10 
LAND 6? WATER 
December 26, 1918 
Life in Brussels : By Capt. R. A. Scott-James, M.C. 
BELGIUM in war time, in the winter, was a place 
of phantasmal darkness. If you were travelling 
on a road, you were guided only by the hne of 
trees which were mere shadows in the gloom. If 
you passed through a town, the darkness was 
emphasised by thin gleams of hght emerging from clunks in 
shuttered windows. Even now, in these earlier days since 
the Armistice, the lesser towns have not yet restored their 
gas and electric light. 
But the lights of Brussels seemed phenomenal, scarcely 
credible. As we came past the Gare du Midi into the Boule- 
vard we were dazzled by the blaze from the streets, from the 
shop windows and cafes, and tlie illuminations wliich lit up 
the walls of the houses. It was the day after the official 
entry of the King and Queen. Half the population was 
still parading the streets, densely thronging the main thorough- 
fares, making fete with delirious zest. Our car felt its way 
slowly through the crowd. Not many EngUsh soldiers had 
yet appeared in Brussels, and we were greeted with shouts 
of welcome. When we drew up at our hotel close to the 
Bourse, the crowd gathered round to examine us, lifting 
their hats, shaking us by the hand ; and cries of " I'i^e Les 
Anglais" attended us tUl wc were inside the hotel. I remem- 
ber how the first news of the armistice was received in the 
fighting area, and in the town of Courtrai, which was already 
liberated. And I have read in the newspapers how London 
and Paris celebrated the day. But when the news first came 
to Brussels, the Germans were still there — they had been 
there for four years, and their presence was still a sinister 
shadow upon the city. Soon they began to shnk away. 
The grey uniforms, now all shabby and dirty, became less 
numerous in the streets. There was a day of riot, when 
officers wfjre stripped of their badges of rank. Then the last 
of the Germans hurriedly departed. They had overstayed 
the allotted time ; no means — in some cases no desire — 
to remove all their stores, their equipment, their plunder ! 
They were hungry and poor. They wanted money. I am 
told that machine-guns were sold to the highest bidder at 
five francs apiece ; that a live cow, recently stolen no doubt 
from a Belgian farm, was sold for ten francs. At length, 
ignominiously, but without disorder, the last of them left. 
The citizens gave themselves over to their joy. " Tout 
ce que nous avons soufferl, c'esl oublie." They got out all 
their Belgian, French, and Enghsh flags — Heaven knows 
where they had been hiding them ! — and displayed them 
from every window. Pictures of the King and Queen were 
shown in every shop and were flashed on to every cinema 
screen. Triumphal arches were prepared. " Bienvenue a 
nos liber ateurs" — "Vive les Allies" — " Hurrah for the Allies" 
— " Welcome to the'Englishes" — such were the words variously 
devised in illuminations and in posters. They were ready 
for the first patrols who pushed ahead on one day; and for 
the King and Queen, who entered, with American, British, 
P'rench and Belgian troops, on the following day, and when 
I arrived, a day later, they were still in the first ecstasies of 
delight at welcoming the AUied troops. They were singing the 
"Marseillaise," the "Brabangon," and " Tipperary "— if they 
knew no other English, they knew the words of "Tipperary" 
(some of them think it is our national anthem). For us, 
who have long ago given up the early, wild, enthusiastic 
optimism of " Tipperary " — did anyone think the way was quite 
so long ? — this reincarnation of our old selves was queerly 
pathetic. "It's a long, long way" — Heavens, the Bruxellois 
have been cherisliing this music-hall song for us, and keeping 
it green in their memory long after we had sickened of it ! 
I went with the crowd through the Grande Place, festooned 
with floral decorations. The Hotel de Ville was resplendent 
with flags, and the spire, with its slender elegance, tapered 
into the pale hght above the illuminated town ; and the 
ancient halls of the Mercers, the Brewers, the Carpenters 
and the Coopers, and the Maison du Roi gazed austerely 
upon the parked lorries and the reveUing crowd. I went 
for a few minutes into the Scala and the Vaudeville — theatres, 
with revue performances, which opened their doors gratis 
to all men in uniform — and to the Kermesse, where cafe and 
theatre were combined in one. And late at night, from my 
window high up in the hotel, I looked down upon the broad 
space of the Place de la Bourse and the Boulevard Anspach, 
still brilUantly illuminated, and upon the crowd still singing 
the "Marseillaise," the "Braban^on, " and "Tipperary." 
Such were some of the outward demonstrations of feeling 
which were to be observed in Brussels during the five days 
of my stay there. Towards the end the crowds in the streets 
became somewhat smaller, and they yeent to bed earlier. 
The novelty of seeing Allied uniforms passed, but not, I 
think, the pleasure. I do not mean the vulgar pleasure in 
a uniform because it is a uniform, but in the blue of the French, 
and the khaki of the Belgians, Americans and British, 
as symbolising the passing of the hated grey. No words 
could be too bitter to express the loathing for those German 
uniforms. It was remarked that in recent years they were 
always dirty, shabby, uncared for. It was felt to be in keep- 
ing with the general attitude of the German soldiers — one 
of studied insult to a conquered people — that they did not 
even trouble to polish their belts and buttons when they 
visited the capital of Belgium. 
That the people should have extended a special welcome 
to all soldiers was, perhaps, natural enough. What was 
more remarkable was the manner in which they treated one 
another. The trams were crowded to overflowing ; it was 
difficult to find a place on them ; but there was no unseemly 
pushing and scrambling, and in ''every case all the men stood 
aside till the women had got on. This is merely one example, 
amongst many which I observed, to indicate the sort of 
consideration which Belgians show for Belgians, a kind of 
gentleness brought about by the common bond of suffering 
and enmity for the Germans. To the latter they would show 
no consideration which they were not compelled to. The 
German women, thousands of whom came into Brussels for 
work in administrative or business offices, seem to have 
been even more insolent in their demeanour than the men. 
In consequence it was a point of honour among Belgian men 
not to step off the path to make way for a German woman, 
or to offer her a seat on a tram. These are small matters, 
but they show which way the wind blows. 
1 he Agony of Belgium 
"Appalling and indescribable suffering." Those were the 
words in which life in Brussels during the last four years 
was summed up for me. If there is anyone who thinks this 
is excessive let me say at once, and emphatically, that I did 
not meet a single person among the educated classes who did 
not impress this upon me with unmistakable earnestness. 
I plead guilty, myself, to having thought that probably the 
people of Brussels were getting habituated to German rule ; 
and that probably this rule became less intolerable as time 
went on. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was 
fortunate in visiting many people of exceptional intelligence 
and fairness of mind. But on the main points there was no 
difference of opinion. The German administration was cruel 
and insolent ; it was often stupid — certainly a clumsy instru- 
ment to apply to so quick a people as the Belgians ; it aimed 
at suppressing initiative and character. Men and women 
ahke have said that the resultant effort was to make them 
feel as if all their faculties were permanently numbed. 
At the beginning of the war, as we all know, the Germans 
adopted the deliberate policy of terror in order to subdue the 
population. Official comphcity in the Louvain outrage has 
already been sufficiently demonstrated ; my own sister went 
to Louvain within a day or two of that "incident," and has 
hved in Brussels during the war ; she gave me the same kind 
of evidence, personally observed by her, as has already 
been made pubhc. The march of the invading German 
army, at the goose-step, through Brussels, failed to impress 
the population in the manner intended. It was felt to be 
an outrage ; but equally it was felt to be stupid ; the Belgians 
were struck with the silly appearance of the soldiers going 
through those awkward and laborious movements. 
After a t^me the Germans learnt the error of attempting 
the pohcy oi terror so far as Brussels was concerned. Brussels 
was too conspicuous a city, and outrage there, if made too 
pubhc, was bad for propaganda. The cases of Captain Fryatt 
and Nurse CaveU were seen to have damaged their cause. 
The consequence was that, whilst they maintained "terror" 
as a method of ruling in the small towns and villages, they 
preferred a policy of pin-pricks for subduing the temper of 
the Bruxellois. ^ 
Few things, for example, were more trying than the way 
in which they attempted to confiscate all wool and copper. 
I say "attempted," because they ignominiously failed. The 
citizens developed 'a genius for hiding their valuables. The 
house of every well-to-do person, every tradesman, every 
pelit btur^eoi.% was soon provided with a cachetic—a. hiding- 
place which baffled the pertinacity of German officials. The 
latter made periodical house to house visits, often spending 
