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Show WWI By ELLEN KEY . SOME months ago Belgium was fertile and fair beyond express1on. It was the land of calmly flowing rivers, grand forests, wide fields: beautiful at every time and glorious when wrapped in the golden mists of summer sunset. It was the land of splendid old towns, where the belfries made the heart glad with music, and where great works of art--by masters old and new-filled the soul with joy. Now Belgium is full of sorrow and misery. The garden is changed into a desert. A great number of the people are dead ; a still greater number are wandering in exile in foreign lands. For the remainder-for King as for beggar-life is a tragedy too deep for tears. This fate has overcome Bel- gium because the world is still ruled by force, not by justice. But the name of Belgium is now engraz'ed in the conscience of the world. Humanity can have no peace in sight of the fate of this people. That fate must be changed or we shall witness such a defeat for our higher ideals, such a loss for the great principles which our best men and women have lived or died for, that we ought to resist this defeat and be on our guard against this loss with as much energy as we should use in the defence of our own country. By LEONARDO BISTOLFI THE sublime sacrifice of the Belgian people will consecrate the bloodstained earth of its martyrs as an altar reared by the hands of Death to the pure and inviolable beauty of Life. By LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR ROBERT BADEN-POWELL IT would be trite to quote David against Goliath in the case of gallant little Belgium standing up to the ogre of Prussian Militarism, but that historic fight had its counterpart recently where a peaceful, hard-working little tailor was set upon by a big, becry loafer. The neighbours, out of pity and sense of fair play, were prepared to run to the rescue, when they stood back to Cheer, for the little man stuck up, on his own, to the bully, and punched him and tripped him and held him down till help arrived. In a mlciment the insignificant little worker had changed into the hero of the v1 age. There are two things above all others which Britons, down to the very lowest among them, inherently appreciate, and those are Pluck and Fair Play. That is why their sympathy is hot and strong for the plucky little nation which stood up as a champion for liberty and fair play against the over\\~helming tide of brute-force. 176 R V (Q mun " . |