Guslave Jaspaers The Belgians in Holland 1914*1917 Guslave Jaspaers The Belgians in Holland 1914-1917 N. V. Drukkerij Jacob van Campen Amsterdam Af ter the glorious battles of Liége, Haelen and the Nethe when the valiant Belgian army retired upon Flanders, a great cry of pity went up from all Holland. Antwerp had just been evacuated and the civilian population, warned too late, was f leeing in complete destituition. Since the first days of the war, Holland had already witnessed the arrival of thousands of fugitives. The south of Limburg was literally invaded by them. The battle was raigdrug around Liége and the entire populartions of certain villaiges were f leeing towards Maestricht, where the Red Cross hospital received with a readiness beyond all praise the wounded who had been rescued from the fire in the hospital of Haelen, which was burned at the same time as Visé. In the province of Limburg also the method was devised that was afterwards adopted throughout all Holland and that enabled the refugees to 'be aided in such an efficiënt manner. After the capitulation of the capital, ithe distracted fugitives crossed the frontier in hundreds of thousands. Pitiful droves of women, children, old men and invalids, without home or food, wan dering by the roads and the streets presented a spectacle of the most poignant distress. These tragic processions affected to the depths of their souls all ■who saw the terrible march past, and the refugees will never be able to forget the touching welcome accorded them by Holland. Our misfortunes had aroused in this country the most wonderful outburst of charity ever recorded in the history of peoples. Not a soul remained insensible to our fate. In a splendid movement of social solidarity all arms were stretched towards the frontier to .receive and help those whom a cruel enemy had driven with machineguns from their native soil. In country and town, both cottages and manor houses opened •wide their doors to the penniless who found there food and shelter and all the attention that their destitute state called for. All were at 3 pains to house these outcasts as comfortably as possible and alt endeavoured to make us forget, if only for an instant, the cares that overwhelmed us. At the frontiers the Dutch soldiers carried in their arms sick, helpless and children; in the railway stations and at the crossroads women and young girls pressed bread and milk upon them; in towns and villages dormitories were improvised in public and private buildings. The entire economie life of Holland was disorganised, as everyonë abandoned his daily occupation to rush to the help of the Belgian refugees. The inhabitants of the frontier provinces especially, both rich and poor, and even the poorest of the poor, cooperated in the rescue of an unhappy people. Nowhere was there a discordant note in this great concert of charity; all vied with one another in zeal and kindrress, lavishing not only the material assistance which was so necessary, but also moral help, sweet and affectionatewords and the encouragement we needed so much after the nightmare we had just experienced. These acts of pity and compassion, performed spontaneously by an entire people and its govemment were all the grander and more generous as those who lavished them were themselves trembling under the terrible menace of invasion. At any moment Holland, like Belgium, might be invaded, her fields devastated, her historical and artistic treasures pillaged and burned. Our hosts, in their generosity thought less of the danger threatening themselves than of their self-imposed duty of alleviating our sufferings. They have fully succeeded and the Belgians who were the object of their solicitude are under a great debt of gratitude to the Dutch. Since then three years have passed. The great majority of the Belgians who remained in Holland have spent these three years in discomfort, the inevitable result of exile, many even in misery. A few exceptions, favoured by fortune, have been able to resumé their former life, with no other worry than their inability to return to their dear martyred Fatherland. Holland, however, has not stopped short in her original outburst of charity. During three years she has generously taken upon herself to support the most unfortunate of our compatriots, and if she has not succeeded in giving to all what they desired, that is solely the fault of circumstances evoked by this war, to which the neutrals,. although in smaller measure, pay their tribute as well as the heiliger ents. The Netherlands gbvernment by maintaining strict neutrality has 4 August 1914. — Arrival In Holland of two old men rescued by the Dutch Red Cross from the burnlng of Visé. been able to preserve for the Dutch people the inestimable blessing of peace in the midst of a Europe devastated by fire and sword. Has the population observed the same neutrality ? In its actions, yes. In its thoughts, its language and its sympathies, no. Whatever some may say who abuse the phrase: "Who is not with us is against us", the great majority of the Dutch, while remaining neutral in their actions, feel, live and suffer with us for our cause and for our ideal. During our three years residence in this country we have had the opportunity of visiting a large number of Dutch towns. Everywhere we encountered the same sympathy towards the Allies. In train, tram, street and café, we observed and heard in what direction the sympathies of the Dutch people lay. They are radiant with joy when the Allied 'armies win a victory, and consternation is depicted on every face when a reverse of fortune deprives us of some position. Besides, have those who reproached Holland for not having thrown herself head foremost into the mêlée asked themselves what would have then become of those thousands of Belgians who, having lost everything in Belgium, have been lucky in finding here a shelter which, if it does not give them all the comforts of the ruined hearth, gives them at any rate precious peace and besides the consoling joy of feeling near the Fatherland has restored to them the calm and repose without which the majority would have succumbed in the storm ? Holland has done much for the Belgians, and we have all been able to note in this war the discretion that the Dutch put into their welcome of our unhappy compatriots ■—■ a discretion that can never adequately be extolled. F ar from standing still, the Dutch people, after their magnamimous action of October 1914 have not abandoned us for a moment. Better still, the Netherlands government, with remarkable foresight, has, from the beginning, seen the situation clearly and reckoned with the fact that the asssistance it was able to give the Belgians would not be of short duration, but would, alas, last for years. Without losing time it began to organise, to centralise and to direct this reliëf, and it has achieved. the best results. The Minister of Interior, in a note drawn up in July 1917, gave a short review of what Holland did during the first three years of the war. We extract the following passages: ,,Prior to the fall of Antwerp, the civil and military authorities had already considered the moment come for regulating the distributkm and housing of the refugees, for since the first days of the war Dutch Limburg had been thronged by thousands of fugitives. While the hospitality offered by the inhabitants was drawn upon as much as possible,- the public buildings also opened their doors; refugees whose presence rpight constitute a danger to the neutrality 6 of Holland or who misbehaved themselves were interned in the military camp at Oldebroek or in an internment camp installed in the buildings of the Rijkswerkinrichting at Veenhuizen As the invasion. of Belgium extended, other provinces besides Limburg received their quota of refugees; the same methods were followed there as in Limburg. The government was aware that it was faced by a problem that it would not be easy to solve. Besides the ordinary agencies, the State had to create agencies ,,ad hoe" for this sudden emergency. In order to centralise the efforts of the different private committees which had just been formed, a ,,central state commission for the defence of the interests of refugees in Holland" was established, and the creation of local and provincial committees was encouraged wherever their necessity was feit. While these agencies were growing in number the Germans were I approaching Antwerp. From that moment the refugee problem entirely changed character. While thus far the country people had crossed the frontier only in scores or at the most in hundreds, these numbers soon rose to thousands. The government understood the necessity of taking energetic measures and even before the fall of Antwerp was an accomplished fact the Minister of Interior had given the necessary orders to the commissaries of the Queen for the preparation of shelters, wherever possible, for the refugees. It was certain that the southern provinces would not be able, to bear the burden of the supplementary charge that would be imposed upon them for some time and it was moreover also quite certain that the government would 'have to do everything to make the life of these unhappy people, driven from home, as tolerable as possible. The sole effective remedy for this situation consisted in distributing the refugees over the entire country. The first days of October, however, brought such a crowd of refugees to Holland — it is no exaggeration to speak of a million — that it was practically impossible to send them all to the interior of the country. While, then, the plan of distribution that had been worked out, could not be put into immediate execution, the people of north Brabant and of Zeeland, assisted by the military and civil authorities, did everything possible to see that the calamities that had bef allen the unfortunate refugees were not aggravated. The government, through its military depots, furnished' the necessary supplies and tried to remedy the lack of sleeping accomodation by sending blankets and by giving up public buildings and tents. A large number of private persons in the interior endeavoured on their part to ligbten the burden imposed upon the government. As it had been foreseen that this situation woud last some time in Zeeland and south Brabant, the government appointed a commissary to take charge of the interests of the refugees in both these nrovinces. 7 October 1914. — A Dutch infantryman at the frontier pushes a wheelbarrow on which a Belgian woman has loaded all her belongings and her chlldren. While the refugees were being gradually moved towards the interior of the country, it was necessary to secure lodging for those who had spent the first nights of their flight in the open air. A camp was formed at Bergen-op-Zoom and another at Hontenisse. That, it was considered, would do until the situation became clearer. It was necessary to wait in order to see whether, after the occupation of Antwerp by the Germans, a number of Belgians would return home. or prefer to prolong their stay in Holland. No one was obliged to leave, but ojpportunity was extensively given of returning to Belgium without 1 cost. Many made use of it, but many also came back immediately and, after a lapse of several weeks, there remained in Holland about i 720,000 refugees. The government found itself obliged to construct refugee camps, Belgian villages where a government commissary with his administration would have to maintain order but where, in all other respects, the greatest possible liberty would be allowed the refugees. The need of these camp was all the more imperatively feit that 'the military camp at Oldebroek, where the refugees had been installed, had to be evacuated. Thus it came about in a remarkably short penod that the first Belgian village, near Nunspeet, was established and 13,000 persons were housed there. It is easy to understand, says the Minister in his note, that it was impossible to meet all demands at first; complaints were made about the situation, the sleeping accommodation, the food, but the government always tried to satisfy reasonable desires. One camp, however, like that at Nunspeet, was not sufficiënt. After mvestigation in different districts, two new camps were formed m the heaths — at Uden and at Ede. In the beginning the camp at Ede was intended for refugees of a higher social position than those at Nunspeet; and an endeavour was made to organise a certain degree of comfort there. Experience did not justify this expectation and both camps were eventually classified in the same category. In the Spring of 1917, as the population of the refugee camps steadily diminished, the camp at Ede was, for reasons of economy, transferred to Nunspeet, where the camp has been enlarged with a portion'of the barracks made available by the evacuation of the former. The total expenses of this transfer amounted to 48^199 ffonns. It was found possible to instal ten thousand refugees intoecamps at Ede and Uden. Besides these three large establishments, another little camp was created at Gouda, on private initiative but with the assistance of the government. It provides room for about 2000 persons. The inhabitants of these camps daily receive meat, fish or fat. No mquiries have been made concerning their financial situation owing to the difficulties connected with the subject. They are never obliged 9 Octobcr 1914. — Dutch prlcs'ts and soldiers in the slrcets pl Roosendaal endeavour to obtain a shelter for the Belgian refugees, to work, but indirectly everything possible is done to keep the inhabitants of a camp from spending their day in idleness. Those who do work receive a slight recompense either in money or in clothes. The government, once it had taken all the necessary measures to house the refugees, adopted the policy of not opposing the desire of private persons wishing to take in refugees; it even allowed them a daily subsïdy of 35 cents for each adult and 20 cents for each child. If the burgomaster or the military authority raised objection to the residence of strangers in the commune, the refugees were given the choice of either returning to Belgium or of entering one of the government camps. It was only people of a higher social class than the average who displayed any prejudice in regard to the refugee camps. Thanks to the intervention of the „Rijks Commissie" and of the Amsterdam committee, it was decided to house them elsewhere for a daily contribution not exceeding 70 cents. It is not possible, says the minister, to give exactly the number of refugees at present in Holland (July 1917). According to a rough estimate, there must still be about from thirty to forty thousand constituting a charge on the government. There are 6,902 at Nunspeet, 6,233 at Uden and 1,210 at Gouda. With the provision of board and lodging for these refugees, the government's task was not ended. Clothing and footwear had also to be provided. The particularly difficult problem of employment demanded all the attention of the government, which had also to organise the education of the children and the professional instruction of their elders. In both these tasks the government has been supported to a most praiseworthy extent by private initiative. The Amsterdam committee „Steun voor Belgische en andere slachtoffers", . of which we have already spoken, had at its disposal considerable 'financial resources furnished by private persons. It received an amount of almost 92.000 florins, of which 10,000 florins came from Switzerland. This committee has in particular taken charge of clothing and footwear and has alleviated much misery. When it had come to the end of its resources the government helped it. The American assistance was also valuable and especially that of the Rockefeller Foundation, which from the beginning enabled the needs of the entire camp of Uden to be met. With regard to employment the Rockefeller Foundation has also rendered great services by forming sewing and knitting classes in which a large number of refugees made warm clothing for the interiied and the other fugitives. The government appreciated the activity of this Foundation so highly that when it ceased work on 5 June 1915 the government entrusted the continuation of its services to the above mentioned committee. There are still at present five workrooms in different 11 parts of the country provided with about 500 sewing machines. The number of seamstresses is 1294 with 27 direetresses and the number of knitters is 1623 with six direetresses. Furthermore home work was procured for the refugees in order to combat idleness, care at the same time being taken that they did not deprive Dutch workers of their means of livelihood. A pleasant source of work for the refugees is what is commonly called ,,the reconstruction of Belgium". To replace the numerous houses destroyed it will not be possible to build brick houses everywhere immediately. With this end in view, the refugees here consttucted little wooden houses which, after being lived in, can be dismounted and eventually put together again in Belgium. The plan orginated from a conversation between the Dutch Foreign Minister and the Belgian minister Helleputte. It was carried out under the control of the president of the „Centrale Rijks Commissie"-, and the expenses are, for the most part, covered by Danish gifts amounting to 325,000 florins. The English „Society of Friends" also helped by its advice and gifts. More than 400 of these little houses have been put in different communes at the disposal of the refugees. The construction of several of these habitations was rendered possible by private English, American and Belgian gifts, and the governments did not have to bear part of the expenses, which on 7 July 1917 already amounted to 400.000 florins. Moreover, the Belgian government has had three little wooden villages constructed by the work school of the internment camps under the control of M. Omer Buyse. They are: Albertsdorp, near Soesterberg, Elisabethdorp, near Amersfort, Heidekamp and Leopoldsdorp, near Harderwijk. The Belgian government also directly provides for the housing and support of the families of Belgian soldiers living in these villages." The ministerial note Concluded with a review of the expenses of the Dutch Treasury caused by the maintenance of the Belgian refugees. Despite powerful assistance from elsewhere, these expenses amount for.the first three years of the war to about 20,600,000 florins. Almost 50.000.000 francs. A fine sum! It ought to be pointed out that from the beginning the Belgian government offered to repay to the Dutch government all the expenses occasioned by the sojourn of refugees in Holland. The Dutch government dechned this offer, saying that the Dutch people willingly makes sacrifices, thus desiring to cooperate as far as possible in the alleviation of the miseries that the Belgians experience through the war. The expenses occasioned by the civilian refugees are not, and will.not, therefore be in any way made a charge on the Belgian government. October 1914. — In front of the ralhvay station 'of Bergen op Zoom thousands of Belgian refugees awaiting the train which will take them free ot cost to the interior of the country Tihat is an act of generosity the entire significance of which we cannot even approximately estimate. Holland has seen her expenses increased by1 this war from month to month, so much so that the > Department of Finance has found itself obliged on several occasions [ to increase the taxes and to levy new ones. It may be objected that the sum of twenty million florins, spread over three years, is not very large for the budget of a country that has had the good fortune to remain outside the struggle and that, if the government has spent that sum on the poor Belgians, our less unfortunate countrymen have spent a much larger sum in Holland, thus paying back with interest to the Dutch community what the latter has spent on our behalf. It is true that the Belgians have brought much money to Holland | and spent it there. It should, however, be remarked that not all they have spent here has been pure profit for the Dutch. Moreover a large number of the Belgians living in The Netherlands and not dependent on any help committee, relieved their wants by work obtained 'n / this country. It is therefore money earned in Holland and not in Belgium that they spend here. Certain Dutchmen — and there are more than one imagines — have done immense work for our unfortunate compatriots, and their generosity is the more to be appreciated for its being absolutely discreet in its manifestation. There are hundreds of families in this country who for thrêe years already have entirely supplied the needs of the Belgians whom they adopted at the beginning of the war, giving them not only board and lodging but also clothing and all desirable distractions and, even going so far as to give the children old enough to go to school a more careful education than their parents could have given them in ; Belgium. The Belgians who profit by this generosity are frequently children or young girls who are orphans or whose parents are in occupied Belgium or in France or in England. It is, however, not rare to find entire families enjoying this liberality. In the case of children or young girls they are regarded as members of the family, they are treated on a footing of equality and every allusion ;s scrupulously avoided that could remind them that they are only refugees and living on charity. When it is a question of entire families, they are welcomed to the family circle like old friends or they are given a comfortable apartment where they have only to live at their ease without troubling about any expense however small. At the beginning of the war 'these cases were legion, and we have known Dutch families to charge themselves with the entire maintenance of eighty Belgian adults. Others supplied the needs of dozens of refugee children. It is easy to understand.that with the continuance of the war such liberality could not be maintained; the expenses necessit- 14 Cctober 1914, — Meal servcd to Belgian refugees in a hall of the Diamond Exchange at Amsterdam ated by the maintenance of these refugees made too heavy' demands upon the budgets of Dutch families. One would, however, be astonished to f-now the large number of Belgians still profiting by this munificence. It is not only the Belgians in Holland who are the object of Dutch generosity. Among all classes of Dutch society numerous women and young girls have manifested their friendship for us by adopting Belgian soldiers either at the front or prisoners of war or interned in Holland or Switzerland. In this respect Dutch charity, instead of diminishing, increases day by day, and we know a Dutch lady who has taken charge of not less than thirty-two Belgian and French soldiers, at the same time participating in all the works established in Holland. Not only does she provide moral consolation for these thirty-two godsons by her affectionate letters but she also sends them on fixed dates parcels which are gratefully received by our good poilus. Besides these particular cases the entire population never misses an opportunity of showing its good feeling towards us. There has never been a month in these three years that collections have not been organised in one or other town in aid of a Belgian charity. All these collections have been entirely successful and have produced large sums. Such a result has certainly not been attained without great effort, and we desire here to pay homage to the many Dutch girls and women, who, in all weather, often in the midst of storms and despite mud, have sacrificed themselves to collect such large sums, cent by cent. During their exile the Belgians have established in Holland numerous philanthropic agencies, such as the Dutch section of the Belgian Red Cross, the various committees for prisoners of war, the Comité National de Secours et d'Alimentation, the Dubbeltje Beige, jthe Tabac du Soldat beige au front, 1'Oeuvre des orphelins de la guerre etc. The Belgians, of course, do everything in their power to Jjsupport these charities, but it is certain that, without the assistance Mof the Dutch, not one of these institutiotns would have been able to |fender the services at present rendered. Hundreds of thousands of [florins, both at home and in the Dutch Indies, have been poured out by the Dutch for the Comité National de Secours et d'Alimentation, (for the Dubbeltje Beige and for the other charities. All these organisations have, moreover, been extensively supported not alone by the people but also by the civil and military authorities. To form an idea of this support, both moral and financial, it is sufficiënt to mention the Oeuvre de la Santé a 1'enfance beige, directed by a Dutch-Belgian committee. Founded in August 1916, this charity, within six months, succeeded in bringing to Holland 16 9000 Belgian children who all resided here for six weeks —> the time necessary to restore to them the strength they had lost through lack of food in Belgium. Besides these 9000 children, 400 others have been lodged in Holland for the duration of the war. The Belgians themselves would never have been able to achieve such a result. It was ^sufficiënt for the initiators of this philanthropic enterprise to point out its charitable aim to induce the aristocracy and high society of .The Hague to take an interest in it and to contribute generously. The railway companies, not content with according free transport to these unfortunate children, have organised services of special trains which, every six weeks, take back the children returning to Belgium and bring over those who in their turn can profit by Dutch hospitality. The enterprise, moreover, has obtained the valuable and very gracious assistance of the Dutch medical and hygienic services. And yet this is not the only enterprtlse that has for its mission the saving of Belgian children. Dutch people also had from the beginning of the war devoted themselves to this task. As far back as September 1914, a Leyden journalist, Dr. E. Verviers, in a weekly journal published in that town, drew the attention of the Dutch public to the danger of abandoning the poor children of Belgium to the horrors of war. Eight days afterwards, the Catholic housing committee of Leyden for the protection of poor children, victims of the war, was established in the palace of His Grace, Mgr. Henri van de Wetering archbishop of Utrecht. This committee made it its task to collect into Dutch families the numerous children who had become orphans and left without anyone to take care of them. At the same time, it desired to offer a temporary but sure shelter to the other Belgian childern whom the war had put in danger and to bring to Holland Belgian women who were enceinte or suckling their children. Within a few weeks, the committee had received, besides large gifts of money, more than a thousand offers from Dutch families each ready to adopt a Belgian child. The committee received the children on their arrival in Holland and sent besides a rescue brigade to Belgium to collect children (girls up to 15 and boys up to 10 years) in the stricken districts, and to bring them to The Netherlands and place them in families. At the end of three months the requests for children had risen to three thousand. Needless to say the children came in crowds, and at the end of three years twelve hundred of these little vagrants are still in Dutch families, who feed, clothe and educate them gratuitously. A similar committee had been founded in August 1914, under the presidency of His Grace Mgr. A. F. Diepen, at 's-Hertogenbosch. There, as at Leyden, help flowed in from every direction and the committee was able, at a certain moment, to place as many as four thousand Belgian children in Dutch families. Besides these two committees, Mr. Brands, solicitor at Amsterdam had founded a October 1914; — Improvised dormitory in Egg Market at Rotterdam. similar institution, the „Home for little Belgian children", which jlikewise saved hundreds of our little compatriots from the terrible \misery they would have had to undergo in the occupied territory, had it not been for the initervention of these charitable souls. Although Holland has herself entered upon a period in which, owing to the scarcity of food, the government has had to decide on rationing the inhabitants, our Dutch friends continue to rescue from famine as inany Belgian children as they possibly can. After a lapse of three years there still come regular convoys of these little ones, wasted and worn by their privation and they are received, as m the first days, cordially and eagerly both by the authorities and the-people. Moreover, Holland's efforts to rescue our compatriots in Belgium keep pace with the growing distress there. For this end, she obtained from the German authorities permission to bring to Holland the wives and children of interned Belgian soldiers. The government commissary, Mr. Simons de Ruyter, specially entrusted with the task of taking the necessary steps with the German authorities, has several times seen his efforts crowned with success, and hundreds of our unfortunate soldiers are indebted to him for the happiness of fdnding their families after a long and painful separation. i Everyone knows the splendid work of the „Reliëf Fund in Belgjium", founded by our American friends and continued after the jentry of the United States into the war by the representatives of Holland and Spain. Less well known is the Fleskens commission which, ithough working on a much smaller scale, has none the less contributed towards saving occupied Belgium from famine. After the German occupation, when distress began to make itself feit, the Dutch government, inspired by a feeling of humanity, believed it to be its duty to help not only those who had fled and had established themselves in The Netherlands, but also those who had remained in their own country and especially those who live along the frontier. The latter were very insufficiently provided with food and could count only on the help and assistance coming to them from Holland. A commission was therefore founded in December 1914, composed of several well known political personages living near the fronbier and thoroughly acquainted with the needs of the neighbouring Belgian communes. The aim of this commission was to cooperate, with the help of the Dutch government, in solving the food problem of the needy population of Belgium. In this connection, it got into touch with the Comité national beige de Secours et d'Alimentation, with the prov- 19 incial, cantonal or regional sections of this committee, with the administrations of the large communes and with other important institutions. Its sphere of action extended to the provinces of the two Flanders, Antwerp, Liége, Limburg and the northem part of Brabant. In the very beginning the task of the commission consisted simply in helping the Dutch government in the aid to be offered to the frontier communes which, deprived of all assistance, were suffering cruelly. Shortly after its installation, its activity had to extend to a vaster field, so much so that, for a certain time, all export to Belgium was subject to its approval. The commission is not solely occupied in supplying provisions but also provides for the requirements of agriculture and industry. It regards itself especially as a mediator between the Dutch government and the needy Belgian communes in order to complete the function that the Reliëf committee cannot entirely fulfill. Except in very rare cases, it has never taken it upon itself to purchase goods, as it cannot assume such responsibility, but contents /itself with exercising a serious control over the destination of goods (the export of which has been allowed. Above all, it desires to be certain that the goods in question have been supplied to those entitled i to them, that is to say, directly to the Belgians, without any dubious j intermediaries and also at the lowest possible price. In order to be better able to do its work, the Dutch commission instituted sub- I commissions in occupied Belgium and was thus able to extend its action to the provinces of Namur and Hainault. As it was able only to export Dutch home produce, the Fleskèns commission was never able to extend its field of action as widely as the „Commission for Reliëf". It has, however, been eminently useful and, to quote only one exlample, it can be stated that it supplied 55° I Belgian communes with about a million kilograms of bread a week. ' The Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce authorised by special concessions the export of potatoes and cattle from Holland to Belgium and the north of France, and the Fleskens commission controlled their dispatch to the amount of 24,240,559 kilos of potatoes for Belgium and 11,553,000 kilos of tubers for the north ol France. Belgium received 1157 head of cattle and the north of France 360. All these consignments were addressed directly to the communal administrations so as to avoid all fraud or speculation. The Fleskens commission made itself particulary useful by victualling the inhabitants of the „zone" frontier. The Germans, as is known, in order- to imprison our unfortunate countrymen more securely have established a second barrier of electric wires at a certain distance from the frontier, thus creating between this barrier and the one on the frontier a sort of zone which people, not living in it, were forbidden to cross. As the inhabitants of this zone also 20 H August 1916. — Rotterdam. Funeral of Major Dlegerlck Df the Belgian army. cannot cross either of these barriers, they are entirely isolated from the rest of Belgium und Holland, and were it not for ithe interven-' tion of the Fleskens commission, they would have been condemned to die of starva'tion. Here again the Dutch government and the members of the commission have given evidence of their generosity. While all the persons on the commission do their work gratuitously, the State has granted free postage for letters, free use of the telephone and telegraph and pays all the expenses of the commission, including travelling and hotel expenses. As we are speaking of the provisioning of the occupied country, -we may be permitted here to pay a well earned tribute of gratitude to a good friend of the Belgians, His Excellency M. van Vollenhoven, minister resident of Holland at Brussels. During the three years he has been in this very difficult post, M. van Vollenhoven, by his indefatigable devotion and generous heart, has won the sympathy of every Belgian. He is not only a brilliant diplomat but a kindhearted man. Gratitude in Belgium is not an idle word; if, at this moment, om fellow countrymen cannot freely testify to their deep gratitude for all M. van Vollenhoven has done for the Belgians, they will, however, not forget it. M. van Vollenhoven understood, the moment H. M. Queen Wilhelmina's government called him to the important post of Brussels that he could not serve his own country better than by dressing as far as possible the wounds of ours. Thus he-has been able, while representing The Netherlands so worthily, to render immense services to Belgium. Future history will write in letters of gold the page consecrated to his activity. And in the Belgium of to-morrow he will be recalled with grateful affection. We could multiply the examples of Dutch committees and organisations that endeavoured, with or without the help of the Netherlands' government, to assist our countrymen in occupied Belgium as well as in Holland, or at the front or in German camps. This charity was manifested in .the most various spheres, and we can almost say that no class of society, no profession or trade has been forgotten. At one moment it is Belgian artists who receive great support from their Dutch confrères, at an other the law candidates of Holland and the Dutch Indies stretch out their arms to the members of itihe Belgian bar. The classes of Belgians who have received the least assistance are in general the workmen 'and trade employees. Many of them, too proud to have recourse to a reliëf committee or to enter a refugee camp, attempted to provide for their needs by working. In the beginning, that was very difficult, especially because of the opposition of the Dutch 1'abour syndicates. The latter, fearing competition from the Belgian workman, refused to admit him to the 22 factory or the workshop, thereby proving that the famous internationalism about which the syndicates'of all countries make such a stir is only idle talk. Fortunately for our compatriots this state of things did not last very long. The great repuitation enjoyed by Belgian workers in all branches of industry led to Dutoh industrial employers willingly engaging them, and when the mobilisation of the Dutch army made situations vacant, a large number of Belgians were soon able to find work while submitting to the condïtions of the local syndicates. The manufacturers have moreover every reason to be thankful for' the services our countrymen render them. On the other hand, a eer tain number of Belgian artisans, even manufacturers, have set up their business here, either temporarily or definitely, and they have also been able to employ some of our countrymen. Office employees have been more unfortunate. As a rule not acquainted, or imperfectly acquainted, with the Dutch language, it was very difficult for them to find work. That is why such a large number returned to Belgium, not wishing to be a burden on Dutch charity. In his report, the Minister of Interior spoke of the Amsterdam committee which, since the beginning of the war, has in a way concentrated under its direction all the works of reliëf for refugees patronised by the government. It is the ,,Comité néerlandais de secours aux refugiés beiges et autres." In his speech at the last annual meeting the president, Maitre Th. Stuart, justly remarked that the committee might be called ,.Organisation of the social life of Belgians in Holland". At the beginning of the exodus of Belgians to Holland, this committee was almost exclusively occupied Iwith lodging, feeding, clothing and educating the needy Belgians. Eventually this committee classified our countrymen into different categories, according to their social rank and, while continuing direct relations with the majority of the 320 Belgian committees which, little by little, had sprung up in Holland, it tries to regulate to some degree the life of our needy countrymen. This became absolutely necessary in proportion as The Netherlands also began to feel the shortage of food and the scarcity of housing accomodation. Here also the Dutch government has never refused its cooperation to the committee. The latter, besides, requires the cooperation and good will of all, for the difficulties that it has to surmount are very great. In distributing very consid