TWO LANGUAGES

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4372, 5 July 1938, Page 7

TWO LANGUAGES

A BELGIAN PROBLEM The language question has become acute in Belgium since the World War, writes the Brussels correspondent of the ‘ Christian Science Monitor.’ The Belgian nation is made up of Flemings, Walloons, and a small proportion of German-speaking nationals. The Flemings are in the majority. According to the results of a recent census, 43 per cent, of Belgium’s population speaks only Flemish, 36 per cent, speaks only French, and 6 per cent, only German. These latter live in the cantons of Eupen and Malmedy, which were allotted to Belgians by the Treaty of Versailles. Finally, 15 percent. of the population declared that it spoke both French and Flemish. The Flemish movement existed before the war, but the middle classes went on speaking French. Certain intellectual elements at Antwerp, Ghent, and Bruges then started a campaign in favour of transforming the French University of Ghent into a university where all the lectures would be given in Flemish. But this movement did not enjoy the support of the masses. During the war the Germans who occupied Belgium sought to attract the leaders of the Flemish movement, and decided to carry out the administrative separation. They instituted a French administration at Namur for the Walloon population and a Flemish administration at Ghent for the Flemish section. Brussels was bi-lingual. The Belgian Government which took refuge at Havre during the war disavowed Belgian functionaries who took part in the establishment of administrative separation. During the war a few Flemish leaders started a movement in the army favouring the creation of Walloon and Flemish regiments, a reform which is to-day a fait accompli. The Flemings being more numerous than the Walloons have a greater number of representatives in Parliament. They are most active. When the Belgian Government returned to Brussels after the war it promised the Flemings the transformation of the French University of Ghent into a Flemish university, and it promised universal suffrage'to all Belgians over 21 years of age. Both promises have been kept. But the leaders of the Flemish movement were not satisfied. They wanted the Flemish tongue to be used exclusively in the schools and administrative offices of the provinces of Flanders and Antwerp. Under Flemish pressure Parliament voted a law regulating the use of the two languages throughout the country. But certain towns in the Flemish region were of the opinion that certain notices to the public should be issued both in French and Flemish. Incidents occurred which have led to a certain amount of agitation in Flanders and which have caused Parliament and the Government some preoccupation. Partisans of the suppression of all inscriptions in French go from town to town, armed with brushes and pots of paint, obliterating the French inscription of street-name indicators, Hardly have they finished in one town that they start in the next. They are fined, hut this seems to have no effect, and they just continue their exploits. In Ostend, however, the “ barbouillours,” as they are known, were hooted and jeered at by the population, which considers that in a seaside resort street indicators should be in two languages. These incidents have led to ra £h e ?’ stormv debates in Parliament, which have shown that the Flemings are determined to carry on the fight for the exclusive use of Flemish in official publications. . A large number of parents in the Flemish section of the country do not wish their children to be brought up to speak Flemish exclusively, so they send them either to boarding schools in the Walloon section or to private schools. They make great sacrifices in order to be able to do this. The Flemish movement has made great strides in Belgium, and if one looks down the ‘ Situations Vacant ’ column in the newspapers it will be seen that a knowledge of the two languages is necessary.