administration and formerly the headquarters of Baron von Bissing's son,
set to work in three principal directions. It aimed at separating the
Belgians from the Allies, then at separating the people from King
Albert and his Government, and finally at reviving the old language
quarrel between Walloons and Flemings.

The campaign against the Allies, though still carried on whenever the
opportunity arises, was specially violent at the beginning, when the
Germans had not yet given up all hope of detaching King Albert from the
Alliance (August-September, 1914). It was perhaps the most dangerous
line of attack because it did not imply any breach of patriotism. On the
contrary it suggested that Belgium had been duped by the Allies, and
especially by England, who had never meant to come to her help and who
had used her as a catspaw, leaving her to bear all the brunt of the
German assault in an unequal and heroic struggle. It was accompanied by
a constant flow of war news exaggerating the German successes and
suggesting that, even if they ever had the intention of delivering
Belgium, the Allies would no longer be in a position to do so.

According to the first war-news poster issued in Brussels, a few days
after the enemy had entered the town, the French official papers had
declared that "The French armies, being thrown on the defensive, would
not be able to help Belgium in an offensive movement." I need not recall
how, his name having been used at Liège to bolster up this false report,
M. Max, the burgomaster of Brussels, found an opportunity of
contradicting it publicly and, at the same time, of discrediting all
censored news.

The effect was amazing. Henceforth the official posters were not only
regularly regarded as a tissue of lies, but definitely ridiculed. The