THE FUTURE OF BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 64, 8 December 1917, Page 6

THE FUTURE OF BELGIUM

WHAT THE GERMANS ARE SAYING

AMUSING PRESUMPTIONS

[Circulated by tho .Royal Colonial Institute by authority ■ of the War Office.]

It is almost amusing to note , how the German voices conthxuo to yary with regard to the future of Belgium. Tho Government itself avoids definite pronouncement, and permits tho widest possible range of opinion to bo stated freely. ■ It is probably a correct inference that tow as always forco roniains the supremo arbiter in the minde of the leaders of Germany, and that Germany will take charge of the future of Belgium precisely to the extent that the Allies permit. But it is equally clear that the German Foreign Minister is preparing tho -way for acquiescence in somotning far short of complete possession. The "Deutsche Zeitung" of September 19,' referring to von Kuhlmann's speech, calls the "relinquishment of Belgium" the greatest conceivable and world-historical defeat."

Tho. "National-Liboral Korrespondenz," one of the organs of the munition magnates, said: "It is a matter of course that Germany should have a decisive voice in the negotiations which determine the form in which Belgium shall continue to exist. It is out of the question that Germany shall ever remove her protecting hand from the Flemings." The "protecting hand" _of Germany in Belgium is a phrase which is probably a. unique achievement in cynical effrontery. "Germania," the organ of the Catholic Centro Party, prefers hypocrisy to cynicism. "Even Bethmann-Hollweg," it writes, "said that we had no thought of , annexing Belgiuin, and his successor said that no responsible authorities wished to keep Belgium." Thus there can be no question of the renunciation of Belgium, and it is merely a, question of the conditions upon which Germany will give her up." "The thief, in fact, does not propose to keep the stolen property, but merely to dispose of it for a consideration. '

The "Deutsche Tagezeitung" of September 19 unites .the question of tho possession of Belgium with the question of "freedom of the seas." ,: So long as England has ai superior Navy, the seas can never 'be said to be freo. British freedom is not German freedom, and submarines will not meet the question. The conclusion is that Germany must have ihe Flanders coast." Extra Thrones for the Kaiser.

. The "Deutsche Zoitung" of September 22 formally deposed tho King of the Belgians and put tho Kaiser in his place. "The German Empire," it wrote, "will itself hold the gate against invasion in the West as in the East. The best protector is tho King of Belgium and the King of Poland, who at present is tho Kaiser. If sovereignty and independence have evor been promised to Poland and Belgium, it is sovereignty .and independence as the Germans understand them."

Von Tirpitz, speaking at a meeting of the German National Party in Berlin on September 25, said: "According to a phrase of Frederick the Great, reputation is • a thing without price aiid gives more than might. The end of this war must therefore prove clearly to all nations that England has'not beaten us. Germany can only attain that through the right solution of the Belgian question. England knows that penectly. A really neutral Belgium never existed; Belgium was always England's bridgehead. Wo must thereforo -will that not England, but Germany;- shall be its protecting Power. This for us is a military and economic condition of existence. Can anyone after this war honestly still believe that paper treaties could protect us, or even secure our economic interests there?"

A Pan-German pamphlet is being distributed in large quantities :i!l over Germany by influential military ana official ciicles. In addition to an enormoui incumnity in money, it claims the folkwint; territorial acquisitions:— "The greater part of Belgium, tho districts of Briey and Longwy in France, the Suez Canal, the Belgian Congo, the African colonies of Portugal, the English and French colonies in tropical Africa, Madeira, the Azores, Morocco, Tunis, tho Canary Islands, Courland, Lithiuniii, .Esthonia, Liyoniafi Wilna, Kovno, and Minsk." This is "Deutschland über Alles" indeed.

With regard to the proposed acquisitions from Russia, the "Ostseo Zeituug," of Stettin, wrote on September 20:—"For iis it is _ self-evident that the soldier is the pioneer of German culture, and that our sword not only strikes but creates; after'external conquost follows internal conquest." German kultnr, brandishing a bloody sword, is precisely the evil thing that the Allies are out to destroy.

The Still Small Voice. But even among all this tall talk of Germany, now and again a voice utters some note of warning. Herr Adolf Loewe, the political ■ economy secretary of the War Economic Union, writing in the "Berliner Tageblatt" of September 20 about the problems that Germany will have to face after tho war, said:—"While happier England is preparing in all tranquillity. her oversea purchases, the last great political events, especially tho entrance of the United States with its South American suite into the war, have mado the provision of raw materials and the reestablishment of foreign trade relations moro difficult than ever for German economy. Notwithstanding all its present advantages, the submarine war, with its increasing succosses, complicates with its wholesale sinking of neutral tonnage Germany's own tonnage problem later on." Germany will find that it has complicated her problem not only in a material sense, but in a psychological sense,, for day by day the parts of the world that will be willing to trade with Germany aro getting, smaller.