800,000 copies of this pamphlet had already been sent out when the world
rang with the tragic appeal of the Belgian workmen to their brother
workers in other lands. This appeal ought to be fixed on the door of
every factory and workshop. Every worker, every citizen, should study
it. We regret that we cannot reprint it here in full, but the following
extracts will at least give an idea of this new crime committed by
Germany:--
"Workers,--In the name of the international bonds that
unite all workmen, the working classes of
Belgium--threatened, without exception, with slavery,
deportation, and forced labour for the enemy's
gain--send to the working classes in other lands a
supreme appeal.
"Germany, as you know, attacked and terrorised Belgium
in 1914 for having defended her right to neutrality and
her faith and honour.
"Germany has been martyrizing Belgium. She has from that
moment onwards turned the land into a prison: the
frontiers are armed against Belgians like a battle
front.. All our constitutional liberties have been
abolished. There is no longer safety anywhere; the
life of our citizens is at the mercy of the
policeman,--arbitrary, limitless, pitiless ... Belgian
industrial idleness has been the creation of the
Germans, maintained by them for their own profit.[32]
To these 500,000 unemployed they have for the last month
been saying: 'Either you will sign a contract to work
for Germany, or you will be reduced to slavery.' In
either case, it means exile, deportation, forced labour
in the interests of the enemy, and against the interests
of our country: formidable punishments, the cruellest
ever invented by tyranny for the punishment of
crimes--and what _are_ the crimes alleged?... On the
western front, Belgian workmen--your brothers and
ours--are being forced to dig trenches, to build
aviation camps, to fortify the German lines, and when
the victims, in spite of everything, are firm in their
refusal to take part in work forbidden by International
Law, they are starved and beaten into illness, wounded,
and sometimes even _killed_.
"In Germany, they are turned on to work in mines, and at
lime-kilns, quite regardless of their age, profession,
or trade. Youths of seventeen, old men of seventy, are
deported in haphazard masses. _Is not this a revival of
ancient Slavery with all its horrors_?... Do you know,
brothers, what the Germans throw to their victims by way
of pay? 30 pfennigs (3d.) a day!
"Workers: _Never forget that the soldiers-who are_
_acting as the torturers or our Belgian workmen are
themselves German workers!_
"In the depths of our distress, we count on you. It is
for you to act! For ourselves, even if brute force
succeeds for the moment in reducing our bodies to
servitude, we shall never give our consent.
"A final word: Whatever tortures we may undergo, we do
not wish for Peace except with the independence of our
country and the triumph of justice.
"THE WORKMEN OF BELGIUM."