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Bridging the Gap Between “War” and “Peace”: The Case of Belgian Refugees in Britain

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Minorities and the First World War

Abstract

Britain’s “hospitality” towards 250,000 Belgian refugees now warrants a mention in most histories of the First World War. Yet the refugees’ rapid repatriation by the British state continues to be treated as little more than a bookend to their story, whilst the trauma of return and the challenges of reintegration for those who fled have been all but ignored. This chapter seeks to correct these oversights by exposing the contradictions of a state-sponsored repatriation scheme; presented as the final act of a “generous” and “liberal” nation but, in reality, one which served the British government’s own interests. Such a mercenary approach to repatriation curtailed state concern for the conditions facing returning Belgians as their nation emerged from four years of war into a fragile “peace”.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example, William Hague, “Humanising Hell: Our Restless Conscience and the Search For Peace”, October 23, 2014, Prime Minister’s Office, accessed August 28, 2016, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/humanising-hell-our-restless-conscience-and-the-search-for-peace-2014-one-people-oration.

  2. 2.

    See, for example, the article by Evan Bartlett, “The Origin of the Biggest Flow of Refugees in Britain’s History May Surprise You,” Independent, September 6, 2015, which linked David Cameron’s change of stance towards Syrian refugees to Britain’s “long and celebrated history of welcoming those fleeing war and persecution”. Accessed August 28, 2016, http://indy100.independent.co.uk/article/the-origin-of-the-biggest-flow-of-refugees-in-britains-history-may-surprise-you--bydS_L0oSe.

  3. 3.

    The figure of 12,000 is based upon the number of refugees on the Central Register, according to Police Districts, August 7, 1919, The National Archives, Kew (TNA), HO 45/10882/344019. Although the Aliens and Nationality Committee, which met in late February 1919, agreed that deportation should be a last resort, they nonetheless debated how to “exercise compulsion” and apply “pressure” to force refugees to accept the British government’s timeframe for repatriation. See Aliens and Nationality Committee minutes of proceedings of second meeting, February 28, 1919, TNA, HO45/10882/ 344019.

  4. 4.

    The recent special issue of Immigrants and Minorities devoted to Belgian refugees is a case in point: whilst the regional experience of the refugees is given much needed attention, none of the seven article address the process of repatriation in a sustained way. See Immigrants and Minorities 34:2 (2016).

  5. 5.

    Although Tony Kushner briefly raised the issue in comments to a BBC article on Belgian Refugees. See Denise Winterman, “World War One: How 250,000 Refugees Didn’t Leave a Trace,” BBC Magazine, September 15, 2014, accessed August 28, 2016, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28857769.

  6. 6.

    Colin Holmes, John Bull’s Island: Immigration and British Society, 1871–1971 (Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1988), 91.

  7. 7.

    This is evident in the case of two families—the Hicksons of Barnton, Cheshire and their wartime neighbours the Melsens from Antwerp. The daughters of these two families kept in touch for several decades after the war. Twenty years of correspondence were passed to the author by a descendent of Annie Hickson.

  8. 8.

    Tony Kushner, “Local Heroes: Belgian refugees in Britain during the First World War,” Immigrants and Minorities 18:1, (1999), 1–2.

  9. 9.

    Peter Gatrell, A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia During World War I, paperback edn., (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2005), 2.

  10. 10.

    Foreign Office file on the reparation of British women and children detained in Belgium and Northern France, 1916–1918, TNA, FO 383/133.

  11. 11.

    House of Commons Debate, 05 August, 1914, vol. 65, c. 2041.

  12. 12.

    The Aliens Restriction Act, 1914.

  13. 13.

    Holmes, John Bull’s Island, 96.

  14. 14.

    Ibid.

  15. 15.

    Aliens Restriction Act, 1914.

  16. 16.

    Herbert Samuel, House of Commons (Hansard), vol. 66, col. 558, September 9, 1914.

  17. 17.

    Peter Cahalan, Belgian Refugee Relief in England during the Great War (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc, 1982), 466–467.

  18. 18.

    Ibid., 478.

  19. 19.

    See, for example, “Belgian Repatriation: An Appeal to Australia,” The Age, June 12, 1915, 18.

  20. 20.

    Belgian Repatriation Fund Poster, undated, Cheshire Record Office (CRO), ZRP 14/39.

  21. 21.

    Repatriation Committee Interim Report, July 4, 1917, TNA, HO45/10882/344019.

  22. 22.

    Refugees on Central Register by Police Districts, August 7, 1919, TNA, HO 45/10882/344019.

  23. 23.

    Reparations Committee, Interim Report.

  24. 24.

    Katherine Knox and Tony Kushner, Refugees in an Age of Genocide: Global, National and Local Perspectives during the Twentieth Century (London: Frank Cass, 1999), 57.

  25. 25.

    Daniel Laqua, “Belgian Exiles, the British and the Great War: the Birtley Belgians of Elisabethville,” Immigrants and Minorities 34:2 (2016): 117–118. Reference to these riots as well as anxiety that they might be repeated were made as decisions were taken by the Ministry of Munitions about demobilisation, TNA, July and August 1918, MUN 5/78/327/4.

  26. 26.

    See, for example, “Our Belgian Guests,” Birmingham Daily Post, October 3, 1916, 7.

  27. 27.

    Sophie de Schaepdrijver, “Death is Everywhere: The Shifting Locus of Tragedy in Belgian Great War Literature,” Yale French Studies 102 (2002): 108–109.

  28. 28.

    This became particularly apparent at the war’s conclusion. See, for example, E. A Bouchout, “To the Belgian Refugees,” September 1919, TNA, HO45/10882/344019.

  29. 29.

    Louise Perée, Echo de Belgique, August 4, 1916, 8. I am grateful to Andrew and Stella Pleass for providing this translation from the original.

  30. 30.

    The departure of large numbers of Belgians was raised in parliamentary questions. See House of Commons Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), vol. LXXIV, col. 725, September 28, 1915.

  31. 31.

    Ministry of Health, Report on the Work undertaken by the British Government in the Reception and Care of the Belgian Refugees, 1920, accessed August 18, 2016. https://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1471529721835~423&locale=en_GB&metadata_object_ratio=10&show_metadata=true&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/singleViewer.do?&preferred_usage_type=VIEW_MAIN&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=10&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true

  32. 32.

    Repatriation Committee, Interim Report.

  33. 33.

    Ibid.

  34. 34.

    Correspondence between Maurice S. Gibb to C. H Stevens, Ministry of Munitions, Whitehall, July 30, 1918, TNA, MUN 5/78/327/4.

  35. 35.

    Council Committee summary report on Demobilisation and Reconstruction, August 29, 2018, TNA, MUN 5/78/327/4.

  36. 36.

    Catalogue listing furnishing for sale from Belgian township of Birtley, May 26, 1919, TNA, MUN 5/78/327/11. See also Joseph Schlesinger and Douglas McMurtrie, The Birtley Belgians (Durham: North East Centre for Education about Europe, 1990), 31–32 for further details about the departure of the Belgians from Elisabethville.

  37. 37.

    See, for example, “Repatriation of Belgians,” The Times, November 6, 1918, 3. “Repatriation of Belgians: A Warning to Refugees,” The Scotsman, November 6, 1918, 6; Draft notice “Belgian Refugees in Great Britain,” undated, TNA, HO45/10882/344019.

  38. 38.

    Cahalan, Belgian Refugee Relief, 444–446.

  39. 39.

    Correspondence from Moylon to the Chief Constables of West Riding, Lancashire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Cambridgeshire, Glamorganshire, Monmouthshire, and Cheshire, undated, TNA, HO45/10882/ 344019.

  40. 40.

    Local Government Board minutes, February 20, 1919, TNA, HO45/10882/ 344019.

  41. 41.

    Aliens and Nationality Committee, minutes of proceedings at the second meeting, February 28, 1919, TNA, HO45/10882/ 344019.

  42. 42.

    Letter from Mr Legget to Mr Streatfield, February 20, 1919, TNA, HO45/10882/344019.

  43. 43.

    Ibid.

  44. 44.

    Basil E. Peto (LGB), “Terugkeer der Belgische Vluchtelingen;” “Rapatriement des Refugés Belges,” March 1919, TNA, HO45/10882/344019.

  45. 45.

    Gerard J. DeGroot, Blighty: British Society in the Era of the Great War (London: Longman, 1996), 312–333.

  46. 46.

    Letter from the Home Office to the Chief Constable, October 14, 1919, TNA, HO45/10882/344019.

  47. 47.

    Bouchout, “To the Belgian Refugees”.

  48. 48.

    Henry de Man, “Revolution or Evolution in Belgium?,” The North American Review, 211:774 (1920): 601–602 and Larry Zuckerman, The Rape of Belgium: The Untold Story of World War I (New York and London: New York University Press, 2004), 203–204; 215–219.

  49. 49.

    “Stream of Refugees from Belgium: Scenes on Dutch Border,” Liverpool Daily Post, October 23, 1918, 5.

  50. 50.

    “Punishment for Guilty. Promised on Proof. Belgium’s Sufferings. Food Stolen by the Enemy,” Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, November 27, 1918, 1.

  51. 51.

    “Scene in Mons,” Liverpool Echo, November 12, 1918, 3.

  52. 52.

    Cecil Roberts, “The Journey Home,” Liverpool Echo, December 21, 1918, 3.

  53. 53.

    See, for example, Zuckerman, The Rape of Belgium, 219–222 and Schaepdrijver, “Death is Everywhere,” 108–110.

  54. 54.

    A key document for constructing this image of the Belgians was the Bryce Report. See Viscount Bryce, “Report of the Committee on Alleged German Outrages” (London, 1915).

  55. 55.

    Jay M. Winter, The Great War and the British People (London: Macmillan, 1986), 65–99; Adrian Gregory, “Britain and Ireland” in A Companion to World War I, ed. John Horne (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 414–415.

  56. 56.

    Confidential report by Sir F. Villiers to Mr Balfour about the condition of Brussels after the evacuation of the Germans, December 30, 1918, TNA, FO 608/217/5.

  57. 57.

    “Belgian Refugees’ Return Home,” The Scotsman, January 8, 1919, 7.

  58. 58.

    “Preston and La Bassee: Mayor and Town Clerk’s Visit to War-Stricken Areas,” Lancashire Daily Post, March 11, 1920, 3; “Refugees’ Gratitude,” Lancashire Evening Post, May 28, 1920, 5.

  59. 59.

    “Belgians to Return,” Sheffield Independent, January 23, 1919, 3.

  60. 60.

    Under the terms of the British government’s repatriation scheme, each refugee returning to Belgium by sea was restricted to a 300 pound luggage allowance.

  61. 61.

    “‘Sick of Life’: Belgian Woman’s Suicide at Blackpool,” Lancashire Evening Post, December 13, 1919, 5.

  62. 62.

    “Returned Refugees’ Troubles,” Yorkshire Evening Post, May 12, 1919, 5.

  63. 63.

    De Man, “Revolution or Evolution,” 604–605.

  64. 64.

    The British Government were very aware that relations with Belgium had soured in the wake of the Peace Conference. See, for example, British Special Commission to Belgium Report, compiled by Herbert Samuel, July 31, 1919, TNA, WORK 6/362/8.

  65. 65.

    Henri Jaspar, “Belgium and Western Europe Since the Peace Treaty,” Journal of the British Institute of International Affairs 3:4 (1924): 172–173; 189.

  66. 66.

    Ibid., 165.

  67. 67.

    Loi sur les réparations à accorder aux victimes civiles de la guerre/ Wet op het herstel te verlenen aan de burgerlijke oorlogsslachtoffers (Law on reparations for civilian war victims), 1919. Confirmed in correspondence between author and Gert De Prins of Directorate General War Victims Service, July 2016.

  68. 68.

    See, for example, “.be 2014-18,” accessed August 18, 2016.http://www.be14-18.be/en.

  69. 69.

    Schaepdrijver, “Death is Everywhere,” 102, 113; Karen D. Shelby, “National Identity in First World War Belgian Military Cemeteries,” First World War Studies 6:3 (2015), 257–258.

  70. 70.

    Antoon van den Braembussche, “The Silence of Belgium: Taboo and Trauma in Belgian Memory,” Yale French Studies 102 (2002): 38.

  71. 71.

    This figure has been suggested by Larry Zuckerman, The Rape of Belgium, 85.

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  1. University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Hannah Ewence

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    Hannah Ewence

  2. University of Chester, Chester, United Kingdom

    Tim Grady

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Ewence, H. (2017). Bridging the Gap Between “War” and “Peace”: The Case of Belgian Refugees in Britain. In: Ewence, H., Grady, T. (eds) Minorities and the First World War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53975-5_4

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