Belgian Africa’s Total War

The story of the contribution of the peoples of the Colonial Empire of Belgium in the time of her most grievous adversity is not only a refutation of those who, in ignorance of the facts, or even in spite of them, assert that there is something inferior about colonial status. It is an inspiration to those nations who, like ourselves, should be more properly described as blessed with the privilege of colonial responsibilities. Nothing has been more remarkable in the present World War than the unbroken record of fidelity of the various colonies of the Allied Nations to their mother-countries. It must, indeed, have been a sad disappointment to the dictators to find that the further their plans of aggression appeared to be proceeding on the road of success, the more resolute did the colonies of the free nations of Europe now temporarily under their heel become in the support of their oppressed mother-countries. The Colonial Empires of the 20th century are as far in advance of those of the 19th as were those of the 19th in front of the Colonial Empires of the 18th and earlier centuries. Rule by conquest for exploitation has long since ceased to be traceable in 20th century colonial enterprise. To-day the freedom loving peoples of the colonies of the free and Allied Nations are fighting Hitler and Hitlerism because they know that their own liberties depend upon the survival of the liberties of their mother-countries. They are our partners in a struggle for freedom of which the colonial link is a guarantee and an assurance, and their unswerving loyalty is the proof that they are fully conscious of this essential fact. Our Belgian friends and allies have something to tell the world in which they may well feel a legitimate pride.