The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-03-22
HEROIC BELCIANS
DEF|ED GERMANS
Kept Underground Railway to
Holland Working All
Through War.
SECRET SYSTEM NEVER idle
Scores of Patriots Shot or imprisoned
by Huns in Attempt 10 Smash Bel
gian Organization - Die
Rather Than Tell.

Paris.-Stories of heroism, patriot
ism and devotion of Belgians during
the German occupation are continually
coming to the surface of the miasmal
pool of intrigue, treachery and selfish
ness which the Germans left behind in
Belgium.
How two men gave up their lives and
two went to prison for a period which
would have lasted 20 years had the
Germans been victorious, that the man
higher up" might live and continue
managing the underground organiza-
tion which was sending valuable in
formation out of occupied country has
now been related by Adolphe Buyl, the
man whose life was saved by their sac
ri1ce.
Struggled Fighters Out of Belgium.
Late in 1914 the Germans had not
organized the Dutch frontier with that
murderous efficiency which sent to
their graves many young Belgians at
tempting to cross into Holland. Buyl
had access to the seals of the munich
pdt1II aDd CfClJ Gil LA oA1Od
out-of-the-way cafes, 20, 80, sometimes
as many as 80 young men would as
semble, reaching the place singly and
by devious ways. Passports and iden-
tifcation blanks were there, and the
young men would emerge from the
cafes supplied with proper, or rather
improper, Identification and make their
xra ~ into Holland on6 fhnnnn Holm tho
Belgian army battling on the User.
More than 1000 men were sent out
between October, 1914, and February,
1915.
Then the Germans became aware of
the leak, and the frontier was hermet.
ically, electrically sealed and the work
became more dangerous and difficult.
Guides had to be provided-generally
smugglers of gasoline and other COM
modities across the Dutch border-who
for q consideration averaging so francs
for each man would pilot them across
the frontier. Rubber gloves and wire
cutters were necessary tools of their
trade, and many a German sentry was
found by his relief with a knife deeply
sunk in his throat and lying alongside
a break in the wire fence.
At no time were there fewer than
100 men engaged in the work. All
were volunteers DESTROYS of serving
their country, even at the risk of be-
ing stood against the wall and shot,
and as O. matter of fact, many of them
were.
Died Rather Than Tell.
The first member of the organiza-
ton to be taken by the Germans was
PHILIPPE Baucq, whose arrest vas ST.
multaneous with that of Edith Cavell,
the English nurse, whose execution by
Germans sent q thrill of horror
throughout the world. Baucq was shot
on October II, 1915, with the brave
English nurse.
Baucq was succeeded as Buyl's
right-hand man by another man named
Dubois. On June 1, 1916, Dubois,
with 60 others, was arrested and im-
prisoned at Hasselt. The Germans
boosted that they had smashed the Bel
gian organization which had eyaded
them for two years. Dubois and three
others were shot and sentences aggre-
eating 900 years were imposed upon
the others.
Both Baucq and Dubois knew that
Alderman Buyl was head of the organ
ization and both took their orders
from him. For days before the exc
cution the Germans e~ndeavored by Of
fering to spare their lives to induce
them to denounce their leader, but
they refused and were shot. Never
theless the work went N.