The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-01-14

cellor. Germany will demand respect
ing Belgium in it's peace terms. l an
sure that the Germans at first fully
| intended to stick to Belgium they
| would never have thought of RESTORING
her to independence but for hard ne
| cessity. Regarding that as now out
| of the question, however, they would
| like to make Belgium weak by this
| scheme of dual government by Great
ing an internal antithesis, two .separ-
ate and conflicting, parts neutraiizing
one another's strength. They think
for instance. that if the French speak
ing half were inclined to lean towards
France, that very fact would tend to
make the Flemish half lean towards
Germany
The Germans in Belgium are en-
deavoring to introduce such admins
tratlVe separation as far as lies in
their power. The education depart
ment has been split into two sections
to deal respectively with Walloon and
Flemish Belgium. with a separate set
or officials. Such a measure was by
no means NECESSARY ACCOMPANYING en-
to the extension of the use of Flemish
III the schools, but it fits in with the
German plan. The ministry for the~n-
terror has not yet undergone S1n-
mar process, but orders have been is
sued that Flemish shall be the admin
lstrative language in the regions con-
cerned. and all official correspondence
there conducted in Flemish
A small Flemish group ironically
dubbed the 'Flamallemands,' is co-operat-
ing with the Germans in these schemes
out the slight success of the Flemish
university recently established by Gov
ernor General Won Kissing at Client;
shows how feeble it is Every art of
caJolery, enticement and compulsion were
for months brought to bear in Belgium
Holland and Germany to get together the
required staff of professors The net re-
suit is a body of As professors, more
than half of whom have no qualifications
enutllng them to seriously claim sucn
title and the rest are very mediocre men,
Inc faculty of law. for instance, is pitt
ful The institution does not merit the
name of university. Whereas it should
normally have had 500 to 900 students.
learn from a good source that far less
than 100 are studying there, and every
such student has been presented with a
bursary enabling and enticing him to
do so. The Germans have placed the
10 bursaries of all the Belgian UNIVERSE
ties at the disposal of Client. SO that
scholarships are still to be had for the
asking. And whereas. before the war
over 5000 university men signed our petl-
tlon In favor of Flemish university at
Client, only $50 signed the recent mani
festo issued in Belgium bolstering up the
German schemes
DR.. Van Cauwelaert tried to explain
just what it is the Flemish people really
want. He said:
g We want the complete development
of all the possibilities of our people eco
nomically, intellectually and in every re-
spect and that is not attainabe without
the establishment of full language COM
munion between the higher and the lower
strata of the nation To that end our
great aim is that, not only elementary
education, as now, but every sort of high
er education shall be available through
the medium of Flemish. Further, we
want better equipped Flemish press.