Not only is the Belgian population far from fraternizing with them, as they try to make the world believe, but it neglects no opportunity of proving that it is animated by very different feelings. It must be confessed that when we openly wear the Belgian or American colours it is with a double object: to advertise our attachment to our country, or our gratitude to America, and also to make the Germans furious. The little celluloid portraits of the King and Queen which one wears in the buttonhole serve the same purposes. After the Germans had imprisoned M. Max in a German prison many people displayed his portrait. This was extremely disagreeable to our enemies (_Köln. Volksz._, 30th September, 1914, morning edition); but precisely for that reason people persisted in wearing the little medallion until the German police demanded its forcible removal. When the Governor-General, in the interviews which he granted the correspondents of the _N.A.Z._ and the _Berliner Tageblatt_, pretended to regard the wearing of the Belgian or American colours as a piece of childish mischief, he was simply trying to put them off the scent, for he of all people had no illusions as to the significance of the ribbons which the Belgians are wearing in their buttonholes. This significance was as follows: The Germans pretend (1) that their armies are victorious and will remain so; (2) that they will be able to dictate their terms, and will annex Belgium; (3) that this will be easy, as the Belgians are already abandoning their provocative attitude, and are beginning to fraternize with their persecutors. For the moment we cannot reply publicly to lies 1 and 2; as to 3, any Belgian who wears a little rosette tacitly proclaims that he does not wish to be taken for a craven, and that his anti-German feelings have lost none of their keenness. Other Germans try to deceive their compatriots as to the feeling of the Belgians for their oppressors. Here is what Herr Walter Nissen says, the Bruxelles correspondent of the _Düss. Gen.-Anz._ (23rd July, 1915): "Opinion in Belgium is daily becoming more conciliatory. Belgium may, for the moment, be compared with a woman who is beginning to love despite herself, and who, through pride and vexation, says 'No!' as loudly as possible, for fear anyone should see what is happening to her. But one does see it, despite the ribbons of the national colours--indeed precisely on that account." Is this incurable blindness? Is it an ineradicable spirit of falsehood? Does Herr Nissen really doubt the sincerity of our anti-German manifestations? During the months he has lived in our midst he must have discovered that we do, systematically, everything we can to displease the Germans, until they issue decrees of prohibition.