Belgium -- History -- German occupation, 1914-1918
After the fall of Antwerp the campaign continued. Was it not necessary
to prevent the Belgians from going to join the Allies in the direction
of Flanders? With this end in view, the Germans attempted to throw
suspicion on the conduct of the Belgian military authorities at the
time of the taking of Antwerp. It was again the _Écho de Bruxelles_
which was entrusted with the publication of the first false news.
Shortly after the accomplishment of this pleasant task, the _Écho de
Bruxelles_ disappeared for ever: doubtless it was no longer required.
As for the defamatory libels which were uttered in November and
December, in order to incriminate the conduct of the civil authorities
of Antwerp, it is not yet known by whom they were instigated, worded,
and distributed; but we have a reasonable conviction that the Germans
were not unaware of them. In any case they did what they could to
profit by this disagreement, and they also did their best--in vain--to
revive the question when the Belgians, by common accord, had settled
their differences.
But the Germans had not yet given up the idea of fomenting conflicts
among us. In an article entitled _Belgische Umstimmigkeiten_ (Change
of Temper in Belgium) the _Kölnische Zeitung_ of the 22nd November,
1914 (2nd morning edition) referred to a telegram from Berlin which
stated that news received from Breda (according to the _Berliner
Lokal-Anzeiger_) asserted that seven Belgian officers had deserted
and had there been interned. To verify this was very difficult, the
more so as in November 1914 no postal or telegraphic communication was
permitted between Belgium and Holland. The rest of the article informed
us that on the 5th November--a fortnight before their desertion--these
officers had received from King Albert the Cross of the Order of
Leopold: they had thus waited to desert until they had been made the
object of special distinction, which is at least peculiar. And then,
setting out from the Yser, they crossed the German lines to be interned
at Breda, in Northern Brabant. Strange! strange! And all this in order
to inform us that these officers, disheartened by the servile and
treacherous attitude of the King, refused again to send their men into
battle, for the sake of the English.
_Inciting the Belgians against the English._
It will be remarked that the English always receive a good share of the
venomous slime which the Germans, as M. Spitteler says, spit upon the
King, the Government, and the Belgian authorities. "England--there is
the enemy!" says the _Hassgesang Gegen England_--i.e. _Song of Hatred
of England_, the work of Herr Ernst Lissauer.
_We love but with a single love,
We hate but with a single hate;
We have one foe, and one alone--
England!_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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