The German occupation of Belgium may be roughly divided into two
periods: Before the fall of Antwerp, when the hope of prompt deliverance
was still vivid in every heart, and when the German policy, in spite of
its frightfulness, had not yet assumed its most ruthless and systematic
character; and, after the fall of the great fortress, when the yoke of
the conqueror weighed more heavily on the vanquished shoulders, and when
the Belgian population, grim and resolute, began to struggle to preserve
its honour and loyalty and to resist the ever increasing pressure of the
enemy to bring it into complete submission and to use it as a tool
against its own army and its own King.

I am only concerned here with the second period. The story of the German
atrocities committed in some parts of the country at the beginning of
the occupation is too well known to require any further comment. Every
honest man, in Allied and neutral countries, has made up his mind on the
subject. No unprejudiced person can hesitate between the evidence
brought forward by the Belgian Commission of Enquiry and the vague
denials, paltry excuses and insolent calumnies opposed to it by the
German Government and the Pro-German Press. Besides, in a way, the
atrocities committed during the last days of August, 1914, ought not to
be considered as the culminating point of Belgium's martyrdom. They
have, of course, appealed to the imagination of the masses, they have
filled the world with horror and indignation, but they did not extend
all over the country, as the present oppression does; they only affected
a few thousand men and women, instead of involving hundreds of
thousands. They were clean wounds wrought by iron and fire, sudden,
brutal blows struck at the heart of the country, wounds and blows from
which it is possible to recover quickly, from which reaction is
possible, which do not affect the soul and honour of a people. The