He did this, he said, to reduce the chances of friction between his men and the people; for friction might mean a spark and a spark might mean a conflagration, and that would mean another and greater Louvain.

We could easily understand that small things might readily grow into great and serious troubles.

Even the most docile-minded man would be apt to resent in the wearer of a hated uniform what he might excuse as over-officiousness or love of petty authority were the offender a policeman of his own nationality.
Brooding over their own misfortunes had worn the nerves of these captives to the very quick.
In any event, be the outcome of this war what it may, I do not believe the Belgians can ever be molded, either by kindness or by sternness, into a tractable vassal race.

German civilization I concede to be a magnificent thing--for a German; but it seems to press on an alien neck as a galling yoke.

Belgium under Berlin rule would be, I am sure, Alsace and Lorraine all over again on a larger scale, and an unhappier one.