September 20, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
iJ 
Why Belgium must be Free 
By L. de Brouckere 
M.de Bronckcre {<t the well knoitn Belqian Socialist rvlwame 
to London as a delei^ate to the recent International Labour 
Conference and is himself an Ardent I ntcrn^itionalist. He 
explains in the most explicit terms why it is that not only the 
future of Belgium hut the peace of Europe and the cause of 
democracy depend on the absolute military defeat of Germany 
FROM the very beginning Belgium lias been intimately 
associated with the international labour movement. 
It was from Brussels that, in 1847, Marx directed 
that cosmopolitan association of communists whose 
famous manifesto exercised so profound an influence upon 
the entire socialist movement. At a later period the " Inter- 
national Association of Workers " had no mOre fervent 
section than that of my little country, and none that was 
numerically stronger. It was at Brussels again that, in 
1891, the two units of the army of labour that had come 
into existence separately at Paris two years earlier, effected 
union for common action. And when finally, at the Congress 
of Paris in upo, the new International Association was 
definitely constituted in its present form, the capital of Bel- 
gium was unanimously selected as the seat of its secretarial 
department. 
it occupied the whole upper storey of our great House 
of the People. It was in constant intimate daily communi- 
cation with all our national organisations, and the event 
most eagerly looked forward to by all our militants was the 
periodical meeting of the Bureau which two or three times 
in the year' brought into our midst, as loved and honoured 
guests, those who, in every country, were the most eminent 
representative? of the Labour movement. 
It was no mere chance, no merely fortuitous circumstance 
that led to Brussels being chosen from so many other socialist 
and labour centres as the world-capital of the movement ; 
on the contrary it was the very nature of the Belgian nation, 
as shaped by history. The country is a small one, but all 
roads run through it. All thef)eoples of the West meet in it, 
and often have come into collision there. They have been 
brought into contact one with another there both in commerce 
and in war, and there their civilisations have intermingled. 
If any one of the Great Powers holds Belgium it thereby secures 
a strategic position of such immense importance that the 
equilibrium is upset. The Western nations have never known 
repose when Belgium has been in a state of subjection. Her 
freedom is essential to the peace of Europe. She is a vital 
point in the organism of the civilised world. In no other 
corner of the world are the conditions of existence so closely 
knit up with the conditions of universal existence. In this 
sense we can truly say, without self-flattery, that Belgium lies 
at tlif lii'.irt of < ivilisation. 
True International Socialism 
In these circumstances it is easy to understand that the 
Belgians, and especially the Belgian Socialists, are profoundly 
internationalist. They have remained so despite betrayal. 
All the conununications that they have succeeded in smuggling 
across the frontiers guarded by the enemy prove that they 
are still firmly convinced that there is no possible future for 
the Labour movement outside the international movement. 
This is a point worth insisting upon, for it gives added force 
to the categorical refusal of the Belgian section to counten- 
ance any common action with the (jerman Imperial Social- 
Democracy, either at Stockholm or anywhere else. 
I will here state our reasons. They, are not all of a national 
kind, and will have interest beyond our own borders. 
Our first reason for refusing to have any dealings with men 
like Scheidemann and Heinse and the accomplices of the 
Emperor is that we do not intend to have any dealings with 
the Emperor himself. We intend to destroy his power. And, 
with the help of our Allies, we shall not desist until we have 
destroyed it, whatever it may cost us to do it. " Even 
though might succeeds fur a time in reducing our bodies to 
slavery, our souls will never submit," were the words of 
a recent manifesto issued on behalf of all the Belgian Labour 
Organisations. " We add this : whatever tortures may bo 
inflicted upon us we desire peace only with the independence 
of our country and the triumph of justice." 
Now, if there is one thing clearly manifest to those who 
take the trouble to think, it is that the triumph of justice is 
impossible in a Europe in which German Emperors should 
continue to exercise despotic power over a subject people. 
It is even more clearlv manifest that in such conditions the 
independence of Belgium, the very existence of Belgium, 
is a moral and material impossibility. 
I know my socialist friends — all my socialist friends, even 
those who profess the most extreme pacifism — too well to 
(juestion for a single moment their desire to see Belgium 
liberated and indemnified. I know that if they discuss peace 
at Stockholm they will demand for my country every imaginable 
formal guarantee. The le;^lers of the English I.L.P. are 
as unanimous in their agreen-.-jnt on this point as the Russian 
Soviet. Let us suppose tiut their wishes are realised and 
that the treaty they would like to arrange with Scheidemann 
is ratified by the Emperor -surely a very generous supposi- 
tion on my part 1 We should then have an assurance that 
no German garrisons would be imposed »if)on us, no lion's- 
share trade treaties, no indirect protectorate of any kind 
whatsoever, and that a sufficient money indemnity would 
be given us to make good all our material losses. All this 
would be set down upon sheets of paper bearing the seal of 
all the Powers. And what would be the good of that ? 
Are we not satisfied already of the value of scraps of paper ? 
We had enough of them before the war. They had some 
value then, because we believed in them. We were able to 
live and to trade and slowly to build up our various under- 
takings, because we had confidence, or at least because the 
m<;nace hanging over us appeared to be uncertain and remote. 
Since then, however, the event has hapjiened, and our eye3 
have been opened. The veil has been rent. On August 3rd, 1914, 
in the course of the afternoon, the German Minister at 
Brussels was still entreating our newspapers to reassure us 
in his name. He was pledging his word to us. " You may, 
perhaps, see your neighbour's house burning, but your roof 
shall be safe," he asserted. That very evening he was 
sending to our Government the insolent Ultimatum that 
everyone remembers. Next day the soldiers of William were 
murdering our women near the frontier. To-day, how many 
thousands of our fellow-countrymen have no roof at all '{ 
Caprice of an Emperor 
What would it profit us to prevail upon the Emperor to 
withdraw if he retained the power to return ? Are we to 
go to sleep each night with the fear of being awakened by 
the hoofs of Uhlans' horses ringing on the cobbles of our 
streets ? W ho could endure such an existence ? Who could 
assume responsibilities, work, prepare the future for his 
children if the caprice of the Emperor could again destroy 
in a day the fruit of the labour of a lifetime ? There would 
be no alternative but for the stronger to go into exile, and for 
the rest to submit. We should be " free " as the freemen of 
the middle ages were free, who, plundered every year by their 
ixjwerful neighbours, entreated the lord who dwelt nearest 
to them to accept them as his serfs in order that they might 
not perish under his violence. We too should be compelled 
to pay homage to the lord, to accept the protection of William 
and enter into liis Zollverein or attach ourselves to his Empire 
in some other fashion. And as we are not disposed to do so, 
we have no alternative but to continue the war against him 
and against his Allies, however much they may prate about 
socialism. 
Many of those who desire to go to Stockholm are actuated 
by a perfectly sincere desire to arrange to " draw the game " ; 
to negotiate a peace in which there shall be neither victor nor 
vanquished, the only kind of peace which, in their opinion, 
can be just and lasting. 
If they were right, Stockholm would, indeed, be abundantly 
justified. But of all illusory mirages this one of " drawing 
the game " witli the German Emperor is the most absurdly 
impwjssible. 
I have endeavoured to prove this from the case of Belgium. 
I ought not to have to labour the point to show that the 
Western Powers, living henceforward ' confronted by an 
Emperor with drawn sword, in a world where the war had 
broken all the ancient bonds and all the customs which contri- 
buted to maintain equilibrium and at all events to preserve 
a precarious ix^ace, in a world, moreover, where a multitude 
of new problems furnished new occasions for cnnflict, would 
have no choice but to prepare for another war, devoting 
all their resources to it and concentrating all their thought 
upon it, militarising and finally Prussianising themselves 
in anticipation of a new and more appalling carnage, unless 
they were preparp-d to resign themselves in abject submission 
to the law of the strongest. 
What is this war, but the final challenge flung by 
Prussianism to democracv ? Read once more the manifesto 
