We must now deal with the second factor which makes the conditions worse
in Belgium than in Germany. While German peace-factories, ruined by the
blockade, have been turned into war-factories, the majority of Belgian
industries have remained idle. In spite of the high wages offered by the
Germans--some skilled workmen were offered as much as £2 and £2 10s. per
day--the workers resisted the constant pressure exerted upon them and
preferred to live miserably on half-wages or with the help given them by
the "Comité National" rather than accept any work which might directly
or indirectly help the occupying power. If a few thousands, compelled by
hunger or unable to resist their conquerors' threats, passed the
frontier, all the rest of the working population kept up, under the most
depressing conditions, a great patriotic strike, the "strike of folded
arms." If they could not, as the 20,000 young heroes who crossed the
Dutch frontier, join the Belgian army on the Yser; they could at least
wage war at home and oppose to the enemy the impenetrable rampart of
their naked breasts. It should not be said, when King Albert should
return to Brussels at the head of his troops, that his subjects had not
shared the sufferings of his soldiers. They should also have their
wounds to show, they should also have their dead to honour.

* * * * *

When, at the beginning of November last, the protests of the Belgian
Government and the "Signal of Distress" of the Belgian bishops made
known the slave raids which had taken place, most of the outside world
was shocked and surprised. It had lived, for months, under the
impression that "things were not so bad" in the conquered provinces.
After the outcry caused by the atrocities of August, 1914, there came a
natural reaction, a sort of anti-climax. Fines, requisitions, petty
persecutions do not strike the imagination in the same way as the