By Force Of Arms

( Originally Published 1915 )

BETWEEN the German threats and their execution scarcely a day elapsed.

We had to improvise everything, to organise everything, in a few hours. Yet nowhere in Belgium and this may be asserted emphatically nowhere and in no department was there the least hesitation or the least confusion.

Without faltering, and even with serenity, the little Belgian people prepared for the gigantic conflict. The long peace which it had enjoyed and the great prosperity which had resulted there-from had not enervated it; they had not destroyed the spirit of combat for justice and liberty which is characteristic of its entire history. For the rest, there was not a single Belgian who did not at once intuitively feel that the German proposals endangered the very independence of the nation, and that to subscribe to them would have been to forfeit our honour and to sign our own death-warrant.

The whole nation, therefore, mindful of its noble traditions, came forward as one man; and as in the heroic ages long ago, its first thought and its first care were to make ready for battle. Everywhere, in the villages as in the cities, the national flag was hoisted.

Belgium had the appearance of a country making holiday. But it was only an appearance; the nation was fully conscious of the gravity of the moment.

Instantaneously, moreover, and without any hint from the authorities, all places of amusement were closed, and all bands and orchestras were silent.

The King left Brussels to place himself at the head of the army in the field. He addressed to his soldiers a proclamation which was inspired by the purest patriotism.

The Queen, for the time being, remained in the Palace, but she transformed it into a hospital. Never had the noble daughter of a princely doctor, the medical philanthropist, felt so completely at home; but this did not prevent her from undertaking activities outside the Palace, and visiting other hospitals. One hospital in particular she visited on the very first day: it was that installed in the Maison du Peuple.

In addition to the hospitals, which were improvised and organised on every hand, all kinds of organisations for aid and relief, responding to all the emergencies of the situation, came spontaneously into being everywhere.

From every corner of the country, from all classes of society, came volunteers to swell the ranks of the army.

Everybody wanted to be of use, down to the Boy Scouts, who, with touching conscientiousness and remarkable enthusiasm, undertook the duties of messenger, orderly, etc.

Finally, in order to place as many obstacles as possible in the way of the invasion, railways, bridges and tunnels were blown up in the neighbourhood of the frontier, while within the range of the Liége forts farms, villas and châteaux were blown up in order to clear the line of fire.

Unanimously, without hesitation or delay, the country made the greatest sacrifices.

I should not be speaking the truth were I to tell you that all the Germans who were living in Belgium were secretly betraying our confidence. There were some who deeply loved our country, who had become very sincerely attached to it, and who would never on any account have consented to betray it. But these, alas! were only honourable exceptions.

Our eyes were suddenly opened, and we quickly realised that the great majority of these Germans, whom we had welcomed with such friendly simplicity, were the agents of Pan-Germanism, who, slowly, patiently, and with great skill, had been preparing the way for the invasion and conquest of our country. There were thousands on thousands of them, and profiting by our too great confidence they had organised in the midst of us the most varied means of espionage and of gathering information. They were everywhere, and they first contrived to feel their way into, and then to impose themselves upon, all classes of society.

In the interests of the national defence it was necessary to expel all Germans from the country, or at least to endeavour to do so. There was no time to make inquiries, to sift the sheep from the goats; besides, how could we still trust them, and how for certain tell the good from the bad?

The people justly indignant at the duplicity of these crafty aliens gave themselves up, in the great cities, to noisy demonstrations which assuredly were not of a friendly nature. Windows were broken even, and shop-signs forcibly removed. But, in spite of all that has been said since then to inculpate us, the Germans who lived in Belgium were not the object of inhuman treatment; neither in Brussels, nor in Antwerp, nor anywhere else.

Here, for that matter, is how one of these Germans describes of his own accord, in the Kölnische Volkszeitung of the loth of September, 1914, the manner in which he left Brussels.

To begin with, he says that as he had to leave on Friday, the 7th of August, at one o'clock in the morning, he repaired on Thursday evening to the German Consulate which was already under the protection of the United States but so many of his compatriots were there that some measure of organisation had to be taken, so it was decided to transfer all these people to the Royal Circus, a large building, very spacious and well ventilated "; then he continues, " During this transfer, just as subsequently in the circus itself, and on the following day, at dawn, during the journey to the railway station, we were guarded by soldiers of the civic guard,' who behaved with such consideration that one would have thought they were instructed to look after us rather than to guard us.

" They certainly made a lamentable spectacle, these innumerable fugitives, with their wives and children, and we heard, in spite of the early hour, the pitying exclamations of the inhabitants at the windows of their houses. The civic guards were equally compassionate; there was not one among them whose expression, words and gestures did not betray a human pity. Many of them made themselves helpful to the fugitives by carrying their portmanteaux or their children. Burgomaster Max himself came about two o'clock in the morning to make sure that everything was being done in an orderly fashion.' In the circus again there were soldiers who were looking after the children, distributing milk and food. An eye-witness told me that

'I might add that Mme. Henry Carton de Wiart, the wife of the Minister of Justice, passed a portion of this night at the Royal Circus, going from group to group, and attending with maternal solicitude to the more unfortunate he saw them taking up a collection for the benefit of a family without resources. . . In a word, everybody did all that was in his power to help the fugitives."

This disinterested narrative proves conclusively that the Germans in Brussels were treated not only with every consideration which the circumstances permitted, but with real solicitude. It was precisely the same in the other Belgian cities.

It was not possible to expel all the Germans residing in Belgium during the first few days of the war. Many slipped through the meshes of the net, and these, naturally, were the most dangerous, including spies of all species.

They had to be hunted down. It was necessary, moreover, to discover and suppress their means of information. Accident favoured the search, which revealed surprise upon surprise, discovery upon discovery.

It was noticed, quite accidentally, for instance, that certain advertising placards, which were posted more or less all over the country, were designed, according to the manner in which they were placed, to give such-or-such information to the enemy. They were veritable sign-posts !

But it was in the domain of wireless telegraphy that the most unexpected discoveries were made. Here was a telephone circuit, cunningly insulated from the earth; there was a metallic weather-cock, a zinc cornice, a trellis of copper-wire fitted under the roof, or a wire mattress found in a garret, which served as antennae; or kites of the Farman type were flown at night, or the stays of flag-staffs affixed on the roofs of certain industrial establishments provided ideal antennae.

Spies were discovered who, furnished with portable apparatus, used to install themselves on the roofs at night in the heart of Brussels.

There were spies everywhere, and they employed the most varied means to deceive us.

Ah! This invasion of our poor too-trusting Belgium had been long and minutely prepared for, with astonishing treachery and cunning, and we entered the conflict under conditions of very great material inferiority.

Only a year had passed since military service had been made universal, compulsory for all; the new military law would riot produce its effect for four or five years. And not only was our army too small: it was lacking in almost everything. Certain forts were hardly armed,' and our field artillery, too, was utterly insufficient.

How would our troops behave under these conditions?

The moment hostilities commenced we were completely reassured, and we felt proud indeed: the Belgian Army was doing its utmost duty; was doing it courageously and nobly.

A large body of German cavalry about twelve regiments crossed the frontier early in the morning of the 4th of August, making for the Meuse. On the way thither they distributed in the villages which they passed through a proclamation, in which General von Emmich, " Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Meuse," declared that he must have an " open road," and that " the destruction of bridges, tunnels, and railways " would be regarded as " hostile acts." (This General von Emmich, let us remark in passing, was he who, the preceding year, had represented the Kaiser at the festival held at Liége on the occasion of the " Joyous Entry " of our young Sovereigns.)

Behind this large body of cavalry troops of all arms, forming the VIIth, VIIIth, IXth, Xth, and XIth Army Corps, entered Belgium.

Early in the afternoon considerable forces reached the bank of the Meuse, at Visé, without having struck a blow. There they found the bridge blown up, and the crossing guarded on the left bank by the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Regiment of the line. This battalion resisted the hostile forces so valiantly that, although the latter were greatly superior both in numbers and in armament, they had to extend • their movement toward the north. Two regiments of Hussars crossed the Meuse at the ford of Lixhe (close to the Dutch frontier), and thereupon the Belgian infantry posted at Visé were forced to fall back upon the line of the Meuse forts, or their left would have been turned.

On the 5th of August a bridge was thrown over the river at Lixhe, and advanced bodies of the German cavalry made their appearance at Tongres. At the same time a regiment of enemy cavalry collided, to the south of Liége, at Plainevaux, with a squadron of the 2nd Regiment of Belgian Lancers, who charged them furiously, and lost in this unequal conflict three-fourths of its effectives.

In the morning the bearer of a flag of truce was sent to General Leman, the Governor of the fortified position of Liége, and requested him to allow the Germans to pass. They received a categorical refusal, upon which they proceeded to attack the forts of Chaudfontaine, Fléron, Evegnée, Barchon, and Pontisse.

Although supported by powerful heavy artillery, the assailants were everywhere repulsed with very heavy losses. There were epic struggles, especially between the Barchon fort and the Meuse.

The enemy was finally thrown back in disorder beyond his original positions; his attack upon the Vesdre Lower Meuse sector had miscarried.

Fresh troops were then brought to bear upon the Ourthe Meuse sector, which they violently attacked during the night of the 5th of August. At the same time two German officers and eight cavalrymen made a surprise entrance into Liége and attempted to assassinate General Leman; Commandant Marchant, the General's aide-de-camp, was killed while endeavouring to protect his General. But the ten Germans who took part in this hateful attempt were all cut down.

Between the Ourthe and the Meuse the assaults of the Xth German Army Corps forced the defenders of the intervals between the forts to fall back; but the available elements of the 4th Division, sent from Huy, stemmed these assaults by counteroffensives.

But the struggle was far too unequal. It was unequal not only by reason of the crushing numerical superiority of our enemies, but also, and especially, by reason of the disloyalty of the "ruses" which they used and abused from the very first moments of the war; the improper employment of the white flag and the flag of the Geneva Convention; the placing of Belgian civilians in huddled ranks before attacking troops (6), pretended surrenders, by means of which the German " kamerads " approached, concealing their machine-guns; the imitation, in the darkness, of Belgian bugle-calls; and I know not what other examples of deceit and cunning.

Literally overwhelmed, the troops of the 3rd Division, which since the 4th had been fighting necessarily at every point of a widely-extended front placing more than 60,000 Germans out of action were forced to fall back, on the evening of the 6th of August, to the left bank of the Meuse in order to link forces on the Gette with the main body of the army in the field, whose concentration upon this line was by then completed.

The Germans entered Liége. This meant the taking of hostages, the posting of a proclamation the first of a long series requisitions, war-taxes, and what not. . .

At this moment the King issued the following " Order of the Day ":

Our comrades of the 3rd Division of the Army and of the 15th Combined Brigade are about to rejoin our lines after heroically defending the fortified position of Liége.

No fort has been captured; the fortified position of Liége is still in our possession ; standards and a quantity of prisoners form the trophies of these days.

In the name of the nation I salute you, officers and soldiers of the 3rd Division and the 15th Combined Brigade; you have fulfilled your utmost duty; you have honoured our arms and have shown the enemy what it costs him unjustly to attack a peaceful nation, but a nation which derives an invincible strength from the justice of its cause.

The country has the right to be proud of you.

Soldiers of the Belgian Army, do not forget that you are in the van-guard of immense armies in this gigantic conflict, and that we are only awaiting the arrival of our brothers in arms in order to march to victory.

The whole world has its eyes fixed upon you. Show it, by the might of your blows, that you mean to live free and independent.

France, that noble country, which in history we find associated with just and generous causes, is rushing to help us, and her armies are entering our territory.

In your name I give them a brotherly greeting. ALBERT.

On the 9th of August the following overtures were made to our Government by the agency of the Dutch Government:

Now that the Belgian Army has, by its heroic opposition to greatly superior German troops, maintained the honour of its arms, the German Government begs the King of the Belgians and the Belgian Government to save Belgium from the utmost horrors of warfare.

The German Government is prepared to make any agreement with Belgium which can be reconciled with its quarrel with France.

Germany solemnly asserts that she has no intention of appropriating Belgian territory, and that she is far from conceiving such intention.'

Germany is always ready to evacuate Belgium immediately the state of the war will permit.

To this fresh hypocrisy the Belgian Government proudly replied:-

The proposal made to us by the German Government reproduces the proposal which was formulated in the ultimatum of the 2nd of August.

Faithful to her international obligations, Belgium can only repeat her reply to this ultimatum, the more so in that since the 4th of August her neutrality has been violated, a grievous war has been carried into her territory, and the guarantors of her neutrality have loyally and immediately responded to her appeal.

The struggle therefore continued.

Before Liége, on the 12th and 13th of August, guns of 21 centimetres' calibre were brought up, and on the 14th these pieces bombarded the forts of the left bank. Then howitzers of 42 centimetres arrived (16.5 inches), which came into action on the afternoon of the 14th of August (5).

These howitzers threw projectiles weighing nearly a ton, their explosive power being unheard of.

"We used to hear them travelling through the air," said General Leman, the valiant defender of Liége, in a report. At this moment he was in the Loncin fort, to the north-west of Liége. " Finally there was the sound of a furious hurricane, which ended in a terrifying thunderclap; then gigantic clouds of smoke and dust rose from the trembling earth."

Shortly after five o'clock on the afternoon of the 14th the fort of Loncin was blown up.1 General Leman, who was found unconscious under the ruins, was taken prisoner without having really " surrendered "; and he insisted upon a statement to the effect that he was found unconscious. He was allowed to retain his sword in consideration of his valour.

On the following day, before leaving Belgium as a captive, the heroic defender of Liége wrote this noble letter to the King:

SIRE,

After honourable battles delivered on the 4th, 5th and 6th of August by the 3rd division of the army, reinforced from the 5th onwards by the 15th Brigade, I judged that the forts of Liége could no longer do more than play the part of barrier forts. I nevertheless maintained the military government of the fortified positions in order to co-ordinate the defence as far as it was possible for me to do so, and in order to exert a moral influence over the garrisons of the forts.

The propriety of these decisions was amply proved by the results. Your Majesty is aware that I took up my post in the Loncin fort from about noon on the 6th of August.

Sire, you will learn with sorrow that this fort was blown up yesterday at about twenty minutes past five, burying under its ruins the greater part of the garrison, perhaps four-fifths.

If I did not lose my life in this catastrophe it was because my escort, composed as follows: Captain-Commandant Collard, a noncommissioned officer of infantry, who has doubtless perished, the gendarme Thevenin, and my two orderlies (Ch. Vandenbossche and Jos. Lecocq), dragged me from a part of the fort where I was on the point of being asphyxiated by the gases of the explosion. I was carried into the moat, where I fell. A German captain, by the name of Grusen, gave me something to drink, but I was made a prisoner, and then taken into Liége in an ambulance.

I am confident of having maintained the honour of our arms. I surrendered neither the fortified position nor the forts.

Deign to pardon me, Sire, for the carelessness of this letter; I am physically greatly shattered by the explosion at Loncin.

In Germany, whither I am about to be sent, my thoughts will be what they have always been : of Belgium and her King. I would gladly have given my life to serve them better, but death would not have me.

Lieutenant-General

G. LEMAN.

The German forces which had crossed to the left bank of the Meuse to the north of Liége, tried in the first place to outflank the left wing of our army in the field.

On the 12th of August the German cavalry attempted to force the passage of the Gette at Haelen; six regiments of cavalry, supportd by two battalions of Chasseurs and three batteries, took part in this action. To these 4,000 cavalry, 2,000 infantry, and 18 guns the Belgian cavalry division could oppose only 2,400 cavalry, 410 cyclists, and 12 guns. At first these forces alone sustained the enemy's attack, giving way only step by step; about 3 o'clock the arrival on the battlefield of the 4th Combined Brigade enabled our troops themselves to take the offensive; at 6 o'clock the enemy fell back, abandoning his dead and his wounded. On the following day 3,000 corpses of men and horses were buried. Our losses were some 1,200 killed, wounded, and missing.

However, the thrust of the enemy forces became more and more irresistible, and, despite the heroism which they displayed in many an advance-guard engagement, our brave soldiers were continually forced to fall back. On the 16th of August the rather serious action of Eghezée took place; the Germans, who had taken the offensive at this point of our extreme right wing, were forced to withdraw, and our troops pursued them for two days.

On Tuesday, the 18th of August note the date 1 the 6th Division, drawn up on the plain of Walhain-Saint-Paul, effected its junction with a division of French cavalry.

But violent German attacks were delivered in the direction of Tirlemont on the previous night, and this town had to be evacuated on the Tuesday in question. The German forces were in such numerical superiority that our army was in danger of being cut in two and destroyed. Our right wing and our centre fell back in consequence upon Antwerp, while the French cavalry withdrew toward Charleroi.

But in order that this retreat upon Antwerp might be accomplished, the left wing of the Belgian Army and a portion of the centre had still to fight desperate battles. Near Louvain, in particular, and above all at Aerschot, our soldiers fought with admirable valour.

Yet Nature continued her eternal poem. The weather was radiant; never within the memory of man had there been a finer summer.

The harvest was abundant.

Everywhere in the countryside the peasants, hardly conscious of any unusual anxiety, were busy with their peaceful tasks.

Communications with the occupied districts were gradually cut; sometimes at a distance of only a few miles nothing was known of the horrible crimes which were being committed in the east.

But suddenly the scene changed : Mars arrived, expelling Ceres. Horrible massacres took place. These warriors from Germany respected nothing, destroyed everything. And those of the poor country-folk who escaped massacre or captivity had to flee in haste, far away, and always farther.

" To understand what this invasion was," said M. Roland de Marès, in the Temps of the 27th of August, 1914, "you would have to see, as I have seen, the bewildered flight of old men, women, and children in the rear of the Belgian Army. Along the roads, across the fields, through the woods, they dragged themselves in compact masses, their shoulders burdened with their pitiful possessions, the children, barefoot, clinging to the skirts of their mothers. They marched without a cry, with-out a tear, with haggard eyes and pale faces, and nothing could have been more tragic than this distressful crowd, marching persistently toward the wide horizon."

Our enemies advanced in increasingly compact masses toward the south-west, and also toward the west. It became obvious that they intended to enter Brussels.

Now it was impossible to think of defending this great city, which was not fortified. It would have been sheer madness.

On the 18th, therefore, the Government, a portion of the functionaries of the Central Administration of the State, most of the Ministers of State, the Queen, and the Royal children, as well as several of the representatives of foreign Powers, left for Antwerp.

To Antwerp also were removed all those of the wounded in the hospitals of the capital who were fit to be moved; and the funds of the National Bank were removed, with the plates in-tended for the printing of bank-notes. And in the precious, lamentable convoy, which for two days passed from one city to the other, which contained all that the fugitives hoped to save from the cupidity or ambition of the enemy, were also the horses, carriages, and automobiles of the Court: it would not have done for our enemies to seize them and exhibit them in Berlin!

On the 19th the Burgomaster of Brussels posted this fine proclamation on the walls of the city:

FELLOW-CITIZENS,

Despite the heroic resistance of our troops, seconded by the Allied Armies, it is to be feared that the enemy may invade Brussels.

If such an eventuality should be realised, I trust that I may count upon the tranquillity and coolness of the population.

Let all panic and disorder be guarded against.

The communal authorities will not desert their posts.

They will continue to fulfil their functions with the firmness which you have a right to expect of them under such serious circumstances.

I need hardly recall to my fellow-citizens the duty of all toward their country.

The laws of war forbid the enemy to compel the population to give information as to the national army and its means of defence. The in-habitants of Brussels must understand that they are right to refuse to give the invader any information whatsoever upon this subject. This refusal is obligatory upon them in the interests of the country.

Let none of you consent to serve as guides to the enemy.

Let everyone be on his guard against spies and foreign agents, who might seek to collect information or to provoke manifestations of some kind.

The enemy cannot legitimately commit offences against the honour of the family, nor private property, nor religious or philosophic convictions, nor the free exercise of religious worship.

Let any abuse committed by the invader be immediately reported to me. As long as I am alive and at liberty I shall protect the rights and the dignity of my fellow-citizens with all my energies.

I beg the inhabitants to facilitate my task by abstaining from all acts of hostility, all use of arms, and all intervention in battles or encounters.

FELLOW-CITIZENS,

Whatever happens, listen to the voice of your burgomaster, and put your trust in him: he will not betray it.

Long live Belgium, free and independent!

Long live Brussels!

ADOLPHE MAX

The Government, for its part, informed the public that it found it necessary to leave the capital. " A laconic statement announced the retreat upon Antwerp; not a sounding phrase, not a word of oratory. No effort was made to magnify the ordeal !

During the night of the 19th of August the Civic Guard of Brussels was disbanded and disarmed.

The newspapers printed their last issues; then, stoically, they destroyed their presses, rendering them useless. Only the In-dépendance Belge removed to Gand, declaring that " as long as there is a corner of free soil in Belgium and a printing-press, it would continue to appear in order to proclaim to the world the suffering and the glory of the Belgian nation."

As the free soil of Belgium grew less, the rolling-stock of our railways was evacuated into France or Holland, but up to the last moment and the extreme limits of possibility communication by railway was maintained. It was only when the occupation was imminent that the trains ceased to run in this or that district. Thus even on the evening of the 19th of August trains were still running between Brussels and the non-occupied portion of the country.

On the morning of the 20th, although the Germans were then at the gates of the city, people were still leaving for Hainault and Flanders.

On this date the 20th M. Max set out in good time to meet the German advance-guard, which he knew to be quite close at hand. He was provided with a white flag, hastily fashioned of a bedrom towel and a rough cane. The sheriff's Stiens and Jacqmain, as well as the communal secretary, accompanied him.

The conditions of the surrender of the city were discussed, and the valiant burgomaster upheld the interests of his fellow-citizens with superb energy and dignity.

About 11 o'clock the first German cyclists arrived.

" From that moment," relates M. Louis Dumont-Wilden, " the conditions of the surrender were known. It was known that General Sixt von Arnim, in consideration of enormous requisitions, had promised that no attempt would be made upon the persons or the property of the people of Brussels.

" Little was known of the murder, pillage, and incendiarism committed in the Walloon country. . . . So at first the en-trance of the Prussians was observed with more curiosity and astonishment than uneasiness.

" It was the ` knock-out' blow of which one at first feels only the shock.

" But the invasion commenced immediately For three days they passed in their thousands upon thousands, a dejected herd, resigned, formidable, marching toward crime and death, without revolt, without ideas, under the command of remote and imperious officers. "

Like huge birds of prey, aeroplanes hovered over the city, completing the painful impression.

A relatively small force remained in Brussels, installed itself in our barracks, and made itself comfortable in our superb Palais de Justice, whose beautiful audience-halls and council-halls were shamelessly turned into barrack-rooms and guard-houses. Force paraded itself in the Temple of Justice. . .

The bulk of the troops several. hundreds of thousands merely passed through before turning toward the south.

In the suburbs of Namur it was necessary, as in Liége, to free the line of fire from the forts, and to make great sacrifices: dwelling-houses, farms, and chateaux were levelled to the ground, and, which was even more distressing, quantities of beautiful trees had to be felled.

The Germans arrived there in considerable force on the 19th of August, and immediately, at long range, began the siege.

On the 21st, without previous warning, they bombarded the city itself for twenty minutes; projectiles fell on the prison, the hospital, and the burgomaster's house, causing fires and claiming many victims.

On the 23rd they succeeded in forcing the outer line of defences, and while the 4th Belgian Division began to fall back in the sector between the Sambre and the Meuse, they entered the city about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

At the same moment violent encounters were taking place in Hainault between the Germans on the one hand and the French and English on the other hand. Like stupendous torches, towns and villages burst into flames, lighting the advance of German-ism with the sinister glow of their fires. The Germans, arrogant, cruel, and implacable, already occupied two-thirds of our territory. They had not found the " open road," but they passed on, as they had threatened, by force of arms."

" The German plan has succeeded in its entirety," so a certain General Spohn thought it safe to proclaim in the official organ of the German Military Union. In his enthusiasm he praised the skill with which this plan had been elaborated. " The plan for the invasion of France was definitely laid down long beforehand," he said; " it was arranged to be carried out successfully in the north through Belgium, avoiding the line of barrier-forts with which the enemy had protected his frontiers on the German side, and which would have been very difficult to break through." '

As a matter of fact, the little Belgian Army had held the German forces in check so long that this famous plan of the Imperial Great General Staff, so " definitely laid down," was irrevocably spoiled.

This is expressed in the following terms, under the title of " Honour to Belgium," in the Bulletin des Armées de la République:-

" If we had been told three weeks ago, on the first Sunday of the war, when France was awaiting the decision of London, and was still able to doubt whether she would see beside her the Army and the Navy of England if we had been told that twenty-two days later we should have been able to complete our last preparations, and that along the entire front, or almost the en-tire front, our national soil would be untouched, who would have believed it without dispute?

" Oh, we know at what a cost our present security was purchased !

" We know who are the true authors of this security.

" Our troops have done their duty, but the heroic Belgian nation has done more than its duty.

" It owed it to itself, it owed it also to us, to defend its neutrality.