Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-17
BELGIAN PROGRESS PROVES
sJ. S. OF EUROPE FEASIBLE
Unity Preserved and Prosperity Achieved
Despite Walloon and Flemish Strife
Throughout Century.

| For a generation at least this battle
between the two tongues had been in
creaSingly bitter. When the Germans
came they strove to exploit the diverg-
ence by dividing Belgium into a Elem
ish and Walloon faction But Fleming
and Walloon stood firmly against the
invader, and, oddly enough, It was the
Flemings who suffered the most from
devastation, for Ypres is a Flemish
town.
No sooner had the last German in
vader disappeared, however, than the
battle began again with new vigor, and
has served to bedevil all Belgian politi-
cal life ever since. Yet it is impossible
to see any partition. The Flemings
! certainly do not wish to join Holland,
and the Walloons have never yet pro-
/ posed absorption by France Moreover,
the bilingual tangle has been compli-
10000 Germans of Eupen and NAL
medy, handed over to Belgium by the
| treaty Of VersailleS-a change which
| almost doubled the German speaking
| population and cursed Belgium with a
real minority issue.
Meantime the prosperity of Belgium
| has been astonishing Two clever
Kings, predecessors of the present mon
arch, served to preserve the integrity
and security of the little state through
! all storms between 1S48 and 1871, while
| the second Leopold obtained for his
countrymen possession of the Kongo
Free State, which has made it a con-
siderable colonial power. a rival to the
neighboring and still disliked Dutch.
Expeditions and Fairs.
For the period of the centennial,
moreover the battle of the races has
hnaF1
loon cities. Antwerp and Liege notably,
have sought to Guido each other in ex-
positions and fairs, which have served
10 emphasize. at least for Europe, the
extent of Belgian recovery and the ex-
tent to which the little country has
dlstanced Germany, Britain and Italy
in repairing the physical injuries of
the war.
This example of Belgium inspires two
the allies to countenance the union of
Austria with Germany in 1919 was
justified by the argument that in the
end, as with the Belgians, although
| seeking union with Germany, Austria
would evolve into nation. But after
little more than a decade one must
admit the calculation remains far from
seeming well founded.
The second conception grows out of
the fact that two races, while never
renouncing their domestic grudges and
| rfvalries, have found means of living
within the same frontiers and sharing
national patriotism. May not some
such solution arrive for some of the
new states which are equally divided
in their national element, Czechoslo-
vakia notably? In fact, is not Belgium,
like Switzerland, sample copy OF that
United States of Europe so much dis
cussed in recent months?
AT all events, after hundred years
there is Belgium going strong, having
lived through more than four years Of
occupation by conquering nation, hav-
ing displayed incredible tenacity and
ingenuity in resisting alike at the front
and behind the front Sixteen wears
ago, in these very days of August Bel
gian courage and suffering filled all the
press of the world, outside of the CEN
trail powers. II today Belgium is per
maps less in the headlines, the prac-
tical character the people have given to
their first centennial and the evidence
of prosperity which they have sub
mitted to the world is proof Of their
solid virtues.
And Just as statesmen and press men
century ago shook their heads over
the idea that Belgium could long re-
tain its independence, only to be CON-
futed by the evidence of a century. so
not impossibly wiseacres of the same
trades OF today may be refuted through
the survival of not one but several of
the states born of the World War and
the result of the process now described
as the Balkanization of Europe.