Show IN BELGIUM TODAY people confident day of deliverance will come young and old are learning to speak english no personal relations between belgians and germans boys are deficient london the following account of 0 conditions in belgium Is from the pen of 0 an american who has arrived in london after a years stay in the belgian capital belgium today la is learning to speak english everywhere you go you can see the old and young usually carrying notebooks studying in the streets and trams trains in the cates cafes restaurants and in the homes all talking english using english expressions and words on all possible occasions belgium is confident you have only to look at their faces aces to see it and it if you talk with them they say just wait the day of 0 deliverance la is coming it may be this summer or next summer but never vona etes tou fell from the german military standpoint belgium is organized into three districts the first the biet or the zone ot of operations which extends some fifteen to twenty miles bc the actual line of 0 fighting the second the Et appen which is an intermediary terme diary zone where all the supplies tor for the front are collected and distributed and the third the occupy or the occupied territory organized with both military and civil governments no person can go from one to the other except on special permission and then only by train which includes as one of its comforts a thorough searching no person can leave the town in chich lie he lives except by train or on toot foot those who wish to ride in automobiles must pay twenty marks a week or more in the fortified cities ot of liege namur and antwerp you yet must be in your houses bouses at nine in the evening naturally no belgian can go to holland except by stealth and I 1 have good reason to believe that some sixty thousand have passed the frontier since the first of the year sometimes this necessitates the killing ot of one or two sentinels above all it Is strictly forbidden to sing or play the Brab anoon antion the mar sellI alse and tipperary as a result of which nearly every belgian can sing tipperary and does docs so very often on the boulevard anspach in brussels one day tour four little boys were marching towards the bourse singing at the top ot of their lungs the Brab anoon it ii was not long lone before some german so sol diers chased them catching one who as he marched away to the komman datter cried out to his bis friends run and tell mamma that I 1 am a prisoner of 0 war the young belgians all wear caps modeled on the soldiers rest caps and are very independent the german government of bel glum has expressed its desire that all Bel belgians glahs should return to their work but it it be work that can profit the germans they find something else to do then besides every piece of machinery that can be used in germany has been stolen long lone since it Is easy to say go to work but it Is another thing to have work to do which is not of direct benefit to the german military authorities in char lerot lerol there were about fifty efty locomotives which had been damaged more or less the germans offered the work of repair with fair air pay to the belgian workmen hut but they absolutely refused as the locomotives could be used in fit sending supplies and troops to the front it was nearly a month later when after falling to persuade the belgians to work the germans were compelled to bring workmen from shops in germany 1 I have given you some idea of the general relations between the germans and the belgians As for personal relations there Is none during the week before I 1 left brussels I 1 was vas a spectator of an incident which perhaps shows the distance between the two better than I 1 can explain I 1 was standing on the platform of a tram coming up from town it was crowded with both germans and belgians A german took a cigarette from his case and having no match asked the man standing beside him tor for a light the belgian had nothing to do but offer the german ills his lighted cigarette when the ger man went to return the cigarette the belgian very politely informed the german that he be did not care to anoka any more the german could do nothing although he felt the insinuation he left the tram immediately for our real news we have had to depend upon the dutch papers and above all the london and paris journals which were s smuggled in from time to time the german a authorities t h cities have done all they could to stop these papers coming in ID even making it ex punishable tut as fast as they would stop up one channel of the supply another would be found wo we were never without an english paper tor for more than two weeks since the first of september of last year the commission for relief of bel glum has no doubt saved a nation from starvation and under the difficult circumstances bove done dane a wonderful work the belgians know and really appreciate the help e the be germans have tried to claim the credit by publishing pictures rf the commissions work and labeling them as some of the alne work germany has done tn in belgium |