BELGIUM : THE INNOCENT BYSTANDER 



263 



mometer ranging around 90 degrees the 

 year around. 



the: unbegrudged tribute: 



Belgium, the gallant little country that 

 proclaimed her neutrality during the 

 Franco-Prussian War, and would have 

 suffered herself to be crushed between 

 the upper and the nether millstones of 

 two mighty nations rather than permit 

 her soil to be violated ; Belgium, the 

 spirited little nation earliest to grasp the 

 opportunities of Africa below the Medi- 



terranean region and possessed of a di- 

 plomacy that permitted her to hold her 

 own against the power of many great 

 colony-hungry nations; Belgium, whose 

 every home has given freely of its flower 

 for the honor of the country, when it 

 knew that the easy way was to stand 

 aside — this is the Belgium that the whole 

 world admires. Its people frugal and 

 filled with homely virtues, its purposes 

 high and peace-loving, friend or foe will 

 not begrudge it the tribute that national 

 courage and individual bravery demands. 



Photo and copyright by International News Service 

 DRIIvIvING RECRUITS IN HYDE PARK, EONDON 



