September 20, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
13 
suspicion, are now: comporting themselves in a manner whicli 
is a sore grief to all true friends of the revolution. Can we 
be surprised a;t it ? Can we fail to see that by convincint; 
them that a just peace favourable to the interests of revolu- 
tionary Russia could be concluded to-morrow at Stockholm, 
vte 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 ? 
Ves ; 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 Wes- 
tern democracies have yet another duty : the duty of not 
creating in their own countries, by Hattermg illusions which 
the Russian example has proved to be so rlangerous, 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 tliat House of the People which to-day is 
guarded by (ierman bayonets. Our International Associa- 
tion is under the 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 driye out the invader and repudiate as 
traitors to its cause all those who, l;ke 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 
Juiy 26th. asked this pertinent question : . 
It Germany prepared, not only to evacuate Belgium, not only to make full reparation for the colossal mischief and 
datnage 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 not 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 answer of the 
Reichstag. I ask the Chancellor thai, 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 Anister- 
dammer an article setting forth German views on 'the future of Belgium which have been publicly expressed during the 
last twelve months of so. The following is an exact translation of Professor van Hamel's article ; it affords — 
vincing proof of Germany's intentions. Those intentions will never be altered until, in Mr. Asquith's words, ' 
military domination of Prussia is completely and finally destroyed." 
con- 
the 
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 niDt 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 t-c reply in the affir- 
ttialive. 
Many good people appear to be under the impression 
that a serious desire to retain Belgium does not exist in 
high placed circles and Government circles in Germany. 
They think this is one of the many points capable of being 
negotiated. To them mav be pointed out that the whole of 
(iermany from the Socialisf 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 vas,sal state of England or we have to 
sec that we obtain the substantial guarantees A-hich our Govern- 
ment has asked for. Our demands on Belgium for military as 
well as for industiial purposes are 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 : 
.\squith is sufficiently worldly wi.se 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 other representation is misleading. Every effor* 
to represent Germany as wanting less and being less con- 
vinced and less tenacious is wrong. Evefl if one can occasion" 
ally quote the Berliner Tagehlatt, 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. 
VVc do not want to be believed on our i^ersonal word. Wo 
will allowour countrymen to hear a number of German voices, 
in order that they may form their'own judgment inthis im- 
portant question. They will then realise that the Gennan 
aspiration to continue to dom'ihate after the war the Belgians 
as creatures of the (ierman Empire and to establish permawnt 
military, economical and political ties between Germany and 
Belgium contains a fatal warning to Holland w^hich cannot br 
more clearly put than was done in the Deutsche Himmen of 
December. 1916. by the recently deceased leader of the 
National Lil)eral party, Herr Basserrtianri : ' ' '^ 
If Holland becomes enclosed hefWeeh GeftninV ort' onri side 
and a Belgium under Germain i»>flue»»r.e bn the Othel" side 
it m'i'-t and will con-e over to and si;'; wHh Cennanv. If 
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 we have a military 
hold on Belgium, we are able to protect Holland against a 
German invasion. Therefore al.so with regard to Holland w€ 
are unconditionally obliged to lay our liand miHtarily 
economically and politically on Belgium. Much German 
blood has been shed in Flanders. May it be giVen to us^ot to 
anne.x 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. \'on Bissing. the deceased 
Governor-General of Belgium, left this legacy to his country- 
men in his will which has been published in the press e.xpressed 
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, 191b) 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 over Belgium is a necessity. .\ return to Belirium's 
previous independence would be for us a defeat after a hard 
•struggle. .Mso in an economical sense Belgium is an indis- 
pensable link in the chain of German v's oversea trade. Only 
an Antwerp politically and economically subjected to Germany 
— in connection with which Flushing may perliaps 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 tarirt 
policy, as well as by monetary and postal .system, to the laws 
of tly; German Empire. Its railways and waterways must be 
m'?rge<l into our system of communications. 
.\nd 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 Geimr.n hegemony or it becomes a weapon against us 
in the hands cf our enemies. This cannot be set lied by a treaty 
as between two States. Establish a German paramount 
.idminisbation with a strict division of the Germanic and 
Eatni parts. a.ssist the Flemish to obtain what they are en- 
titled to in regard to education, administration of justice, 
government and parliamentary,' representation, and the 
rapprochement will becomf; greater and greater. 
The " Pan-Germanic League " published on December gtli, 
