There are no
longer any political parties, there are Belgians in Belgium, and that is
all; Belgians better acquainted with their country, feeling for it an
impulse of passionate tenderness such as a child might feel who saw his
mother suffering for the first time, and on his account. Walloons and
Flemings, Catholics and Liberals or Socialists, all are more and more
frankly united in all that concerns the national life and decisions for
the future.
"By uniting the whole nation and its army, by shedding the blood of all
our Belgians in every corner of the country, by forcing all hearts, all
families, to follow with anguish the movement of those soldiers who
fought from Liege to Namur, from Wavre to Antwerp or the Oise, the war
has suddenly imposed wider horizons upon all, has inspired all minds
with noble and ardent passions, has compelled the good will of all to
combine and act in concert in order to defend the common interests.
"Of these profoundly tried minds, of these wonderful energies now
employed for the first time, of these atrocious sufferings which have
brought all hearts into closer contact, a new Belgium is born, a
greater, more generous, more ideal Belgium."
CHAPTER XIII
BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES
The month of October, 1914, contained no important naval contests.
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