The story of the heroic fight by the Belgian soldiers round about Malines is the subject of an interesting and intensely human book ("A Plain Tale from Malines of forty-seven pages, by M. Fi. Cleirens, who is now' staying in Oxford with his wife and family. The book is dedicated "'to my children, with the hope that all their life long they will love and honour the cherished memory of our splendid soldiers, and will ever bear undying gratitude to noble Eng: land, their second motherland."
As is stated by the Mayor of Oxford (Mr. W. E. Sherwood), it is the tale of & plain man simply told.
M. Cleirena's story is that of thousands of his fellow-countrymen of class whom we are apt to leave out of account when thinking of war—the non-combatants, but though non-combatants, people who are full of patriotism, full of the love of home, who have experienced all the horrors of war without a chance of sharing in its glory, and who have seen their homes destroyed and have been driven into exile, Our Debt to Belgium, The account brings home to us how great a debt we owe to the heroic Belgian soldiers and our own brave sailors. in that we have been so far preserved from similar horrors. But for their work, the Mayor of Oxford continues, but for the Belgian heroism which checked the first German rush, and for the constant watchfulness and self-sacrifice of the men of our gallant navy, Mr. Cleirens's story might. well be the story of each of us The story is a true one, being taken from M. Cleirens's own experiences. The first few pages deal with the beginning of the war, with the first rumours of impending hostilities, Not much importance
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.