Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-09-16 | Page 23 | Germans Complain of Belgian Dislike

GERMANS COMPLAIN OF BELGIAN DISLIKE Appear to Think It Strange That Young Women of Brussels Slight Them. Bj' International News Service. AMSTERDAM, Sept. 15. The Belgians Bel-gians have sadlv deteriorated, writes a I'orrespondent of the Berlin Post from Brussels. This is shown, according to his view, by the utterly unreasonable dislike of Germans shown everywhere The Belgians, he finds, refuse to make roomi for Germans on the street cars and the young women do liot care to dance with German soldiers. Here is his lament la-ment over the strange change in the Belgians: One of the most curious effects of the war is to be noticed in Brussels. Brus-sels. The streets, the houses, the people one meets are the same, vet an undeniable spirit of change pervades per-vades everything. This is seen in the strange glances which the people bestow on a passing German, in their determined deter-mined refusal to make room for the conqueror on the streets, in the furtive fur-tive whispering that is indulged in when one of the "barbarians" en-ters en-ters a public, conveyance or a cafe. Kot is Brussels 'any loneer the elegant capital, with its delightful varnish of French courtesy that it once was. This struck me at once on entering a well-known dancing saloon. Certainly dancing was going go-ing on and German soldiers sat all around the room, Mit the pirls were fat, coarsely built and badlv dressed. They danced even more badly, and they manifested exactlv the same unsympathetic altitude toward Germans that 1 had met with among the passers-by in the .street and the passengers on the tramcars. 1 came to the conclusion lhat we shall never win over the esteem and love of the Belcr'an people, neither the Flemish section that mninlv inhabits in-habits Brussels, nor the Walloon in the south. The Fleming, indeed, has sadly degenerated, and his appreciation ap-preciation of the hil'li honor of belonging be-longing bv oriyin to the Teutonic tribes has entirely vanished. lie has become estranged from Mother Germania.