"BRUSSELS, VIA THE HAGUE, _November 28, 1916_.
"SECRETARY OF STATE,
"_Washington_.
[Sidenote: Germans are deporting the skilled Belgian workmen.]
"We are naturally encouraged by Grew's telegrams concerning his
conversations with the Chancellor. It is probable that the orders
[for softening the rigors of the deportations] have not yet been put
into effect, as the recruiting of Belgian workmen continues without
distinction as between the employed and unemployed. I have received
creditable information that choice is made with great rapidity, which
allows no time for examination. Mayor in the Province of Namur had
given a list of unemployed as one hundred. Practically none of the
persons in this list were taken by the Germans, but from the same
district hundreds of employed were taken. Apparently the choice is
based entirely on the skill and physical fitness of the workmen. There
is a great demand for blacksmiths and iron workers. The identification
cards from the Commission for Relief in Belgium issued to men working
for the _Comité National_ were respected in Antwerp; nine men holding
them were taken at Mons; over thirty at Namur, and a few each day
in various parts of the country. Over forty thousand are engaged in
various departments of relief work, however, and this is but a small
percentage. It is reliably reported that very bad conditions exist
in the Province of Valenciennes, and that many men have been taken
there. They have been without food for sixty-three hours and have
no blankets. Apparently they have been deprived of food in order to
oblige them to work for the Germans.
"WHITLOCK,
"_American Minister_."
The American minister and the representatives of other powers were able
to secure some lessening of the severity of the deportations. Minister
Whitlock says:
REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued).
[Sidenote: Neutral representatives are allowed to request
reconsideration of special cases.]
[Sidenote: They run into high figures.]
"_We have, of course, done all that was in our power to ameliorate the
conditions without in any way seeming officially to intervene. I have
already reported to the Department the conversations I have had with
the officials. Recently I induced the Political Department to request
that we bring to their attention any case of flagrant injustice, and
on the basis of this admission we have been sending from time to time
to the German authorities the names of certain deported Belgians who
were working at the time of their seizure and therefore did not come
within the purview of the rule laid down by the German Government
that the unemployed should be deported. Other neutral Legations in
Brussels have done the same, and the work has assumed proportions
that are so large that I fear they may defeat its ends. The Legations
of Spain and Holland have organized similar bureaus, and so many
requests for repatriation are received that I have been compelled to
rent rooms in a vacant house, across the street from the Legation
in the rue Belliard, to carry on the work. The necessary staff and
supplies for the work have been furnished by the Comité National,
which has organized a central bureau that investigates all reports
received by the Legations in order to determine whether or not the
persons mentioned have received financial assistance since the war,
and, as well, to avoid duplication in representations. Inasmuch as it
is difficult to make exceptions, I fear, as I said before, that the
very mass of these requests will prevent their being examined with
any care. So far as we are able to determine, about 100,000 have been
deported, and of those less than 2,000 have returned._
"_The Spanish Legation which, because of the fact that Spain is
charged with the protection of Belgian interests in Germany, claims
precedence in this matter, * * * makes a demand for the return of each
and every one who applies, and sends in about two hundred names each
day. The Dutch Legation * * * forwards each request that is presented,
and, owing to the fact that after the fall of Antwerp, assurances
were given by the German Authorities through the Dutch Government to
Belgian refugees in Holland that they would not be deported should
they return to Belgium, they are receiving a great many. I am told
that they submit over fifteen hundred each day._ * * *
"_We have a great many requests, and although we try not to
discriminate we attempt to pick out the most deserving cases, though
now that I have written that phrase I feel a certain shame in it
because all the cases are deserving._
[Sidenote: Germans rarely allow food packages to reach deported
Belgians.]
"_I have had requests from the burgomasters of ten communes from La
Louvière, asking that permission be obtained to send to the deported
men in Germany packages of food similar to those that are being sent
to prisoners of war. Thus far the German authorities have refused
to permit this except in special instances, and returning Belgians
claim that even when such packages are received they are used by the
camp authorities only as another means of coercing them to sign the
agreements to work._
"_It is said that, in spite of the liberal salary promised those who
would sign voluntarily, no money has as yet been received in Belgium
from workmen in Germany._" (Concluded on p. 78.)
The American Government was not content with informal recommendations
to the German Government, and on December 5, 1916, the American
representative at Berlin laid this formal protest before the German
chancellor: