to wear the tricolour cockade. The Te Deum, which is celebrated every
year, on November 15th, in honour of King Albert's Saint's day, is
forbidden. From the month of March, 1915, it is practically a forbidden
thing to sing the Brabançonne, even in the schools. All patriotic
manifestations, on the occasion of the King's Birthday (April 8th) and
of the anniversary of Belgian Independence day (July 21st) are severely
prosecuted.

In some of the orders issued there is still a weak attempt at
"respecting," in a German way, "the people's patriotic feelings." The
Governor of Namur, for instance, discriminates with the acutest subtlety
between wearing the national colours in private and in public, and the
Brabançonne can for a time be sung, so long as it is not rendered "in a
provoking manner." In fact, the Belgians are free to manifest their
patriotism so long as they are neither seen nor heard. They are
generously allowed to line their cupboards with tricolour paper and to
hum their national tunes in the depth of their cellars. But, in most of
the orders made under Governor von Bissing's rule (his reign began on
December 3rd, 1914), this last pretence of consideration and respect
disappears entirely. "I warn the public," declares the Governor of
Brussels on July the 18th, 1914, "that any demonstration whatsoever is
forbidden on July 21st next."

More than that, the German Administration frequently goes out of its way
to hurt the people's feelings. The fact of helping a patriot to join the
Army is not merely punished as a crime against the Germans, it is
delicately called "a crime of treason," and when people are condemned
because they are suspected of belonging to the Belgian intelligence
service, the public posters announcing their condemnation speak of them
as supplying information "to the enemy."