Government of Belgium

“ Germany does not want an enemy in Belgium. It is only by the force of events that she has been forced, by reason of the military measures of France, to take the grave determination of entering Belgium and occupying Liége as a base for her further military operations. Now that the Belgian army has, in a heroic resistance against a great superiority, maintained the honour of its arms in the most brilliant fashion, the German Government prays his Majesty the King and the Belgian Government to avert from Belgium the further horrors of war. ”

“ Belgian independence would be a shadow.
In their extremity King Albert and his Ministers turned to Great Britain. They had good reason. The independence of modern Belgium is the work of British statesmanship. Great Britain had, in 1831, initiated the Guarantee although France was the first Power to sign it, and Great Britain had always looked upon the Guarantee as a solemn obligation. “We are bound to defend Belgium,” Lord John (then Earl) Russell said in the House of Lords in explaining the policy of the Government in 1870. “I am told that may lead us into danger. ”

“ Belgium has ever been faithful to her international obligations; she has accomplished her duties in a spirit of loyal impartiality; she has neglected no effort to maintain her neutrality and to have it respected.
The attempt upon her independence which the German Government threatens would constitute a flagrant violation f the rights of nations. No strategic consideration justifies violation of right.
Were it to accept the propositions that have been put to it, the Belgian Government would sacrifice the honour of the nations and at the same time go back on its duties towards Europe. ”

“ Belgium had promised neutrality. But Germany had sent Belgium an ultimatum; and the British Government had been asked in the past week whether an assurance would satisfy it that Belgian integrity would be preserved after the war. It had replied refusing to barter away its interests or obligations in Belgian neutrality. The King of the Belgians had that day telegraphed to King George, appealing to the British Government to safeguard the integrity of Belgium. Great Britain had great and vital interests in the independence of Belgium, and integrity was the least part of that independence. ”

“ If we are unable to hold Belgium, any pro-German demonstrations in the Northern provinces may suggest the idea that it is the wish of the Flemings to be bound to the Empire and give a pretext for the annexation of Antwerp and Flanders. If even that is impossible and if we are obliged to give back his Kingdom to King Albert, we shall have sown so many germs of discontent in the country that it will be impossible for the Government to restore Belgium in her full unity and power. She will never become against us the strong bulwark of the Allies. ”

“ But Belgium has been so long accustomed, both under France and Holland, to “government interference” in the minutest concerns of the nation, even to the prejudice or supersession of individual speculation, that the habitual policy of the country may have rendered its intervention indispensible. And as the entire extent of all the lines projected, in progress, and open, will not exceed three hundred miles, and these can be completed, at a cost infinitely lower than anything that has yet been attempted in Great Britain, the undertaking is not so very gigantic as at first sight it might appear. ”

“ As soon as the Belgian army has achieved its junction with the Allies on the Yser and all communications are cut between the Government and the people, the Germans cease to consider Belgium as an occupied territory, and seize upon every pretext to treat her as a conquered country, which will, sooner or later, become part of the Empire. They no longer take the trouble to explain or justify their oppressive measures, or to reconcile them with their former promises. They simply ignore them. ”

“ If that hope is ill-founded, the Belgian Government is firmly resolved to repel by every means in its power any attempt upon its right.
England agrees to co-operate as guarantor in the defence of our territory. The English Fleet will assure the free passage of the Scheldt for the revictualling of Antwerp.
B This has been officially denied from Berlin; but the Belgians declare that priests seemed specially to be marked out for attack. It is certain that a number lost their lives. ”

“ Art. 193 The Belgian Nation adopts red, yellow, and black colours, while the coat of arms depicts the Lion of Belgium with the motto: UNITY MAKES STRENGTH. Art. 194 The city of Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the headquarters of the Federal Government. Title VIII On the revision of the Constitution Art. 195 The federal legislative power has the right to declare a warranted constitutional revision of those matters which it determines. Following such a declaration, the two Chambers are dissolved by full right. ”

“ VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. ”

“ Belgium. Conspiracy and conduct of people and Government show Belgium not entitled to independence.
(1) All well-informed people in Germany say: "Belgium must cease to exist."
(2) Impossible to take into German people with equal rights.
Rather leave with indemnity which must pay anyway. But we need the coast against England.
[Pg 337]
Belgium to be property of Empire, Kaiser its Lord:
Belgium to lose its name.
Belgium to be divided into 2 parts: Walloons and Flemish.
Kaiser's officials to govern as dictators of province.
Belgians taken into Empire to have no political rights. ”

“ The situation of the Belgian civilian population became now very peculiar. The Belgian government, which had left Antwerp together with the King, had accepted the hospitality of the French government at Havre; the King and Queen were with the troops on the Yser. There remained in Belgium, as representatives of the national power, the burgomasters or mayors of the various towns, the parish priests, and the bishops. They were to be the leaders of the oppressed population. ”

“ It is a small country of large cities. The capital is Brussels (480) , in the centre of the kingdom, but communicating with the ocean by a ship canal. The railways, canals, and river navigation are very highly developed. The government is a limited monarchy; the king, senate, and house of representatives form the constitution. There is a conscript army of 50,000 men, but no navy. Transferred from Spain to Austria in 1713. Belgium was under French sway from 1794 till 1814, when it was united with Holland, but established its independence in 1830. ”

“ As yet it has not seriously affected industry, nor threatened existing forms of government, but if the great industrial population of Belgium is eventually united into a political organization of sufficient strength to take the control of the Government out of the hands of the Clericals, Belgium is likely to become the scene of extremely interesting socialistic legislation. ”

“ Though the population of Belgium was 3,400,000 and that of Holland only a little more than 2,000,000 the two countries had equal representation in the second chamber of the states-general. Practically in all important legislative measures affecting the interests of the two countries the Dutch government were able to command a small but permanent majority. The use of the term “the Dutch Government” is strictly accurate, for the great majority of the public offices were filled by northerners. In 1830, of the seven members of the ministry only one was a Belgian ”

“ People who are leading a quiet life and who enjoy the blessings of an autonomous Government will perhaps not appreciate the importance which the Belgians attach, at the present moment, to these patriotic manifestations. ”

“ The organic whole which has made of Belgium, through its commerce and industry, its rivers, ports and railways, its agriculture and workingmen, all working together under a single Government through scores of years, an economic power of the first order, would be dissolved, artificially weakened by contradictory influences, enervated by divergent official policies. ”

“ The relations of France to Belgium are assuming a character of considerable interest and importance. The fact that most of the exiled Frenchmen found refuge in Belgium, excited the fears of the government that they would thence exert a dangerous influence upon French affairs. Strong representations were therefore made to the Belgian authorities, who have adopted every possible means of satisfying the French government, by suppressing distrusted journals, exercising strict vigilance over refugees, and ordering many of them out of the country, or away from Brussels. ”

“ Our troops have occupied Luxembourg and perhaps are already on Belgian soil. Gentlemen, that is a breach of international law. It is true that the French Government has declared at Brussels that France is willing to [360] respect the neutrality of Belgium so long as her opponent respects it. France could wait, but we could not. The wrong—I speak frankly—that we are committing we will endeavour to make good as soon as our military goal has been reached.”
The Germans motored into Belgium by three different roads. ”

“ Belgium possesses no source of national wealth at all to be put into comparison [59] with this, involving as it does, the concentrated profits both of the raw material and its manufacture, and, at the present moment, the attention of the government and the energies of the nation are directed to its encouragement in every department, with an earnestness that well bespeaks their intimate sense of its importance. ”

“ The governing aristocracy of Belgium is elective. The essential principle of the mixed government is simply a stable and legitimate order, under which the monarchy, aristocracy [pg 623] and democracy are created and sustained in the regular exercise of certain functions of government. ”

“ When the choice is between infamy and honour, I cannot doubt that her Majesty’s Government will pursue the course of honour; the only one worthy of the British people. The main thing is how we can assure Belgium, assure Europe, and assure the world that the great name we have acquired by the11 constant observation of truth and justice shall not be departed from, and that we shall be in the future what we have been in the past. ”

“ This law must be adopted by a majority vote as described in Article 4, last paragraph. Art. 138 The French Community Parliament, on one hand, and the Walloon Regional Parliament and the French linguistic group of the Brussels-Capital Regional Parliament, on the other hand, may decide of common accord and each by decree, that the Walloon Regional Parliament and Government, in the French-language region, and the Brussels-Capital Regional Parliament and it’s governing bodies in the bilingual region of Brussels-Capital may exercise, in full or in part, the responsibilities of the French Community. ”

“ Her national policy is like a web whose mission it is to hold them together, but such a form of Constitution is not without its inconveniences.
For a long time the King's secret conviction was, that in order to be able to endure and strengthen herself, Belgium had urgent need of some great scheme which would produce in her an amalgamation of effort and intelligence, and allow her to take one of the highest places among the nations of the world. ”

“ When the Revolution of the Belgians against Austrian rule broke out in 1789, the Elector Frederick-William of Prussia tried in vain to obtain from the other powers, England and Holland, the recognition of the Belgian Republic. He proposed that they should recognize the independence of Belgium and compel the Belgians “to establish a firm, strong constitution, in conformity with the interests of the Allies...; to create, subject to the advice of the Allies, a respectable military state that would inspire confidence ”

“ And the Belgian people were as firm as they. With Englishmen the love of liberty is commonly passive. They feel their freedom to be secure. Only when challenged does their love of freedom flame into passion. But the Belgians know that their freedom lives under challenge. The shadow of Prussian conscription lay athwart their door. That iron and materialistic system which takes its steady toll of a country’s manhood, and crushes national spirit like a Chinese boot, has been the dread of Belgium, as it has been the dread of Holland for a generation. ”

“ The victors then proclaimed a republic, known in history under the official title of the “République des États Belgiques unis” (Republic of the United States of Belgium) . In each province the body of the states—delegates of the clergy, the nobility, and the people—were given the exercise of sovereignty, and the traditional institutions of the Burgundian times were restored. In 1790 the provinces held a general meeting at Brussels, where the federal pact between them and the central power was established by the so-called Act of Union. ”

“ The Catholics have always been in favour of the Remplacement, while the Liberals have been against it. But it is said that the King wishes to abolish it, and try some new plan. So very likely the Catholics will give in, and there will be no more drawing of lots and buying off, but a system of universal service, which will be a very good thing for Belgium.
Though the trade of Belgium is very large indeed for the size of the country, the Belgians have no navy, and not many merchant-ships. ”