Dutch frontier was closed, wherever no natural
obstacle intervened, by a continuous line of barbed wire and electrified
wire. Passports were only granted to the few people engaged in the work
of relief and to those who could prove that it was essential to the
interests of their business that they should leave the country for a
time. The postal service being reorganized under German control, any
other method of communication was severely prosecuted. At the end of
1914, several messengers lost their lives in attempting to cross the
Dutch frontier. Under such conditions it is easy to understand that, in
spite of the efforts made by the anonymous editors of two or three
prohibited papers, such as _La Libre Belgique_, the bulk of the
population was practically cut off from the rest of the world and was
compelled to read, if they read at all, the pro-German papers and the
German posters. The only wells left from which the people could drink
were poisoned.

* * * * *

The German Press Bureau in Brussels, openly recognised by the
administration and formerly the headquarters of Baron von Bissing's son,
set to work in three principal directions. It aimed at separating the
Belgians from the Allies, then at separating the people from King
Albert and his Government, and finally at reviving the old language
quarrel between Walloons and Flemings.

The campaign against the Allies, though still carried on whenever the
opportunity arises, was specially violent at the beginning, when the
Germans had not yet given up all hope of detaching King Albert from the
Alliance (August-September, 1914). It was perhaps the most dangerous
line of attack because it did not imply any breach of patriotism. On the
contrary it suggested that Belgium had been duped by the Allies, and
especially by England, who had never meant to come to her help and who
had used her as a catspaw, leaving her to bear all the brunt of the
German assault in an unequal and heroic struggle. It was accompanied by
a constant flow of war news exaggerating the German successes and
suggesting that, even if they ever had the intention of delivering
Belgium, the Allies would no longer be in a position to do so.

According to the first war-news poster issued in Brussels, a few days
after the enemy had entered the town, the French official papers had
declared that "The French armies, being thrown on the defensive, would
not be able to help Belgium in an