THE PRESS IN BELGIUM.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 January 1918, Page 6

THE PRESS IN BELGIUM.

A CLANDESTINE NEWSPAPER

One of the most subtle methods of retaliation effected by the Belgian people as a protest against the German rule, is recorded by Hugh Gibson, formerly secretary of the American Legation in Brussels, in his justpublished book, "A Journal from Our Legation in Belgium." The Belgians are getting a good deal of quiet pleasure these days from a clandestine newspaper called "La. Libre Belgique," writes Gibson. It is published almost in the shadow of the Kommandatur. It is a little fourpage newspaper that is published every now and then, and says anything it likes about the occupant. It also publishes news and texts that are barred from the censored press. It is distributed in a mysterious way that still has the Germans guessing, although they have detailed their cleverest sleuths to the task of hunting down the paper and those responsible for its publication. Every number is delivered to all the more important German officials in Brussels anc, more remarkable still, it appears without fail upon the desk of the Gov-ernor-General—in that sanctum guard ed like the vaults of the Bank of England. Sometimes it appears in the letter-box in the guise of a letter from Germany; sometimes it Is thrown in the window; sometimes it is delivered by an orderly with a bundle of official despatches; sometimes it merely appears from nowhere. But it never fails to reach the GovernorGeneral. He never fails to read it

and to wax wrath over its contents. Large rewards have been offered for information about the people who are writing and printing the paper. The Germans rage publicly, which only adds to the pleasure that the Belgians get from their little enterprise." My copy reaches me regularly and always in the same weird way as in the case of the Germans. I don't know who is my friend that sends me the paper. Whoever he is, I am much obliged.