CIVILISING THE BELGIANS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15748, 24 October 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

CIVILISING THE BELGIANS.

I BV lOHUXGA. ' ! j!2 (: f olmnnS pr, ' fess to J,ave a mission, I U1 rtf reorganising civilisation upon a , I higher and nobler plane. Thov have given , *• an object-lesson in l klglunl . and b w . ss, '"- v «tonwhcd that a dull-witted "'"■''' is not thereby .harmed with (in- , '"•■"' 'deals and German methods. Which . allows how greatly opinions differ. , It "'at long believed in Europe that the , Iru« lan was a half-breed, the bi-product j "1 thai vast wave of Mongolian invasion . I wl„rl, iriled westward from Asia centuries | »C". and on returns left the Mii „ var in ] Hungary , in( the p rUMian in •, 10rth . | extern i;prmai:y. This may be one of I those popular delusions win. h are as thick in t-Mk-Jorc r.s are Hies in treacle, but it I Mimesis thai thcie has always been a [general reeling that the ways of the l'rusj sinn arc not rh o ways of "the European, j and that his national peculiarities require oxplannt.n,,. |.> w wiu doubt that Pri.s- ---| siantsed (Set many has developed a civilisai >"" which is of a new and alien charac- ! '"■ Th" Ccrman professes to think that j ii is the highrst thing know,, to mankind, ■ >«« he cm, ar dlv have convinced the | Belgians ot tins, despite all his efforts.

Wo are prejudiced in the matter of civilisation, and are therefore unable to take, tho Prussian at his own estimate and valuation. \V 0 have the sumo antagonism to (bines,, peculiarities, which, 'i the. ancient belief as to the oiigin of 1 the Prussian has any foundation, are racially related to those displayed in the re. cent "civilising" of the Belgians. Chinese and Prussians have certainly much in common, far mole in common than would bo expected from mere coincidence, or as a result of i'o 0 descent of all mankind from a common ancestral type. I-etjis ecn.-ider the Chinese, whom we know to be full-blooded Mongolian, and compare him with the Prussian whom popular tradition asserts to be ii MongoImnised European : Industriallv the Chinaman is patiently industrious and painstaking. Commercially, the Chinaman is a born trader and particularly kern in adapting himself to new markets. Scientifically, the Chinaman has little imagination, hut a remarkable facullv for developing details. Politirr.lly, the Chinaman has uo sense of democracy, but instinctivelv inclines towards submission to any capable autocracy. Temperamentally, tlie Chinaman is ordinarily kindly arid casv goins with ,i latent capacity for cruelty and viciousness which is amazing. Ho "thinks that his civilisation is the greatest ever known and immeasurably superior to that of the outer heathen. Diplomatically, he > is without code; he will break a treaty j without a blush, lie without scruple trick I without shame. In all this he differs fundamentally from the Western European, but does he differ from the Prussian j The Belgians cannot think so. It would be absurd to assert that the Chinese civilisation docs not suit tho people of China., for they have evolvedit, fashioned it. shaned it". It would be equally absurd to assert that the Prussian civilisation— as it does not suit the people of Prussia proper, for they have similarly evolved it, fashioned it, shaped it. We may fairly assume, however, that it does not suit the people of the conquered Danish provinces, for where the Danes are self-governing and free they have established a civilisation which is identical with our own; nor ran it suit the conquered French provinces, for where the French are self-governing ant! free they liavo moulded a civilisation which is as brilliant, as that of Prussia is colourless, as elastic as thai of Prussia is rigid. It evidently docs not suit tho Belgians. It certainly would not suit ns. To return to the Mongolian traits of tho Prussian. If a horde of Chinese swarmed upon Auckland they would naturally rejoice in terrorising and humiliating us, in killing and in torturing the helpless, in asserting their superiority in the onlyway they know how to display it—by sheer brutal domination. They would wreck buildings which they knew we valued, destroy books and paintings which' they knew we enjoyed, for they would delight in giving us pain and would not appreciate the fact that they were depriving all our civilisation of irreplaceable things. Nothing would please them better than to run loose in Helensville. Hamilton, I Rotorua. Te Kniti. or Waihi. to entomb miners at Huntly. to throw children into burning houses 'at the Thames. Pekin newspapers and Pekin publications of I scientific standing would proclaim all the time that they were civilising our degenerate land. We should not applaud the process. Nor do tiie Belgians their actual experience of identical Prussian method:. Just what _ the Belgians think of the Prussianised Germans may be seen plainly from the wholesale exodus from Antwerp and the unanimous refusal to return from sanctuary in Holland upon the official German guarantee that civilians would not be molested. The Belgians have before them the treatment of Louvain and a hundred other cities, towns and villages. They have seen universities and churches wilfully destroyed: cities and villages keroseued and tired ; rifles and machine j suns turned on unarmed men. women and •hildren: outrage, mutilation and death the usual fate of the helpless. Thev have seen unoffending priests murdered in cold blood and on official order by these -ivilising Prussians. They have known of j nen. women and children being inarched I as a shield in limit of the invaders. If this is not the 'Hun'' ainatsd in I Europe, what is it'.' As for a German guarantee, it is a thing to make the | •wording angel weep for dishonoured I Europeans, unless, indeed, the recording ingel shrugs his shoulders and says: | What could you expect of a Prussian?'' Unless the recording angel has no tears left, having wept his eyes hot and dry ,ver this ivilising of the Belgians. Of old, they preached a crusade against '.i.. luik'. and from all Christendom men .i.'ii- armed to save Europe from being •ivilised by '.hat Mongolian horde .v) ich dominated and usurped the finer •tH-iigth and nobler civilisation of the Arabs. To-day and now, a crusade—which .v.- do not .all a (iiisade, hut its the ji.-atc-st and the truest of all ciusades — j s being preached thiough the Empire i/aiust the " civilisers" ot Belgium. ..iiin-L the brutal, vicious powerMJiat has Hi-en in Prussianised Germany, and will

| " civilise" ns all in the same .Mongolian ji. ,hiou if we let it. The fate of Belgium will h,. the rate of Britain, of New ZeaI:'lid. of every liee State m the world. ■ unless we chive the Pnissiaii ea.-l again and stamp his authority out o' Uermany. lb will "civilise" the lot of us il In, call. and Loose who like bio civilisation deserve it. We shall Mnite this heathen Prussian whatever his ancestry —smite lnni hip I and thigh, until there b no land in the i v rid so feeble and so low as to tremble ; .it ,'i Kats-i's v.ipourinc. Who;. Britain's 'million takes the held, when ;\ hundred ■ ll.i .- in,i cilooiaG s'.iaiu ii zealous nvalry I with their Old Country cousinh, when the ■.Marseillaise - hauls its way ward, and ! tin' Russian rolls west, we shall sweep the , Prussian from B-lgiuin, and over the - I,'hine, and his civilising will be known i no more in the lands ho hac defiled, or ■ nrr.(>nt: the peoples he has crushed. But j I'll v.e do this, and make loin pay his J nioiie.v-delit to Belgium, every penny of it j ■ ihoiluh the blood We 'an never I make l.irn pay--tho Belgians hunger and j must ''0 fed. are naked and must be I clothed, are sick and must he cared for. | riiey have made for us as for themselves I uie greatest sacrifice ever made l.'.v a free i people, in the cause of international free- | dom. They have been civilised" by the fjeimaii.s in our cause, and whoever, being ' against that inhuman civilisation, gives I t<, lb. m, need make in, pretence of giving I charity, for he only skives to himself, | i here arc ,c million Belgian refugees, be- | sides all the anguish and misery left in | Belgium itself. A pound will feed a | Belgian family lor nearly a week, a. shilling j will feed a Belgian for a day. How many I Belgians ato you feeding?