BELGIANS.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2422, 13 August 1914, Page 4

BELGIANS.

ARE A FIGHTING RACE.

The Belgians as a people are allied in language and customs and in many racial qualities to the French (writes Bert Drew in the Post). They speak the French language, and their coinage, though different in name, is virtually on the same system as that of France. I entered Belgium, cycling down from Denmark, at Turnhout, which is in a portion of Belgium not often visited by the ordinary tourist. I saw the Belgian as he is in his ordinary every-day life, not as the week-end visitors to Brussels or Ghent or 'Bruges see him, and to foe candid I was not impressed. He appeared to me naturally an -unkempt, self-con-tained, bargain-driving individual. But one could not but be impressed with the individuality, the strong personality, of these people. The Belgian fights daily for an existence in a country over-pojjulated—for Belgium is the most densely-packed country in the world. His enterprise has been exemplified in international exhibitions, and his business and commercial energy are displayed in the woollen manufactures whiph draw so largely nipon our New Zealand finer wools. His railway system is a nattern for the world. The Belgian in short is no European nonentity, and though his country ,be small, he possesses a strong desire for distinct existence, and his past history is convincing proof to any one who has followed it that he is equal to anything : Iris own weight—and that is probably all that Germany will be able to send against him with her engagements elsewhere.

Belgium is so .formed physically that Germany, of all neighbours, will find difficulty 'in entering, for though the Butch and French borders,. and the frontal portion, are low-lying and level, the portion facing Germany is, if not mountainous as we know the term, at least extremely hilly. German- probably would prefer to come down through" Holland, but could not afford to rouse the ire of that vituperate little country, too, with its nower to sting severely, remembering also that the I)utch possessions in the Southern Pacific may provide a safe neutral port for her Pacific warships and commercial vessels. Even yet, should things go well with her, Germany may make efforts to invade Holland, and thus endeavour to secure a hold over the port through which her barges and the enormous quantities of the.manufactures of. the Rhine Valley' find outlet to the world.

But at present Germany must face the cateful frontier preparations of the Belgians, and my experiences on the northern frontier suggest to me that the Germans will find facing them defences that will give them at least aidecent smell of powder. Tbeiri reported descent upon Arlon, en route to Liege, is evidently a move to secure a railway terminus, and thus distribute troops round about. But in that portion of Belgium very little dynamite will render the lines of little use. Germany will have no easy task in Belgium. "*

Next to the French the Belgian turns to the British. Englishmen are his best customers, his most frequent tourists; his close neighbour, Britain stood to him at Ramilles and' Oudeharde with Marlborough, and at Waterloo with Wellington. British arms have experienced reverses in the Netherlands, i>ut our most magnificent victories have been fought on his soil. The Belgian remembers this when he stretches Tiis hand towards Britain for help. Under the direction of the Duke of Wellington he fortified Anttwerp; following - British advice from time to time, as late as 1908, hie has altered and modernised that de-

fence till Antwerp is almost impregnable. Germany kndfrs this, and may make a dash to secure the citadel, to use it against British invasion. But the Belgians are no cowards, and no laggards, and they have long since realised how dearly does Germany long for the great maritime centre wlrich even her own ocean liners make their chief port of embarkation. Strange to say, most of her past struggles have be e n against Austria. It was only with the dawn of the eighteenth century tEat, with the aid of France., they threw off the Austrian y.oke. Prom Dover and Harwich, and the Thames, can Britain send, across her troops to Ostend and Antwerp. With the shipping available 100,000 men and guns and munitions could be landed in very" little time. Four or five hours will complete - the run across the Channel. - THE VALUE OF BELGIUM

Mr Hilaire Belloc, now a British i\i,P., but who has served in the Drench army, wrote some months ago:- "The real strategical 'frontier oi France is the Meuse river. ' The torts of JNajnur and liiege -are as much part of the "French scheme , ol fortification as those of Epinal, Toul, or Verdun. Many excellent authorities have suggested that the Germans would attempt to cross the Meuse somewhere well above N'amur, and between, that town and Verdun. But in spite of

their opinion it does not seem probable, or even ipossible, that the Germans would do anything so foolish. Much the greater part of that 80 miles is the exceedingly difficult country of the Ardenn.ee. One must know it in-

timately to be confident that any large ■foree —and nothing less than 200,000 men can. be considered —attempting an entry''through all that ill-pro-visioned, precipitous, and thicklywooded . country would be at the mercy •d'f'ai'iactive enemy upon its northern flank."