 
all pronounce with the sincerest feeling: that of the King. How 
passionately they love their King, the Belgians of these prov- 
inces! With what idealism and affection they worship him! 
How grateful they are to him for having revealed their own 
soul to them, and for making it live so nobly in himself! 

"A few other names, too, are set above all others: that of 
the Queen, that of M. de BroqueviUe, of Cardinal Mercier, of 
Burgomaster Max. 

" The Belgium of to-day is fair to see, and those who have 
remained there are indeed the brothers and sisters of the sol- 
diers who are heroically fighting on the Yser. . . ." * 

Another testimony — among so many — to the marvellous moral 
strength of my country; I find it in a letter written from Liege : — 

^ Some Norwegian newspapers for the 4th of June, 1914, contained, in their 
evening editions, this telegram : " Berlin, 4 June. — The Comtesse Helene 
d'Ardoye, aged sixteen years, was sentenced by the courts here to three months' 
imprisonment for insulting a German officer in the grossest manner. This 
sentence is justified by the expressions employed by the delinquent, which 
testify to her absolute lack of breeding." Now we know to-day what caused 
the arrest of this ill-mannered child. A German officer — a paragon of civility, 
of course — ^having instructed Helene de Jonghe d'Ardoye to remove from her 
bodice a brooch containing the portrait of King Albert, that " King without a 
kingdom," the plucky young girl replied : " The Belgians prefer their King 
without a kingdom to an Emperor without honour ! " 

^ This prediction was realised in the summer of 1915. During a harm- 
less strike ten persons were killed by the German soldiery and thirty 
wounded. 

'XXe Sikle, i8th of March, 1915. 



THE SOUL OF BELGIUM 231 

" For the moment, apart from the humiliation of feeling that 
we are under the enemy's heel, and the fear of an always uncer- 
tain to-morrow, what have we to put up with ? Disorganisation 
of the public services, railways, posts, telephones; the lack of 
independent newspapers; the high cost of living. . . . Must 
one.be so courageous to bear this? Does it call for so much 
patriotism? Now the love of country is displayed everywhere; 
tricoloured cockades in the women's headgear, ribbons in but- 
ton-holes or on blouses, uniform buttons mounted as brooches 
or pins — that is what one sees everywhere in our streets and 
in our market-places. In the shop windows the portraits of the 
King and Queen are displayed, draped with tri-coloured rib- 
bons." ^ 

And here is an extract from a letter written in Antwerp, which 
expresses the same ideas: 

"It is cruelly melancholy here. No reliable news. 

" Things are slow. Requisitions overwhelming. Factories in 
ruins. General unemployment. Savage resignation on the peo- 
ple's part, and unshakable courage. The workers, in whose 
ranks I am constantly moving about for purposes of relief, 
advice, and in order to organise a little work, are admirably 
quiet in their frightful poverty. They are waiting for the return 
of the King, and they say : ' We shall drag his carriage from 
the frontier to the capital ! ' " 

Until that radiant day shall dawn for Belgium and her great 
King the minds of the oppressed commune in silence. 

" No clamour, no outcry, not a word, nothing that could af- 
ford a pretext for reprisals, but a splendid surge of patriotism 
and love for the heroic and beloved King, whose birthday it 
was yesterday," wrote a lady from Antwerp on the 9th of April, 
1915.^ 

"All the offijces were closed. In the street there was the 
crowd one used to see on the principal holidays in former days, 
the crowd of Shrove Tuesday or Easter Sunday or the 21st of 
July . . . but a sober, silent crowd, deeply moved, conscious 
of the tragic grandeur of the moment. 

" In button-holes, on women's bosoms, on sleeves, on hats, in 
the tresses of little girls, were tricoloured cockades, or flowers 
of three colours. Even on the beggar's rags a scrap of ribbon 

* As we saw in Chapter IX., all such manifestations are now prohibited. 
" In a letter which took three weeks to get to London. It was published in 
the Metropole, ist of May, 1915. 



232 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

gleamed, in honour of the country so sorely bruised, and of him 
who is defending it, energetically and heroically, scrap by scrap, 
inch by inch. . . . 

"Who gavb the order? No one. Who asked Antwerp for 
this striking proof of her loyalty? No one. The impulse rose 
from the very heart of the people, a people crushed by the 
weight of hostile oppression, but still admirably faithful to its 
country and its King. 

" The Germans can do us much harm, but they were powerless 
to prevent this moving festival, impressive in its calm dignity, as 
they are powerless to change the soul of the people of Antwerp, a 
proud and independent soul, passionately attached to its country 
and its dynasty, and determined to remain unshakably faithful 
to them, spite of all. . . ." 

Speaking of " the principal holidays in former days," the au- 
thor of this letter mentions the 21st of July. It was then that 
we used every year to commemorate the advent of the national 
dynasty, which took place on the 21st of July, 1831; it is our 
national festival. 

It would be superfluous to inform you that in 19 15 all free 
Belgians celebrated this patriotic festival with a quite special 
fervour. But let us see how those who are subject to the Ger- 
man yoke behaved. 

As we have seen, von Bissing forbade them, three weeks 
beforehand, to wear, expose, or exhibit the Belgian colours in 
public. 

A certain von MuUer, calling himself " Provisional Governor 
of Brussels," had further caused the following notice to be 
posted on the walls of the capital: — 

I warn the public that on the 21st of July, 1915, demonstrations of all 
kinds are expressly and strictly prohibited. 

Assemblies, processions, and the decoration with flags of public and 
private buildings also fall under the above prohibition. 

Offenders will be liable to a penalty of not more than three months' 
imprisonment and a fine which may attain a maximum of io,000 marks, 
or one of these penalties to the exclusion of the other. 

And it is probable that notices of the kind were placarded in 
other cities of Belgium. 

Now this is what happened in the four great Belgian cities on 
the 2 1 St of July of the accursed year 19 15 : — 

In Brussels the shops and cafes kept by Belgians remained 



THE SOUL OF BELGIUM 233 

closed as a sign of mourning; in the principal arteries of the city 
knots of crape were tied to the balconies. Even in the morning 
there were many people about in the central streets ; and every- 
one wore, in his buttonhole or on her bosom, some flowers and 
a button with the initials A — E (Albert — Elizabeth). At 11 
o'clock precisely, as though an order had been given, a vast 
crowd proceeded to the Place des Martyrs; sheaves of flowers 
were hung upon the corners of the monument erected there in 
memory of the combatants of 1830; a simple demonstration, 
and wholly silent, but impressively majestic. . ,. . While this 
was happening German soldiers suddenly came up, in close- 
packed ranks, with loaded rifles, and drawing after them — 
valiant fellows! — a machine-gun, which was quickly placed in 
position, they clumsily and brutally dispersed this absolutely in- 
offensive crowd, which had not made the slightest disturb- 
ance. . . . 

During this time a solemn service was celebrated in the Col- 
legiate Church of Saint Gudule, the immense building being 
entirely filled. 

Those present were quiet and meditative, but everyone had a 
sense as of something imminent. And sure enough, immediately 
after the Ite missa est, the organ struck up the Brahangonne, in 
muffled tones at first, and quite pianissimo; then, after a mas- 
terly crescendo, it burst into a thrilling hymn of glory. Then, 
irresistibly and with all their might, the enraptured crowd sang 
in chorus the last stanza of the national hymn — which might have 
been written for the occasion: 

Belgique, o Mere cherie, 
A tot nos cceurs, a tot nos bras, 
A toi notre sang, 6 Patriel 
Nous le jurons tons, tu vivras! 
Tu vivras toujours grande et belle, 
Et ton invincible unite 
Aura pour devise immortelle 
Le Roi, la Lot, la Libertel 

"It was a scene of delirium," writes a witness of this thrilling 
incident; " the thunder of the organ mingled with thousands upon 
thousands of voices shouting, ' Vive le Roi! Vive le Belgique! ' 
. . . The women waved their handkerchiefs, and the men 
their hats on the ends of their sticks. People were singing, 
shouting, weeping. . . . And when it was all over, and the 
church was slowly emptied and they were in the Place outside, 



234 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

they were still sobbing, bewildered, bruised, broken down by 
this violent emotion." 

All day and all night the German patrols traversed the city; 
but there was not the slightest trace of disorder to be suppressed. 
..." The crowd was quiet and serious," stated the " General 
Superintendent," W. Kestrauck; "nevertheless it was drawing 
the violent breath of suppressed hatred, which was burning 
within. Men walked through the streets with their fists clenched 
in their pockets." ^ 

In Antwerp, as in Brussels, cafes and shops were closed. 
Early in the morning a great sheaf of flowers, bound with a rib- 
bon of the national colours, was laid at the feet of the statue of 
Leopold I. A few of the principal streets were occupied by the 
military, and all traffic was forbidden. Everywhere else was a 
holiday crowd; but not a shout, not a cheer, lest the Germans 
should have a pretext for violence. . . . 

On the following day, on account of the tricoloured ribbon 
which accompanied the flowers placed beneath the statue of 
King Leopold, the city was condemned to pay a fine of £10,000 1 

In Liege the statue of Charles Rogier, one of the founders of 
the kingdom, was abundantly decorated with flowers of the 
communal colours, red and yellow, which formed, with the black 
base of the monument, the national colours. These flowers 
were at once removed by the German authorities. 

As for Gand, here is the edifying proclamation which one 
might have read there a few days later: 

The manner in which the population conducted itself on .the 2ist of 
July, and the exaggerated fashion in which it wore the Belgian colours, 
force me to issue the following order: 

I forbid, from this day onward, the wearing, exhibition, sale and pur- 
chase of the Belgian colours, portraits of the royal family, green leaves 
with or without inscription,^ or any other display of colours combined 
to indicate political tendencies. 

I forbid all Belgians to wear emblems, or decorations of any kind 
whatsoever. 

For every contravention of these prohibitions a maximum fine of 5,000 
marks will be inflicted, or a maximum imprisonment of five years, or both 
penalties at once. 

This order will be affixed to the walls and will come into force im- 
mediately. Lieutenant-General Graf von Westarp. 

Gand, 2Stk July, 1915. 

' Neue Freie Presse, Vienna, 22nd of August, 1915. 

" Ivy leaves, symbolical, usually bearing the device : Je meurs oil je m'attache 
("I die where I take hold"). 



THE SOUL OF BELGIUM 235 

Something finer still, something more profoundly affecting 
than the public demonstrations of which I have just given you a 
glimpse, is the proud determination of the Belgian workers to 
consent to do no work, for the Germans, their unshakable resolu- 
tion not to assist the enemy in any way or at any cost. Here 
truly we are touching on the sublime ! 

Not only have these worthy men, who are tortured by hunger, 
always proudly refused offers of the most tempting wages (rail- 
way engine-drivers have been offered as much as £2 a day) , but 
they have often endured the harshest treatment rather than con- 
sent to work, even quite indirectly, for the enemies of their 
country. 

A few examples will interest you : 

At Luttre — where there is an important State railway works 
— thirty workmen were called up by the German authorities at 
the end of April, 19 15; they were promised wages running up 
to £1 a day. All emphatically refused to resume work, which 
had been abandoned since the occupation. They were then 
imprisoned in cattle-trucks and informed that they would be re- 
leased only when they would consent to work. . . . After 
several days they were threatened with deportation to Germany, 
" where they would be jolly well forced to work, and without 
wages too I " Nothing could be done with them. . . . Then 
the threat was put into execution ; and at the moment when the 
train which carried these heroes away began to move, they, and 
all their fellow-citizens, who had hastened in a body to the sta- 
tion, shouted with all their might, "Vive la Belgiquel "... 
The train, for what reason (or caprice) we know not, did not 
go further than Namur, and there the recalcitrant workers were 
liberated. 

But a few days later a fresh attempt was made to recruit 
workers. An officer harangued the men, who had been forcibly 
conducted — there were a hundred on this occasion — to the re- 
fectory of the works: "You have nothing to fear in future," 
he told them; "the Kommandantur will give you a certificate 
stating that you have resumed work only because constrained and 
compelled. Let those who accept our conditions step two paces 
to the front! " All took a step to the rear, shouting: "Vive 
la Belgique ! Vivent nos soldats ! " 

After this incident M. Kesseler, manager of the "Atelier 
central de Luttre," was arrested in Brussels. Having been con- 
fined for two days in a cell, he was taken to the works, whither 



236 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

the men had also been escorted. Invited to exhort his hands to 
resume work, M. Kesseler confined himself to repeating to his 
men the communication which had been made to him, adding 
that he left every man free to act according to his conscience. 
Not one gave way! 

Epilogue: M. Kesseler was sent to prison at Charleroi and 
one hundred and ninety workmen were deported to Germany. A 
few weeks later sixty more were arrested and deported — 
whither, no one knows. 

At Malines similar scenes were enacted. The workers in 
the State railway works, and the whole population also, were 
subjected for eight or ten days to a perfect reign of terror. . . . 
The men remained inflexible in their decision not to serve Ger- 
many. 

At Sweveghem — in Flanders — where there is a large wire- 
drawing mill, the Germans demanded that barbed wire should 
be manufactured for them. The 350 workers at once left the 
factory. The burgomaster, the communal secretary, and even a 
senator who was there were arrested. This was on the 8th of 
June. 

Commanded to resume work, the men remained insensible 
to any sort of menace. The village was then surrounded by a 
cordon of troops, and all movement out of doors was pro- 
hibited. On the nth the men were dragged to their benches 
by force; they persisted in refusing to manufacture the barbed 
wire which was to be used for the defences of the German 
trenches. Sixty-one were sent to prison at Courtrai ; and shortly 
afterwards their wives too were thrown into prison. But still 
no barbed wire is made at Sweveghem 1 

It was the same at the " Etablissements metallurgiques de 
Seraing," where, from the general manager — the eminent Gre- 
nier, dead to-day, perhaps of a broken heart — down td the 
humblest labourer, all displayed the most admirable civic cour- 
age and a magnificent spirit of self-sacrifice: it was the same at 
the " Fabrique national d'armes," at Herstal; and the powder- 
works at Wetteren ; it was the same everywhere, in the Walloon 
country as well as in Flanders. In all Belgium there is not, so 
far, one manufacturer or one artisan or labourer who has list- 
ened to the promises or given way before the threats of the 
Germans.^ 

' These lines were already written when the Germans Issued implacable 
decrees which made forced labour absolutely unavoidable in the case of some 



THE SOUL OF BELGIUM 237 

Is not this fine? And is it not also a fine and heroic feeling 
which impels so many young Belgians to risk the obscure, stupid 
death which keeps watch for them at the frontier, in order that 
they may go to swell the ranks of our legions — may give their 
lives for their country? 

Before dropping the curtain before the " inner life " of the 
Belgian nation, I will put before you an extract from a letter 
written in the fortress of Glatz by Adolphe Max, the great 
civilian who so magnificently set an example for his fellow-citi- 
zens to follow. This letter, written to a friend, is dated the 24th 
of May, 1915 : 

" I read your letter with emotion. What a time of mourning! 
And with how many sacrifices have we had to pay for the de- 
fence of our right and our honour 1 The death of Paul Renkin,^ 
of the exquisite and charming Mme. Depage, and of Courouble's 
son,^ and that of Pierre Pirenne,* which I learn from another 
source, and of one of Levie's * sons, and of the eldest son of 
Dr. Thirias " . . . it is too much all at once. Must so many 
sorrows indeed be mingled with our hopes? Do not think me 
demoralised. The more painful the ordeal, the more I realise 
that one's duty is to harden oneself against grief and to keep 
one's eyes fixed always on the future. ..." 

* * * 

To harden ourselves against grief, and to keep our eyes fixed 
always on the future : that is what we are all doing. 

There is not at the present moment a single Belgian family 
which has not been horribly tried by this war, for which we 
were not prepared. All are mourning — in silence and in the 
very depths of their hearts — the death of those dear to them; 
all have suffered loss of property or the loss of a livelihood. 
Ask any Belgian, whether he be a minister or a modest clerk, a 
manufacturer or an artisan, a wholesale merchant or a small 
shopkeeper, a great stockbreeder or a poor tenant-farmer: ask 

hundreds of workers, whose conditions were especially unfavourable to a more 
protracted resistance ; it was a case of force majeure which in no way invali- 
dates the spirit of this chapter. 

' Son of the Minister for the Colonies. The adult sons of our Ministers are 
all at the front. A notable case is that of the five sons of the head of the 
Cabinet. 

' Courouble is one of our best writers. His pictures of life in Brussels are 
genuine little masterpieces. 

' Son of the learned historian. 

* Levie, a great manufacturer, ex-Minister of Finance. 

" An eminent surgeon. 



238 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

the widow, or the orphan, or the parents who have lost one 
or several sons, ask any Belgian, no matter whom, be he Catholic, 
Liberal, or Socialist, if he does not feel to-day that it would have 
been better to have accepted the bargain which Germany pro- 
posed to us on the 2nd of August, 19 14. There is not one who 
will not reply, without hesitation : " No, we could not have done 
otherwise than we did, and if it had to be done again we should 
do the same." 

We have a clear conscience, all of us, and this is why, beyond 
the present, which we face boldly, we discern a future full of 
fair promise. 

We Icnow that we shall triumph, and that our beautiful 
country, already morally greater than it ever was before, will 
recover in its appointed time its old material prosperity. We 
shall triumph because, with the Allies at our side, we are fight- 
ing for Justice and Liberty. We shall triumph because our un- 
failing moral strength increases our material strength a hundred- 
fold, and because " we shall succeed, so long as it is needful, in 
giving proof of endurance." 

Belgium is not dead; she will not die; she will live toujours 
grande et belle, because in her soul those virtues are flowering 
which make nations great and beautiful: a sense of honour, the 
spirit of independence, courage, and patriotism! 

Belgium will not die because she has been able to prove that 
she is a nation — " a nation which is defending itself," and which, 
according to the prediction of its great King, has compelled 
the respect of all. 



APPENDICES 
I 

Jranslation of the German Ultimatum 

Very Confidential.^ 

The German Government has received reliable information 
according to which the French forces have the intention of 
marching upon the Meuse by way of Givet and Namur. This 
information leaves no doubt as to the intention of France to 
march upon Germany through Belgian territory. The Imperial 
German Government cannot help fearing that Belgium, despite 
the best intentions, will not be in a position to repulse so con- 
siderable a French advance. In this fact lies a sufficient cer- 
tainty of a menace to Germany. 

It is to Germany an impervious duty of self-preservation to 
forestall this attack of the enemy's. 

The German Government would feel the keenest regret 
should Belgium regard as an act of hostility against her the fact 
that the measures of Germany's enemies oblige her to violate 
Belgian territory from her own side. 

In order to clear up any misunderstanding, the German Gov- 
ernment declares as follows: 

1. Germany has in view no act of hostility against Belgium. 
If Belgium consents, in the war about to commence, to assume 
an attitude of friendly neutrality in respect of Germany, the 
German Government on its own part pledges itself, when peace is 
declared, to guarantee the kingdom and its possessions in all their 
integrity ; 

2. Germany pledges herself under the condition declared to 
evacuate Belgian territory immediately peace is concluded; 

3. If Belgium observes a friendly attitude, Germany is ready, 
in agreement with the Belgian Governmental authorities, to buy 

^This phrase, whose intention it is difficult to grasp, is in French in the 
original document 

239 



240 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

for cash all that is necessary to her troops and to pay an indem- 
nity for the damage caused in Belgium; 

4. If Belgium behaves in a manner hostile to the German 
troops, and especially if she places obstacles in the way of their 
march forward by opposing to them the fortifications of the 
Meuse or by the destruction of roads, railways, tunnels, or other 
engineering works, Germany will be forced to regard Belgium 
as an enemy. 

In this case Germany will enter into no engagement in respect 
of the kingdom, but will leave the ultimate settlement of the 
mutual relations of the two States to the decision of arms. The 
German Government is justified in hoping that this eventuality 
will not take place, and that the Belgian Government will be able 
to take the appropriate measures to prevent it. In this case 
the relations of friendship which unite the two neighbour States 
will become closer and more durable. 



II 

The Civic Guard 

The Belgian Civic Guard, organised in 1831, was reorganised 
in 1897. Every Belgian citizen must serve in it between the 
ages of twenty and forty years, unless he has already performed 
his military service or has not sufficient means to pay for his 
equipment. The Civic Guard has formations identical with 
those of the Army; it is commanded by officers of whom the 
majority are ex-Army officers. Its mission is defined by Article 
I of the Act of the 9th of September, 1897 : — The Civic Guard 
is entrusted with the duty of watching over the maintenance of 
order and the laws, the preservation of the national independ' 
ence, and the integrity of the territory. 

In time of war it must furnish the auxiliary services of the 
Army: garrison service in the fortresses, the various supply 
services, the protection of communications between the fortress 
army and the field army, etc. 

The Civic Guard is active in localities having a population of 
10,000 inhabitants and in those which are fortified or commanded 
by a fortress. It is not active in other localities, where it exists, 
in a sense, " on paper " only, but where it may be called into 



APPENDICES 241 

activity if circumstances so require. In that case the Civic 
Guards thus called up for active service must wear as uniform 
a blue blouse with a brassard bearing the national colours. 

On the 4th of August, 19 14, the Civic Guard was naturally 
called up for active service all over the country. Still, the Gov- 
ernment reminded the burgomasters of the communes concerned 
that " the non-active Civic Guards called into activity constitute 
exclusively a police to maintain order and security," and that 
they must not " fire a shot." 



Ill 

Declaration of Mme. Tielemans (Widow) Concerning 
THE Happenings at Aerschot 

Mme. Tielemans, the widow of the burgomaster of Aerschot, writes to 
the Minister of State, M. Cooreman, President of the Commission of 
Inquiry : 

" The facts occurred as follows: About 4 o'clock in the after- 
noon my husband was distributing cigars to the sentinels posted 
at the gate. Seeing that the General and his aides were watching 
us from the balcony above, I advised him to return indoors. At 
that moment, glancing at the Grand' Place, where more than 
2,000 Germans were encamped, I indistinctly saw two columns of 
smoke followed by firing; the Germans were firing on the houses 
and entering them. My husband, my children, the servants, 
and I had only just time to rush to the stairs leading to the cel- 
lar. The Germans were firing even in the entrance-passages. 

" After a few moments of indescribable anxiety one of the 
aides of the General came downstairs, saying: ' The General is 
dead; where is the burgomaster?' My husband said: 'This 
will be serious for me.' As he went forward I said to the aide- 
de-camp: ' You can testify, sir, that my husband has not fired.' 
' It's all the same,' he replied; ' he is responsible.' My husband 
was taken away. My son, who was beside me, led us Into an- 
other cellar. The same aide came to tear him away from me, 
making him walk In front of him by kicking him. The poor child 
could hardly walk. In the morning, on entering the town, the 
Germans had fired Into the windows of the houses; a bullet had 



242 BELGIUM IN WAR TIME 

entered the room in which my son was, and, ricocheting, had 
wounded him in the calf. After the departure of my husband 
and my son I was taken all over the house by the Germans, who 
aimed their revolvers at my head. I was forced to see their 
dead General. 

" Then they threw us, my daughter and me, out of the house, 
without an overcoat, without anything. We were penned up in 
the Grand' Place. We were surrounded by a cordon of soldiers 
and were forced to see the burning of our dear city. It was 
then that, by the dreadful light of the conflagration, I saw for 
the last time, about i o'clock in the morning, the father and son, 
bound together. Followed by my brother-in-law, they were go- 
ing to execution. 

" These evil men took from me all that I loved, and now they 
would take away the honour of a name that I am proud to 
bear. No, sir, I cannot allow this lie to gain credit. Upon my 
honour I assure you that we no longer possessed a single weapon. 

" A price has been set upon my head; I have been forced to 
fly from village to village. Was it not in order to cause a wit- 
ness to disappear? " 



IV 

Civil Prisoners 

Extract from a note addressed on the 30th of March, 1915, by M. Da- 
vignon to the German Government, through the medium of the Spanish 
Government: 

"As far back as the 2nd of October, 19 14, the Government 
of the King . . . forwarded to the Imperial German Govern- 
ment, through the obliging offices of the United States Minister 
in Brussels, its energetic protest against the systematic removal 
from Belgium and deportation to Germany of civilians innocent 
of any participation in the war. 

" This protest was on several occasions recalled to the mind 
of the Royal Government of Spain. 

" On the 28th of February last the Imperial German Govern- 
ment handed to the Spanish Ambassador in Berlin a Note which 
was communicated to the Belgian Government, and which de- 



APPENDICES 243 

dared that: All Belgian subjects who are neither criminal nor 
suspect will receive permission to return to Belgium. 

" If we may congratulate ourselves on this result, due to the 
efficacious intervention of the Government of His Catholic 
Majesty, we cannot, however, refrain from pointing out that the 
Note of the Auswdrtiges Amt is a complete confession of the vio- 
lation by Germany of international law and the international 
Conventions. The Government of the King notes the fact that 
the thousands of Belgians now sent back to their homes were 
neither criminal nor suspect, but consequently were inoffensive 
citizens. These unfortunate people were torn from the families 
of which they were often the sole support, deported into Ger- 
many, and treated, in the course of the journey and during a 
detention of six months or more, like the vilest criminals. 

"The King's Government finds itself obliged solemnly to 
renew its former protests and to make the most emphatic stand 
against procedures which constitute a flagrant violation of Ar- 
ticle 50 of the IVth Convention of The Hague, and are a de- 
fiance of the most elementary laws of humanity. 

" Basing itself upon the very information with which the 
Imperial Government has furnished it by the communication of 
the list of Belgian prisoners of war, into which the names of 
numbers of civilians have crept, the King's Government is in a 
position to affirm that the improper procedures exposed above 
have affected Belgians of all ages, of all social conditions, be- 
longing to all parts of Belgium. In certain localities almost the 
entire male population was led into captivity. A great number 
of civilians have died in prison. . . . Five men died of senile 
debility; two others were seventy-six years of age. A woman, 
Mme. Leonie Denorme, was ' taken dead ' to the lazarette at 
Schneidemiihle. And no doubt many other unfortunate and inno- 
cent people have succumbed in analogous circumstances. 

" The Imperial German Government will bear the responsi- 
bility of these actions." 



THE END 



Important Books of the Uay 



THE CRIME By a German. Author of "/ Accuse!" 

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THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL By J. Selden Willmore 

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BELGIUM IN WAR TIME By Commandan t De GerlacheDe Gomery 

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I ACCUSE ! (j'AcgjSE!) By a German 

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THE GERMAN TERROR IN FRANCE By Arnold J. Toynbee 

THE GERMAN TERROR IN BELGIUM By Arnold J. Toynbee 

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TRENCH PICTURES FROM FRANCE By Major William Redmond, M. P. 
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A glowing book, filled with a deep love of Ireland, by one of the most attractive 
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WOUNDED AND A PRISONER OF WAR By an Exchanged Officer 
The high literary merit, studious moderation and charming personality of the. 
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SOULS IN KHAKI By Arthur E. Copping 

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BETWEEN ST. DENNIS AND ST. GEORGE By Ford Madox Hueffer 
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MY HOME IN THE FIELD OF MERCY By Frances Wilson Huard 
MY HOME IN THE FIELD OF HONOUR By Frances Wilson Huard 
Simple, intimate narratives which have taken rank among the distinguished 
books produced since the outbreak of the war. Each Illustrated. 12mo. Net, $1.35 



GEORGE H. DORAN COMEANY Publisher-^ New York 

PUBLISHERS IN AMERIC HTON 



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