Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/183

 12 s. vin. FEB. 19, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 145 become the place of importance that its situation "warrants. Commenting on this, M. Ardouin -Dumazet in his 'Voyage en France,' wrote shortly befcre the war : " Hazebrouck est loin de presenter Fanimation <i< sea nUiiic-s de la Lys. L'activite se porto vers la gare ou passent tous les trains qui, par Calais, font communiquer FAngleterre avec FEurope centrale. La tres grande Industrie ne s'en est point emparee, bien qu'il y ait d'assez nombreuses usines. Le chef-lieu admmistratif de la Flandre ilamingante s'est en quelque sorte recroquevill dans son particularisme au lieu de devenir un centre pour Fexpansion de la langue franeaise." INI. Du.mazet sees in the use of the Flemish language and the fostering of local patriot- ism, a danger to the greater idea of national- ism. He joins issue with the Abbe Lemire, who in pleading for the encouragement of the Flemish tongue has drawn a comparison between Flanders and Brittany and Pro- vence. There exists in the region a " Gomite Flamand de France " whose chief object it is to maintain the Flemish language and customs and to keep alive the sentiment' of the "petite patrie." Opponents of this movement, like M. Dumazet, reject the comparison with Brittany and Provence as a false one, as neither Breton nor Provencal speech has any idiom in common with a foreign tongue, whereas Flemish, they main- tain, is a foreign language akin to German. Notwithstanding the purity of motive of the Comite Flamand and its supporters M. Dumazet maintains that the movement tends in the long run to work against national interests : " Vouloir constituer, de Bailleul a Hazebrouck ( a C'fis.-iel, un groupe flamingant, c'est preparer un terrain separatiste au pur profit de FAlle- magne qui revendique les pays de langues flamande et^hollandaise corume germaniques." Whether M. Dumazet "would write in exactly this strain since the war I do not know. But the words quoted are interesting as showing the point of view of many in- tellectual Frenchmen prior to 1914. It may be questioned, however, whether the argument will stand. The case for the preservation and encouragement of the Flemish language is a strong one, and was wHl put by the President of the Comite Flamand, Canon Looten, at a meeting of the " Congres Regionaliste " at Lille on Dec. 7, 1920 : " La question du flamand, si delicate en Bel- gique, MC sizable pas aussi dangereuse en France. Les IJOK.OOO flamands de France sout des Francais '' ' >u. Us ne demandent qu'une chose, gardcr Icur lanirui'. Le flamand est menac6 par le courant de centralisation de ces cinquantc der- nieics jumees. II est cependant urgent de la maintenir : un peuple qui change de langue change d'ame. Et quelle ame plus grande que celle du pays de Flandre ? " A writer in a Hazebrouck newspaper has put the case thus : " Notre belle langue flamande, qui nous est si utile poiir apprendre le Ho Hand a is, FAnglais FAllemand, est meprisee ; elle est bannie de nos ^coles. Et pourtant il nous manque des diplo- mates, des officiers, des agents commerciaux capables de defend re nos interets dans les pays etrangers, ou F usage de notre langue serait si precieux " And in the Chamber of Deputies, the Abbe Lemire, who has represented Hazebrouck in Parliament since 1893,* used these words on Oct. 4, 1919, in pleading for the preserva- tion of the native language in Alsace and Lorraine : " Je suis moi-meme d'un pays ou deux langue,s vivent cote a, cote, la langue flamande et la langue franchise, juxtaposees depuis Louis XIV. En Flandre Fexperience de tous les jours nous apprend qu'il ne faut point froisser les populations^ en ayant 1'airde les mepriseret de les soupQOnner,- losqu'elles par lent en flamand. II ne faut point ceder 4 la tentatioii de croire que quiconque se sert d'une autre langue que la langue nationale dit quelque chose centre la patrie." That Hazebrouck is essentially a Flemish town is at once impressed on the mind of the visiting stranger by the names on the shop-signs and in the columns of the local newspapers. A few surnames taken at random from these sources may be quoted: Baelden, Behaghe, Boddaert, Boerez, Boorteel, Bossus, Brouckaert, Butstraen, Cauwel, Cleenewerck, Drynckebier, Elveraere, Everwyn, Faes, Gaeymaey, Geloen, Gob- recht, Haese, Houcke, Huyghe, Itsweire, Kieken, Lestaevel, Leuwers, Mantez, Nieu- wjaer, Ochart, Ooghe, Pauw^els, Rebbelynck,. Schoonheere, Schotte, Serlooten, Spas, Ter- nynck, Tiberghein, Vancauwemberghe, Van- damme, Vanderboogaerde, Vandevelde, Van- derberghe, Vanhoutte, Vanhove, Van- poucke, VerstaeVel, Verwaerde, Waeles,. Warein, Wyart, and Wyckaert. The name of the cure'-doyen of St. Eloi, killed in the bombardment " of December, 1917, was Dehandschcowercker. At Hazebrouck the communal fete, which falls on the Sunday after the Assumption, is known as the- Ducasse, and the Sunday following is the " raccroc de la ducasse. " And so also in the other towns and villages of the region. ment of Hazebrouck, under the old system of single-member constituencies, ;it -v< i y Election from 1893 to 1914. Under the new system of modified scritiin de liste, in the general election of November 1919, he headed the list of successful; candidates of the Federation Republicaine in the Departement du Nord with 141,513 votes.
 * Abb Lemire ewas elected for the arrondisse-