I shall present briefly in the fourth chapter the question of services,
first of all:
1. The billeting of troops. By an ordinance dated 17 December 1940, Page
88, the Germans imposed the costs of billeting their troops upon
Belgium. Having done this, the occupation authorities justified
themselves by a rather liberal interpretation of Article 52 of the Hague
Convention, according to the provisions of which the occupying power may
require levies in kind and in services.
The Wetter report (Document Number RF-186) wrongly contends that the
Convention does not specify by whom the settlement should be made;
Article 49 gives the right to make the occupied country defray the
expenses.
Therefore Belgium had to meet expenses to the amount of 5,900 million
francs for billeting costs, equipment, and furniture. The payments of
the Belgian treasury for billeting is estimated in the report of the
Belgian Military Administration at 5,423 million francs.
It is evident that under the pretext of billeting costs, other expenses
were entered to the detriment of the Belgian economy, as in other
occupied countries—the purchases of furniture which was to be sent to
Germany.