Didn't the sound seem a little nearer? No. The wind from that
direction was stronger. When? When would the Allies come?




X
The Future Of Belgium



In former days the traveller hardly thought of Belgium as possessing
patriotic homogeneity. It was a land of two languages, French and
Flemish. He was puzzled to meet people who looked like well-to-do
mechanics, artisans, or peasants and find that they could not answer
a simple question in French. This explained why a people so close to
France, though they made Brussels a little Paris, would not join the
French family and enter into the spirit and body of that great
civilization on their borders, whose language was that of their own
literature. Belgium seemed to have no character. Its nationality was
the artificial product of European politics; a buffer divided in itself,
which would be neither French, nor German, nor definitely Belgian.

In later times Belgium had prospered enormously. It had developed
the resources of the Congo in a way that had aroused a storm of
criticism. Old King Leopold made the most of his neutral position to
gain advantages which no one of the great Powers might enjoy
because of jealousies. The International Sleeping Car Company was
Belgian and Belgian capitalists secured concessions here and there,
wherever the small tradesman might slip into openings suitable to his