Evening star., 1924-05-24
WALLOONS COMPOSE
HALF OF BELGIUM
Constitute French-Speaking Sec
tion of Racially Divided
Nation.
HAVE L0NG BEEN LEADERS
Early Sought Religious Liberty in
New World.

To the question What is a Wal
loon?' that arises from the issuance
ny the United States of a special
Huguenot Walloon New Netherlands
tercentenary postage stamp and coin
and the holding of New Yorks New
Netherlands celebration, one answer
might be half a Belgian" according
to bulletin from the Washington
headquarters of the National Geo
graphic Society.
1.-The name .Walloon,' says the bull
1etin, lis little known on this side of
the Atlantic. even less so than 'Flem-
ing, because both have heen merged
in the national name Belgian 1t is
fact. however, that instead of the
Relgians having racial unity they
consist of two peoples approximately
equally divided, speaking languages
differing almost as widely as Swedish
and spanish. But though racially
and linguistically the Belgians make
up sort of a house divided against
itself, politically and religiously they
constitute as Staunch a national en-
tity as does French German Italian
speaking Switzerland, and Iney have
stood together through the centuries
under various rulers.
Walloons Plus Flemings.
The Walloons may be said to form
the French-speaking half of Belgium,
Tor though a very few in out -ofthe-
way districts know only the French
like old Walloon language, modern
French has replaced that speech for
the vast majority of the Walloons.
The other half of the Belgian part
nership is made up by the Flemngs,
whose speech, Flemish, differs very
little from Dutch. The Catholic peo-
PIE Of Flanders, however, have been
divided from their kinsmen, the Prot
estant Dutch, by a religious gulf for
hundreds Of years and prefer to
cleave to. their fellow gionists, the
Walloons.
Line of Demarkation.
AN almost straight line can be
traced on the surface of Belgium
separating the Walloons from the
Flemings. 1t runs from Aix-la-Cha-
pelle. just inside the German border,
westward to strike the French bound
airy a short distance southeast of
Ypres. There is little to indicate this
line to the eye of the traveller who
crosses it, but his ear will soon tell
him that he has passed from one lam
guage zone to another. The line
marks what was once the edge of a
dense forest covering the rough land
of southern Belgium.
waIloons Pushed Back.
ITO this line the old Walloons-the
Belgae of Julius Caesar-were press
ed by the southward- -faring Teutons,
who took possession of and cultivated
the plains and swamps of northern
Belgium. These Immigrant TeutonS,
from whom the Flemish people
SpranE, did not penetrate the forest
country, and there the Walloons re-
mained intrenched Save for iso-
lated groves, the forest has diSap-
.peared today, giving place to mines,
factories. farms and gardens, but the
Flemish Walloon racial line is almost
as sharply marked as it was 1,400
years ago.
The Walloons In their native land
today are practically all Catholics,
but there We're religious differences
among them in the seventeenth CEN
tury, and it was fugitive Protestant
Walloons who played prominent
part in peoplinG America. While the
Spanish were endeavoring to root out
heresY in the Netherlands hundreds
of thousands of both Walloons and
Flemings fled to the newly set up
Protestant Dutch republic. just as
some of the Pileram fathers fed
there from England. 1t was Wal
looms from among these fugitives
who. like the Pilgrims and French
Huguenots. emigrated to America.
New York Was "Hcw ivesnes"
III the ITSI snip sent TO tnp pres
ent territory of the United States by
the Dutch West India Company, the
New Netherland. which landed in
the Hudson River in 1923, Walloons
led by Jesse de Forest were passen
gers. The eight families left on Man
haitian, which was named New
Avesnes.' constituted the first settle
ment of that now famous and val
liable island and the first home
makers, in fact, in the middle states
hn md
brought more Dutch than Wauoon
immigrants and, though the latter
played important parts in the new
land. they We're eventually swallowed
up in the Dutch and Huguenot COM
munities, just as New Avesnes was
swallowed up by New Amsterdam.
Since they came into. existence
from a merging of the old Gallo
Belgae and the Romans the Wal
Ions have given leaders important
historical movements. Charlemagne
and Charles Martel may be consid-
cred among the original Walloons
Peter the Hermit, preacher of the
first crusade, who started one of
the most important movements his
torically and socially that the world
has ever known, was a Walloon; so
was Godfrey of Bouillon. who led
this initial expedition of Europe's
chivalry to the Holy Land
Led Belgian Revolution.
AS peOple lne w dll0OnS nave also
been leaders. The revolution of 1880,
which separated the Belgians from
their temporary connection with Hol-
land. was led largely by the Wal
looms. The new Belgium, then set up,
was begun as French-Speaking
country. Recognition of the claims
of the Flemings since, however, has
brought about the passage of laws
placing the two languages on an
equal footing.
"Liege, one of the earliest Belgian
towns to suffer from the German in
yasion during the world war, is the
center of Wallonia, or the WalIoon
country as the French speaking .por-
fion of Belgium is termed. Much of
the region is dotted with fine old
chateaus and the newer country places
of wealthy city dwsllers. Roughly,
WaIlonia is Belgium's factory, while
FLANDERS is its garden.
HI