Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-21
LEOPOLD II AND GREATER BELGIUM

Belgium's political situation has been
unsteady and troubled for many months.
and that condition has be-
Chronic come chronic. The mani
n;.,,,;.+ fest disquiet which still
prevails does not portend
a dynastic crisis. for Leopold II is popu-
lar with the people. Nor is there any
indication of a desire of the Belgians to
change the monarchy for the republic,
which has few If any partisans. The
socialists themselves have no idea of the
republic: on the contrary. the recent
visits of the king to Antwerp and the
popular manifestations show that LAo-
pold II has still large place in the af-
fections of the Belgian people Aside
from the evaporation of the people be-
cause of the efforts of a certain press to
depreciate the king, the real cause of the
present disquiet Is singular. as it may
appear that the Belgian does not wish
to be great. Greatness. he understands
full we'll. necessitates an increase in the
army and the construction of q navy and
hence increase in taxes.
There is. indeed. a crisis of growth in
Belgium. a crisis in which the king would
transform Belgium's ineffective and pow
erless neutrality into a military and
naval power capable of defending itself
against threatened absorption. The ex-
ploitation of her Kongo colony. it goes
without saying, is a pendant of this
policy. The people admire their king.
but they do not appear to be prepared as
yet to follow him in his aspirations for a
greater Belgium. which Leopold believes
doubtless is imposed by the logic of
events
The king, it should be said. started in
his career with this idea of a greater Bel
GUM. He advocated it when he was
Duke of Brabant. and as king he said
small when 1t is bathed by the ocean.
pray that the intelligence and activity
which abounds in our country will be
employed in making Belgium a greater
Belgium
Belgium in September last was so much
disturbed over the military project that
it was deemed almost
Military certain that NJ Schol
laert would be obliged te
abandon power and con
stitute new cabinet based upon the
unanimous support Of the right
change of ministry under such circum-
stances meant adjournment until after
the elections in 1910. AS it stands there
Is to be a veritable battle in the cham
Der over the maintenance or the suppress
sion of the faculty of substitution In re-
cruitment in the military service, and II
is on that question that the fate of the
cabinet rests The king in the event OF
ministerial check will interfere to IN.
woke the support of the military project
by the young right party which favors
personal service and which would attain
military reform in this sense with the
aid Of part of the right and the iert
This would naturally cause the breaking
I'D of the Catholic bloc and dissolution
would follow the adoption of the mill
tary project.
This military project is now a question
of supreme importance to Belgium. pc
come all the more urgent from the oe-
signs attributed to Germany in the Brit
ish press The Westminster Review for
October, for example. contains an article
from an Englishman. Mr. DarntOn-Fraser,
entitled Penetration of Germany III
Belgium" The author. commenting upon
the peaceful penetration OF Germany IN
that country. cites Paris journal which
recently put the question: win Germany
annex Antwerp" The suggestion OF a
German annexation Of. Antwerp in a
time of profound peace is obviously ao'
surd. The Partisan editor sought to draw
serious attention to the systematic and
unceasing campaign in that direction
Strategically, commercially. financial.
ly, Antwerp is the heart Of Belgium.
In support of the argumentsthat the
Germans propose to annex Antwerp. the
author above cited de-
Antwerp cIares on Germany au-
thority that there are al
ready $1,000 Germans In
Antwerp included in the population OF
100000 OF the 1000 members of the Ant
werp Chamber of Commerce 200 are Ger
mans Thirty years ago there We're
twenty Three-fourths of the commercial
houses are German. OF the j.SI2 vessels
that entered the port of Antwerp in 1903.
1,O99 were under the German flag. There
are German schools in Belgium and it is
recalled that the geographical text book
used contained map of Europe In which
Holland and Belgium were marked as a
part of the German empire. 1t Is recalled
that these schools being under the super
vision of the German minister to the Bel
gian court. the Belgian government pro-
tested against the offensive text books.
and they were withdrawn.
The British author concludes that Ant
werp today Is a German emporium: to-
morrow it may be a German base at the
very gate of London; the day after 1t
would be a permanent German fortress
and naval harbor." The author. in view
of such a situation, suggests that Eng
land instead Of perpetually nagging at
the Belgians make them feel that their
interest lies on the side of Great Britain
and not on that of her rivals
Mention has been made of Malines as
railway center. Malines is important
also as political center. There on Sep
TENDER % was held a grand govern
mental jubilee the occasion of the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the coming
to power of the Catholic party. The
discussions which took place in the con-
gress between the old and the new Catho-
lie parties throw light upon politics In
Belgium.
The Flemish question is bitter subject
of discussion throughout Belgium. 1t is
racial as well as politi-
Flemish cal, and thus doubly dan
o,,..+;o, gerous. A Flemish orator
in the congress asked
that the Flemish language should be
employed as a national idiom in the free
schools of Belgium. This was sufficient
to put fire to the powder magazine. The
Flemish orator grew violent and de-
nounced the French language and litera-
ture as the conductor of Partisan sew
ers.' The Temps. commenting upon the
Flemish mans outbreak, declared that
the orator was manfestly q close reader
of that particular form of French litera-
ture which was printed principally at
Amsterdam and at Brussels.
The Flemish people are charged by the
WALTON element In Belgium with prepar-
ing pangermanist movement The con-