Wherever Prussia rules she has only one method of ruling--that of
terror. Wherever she finds civilization and the wealth which
civilization creates, she can do nothing but despoil. She is as
incapable of persuasion as of creation. No people forced to endure her
rule have ever been won to prefer it as the Alsatians came to prefer the
rule of France or as many Indians have come to prefer the rule of
England. In Belgium she has been especially herself in this respect.
A wise policy would have dictated such a careful respect for private
rights and such a deference to native traditions as might conceivably
have weakened the determination of the Belgians to resist to the death
those who had violated their national independence. But Prussia is
incapable of such a policy. In any territory which she occupies, whether
temporarily or permanently, her only method is terror and her only aim
loot. She did indeed send some of her tame Socialists to Brussels to
embark on the hopeless enterprise of persuading the Belgian Socialists
that honour and patriotism were _ideologies bourgeoises_ and that the
"economic interests" of Belgium would be best promoted by a submission.
These pedantic barbarians got the answer which they deserved; but on
their pettifogging thesis Raemaekers' cartoon is perhaps the best
commentary.
The "prosperity" of Belgium under Prussian rule has consisted in the
systematic looting, in violation of international law, of the wealth
accumulated by the free citizens of Belgium, for the advantage of their
Prussian rulers; while to the mass of the people it has brought and,
until it is forever destroyed, can bring nothing but that slavery which
the Prussians have themselves accepted and which they would now impose
upon the whole civilization of Europe.