Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See https://archive.org/details/2belgiansunderge00massuoft Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). A carat character is used to denote superscription. A single character following the carat is superscripted (example: XX^e). Multiple superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets (example: R^{do}). BELGIANS UNDER THE GERMAN EAGLE by JEAN MASSART Vice-Director of the Class of Sciences in the Royal Academy of Belgium Translated by Bernard Miall London T. Fisher Unwin Ltd. Adelphi Terrace First published June 1916 (All rights reserved) PREFACE These pages were written in Belgium between the 4th August, 1914, and the 15th August, 1915. I employed in this work only those books and periodicals which entered the country, whether secretly or openly, and which every one, therefore, can procure. But to drive conviction into the reader's mind I have observed a rule of selection in using these documents: I have used those exclusively which are of German origin, or which are censored by the Germans. They are-- (A) German posters exposed in Belgium. (B) Books and newspapers coming from Germany. (C) Newspapers published in Belgium under the German censorship. (D) The _Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant_, the only foreign newspaper which has been authorized in Belgium since the beginning of the occupation. As for the Belgian _Grey Books_, the Reports of the Commission of Inquiry, and books published in Belgium, of these I used only those which were known to us in Belgium before the 15th August, 1915. In short, since I crossed the frontier I have not inserted a single idea into this book: it therefore precisely reflects the state of mind of a Belgian who has lived a year under the German domination. I have forced myself to remain as far as possible objective, in order to give my work the scientific rigour which characterizes the Reports of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry. I have simply transferred, to a domain which is new to me, the methods of my customary occupations. * * * * * Here is a list of my principal sources, with the abbreviations which denote them in the text:--