September 20, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
13 
suspicion, are now comporting themselves in a manner which 
is a sore grief to all true friends of the revolution. Can we 
be surprised at it ? Can we fail to see that by convincing 
them that a just peace favourable to the interests of revolu- 
tionary Russia could be concluded to-morrow at Stockholm, 
we took away from them all reason for fighting to-day ? 
Why should they allow themselves to be killed when the 
triumph of their cause is to be secured by other means than 
by the sword ? 
Yes ; the Socialists and the workers of the West have great 
duties in respect of revolutionary Russia. But those duties 
do not consist in ministering to the childish illusions of a 
people that has hardly yet attained emancipation and has 
never had any opportunity of acquiring the least political 
experience. They consist in talking sense to it. The \\ es- 
tern democracies have yet another duty : the duty of not 
creating in their own countries, by flattermg illusions which 
the Russian example has proved to be so dangerous, a military 
situation similar to that from which our Allies are suffering. 
I only see one way in which Socialism can resume inter- 
national relations with dignity. The seat of our organisation 
was at Brussels, in that House of the People which to-day is 
guarded by (jcrman bayonets. Our International Associa- 
tion is under tlie heel of the Kaiser, as Belgium herself is under 
his heel. Is it prepared to accept the situation and, having 
been kicked out of its own house, is it simply going to sit 
somewhere else ? 
Let it first of all drive out the invader and repudiate as 
traitors to its cause all those who, like the German Majority 
Socialists, have become accomplices of the criminal and acces- 
sories to the crime. The deliverance of Brussels will be a 
symbol of the deliverance of the International Association 
itself. It is at Brussels, and at nowhere else than Brussels, 
that its first Congress ought to meet. 
Germany's Purpose towards Belgium 
Mr. Asquith in the course ot the debate on the Reichstag Resolution in the House of Commons on Thursday 
July 26th, asked this pertinent question : 
Is Germany prepared not only to evacuate Belgium, not only to make full reparation for the colossal mischief and 
damage which have accompanied her devastating occupation of the country, and her practical enslavement, so far as she can 
carry it out, of large portions of the population — is she prepared no' only to do that — this is a very plain question, which 
admits of a very simple answer — but to restore to Belgium not the pretence of liberty, but complete and unfettered and 
absolute independence ? '' / should like to know the German Chancellor's answer to that question, not the ansuver of the 
Reichstag. I ask the Chancellor that, I ask him now as far as I may. It is a very simple question. 
Naturally the German Chancellor did not reply. But last month Professor van Hamel contributed to de Amster- 
dammer an article setting forth German views on the future of Belgium which have been publicly expressed during the 
last twelve months or so. The following is an exact translation of Professor van Hamel's article ; it affords con- 
vincing proof of Germany's intentions. Those intentions will never be altered until, in Mr. Asquith's words, " the 
military domination of Prussia is completely and finally destroyed." 
NO straight answer to Mr. Asquith's question has 
been given and none will be given because no Ger- 
man can persuade himself to speak openly on this 
question, which is the heart and root of all questions 
raised by the war not only for belligerents but also for neutrals 
like ourselves. We can, however, supply the answer : Nobody 
in Germany from Scheidemann upwards through Michaelis to 
Hindenburg has the remotest intention to reply in tlte affir- 
mative. 
Many good people appear to be under the impression 
that a serious desire to retain Belgium docs not exist in 
high placed circles and Government circles in Germany. 
They think this is one of the many points capable of being 
n<>gotiated. To them may be pointed out that the whole of 
Germany from the Socialist to the hottest Militarist, and from 
the steel manufacturers to the clergy, holds the view which 
the Foreign Political Editor of the Kreuz Zeitung, Prof. Otto 
Hoetch, has formulated in the issue of that paper of December 
28th, 1916, thus : 
Belgium will either be a vassal state of England or we have to 
see that we obtain the substantial guarantees >vhich our Govern- 
ment has asked for. Our demand-s on Belgium for military as 
well as for industiial purposes arc absolute. For the sake 
of the base of our power we cannot accept "any substitute. 
This cannot be a matter of give and take or negotiation. 
The Berliner Lokal Anzeiger last week said : 
Asquith is sufficiently worldly wise to understand tliat with 
the exception of a few fantastic people, nobody in our country 
intends to deliver Belgium up to England and France again. 
Every othW representation is misleading. Every effort 
to represent Germany as wanting less and being less con- 
vinced and less tenacious is wrong. Even if one can occasion- 
ally quote the 'Berliner Tageblalt. which in these matters 
is of no significance, the equivocal utterance of some German 
authority or the apparently different assurance of a few 
Socialists— one thing is certain : the pertinent question, 
whether Belgium will again be allowed by the Germans to be a 
free country is nowhere in Germany answered unconditionally 
in the affirmative. 
We do not want to be believed on our personal word. We 
will allow our countrymen to hear a number of German voices, 
in order that they may form their own judgment in this im- 
portant question. They will then realise that the German 
aspiration to continue to dominate after the war the Belgians 
as creatures of the German Empire and to establish permanent 
military, economical and political ties between Germany and 
Belgium contains a fatal warning to Holland which cannot be 
more clearly put than was done in the Deutsche Himmen of 
December, 1016, by the recently deceased leader of the 
National Liberal party, Herr Bassermann : 
If Holland becomes enclosed between Germanv on one side 
and a Belgium under Gcrma.T influence on the other side 
it must and will come over to aud bids with C'.ermanv. H 
* * ♦ « 
England succeeds in re-establishing Belgium as an independent 
state, British influence and antipathy against Germany will 
increase in Holland. If on the other hand wc have a military 
hold on Belgium, we are able to protect Holland against a 
German invasion. Therefore al.so with regard to Holland we 
are unconditionally obliged to lay our hand militarily, 
economically and politically on Belgium. Much Cierman 
blood has been shed in Flanders. May it be given to us not to 
annex Belgium but to hold it well in hand. 
That Conservatives and Militarists in Germany have 
always considered the possession of Belgium as indispensable 
for Germany's future is obvious. Von Bissing, the deceased 
Governor-General of Belgium, left this legacy to his country- 
men in his will w,^ich has been published in the press expressed 
in the following words : " Keep Belgium as a conquered 
province for the sake of the next war which is sure to come." 
Since recently the German Government allows discussion of war 
aims, so that it is possible on this side of the frontier to 
hear German views, the line of thought prevailing at present 
in Germany becomes quite clear. Nowhere has it been made 
more plain than in the memorandum which the German 
Navy League presented (June 17th, 1916) to the Federal 
Council and Chancellor : 
The key of Germany's future is on the Flemish coast. Had we 
possessed and fortified this before the war, England would 
never have dared come to France's assistance. Germany's 
domination ov'fff Belgium is a necessity. A return to BcL'ium's 
pre%ious independence would be for us a defeat after a hard 
struggle. Also in an economical sense Belgium is an indis- 
pensable link in the chain of Germany's oversea trade. Only 
an Antwerp politically and economically subjected to Ciermany 
— in connection with which Flushing may perhaps fill the same 
part as Cuxhaven with respect to Hamburg — can give us 
satisfaction. 
Similar language was held by the six big Leagues (the 
League of Landed Property-Owners, Peasants League, 
Christian Peasants Union, Central League of German 
Manufacturers, Manufacturers Union and the Imperial Middle 
Class League) in their famous manifesto of May 20th, 1915 : 
It is necessary with a view to securing our sea-power and our 
future that Belgium be subjected militarily and by tariff 
policy, as well as by monetary and postal system, to the laws 
of the German Empire. Its railways and waterways must be 
merged into our system of communications. 
And the " Independent Committee for a German Peace " 
in its organ, Toesland, of New Year s Day, 1917, remarked : 
There are only two alternatives : either Belgium remains 
under German hegemony or it becomes a weapon against us 
in the hands of our enemies. This cannot be settled by a treaty 
as between two States. Establish a German paramount 
administration with a strict division of the Germanic and 
Latin parts, assist the Flemish to obtain what they £,re en- 
titled to in regard to education, administration of justice, 
government and parliamentary representation, and the 
rapprochement will bcccm": greater and greater. 
The " Pan-Gcnuanic League " published on December 9th, 
