It had begun by furiously ravaging Belgium in August, 1914; it ended with the awful, wanton murder of noncombatants at Mezieres in November, 1918.

Part of the right wing was swung northward and westward in the direction of Antwerp, and swept the whole of northern Belgium to the Dutch frontier.

Moreover, Germany must give 8,000,000 tons to Belgium for a period of ten years, and to Italy a quantity of coal which, commencing at 4,500,000 tons for the year 1919-1920, reaches the figure of 8,500,000 tons in the five years after 1923-1924.

The British government is also informed that the German government has delivered to the Belgian government a note proposing friendly neutrality pending a free passage of German troops through Belgium and promising to maintain the independence and integrity of the kingdom and its possessions on the conclusion of peace, threatening in case of refusal to treat Belgium as an enemy."

Daily, however, they claimed to have captured thousands of Allied troops and hundreds of guns; while, on the other hand, enormously long ambulance trains were reported passing through Belgium with the German wounded, the hospitals in northern France not having sufficient accommodation for the sufferers.

" SPIRIT OF BELGIAN SOLDIERS Writing from Antwerp on September 1, William G. Shepherd, United Press staff correspondent, illustrated the spirit of the soldiery of Belgium by the following story: "The little Belgian soldier who climbed into the compartment with me was dead tired; he trailed his rifle behind him, threw himself into the seat and fell sound asleep.

And yet, on the other hand, "the separation of Belgium from Holland had no sooner taken place than the newly aroused national spirit began to show itself among the Flemish-speaking part of the people by a revival of interest in their ancestral Teutonic language....

It boasted of numerous fortified cities, and had a population as dense as that in Belgium at the present time.

A harmless Germany, unable to unite with an equally harmless German-Austria, should be under the military control of France and Belgium on the west, and of Poland on the east.

And, of course, the other contracting party was to enter into a similar undertaking to use force for the preservation of the neutrality of Belgium against the offending Power.

It is obvious therefore that the attempt of the diplomatists in 1814 to ignore both historical and religious differences and to combine Holland and Belgium into a single State was doomed at the outset.

The treaties of April 19, 1839, are abolished, so that Belgium, being no longer neutral, may become allied to France (Art. 31); attribution to Belgium of the territories of Eupen, Malmédy and Moresnet.

These qualities were never shown more clearly than during the preparations made for landing a force of some 14,000 officers and men with tanks, artillery and transport on the coast of Belgium under the very muzzles of the German heavy coast artillery.

But her son and heir went straight to the front with the cavalry of the first British army corps to take the field in Belgium during the Great World War of 1914.

In her own dominions she was adored; and her name is to this day cherished in Belgium among the dearest recollections of the people.

That is, Germany has to bear for the support of the Allied troops a charge equal to the cost of maintaining the armies of France, Italy and Belgium before the War.

There could be few finer ways in which we could show our gratitude to the people of Belgium than by establishing colonies over there where they could be brought up in their own country, to be its future citizens.

By the regulations of its internal concerns, amid the shocks of revolution, Belgium through all the crises of the age, has set to Europe an example of a good and stable government, gracefully associated with the widest possible extension of the liberty of the people.

When leading Belgians came to him and said that winter would find Belgium without bread, he turned from the land that has the least food to that which has the mosthis own land.

Belgium within the limits specified in Articles I, II, and IV shall form an independent and perpetually neutral state.

A BRITISH CAVALRY CHARGE Here is a picturesque story of a British cavalry charge at Thuin, a town in Belgium near Charleroi, and the subsequent retreat to Compiègne: "On Monday morning, August 24, after chafing at the long delay, the 2nd British Cavalry Brigade let loose at the enemy's guns.

When, in August, I reached Belgium between Brussels and Liege, the whole countryside showed the labor of these peasants.

But being of the verdant variety, I naturally figured that if the Germans were smashing down through Belgium onto Liege that that was where I should be.