... We have met by order of the German authorities to vote a war-tax; to make one word of many, we have met to furnish arms to the formidable invader of our country, to be used against our heroic little Belgian army.... We are thus assembled to vote, _by order_, a war-tax. I wish to protest--against both the form and the substance of this tax. As to the form, I regard this extraordinary session as absolutely illegal; the Provincial Councillors are not qualified to vote war-taxes affecting the whole country; moreover, the councillors of the various provinces, in concerting as to the measures to be taken in common, so to speak, which are matters beyond the scope of their jurisdiction, are committing an offence in Belgian law, which law no German decree has abrogated. As to the substance: Admitting that the German authorities have the right to levy taxes on the whole country, while our 120,000 soldiers are still in occupation of our territory, it is very certain that according to the terms of the Hague Convention no tax may be levied except for the needs of the army of occupation. What is an army of occupation? It is that which, finding itself in a conquered territory, undertakes the policing and safeguards the security of that territory. This is why it may appear legitimate for the army to force the occupied territory to support it. But our country--as Field-Marshal von der Goltz has declared, and as is perfectly obvious--our country has become the basis of military operations against the Allies. According to the spirit of the Hague Convention, there is no army of occupation, properly speaking, in our country, and in any case the 35,000 men concentrated in Namur and the artillery assembled at Liége cannot in any respects be regarded as making part of an army of occupation. It is, therefore, contrary to law and contrary to reason that these 480,000,000 frs. are demanded from the country. Are we then going to vote this formidable war-tax? Assuredly if we listened only to our hearts we should reply: No, no; 480,000,000 times no. For our hearts would tell us: We were a small nation, happy to live by its labour; we were an honest little nation, having faith in treaties and believing in honour; we were a confident little nation, and unarmed, when suddenly, violently, Germany hurled two million men upon our frontier, the greatest army that the world has ever seen, and she told us: "Betray your given word; let our armies pass that I may crush France, and I will give you gold." But Belgium replied: "Keep your gold; I would rather die than live without honour."