BELGIAN HUMOUR.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13744, 6 April 1915, Page 2

BELGIAN HUMOUR.

Belgium is developing a new humour (writes an American correspondent), a humour at the expense of the Ger- ! mans, the only kind of humour for which Belgians have any heart. In their homes they mimic their rulers freely as they please. To carry mimicry iu'.o the streets means arrest for the eldvrs, but not always for the children. You have heard tho story, which is true, of how some gamins put carrots in old bowler hats to represent the spikes of German helmets, iand at their leader's command of "On to Paris" did a goosestep backwards. There is another which you may not have heard of a small boy who put on grandfather's spectacles, a pillow under iiis coa£, and a card on his cap, "Officer of the Landsturm." The conquerors had enough sense not to interfere with the battalion which was taking Paris; but the psetido-Landsturm officer was chased into a doorway and got a cuff after his placard was taken away from him.

Most of the Belgians, wearing the black, yellow and red, or King Albert's portrait, in their buttonholes, pass by the German patrols or the sentries in front of public buildings without seeming to see them. When ar* order was issued that Belgian colours or the King's portrait should not be displayed, the next day they were as conspicuously for sale in the shops as ever, and many Belgians replied by wearing a second button with the portrait of the Queen, a Bavarian, beside that of the King, or by adding the King's portrait to the colours where they had worn only a single emblem. At Mass in Brussels I saw an enormous Belgian flag draped on a standard in the centre of a church. Authority might not tear down the symbol of patriotism when safeguarded by a religious service.

A German officer entering a shop to buy a cigar and finding the Kings portrait on the walls exclaimed: 'Don't yon know that'is forbidden?" "Yes, Monsieur." "Then why do you leave it up?" "Because I love my King. Don't you k-ve ytwr Kaiser? You wouldn't! love him any the less if he were in trouble, would you?" The officer took his cigar and left the shop without further comment. He knew that the woman who served him was thinking, "It is your privilege to buy, but as 1 sell I loathe you! I, loathe you!" What a puffing and rushing about for the Landsturm if they had tried to enforce the order against flags and buttons! No sooner would they have cleared the buttonhole of a Belgian in front than the colours would have appeared in a buttonhole at the rear. If all offenders were arrested the gaols of Germany could not hold them.

These are little things, but reflective of how the millions of unarmed wage their war. There are more vital tilings. Germans may force Belgians into tho mines, as they have.at Liege, or to other forms cf manual labour under guards. But the bayonet fails with the skilled artisan. The repairing of a German official automobile would hardly be risked at a Belgian garage. The automobile would likely break down before it was far along the road; and how could the officer riding in it prove that the mechanic at the garage was responsible for the accident? Usually when skilled labour is required there are no skilled Belgians to be found. Belgians refuse to work in the arms factories or any other factories which produce material of war for the enemy.