Today’s postcard shows us a Flemish milkmaid with her cart full of milk cans.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the use of dogs as draft animals was extremely common in Belgium. On this excellent site, we can find a lot of information on the subject. We learn that at the beginning of the 20th century, Belgium had no less than 150.000 draft dogs. Milkmaids, washer-women, fruit and vegetable sellers, itinerant salesmen … all resorted to the docility and strength of a race produced by years of interbreeding and selection: the Belgian Mastiff.
The extract below taken from the literary supplement of Le Figaro, dated the 17 th of August 1907, explains that in that year a club had just been formed in Belgium for the improvement and protection of the draft dog. Prince Albert and other key figures of the time supported the club.
Le Figaro. Supplément littéraire du dimanche
Source: gallica.bnf.fr
Looking to find a quick, discreet and efficient way of moving its machine guns on the battle-field, from 1911 and during the First World War, the Belgian army used the Belgian mastiff, which earned it the nickname of “Chien de mitrailleuse” or ” Machine gun dog “.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Belgium was the most industrialized and densly populated country in Europe. No less than 78 percent of wheat consumed was imported. In this context, the German invasion of practically the whole of Belgian territory, combined with the blockade by the British Navy on supplies, led to a terrible famine which hit the entire population. As Belgium was a neutral country, the feeling of injustice was even more severely felt at a world level. It is therefore not surprising that in this context, stories of abuse by the Germans on the Belgians, were used as anti- German propaganda by the British and the Americans.
In this famine situation, a small group of diplomats, representing neutral countries, started to form ” Comités de Secours et d’Alimentation” . The first one was formed in Brussels and others followed throughout the country.
The principal neutral countries represented in Belgium at the time, were The United States, Holland and Spain. It was a Spanish marquis, the marquis of Villalobar, plenipotentiary minister of Villalobar, who was one of the principal leaders of this humanitarian movement. Making the most of his contacts with the Germans and the Allied Forces, he acted as a true diplomatic funambulist, a go-between for the two parties, aiming to improve the living conditions of the Belgian people. It was under the auspices of these three ambassdors that the “Commission for Relief in Belgium” or CRB was formed.
The CRB was a supranational body, a sort of NGO today. The American ambassador Whitlock, the representative from Holland, Van Vollenhoven , together with the Marquis of Villalobar, managed to grant a sort of consular protection for all the supplies dispatched to Belgium, so that they were neither blocked by the British nor confiscated by the Germans, thus ensuring that the supplies reached the civilian population.
With the USA’s entry into the world conflict in 1917, the management of humanitarian aid was left to the Spanish and Dutch and called “The Hispanic-Dutch Committee for the Protection of Food Supplies”.
But, let’s get back to our Postcard…!
Beforehand I would like to mention that in Spain no streets or monuments were named after the Marquis of Villalobar whereas in Belgium he was named “Citoyen d’Honneur ” of Brussels, Liège and Antwerp. He even has a street named after him in Brussels, his bust in the Belgian Senate, a name plate at his one-time home ( just opposite the Berlaymont), an orchid bearing his name…
To conclude, I would like to tell you about a book written by an American author, Walter Alden Dyer in 1915 and aimed at collecting funds for the Commission For Relief in Belgium, mentioned above. This book tells the story of a Belgian Mastiff, who in peacetime acted as a draft dog carrying farm produce but who, when the war broke out, was used by the Belgian army as a machine gun dog. You can find the digital version of Pierrot dog of Belgium on this page. Below, the book’s signature.
Translated by Sue Dangotte