The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-12-16
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1s, 1920

 clandestine war newspaper printed in Belgium and called Ia Libre Belgique' Gree Belgium). All the copies were there complete, even the final one, dated November 12, 1918. It brought a thousand dollars, but
 The little four-page sheet Of three or four columns came into being early in the days of terror in Belgium following the German occupation. Days when the slightest thing might take one before the firing squad with no delay. As the terror grew there grew with it in the hearts of the op- pressed Belgians a terrible hatred and sullen resistenc. and the La Libre Belgique was it's voice and it's inspir- ation, its recorder and promoter.
 All that German ingenuity could devise to suppress the sheet but to no avail. German ingenuity was not equal to the task it set itself. and in spite of all it's efforts at suppression the dauntIess publication appeared as
 
 Baron won Bissing, the governor gen. eral at Brussels, carrying the most severe condemnation, ridicule, and caricatures of von Bissing himself, who was never able to discover how it got there.
 edited it or printed it Even those who had it. could not tell where it came from. But it kept coming and telling the people the truth about the outside world and the progress of the war. as well as of the gruesome tales of German cruelty in Belgium.
 Since the war it has been learned that the editor was one M. Jourdain a Belgian journalist, who used to go about, even among the Germans snugly tucked in a hollow walking stick. The printer was named Van | Doren and for four years of most ex- citing adventure he managed to print it and get it among the people. Often he was so near discovery that il | II. German soldiers helped nm orr the car with his bundle of papers.
 It was dangerous to admit even knowledge that it existed, yet almos every Belgian knew and discused it contents and praised the unknow1 editor who had a dauntless spiri and a press.''
 It was true to the description in it |, announcement "A Bulletin of Patri otic Propaganda, irregularly regular in appearance. The price was sai 2 to be "elastic, from zero to infinity with a caution to sellers mot to g beyond this limit" It said it had nc f been able to find a. peaceful loca l tion'' for its editorial rooms and . was therefore installed in an auto mobile cellar Business being dea V under German domination" it told i
 advertisers, i've have suppressed tt
 advertising page and we advise ot
 clients to save their money for bett,
 times" As a parting bit of detianc
 it printed its telegraph address e kommandantur. Brussels
 Is it any wonder that the German
 were frant3cally anxious to get ho
 of the publisher and even went so f
 as to send around women spi
 dressed as nuns, who went from do
 to door soliciting subscriptions. al
 wherever they thought there W
 someone who knew something abo
 the paper they asked for odd nur
 bers to complete their flies.
 It was a bold, brave feat, and kept brave people informed - will be long remembered. Those |
 tie leaves, printed no matter how,
 the chance of the hour have demo
 strated the fallibility of Prussian te
 rorism, for they sum up for a who
 people its passion of patriotism a ,N its infieXible will not to die.'