To counteract this poison propaganda, a secret press was created at Brussels and in many other towns. The “Libre Belgique,” organized by the editor of the former Belgian paper _Le Patriote_, Mr. Jourdain, is the most celebrated of them. The Germans never succeeded in discovering the writers or the printers, but many people, suspected of taking part in the enterprise, were fined or imprisoned or deported. The most cunning device of the Germans was the so-called “activism.” They knew that, before the war, a party of Flemings, called “Flamingants,” had asked for more influence of the Flemish tongue in Belgian public life and advocated the creation of a Flemish university. Governor von Bissing tried then to sow dissension between Flemings and Walloons and to destroy the very basis of Belgian nationality itself. He took over the program of the Flamingants and created, with the help of a few traitors, a Flemish university of Ghent. Great privileges were attached to the matriculation at this Flemish-German university. The scheme did not succeed. Von Bissing went farther: he introduced administrative separation between Flanders and Wallony, and created an autonomous “Verwaltung” for Flanders at Brussels and for Wallony at Namur, with separated ministries. In this he was helped by a score of traitors, who called themselves “activists,” and who were particularly attracted by bribes and high positions offered by the Germans. They formed a so-called “Council for Flanders,” whose members went even to visit the German Chancellor at Berlin. A shudder of revolt passed through the country, and the great majority of the Flemings formally condemned the “activists.” The Belgian magistrates decided to arrest the leader of the activists, Borms, who called himself the Flemish “Minister for War,” under the very nose of the Germans. Borms was arrested at Brussels, but instantly liberated by his German protectors. This clearly showed the relations of the “activists” toward the enemy, but the courageous Belgian magistrates were deported to Germany. The resistance of the Belgians was never broken, but material life was very difficult. Owing to the requisitions of horses, cattle, fruits, etc., there came a day when starvation was near. Then was founded, in October, 1914, the admirable Commission for Relief in Belgium, with Herbert Hoover at its head, who undertook the great task of revictualing Belgium during the occupation.