Through the Iron Bars | Page 9

Belgium, under the condition, naturally, that no requisitions
should be made by the occupying power, and that a neutral commission
should control the destination of the manufactured articles." [2] Or,
more emphatically still, with Cardinal Mercier: "England generously
allows some foodstuffs to enter Belgium under the control of neutral
countries ... She would certainly allow raw materials to enter the
country under the same control, if Germany would only pledge herself
to leave them to us and not to seize the manufactured products of our
industry."
Such arguments are extraordinarily characteristic of the German mind,
as it has been developed by the war: "Let Belgium know that she is
suffering for England's sake. Let England know that, as long as she
enforces her blockade, her friends in Belgium will have to pay for it." It
is the same kind of double-edged declaration as that used on the
occasion of the Allied air-raid on Brussels. Literally speaking, it cuts
both ways. The excuse becomes a threat and the untruth savours of
blackmail. Healthy minds work by single or treble propositions. If we
did not remember that our aim is to analyse the beautiful and heroic
side of the occupation of Belgium, rather than to dwell on its most
sinister aspects, we should recognize, in this last manoeuvre, the lowest

example of human brutality and hypocrisy, the double mark of the
German hoof.
[Footnote 1: Answer of Governor von Bissing to Cardinal Mercier's
letter, Oct. 26th, 1916.]
[Footnote 2: Letter of the "_Commission Syndicale_" to Baron von
Bissing, Nov. 14th, 1916.]
* * * * *
In spite of the most authentic documents, of the most glaring material
proofs, it might be difficult to realise that the human spirit may fall so
low. It seems as if we were diminishing ourselves when we accuse our
enemies. We have lived so long in the faith that "such things are
impossible" that, now that they happen almost at our door, we should
be inclined to doubt our eyes rather than to doubt the innate goodness
of man. Never did I feel this more strongly than when I saw, for the
first time, a caricature of King Albert reproduced from a German
newspaper.
Surely if one man, one leader, has come out of this severe trial
unstained, with his virtue untarnished, it is indeed Albert the First, King
of the Belgians. His simple and loyal attitude in face of the German
ultimatum, the indomitable courage which he showed during the
Belgian campaign, his dignity, his reserve, his almost exaggerated
modesty, ought to have won for him, besides the deep admiration of the
Allies and of the neutral world, the respect and esteem even of his
worst enemy. There is a man of few words and noble actions, fulfilling
his pledges to the last article, faithful to his word even in the presence
of death, a leader sharing the work of his soldiers, a King living the life
of a poor man. When in Paris, in London, triumphal receptions were
awaiting them, he and his noble and devoted Queen remained at their
post, on the last stretch of Belgian territory, in the rough surroundings
of army quarters.
The whole world has noted this. People who have no sympathy to spare
for the Allies' cause have been obliged to bow before this young hero,

more noble in his defeat than all the conquerors of Europe in their
victory. But the Germans have not felt it. Not only did they try to
ridicule King Albert in their comic papers. Even the son of Governor
von Bissing did not hesitate to fling in his face the generous epithet,
"Lackland." [3] As soon as the last attempt to conciliate the King had
failed the German press in Belgium began a most violent and abusive
campaign against him. The _Düsseldorfer General-Anzeiger_ published
a venomous article, in which he was represented as personally
responsible for "the plot of the Allies against Germany and for the
crimes of the franc-tireurs." He was stigmatised as "the slave of
England," and it was asserted that "If he did not grasp the hand
stretched out to him by the Kaiser on August 2nd and the 9th it is only
because he did not dare to do so" (October 10th, 1914). He was said to
have "betrayed his army at Antwerp. Had he not sworn not to leave the
town alive?" And _Le Réveil_, another paper circulated in Belgium by
German propagandists, announced solemnly that, once on the Yser, the
King wanted to sign a separate peace with Germany, but England had
forbidden him to do so. The Hamburger Nachrichten, the Vossische
Zeitung and the Frankfurter Zeitung repeated without scruple this
tissue of gross calumnies. The Deutsche Soldatenpost, edited specially
for the German soldiers in Belgium, went even a