Part 7

"Each Belgian workman will liberate a German workman who will add one more soldier to the German army. There, in all its simplicity, is the fact which dominates the situation. The author of the letter himself feels this burning fact, for he writes: 'nor is the measure one which affects the conduct of war _properly speaking_ (_proprement dite_)'. It is, then, connected with the war _improperly speaking_ (_improprement dite_); which can only mean that the Belgian workman, although he does not bear arms, will free the hands of a German workman who will take up the arms. The Belgian workman is forced to co-operate, in an indirect but evident manner, in the war against his country. This is manifestly contrary to the spirit of the Hague Conventions.

"Here is another statement: _unemployment is not caused either by the Belgian workman or by England; it is brought about by the régime of the German Occupation_.

[Sidenote: No disorder is caused by Belgians.]

"The occupying government has seized considerable supplies of raw material intended for our national industry; it has seized and shipped to Germany the machinery, tools, and metals of our factories and our workshops. The possibility of national labor being thus suppressed, there remained one alternative to the workman: to work for the German Empire, either here or in Germany; or to remain idle. Some thousands of workmen, under the pressure of fright or of hunger, accepted, with regret for the most part, work for the enemy; but four hundred thousand workmen and workwomen preferred to resign themselves to unemployment, with its privations, rather than injure the interests of the fatherland; they lived in poverty, with the aid of a meager relief allowed them by the _Comité national de secours et d' alimentation_, under the supervision of the protecting ministers of Spain, America, and Holland. Calm, dignified, they bore without a murmur their painful lot. In no part of the country was there a revolt or even the semblance of one. Employers and employees awaited with patience the end of our long martyrdom. Meanwhile, the communal administrations and private initiative endeavored to alleviate the undoubted inconveniences of unemployment. But the occupying power paralyzed their efforts. The _Comité National_ attempted to organize a professional school for the use of the unemployed. This practical instruction, respectful of the dignity of our workmen, was meant to keep up their skill, increase their capacity for work, and prepare for the restoration of the country. Who opposed this noble movement, the plan of which had been elaborated by our large manufacturers? Who? The occupying government.

[Sidenote: Communes not allowed to furnish work for unemployed.]

"Notwithstanding all this, the communes made every effort to give work to the unemployed upon undertakings of public utility; but the governor general made these enterprises depend upon permission which, as a general rule, he refused. There are numerous cases, I am assured, where the General Government authorized undertakings of this kind upon the express condition that they should not be undertaken by unemployed.

"They were seeking to create unemployment. They were recruiting the army of the unemployed. * * *

"The letter of October 26th says that the first responsibility for the unemployment of our workmen rests upon England, because she has not allowed raw materials to enter Belgium.

[Sidenote: England not to blame.]

"England generously allows foodstuffs to enter Belgium for the revictualling [of the country], under the control of neutral States--Spain, the United States, and Holland. She would allow raw materials necessary for industry to enter the country under the same control if Germany were willing to agree to leave them to us, and not to seize the finished products of our industrial work.

[Sidenote: Germany robs Belgians and inflicts privations.]

"But Germany, by various proceedings, notably by the organization of its _Centrales_, over which neither the Belgians nor our protecting ministers can exercise any efficacious control, absorbs a considerable portion of the products of agriculture and of the industry of our country. The result is a considerable increase in the cost of living, which causes painful privations for those who have no savings. * * *

[Sidenote: Deportation is slavery.]

"Deportation is slavery, and the heaviest penalty of the penal code after that of death. Has Belgium, who never did you any wrong, deserved at your hands this treatment which cries to heaven for vengeance?

"Mr. Governor General, in the beginning of my letter I recalled the noble words of Your Excellency: 'I have come into Belgium with the mission of dressing the wounds of your country.'

"If Your Excellency could penetrate into the homes of workingmen, as we priests do, and hear the lamentations of wives and mothers whom your orders cast into mourning and into dismay, you would realize far better that the wound of the Belgian people is gaping.

[Sidenote: Cold calculation of Germans.]

"Two years ago, we hear people say, it was death, pillage, fires, but it was war! To-day it is no longer war, it is cold calculation, intentional destruction, the victory of force over right, the debasement of human personality, a cry of defiance to humanity.

"It depends upon you, Excellency, to silence these cries of a revolted conscience; may the good God, whom we call upon with all the ardor of our soul for our oppressed people, inspire you with the pity of the good Samaritan!

"Accept, Mr. Governor General, the homage of my highest consideration.

"D.J. CARD. MERCIER, "_Arch. of Malines_."

In less moving phrases, but in deadly corroboration, the continuation of the report of Minister Whitlock says:

REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued).

[Sidenote: Appalling stories of German behavior.]

"_The rage, the terror, and despair excited by this measure all over Belgium were beyond anything we had witnessed since the day the Germans poured into Brussels. The delegates of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, returning to Brussels, told the most distressing stories of the scenes of cruelty and sorrow attending the seizures. And daily, hourly almost, since that time appalling stories have been related by Belgians coming to the Legation. It is impossible for us to verify them, first, because it is necessary for us to exercise all possible tact in dealing with the subject at all, and secondly because there is no means of communication between the Occupations-Gebiet and the Etappen-Gebiet. Transportation everywhere in Belgium is difficult, the vicinal railways scarcely operating any more because of the lack of oil, while all the horses have been taken. The people who are forced to go from one village to another must do so on foot or in vans drawn by the few miserable horses that are left. The wagons of the breweries, the one institution that the Germans have scrupulously respected, are hauled by oxen._

[Sidenote: A foul deed.]

"_The well-known tendency of sensational reports to exaggerate themselves, especially in time of war, and in a situation like that existing here, with no newspapers to serve as a daily clearing house for all the rumours that are as avidly believed as they are eagerly repeated, should of course be considered; but even if a modicum of all that is told is true there still remains enough to stamp this deed as one of the foulest that history records._

"_I am constantly in receipt of reports from all over Belgium that tend to bear out the stories one constantly hears of brutality and cruelty. A number of men sent back to Mons are said to be in a dying condition, many of them tubercular. At Malines and at Antwerp returned men have died, their friends asserting that they have been victims of neglect and cruelty, of cold, of exposure, of hunger._" (Continued on page 74.)

A vivid sketch of the deportations from Mons, drawn by a participant, may well be cited here:

[Sidenote: "The woes of slavery."]

"I will take the 18th of November of last year [1916]. A week or so before that a placard was placed on the walls telling my capital city of Mons that in seven days all the men of that city who were not clergymen, who were not priests, who did not belong to the city council, would be deported.

"At half past five, in the gray of the morning on the 18th of November, they walked out, six thousand two hundred men at Mons, myself and another leading them down the cobblestones of the street and out where the rioting would be less than in the great city, with the soldiers on each side, with bayonets fixed, with the women held back.

"The degradation of it! The degradation of it as they walked into this great market square, where the pens were erected, exactly as if they were cattle--all the great men of that province--the lawyers, the statesmen, the heads of the trades, the men that had made the capital of Hainaut glorious during the last twenty years.

"There they were collected; no question of who they were, whether they were busy or what they were doing, or what their position in life. 'Go to the right! Go to the left! Go to the right!' So they were turned to the one side or the other.

"Trains were standing there ready, steaming, to take them to Germany. You saw on the one side the one brother taken, the other brother left. A hasty embrace and they were separated and gone. You had here a man on his knees before a German officer, pleading and begging to take his old father's place; that was all. The father went and the son stayed. They were packed in those trains that were waiting there.

"You saw the women in hundreds, with bundles in their hands beseeching to be permitted to approach the trains, to give their men the last that they had in life between themselves and starvation--a small bundle of clothing to keep them warm on their way to Germany. You saw women approach with a bundle that had been purchased by the sale of the last of their household effects. Not one was allowed to approach to give her man the warm pair of stockings or the warm jacket, so there might be some chance of his reaching there. Off they went!" John H. Gade, in _The National Geographic Magazine_, May, 1917.

The Belgian women sent a touching appeal to Minister Whitlock:

THE APPEAL OF THE BELGIAN WOMEN.

"BRUSSELS, "_November 18, 1916, 46 Rue de la Madeleine_.

"His Excellency Mr. BRAND WHITLOCK, "_Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America_.

"MR. MINISTER:

"From the depths of our well of misery our supplication rises to you.

"In addressing ourselves to you, we denounce to your Government, as well as to our sisters, the women of the nation which you represent in our midst, the criminal abuse of force of which our unhappy and defenseless people is a victim.

"Since the beginning of this atrocious war we have looked on impotently and with our hearts torn with every sorrow at terrible events which put our civilization back into the ages of the barbarian hordes.

[Sidenote: No shadow of excuse for deportations.]

"Mr. Minister, the crime which is now being committed under your eyes, namely, the deportation of thousands of men compelled to work on enemy soil against the interests of their country, can not find any shadow of excuse on the ground of military necessity, for it constitutes a violation by force of a sacred right of human conscience.

"Whatever may be the motive it can not be admitted that citizens may be compelled to work directly or indirectly _for_ the enemy _against_ their brothers who are fighting.

"The Convention of The Hague has consecrated this principle.

"Nevertheless, the occupying power is forcing thousands of men to this monstrous extremity, which is contrary to morals and international law, both these men who have already been taken to Germany and those who to-morrow will undergo the same fate, if from the outside, from neutral Europe and the United States, no help is offered.

[Sidenote: The women of Belgium have kept back their tears.]

"Oh! The Belgian women have also known how to carry out their duty in the hour of danger; they have not weakened the courage of the soldiers of honor by their tears.

"They have bravely given to their country those whom they loved. * * * The blood of mothers is flowing on the battle-fields.

"Those who are taken away to-day do not go to perform a glorious duty. They are slaves in chains who, in a dark exile, threatened by hunger, prison, death, will be called upon to perform the most odious work--service to the enemy against the fatherland.

"The mothers can not stand by while such an abomination is taking place without making their voices heard in protest.

"They are not thinking of their own sufferings, their own moral torture, the abandonment and the misery in which they are to be placed with their children.

[Sidenote: The rights of honor and conscience.]

"They address you in the name of the inalterable rights of honor and conscience.

"It has been said that women are 'all powerful suppliants.'

"We have felt authorized by this saying, Mr. Minister, to extend our hands to you and to address to your country a last appeal.

"We trust that in reading these lines you will feel at each word the unhappy heartbeats of the Belgian women and will find in your broad and humane sympathy imperative reasons for intervention.

"Only the united will of the neutral peoples energetically expressed can counterbalance that of the German authorities.

"This assistance which the neutral nations can and, therefore, ought to lend us, will it be refused to the oppressed Belgians?

"Be good enough to accept, Mr. Minister, the homage of our most distinguished consideration."

(Signed by a number of Belgian women and 24 societies.)

The United States Government did not fail to respond to this touching appeal and to others of a similar nature. The American Embassy at Berlin promptly took up the burning question of the deportations with the Chancellor and other representatives of the German Government. In an interview with the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Grew was handed an official statement of the German plans, which is, in translation, as follows:

THE GERMAN MEMORANDUM ON BELGIAN "UNEMPLOYMENT."

[Sidenote: More German camouflage.]

"Against the unemployed in Belgium, who are a burden to public charity, in order to avoid friction arising therefrom, compulsory measures are to be adopted to make them work so far as they are not voluntarily inclined to work, in accordance with the regulation issued May 15, 1916, by the Governor General. In order to ascertain such persons the assistance of the municipal authorities is required for the district of the Governor General in Brussels, while in the districts outside of the General Government, i.e., in the provinces of Flanders, lists were demanded from the presidents of the local relief committees containing the names of persons receiving relief. For the sake of establishing uniform procedure the competent authorities have, in the meantime, been instructed to make the necessary investigations regarding such persons also in Flanders through the municipal authorities; furthermore, presidents of local relief committees who may be detained for having refused to furnish such lists will be released."

Mr. Grew pointed out that the deportations were a breach of faith and would injure the German cause abroad. In his official summary of the negotiations which he carried on he says:

[Sidenote: Mr. Grew points out that Germany excites public opinion against her.]

"I then discussed in detail with the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the unfortunate impression which this decision would make abroad, reminding him that the measures were in principle contrary to the assurances given to the Ambassador by the Chancellor at General Headquarters last spring and dwelling on the effect which the policy might have on England's attitude towards relief work in Belgium. I said I understood that the measures had been promulgated solely by the military government in Belgium and that I thought the matter ought at least to be brought to the Chancellor's personal attention in the light of the consequences which the new policy would entail. Herr Zimmermann intimated in reply that the Foreign Office had very little influence with the military authorities and that it was unlikely that the new policy in Belgium could be revoked. He stated, however, in answer to my inquiry, that he would not disapprove of my seeing the Chancellor about the matter."

[Sidenote: Mr. Grew appeals to the Chancellor]

Mr. Grew accordingly took up the whole question with the Chancellor, and among other arguments urged the promises which the German Government had solemnly made to the Belgian civilians through Baron von Huene and Baron von der Goltz. [These pledges are set forth in detail in Cardinal Mercier's letter of October 19th, 1916, quoted in full on preceding pages.] Mr. Grew found it impossible to persuade the Chancellor to secure the abandonment of the policy of deportations, and thereupon urged that the policy should be modified. His formal statement of this phase of the negotiations is as follows:

"The points of amelioration which I then suggested as a concession to Belgian national feeling and foreign opinion were as follows:

"1. Only actual unemployed to be taken, involving a more deliberate and careful selection.

"2. Married men or heads of families not to be taken.

"3. Employees of the Comité National not to be taken.

[Sidenote: and asks certain concessions]

"4. The lists of the unemployed not to be required of the Belgian authorities, but to be determined by the German authorities themselves, as a concession to Belgian national feeling, and the Belgians, who had already been imprisoned for refusing to supply these lists, released.

"5. Deported persons to be permitted to correspond with their families in Belgium.

"6. Places of work or concentration camps of deported persons to be voluntarily opened by the German Government to inspection by neutral representatives.

* * * * *

"A few days later Count Zech, the Chancellor's adjutant, called on me and communicated to me informally and orally the following replies to the various suggestions which I had made for concessions and points of amelioration:

[Sidenote: but with slight success.]

"1. Only actual unemployed were to be taken. The selections would be made in a careful and deliberate manner.

"2. Married men or heads of families could not in principle be exempted, but each case would be considered carefully on its merits.

"3. Employees of the _Comité National_ are regarded as actually employed and therefore exempt.

"4. It was essential that the Belgian authorities should co-operate with the German authorities in furnishing lists of unemployed, in order to avoid mistakes. Only one Belgian had been imprisoned for refusing to give such lists, and orders had now been given for his release.

"5. Deported persons would be permitted to correspond with their families in Belgium.

"6. Places of work and concentration camps would in principle be open to inspection by Spanish diplomatic representatives.

"American inspection might also be informally arranged if desired.

* * * * *

"On December 2nd, the Minister at Brussels communicated to me the text of a telegram which he had sent to the Department on November 28th, stating that he had been encouraged by the report of the results of my interview with the Chancellor." * * *

The telegram to which Mr. Grew refers was the following:

MINISTER WHITLOCK'S TELEGRAM OF NOVEMBER 28, 1916.

"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._