nd endeavour to extirpate by a reign of terror these
same feelings which they so emphatically promised to respect.

* * * * *

People who are leading a quiet life and who enjoy the blessings of an
autonomous Government will perhaps not appreciate the importance which
the Belgians attach, at the present moment, to these patriotic
manifestations. They may imagine that, so long as national life is
assured and citizens are otherwise left alone by their conquerors,
public affirmation of loyalty to King and country is of secondary
importance.

God knows that the economic situation of occupied Belgium is bad enough,
and the endless and tragic lists of condemnations and deportations are
there to prove that her people are living under the most barbarous
regime of modern times. But, even if this was not the case, anybody with
the slightest knowledge of their national character would understand the
extraordinary value which the Belgians attached to their last privilege
and the deep indignation roused by this German betrayal.

Von Bissing shrugs his shoulders and calls them "big children." So they
are. And his son, with a scornful smile, declares in the _Suddeutsche
Monatschrift_ (April 15th, 1915) that it is in "the people's blood to
demonstrate and to wear cockades." So it is. The love of processions and
public pageants of all kinds is deeply rooted in Belgian traditions.
But what does it prove? Simply that the people have preserved enough
freshness and joy of life to care for these things, enough courage and
independence to feel most need of them when they are most afflicted.
This is how they think of it: "Our bands used to pass through the
streets, shaking our window-panes with the crashing of their trombones,
our flags used to wave in the breeze--in the happy days of peace. Should
we now remain, silent and withdrawn, in the selfish privacy of our
houses, now that the country needs us most, now that we want, more than
ever, to feel that we are one people and that we will remain independent
and united whatever happens in the future?" Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von
Bissing sneers at the Belgians because on any and every pretext they
display the American colours. If they do, it is because they are not
allowed to display their own, and because they feel somehow that the
best way to show that they have still a flag is to adopt the colours of
the great country which has so generously come to their help.