The National Committee paid nine-tenths of the
wages, the commune paying the other tenth. The first enrolment of
unemployed amounted to more than 760,000 names, and nearly as many
persons were dependent upon these workers.
Providing employment for these led to certain complications. The Germans
had been able up to this time to secure a certain amount of labor from
the Belgians. Now the Belgian could refuse to work for the German, and a
great deal of tact was necessary to prevent trouble. As time went on the
relief work of the Commission was extended into the north of France,
where a population of more than 2,000,000 was within the German zone.
The work was handled in the same way, with the same guarantees from
Germany.
In conclusion a word may be said of the effect of all this suffering
upon the Belgian people, and let a Belgian speak, who knew his country
well and had traveled it over, going on foot, as he says, or by tram,
from town to town, from village to village:
"I have seen and spoken with hundreds of men of all classes and all
parts of the country, and all these people, taken singly or united in
groups, display a very definite frame of mind. To describe this new
psychology we must record the incontestably closer union which has been
formed between the political sections of the country.
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