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BELGIANS UNDER THE GERMAN EAGLE

BELGIANS UNDER THE GERMAN EAGLE

BY
JEAN MASSART
Vice-Director of the Class of Sciences in the Royal Academy
of Belgium

TRANSLATED BY
BERNARD MIALL

LONDON
T. FISHER UNWIN LTD.
ADELPHI TERRACE

[1]

PREFACE

These pages were written in Belgium between the4th August, 1914, and the 15th August, 1915.

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

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

They are—

(A) German posters exposed in Belgium.

(B) Books and newspapers coming fromGermany.

(C) Newspapers published in Belgium underthe German censorship.

(D) The Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant,the only foreign newspaper whichhas been authorized in Belgiumsince the beginning of the occupation.As for the Belgian GreyBooks, the Reports of the Commissionof Inquiry, and books publishedin Belgium, of these I usedonly those which were known tous in Belgium before the 15thAugust, 1915.

[2]

In short, since I crossed the frontier I have notinserted a single idea into this book: it thereforeprecisely reflects the state of mind of a Belgianwho has lived a year under the German domination.

I have forced myself to remain as far as possibleobjective, in order to give my work the scientificrigour which characterizes the Reports of theBelgian Commission of Inquiry. I have simplytransferred, to a domain which is new to me, themethods of my customary occupations.

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