provinces and communes and thus neutral control was eliminated while Germany was enabled to requisition Belgian produce in her own interests. Besides the crops 92,000 horses (out of 3 1 7,000) , 560,000 head of horned stock (out of i ,879,000) , 2 50,000 pigs (out of 1,494,000), 3,000 sheep, and 1,690,000 fowls were sent to Germany. To stop this England threatened curtailment of the food supplies for Belgium. This serious crisis was averted by the good offices of the C.R.B.
Upon America's entry into the war Mr. Hoover resigned his function on the C.R.B., after three years of devoted work. Holland replaced America, and the Comite Hispano-Neerlandais took up the task of the C.R.B.
The Belgian Government during the War. The gradual occupation of the country by the German army compelled the Belgian Government to retire first to Antwerp, then after the fall of that town to Ostend, finally to Havre. Ministers ac- credited to the Belgian Government followed it there, except the Spanish Minister, the Marquis of Villalobar; the American Minister, Mr. Brand Whitlock; and the Dutch charge d'af- faires, M. van Vollenhoven, subsequently appointed Minister these three remained in Brussels.
At the time of the Government's removal to France over a million Belgians were fleeing before the German armies to foreign countries: 200,000 took refuge in France, 100,000 in England, 700,000 including nearly the entire population of Antwerp in Holland. Germany's assurances that Belgians who returned to their country should not be molested brought back the in- habitants of Antwerp, to suffer subsequently from deportations despite the promises of the governor, von der Goltz. Fifty thousand refugees remained in Holland.
The Government at Havre found itself faced by a gigantic task. The army, deprived of bases and depots, was without munitions, food supplies, or clothing. All had to be reorganized. Yet not for one moment were the Belgian field forces withdrawn from the front. To reinforce them the King appealed to Belgians residing abroad, and they formed a first contingent. Thousands of Belgians who had remained at home also responded to the call of their King, and managed to get out of Belgium despite the strictness with which the frontiers were guarded, the high-pres- sure electric wires separating Belgium from Holland, and the severe penalties decreed against those who joined the Belgian army. On March i 1915, having succeeded in establishing the necessary centres of instruction, the Government called up all Belgians between the ages of 18 and 25 resident in non-occupied Belgium, in France, or in England. On July 21 1916 all Belgians aged 18 to 40 resident in allied or neutral states were called to the service of their mother-country.
Colleges for officers were established in France at Gaillon and Bayeux for infantry; at Onival for artillery; at Campagne for cavalry; at Ardres for engineers. Centres of infantry in- struction were established at Parigne Leveque, Auvoury, Hon- fleur, Granville, Saint Lo, Coutances, Carteret, Barneville, Valogne, La Haye-du-Puits. The artillery instruction centre was at Eu, that for auxiliary troops at Buchard.
On March 16 1915 a royal decree ordered the creation of building and repairing workshops, munitions factories, foundries, farrieries, storehouses, etc. Huge establishments improvised at Havre provided the army with all its artillery munitions.
Hospitals capable of accommodating all the Belgian wounded were provided at the front. A school of reeducation for the mutilated was established at Vernon. Belgian schools were started in France, England, and Holland. Necessitous refugees were helped.
Thanks to unremitting efforts the army was kept up at an effec- tive average of 150,000 strong, and the field army at 75,000.
III. AFTER THE WAR. When the offensive of 1918 brought liberation to Belgium the work of restoration to be accomplished was enormous. The Treaty of Versailles did not facilitate it. Shut out from the deliberations of the Supreme Council, Belgium could neither claim her rights nor defend her interests as, if represented, she would have been able to do.
For Belgium the most important question raised by the war
was the revision of the treaties of 1839. Those treaties had fixed the international status of the country by declaring it neutral in perpetuity under guarantee of the Powers. They had moreover mutilated Belgium by taking from her the half of Limburg with Maestricht, and giving it to Holland, and the half of Luxemburg, which was created a grand duchy. This mutilation gave Belgium frontiers impossible to defend Maestricht forming a bridge-head on the Meuse, which was the country's natural line of defence. There was, further, pressing for settlement, the question of the Scheldt, that essential organ of Belgium's economic life; its estuary was in the possession of Holland, who could thus control the economic and military fate of Antwerp.
Nothing was done. Rather than take from Germany the ancient Dutch provinces of Guelders and Cleves, which would have served as territory to exchange for the cession of Limburg to Belgium, the Treaty of Versailles prevented a political and military solution of the Limburg question; while Holland on her side refused to solve it by a treaty of common defence between Belgium and the Netherlands. The grand duchy of Luxemburg was the object of French designs, which prevented its restitution to the mother-country. The question of the Scheldt was left hung up. Belgium only obtained two of the 14 Walloon cantons incorporated in Prussia in 1815 Malmedy and Eupen. She was also given the right to connect Antwerp with the Rhine by a canal.
As regarded finance, Belgium was relieved of her war debts (six milliards) to the Allies, who declared Germany responsible for them. Priority was granted to Belgium for a payment of 2-5 milliards from the German indemnity, this representing the reimbursement of 2-5 milliards extorted from her by Germany under the designation of war tax.
Belgium was left to seek unaided a solution to the grave prob- lems which beset her. She entered on negotiations with Holland. These were going badly for Belgium; it seemed likely that the Scheldt would remain in Holland's possession, and that the defence of the eastern frontier would continue to be an insoluble problem, when Holland put forward a claim for recognition of her sovereignty over the pass of Weilingen that is to say, over Belgian territorial waters from the Dutch frontier to beyond Zeebrugge. This manoeuvre made possible by the isolation in which the Allies had left Belgium, and by the favour shown by England to Holland's doctrine that the Scheldt should be closed to Belgian warships had for object, and would have entailed as consequence, Holland's right to deny Belgium access to the port of Zeebrugge, which would have meant that she was completely cut off from the sea. The general movement of protest throughout Belgium against the signature of such a Dutch-Belgian treaty compelled the Government to break off negotiations.
In 1918 Belgium joined with France in a treaty of defensive alliance, attempts being made to secure England's participation. As a result of negotiation France renounced in favour of Belgium her economic union with the grand duchy of Luxemburg.
As regarded Africa, Belgium did not succeed in gaining recog- nition of her rights over the territories conquered by her in German East Africa. Only Urundi and Ruanda were allotted to her; the other territories passed to England.
In the occupation of the Rhine Belgium was represented by a force of 1 2 ,000 men.
The Work of Restoration. Internal problems were very grave. Before all it was necessary to ensure the food supplies of the country. This task was enhanced in difficulty by the fact that private enterprise could not touch it, owing to the sharp fluctua- tions of the exchange. The State itself was thus forced to pur- chase abroad the cattle, butter and margarine needed by the population. Maximum prices having proved inefficacious, a number of administrative orders were issued, forbidding specula- tion in foodstuffs, authorizing the requisition of indigenous prod- ucts, establishing inspection to prevent vendors from adulterat- ing goods, and repressing excessive prices.
The social situation was terrible. There were 800,000 unem- ployed; and 2,400,000 persons a third of the population only
