"The deportations * * * were the most vivid, shocking, convincing,
single happening in all our enforced observation and experience of
German disregard of human suffering and human rights in Belgium."
Vernon Kellogg, in _Atlantic Monthly_, October, 1917.
A summary of the whole situation, down to January, 1917, can be
obtained by reading continuously the report of Minister Whitlock, taken
from the files of the State Department, which is given in italics on
pages 48-49, 53, 54-55, 67-68, 74-75, 78. The insertion of his report
at appropriate points has made it possible to avoid all but a minimum
of repetition.
"_Legation of the United States of America_,
"_Brussels, January 16th, 1917_.
"_The Honorable the Secretary of State_,
"_Washington_.
[Sidenote: Horrifying behavior of the Germans in Belgium.]
"_Sir: I have had it in mind, and I might say, on my conscience, since
the Germans began to deport Belgian workmen early in November, to
prepare for the Department a detailed report on this latest instance
of brutality, but there have been so many obstacles in the way of
obtaining evidence on which a calm and judicious opinion could be
based, and one is so overwhelmed with the horror of the thing itself,
that it has been, and even now is, difficult to write calmly and
justly about it. I have had to content myself with the fragmentary
despatches I have from time to time sent to the Department and with
doing what I could, little as that can be, to alleviate the distress
that this gratuitous cruelty has caused the population of this unhappy
land._
[Sidenote: Belgian Government wished to support unemployed Belgians.]
"_In order to understand fully the situation it is necessary to go
back to the autumn of 1914. At the time we were organizing the relief
work, the Comité National--the Belgian relief organization that
collaborates with the Commission for Relief in Belgium--proposed an
arrangement by which the Belgian Government should pay to its own
employees left in Belgium, and other unemployed men besides, the wages
they had been accustomed to receive. The Belgians wished to do this
both for humanitarian and patriotic purposes; they wished to provide
the unemployed with the means of livelihood, and, at the same time,
to prevent their working for the Germans. I refused to be connected
in any way with this plan, and told the Belgian committee that it had
many possibilities of danger; that not only would it place a premium
on idleness, but that it would ultimately exasperate the Germans.
However, the policy was adopted, and has been continued in practice,
and on the rolls of the Comité National have been borne the names of
hundreds of thousands--some 700,000, I believe--of idle men receiving
this dole, distributed through the communes._
[Sidenote: German cupidity excited.]
"_The presence of these unemployed, however, was a constant temptation
to German cupidity. Many times they sought to obtain the lists of
the chômeurs, but were always foiled by the claim that under the
guarantees covering the relief work, the records of the Comité
National and its various suborganizations were immune. Rather than
risk any interruption of the ravitaillement, for which, while loath to
own any obligation to America, the Germans have always been grateful,
since it has had the effect of keeping the population calm, the
authorities never pressed the point, other than with the burgomasters
of the communes. Finally, however, the military party, always brutal,
and with an astounding ignorance of public opinion and of moral
sentiment, determined to put these idle men to work._
"_General von Bissing and the civil portion of his entourage had
always been and even now are opposed to this policy and I think have
sincerely done what they could, first, to prevent its adoption, and
secondly, to lighten the rigors of its application._"
(Continued on page 53.)
In the early days of the German advance into Belgium, the people had
learned to fear the worst. This was particularly true in Antwerp. In
order to alleviate their fears and to obtain guarantees which might
hasten the restoration of settled conditions, Cardinal Mercier secured
from the German governor of Antwerp promises, and in a circular letter
dated October 16th, 1914, asked the clergy of the Province of Antwerp
to communicate them to the people:
[Sidenote: Solemn promises of Germans not to exploit Belgians.]
"The governor of Antwerp, Baron von Hoiningen, General von Huene,
has authorized me to inform you in his name and to communicate by
your obliging intermediary to our populations the three following
declarations:
"(1) The young men need not fear being taken to Germany, either to be
enrolled into the army or to be employed at forced labors.
"(2) If individual infractions of police regulations are committed,
the authorities will institute a search for the responsible authors
and will punish them, without placing the responsibility on the entire
population.
"(3) The German and Belgian authorities will neglect nothing to see
that food is assured to the population."
These promises were not kept, as Cardinal Mercier and his colleagues
show by abundant evidence in the _Appeal to Truth_.
"On March 23rd, at the arsenal at Luttre the German authority posted
a notice demanding return to work. On April 21st, 200 workmen were
called for. On April 27th soldiers went to fetch the workmen from
their homes and take them to the arsenal. In the absence of a workman,
a member of the family was arrested.
[Sidenote: Violation of German promises.]
"However, the men maintained their refusal to work, 'because they were
unwilling to co-operate in acts of war against their country.'
"On April 30th, the requisitioned workmen were not released, but shut
up in the railway carriages.
"On May 4th, 24 workmen detained in prison at Nivelles were tried at
Mons by a court-martial, 'on the charge of being members of a secret
society, having for its aim to thwart the carrying out of German
military measures.' They were condemned to imprisonment.
[Sidenote: Early deportations.]
"On May 8th, 1915, 48 workmen were shut up in a freight car and taken
to Germany.
"On May 14th, 45 men were deported to Germany.
"On May 18th a fresh proclamation announced that the prisoners would
receive only dry bread and water, and hot food only every four days.
On May 22nd three cars with 104 workmen were sent towards Charleroi."
"A similar course was adopted at _Malines_, where, by various methods
of intimidation, the German authorities attempted to force the workers
at the arsenal to work on material for the railways, as if it were not
plain that this material would become war material sooner or later.
"On May 30th, 1915, the Governor General announced that he 'would be
obliged to punish the town of Malines and its suburbs by stopping all
commercial traffic if by 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 2nd, 500 workmen
had not presented themselves for work at the arsenal.'
"On Wednesday, June 2nd, not a single man appeared. Accordingly, a
complete stoppage took place of every vehicle within a radius of
several kilometres of the town."
"Several workmen were taken by force and kept two or three days at the
arsenal."
[Sidenote: Belgians asked to make barbed wire.]
"The commune of _Sweveghem_ (Western Flanders) was punished in June,
1915, because the 350 workmen at the private factory of M. Bekaert
refused to make barbed wire for the German Army.
"The following notice was placarded at _Menin_ in July-August,
1915: 'By order: From to-day the town will no longer afford aid of
any description--including assistance to their families, wives,
and children--to any operatives except those who work _regularly_
at _military work_, and other tasks assigned to them. All other
operatives and their families can henceforward not be helped in any
fashion.'
[Sidenote: Punished for refusal to work for German Army.]
"Similar measures were taken in October, 1915, at
Harlebekelez-Courtrai, Bisseghem, Lokeren and Mons. From Harlebeke
29 inhabitants were transported to Germany. At Mons, in M. Lenoir's
factory, the directors, foremen, and 81 workmen were imprisoned for
having refused to work in the service of the German Army. M. Lenoir
was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, the five directors to a
year each, 6 foremen to 6 months, and the 81 workmen to eight weeks.
[Sidenote: Interference with Red Cross.]
"The General Government had recourse also to _indirect_ methods of
compulsion. It seized the Belgian Red Cross, confiscated its property,
and changed its purpose arbitrarily. It attempted to make itself
master of the public charities and to control the National Aid and
Food Committee.
[Sidenote: Trickiness of German rulers of Belgium.]
"If we were to cite _in extenso_ the decree of the Governor General
of August 4th, 1915, _concerning measures intended to assure the
carrying out of works of public usefulness_, and that of August 15th,
1915, '_concerning the unemployed, who, through idleness, refrain from
work_,' it would be seen by what tortuous means the occupying Power
attempts to attack at once the masters and the men."
October 12th, 1915, the German authorities took a long step in the
development of their policy of forcing the Belgians to aid them in
prosecuting the war. The decree of that date reveals the matter and
openly discloses a contempt for international law.