Part 26

That the Rathenau plan is still wringing the remnants of industrial supplies from Belgium in 1918 is shown by documents still later than those printed in the brochure just reviewed. In January linen and mattresses were being taken from hotels, boarding houses, and convents all over Belgium. The inhabitants were forbidden by law to have any wool in their possession, but were offered a substitute made of seaweed. The large electrical plant at Antwerp known as l'Escaut was stripped of its machinery, which was transferred to a German plant. Belgian kitchens did not escape. The huge copper pans and kettles, the glory of Belgian housewives, had to go to Germany with the bright jars and jugs of the milkmaids. Nearly every conceivable brass, copper, and bronze object had been requisitioned by that time.

The Belgian Government sent out a statement on Feb. 17, 1918, containing these passages:

The German authorities then aggravated the evils of industrial stoppage by forbidding public works and commandeering the factories and metals and leather for military purposes. After this they instituted the barbarous system of deporting workmen to perform forced labor in Germany, a system which they had to interrupt officially, after some months, because it proved revolting to the conscience of mankind, but only to substitute for it immediately the forced labor of the civilian population, in work of military value, by the order of the military authorities. This system is still being cruelly maintained in the zones lying back of the fighting line in the provinces of East and West Flanders, Hainault, Namur, and Luxemburg.

Meanwhile, the commandeering has become general, and affects both natural and manufactured products and also tools, motors, and means of transportation, whether mechanical or animal. Finally, fiscal and administrative measures have been taken to close the last remaining outlets for Belgian products into neutral countries.

These facts are incontestable. They are proved by many rules and regulations officially published by the German authorities.

At present the raid upon the last economic resources of occupied Belgium has been carried on to such an extent that they are methodically taking away all the machinery from the factories, which they themselves have made idle, in some cases to set it up again in Germany, in other cases, to break it up and use it for grapeshot.

The purpose of this entire system of destruction is double: First, to supply deficiencies in German industry; secondly, to put an end to Belgian competition and later to subject Belgian industry to that of Germany when the time comes for refitting the factories with machinery after the war.

The proofs collected by the Belgian Government in support of this statement are conclusive. It is significant that in general the task of systematically stripping Belgian factories was intrusted to German manufacturers who were the direct competitors of the Belgian owners. Some of them have taken advantage of their official positions to steal secrets of manufacturing processes, for example, at the artificial silk shops of Obourg, and personal methods of production and sale.

And as to the fact that Germany is destroying the factories for a military reason without any regard for the economic needs of Belgium or for the rights of nations, it is sufficient to cite the following passages from a semi-official note that appeared in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 392, of Dec. 18, 1917, in which Germany distinctly pleads guilty:

"All measures taken in Belgium are inspired by military necessity.

"The exploitation, under military control, of Belgian factories in order to repair locomotives and automobiles, and also to obtain material of war for the front, is carried out for the purpose of relieving the strain on German industry and economizing transportation. It has become necessary to strip the Belgian factories of their machinery and other fittings, because all German industry is busy filling orders for material of war. * * * By relieving the home market from the necessity of enlarging our own factories we are accelerating the production of munitions and other products. * * * In consequence of the intense activity of all German industry our machinery and other equipment is tremendously overworked, and must from time to time be partly replaced by new machines, while, furthermore, we must be able to furnish spare parts rapidly unless we wish to see our output of munitions diminish. The machinery and equipment required for these purposes are evidently brought from Belgian factories. The destruction of whole factories for the production of grapeshot is effected in order to maintain at its present level the supply of iron and steel in Germany, or, if possible, to raise it. * * * It is not only possible, but even evident, that, in view of all the steps taken by the military authorities, the question of keeping up work in some of the factories of the occupied country must be subordinated to considerations tending to spare the lives of German soldiers and thus protect our national power."

This record of the deliberate crippling of Belgian industries was brought up to March 6, 1918, by an official dispatch to the United States Government, quoting the statement of Belgian refugees to the effect that dynamite was being used to destroy machines and equipment in factories in the Mons district. Rails of tramways were being taken up, and in some cities they were entirely destroyed. Meanwhile, deportation of men, and even of children 13 years old, was proceeding, several hundred boys between the ages of 13 and 15 being taken from Mons alone.

Spoliation of Belgian Churches

Cardinal Mercier's Protest

Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines, issued the following letter to the clergy and people of his diocese on March 2, 1918:

_My Very Dear Brethren:_

The painful tidings, announced semi-officially on Feb. 8, by the occupying power, have been confirmed. The bulletin of laws and edicts, dated Feb. 21, requires an inventory of the bells and organs of our churches. Informed by experience, we need not delude ourselves; the inventory of today is the signal for the requisition of tomorrow.

The repeated protests of the Sovereign Pontiff, our appeal to the Chancellor of the Empire, appear thus to have been in vain.

Your Christian hearts will bleed. At a time when we are in such need of comfort, a veil of mourning will descend upon our land, covering like a shroud our every day. It is to be for Catholic Belgium an interminable Way of the Cross.

It is true, is it not, dear brethren, that we should have borne this sorrow, added to so many others, if it had concerned ourselves alone, but this time the rights of God, of our Saviour, Jesus, the freedom of the Church and of her heritage are to be sacrificed to what is called necessity, that is, to the military need of our enemies.

"This term, liberty of the Church, rings harshly on the ears of politicians," writes the great Dom Gueranger. They immediately discern therein the signs of a conspiracy. Now there is no thought in our minds either of conspiracy or of revolt, but of the indefeasible affirmation of the rights granted to His Immaculate Spouse by our Saviour, Jesus.

The freedom of the Church lies in her complete independence with regard to all secular powers, not alone in her teachings of the Word, in the administering of the sacraments, in the untrammeled relations between all ranks of her Divine hierarchy, but also in the publishing and applying of her disciplinary decrees--in the conservation and administration of her temporal heritage.

"Nothing in the world is dearer to God than this liberty of His Church," says St. Anselm.

The Apostolic See, through the medium of Pope Pius VIII., wrote on June 30, 1830, to the Bishops of the Rhine Province: "It is in virtue of a Divine order that the Church, spotless spouse of the Immaculate Lamb, Jesus Christ, is free and subject to no earthly dominion."

"This freedom of the Church," continues Dom Gueranger, "is the bulwark of the very sanctuary, hence, the shepherd, sentinel of Israel, should not wait until the enemy has entered into the fold to sound the cry of alarm. The duty of protecting his flock begins for him at the moment of the enemy's siege of his outposts, upon whose safety depends the police of the entire city."

In the execution of this duty of our pastoral office we protest, dear brethren, against the injury which the forcible seizure of church property will cause to the liberty of our mother, the Holy Church.

We add that the removal of the bells without the consent of the religious authorities and despite their protests will be a sacrilege.

The bell is, in fact, a sacred object its function is sacred. It is a consecrated object; that is to say, it is devoted irrevocably to Divine service. It has been not only blessed but anointed by the Bishop with the holy oil and the holy chrism, just as you were anointed and consecrated at holy baptism; just as anointed and consecrated as the priest's hands which are to touch the consecrated wafer.

The function of the bell is holy. The bell is sanctified by the Holy Ghost, says the liturgy, sanctificetur a Spiritu Sancto, to the end that, in its voice, the faithful shall recognize the voice of the Church calling her children to hasten to her breast.

It announced your initiation into Christian life, your confirmation, your first communion. It announced, dear parents, your Christian marriage; it weeps for the dead; thrice daily it marks the mystery of the Incarnation; it recalls the immolation of the Lamb of God on the altar of sacrifice; it sings the joys of Sabbath rest, the cheer of our festivals of Christmas, of Easter, of Pentecost. Her prayers are associated with all the events and all the great memories, happy or unhappy, of the fatherland.

Yes, the seizure of our bells will be a profanation; whosoever assists in it will lend the hand to a sacrilege.

The Catholic Bishops of Germany and Austria will not deny these principles. If their patriotism has wrung from them concessions which must have cost their religious spirit dear, patriotism with us confirms on the contrary the law of resistance. We would be betraying the Church and the fatherland were we so cowardly as to permit without a public act of reprobation the taking away of metal to be converted by the enemy into engines of destruction, destined to carry death into the ranks of the heroes who are sacrificing themselves for us.

The authorities, strangers to our beliefs, will not be greatly moved, I fear, by the protest, however worthy of respect, of our religious consciences, but at least they should remember their given word and not tear up a juridical code which their believers have elaborated with us and promulgated. Morality has force of law for Governments as for individuals.

On Oct. 18, 1907, the representatives of forty-four Governments gathered together at The Hague, drew up a convention concerning laws and customs of war on land.

They were assembled, they proclaimed unanimously, for a double purpose--in the first place to safeguard peace and prevent armed conflicts between nations; and, in the second place, in the extreme hypothesis of an appeal to arms, to serve, nevertheless, the interests of humanity and the progressive demands of civilization by restraining, as much as possible, the rigors of war.

To this convention there was annexed a set of regulations which, the general tenor of its clauses having been examined a first and a second time, respectively, during the peace conferences held in 1874 at Brussels and in 1899 at The Hague, was submitted a third time, in 1907, to careful study at the second conference at The Hague and signed by the plenipotentiaries of all the great powers.

The first signer of this code of international law in wartime was Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, delegated by his Majesty, the German Emperor, King of Prussia.

Articles 52 and 46 of the regulations annexed to the convention are formulated as follows:

"Article 52. Neither requisitions in kind nor service can be demanded from communes or inhabitants, except for the necessities of the army of occupation."

"Article 46. Family honor and rights, individual life and private property, as well as religious convictions and worship, must be respected."

Evidently bells and organs are not necessary to supply the needs of the army of occupation, they lie in the domain of private property, are destined for the exercise of Catholic worship.

The transformation of these articles of the Church into war munitions will be, therefore, a flagrant violation of international law, an act of force perpetrated on the weaker by the stronger because he is the stronger.

We Belgians, who have never wished nor acted other than well toward Germany, we are the weak ones. I call you all to witness, brethren, is it not true that prior to 1914 a current of sympathy, of esteem, of generous hospitality was turning our trusting hearts toward those who are today so harshly oppressing us? You will remember that on the very day of the invasion the first lines that flowed from my pen spoke to you of those "whom we have the sorrow to call our enemies." For four years Germany has been rewarding us. Nevertheless, we will not rebel. You will not seek in desperate recourse to material force the sudden triumph of our rights.

Courage does not reside in passionate impulse but in self-mastery. We will offer to God in reparation for the sacrilege which is about to be committed against Him, and for the final success of our cause, our supreme sacrifice.

Let us pray, one for the other, that the arm of the All-Powerful may lend us support; "Lord," says the Holy Spirit, in the Book of Esther, "Lord, Sovereign Master, all is subject to Thy authority. Nothing, nobody, is capable of resisting Thee if Thou shalt decide to save Israel. * * * Grant our prayer, Lord! Transform our grief into joy, so that, living, we may glorify Thy name. * * * Thou art just, Lord. Now they are no longer satisfied to weigh us down under the most grievous servitude, they intend to silence the voices that praise Thee and to tarnish the glory of the temple. Remember us, O Lord. Reveal Thyself to us in this hour of our tribulation. * * * O God, Thou art exalted above all, hearken to the voice of those who place their hopes in Thee. Deliver us from the blows of injustice and grant that our courage may control our fears."

In the name of the freedom of the Church, in the name of the sanctity of the Catholic religion, in the name of international law, we condemn and reprove the seizure of the bells and organs of our churches; we forbid the clergy and faithful of our diocese to co-operate toward their removal; we refuse to accept the price of the sacred objects taken from us by violence.

Strong in invincible hope, we await the hour of our God.

D. J. CARDINAL MERCIER, Archbishop of Malines.

Belgium's Appeal to the Bolsheviki

_The Belgian Government, shortly after the Bolshevist Government of Russia deserted the Allies and disbanded its armies, sent this eloquent appeal to Petrograd:_

By the treaty of April 19, 1839, Russia placed her guarantee upon the independence and neutrality of Belgium. On Aug. 4, 1914, when Germany had violated this neutrality--which the German Government also had guaranteed--Belgium appealed to Russia for aid. To this appeal Russia replied on Aug. 5 by promising the assistance of her arms. Thus Belgium entered into the struggle for independence and neutrality, trusting in the unswerving loyalty of the Russian people.

On Feb. 14, 1916, Russia undertook to renew by a solemn act the pledges she had made regarding Belgium, "heroically faithful to her international obligations." Russia declared before a listening world that she would not cease hostilities until Belgium should be re-established in her independence and liberally indemnified for the losses she had endured. Furthermore, Russia promised her aid in assuring the commercial and financial rehabilitation of Belgium.

The authorities placed in power by the Russian revolution have just signed--on Feb. 9 and March 3, 1918--treaties under which they lay down their arms before the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

Yet Belgium is still the prey of the imperial armies, which oppress her, decimating her population by privations and pitiless repressions, and overwhelming her with the worst kind of moral tortures. To these violences the Belgian Nation continues to oppose forces of resistance drawn from a consciousness of right, from the beauty of her cause, from her love of liberty.

Respect for treaties is the basis of the moral and juridical relations of States and the condition of an honest and regular international order. Carried into the war by a will to compel respect for a treaty which Russia had guaranteed, Belgium is pursuing the struggle without wavering, and at the price of the most cruel sacrifices. She considers that the promise of Russia, in which she trusted, is still binding. She refuses to believe that the Russian people, master of its destinies, will irrevocably abandon the promises made in its name. Confident in the honor and loyalty of the Russian people, Belgium reserves to herself the right to implore the execution of obligations whose permanent character places them outside any internal changes of régime in the State.

Serbia's Hopes and Russia's Defection

By Nikola Pashitch

_Premier and Foreign Minister of Serbia_

[Speech delivered March 31, 1918, before the Skupshtina at Corfu and especially translated for CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE]

Since the last meeting of this Assembly a great number of events have come to pass which have measurably modified the general military and political situation. One of our greatest allies, Russia, has retired from the battlefield, but another ally, quite as powerful as Russia, but doubtless not yet bringing to bear all the force of which she is capable, has rushed to our aid.

These two principal events, with others of less importance, have perceptibly changed the situation which existed more than a year ago, when Germany proposed to us the conclusion of a peace "honorable" for both the belligerent groups. Already at that time had Germany perceived the impossibility of fighting her adversaries by military force alone, and was obliged to resort to other means, which she had already employed, although in a more restrained fashion. So Germany decided to make more energetic use of her hidden channels with the idea of disorganizing in the quickest possible time the unity of her adversaries. She contrived intrigues, employing different methods according to the country where they were to be used and where she believed they would succeed.

You still remember the case of Miassoyedov, which was perpetrated with the aim of annihilating an entire Russian army. You also remember the attempt of the enemy to have Ireland revolt, an experiment which dismally failed owing to the prompt and energetic measures taken by the British Government. Surely you have a vivid memory of the criminal exploitation which the enemy Governments made in Italy of the Papal note in favor of peace. Also, you remember the numerous cases of arson of munition plants by the action of their agents, and the enemy propaganda of a premature peace for the benefit of Germany, employed to the limit by pacifists and certain imperialist and international adventurers through lectures and "defeatist" newspapers in neutral countries.

RUSSIA ALONE DECEIVED

All these intrigues were clothed in fine phrases and put forward with high humanitarian ideals, by which the enemy propagated monarchistic ideas in republics and republican ideas in monarchies, eulogizing a military régime in democratic countries and in autocracies democratic, republican, and even anarchistic ideals.

They all had one sole end--to provoke internal disorders and discord among the Allies in order to divert the attention of Germany's adversaries from the principal aim. In every allied country these secret machinations of our enemies were unmasked and repelled. Repelled--except in Russia. All these intrigues and secret machinations could not succeed anywhere except in Russia, where there are many Germans, and where our enemies managed to concentrate the entire attention of a people in the midst of war upon their internal organization. In this way the possibility was placed in the hands of enemies--most dangerous to the liberty of the people and to their right to dispose freely of their destiny--to guide more easily the struggle with free and democratic nations reared against Prussianism in order to defend the rights of the weak and prevent the enslaving of other countries and other peoples.

RUSSIAN LIBERTY DESTROYED

The first revolutionary movement in Russia was directed against an autocratic and irresponsible Government. On the side of the revolution they pretended that the Government had initiated pourparlers for a separate peace with Germany unknown to the Russian people and the Allies. After this first movement, a second took place in Russia demanding a democratic peace "without annexations and indemnities" on the basis of the right of peoples to determine their destiny freely and for themselves.

This second revolutionary provisional Government not having the desire to cut the bonds which attached Russia to the democratic and allied countries, a third movement followed, which did not hesitate to cut the bonds uniting Russia to the Allies, to demobilize the Russian armies--an act contrary to all reason, even revolutionary--and to initiate pourparlers with the enemy at Brest-Litovsk for a separate peace.

The result of these pourparlers was the capitulation of the Maximalists to Prussian militarism, the disguised annexation by Germany of the great Baltic provinces of Russia, and the conclusion of peace between the Central Powers and the Ukraine, by which the latter separated from her enfeebled sister in order consciously to aid the enemies of the Slav race. The recognition of the independence of Finland, Caucasia, and Poland by the Central Powers followed, and, upon its heels, disintegration and general discord in Russia finally giving place to the present civil and fratricidal war.

We would not wish to deny that the Russian revolution counted for something in the ranks of its sincere combatants in the way of high social ideals, for democratic reforms, and for liberty. But, judging from its results, it is impossible to deny that the Russian revolution sustained a German influence, and that this influence so far has been useful only to Germany, who still makes war on Russia in order to prevent the latter from unifying her enfeebled peoples and re-establishing her position in the world.

A SHAMEFUL CATASTROPHE