BELGIUM WITHIN

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1944, Page 6

BELGIUM WITHIN

FEELING AND CONDITION OF PEOPLE. BRUSSELS, September 16. The most hated names in Brussels, as indeed they are in any occupied country, are Gestapo and b.s>. People hiss the words as they say them, for both were hated -and f eal " ed. If any person was suspected or informed against they could soon expect ‘a visit from the Gestapo ana shortly the word would go round that they had been “taken to Germany.”# No fewer than half a million ’ Belgians, it is estimated, are aow in Germany, some working in factories and others interned in concentration camps. Many people you talk with tell you that their father or brother or son were “taken away to Germany,” and they welcome any 'messes as to when the war will be Finished. Several will tell you of members of the Wehrmacht w bo were less unattractive and who _ it they were by themselves, complained bitterly about the war, but they would never talk like that in the presence of another German, for they all suspect one another. If members of the Wehrmacht were informed against, their fate was the same as that of any person of the occupied countries. A waiter who worked at a Stuugart hotel declared that it was the same in Germany. He estimated that 85 per cent, of the German people are heartily sick of the war, but they are under the control of ■party leaders who made money and live in luxury and wealth while the poorer rank and file Germans suffered. This same waiter nevertheless declared that he did not trust a single German and that while living in Germany it was best not to express any opinions, for if you uttered any of which the Germans disapproved, they quickly put you inside a concentration camp.

The Belgians are emphatic that the Gestapo and the S.S. must be wiped out entirely, and they are not particular how it is done. I heard one man declare with fierce bitterness that they should be run over by a tram first and then shot. The more you see of Brussels the more you are surprised by the comparison with conditions in England in many little ways. For instance there has been no great sugar shortage here during the war, since beetgrowing is a local industry. Sweet shops are well-stocked with unrationed supplies, ana in cafes there is an array of ice creams, sweets, cream cakes and tarts that would - make English people google-eyed could they see them. In cafes there is a wide array of aperitifs, wines and liqueurs, in addition to beer, but the prices, particularly of liqueurs, like cognac, .are staggering. Cognac, for instance, costs the equivalent of ten shillings a nip, and champagne, of which there is apparently plenty, is equally high-priced. At one party given by Belgians in celebration of their liberty, no fewer -than four’ hundred bottles of champagne were produced. Restaurant meals, when they are obtainable, are poor, but expensive, and derived from the black market. While in -England there is a considerable black market but it is considered a grave offence to buy in it, here people considered they were lucky to have it to take out their rations.

This view? was expressed by a Belgian 'who has corresponded since 1917 with Mr, Alfred Olsson, of Woodville, whom lie met in the last war. His name is George Fagel. His war-, time correspondence with. ;O ; lsson has been considerably interrupted. Nevertheless one letter reached him from New Zealand after taking two years, and a second in seven months. Fagel declared that those who cannot afford to buy in the black market suffered- severely from undernourishment.

An interesting sidelight here is a report that there was a minor engagement fought between the Germans and the Front Interior, which is the equivalent of the Maquis, on the battlefield of Waterloo, which is about 11 miles distant. There you can see a memorial of a British lion standing on a great mound of earth, which is reported to have been built by women. They took the earth from the concealed roadway in which Napoleon’s cavalry foundered and formed the mound, carrying baskets, on their- heads and knitting meanwhile. There is a huge painted panorma of Ney leading the last charge against the 'British and a bird’s-eye- view given of' the battle as it would have been seen from the top of the mound. To-day the battlefield is undulating farmland, but one or two farmhouses are still unchanged since_the day of the battle.-