Chapter I: Preface

These pages were written in Belgium between the 4th August, 1914, and the 15th August, 1915.

I employed in this work only those books and periodicals which entered the country, whether secretly or openly, and which every one, therefore, can procure.

But to drive conviction into the reader's mind I have observed a rule of selection in using these documents: I have used those exclusively which are of German origin, or which are censored by the Germans.

They are--

(A) German posters exposed in Belgium.

(B) Books and newspapers coming from Germany.

(C) Newspapers published in Belgium under the German censorship.

(D) The _Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant_, the only foreign newspaper
which has been authorized in Belgium since the beginning of the
occupation. As for the Belgian _Grey Books_, the Reports of the
Commission of Inquiry, and books published in Belgium, of these I
used only those which were known to us in Belgium before the 15th
August, 1915.

In short, since I crossed the frontier I have not inserted a single idea into this book: it therefore precisely reflects the state of mind of a Belgian who has lived a year under the German domination.

I have forced myself to remain as far as possible objective, in order to give my work the scientific rigour which characterizes the Reports of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry. I have simply transferred, to a domain which is new to me, the methods of my customary occupations.

* * * * *

Here is a list of my principal sources, with the abbreviations which denote them in the text:--

_N.R.C._ _Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant._ From this journal
(with two exceptions) I have taken only those
articles which were not stopped by the German
censorship.
_K.Z._ _Kölnische Zeitung._
_K.Vz._ _Kölnische Volkszeitung._
_D.G.A._ _Düsseldorfer General-Anzeiger._
_F.Z._ _Frankfurter Zeitung._
_N.A.Z._ _Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung._
1st to 12th Report. _Reports of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry._
1st and 2nd Belgian. _Grey Books_.
_Belg. All._ Davignon, _La Belgigue et l'Allemagne_.

The English edition is not a complete translation of the French text. To save space, many facts, and above all, many quotations, have been suppressed.

J. M.

ANTIBES, VILLA THURET,
_October, 1915_.

CONTENTS

PAGE

=Preface= 1

=Introduction= 9

INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN BELGIUM 12

Prohibition of Newspapers and Verbal Communication--The
German Censorship--Authorized German Newspapers--Authorized
Dutch Newspapers--Newspapers
introduced Surreptitiously--Secret Propagation of News--Secret
Newspapers--German Placards--Regulations as to
Correspondence--Railway Journeys.