great associations to this anti-patriotic policy has been obtained; on the contrary, their heads and representatives have taken the opportunity to express themselves energetically against it in the Memorandum which they addressed to Governor General von Bissing under date of January 8, 1916, on the subject of the University of Ghent. During recent years, no Flemish reform has been demanded by the Flemish populations with a unanimity equal to that with which they have asked that their rights be respected in this question of the university. A bill concerning the transformation of the University of Ghent was laid before the Chamber of Deputies by Flemish members to whom, in hundreds of meetings, the entire Flemish people had given that mandate. Of the six signers of that bill, five still live: all have protested against this meddling of the German power in a question that is exclusively internal; all are opposed to administrative separation. Besides, we know the sentiments of the directors and editors-in-chief of the Flemish press who constituted, before the war, one of the great forces in the Flemish movement: all, unanimously, are opposed to this policy. Finally, and above all, our king, to whom we are all entirely devoted, our Government, which continues to keep our flag flying high under the protection of our valiant army, have unreservedly condemned the movement of the so-called activists. These facts are established, and they suffice to reduce to its true significance that deputation of unknown men representing a council without a mandate. Besides, the very circumstances under which that council came into being are sufficient to deprive it of all authority. You doubtless are not unaware that in Belgium all associations of a political character have been dissolved by the occupying power; that the right of assembly is suppressed; that the liberty to express one's thought is forbidden under penalty of banishment or imprisonment; that distinguished Flemings, such as Professor Paul Frédéricq, Professor de Bruyne, Alfons Stevens, have been carried off to Germany; that of all the Flemish newspapers, mouth pieces of public opinion in our country, not one is any longer being published in the occupied territory. What value, under such conditions, would an impartial observer attach to the opinion of those for whom all these restrictions have been suspended by the grace of the enemy and who hold a language and commit acts that serve the policy of that enemy in opposition to their own king? PROTEST POLICY OF DIVISION SEPARATION NOT FLEMISH PROGRAM 329 The division of our country into a Flemish administrative region and a Walloon administrative region is the end which these gentlemen pursue. As your own declaration states: "The linguistic frontier must become as rapidly as possible the limit of two regions united under the authority of the governor general, but otherwise separated from an administrative point of view." Our response to this policy will be brief: Administrative separation is no part of the Flemish program. When, a few years ago, certain Walloons, in an hour of forgetfulness and without finding any echo in their own country, talked of administrative separation, it was with the consent of all the Flemings that one of the most radical among them made to the separatists the following categorical response: "I assume here the authority to declare, clearly and categorically, on this solemn occasion and in the presence of so great number of Flemings and of leaders of the Flemish movement belonging to all the religious confessions and to all the political parties: Never before, not even in the darkest hours of the history of Flanders since 1830, has a single voice been raised in our ranks demanding anything which could possibly resemble administrative separation."... Moreover, does your Excellency think that the reasons expressed so clearly in 1912 in the name of the entire Flemish movement have lost any of their force in 1917, after all that has occurred in our country? Do you think that we, Flemings, after our populations with admirable heroism have shed their blood and sacrificed their property in the defense of our flag and of our honor, are so blind as to accept as the result of this effort the division of our country, the parceling out of our nationality, in order finally, after an apparent and temporary restoration, to become the easy prey of ambitious and conquering neighbors?... Your Excellency appears, furthermore, to have an inaccurate idea of the Flemish movement. Its object is not to resist the Walloons or France, but to rehabilitate, in the midst of our own Flemish country, our old and beautiful language, so unjustly ignored. Flemish Belgians are not a race forcibly incorporated in some great country. They are free associates in a free democracy. They are, in a general way, masters of their own destinies, and they have not awaited the intervention of the foreigner to obtain a redress of those grievances which they rightly complained of in the matter of languages. That fact is demonstrated by the following: The Flemish law of 1873 on judicial organization; The law of May 22, 1878, on administrative organization; The law of May 3, 1889, on judicial organization; The law of September 4, 1891, and of February 22, 1908, on the same matter; The law of April 18, 1898, on the publication of the laws, by which the equality of the two national languages was officially sanctioned; The law of May 12, 1910, on free secondary instruction; The law of July 2, 1913, on the army; The law of 1914 on primary instruction. FLEMINGS WORK UNDER CONSTITUTION Your Excellency can judge for yourself whether the peoples inhabiting Germany but not speaking the German language have obtained, in the same space of time, reforms of equal extent. It is true that the work of justice and reform in the Flemish country is neither perfect nor complete, but the measures which are still lacking and above all those relating to higher education-we desire that they be carried, like all former measures, according to the provisions of our Constitution, and in complete independence and we are firmly convinced that the common struggles and sufferings have served only to strengthen the secular ties that bind the Flemings to their Walloon brothers. Whatever shall have been done by the occupying power in the meantime, will, so far as we are concerned and by virtue of international law, be nonexistent from the day the occupation ceases. It is true that your Excellency declared in Berlin "that the German Empire, during the negotiations of peace and also after the negotiations of peace, would do everything it could to facilitate and to assure the free development of the Flemish race." We understand that your policy leads you to hold this language; but you will equally understand that the honor, the dignity and the patriotism of our populations admit of but one reply: Never will we accept a peace by which it shall be permitted to your Government, or to any foreign state whatever, to meddle in our internal affairs. Let the war last as long as it may, the independence of our country must be the same after the war as it was before: just as complete, just as genuine, and as much so toward the north and the east as toward the south: from no point of view, neither economic nor political, will we accept any subjugation whatever in respect to anyone. BELGIUM FREE AND UNDIVIDED ! 331 Excellency, It does not enter into our intentions and moreover it is not within our power to begin, in time of war, an agitation concerning the project which we are discussing; but as deputies of the people, as heads of important Flemish associations and institutions, we owe it to truth and to ourselves not to leave you in ignorance concerning the real facts and our own sentiments. In ordinary times thousands of signatures would be added to ours. At the present moment it is not possible for us to reach all of the signers of the protest against the intervention of the German authority in the organization of the Flemish University of Ghent. But all those who know our Flemish populations know that we have expressed the general opinion in a faithful and moderate manner. If your Excellency doubts this, let your Excellency suspend the restrictions that now limit the exercise of the right of free speech and the press, and, from the Ardennes to the sea, the attitude of the Separatists will be overwhelmingly disapproved, and our whole people will say to you: All of us, Flemings and Walloons, have to-day but one wish, one desire, one thought: THE BELGIAN COUNTRY FREE AND INDIVISIBLE!1 This protest was ignored by the German authorities. They preferred to accept the declaration of the Congress of Flanders as the true expression of the wishes of the Flemish people. On March 21, 1917, General von Bissing accordingly signed the decree for the administrative separation of Belgium:2 There are established in Belgium two administrative regions, one of which comprises the provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, East Flanders and West Flanders, as well as the districts of Brussels and Louvain: the other comprises the provinces of Hainaut, Liége, Luxemburg and Namur, as well as the district of Nivelles. The administration of the first of these two regions shall be directed from Brussels; that of the second region from Namur. 1 Passelecq, op. cit., 180. Huberich and Nicol-Speyer, op. cit., 10th Series, 201-202; Passelecq, 5. August 9, 1917, a decree was issued providing that in the Flemish administrative region "Flemish is the exclusive official language" for all public authorities and institutions, including schools. Huberich and Nicol-Speyer, op. cit., 12th Series, 583. IV. ESTABLISHMENT OF FLEMISH INDEPENDENCE As a protest against the decree of administrative separation, all of the heads of departments at once resigned. The German Government had deprived the Belgians of most of their rights, but one right it had permitted them to retain: January 4, 1915, the civil officials in Belgium had been informed that the German Government would allow them to resign their offices, if they so desired, without prejudice except, naturally, the loss of their salaries. Even this privilege was now withdrawn; and 14 officials who had resigned were immediately arrested and imprisoned in Belgium or sent to Germany for exercising rights recognized by the Hague conventions and specifically confirmed by the German authorities. Meanwhile, the Flemish "Activists" continued to work, as Von Bissing had said, "hand in hand" with the German Government for the "liberation" of the Flemings. They organized meetings in those parts of Belgium where German liberty was maintained, and paraded through streets made safe by German arms. One of the most largely attended of these meetings was held in Brussels, November 11, 1917. It is said that 1,200 people attended, of whom one-third at least were Belgians: and these 400 Belgians, supported by 800 Dutch and Germans, bound themselves "not to recognize the Government at Havre . . . but to look to the authorities in control in Belgium, which alone have the power to create a Flemish state, to grant a people of German origin the same rights as Poland, and complete political separation." Many people have thought the rights of Poland not wholly enviable; but the Belgian "Activists" were perhaps of a temper to be thankful for small favors. At least they must have known that the German Government was the chief dispenser of small favors, and the only authority from which men might still hope to obtain the "same rights as Poland." It was perhaps with this idea in mind that the Council of Flanders, on December 22, 1917, received the German secretary of state, Von Wallraff, at Brussels and requested from him the authorization of his master, the German Emperor, to effect a complete political separation of the |