News from Belgium and the Belgian Congo
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VOL. Ill, No. 41 OCTOBER 9, 1943 NEWS FROM BELGIUM AND THE BELGIAN CONGO BELGIAN INFORMATION CENTER 6 3 0 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y. CIRCLE 6-2450 All material published In NEWS FROM BELGIUM may be reprinted without permission. Please send copies of material in which quotations are used to this office. THESE PERIODICAL BULLETINS MAY BE OBTAINED FREE ON REQUEST. <waniey > HighScHool Umaik 2935 Polk Street Are European Nations Cynics? There seems to be a widespread belief in above petty strife and competition is enti• this country that America is an idealistic na• tled to rearrange the world for others. With tion and that all European countries must a broad gesture they sweep aside the indi• be accounted shrewd realists, if not down• vidual claims of a number of European right cynics. According to this school of countries as expressions of plain selfishness; thought, America is not so anxious to pro• they refuse to cope with arguments based tect her own interests as she is desirous of only, they are convinced, on narrow-minded securing the good of mankind as a whole, egotism. If, by so doing, they behave like a while European nations, regardless of the stray bull in a china shop, they are able to rights of their neighbors, are primarily con• point to predecessors of no mean standing. cerned with their own well-being. It should be remembered that Lloyd George If this were true, the moral standing of became highly indignant at Versailles when the United States, compared to that of the his attention was draivn to the situation in rest of the world, would, of course, be ex• the Banat of Temesvar. Who had ever heard tremely high, and the satisfaction derived of such a barbarous country, the name of from this fact would favorably reflect on which alone was an insult to the mellifluous each and every one of the individuals be• Welsh tongue? Not five years ago, on Sep• longing to such a nation. tember 21, 1938, Chamberlain, the man who This basic idea underlies a good deal of sold out, spoke of "a quarrel in a faraway the recent postwar reasoning of certain geo- country, between people of whom we know politicians and other world planners. They nothing." meaning Czecho-Slovakia, which feel that only that nation which, through he could reach from London by plane in a its undisputable moral position, stands few hours. All of which goes to prove that NEWS FROM BELGIUM OCTOBEE 9, 1943 smaller nations, those who have no chance lutions. If foreign observers are perturbed of belonging to the Big Four, Five or Six, at times when confronted with the Ameri• or whatever you have, are an insult and a can scene, when they fail to understand what nuisance to some men for no other reason is going on, it is primarily due to the fact than that they exist and dare to want their that there is often too great a gap between share in the sun. In certain cases to ask for the principles proclaimed by individuals or that share is regarded by some people, who contained in more or less official statements, don't even care to study the foundation of and the application of those principles. To the claim, as evident proof of a lack of put it plainly without offense: it takes a idealism on their part. great love for the United States and a pro• found knowledge of the dynamic forces of No one who has ever studied the elements this country, not to be frightened to death making up American culture could deny by the distance between Lincoln's noble the tremendous value of the idealistic mo• words on slavery and the sight of Negroes tives in everyday life. It is quite certain that killed on the very steps of the city hall of a a kind of idealism permeates the best part great American city. The remarkable fact is of the intellectual life of this country and that, notwithstanding these horrors, the that, from there, it seeps down into even idealistic impulse of the American man is the most casual expression of the American still a reality, that regardless of pitfalls his way of life. To the European onlooker, a trend is decidedly upward. fundamental optimism is part of that ideal• istic philosophy. Even the most vulgar forms But is, therefore, the nation, in its politi• of smart salesmanship seem to stem from an cal expression, to be regarded as idealistic? idea which is familiar to every man and Is there such a thing as an idealistic govern• ment? There are governments which are woman in this country — that the world is peace-loving and unobtrusive, there are ag• a good place, that people are nice and that gressive and imperialistic governments—im• evil is an accident and a result of poor di• perialism being, after all, a form of idealism gestion or an upset liver. When the cloak• — but there is little evidence of the exis• room girl gives you a smile which a Euro• tence of an idealistic government. For pri• pean woman would bestow only on her most marily a government is and considers itself intimate friends, when a restaurant hostess as constituted to safeguard the interests and asks you in a low, velvety, houri voice "How foster the well-being of a definite number do you feel tonight," as if you had been of people living within a given territory. recovering from a deadly illness and this Machiavelli has been blamed for introduc• night was to be the night of all nights, it ing into politics a revolting cynicism. Of all seems to go back to the Rousseau concep• course, in his age, people cared little about tion that everybody is filled to the brim with the means employed if the end was achiev• kindness and sweetness, and that there is ed, but basically his ideas were exactly those no other problem in the world but the so• of every government, namely: salus populi cial problem, which of course we will solve suprema lex, the good of the people is the before long. supreme law. In international relations a There are, however, other signs of Ameri• government's first duty is to protect and can idealism which are far more impressive: defend its people. There, like everywhere the spontaneous generosity of the average else, it is bound by moral considerations. American man and woman, the eagerness Although in their technique of documenta• and confidence with which they receive mes• tion all governments use a number of means sages from other parts of the world, their which in business or in personal relations constant preoccupation with justice and mo• would seem unfair, they bow to treaties, ral principles rather than with practical so• they fulfill obligations, they are not sup- [322] N'EWS FROM BELGIUM OCTOBER 9, 1943 posed to take undue advantage of another's tries. In the first World War, the losses of weakness. But idealism supposes a readiness the American Army were eight j)er cent, in to sacrifice one's own good to help others, the Belgian Army they were 34.9 per cent, to suffer so as to alleviate others' suffering, or nearly us high as the British loss of 35.8 to cut one's piece of pie in half and give one per cent. The destruction wrought on a ter• half away. In a democratic regime no body ritory like Belgium, even compared to what of voters would ever ratify such a proposal. happened in France, was enormous. On the Even when a thing like that seems to hap• other hand, the contributions which small pen, behind the scenes one will fmd shrewd countries have made and are still making to bargaining, camouflaged as a noble gesture. civilization are also proportionally greater There are no idealistic governments, Q.E.D. than those of the more fiopulous nations, the best proof being the list of Nobel Prize The providential function of the smaller winners. countries, those who are unable to continue their existence without the goodwill of their On the basis of what they are, on the neighbors, consists in stating the issue of merit of their contribution to the general morality before the world, in a permanent war effort, the small nations have a right to way. Even if they are born or raised as buf• speak. They are the guardians of the princi• fer states, for the sole purpose of avoiding ples which should regulate and determine constant friction between large countries, the world's conduct. When Haile Selassie nobody openly questions their right to exist. addressed the League of Nations for the last When Germany invaded Belgium, it did not time, he was defeated. He was no longer a cynically declare that it wanted Belgium sovereign, he was little more than a cum• and was going to get it. No sooner had it bersome souvenir. It is highly probable that reached its goal than it tried to prove, in his empire democratic principles were through documents allegedly discovered in not enforced with the utmost rigor, but the Brussels and in France, that the Allies had case of his country as such was clear and planned to invade that country. Germany, pure: in stating it he was the embodiment in 1940 as in 1914, merely wanted to "pre• not of selfishness but of eternal principles. vent the Allies from committing a sin against The present day allies closed their ears to international good behavior." This accusa• him, saying like the Athenians to Paul, "We tion, poor excuse as it was, was still an in• will hear you some other day." The other direct homage paid to the sense of moral• day came and brought fire on Paris and ity which should underlie international re• London.