The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-01-02
MYSTERY OF SECRET
PAPER OF BELGIUM
Is REVEALED
BY United Press.

BY United Press.
BRUSSELS, Dec. 15.~~By maiD--
With the coming of liberty to Bel
GUM, La Libre, Belgique has depart
ed and the Patriot" has reap
peared 1t is now possible to tel
that the most remarkable of war
time newspapers, La Libre Belgique
which successfully defied German
efforts to suppress it for four years
was The Patriot, a long-established
Catholic weekly in disguise. Victor
Jourdain, aged editor of The Pa
triot, likewise edited the will-o'-the-
wisp sheet which kept German Off
cials in a constant state of irrita-
tion during their occupation of his
country and helped to keep the
spirit of the Belgian people stead
fast.
He died few weeks ago, just too
soon to see his city Of Brussels lib
Grated.
The Patriot was suppressed by
! German order at the outset of the
war A few weeks later copies of
newspapers began to fall into the
hands of the German officials and
army officers. 1t did not prove
popular with the latter. General Won
Bissing, military governor offered
$4,000 francs reward for the name
of the editor and promised one
years Imprisonment to any Belgian
found reading it, Theer were arrests
in great number of persons suspect
ed Of the editorship but no convic-
tions. 1t seemed that almost every
body who could possibly have been
guilty was arrested at one time or
another--everybody except Jour
dain. One man was held by the Ger
mans to have been proved suffi-
ciently guilty to warrant a one-year
sentence, but Belgians in the secret
say he was innocent.
The baffled German police were
kept busy running down false clues.
Given the tip that the printing plant
would be found at such-and-such a
street, they would rush thither, only
to find a vacant lot or an empty
house. Told that a man of a Ger
tain name was the actual editor
they would comb Brussels for him,
learning eventually he was not in
the city and never had been
While the police hunted, Victor
Jourdain prepared copy. He pointed
out intentional errors in the Ger
man official communique, he gave
the Belgian people the latest news
of the Belgian army and the allied
armies, he ridiculed and lampooned
the German officials and generally
kept alive the peoples faith in a
better day to come.
A few times obscure printing
shops in this city set up and print
ed the little four-page paper. For
the most part, however, the work
was done in shops elsewhere. Jour /
dain would appear by night at the
he me of some small town or city |
printer, always selecting one for
the moment free of German troops. |
Next morning he would depart in
his automobile with the entire is
sue concealed in his car Distribu-
tion would begin as far as possible
from the place where the printing
was done.
In spite of the difficulties of pub
lication Libre Belgique nearly al
ways was set and attractive typo
Sometimes, when the
of a complete printing plant
were obtainable, the first page
would be bordered in the national
colors, red, yellow and black. Edi-
tions Of course, were not regular
regularly irregular" was the papers /
own statement of its publication
dates, but Jourdain managed usually |
to issue one each month.
Part compensation for his troubles
was found by the editor in such an
as these:
Not submitted to any censor"
Telegraph address, Commando
tur, Brussels"
"Offices: Not being able to estab-
lish these in a fixed place, they are
installed in an automobile cellar"
Advertisements: Business being
nil under the German domination,
we have suppressed the page of ad.
and advise our readers
to keep their money for brighter
days"
Price per copy: Elastic, from
zero to the infinite. Please do not !
exceed this limit.
A typical article from La Libre
Belgique, printed on the third an
niversary of the war, follows: