BARBED WIT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11359, 10 April 1915, Page 9

BARBED WIT.

HOW BELGIANS ANf'OY GERMANS.

An American correspondent of "The Times," describing the presont stato of Belgium under tho German heel, says tho Belgians arc prisoners who shame, outwit, and pinprick their gaolers in a kind of warfare more efficacious than sniping, in which both sexes and all ages have become expeit through a merciless apprenticeship. Any Belgian, unless he be a Belgian official, who has dealings or social relations with a German is proscribed by his class. Should a Crorman officer sit down at the same table in a cafe or restaurant with a Belgian- the Belgian takes another seat. 11 an officer enters a train, women draw back so their garments will not touch his, as if they would escape vennin. One officer who lest his temper on such an occasion exclaimed: —"Madame, I shall not contaminate you !'' Her only reply was to look at the officer's coat and draw a litt'e further away. In the smaller towns, where the Germans are billeted in Belgian houses, of course the hosts must serve their un«

welcome guests. " Yet we manage to let them know what is in our hearts," said one woman. " Some try to _be fondly. They say they have wives ami children at home, and we say ' How glad your wives and children would be to see you! Whv don't you go home?' " Tho German officer and ©very German soldier in Belgium is the mouthpiece of propaganda for the policy which succeeded that of Louvain, after ""terrorisation had accomplished its purpose." They tell the Belgians at every opportunity that the English and"tlio French can never come to their rescue. The Allies am beaten; Paris .and Warsaw will soon fall; the Suez Canal will soon be in Turkish hands. It was tho British who got Belgium into trouble; the British who are responsible for the idleness, the penurv, the hunger, and the suffering ill Belgium to-day. 'The British used Belgium as a cat's paw; then t ; -' deserted her. But the Belgians unconvinced. A SHOP INCIDENT.

I Most of the Belgians, wearing the j Jjlack, yellow, and red. or King Al- | bort's portrait in their buttonholes.. I.pass by the German patrols or the sentries in front of public buildings without seeming to see them. W hen an 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 i as ever, and many Belgians replied >.\ i wearing a. second button with the por- | trait of the Queen, a Bavarian, bei side that of the King, or by adding tho King's portrait to the colours whero they had only worn a single emblem. At Mass in Brussels I saw an enormous Belgian flog draped oil a standard in the centre of a church. Authority might not war doivn the symbol of patriotism when safeguarded by a religious service. A German officer entering a shop to buy a. cigar and finding the King's portrait on the walls exclaimed: " Don't you k&iow that is forbidden ?" " Yes, Monsieur." "Then why do you leave it up?" "Because I love my King. Don't you love your Kaiser? You wouldn't love him any less if he were in trouble, would you.?"

j Tlie officer took his cigar, and lefi • the shop without further comment. HOW THE ARTISAN SCORES. I (Germans may force Belgians inlo | the mines, as they have at Liege, or ! to other forms of manual labour under j guards. But the bayonet fails # with j tho skilled artisans. The repairing j of a German official automobile wouki 1 hardly be risked at a Belgian garage. jTliat automobile would likely break down before it was far along the road: and how could the ollicer riding in i: prove that tho mechanic at the gar ago was responsible for the accident? Usually when skilled labour is required there are no skilled Belgians to bo found. Belgians refuse to work in tho arms factories or any other factories which produco material of war for the enemy. With their whispered satire, with lips stiff with scorn, with glances of contempt, with every resource of civilised man's wit and stubbornness, and tho force of tho .mass of their millions they are fighting while economic ruin stares them *n tho race and bread from America gives them the strength to go on. They have suffered most of all the Allies for tho Allies' cause. It looks as if they may have to starve for it. Wo come to tho problem of how a country dependent on the food brought with its industry is to live if the Allies do not break open the doors with victory.

"It does twin nearer,'' people ir. Brussels keep saying when they hear guu-j)ra. 'i'heru is something pitifuj and something tine in their confidence and loyalty. They have no doubt thaiSir John French is coming. England, they is invincible. As they see German officers in ilyiug automobiles, and as they_ obey with" their bodies but not their nunds. tiiev dream of that day when their .iving shall mount the steps oi i 1 is Palace and khaki columns inarch through the mg " lipperary." 0