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Belgian Exile Press in Britain

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The Great War in Belgium and the Netherlands

Abstract

This chapter examines core elements of the history of Belgian refugees in Britain during the First World War through their representation in Belgian exile newspapers published in Britain. The Belgian journals allowed for an increased sense of Belgian identity in exile but also extended existing language relations within the Belgian community. The chapter also defends the idea of the fragmented nation by uncovering its multifaceted transnational relations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In his ‘Lettre au Roi – Séparation de la Wallonie et de la Flandre’, the Belgian socialist politician Jules Destrée (1863–1936) openly posited the linguistic disposition of Belgium (‘Sire, vous régnez sur deux peuples. Il y a en Belgique des Wallons et des Flamands, il n’y a pas de Belges’). He also found that, of those Belgians aged 15 and older, 41% spoke Flemish and 41.5% spoke French. An additional 14.7% spoke both languages. A remaining 2.7% spoke German or a combination of two or three languages that included German (Destrée 1912).

  2. 2.

    See, for example, ‘King Albert of Belgium a Hero of All Europe’, The Chicago Daily Tribune, 12.11.1914, p. 2.

  3. 3.

    ‘Brave Little Belgium’, along with related labels such as ‘Gallant’ and ‘Plucky’ but also ‘Poor’, was first used at the start of the war by The Times on 7 August 1914 (p. 4). For an appreciation of propagandistic labels in relation to Belgium, see Declercq (2016a: 97–99).

  4. 4.

    For Belgian clandestine press, see Massart (1917) and François Hirsch (2006). For an analysis of Flemish trench newspapers, see Delaey (2012).

  5. 5.

    The London Office of the XXme Siècle was based near Leicester Square.

  6. 6.

    Another contributor to De Stem was Hilaire Allaeys. Allaeys was a close friend of August Borms, a Flemish nationalist who collaborated with the Germans during both world wars.

  7. 7.

    Although not overtly an activist, Jules Callewaert adhered to the Flemish cause. For this, Callewaert was exiled to Ireland for two years by his superiors. However, the existing nationalist struggles on the island only intensified Callewaert’s own political ideas concerning Flemish nationalism.

  8. 8.

    See Marcel Cordemans’s biography of van de Perre, published in 1963.

  9. 9.

    ‘Soldiers’ pens and English Studies’ [author’s own translation].

  10. 10.

    Like Vrij België, an exile newspaper published in Amsterdam by a group spearheaded by Frans Van Cauwelaert and Julius Hoste Jr., De Stem Uit België was a popular paper among soldiers, including those at the front.

  11. 11.

    Ons Leven is a magazine of the Catholic Flemish student movement, and is still in existence today. One of the leaders of the Catholic student union at the time was Alfons de Groeve, who became a publisher in exile in the Netherlands during the war and published some works through the SUB bookshop.

  12. 12.

    ‘Love and sorrow—days of suffering’ [author’s own translation].

  13. 13.

    The 240 pages of soldiers’ stories are cited by Jean Weisgerber and Mathieu Rutten as further proof of an existing war literature in Belgium (Weisgerber and Rutten, eds. 1988: 258).

  14. 14.

    All the more peculiar is that its main financial backer, Alfons van de Perre, initiated writing a chain of letters and texts that would become the Front Movement, a group of people in favour of more rights for Flemish soldiers and by extension Flemish people. The Front letters to King Albert by several soldiers lay at the core of this movement. They denounced the situation whereby Flemish soldiers, typically lower rank and Dutch-speaking only, were to respond to Walloon officers, typically French-speaking. Prior to the Front letters, Dr. van de Perre, a Belgian MP, had published a piece in De Stem Uit België in response to the news that, out of 800 new recruits for the Belgian army, fewer than 10 had come from Wallonia. For more on this matter, see Vanacker (2003).

  15. 15.

    LIB was used as a source in House of Lords discussions and as a reference for reporting on post-war Belgian political sentiments (such as the fact that the main seat of the League of Nations was established in Geneva and not in Brussels). Hansard Parliamentary Debates, HL, 27th January 1860, vol. 156, cols. 214–219. The Times, 19.4.1919, p. 9.

  16. 16.

    While away from German-occupied Brussels, LIB was published first in Ghent and then in Ostend.

  17. 17.

    An English translation of this speech appeared in The New York Times of 29.12.1918.

  18. 18.

    By the end of 1918, Jan Albert Goris was Alfons van de Perre’s private secretary. Goris became involved with the post-war De Standaard and grew into a popular author in Flanders where he was known as Marnix Gijsen.

  19. 19.

    Along with La Flandre Libérale and Le Matin (d’Anvers), La Métropole d’Anvers was one of the three main newspapers printed in French in Flanders before the war, but LMA was of a distinctively conservative Catholic tone.

  20. 20.

    The copy in the British Library has a note stating ‘1st number published in London’. However, this contrasts with Massart 1917, in which the first publication is dated 8th April 1915.

  21. 21.

    A British publication resembling Wallon’s, but concerned the Belgian community at Earl’s Court, was G.A. Powel’s, Four Years in a Refugee Camp, n.d. [1920].

  22. 22.

    For more information on the Bureau Documentaire Belge, see R. Depoortere: http://search.arch.be/ead/pdf/BE-A0510_000369_002668_DUT.ead.pdf.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. KU Leuven, Brussels, Belgium

    Christophe Declercq

  2. UCL, London, UK

    Christophe Declercq

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  1. Christophe Declercq
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Correspondence to Christophe Declercq .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Felicity Rash

  2. University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Christophe Declercq

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Declercq, C. (2018). Belgian Exile Press in Britain. In: Rash, F., Declercq, C. (eds) The Great War in Belgium and the Netherlands. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73108-7_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73108-7_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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