The intrigues of the "Council of Flanders" are merely a comedy intended to mask this policy. The policy rests upon a clever juggling with the question of languages. Under cover of the principle of free self-determination of peoples, it seeks to internationalize an internal problem in the hope of dislocating the Belgian nationality. Perhaps it also aims at the creation of a fictitious Government which shall furnish the German Government with the means for opening fallacious peace negotiations to deceive the world and weaken the cohesion of the Allies. Many German newspapers have allowed these aims to appear, and some have boldly unveiled them. ALL BELGIUM PROTESTS But the strong protests of Flemish communities and of the entire Belgian Nation have foiled these plans, and the news coming from the occupied region enables us to determine with precision the character of the rôle played by the "Council of Flanders." At the same time it attests the determination of the Belgian people to repel all foreign interference and to maintain its unity unshaken. What is this "Council of Flanders"? It has no representative character. It was created by a private assembly which had no mandate from the people. It now pretends to seek popular sanction through an election. This is only a subterfuge. There has been no election. There has been no consultation of the people. The promoters have limited themselves to assembling groups of adherents in theatres or restaurants, and causing gatherings composed of their proselytes, with an admixture of the curious and the idle, to vote on lists of candidates previously arranged in the private offices of those who are directing the work. The Deputies and Senators, in a protest to the Chancellor, thus denounced the pretense of an election that was organized in Brussels: A meeting was called at a day's notice in an exhibition hall. Everybody entered who wished to, Belgians or strangers, men, women, and children. There were in all 600 or 700 persons. It was these unknown persons, come together by chance, without control or guarantee, that in a few moments, as an interlude in a speech, proclaimed the election of twenty-two Deputies to the "Council of Flanders" and fifty-two Provincial Councilors, Such was the expression--without the knowledge of the people--of the will of the Municipality of Brussels, which has 200,000 electors and almost 1,000,000 inhabitants. PROTESTS OF CITY COUNCILS