[Sidenote: Was Bissing against deportations?]
"_Then, in August, von Hindenburg was appointed to the supreme
command. He is said to have criticized von Bissing's policy as too
mild; there was a quarrel; von Bissing went to Berlin to protest,
threatened to resign, but did not. He returned, and a German official
here said that Belgium would now be subjected to a more terrible
régime--would learn what war was. The prophecy has been vindicated.
Recently I was told that the drastic measures are really of
Ludendorf's inspiration; I do not know. Many German officers say so._"
(Continued on p. 54.)
If von Bissing had opposed the policy of deportation when his own
judgment was overruled, he consented to become the "devil's advocate"
and defended the system in public. Especially instructive is the
following conversation reported by Mr. F.C. Walcott: