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King Albert's Book 1/6 • Tribute
2 years ago
In celebration of my birthday, I hereby honor and pay tribute to my past life and to my fellow men
Who fought side by side with me to reclaim our independence in the dark days of the great war.
•
In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
•
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them
Lest we forget.
KING ALBERT'S BOOK
A TRIBUTE TO THE BELGIAN
KING AND PEOPLE FROM
REPRESENTATIVE MEN AND
WOMEN THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
INTRODUCTION TO KING ALBERT'S BOOK
THE immediate object of this Book is to offer, in the names and by the pens of
a large group of the representative men and women of the civilised countries
a tribute of admiration to Belgium, on the heroic and ever-memorable share she
has taken in the war which now convulses Europe, and at the same time to
invoke the world's sympathy, its help and its prayers for the gallant little nation
in the vast sorrow of its present condition.
With nothing to gain by taking up arms, with no territory to annex, no commerce
to capture, no injury to revenge, having neither part nor lot in any European
quarrel, desiring only to be left alone that she might pursue the arts of peace,
Belgium found herself suddenly confronted by the choice of allowing her soil
to be invaded by a powerful neighbour on his way to destroy his enemy, or of
protecting her independence as a separate nation by the whole strength of her
armed resistance.
Although one of the smallest and least aggressive of the countries of Europe, the
daughter among the nations, Belgium, true to her lofty political idealism, chose the
latter part, not counting the cost, only realising that a ruthless crime was about to
be committed, and drawing the sword, after the sword had been drawn against her,
in defence of her honour, her national integrity, her right to be mistress in her
own house, her historic heritage of freedom and all the spiritual traditions of
her race.
In doing this during the past fateful months, Belgium has fought not only her
own battle but also the battle of France, the battle of Great Britain and the
battle of Freedom. By her brave stand against incalculable odds she has added
a new and inspiring chapter to the heroic annals of humanity and perhaps lifted
to a higher level the future destinies of man.
But she has paid a terrible penalty. Her beautiful country has been laid waste.
Her harvests, which were ripe for the gathering, have been trodden into the earth.
Her villages have been given up to the flames. Her cities have been made to
resound with the screams of shell and the cries of slaughter. Her historic monu-
ments, venerable with the associations of learning and piety, have been razed to
the ground. And, above all. Death has taken an awful toll of her manhood on
the field of battle, while multitudes of her surviving people, the very young, the
very old, the very weak, the very poor, all innocent and all helpless, have been
driven forth on the verge of winter from their smoking, blackened and outraged
homes into an exile in foreign lands from which there can hardly be any hope
that many of them will return.
No more woeful and terrible spectacle of a country in utter desolation ever came
from earthquake, eruption, or other convulsion of Nature in her wrath than has
been produced in Belgium by the hand of man. A complete nation is in ruin.
A whole country is in ashes. An entire people are destitute, homeless and on
the roads. A little Kingdom, dedicated to liberty, has
"kept the pledge and died for it."
As Belgium has thus become the martyr nation of the war, however great the
sacrifices which the other Allies have had to make, it seems reasonable to expect
that in view of her limitless and undeserved sufferings, the deepest feelings of
human nature will be stirred to an infinite pity, and that in the present dark hour
of her utmost need the world will see that it is not more important that the
material succour of food and clothing should he found for the bodies of her stricken
and impoverished people than that comfort and solace should be offered to their
souls. Therefore this book is published as the united voice of the world's gratitude
to Belgium for her unexampled heroism, and of its sympathy with her in the
heavy price she has to pay in discharging the sublime duty which Destiny laid
upon her of fighting by our side for the liberties of all.
Especially it has been intended that the present volume should address itself, as
far as possible, to the King of the Belgians, who, from his first moving appeal
to Great Britain and to France, to help him to resist the gigantic and uncon-
scionable ambition which was preparing to stalk over his country, down to the
last agony of his dauntless stand behind the fortresses of Antwerp has by his
matchless courage in Council and on the battlefield, where he makes common
cause with his soldiers in the trenches displayed some of the noblest energies of
the human character, and sustained those highest traditions of Kingship which,
among free nations, unite the people to the throne.
Such is the aim and character of this book, and if so high an object has been in
some measure achieved, it has only been by the ready and whole-hearted co-
operation of the leaders of thought, of art and of action who are prominent
throughout the world for their love of justice and freedom. There are many
thousands of such leaders in every country, fully capable of interpreting, each in
his or her own way, the immense emotion which now fills the heart of humanity
at the spectacle of Belgium's sorrows; but the exigencies of space in a single
volume have made it necessary to limit the number of contributors whom it has
been possible to invite to join in this world's tribute to the martyr nation.
With the utmost care, and not without many misgivings about illustrious names
which well-merited inclusion, a list was compiled of princes, statesmen, churchmen,
authors, artists, and composers of all civilised countries, except the countries of
our enemies, in the hope that each in his own medium, whether of word or picture
or song or story might be impelled, according as the spirit moved him, to present
his view of Belgium's sacrifice and of the measureless calamity which has
befallen her.
The result is now offered to the public in the present volume, which it is hoped
to publish in various editions, and as nearly as possible simultaneously, in most
of the countries of the authors, especially France, Russia, Italy, and America,
thus making it a work of international interest, calculated to be a moral inspira-
tion to posterity and to take its place as one of the luminous pages in the world's
history.
Never before, perhaps, have so many illustrious names been inscribed within
the covers of a single volume, but KING ALBERT'S BOOK has a significance
which even transcends its distinction. Out of the storm of battle a great new
spirit of brotherhood has been born into the world, calling together the scattered
and divided parts of it, uniting them in a single mind, a single sentiment, a single
purpose, so that here, in love of justice and in hatred of oppression, speaking in
many voices and many tongues but from only one soul, which enkindles the earth
as with a holy fire, men and women of all civilised countries have drawn closer
and clasped hands.
Nor is that everything. In sight and witnesss of this World-league of some of
the spiritual leaders of mankind, who labour for and live by peace, and in memory
of this Covenant of princes, statesmen, soldiers, sailors, teachers, preachers, and
artists of the great and historic races, signed on the desecrated altar of a little
nation's liberty, is it too much to hope that the peoples they represent may never
again, from any narrower or less noble aims, draw the sword against each other
as long as the world may last?
So be it. God grant so may it be.
But meantime it is perhaps enough that as sons and daughters of many lands,
sufferers ourselves by a fratricidal war, we should bring to Belgium, in this
solemn moment when her heart is cruelly and almost incurably wounded, the
expression of our love, our sympathy, and our imbounded admiration, as the
spiritual message of the civilised world to the suffering millions of her people, in
the midst of the ruin and desolation which still lie heavy upon her even at this
sacred Season when the holiest aspirations of humanity are towards peace on
earth and good-will to men.
Belgians, in the person of your heroic young Sovereign we salute you. The
statesmanship, the learning, the wisdom, the genius of the world lay their tribute
at your feet.
HALL CAINE
Christmas 1914
By THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
CAPABLE historians, nen of insight and research, will set themselves,
long hence, in the calmer air which distance lends, to tell afresh, for old
and young, the beginnings of this dark and devastating war. Then the
story of Belgium's steadfastness to her plighted word of honour, and her
tireless resistance to high-handed wrong — a resistance sustained with un-
conquerable courage in face of ruthless and overwhelming force — will
become one of the golden pages of the world's story. And the contem-
porary witnesses of the ennobling fidelity thus shown by the people of a
little land do well to record at the moment, as in this book, their appreciation
of a valour which was tested by a sterner strain than even Thermopylae or
Sempach knew, and remained unshaken and unsullied to the end. God
grant to these men and women, and to their children yet unborn, the grace
and power to garner hereafter, for the common good, the fruits of this
devotion to the cause of liberty and of good faith, and of whatsoever makes
life worthier of our Christian heritage.
By H. H. AGA KHAN
I DEEM it a great privilege to be associated with this tribute to King Albert,
the heroic monarch of the martyr nation. The Moslems of India and the
British Empire, loo millions in all, have watched with ever-deepening
admiration the unflinching stand of the Belgian King and people against
the unprovoked attack of a terrible foe. Had Belgium been guided by
considerations of material good and immediate interest she would have
accepted the Kaiser's promise not to molest or injure if he was allowed an
undisputed passage to the French frontier for his troops. But this easy and
inglorious course was not contemplated even for a moment. Belgium
unhesitatingly chose the path of honour and duty and made an irreparable
sacrifice of material good for moral glory. This undying record of a great
refusal has appealed to the best traditions and sentiments of Moslems in
India, whose history affords many stirring examples of readiness to lose all,
even life itself, for honour and duty. I can assure King Albert and his
glorious people that the Moslems of the British Empire fall behind no other
nation in their profound and sincere sympathy with them in the count-
less sorrows and sacrifices which constitute the imperishable glory of
Belgium.
By THE Rt. Hon. ARTHUR J. BALFOUR
I AM asked to speak of Belgium. Is it of Belgium as she is, or of Belgium
as she will one day be? If the first, my theme would be the greatest of
national tragedies, but also the noblest. Nothing that can heighten our
sympathy or move our admiration is wanting. The weakness of the victim,
the justice of her cause, the greatness of her sufferings, and her unconquer-
able soul, have moved the wonder and pity of the world. And when we
turn from the victim to the oppressor, the tragic horror deepens. We see
wrong heaped on wrong, and treachery on treachery. Faithless in designing
his schemes, brutal in executing them, he has ruthlessly trampled under
foot all laws but the law of the strongest. He knows, it seems, no other.
But the drama is not going to end with the triumph of evil. We are wit-
nessing no irremediable tragedy. Happier days are yet to come. Wrongs
have indeed been done which nothing can right; sufferings endured which
nothing can repay. Yet the time will surely come, and come soon, when
Belgium's wounds will heal, when morally and materially greater than
before, she will pursue in peace her high destiny, strong in the memories
of an heroic past, and in the affectionate esteem of all who love liberty and
admire valour.
By HIS EXCELLENCY M. PAUL CAMBON
By their heroic struggle for national independence
and their noble acceptance of the most terrible sacrifices
in defence of Right, the Belgian King and people have
earned the admiration and gratitude of the civilised
world, and have won imperishable glory.
By THE COUNT DE BENCKENDORFF
If, by the heroism displayed in the defence of her
independence, Belgium has won the admiration of the
world, all other nations owe her gratitude, that is,
all nations which value the maintenance of social
order, on which civilisation is based.
Without hesitation, she has played the part of cham-
pion of the first condition of such maintenance — the
sanctity of human obligations and of treaties, without
which the principle of the modern State would collapse.
To her everlasting glory, Belgium has remained
faithful to the most ancient traditions of her people,
and to the more modern duties that the law of nations
has imposed upon her.
By HIS EXCELLENCY KATSUNOSKE INOUYE
THE indomitable courage and patriotic ardour with which Belgium has
been exerting herself to defend her liberty and independence against the
wanton invasion of her territory by a powerful enemy has created the
greatest admiration throughout the world. In Japan, where chivalry and
patriotism reigns, Belgium's heroic defence has greatly aroused the sym-
pathy of her people, and we join in the hope that her flag, adorned anew
with glory, will in no distant future be floating again triumphantly through-
out her dominion.
By THE EARL OF ROSEBERY
IT is a privilege to write about the Belgians and their King, who have
proved once more that Kingship is not dead, and that heroism still survives.
A short time ago a young prince ascended the throne of this happy and
peaceful kingdom, the home of industry, manufacture, and commerce, the
garden of the Continent, at the gates of which stood a guardian angel armed
with the sword of Europe.
It might well seem that a career of secure
prosperity lay before him and his subjects, who, to use an old Border phrase,
were "dreading harm from no man, but only wishing to live in God's peace
and the King's." In an instant all this fair prospect was blackened. Prussia,
which had twice solemnly guaranteed the independence of the little kingdom,
suddenly poured her hosts into it, not as might be supposed to protect, but
to destroy that independence. She thought, no doubt, that the Belgians
would bow to the necessity of such overwhelming odds and submit to the
invaders. She mistook her men.
King Albert and his people protested
with arms in their hands. For the moment they stemmed the torrent.
Liege successfully resisted the enemy till overwhelming artillery' pounded
its forts to powder. Inch by inch the Belgians, headed by the King,
resisted, but the mass of invaders irresistibly rolled over them. Brussels
the capital and Antwerp the citadel had to be successively abandoned. At
last, almost all the kingdom was submerged, the Government had to retire
to France, the King to his unbroken army. Meanwhile the German legions
like a horde of barbarians had ravaged, plundered, and destroyed the country
they had sworn to protect. The rage of being baffled had apparently
maddened them.
For the King and his Belgians at the cost of all they
cherished had retarded the march of the invaders and nullified their plans.
For the moment, Belgium, all mapped out, as it was, for Prussian cannon,
and swarming with Prussian spies, was the bulwark of Europe and of public
law. Not the resistance at Thermopylae to the millions of Xerxes was more
splendid, and Thermopylae only involved the sacrifice of a handful of men,
while this has cost a country and a nation.
There have been three Kings of the Belgians. The first, Leopold, steered
the little kingdom with exquisite skill through dangers from within and
from without until he was hailed as the Nestor of Europe. The second
energetically sustained and developed the commerce and manufactures of
his realm with extraordinary success. But the third, Albert, has already
eclipsed his predecessors and ranks with William the Silent, the indomitable
champion of the Low Countries.
And when the Belgians return, to what will they return? The bare, ruined
remains of their smiling country. Her fields ravaged, her villages burned,
her ancient monuments, the glory of Europe as well as of Belgium, destroyed.
For long years, perhaps forever, Belgium will remain a monument of
infamy. War is a ruthless devouring monster at best. But there is chival-
rous war and there is devilish war, and the devastation of innocent Belgium
will long subsist as the capital example of the devilish. She has suffered
much in the past, she has often been the theatre of conflict, she has been the
scene of great battles under Marlborough, she contains the field of Waterloo.
But she did not know what were the fiendish possibilities of warfare till
she was invaded by a treacherous friend. There has been no desolation
like it since the Thirty terrible Years which plunged Germany into ruin.
But nearly three centuries have elapsed since then, centuries of culture,
especially of German culture, in which we hoped that we had progressed
far from the possibility of the recurrence of such horrors. We were wrong.
German culture had taken a quick turn, and left civilisation, honour, and
chivalry far behind. The fruits of that culture are mines sown broadcast
in the ocean to destroy indiscriminately enemy, neutral, or friend, and
bombs to fall on peaceful cities to kill women and children.
"By their fruits ye shall know them." The Prussians indeed have abandoned the
Christian God, and substituted the worship of a Pagan deity which they
call Force or Might; Might to supersede Right and all other moral forces.
Of this squalid idol they are fortunate enough to hold the permanent proxy;
before this Moloch, if they worship anyhing, thier chiefs bow the knee.
Its motto is Hate. Its angels are Fury, Destruction, and Rapine. It has
apparently no honour, no faith, no reverence. In its name they ravage,
massacre, and plunder. Before its shrine they burn their treaties as incense.
By its aid they hoped to subdue the world. Belgium was the first victim.
But the harrying and devastation of Belgium was only an incident. France
crushed, Russia humbled, Holland annexed were, it would seem, only the
milestones on a triumphant march to the real, supreme object, the humilia-
tion and destruction of the British Empire. Even that might not be the
ultimate aim, for, with Europe prostrate, the liberties and prosperity of
America would alarm the jealousy of the tyrant and call Moloch once more
into requisition.
How our practical and prosaic nation has earned this stealthy and masked
but determined hostility it is not easy to guess. And it is impossible to
believe that every German participates and approves of all that has been
done in their name. But in war criticism and dissent are always criminal,
and always silent.
The desolation of Belgium was, then, it appears, only an incident in this
subterranean policy. That consideration is but little solace to a ruined
nation. Their reward was to have been to become a Prussian province,
with all the liberty, independence, and happiness that that position involves;
to be in fact a second Posen or Alsace. But, as things are, their only con-
solation, bleak for the moment, but eternal, can be that they have been the
vanguard in a battle of emancipation for the human race, that they stood
forth alone and nailed to the flagstaff the simple assertion of Right as against
Might, that they have immortalised themselves and will stand eternally as
heroes. History will pay homage for all time, as we now, to the King and
the nation who sacrificed all but honour to preserve their own independence
and safeguard the liberties of Europe.
By RUDYARD KIPLING
The Outlaws
Through learned and laborious years
They set themselves to find
Fresh terrors and undreamed-of fears
To heap upon mankind.
All that they drew from Heaven above
Or digged from earth beneath.
They laid into their treasure-trove
And arsenals of death,
While, for well-weighed advantage sake.
Ruler and ruled alike
Built up a faith they meant to break
When the fit hour should strike.
They traded with the careless earth.
And good return it gave;
They plotted by their neighbour's hearth
The means to make him slave.
When all was readied to their hand
They loosed their hidden sword
And utterly laid waste a land
Their oath was pledged to guard.
Coldly they went about to raise
To life and make more dread
Abominations of old days,
That men believed were dead.
They paid the price to reach their goal
Across a world in flame,
But their own hate slew their own soul
Before that victory came.
By THE Rt. Hon. SIR EDWARD GREY, BART.
THE wrongs done to Belgium have brought home to us that we must
spare nothing and if need be must spend everything to secure justice for
her and freedom for us all.
What had the Belgians done that their country should be invaded and
ravaged? What provocation had a people given who threatened no one
and wanted nothing, but to be let alone, to govern themselves, to cultivate
their own land and to develop peaceful commerce?
Love of liberty and independence is not crushed by oppression and force,
but set off by courage and suffering becomes an inspiration to its own
generation and is exalted to an imperishable place in history.
By LORD HARDINGE, VICEROY OF INDIA
NO nation has regarded with greater abhorrence than India the series of
crimes committed by Germans against their peaceful Belgian brothers.
With the deep sympathy, felt for them by the people of India in this hour
of sorrow, is coupled their admiration of the gallant resistance of their army
against the heaviest odds. May they be comforted by the thought that
their sacrifice will not have been in vain when the oppressors of the weak
have been finally overthrown. India will never rest till Belgium's wrongs
have been avenged.
By SIR REGINALD WINGATE
ON behalf of the inhabitants of the Sudan, irrespective of race or creed,
I offer our respectful and united homage to Belgium's King, to the gallant
Belgian people and to Belgium's dead, who, in a materialistic age, have
vindicated the supremacy of an ideal and thereby have testified that the
age of heroes is indeed not past.
I have the honour of personally knowing His Majesty who came to the
Sudan shortly after his accession, stayed with us for a few days, and visited
portions of the districts south of Khartoum.
In the many talks I had with him, I was particularly struck with his high
ideals of Kingship and Government — not only of his own Belgian subjects —
but of the vast areas of the Congo Free State, in the advancement of which
he takes a most humane and absorbing interest, and which, under his
direction, have made such sensible strides in the direction of true civilisation
and progress.
By THOMAS HARDY
Sonnet on the Belgian Expatriation
I dreamt that people from the Land of Chimes
Arrived one autumn morning with their bells,
To hoist them on the towers and citadels
Of my own country, that the musical rhymes
Rung by them into space at measured times
Amid the market's daily stir and stress,
And the flight's empty starlit silent ness.
Might solace souls of this and kindred climes.
Then I awoke: and lo, before me stood
The visioned ones, but pale and full of fear;
From Bruges they came, and Antwerp, and Ostend,
No carillons in their train. Vicissitude
Had left these tinkling to the invaders' ear.
And ravaged street, and smouldering gable-end.
By THE MARQUESS OF CREWE
SALUTING with deep respect the gallant Belgians and their noble Sove-
reign, we reflect that never in the world's history has any nation, with so
slender a pretence of reason, been subjected to outrage so cruel and so
deliberate as that which has lately stirred the blood of civilised mankind.
Those who begin by tearing up a solemn engagement have not far to descend
in the moral scale before they lay an innocent country waste; but as an
English poet wrote when Lombardy was likewise trampled by a foreign
oppressor:
And though the stranger stand, 'tis true,
By force and fortune's right he stands;
By fortune, which is in God's hands.
And strength, which yet shall spring in you.
By CARDINAL BOURNE
IN all history it must be difficult to find an attack more brutal or less pro-
voked than that made in August of this year upon the Belgian people. But,
amid the untold sorrow of the weeks that have passed since then, the world
has been privileged to witness a wonderful outburst of courage and heroism
which, like the cause that has so purposelessly evoked it, is unparalleled
in the history of the nations. And the bravery of the Belgian people has
been centred and carried to its highest expression in the person of their
undaunted sovereign,
Albert the First, King of the Belgians, No tribute,
therefore, could be more acceptable to our Allies, who indeed have made
themselves at the cost of immense suffering the very saviours of European
civilisation, than that which recognises in their King the inspiring force of
a resistance to injustice which has won the admiration of the world.
By none is that tribute paid more gladly than by the Catholics of England.
To them in the sad days of religious strife and persecution Flanders gave a
generous hospitality, which with willing hearts they endeavour to repay
today. We recall how, in 1561, when the ancient Universities of our
country banished from their halls those who ventured still to maintain the
old allegiance to the Holy See, it was at Louvain that the exiles found a
new home of learning, and set up therein two houses, to one of which they
gave the name of Oxford, and the other they called Cambridge.
In more recent happier times it is in Belgium that so many of our fellow-
countrymen have seen for the first time in action the living practice of the
Catholic Faith. It is to Belgium again that, often first among foreign lands,
they have turned their steps, when they have been brought to understand
and to accept anew the authority in spiritual things of the Apostolic See
of Rome. Belgium, too, has sent to us successive generations of devoted
priests who, in town and country, have laboured with us in gathering in
the harvest that has been so plentiful since the second spring.
For these reasons, and for many others on which the grateful memories
of individuals may dwell, we join in offering to His Majesty King Albert
the tribute of our thanks and praise, of our deepest sympathy, and of our
fervent prayer that the Divine Ruler of us all may soon restore peace to
the Belgian nation, and grant it renewed life and national prosperity far
excelling all that the past has known.
By THE EARL OF HALSBURY
His Majesty the King of the Belgians
"HE has honour and courage — qualities that eagle-plume men's souls and
fit them for the fiercest sun that ever melted the weak waxen minds that
flutter in the beams of gaudy power."
By THE MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE
I AM invited to add a few words to the tribute of admiration which the
compilers of this book desire to lay at the feet of the King of the Belgians.
On August 27, when both Houses of Parliament passed unanimously
a resolution conveying to His Majesty their sympathy and admiration, I
uttered the words which are quoted below. They were but a feeble
expression of my sentiments and of the sentiments of those who listened
to them, but they were at all events spontaneous and sincere, and all that
has happened during the two months which have since elapsed has only
served to intensify the feelings which prompted them.
All who are lovers of liberty, all who can appreciate the virtue of self-sacrifice,
all who are able to admire patriotism and who entertain respect for treaty
obligations, must feel that Belgium has rendered to the civilised world a signal
service by what she has done. If she had been inspired by less glorious ideals,
if her standard of honour had been less high, it might have been easy for her to
evade these responsibilities and to escape the terrible penalties which have fallen
upon her through her observance of them. She might have urged that this
dispute had arisen over a question which was far removed from her and her
interests. She might have dwelt upon her own comparative weakness as com-
pared with the strength of the Great Powers who are engaged in this colossal
struggle.
She might have urged that events were moving so rapidly that there
was not time for her friends to range themselves at her side when the struggle
began. She might have dwelt upon the ruinous consequences to herself and to
her people of allowing the first act of this drama to be played upon Belgian soil.
But she did none of these things. She never faltered in her sense of what she
owed to her own position as an independent State. When the bribe was offered
to her she knew how to thrust it on one side. She advanced two simple pro-
positions — first, that to accept the German proposal meant the sacrifice of her
honour as a nation; second, that she felt able, in case her territory was violated,
to defend her own neutrality. My Lords, no simpler, no more dignified re-
joinder could, I venture to say, have been given to the inducements which the
German Government did not hesitate to dangle before Belgium as the price of
her dishonour.
We know how gallantly Belgium did defend the neutrality of her soil. She has
emerged from the struggle bruised but indomitable.
And I venture to think that she has come out of this, the first phase of a great
war, with a halo of reputation of which any mighty Empire might well be proud.
If we had been merely disinterested spectators of these events the conduct of
Belgium would have claimed our applause and our admiration. But we are
not mere spectators. We are the comrades in arms of Belgium, we are her
allies, we are associated with her in this vast enterprise, in which our country
has so tremendous a stake, and therefore it is that we have to offer to Belgium
not merely our admiration, but our gratitude, for the great achievement which
she has accomplished.
The noble Marquess dwelt in eloquent words upon the price which the people
of Belgium have had to pay for these great achievements. It has indeed been
a terrible price. We can, at any rate, offer to them the whole-hearted sympathy
of our people. And I will take upon myself to say this: whatever else may
happen during the course of the war — and it is a war in which there will be no
doubt stirring episodes and great feat of arms — nothing can happen which will
more affect public opinion in this country than the conduct of Belgium in this
short period of time. Whatever else is forgotten, that episode will remain
graven upon the hearts of the people of this country. I believe there is not a
man or woman within it who does not pray that in the fullness of time we
may be able to give practical proof by our deeds of the gratitude, the sym-
pathy, and the admiration which in feeble words we are seeking to express
this evening.
By THE Rt. Hon. SIR ROBERT BORDEN
FOR the crime of defending its territories against unprovoked invasion by
a Power pledged to hold them inviolate, Belgium has, with supreme fortitude,
endured sufferings and sacrifices almost surpassing the imagination and
moving all humanity to an infinite compassion.
As long as the Love of Liberty shall endure, as long as the character and
greatness of a nation shall be measured by its ideals, the valour and heroism,
the faith and devotion of the Belgian People and of their King shall dwell
in the memory of men, and shall be the exemplar and inspiration, not of
Belgium alone, but of the world.
By JOHN REDMOND
THE Irish nation has many strong and tender ties with Belgium. We owe
her a debt of gratitude for the past, and there is no nation in the world
which has been more profoundly touched than Ireland by the extraordinary
gallantry of the Belgian people and their brave Sovereign. We Irishmen
are all glad to know that men of our race have been at the front helping
Belgium to defend her integrity and independence, and Ireland sends to
King Albert an expression of her deepest sympathy and admiration.
By ALFRED NOYES
The Redemption of Europe
...donee tempia refeceris.
Under which banner? It was night
Beyond all nights that ever were.
The Cross was broken. Blood-stained might
Moved like a tiger from its lair;
And all that heaven had died to quell
Awoke, and mingled earth with hell.
For Europe, if it held a creed.
Held it through custom, not through faith.
Chaos returned, in dream and deed.
Right was a legend; Love — a wraith;
And That from which the world began
Was less than even the best in man.
God in the image of a Snake
Dethroned that dream, too fond, too blind.
The man-shaped God whose heart could break.
Live, die, and triumph with mankind.
A Super-snake, a Juggernaut,
Dethroned the highest of human thought.
The lists were set. The eternal joe.
Within us as without grew strong.
By many a super-subtle blow
Blurring the lines of right and wrong
In Art and Thought, till nought seemed true
But that soul-slaughtering cry of New!
New wreckage of the shrines we made
Thro' centuries of forgotten tears...
We knew not where their scorn had laid
Our Master. Twice a thousand years
Had dulled the uncapricious Sun.
Manifold worlds obscured the One;
Obscured the reign of Law, our stay,
Our compass through this darkling sea.
The one sure light, the one sure way,
The one firm base of Liberty;
The one firm road that men have trod
Through Chaos to the Throne of God.
Choose ye, a hundred legions cried,
Dishonour or the instant sword!
Ye chose. Ye met that blood-stained tide.
A little kingdom kept its word;
And, dying, cried across the night.
Hear us, O earth, we chose the Right!
Whose is the victory? Though ye stood
Alone against the unmeasured foe;
By all the tears, by all the blood
That flowed, and have not ceased to flow;
By all the legions that ye hurled
Back, thro' the thunder-shaken world;
By the old that have not where to rest.
By lands laid waste and hearths defiled;
By every lacerated breast,
And every mutilated child.
Whose is the victory ? Answer ye,
Who, dying, smiled at tyranny:
Under the sky's triumphal arch
The glories of the dawn begin.
Our dead, our shadowy armies march
E'en now, in silence, through Berlin;
Dumb shadows, tattered blood-stained ghosts,
But cast by what swift following hosts?
And answer, England! At thy side,
Thro' seas of blood, thro' mists of tears,
Thou that for Liberty hast died
And livest, to the end of years!—
And answer, Earth! Far off, I hear
The pceans of a happier sphere:
The trumpet blown at Marathon
Resounded over earth and sea,
But burning angel lips have blown
The trumpets of thy Liberty;
For who, beside thy dead, could deem
The faith, for which they died, a dream?
Earth has not been the same since then.
Europe from thee received a soul,
Whence nations moved in law, like men,
As members of a mightier whole.
Till wars were ended... In that day,
So shall our children's children say.
By EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON
WHATEVER the future may have in store for Belgium, her name and that
of her heroic Sovereign, King Albert, will forever shine out in history for
the noble stand which they have made on behalf of her own independence,
of international honour, and of the liberties of mankind.
For her fortitude she has paid the penalty of a suffering unequalled in modern
history, inflicted by an enemy, to whose cruelty ancient history scarcely
affords a parallel.
Nevertheless Belgium by her conduct, and still more by her example, has
rendered a priceless service to humanity, for she has once more taught the
world the sublime truth that national honour is preferable to national
security, and that, though the body may be destroyed the spirit is immortal.
For the moment a crown of thorns has been pressed down upon her temples,
but Europe, nay, the civilised world, will see to it that she is healed of her
grievous wounds; and some day, let us hope before long, she will live again
in the recovered prosperity of her people, and the admiring gratitude of
mankind.
By THE Rt. Hon. WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
AT this moment when their cities are captive, their country under the
yoke, their government and army forced into exile, the Belgian nation is
exerting an influence upon the destinies of Europe and of mankind beyond
that of great States in the fullness of prosperity and power; and from the
abyss of present grief and suffering Belgium looks out with certainty to a
future more brilliant than any which she could ever have planned.
By FREDERIC HARRISON
IT was the chief glory of ancient Athens, even when it was acknowledged
by the civilised world to stand first in poetry, art, eloquence, and grace,
that the men of Athens had been "the first to withstand and defeat the
terrible Mede in battle." So, the men of Belgium have been the first to
defy and stem the torrent over France of the German host which thought
itself invincible and went forth to domineer in Europe.
History tells us that if the millions of Xerxes could have crushed Greece
the higher civilisation of mankind would have been arrested. Just so,
modern civilisation would have been set back if the Kaiser's millions had
been suffered to make their procession along the Meuse in triumph and
could have reached Paris according to the time-table of Potsdam. France,
Britain, Europe owe an imperishable debt to Belgium, that her heroic
constancy and valour prevented this monstrous catastrophe even at the cost
of their lives, their homes, and their children.
It is the first duty of the Allies to restore the noble people who sacrificed
themselves for us—for peace—for freedom—for humanity.
In all modern history there is no example of a martyrdom by a whole
nation—so cruel—so generous—so valiant. When France, Britain, Russia
shall have crushed out this conspiracy against humanity, when militarism
is extinct in Germany—extinct forever in the world—whatever may have
been the victories and the achievements of the Allies—still for all time the
heroism of the Belgian people who "first bore the brunt of the terrible
Mede" (as the orators would say at Athens) will stand highest in the record
of valour.
By VISCOUNT ESHER
I SHOULD not have ventured to write in King Albert's Book were
it not that my father-in-law's name, "Sylvain Van de Weyer," stands
with that of Lord Palmerston at the head of the "scrap of paper," so con-
temptuously scorned by the German Chancellor.
The Belgian patriots of 1830 who offered the throne to King Leopold
would have gloried in the steadfast valour of his grandson, and in the
immortal sufferings of the nation they helped to call into being.
By THE CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS
From the depths of my soul I offer my homage to the
valiant Belgian nation and to her magnanimous
Sovereign, His Majesty Albert I.
Faced with the alternative of spurning their pledged
word or submitting to a bloody and ruinous invasion,
the King of the Belgians and his people replied:
"Death before dishonour I" In their resistance to
the iniquitous and barbarous violence of which they
arc the victims, they have struggled and are still
struggling with unconquerable courage — they endure
the worst calamities without flinching. All honour
to them!
Their heroism is worthy of the highest admiration
and their sufferings claim the sympathy of the whole
world. Soldiers fallen in vast numbers on the field
of battle, innocent creatures massacred, towns and
villages burnt to the ground, monuments destroyed,
populations exiled: such are the horrors that have
made Belgium the Martyr Nation, and stirred the
compassion of all noble hearts.
In no country is this sympathy deeper than in France.
By sacrificing herself in defence of her honour and
independence, Belgium blocked the invader's passage
when he aimed at crushing France. By so doing
she has earned imperishable rights arid the gratitude
of all French people.
They will not be ungrateful.
With the Belgians and the English, our glorious
Allies, our armies will fight to the end to drive out
the invader. We shall take it a point of honour to
come generously to the assistance of our brothers in
distress. Finally, we shall pray to the God of Justice
to uphold the cause of a people so faithful to Christ
and to His Church, and to grant them peace and
prosperity in a free land with an increased patrimony
of glory.
By PIERRE LOTI
Two Poor Little Belgian Fledglings
At evening in one of our southern tokens, a train full
of Belgian refugees ran into the station, and the poor
martyrs, exhausted and bewildered, got out slowly,
one by one, on the unfamiliar platform, where French
people were waiting to receive them. Carrying a few
possessions caught up at random, they had got into
the carriages without even asking whether they were
bound, urged by their anxiety to flee, to flee desperately
from horror and death, from unspeakable mutilation
and Sadic outrage— from things that seemed no longer
possible in the world, but which, it seems, were lying
dormant in pietistic German brains, and had suddenly
belched forth upon their land and ours, like a belated
manifestation of original barbarism. They no longer
possessed a village, nor a home, nor a family; they
arrived like jetsom cast up by the waters, and the eyes
of all were full of terrified anguish. Many children,
little girls whose parents had disappeared in the stress
of fire and battle; and aged women, now alone in the
world, who had fled, hardly knowing why, no longer
caring for life, but moved by some obscure instinct of
self-preservation.
Two little creatures, lost in the pitiable throng, held
each other tightly by the hand, two little boys obviously
brothers, the elder, who may have been five years
old, protecting the younger, of about three. No one
claimed them, no one knew them. How had they
been able to understand, finding themselves alone,
that they too must get into this train, to escape death?
Their clothes were decent, and their little stockings were
thick and warm; clearly they belonged to humble
but careful parents; they were, doubtless, the sons of
one of those sublime Belgian soldiers who had fallen
heroically on the battle-field, and whose last thought
had perhaps been one of supreme tenderness for them.
They were not even crying, so overcome were they by
fatigue and sleepiness; they could scarcely stand.
They could not answer when they were questioned,
but they seemed intent, above all, upon keeping
a tight hold of each other. Finally the elder,
clasping the little one's hand closely, as if fearing to
lose him, seemed to awake to a sense of his duty as
protector, and, half asleep already, found strength to
say, in a suppliant tone, to the Red Cross lady bend-
ing over him: "Madame, are they going to put us
to bed soon?" For the moment this was all they
were capable of wishing, all that they hoped for from
human pity: to be put to bed.
They were put to bed at once, together, of course,
still holding each other tightly by the hand, and
nestling one against the other, they fell at the same
moment into the tranquil unconsciousness of childish
slumber.
Once, long ago, in the China Sea, during the war,
two little frightened birds, smaller even than our wrens,
arrived I know not how, on board our iron-clad, in
our admiral's cabin, and all day long, though no one
attempted to disturb them, they fluttered from side
to side, perching on cornices and plants.
At nightfall, when I had forgotten them, the admiral
sent for me. It was to show me, not without emotion,
the two little visitors, who had gone to roost in his
room, perched upon a slender silken cord above his
bed. They nestled closely together, two little balls of
feathers, touching and almost merged one in the other,
and slept without the slightest fear, sure of our pity.
And those little Belgians sleeping side by side made
me think of the two little birds lost in the China Sea.
There was the same confidence, and the same innocent
slumber;—but a greater tenderness was about to
watch over them.
By THE Right Hon. DAVID LLOYD GEORGE
IT has been the privilege of little nations at different periods in the history
of the world to render some signal service to civilisation. That duty Belgium
has now been called upon to render to European civilisation, and nobly has
she answered the call.
It is her heroism that has forced Prussian Junkerdom, its character, and its
designs, into the light of day. As long as it intrigued against France, Russia,
or Britain, it might have continued to take cover under some plausible,
diplomatic pretext; but to assail Belgium it had to come into the open,
where its arrogance, its brutality, and its aggressiveness became manifest
to the world. It was Belgian valour that exposed the sinister character of
Prussian militarism, and when that menace is finally overthrown the most
honourable share in the triumph will be due to Belgian sacrifice.
This unfortunate country is now overwhelmed by the barbarian flood; but
when the sanguinary deluge subsides Belgium will emerge a great and a
glorious land which every lover of liberty will honour, and every tyrant
henceforth shun.
By EARL KITCHENER OF KHARTOUM
I SINCERELY hope that this book may accomplish its twofold object o
bearing further testimony to our admiration of the courage and devotion
to duty shown by King Albert and his Army, and of securing material help
and comforts for the Belgians who have suffered so terribly at the hands of
an invading enemy.
By FRIDTJOF NANSEN
IT is a great privilege to have obtained such an opportunity as this book
affords of expressing the deepest sympathy of the citizen of a small nation
for the gallant people and the noble King and Queen of Belgium.
It is needless to say that one's heart goes out to this people whose fate is
the most cruel tragedy of modern history. But words seem weak and of
little value when one thinks of the distress of a splendid people who have
fought so nobly and sacrificed so much for their freedom and their country.
By WILLIAM WATSON
To His Majesty King Albert
Receive, from one who hath not lavished praise
On many Princes, nor was ever awed
By Empire such as grovelling slaves applaud,
Who cast their souls into its altar-blaze,—
Receive the homage that a freeman pays
To Kinghood flowering out of Manhood broad,
Kinghood that toils uncovetous of laud.
Loves whom it rides, and serves the realm it sways.
For when Your people, caught in agony's net.
Rose as one dauntless heart, their King was found
Worthy on such a throne to have been set.
Worthy by such as They to have been crowned;
And loftier praise than this did never yet
On mortal ears from lips of mortals sound.
By THE Hon. JOSEPH H. CHOATE
UNDER the gallant lead of the heroic Belgian King, his down-trodden
and afflicted people have been fighting for liberty, and to maintain the
plighted faith of nations, which guaranteed it to them. Those who were
guilty of an awful breach of faith, confessed their crime while in the act of
committing it, and pleaded necessity, to absolve them from all law, a plea
which the whole civilised world refuses to accept.
For their bold stand for right and duty, the Belgians, guiltless of all offence,
have been overwhelmed by numbers, trampled in the dust, and reduced to
starvation, their homes destroyed, their whole country devastated and
converted into a human slaughter-house.
In this sad plight, they have deserved and are receiving the sympathy and
the helping hand of people of every civilised nation in this hour of their dire
distress.
I am glad to know that my countrymen are sending material relief to the
sufferers, and with it the hearts of our people go out to them and their
brave King, in human sympathy, unfeigned and unrestrained.
As neutrals, by international law and by our own law, our hands are tied
and will remain so. But our hearts go whither they list.
By SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY
EVERY scientific man who is not a Teuton (and I hope and trust many
who are of German race) deplores the barbarity, incredible if it were not
true, with which Belgium has been treated. We had hoped that the univer-
sality of the spread of science, both pure, and applied to industry, would
have made it impossible for any nation to revert to barbarism, and to destroy
what it has taken so many centuries to create. The scientific achievements
of the Belgians has always stood on the highest plane; to quote only two
instances, taken from my own subject, the name of Stas, in pure science,
and of Solvay, in applied science, are among the most illustrious in their
particular spheres, which the world has ever produced.
We can only extend to the Belgians our most heartfelt sympathy, and assure
them, in the person of their Sovereign, that we shall spare no effort, when
the time comes, to aid Belgium to regain that place among the nations
which she has filled with so much credit in the past. Complete restitution
of all she has lost will be impossible; but much can, and no doubt will be
done to recompense her for having, alone and unaided, repelled for a time
successfully the invasion of barbaric hordes, and enabled the progressive
races of Europe to repel the incursions of those who would subject them
to an era of retrogression in Arts, Science, and Literature.
By THE Hon. WILLIAM H. TAFT
THE heart of the world should go out to the poor people of Belgium.
Without being in any respect a party to the controversies of the war, their
country has been made the battle-ground of the greatest, and in some
respects the most destructive war in history. Any movement to relieve
their distress has my profound sympathy.
By SIR W.B. RICHMOND, R.A.
"The Crown of Peace"
Sweet Peace rises out of the flames of War which give way to her benign
Beauty: she brings with Her an immortal crown which she presents to a
Brave King and People who have saved Europe from Barbarian hordes
by their sacrifice and heroism.
Dedicated to the Great King of the Noble Belgians,
who have saved Europe from the Barbarians.
In respect,
W.B. RICHMOND
By ARNOLD BENNETT
The Return
TWENTY years ago I learnt one day by chance that the first-class return
fare from London to Ostend by steamer was only half a guinea. I had
always imagined that "the Continent" could only be visited by rich people,
—certainly not by clerks. For me it was a region beyond the borders of
my hopes for ages to come. The fact that the cost of reaching the Continent
from London was much less than half of the cost of reaching my own home
in the Midlands struck me such a blow in the back as wakes up a man dozing
on the high-road and sends him staggering forward on his way.
At the earliest opportunity I boarded the Ostend steamer, somewhere near
London Bridge, and saw, first, the marvels of the Port of London. I had
lived in London several years and never realised that it was a port—to say
nothing of being the largest port in the world. I next realised, tossing in
the small steamer at sea, that Great Britain really was an island—a fact with
which I had hitherto been only intellectually familiar, from enforced study
of a school geography. These were remarkable experiences, but they were
naught in comparison with the sensation of first seeing a foreign land. I
descried a lighthouse, a long line of pale hotels, and the grandiose outlines
of the Kursaal. I said to myself with awe:
"That is the Continent!"
It seemed fabulous, dream-like, impossible. The steamer touched the quay,
threw out ropes, and was moored. I stepped ashore. I was on Belgian
soil, the first foreign soil my feet had ever touched. I saw strange archi-
tecture, strange costumes; I heard strange sounds and strange languages.
Everything was romantic. Even the tramcar was inexpressibly romantic;
the postmen with their little horns were fantastic, and the cafés each a quaint
paradise of good cheer. I was so moved by the sheer romance of the affair
that I could not speak. I said to myself:
"I actually am on the Continent."
I could hardly believe it. It was too good, and too astounding, too over-
whelming, to be true.
Yet it was true. And after a time I grew somewhat accustomed, though
never entirely accustomed, to the feeling—though since then I have lived
on the Continent for many years.
My emotion as I first walked about in Ostend (looking no doubt a queer
enough uncouth gaping English figure) was one of the emotions that I could
not conceivably forget, one of the major formative emotions of my whole
life. And therefore, among all the cities and countries of the Continent
Ostend and Belgium hold a unique position in my souvenirs. I have gone
to Belgium frequently since then. I have entered by sea at Antwerp, and
by train from Paris, and I have sailed right into Bruges in my yacht—and
each time I have had the same thrill, recalling my first visit.
From Ostend, on that first visit, I went to Bruges, and there understood
for the first time what a historical city of art could be. Bruges was to me
incredible in its lofty and mellow completeness. It was a town in a story;
its inhabitants were characters out of unread novels ; its chimes were magic
from the skies. It had not a street that was not a vision. Even the railway-
station at Bruges had some of the characteristics of a cathedral... Thence
to Ghent, where the same kind of wondrous picturesqueness was united to
the spectacle of commerce... Thence to Brussels—the capital. What
boulevards, what parks, what palaces, what galleries, what cafés, and above
all what restaurants! The symmetry and the elegance of the civic organism!
England held nothing like it. I had imagined nothing like it.
"A continental capital!" I felt as though I could live in Brussels forever...
Thence to Malines, of the unequalled carillon. Thence to Antwerp, a kind
of complementary and utterly different sister-capital to Brussels...
Thence southwards to Roulers with its industry, and the unique Ypres,
with its cloth-hall and its ramparts... Thence to Namur, with the first
glimpse of the Meuse!... Thence to Dinant, with its cliffs and its
tower, and on to little Anseremme, where one could have a bed and four
meals and a bathe in the Meuse for four francs a day!... The whole
country was a museum of architecture, art, and history. It was full of the
amenities of civilisation. Everywhere were parks and music. In each town
was an opera, and galleries containing masterpieces.
In twenty-four days—and nights—I saw it all, with a most ridiculous in-
expensiveness, and on the evening of the twenty-fourth day I embarked at
Ostend again. I hated to leave Belgium. The prospect of plain, unpoetic
England was offensive to me. But I had to go. And when I reached
London, strange to say, I began to perceive what a wonderful place London
was. Belgium has taught me to appreciate London. Moreover there was
a peculiar feel about London and England. It was the feel of the city to its
own citizen, and of the country to its native.
And now, what I imagine is the ultimate return, by Ostend, by Zeebrugge,
by Antwerp, and by the trains from the south, of exiled Belgians into
Belgium! Their thrill will far outdo the thrill of the eager ingenuous
tourist. I imagine their gaze from the sea towards the whiteness of Ostend,
and from the Scheldt towards the steeples of Antwerp. They will pass
through emotions-at once tragic and triumphant, terrible and exquisite—
such as fate has accorded to no other people in the modern age. Confronted
by ruin and desolation, appalled by the immense task of reconstruction that
lies before them, saddened by the recollection of indescribable woe, im-
poverished and bereaved but not enfeebled, they will be heartened by the
obstinate courage which through every disaster has kept them a nation, and
by the living splendid hope of the future. Not into a museum will they
be entering, but into a house and an environment which their ancestors
and they themselves created, and of which they profoundly compre-
hend the secret significance, and which, however defaced and blackened,
they will slowly restore again to the full expression of the soul of a
nation...
And I seem to be already present at a great, unexampled, sacred occasion
of solemn rejoicing in Brussels, and to stand amid silent crowds on the
pavement of the Boulevard Anspach, while the young veterans of the Belgian
army go by, and the cannons, and the flags, and then the youthful King,
with his Queen, a crowned monarch who has earned a nation's affection
perhaps more nobly than a nation's affection ever was earned before. And
there is a vast deafening cheer, that shakes the tears out of the eyes. And
in every chastened and bursting heart lies like a miraculous solace the new-
proved conviction that righteousness prevails.
By SIR JOSEPH LARMOR
THE Belgian nation has sacrificed herself without measure, not only for the
sake of her own independence, but to assert the right of the States of Europe
each to pursue her own national development, free from the pressure of an
iron mould imposed by ruthless foreign domination. In the Middle Ages
Flanders was a centre of art and learning and industry, in a Renaissance
which vied with the revival in Italy. She has now enhanced her right to
the possession of her great monuments of the past by a new renown. The
burning light of her patriotism, now shining upon the world, has created a
new and unwavering faith in the nobility of her destiny, which the tragedy
of her present misfortunes will keep ever bright. We can look forward with
confidence to a renewed and transfigured Belgium, occupying in the future,
under her heroic dynasty, an honoured place in the family of the free nations
of Europe.
By MADELEINE LUCETTE RYLEY
To THE Victors belong the Spoils!
The Victor true is he who conquers fear.
Who knows no time save now—no place hut here.
Who counts no cost—who only plays the game,
To him shall go the prize—Immortal Fame!
To the Illustrious Ruler and his Gallant
Little Nation, whose heroism and bravery
are surely unparalleled in the whole of
our World's History, I bow my head in
respectful homage.
By THE Rt. Hon. A. EONAR LAW
IN July of this year there was no part of the world more peaceful and
prosperous than the little country of Belgium. There the monuments of
ancient art, of learning and of piety stood out in bold relief in the midst
of an industrial development which was scarcely equalled, which was no-
where surpassed in any country in the world.
In a moment, almost without warning, this smiling garden of industry was
turned into a scene ot bitterest desolation, not by a convulsion of nature
but by the cruelty of man. In a struggle which was not sought by them,
which no forbearance or wisdom on the part of their rulers could have
averted, the Belgian people, by what they have done and by what they have
endured, have won for themselves immortal fame.
But for the unexpected and heroic resistance of the small Belgian Army,
the German hosts would have hurled themselves against the French Army
before it had been mobilised. Belgium averted a terrible disaster to us and
to our Allies, but at what a cost to herself? She is for the moment a nation
without a fatherland; but the soul of the nation is living still, is living in
her brave soldiers, is living in King Albert, who has shown to the modern
world what can be done by a Hero-King.
As a nation we long for a successful end to this terrible war, which is filling
with mourning so many of our homes, but it can never end till the wrongs
of Belgium have been avenged and expiated.
By ADMIRAL LORD CHARLES BERESFORD
THE conscience of the whole civilised world is shocked at the odious
barbarities perpetrated on the gallant Belgian nation by the ruthless,
cowardly, and savage action of Germany in her efforts to smash Belgium's
independence.
The Belgians have been fighting a battle for liberty, humanity, and civilisa-
tion; they have also been fighting a battle for the French as well as the
British, and though thousands of her best have been killed and wounded,
and her civil population, including women and children, have been driven
from their homes and martyred in the cause of their country, her youth are
still fighting for justice and freedom.
When this wicked war is over, the first duty of the allies must be to enforce
every compensation that is possible from the brutal nation that has ravaged
Belgium.
Germany has scorned the laws of God and man; her fiendish savageries
have proved that German militarism is a disgrace to humanity.
Sympathy, respect, and admiration for Belgium is universal and international
in the cruel wrongs she has suffered for the cause of liberty and the rights
of small States.
Part 2