Belgium Holds the Gate Again.
It was shortly after the Humanist Government assembled in London that
considerable disbandment in the British military forces took place, my
squadron, amongst others, being marked out. I lost no time in crossing
to Brussels. I remember when I again met Helen Goche I felt, at first, a
strange reserve, fearing that our short friendship in Cologne had no
deeper meaning for her; but we both realised that henceforward our paths
would be together; so I joined her in her work with the Belgian "Joan of
Arc."
I never knew the name of this wonderful woman. We simply called her
"Madame"; but her power of organising was remarkable and recalled to my
mind the similar success of Wilbrid in Germany.
Madame was the head of an organisation that had a branch in every town
in Belgium.
Tall and somewhat thin, without any striking personal beauty, she stood
erect before her audience, and, with the sincerity of her purpose,
carried all before her.
The second night of my return, I went with Helen to a great assembly
where, for two hours, ten thousand Belgians absorbed the purpose of her
phrases.
"Men of Belgium," she said, "we are asked, in these days of peace, to
forget and forgive; but can you ever forget those terrible days of
'frightfulness' the German swine inflicted upon us and our beloved
country?
"Return to your homes, your farms and your factories, but take with you
a hate for the Huns--a hate that time can never heal. To forgive may be
divine, but justice is the prime attribute to divinity. Justice in this
case calls for our undying hate. And now these Germans, not content with
having tried to subjugate our flesh, are trying to subjugate our minds
and our very souls. Think well upon the tempting creed of the Humanists
that was 'Made in Germany.'
"It is a creed that calls for State control of all production; a creed
that cuts out all private enterprise and initiative; a creed that forces
men to shut down upon their self-development and independence and to
rely upon employment by the State.
"I ask you, men of Belgium, to look at those whom the State employs
to-day. Eight hundred thousand Germans are under State control to make
good the works they have wantonly destroyed. They may repair the bridges
and the highways, but there are broken hearts they cannot heal,
and--there are many empty chairs in Belgian homes.
"Do any of you wish to have the brand of shame those wastrels wear? Do
any of you wish to have broken that national independent spirit that
made our brothers bravely hold the Gate at Liege?
"To-day this German-made Humanist creed has gripped Germany, England,
France and Austria. It stands for the levelling of the human being. None
can rise above the common level. They call it the gospel of the Common
Good, but there is nothing good in anything that clips the wings of
those who would dare to excel; that baulks the aspirations of those who
would use the brains their God has given them that they may rise.
"I tell you this 'Humanist' creed, rating all men as equal, and only
recognising each man and each woman as one in a mob of similar animals,
will lower the race till even your name will be replaced with a numeral.
It is a creed akin to the German ideal of the man-animal that dragged a
bloody trail across our country.
"I tell you, the creed must fail that cannot recognise any degrees of
mental capacity; that cannot understand that man has a soul that cannot
be confined within any man-drawn boundaries. This German-creed sweeps
the earth with all the bombast of a war-mad Kaiser. It is going to fail,
but not till men who think will rise and fight for recognition of their
immortality. It will be the War of the Ages!
"And in the fight Belgium will stand firm once again as the Buffer State
of Civilisation. It will hold the gate for the future of Humanity."
I came away from that meeting impressed with the air of prophecy in the
discourse, for Belgium was standing firm for Individualism. A lonely
State in a developing world of Socialism, and though Kings in other
lands began to fear the safety of their crowns, Albert of Belgium was
still the beloved sovereign of a prosperous people.
It was strange how Belgium quickly recovered from the war!
The energy generated by that conflict, the confidence engendered by
success, and the adaptability and resourcefulness taught by the war, set
off the loss of many of her manhood.
The war was a forerunner of a vigorous period of expansion of Belgian
industry, for the employment of 800,000 German prisoners on national
works set free the population to develop various enterprises.
Another incentive to excel was the practical sympathy the world had
shown to Belgium in her days of distress. It put such stimulation into
the nation that it felt it had to make good to merit the world's high
regards.
I write at length on this remarkable sequel to the war on the part of
Belgium, as other nations did not rise to the occasion like it did. The
Socialistic doctrines of the Humanist countries sapped at the initiative
of the worker, advanced his wages, but crushed the men of wealth and
forced them to seek new fields for their enterprise.
It is a trait of the human nature that he, desiring to excel, will
eventually rise; so the men of enterprise, the men of initiative, the
men who do things, came to Belgium though many sought wider fields of
enterprise across the seas.