We see, then, that in despite of Articles 43 and 48 of the Hague Convention and Article 67 of their ownUsages of Warthe Germans have shown no respect whatever for the legislation in force. We cite here only the most flagrant of these illegalities, those which any person of common sense can understand and judge.
Article 44.A belligerent is forbidden to compel the inhabitants of territory occupied by it to furnish information about the army of the other belligerent, or about its means of defence.
Article 44.
A belligerent is forbidden to compel the inhabitants of territory occupied by it to furnish information about the army of the other belligerent, or about its means of defence.
This article was not accepted by Germany; she remains faithful to herUsages of War: Article 53, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th paragraphs, and applies their principles with extreme severity.
Nothing better illustrates the severity with which the Germans act than the little manual of conversation which terminates theTornisterwörterbuch, published by the Mentor publishing house in Schöneberg, Berlin. It is a small dictionary, costing 60 pfennigs, and intended, as the title indicates, to be carried in the soldier's knapsack. The French dictionary and the English are conceived according to the same method; after information concerning the country in question they give a summary of the rules of grammar; then comes the dictionary properlyso-called, with phonetic pronunciation; finally, a few common phrases, which to us are the most interesting part of the book, since their choice naturally reflects the requirements of those expected to employ them. Here are a few passages from paragraph 4:Service of Outposts and Patrols. In each passage we copy all the phrases without exception, so as to avoid misrepresenting the spirit of the work; and this spirit, as will be seen, is ferocious. The volume is not dated; but the 42nd edition, from which we quote, describes (p. 44) the French campaigning uniform of 1912. These phrases were therefore printed at least five years after the second Hague Conference (18th October, 1907). They show clearly that the acts of cruelty committed by the patrols against those who refused to betray their country were not improvised by the cavalry taking part in these reconnaissances, but were systematically premeditated.
P. 175—
Silence! Speak only when I question you!You seem to me a suspicious person.Where is your pocket-book?I must search it.Remain here for the moment.At the first attempt at flight you will be shot.Sir, where does this road lead?
P. 176—
Is this village occupied by the French?When did the troops arrive there?What is roughly their composition?Roughly? Two or three companies?How many officers, roughly speaking?Have they any artillery?How many guns?Have you seen cavalry too?Tell us the truth. The least lie might cost you your life!
P. 177—
Has the village been placed in a state of defence?Are there no cross-roads leading to the windmill?Remain by my horse.On the first attempt at flight, or if you try to mislead me, I shall send a bullet after you.Stop here! I will call the miller myself.Hey! Miller!Have any French troops passed this way?You lie! Here are visible traces, and quite fresh ones.
A little manual of conversation costing 20 pfennigs—Deutsch-Französischer-Soldaten-Sprachführer, by Captain S. Th. Hoasmann, is conceived on the same lines. Here are a few examples. The soldier, making a reconnaissance, declares: "Speak the truth or you will be killed!" In the chapter on "Posts and Telegraphs" we find the phrase: "It is forbidden (on pain of death) to send telegrams." And the sentinel should be able to say: "If you lie you will be shot," etc.
Article 50.No collective penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible.
Article 50.
No collective penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible.
This article proclaims the principle that in no case must the innocent suffer with the guilty, nor in their place. We have already seen that our enemies oppose this idea; they maintain that the innocent should suffer with the guilty, and even that if one cannot lay hands on the guilty one may punish the innocent in their place (p.84). It was by the application of this German principle of collective punishment that Louvain, Dinant, Termonde, and other towns were burned.
The placard of 1st October, 1914, clearly displaysthe German mentality; it states that villages will be punished without mercy, whether guilty or not.
Notice.On the evening of the 25th September the railway and telegraph lines were destroyed between Lovenjoul and Vestryck. In consequence of which the two localities mentioned were, on the morning of the 30th September, called to account and forced to supply hostages.In future the localities nearest the spot at which such acts have been committed—no matter whether they are guilty of complicity or not—will be punished without pity. To this end hostages have been taken from all localities adjacent to railway lines threatened by such attacks, and at the first attempt to destroy the railway lines, or telegraph or telephone wires, they will immediately be shot.Moreover, all troops charged with the protection of railways have received orders to shoot any person approaching railway lines or telephone or telegraph wires in a suspicious manner.The Governor-General in Belgium,Baron von der Goltz,General Field-Marshal.Brussels,1st October, 1914.
Notice.
On the evening of the 25th September the railway and telegraph lines were destroyed between Lovenjoul and Vestryck. In consequence of which the two localities mentioned were, on the morning of the 30th September, called to account and forced to supply hostages.
In future the localities nearest the spot at which such acts have been committed—no matter whether they are guilty of complicity or not—will be punished without pity. To this end hostages have been taken from all localities adjacent to railway lines threatened by such attacks, and at the first attempt to destroy the railway lines, or telegraph or telephone wires, they will immediately be shot.
Moreover, all troops charged with the protection of railways have received orders to shoot any person approaching railway lines or telephone or telegraph wires in a suspicious manner.
The Governor-General in Belgium,Baron von der Goltz,General Field-Marshal.
Brussels,1st October, 1914.
Fully to appreciate the horrible nature of this placard we must recall the fact that during the siege of Antwerp (which terminated only on the 9th) Belgium patrols were penetrating into the midst of the German troops, venturing thirty-five miles and more from Antwerp, their mission being to harass the enemy's communications and to destroy the railways and the telegraph and telephone line. It was one of these bodies of Belgian cyclists which cut the railway and telegraph line between Louvain and Tirlemont on 25th September, 1914. Von der Goltz was evidently aware that this destruction was a perfectly legitimate military operation, so that his placard was intended simply to embarrass our military authorities by showing them that in defiance of all justice Germany intended to hold the Belgian civiliansresponsible for the activity of our army. In short, instead of saying "no matter whether these localities are guilty of complicity or not," von der Goltz would have given a greater proof of sincerity had he said, "although I know that these localities are in no way guilty of complicity."
Here are two other placards, printed in Germany, which show plainly that it is according to a system that our oppressors hold the entire community responsible for the act committed by a single person; or rather, as we shall see, for the acts of the Belgian army.
Placard printed in German, French, Russian, and Polish, surrounded by a border of the German Colours.Notice.Any person who shall have damaged a military telephone or telegraph will be shot.Any person removing this notice will also receive the severest punishment. If the guilty person is not found, the severest measures will be taken against the commune in which the damage has been caused or the present notice removed.The General Commanding the Army Corps.(Posted at Bieghem, copy made 22nd October, 1914.)Notice.All damage done to the Telegraph, Telephone, or Railway lines will be punished by the Military Court. According to the circumstances, the guilty person will be condemned to death.If the guilty person is not seized the severest measures will be taken against the commune in which the damage has been done,The General Government.Printed by H. A. Heymann, Berlin, S.W.(Posted at Tervueren, copy made 15th April, 1915.)
Placard printed in German, French, Russian, and Polish, surrounded by a border of the German Colours.
Notice.
Any person who shall have damaged a military telephone or telegraph will be shot.
Any person removing this notice will also receive the severest punishment. If the guilty person is not found, the severest measures will be taken against the commune in which the damage has been caused or the present notice removed.
The General Commanding the Army Corps.
(Posted at Bieghem, copy made 22nd October, 1914.)
Notice.
All damage done to the Telegraph, Telephone, or Railway lines will be punished by the Military Court. According to the circumstances, the guilty person will be condemned to death.
If the guilty person is not seized the severest measures will be taken against the commune in which the damage has been done,
The General Government.
Printed by H. A. Heymann, Berlin, S.W.
(Posted at Tervueren, copy made 15th April, 1915.)
Very frequently the penalties with which the community is threatened are not specified in these placards. One may suppose that it would consist of a fine; this is indeed the punishment most frequentlyapplied, doubtless because it is the most productive. Here are some examples, for cutting the telegraph wires, various localities in Flanders were forced to pay fines in December 1914.
The military chest does not lack for money; for in a garrison command a fine may be inflicted more readily than elsewhere. Here is an example. An officer was choosing some music in a shop; and found, amidst a heap of pieces of music, a copy of theMarseillaise. Now it has never been stated that one must not possess theMarseillaise. Result: the shopkeeper was condemned to pay a fine of 500 marks or to twenty days' imprisonment. "I prefer the imprisonment," said the unfortunate man. "But, my good fellow, you can avoid going to prison! Pay the fine!" "I know, but I have not got 500 marks. I could only scrape together 150 frs. at most." "All right, give them to me!"
Fines for Telegraphic Interruptions.
The military chest is also replenished by the fines paid because the telegraph and telephone do not work properly. Now it has often happened during the last six weeks that communication has been obstructed in Flanders. The smallest communes have been forced to pay fines.
Here is a brief list of such fines:
Gand100,000marksLedebourg5,000"Destelbergen30,000"Schellebelle50,000"Sweveghem4,900"Winckel Sainte-Croix3,000"Wachtebeke3,000"(N.R.C., 30th January, 1915, evening edition.)
Fines for "Attacks byFrancs-tireurs."
We may observe, in passing, that in September 1914 the accusation—the accusation, we say, not the offence—of having allowed a telegraph wire to deteriorate was punished, in Brussels, by a stoppage of the telephone service; but in December the Germans preferred to fill their treasury. The same observation is true of Mons and Bilsen; the accusation of "francs-tireurs," which in September 1914 would have ended in a massacre of the inhabitants and the burning of the town, was in October the motive for a tax of 100,000 frs. At that time it no longer seemed essential to terrorize; the Germans no longer required blood, but money.
On behalf of the German Military Authorities.Warning.The City of Mons has been forced to pay a tax of 100,000 frs. because a private person fired upon a German soldier.(Posted at Louvain.)
On behalf of the German Military Authorities.
Warning.
The City of Mons has been forced to pay a tax of 100,000 frs. because a private person fired upon a German soldier.
(Posted at Louvain.)
And indeed it is money that is demanded everywhere—5,000 frs. from the commune of Grenbergen, near Termonde, because an inhabitant allowed his pigeons to fly. 5,000,000 frs. was required of Brussels because a police agent maltreated a German spy (p.157). It was with a money fine that Mons was threatened should an Englishman be discovered on its soil (placard posted at Mons, 6th November, 1914), and the city of Mons and the province of Hainaut if any inhabitant retained for his own use any benzine or a motor-bicycle (placard posted at Mons, 6th October, 1914). At Seraing, in February 1915, it was again money that was demanded, because a bomb had burst within thelimits of the commune. The more surely to obtain the sum, a few hostages were imprisoned, with the promise that they would be sent to a fortress in Germany if the communal treasury did not pay their ransom; but the hostages themselves advised the commune to refuse. The Germans, fearing to be left in the lurch, reduced their demands by half; finally, having obtained nothing, they released the hostages. Singular justice, to regulate its penalties not by the gravity of the offence, but according to the temper of the victims! We are waiting for the German newspapers to publish a schedule of penalties as affected by the docility of the victims and the season.
Here is an amusing instance of a penalty which was inflicted upon Antwerp. When the Germans posted up a statement that they had captured 52,000 Russians and 400 guns in Eastern Prussia, a playful citizen replaced the first letter ofRussiansin the Flemish text by an M and concealed the two first letters ofcanonen. The new version announced that the Germans had captured 52,000 sparrows and 400 nuns. The Germans were annoyed and imposed a fine of 25,000 frs. on the city. At Tirlemont, where the same pleasantry was perpetrated, the Germans contented themselves with making vague threats.
The adventure of Eppeghem also deserves to be told in a few words.
In November 1914 a German soldier walking in the country fired at a hare or a pigeon. An officer turned up and questioned the soldier. As all sport is reserved for officers, the soldier, to avoid punishment, threw the blame on to the peasants. The matter was referred to Brussels, and on the followingday officers arrived with forty Uhlans. A fine of 10,000 frs. was inflicted on the commune.
Some women living in a house which had by chance remained standing, near the field in which the soldier had fired, asserted that no inhabitant had fired a shot, but that they had seen the soldier fire. No one listened to them. "We must have 10,000 frs., and at once." But in this village, ruined from end to end, where scarcely a house was habitable, from which all the men had been deported into Germany, there was no means of collecting such a sum of money. "Since that is so, hostages will be taken," said the officers. The Uhlans organized a hunt, and seized the curé and three laymen, the only ones they could find; and even of these one was an inhabitant of Vilverde, who had obligingly been acting as a citizen policeman at Eppeghem. They were taken to Brussels, but on passing through Vilverde the inhabitant of that place was released, owing to the protests of his fellow-citizens. After ten days' imprisonment Baron von der Goltz, finding that there was nothing to be extracted from the communal treasury of Eppeghem, and that the curé and his two parishioners were being kept and fed at a loss, set them at liberty.
Hostages
The taking of hostages is also in flagrant opposition to the provisions of Article 50, but in conformity with the GermanUsages of War. The hostage guarantees with his own life that his fellow-citizens, with whom he has no influence, shall faithfully execute the orders of the German authorities.
The first care of enemy troops arriving in any locality is always to demand the provision ofhostages; these are usually the curé, the burgomaster, the notary, the schoolmaster, and a few other notables. We may recall Liége, where the bishop, Mgr. Rutten, was taken hostage; Spa, Louvain, Charleroi, Gand, and Mons. In Brussels they demanded the delivery of 100 hostages, but afterwards withdrew the demand.
As to the fate which awaits the hostages if the German army is attacked, it is plainly stipulated in the proclamations: they will be shot, "without previous judicial formalities." Thus, it would have been enough for a Belgian patrol to renew its usual activities near Forest, and two hostages would have immediately been shot "without previous judicial formalities."
General Government in Belgium.To the People of Forest.Despite my repeated warnings attacks have again been made during the last few days by the civil population of the neighbourhood against German troops, and also upon the railway between Brussels and Mons.By the order of the Military Governor-General of Brussels each locality must consequently provide hostages.Thus at Forest the following are arrested:(1) M. Vanderkindere, Communal Councillor.(2) M. le curé François.I proclaim that these hostages will immediately be shot without previous judicial formalities if any attack occurs on the part of the population upon our troops or the railway lines occupied by us, and that moreover the most severe reprisals will be carried out against the commune of Forest.I request the population to keep calm and to refrain from all violence; in this case it will not suffer the slightest harm.The Commandant of the Landsturm,Halberstadt Battalion,von Lessel.Forest,26th September, 1914.
General Government in Belgium.
To the People of Forest.
Despite my repeated warnings attacks have again been made during the last few days by the civil population of the neighbourhood against German troops, and also upon the railway between Brussels and Mons.
By the order of the Military Governor-General of Brussels each locality must consequently provide hostages.
Thus at Forest the following are arrested:
(1) M. Vanderkindere, Communal Councillor.(2) M. le curé François.
I proclaim that these hostages will immediately be shot without previous judicial formalities if any attack occurs on the part of the population upon our troops or the railway lines occupied by us, and that moreover the most severe reprisals will be carried out against the commune of Forest.
I request the population to keep calm and to refrain from all violence; in this case it will not suffer the slightest harm.
The Commandant of the Landsturm,Halberstadt Battalion,von Lessel.
Forest,26th September, 1914.
If hostages try to escape they will be hanged and their village burned.
Warning.As fresh attempts at assassination have been made upon persons forming part of the German army I have had persons from many localities arrested as hostages. These will guarantee with their lives that no inhabitant will again dare to commit a malevolent action against German soldiers or attempt to damage the railway, telegraph or telephone line, or other objects useful to the operations of our army.Persons not belonging to the army surprised in committing such actions will be shot or hanged. The hostages of the surrounding localities will suffer the same fate. I shall then have the neighbourhood burned to the last house, even if important towns are in question. If the hostages attempt to escape the locality to which they belong will be burned, and if captured the hostages will be hanged.All inhabitants who give proof of their goodwill toward our troops are assured of the safety of their lives and property.The Commandant entrusted with theProtection of the Railways,Freiherr von Malzahn.(Posted at Spa, Aywaille, Châtelineau.... 17th August, 1914.)
Warning.
As fresh attempts at assassination have been made upon persons forming part of the German army I have had persons from many localities arrested as hostages. These will guarantee with their lives that no inhabitant will again dare to commit a malevolent action against German soldiers or attempt to damage the railway, telegraph or telephone line, or other objects useful to the operations of our army.
Persons not belonging to the army surprised in committing such actions will be shot or hanged. The hostages of the surrounding localities will suffer the same fate. I shall then have the neighbourhood burned to the last house, even if important towns are in question. If the hostages attempt to escape the locality to which they belong will be burned, and if captured the hostages will be hanged.
All inhabitants who give proof of their goodwill toward our troops are assured of the safety of their lives and property.
The Commandant entrusted with theProtection of the Railways,Freiherr von Malzahn.
(Posted at Spa, Aywaille, Châtelineau.... 17th August, 1914.)
We do not know if hostages were shot or hanged in Belgium. But in the north of France, according to a military correspondent of theK.Z., at least one hostage was killed; this assassination was the more criminal in that it punished not a hostile act of the inhabitants, but a perfectly normal and regular operation of war: a bombardment.
A War Picture.... A château stands beside the highway, at the back of a courtyard protected by a French spear-headed railing. It is intact, and shelters the staff of an infantry regiment. Facing it is the ruined façade of an incredibly pretentious building on whose pediment sprawls in letters of gold the one word, "Bank." Beside it is a wholesale corn-chandler's and a wholesale wine-merchant's. All this belonged to a single man. It was necessaryto shoot him as hostage, because the French were persisting, despite all warnings, in throwing shells into the neighbourhood. In the wine-cellars stores of unexpected importance were found; according to the estimates there are more than half a million litres of red and white wine of very good quality. A great part of the wine was pumped out of the tanks and received, like an old acquaintance, by the comrades far and near.The rich man of this quarter of the town had a companion who was more lucky, who in due time sought safety in flight.(K.Z., 21st February, 1915.)
A War Picture.
... A château stands beside the highway, at the back of a courtyard protected by a French spear-headed railing. It is intact, and shelters the staff of an infantry regiment. Facing it is the ruined façade of an incredibly pretentious building on whose pediment sprawls in letters of gold the one word, "Bank." Beside it is a wholesale corn-chandler's and a wholesale wine-merchant's. All this belonged to a single man. It was necessaryto shoot him as hostage, because the French were persisting, despite all warnings, in throwing shells into the neighbourhood. In the wine-cellars stores of unexpected importance were found; according to the estimates there are more than half a million litres of red and white wine of very good quality. A great part of the wine was pumped out of the tanks and received, like an old acquaintance, by the comrades far and near.
The rich man of this quarter of the town had a companion who was more lucky, who in due time sought safety in flight.
(K.Z., 21st February, 1915.)
A very curious case of the punishment of innocent people in the case of "guilty" ones is the following: On the 7th October, 1914, the Germans posted statements that the militia-men of the occupied regions could not rejoin the Belgian army, and that in case of disobedience the young men would expose themselves to the risk of being sent into Germany as prisoners of war. So far, nothing illegal. But the placard then declared that in case of the departure of any militia-man his family would be held responsible. Now, how are the parents guilty, if their son intends at all costs to fulfil his obligations to his native country? On the 30th December, 1914, there was an aggravation of this measure: the burgomasters also were to be punished. On the 28th January, 1915, a new notice appeared: all Belgians between the ages of sixteen and forty years were to be regarded as capable of military service. So when a man of forty goes to join the Belgian army the members of his family will be punished! Truly the notice might have stated whether children would be punished for not preventing their father's departure!
Have there been cases of repression? TheN.R.C.states that at Hasselt the Germans actually arrested the fathers and mothers of the young men who escaped.
TheTijdlearns from Ruremonde:
At Hasselt and in the neighbourhood the Germans have hunted down the fathers of those young men who, liable to be called to the colours, have been able, in spite of strict prohibition and active supervision, to enter Holland, there to pass through England and France with the intention of eventually joining the army.But as soon as they heard that the fathers were being arrested, these latter also crossed the frontier, and the Germans found that a great many birds had flown.They did not stop then: the mothers were arrested in their place.At the same time the Germans made it known that all these people would be transferred to the well-known camp at Münster, and warned the women to provide themselves with as much body-linen as possible. The whole of the little town was in consternation. Later arrived a telegram from General von Bissing, announcing that the departure for Münster was postponed for a week, and the prisoners were taken to Tongres.(N.R.C., 3rd February, 1915.)
At Hasselt and in the neighbourhood the Germans have hunted down the fathers of those young men who, liable to be called to the colours, have been able, in spite of strict prohibition and active supervision, to enter Holland, there to pass through England and France with the intention of eventually joining the army.
But as soon as they heard that the fathers were being arrested, these latter also crossed the frontier, and the Germans found that a great many birds had flown.
They did not stop then: the mothers were arrested in their place.
At the same time the Germans made it known that all these people would be transferred to the well-known camp at Münster, and warned the women to provide themselves with as much body-linen as possible. The whole of the little town was in consternation. Later arrived a telegram from General von Bissing, announcing that the departure for Münster was postponed for a week, and the prisoners were taken to Tongres.
(N.R.C., 3rd February, 1915.)
A last example of punishment inflicted upon the innocent, when the "guilty" person had already suffered punishment. A Belgian, having made signals to the enemy (that is, to the Belgian army), was killed while being arrested. Immediately the curé and the vicar were sent to Germany as being responsible for the members of their parish.
Important Notice.Alidor Vandamme, inhabitant of Cortemarck, committed espionage by making signals to the enemy. Resisting arrest, he was killed by a rifle-bullet.The German authority has taken the following measures of coercion in consequence of the crime committed by Vandamme:1. The curé Blancke and the vicar Barra, responsible for the members of their parish, will be deported as prisoners of war to Germany.2. The commune of Cortemarck must pay a fine of five thousand marks (5,000 M.).(Posted at Thielt,Termonde,etc.)
Important Notice.
Alidor Vandamme, inhabitant of Cortemarck, committed espionage by making signals to the enemy. Resisting arrest, he was killed by a rifle-bullet.
The German authority has taken the following measures of coercion in consequence of the crime committed by Vandamme:
1. The curé Blancke and the vicar Barra, responsible for the members of their parish, will be deported as prisoners of war to Germany.
2. The commune of Cortemarck must pay a fine of five thousand marks (5,000 M.).
(Posted at Thielt,Termonde,etc.)
This iniquity was not enough for the German authorities: they advertised it all through Flanders (we copied it at Thielt and Termonde), and forcedLe Bien Publicto give it publicity. Through lack of conscience or insolence?
Contributions and Requisitions.
Article 51.No contribution shall be collected except under a written order, and on the responsibility of a General in command.The collection of the said contribution shall only be effected in accordance, as far as is possible, with the legal basis and assessment of taxes in force at the time.For every contribution a receipt shall be given to the contributories.Article 52.Requisitions in kind and services shall not be demanded from local authorities or inhabitants except for the needs of the army of occupation. They shall be in proportion to the resources of the country, and of such a nature as not to involve the inhabitants in the obligation of taking part in military operations against their own country. Such requisitions and services shall only be demanded on the authority of the commander in the locality occupied.Contributions in kind shall as far as possible be paid for in ready money: if not, a receipt shall be given and the payment of the amount due shall be made as soon as possible.
Article 51.
No contribution shall be collected except under a written order, and on the responsibility of a General in command.
The collection of the said contribution shall only be effected in accordance, as far as is possible, with the legal basis and assessment of taxes in force at the time.
For every contribution a receipt shall be given to the contributories.
Article 52.
Requisitions in kind and services shall not be demanded from local authorities or inhabitants except for the needs of the army of occupation. They shall be in proportion to the resources of the country, and of such a nature as not to involve the inhabitants in the obligation of taking part in military operations against their own country. Such requisitions and services shall only be demanded on the authority of the commander in the locality occupied.
Contributions in kind shall as far as possible be paid for in ready money: if not, a receipt shall be given and the payment of the amount due shall be made as soon as possible.
The last paragraph of Article 23, already cited, in reality presupposes that passage in Article 52 which forbids the occupant to force the inhabitants to do work which would assist operations directed against their country (p.112).
Among the forms of contribution included in Article 49 we must give first place to that whichfixes the value of the mark. TheDüsseldorfer Zeitungof the 4th September announces that the military commander of the occupied portion of Belgium and France fixed the value of 100 marks at 130 frs. And indeed placards posted at Charleroi, Saint-Trond, Namur, and Liége required the Belgians to accept German marks at this exaggerated tariff, which has caused certain of our merchants to lose considerable sums.
Proclamation.The circulation of German money having given rise to perplexities,the value of the German mark has been fixed at 130 centimes.The attention of the public is called to the fact that all German paper money must be accepted in financial transactions at the same rate as German coin.The Governor.The 25th August, 1914.(Posted at Liége.)
Proclamation.
The circulation of German money having given rise to perplexities,the value of the German mark has been fixed at 130 centimes.
The attention of the public is called to the fact that all German paper money must be accepted in financial transactions at the same rate as German coin.
The Governor.The 25th August, 1914.
(Posted at Liége.)
The fraudulent intention in this measure was only too evident. A month later Baron von der Goltz made it known that until further notice the mark was to be valued at the lowest at 1 fr. 25 (placard of the 3rd October, 1914). In reality the mark was worth only 1 fr. 08 to 1 fr. 15, so that the Belgians naturally endeavoured to refuse German notes; whereupon fresh placards were exhibited, compelling their acceptance (placards of the 4th and 15th November, 1914). We must mention an unhappy phrase in a placard posted at Mons; it states that the mark must be acceptedat the actual value of the coin, and further on fixes this value at 1 fr. 25, which is obviously incorrect.
Contributions demanded from the Cities.
Let us now consider the pecuniary contributions demanded from the cities. The most important were: Liége, 20 million frs.; Namur, 32 millions; Antwerp, 40 millions; Brussels, 45 millions. The discussions excited by this last contribution are extremely instructive; they have been reported by theN.R.C.We learn how the Germans violated, successively, all the different agreements which they concluded with the city; finally they imposed a fine of 5 millions, which enabled them, in spite of everything, to complete the sum of 50 millions which they had promised themselves they would extort from the capital.
Contribution imposed upon Brussels.From one of our War Correspondents... In the course of this journey I once more heard people speaking of the reasons which resulted in the city of Brussels being fined the sum of fifty millions of francs, as every one knows. What I relate here I had from one of the most eminent members of the magistracy:—At the time of their entry here, the Germans demanded fifty millions from the city, and—don't cry out at this—450 millions from the province of Brabant. The communal council of Brussels tried to demonstrate that the city could not pay this tax, and that the tax imposed on the province was utterly exorbitant, seeing that Brabant, which draws on the budget for an annual sum of five to six millions, employed this money before it was paid, and could not, therefore, pay a fine, since the province had first to provide for its expenditure.... Having discussed the matter at great length, the Germans finally released Brabant from this war-tax, and at the same time gave the communal council a week to find the fifty millions, during which period they would suspend all other requisitions.Burgomaster Max then had posted the well-known placard announcing that for the coming week no requisitions whatever would be made by the German authorities.But on the following day the burgomaster was called upon to justify his action, and although he produced the written convention before the new Governor of the city, the latter gave him to understand that his predecessor might possibly have granted such a delay, but that he, being of superior rank, did not recognize the clause at issue. Fresh negotiations were commenced, and it was at last arranged that twenty millions should be paid in five instalments of four millions each. Four of these instalments were punctually paid, and the fifth was about to be paid, when Max was summoned by the Governor, who asked him what his arrangements were concerning the remaining thirty millions.Max did not conceal his extreme surprise, stating that he fully understood that the remainder of the tax had been remitted, and that the twenty millions constituted the whole amount.The German Governor was by no means of this opinion, and demanded the remaining thirty millions. Thereupon Max immediately sent an order to the bank to suspend payment of the last four millions, which were ready for payment, until he was certain that the Germans would accept them as the final instalment. There was then on either side an equal degree of obstinacy. The Governor maintained that Max was breaking his engagements; Max, on the other hand, maintained that the Germans had failed to keep their word. The result was that the burgomaster was arrested, and he is at the present moment imprisoned in a fortress at Glatz in Silesia.The communal council was then warned that it would be deprived of its functions, and that the Germans would take over the administration of the city if the war-tax was not paid.There were again interminable negotiations, and it was arranged that in all forty-five millions should be paid.The sum was paid. Still the Germans wanted to get hold of the five remaining millions, so a police agent who had shown lack of respect for an officer was condemned to five years' imprisonment, while Brussels was fined five million francs.One might ask whether, if the Germans continue to act in this fashion, the city of Brussels will be forced to pay a fine each time one of its functionaries is guilty of offence: for it is impossible that the city can control all its employés.In this case the German officer who was insulted was in civilian clothes. Now to a complaint of the communal council the Governor had replied, some time previously, that there were no secret agents at work in civilian clothing; so that the police agent could not have known that he was dealing with an officer, since the latter was not in uniform.It may be imagined that lively protests were made, but once more the Germans threatened to assume the direction of the commune if the sum was not paid by the 10th November at latest; so, although the council presented a memorandum on the affair, it was nevertheless forced to pay in order to pursue its mission in peace.(N.R.C., 9th November, 1914.)
Contribution imposed upon Brussels.From one of our War Correspondents
... In the course of this journey I once more heard people speaking of the reasons which resulted in the city of Brussels being fined the sum of fifty millions of francs, as every one knows. What I relate here I had from one of the most eminent members of the magistracy:—
At the time of their entry here, the Germans demanded fifty millions from the city, and—don't cry out at this—450 millions from the province of Brabant. The communal council of Brussels tried to demonstrate that the city could not pay this tax, and that the tax imposed on the province was utterly exorbitant, seeing that Brabant, which draws on the budget for an annual sum of five to six millions, employed this money before it was paid, and could not, therefore, pay a fine, since the province had first to provide for its expenditure.... Having discussed the matter at great length, the Germans finally released Brabant from this war-tax, and at the same time gave the communal council a week to find the fifty millions, during which period they would suspend all other requisitions.
Burgomaster Max then had posted the well-known placard announcing that for the coming week no requisitions whatever would be made by the German authorities.
But on the following day the burgomaster was called upon to justify his action, and although he produced the written convention before the new Governor of the city, the latter gave him to understand that his predecessor might possibly have granted such a delay, but that he, being of superior rank, did not recognize the clause at issue. Fresh negotiations were commenced, and it was at last arranged that twenty millions should be paid in five instalments of four millions each. Four of these instalments were punctually paid, and the fifth was about to be paid, when Max was summoned by the Governor, who asked him what his arrangements were concerning the remaining thirty millions.
Max did not conceal his extreme surprise, stating that he fully understood that the remainder of the tax had been remitted, and that the twenty millions constituted the whole amount.
The German Governor was by no means of this opinion, and demanded the remaining thirty millions. Thereupon Max immediately sent an order to the bank to suspend payment of the last four millions, which were ready for payment, until he was certain that the Germans would accept them as the final instalment. There was then on either side an equal degree of obstinacy. The Governor maintained that Max was breaking his engagements; Max, on the other hand, maintained that the Germans had failed to keep their word. The result was that the burgomaster was arrested, and he is at the present moment imprisoned in a fortress at Glatz in Silesia.
The communal council was then warned that it would be deprived of its functions, and that the Germans would take over the administration of the city if the war-tax was not paid.
There were again interminable negotiations, and it was arranged that in all forty-five millions should be paid.
The sum was paid. Still the Germans wanted to get hold of the five remaining millions, so a police agent who had shown lack of respect for an officer was condemned to five years' imprisonment, while Brussels was fined five million francs.
One might ask whether, if the Germans continue to act in this fashion, the city of Brussels will be forced to pay a fine each time one of its functionaries is guilty of offence: for it is impossible that the city can control all its employés.
In this case the German officer who was insulted was in civilian clothes. Now to a complaint of the communal council the Governor had replied, some time previously, that there were no secret agents at work in civilian clothing; so that the police agent could not have known that he was dealing with an officer, since the latter was not in uniform.
It may be imagined that lively protests were made, but once more the Germans threatened to assume the direction of the commune if the sum was not paid by the 10th November at latest; so, although the council presented a memorandum on the affair, it was nevertheless forced to pay in order to pursue its mission in peace.
(N.R.C., 9th November, 1914.)
Exactions of a Non-commissioned Officer.
Fines without rhyme and reason, and exorbitant war contributions have become so normal and so customary that the Germans have finally learned to exploit the situation. TheN.R.C.for the 21st May, 1915, reported that the Council of War in Coblenz had condemned to eighteen months' imprisonment the non-commissioned officer Garternich, who had demanded from several occupied Belgian communes a war contribution of 3 frs. per head, and had thus acquired, for his own personal profit, a sum of 27,393 frs. Does not this simple fact reveal the habitual squeezing to which our poor country is subjected? Eighteen months' imprisonment for having emptied the communal treasuries already officially despoiled by the authorities—that truly is not much; especially when we compare this sentence with those pronounced upon the communes when a telegraph wire breaks down: the threat of burning a whole neighbourhood or a formidable fine.
Requisitions of Raw Materials and Machinery.
Requisitions may only be demanded, says Article 52,for the needs of the army of occupation. Now our enemies have removed from Belgium enormous quantities of raw material, and machinery which evidently cannot be of use to the army of occupation (seeBelg. Allem., pp. 113, 116, 117). What can thearmy do with raw cotton, wools, spun cotton, nickel, jute, etc.? It can be of use only to the industries of Germany, paralysed by the suppression of the mercantile marine. Among these requisitions are included machine-tools for the manufacture of shells (notably those removed from the national arsenal at Herstal and the royal cannon foundry at Liége), and metals, such as copper, which are indispensable to the manufacture of munitions; so that the articles which have been taken from us, contrary to Article 52 of the Hague Convention, subscribed to by Germany, are thus directly employed in fighting against us.
The Germans cannot pretend that these requisitions of machinery were made by over-zealous officers ignorant of the laws, for Baron von Bissing himself, in his quality of Governor-General, signed the proclamation of the 17th February ordering the despatch of our machine-tools to Germany. Moreover, in Berlin even people are perfectly aware of these requisitions, and of their destination (N.R.C., 22nd February, 1915, morning edition).
We must insist on the fact that all these raw materials of industry, all this machinery, etc., is not bought, but requisitioned. There is here no case of a commercial transaction, nor even an expropriation; for we have no redress against the decision arrived at in Berlin as to the prices which will be paid after the war. It is a theft, to express the matter in a word.
Requisitions in kind and in services ... shall be in proportion to the resources of the country, says Article 52; which evidently means that requisitions must not exhaust the country to the point of jeopardizing the lives of the inhabitants. If thisstipulation had been respected we should not have to deplore the famine which is ravaging our country, and to which we shall return later on.
We shall confine ourselves—in order to give some idea of the excessive and inhuman manner in which requisitions have been made—to referring the reader to certain articles written by eye-witnesses, particularly those who have seen what has happened near the frontier, and at Gand. It will at once be recognized that the requisitions made exceed that which the inhabitants can reasonably provide (seeN.R.C., 10th January, 1915, morning; 23rd January, 1915, morning; 16th January, 1915, evening; 30th January, 1915, evening; 12th January, 1915, morning; 22nd December, 1914, evening).
The Germans have always taken good care to demand wine. They demanded enormous quantities in the little villages of the Campine of Limburg (N.R.C., 15th January, 1915). Elsewhere they took for their own use all the cellars of the wine-merchants and the inhabitants, without allowing the latter to make use of them (seeBelg. Allem., p. 118).
A last point as to requisitions. They shallas far as possible be paid for in ready money; if not, a receipt shall be given.
Very often no receipt has been given to the owners of property taken. Elsewhere the receipts are fantastical and valueless.
It is the truth that those who do receive vouchers are requested to satisfy themselves of their accuracy, but this prescription is obviously a dead letter. Imagine, on the one hand, a peasant, Fleming or Walloon, terrorized into a condition of helplessness, and incapable of reading a voucher scrawled inGerman; and on the other, soldiers whose customary arguments are shooting and burning.
Article 53.An army of occupation shall only take possession of cash, funds, and realizable securities which are strictly the property of the State, depôts of arms, means of transport, stores and supplies, and, generally, all movable property belonging to the State which may be used for military operations....
Article 53.
An army of occupation shall only take possession of cash, funds, and realizable securities which are strictly the property of the State, depôts of arms, means of transport, stores and supplies, and, generally, all movable property belonging to the State which may be used for military operations....
From the very first days of the occupation the Germans, in defiance of law and justice, seized upon the communal treasuries and the funds deposited in the branch establishments of the National Bank, the post offices, etc. They were obliged to recognize the justice of the protests made by the Belgian Government; but their love of pillage is incorrigible; on entering Gand, on Monday, the 12th October, their first care was to lay hands on the 1,800,000 (£72,000) contained in the communal treasury.
According to Article 55 the Germans had no right to remove the furniture of the Ministries of Brussels (p. 134), since this property was not of a kind to be useful in military operations.
Article 55.The occupying State shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, landed property, forests, and agricultural undertakings belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of such properties and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct.
Article 55.
The occupying State shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, landed property, forests, and agricultural undertakings belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of such properties and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct.
The German respect for legality did not restrain them from violating this Article. From the very first days of the war they employed the churches which they consented to leave standing as stables; on reaching Liége they took possession of thePalais de Justice and made a barracks of it. Why did they expel Justice? Herren Koester and Noske tell us (p. 30), it was simply because the position is central and easy to defend (see a photograph facing p. 32). They did not take account of the fact that such employment of the building is doubly contrary to the Hague Convention, since they did not respect the nature of the monument, and exposed it to bombardment by Allied aviators on the look-out for the German garrison.
It was the same with the Palais de Justice of Brussels, which also serves as a German barracks. To adapt it to its novel use, the soldiers have destroyed a great part of the magnificent furnishings which adorned the halls; the immediate surroundings have been fortified, and the cupola serves by night as a station for signalling to dirigibles. In short, all preparations have been made with a view to the bombardment of Poelaert's masterpiece by the Allies.
It is obviously with the idea of preventing their adversaries from attacking them that they take up their quarters in our monuments; these are to serve them as artistic bucklers, just as our compatriots are employed as living bucklers.
The violations of Article 55 are past counting. We will confine ourselves to mentioning a few in Brussels; they will give us some idea of the diversity of the transformations which our property has suffered at German hands. The offices of the Ministries are transformed into bedrooms for officers. The Palais des Académies has become a military hospital; God knows in what condition we shall find its libraries. In the Parc Royal of Brussels, in the centre of the city, they have installed an automobile depôt, ariding-track, and a rifle range; on the 28th October a shot fired from this range wounded a lady through the windows of the Schlobachmagasinin the Rue Royale.
Article 56.The property of local authorities, as well as that of institutions dedicated to public worship, charity, education, and to science and art, even when State property, shall be treated as private property.Any seizure or destruction of, or wilful damage to, institutions of this character, historic monuments and works of science and art, is forbidden, and should be made the subject of legal proceedings.
Article 56.
The property of local authorities, as well as that of institutions dedicated to public worship, charity, education, and to science and art, even when State property, shall be treated as private property.
Any seizure or destruction of, or wilful damage to, institutions of this character, historic monuments and works of science and art, is forbidden, and should be made the subject of legal proceedings.
The first paragraph of this Article has been scrupulously observed; the property of the communes, etc., has indeed been treated as private property has been treated: the latter has everywhere been sacked and looted, and the Germans have done the same to collective property.
As to the intentional character of these acts of vandalism, it is indubitable. How otherwise explain the fact that in numerous villages the church has been the prey of the flames, in many cases even when the surrounding houses have remained intact? A few examples will suffice. The village of Haecht was occupied on the 19th and 20th August. On the 24th the Belgians in Antwerp made a sortie which was repulsed. The Germans, infuriated, shot 17 civilians and pillaged all the houses, particularly remembering the wine in the cellars. Then the inhabitants were expelled. A fresh sortie of the Belgians took place from the 9th to the 13th September; at noon on the last day our troops fell back; in the afternoon the Germans set fire to the church and 41 houses. The strong-box of the church was broken open after the fire. The destruction of the monument did not strike them as sufficient, and they dynamited the whole on the 16th (or 17th)September. In the neighbouring village of Werchter, after the battle of the 25th and 26th August, they shot 6 civilians and burned 267 houses out of the 513 which formed the village. After the second fight, on the 15th September, they burned the church. In both villages most of the houses round the churches were spared; it will therefore be difficult for the Germans to pretend, as at Louvain, that the burning of these churches was an accident (Brandunglück) due to burning fragments carried by the wind (p.220). We have already (p.73) noted another more significant case, that of the chapel of the Béguinage of Termonde, which was alone burned, in the centre of the Béguinage, not a dwelling of which was touched.
Conclusions—The Famine in Belgium.
Germany had need, in the conflict with France, of all the men who passed through Belgium; also she could leave in Belgium only weak garrisons of the Landsturm. To safeguard them against possible attack on the part of the Belgian population, it was necessary to terrorize the latter to such a point that it no longer dared to stir. Such was the object of the carnage and incendiarism which marked the beginning of the campaign, as was frankly admitted by Herr Walter Blöm, adjutant to the Governor-General in Belgium (p.84). No doubt the massacres of Louvain, Andenne, Tamines, and Dinant, committed to order between the 19th and the 26th August, appeared insufficient, for a new series was organized between the 4th and 13th September.
At the news of this butchery a resounding cry of horror and indignation went up from all the nationsof the earth. That the Belgian Army, on the field of battle, should have paid large tribute to the war unloosed upon us by Germany—that was to be expected, but no one would have dared to suppose that Germany, after participating in the second Hague Conference, would display towards our civil population such an implacable cruelty, such exterminating fury, as history has never recorded since the Thirty Years' War. But facts are facts; one must needs submit to the evidence; the German Army has destroyed our treasures of art and science, has shot down in cold blood, often by machine-gun fire, hosts of men, women, even old people and children; it has ordered the burning of thousands of houses; it has turned whole districts into deserts.
Still, some semblance of motive was necessary; with a mathematical regularity the pretext of "francs-tireurs" was alleged. "Man hat geschossen"—that was enough; immediately the neighbourhood was given over to massacre, pillage, and fire. Never was any inquiry made, no matter how summary. Yet when it was desired to show a foreigner of note—for example, Dr. Sven Hedin—how they proceeded in the matter of punishing "francs-tireurs," a regular Council of War was constituted ... which brought in a verdict ofnon-lieu(p.78). We defy the Germans to cite a single case in which a tribunal of this kind has satbeforereprisals. In the few rare cases when witnesses, etc., have been questioned the examination has taken placeafterthe firing of houses and the shooting of inhabitants. This is why we declare without the slightest reservation thatnot one single attack by civilianshas been established by any kind of proof.
The Flight of the Belgians.
The inhabitants of our towns and our countryside soon realized to what they were exposing themselves if they awaited the arrival of the Germans in their own homes. So, as the Germans advanced, a void appeared before them. After the taking of Antwerp, the majority of the peasants of the "Campine" of Antwerp fled in all haste toward Holland. If to them we add the people of Antwerp, who had been driven out by the bombardment, and above all the innumerable villages of Brabant, Limburg, and the provinces of Liége and Antwerp, whose homes had been pillaged and reduced to ashes, we shall not be astonished to find that in October there were more than a million Belgian refugees in Holland.[30]To our northern neighbours we owe our profoundest gratitude for the fraternal manner in which they welcomed our unfortunate compatriots.
The Causes of the Famine.
The horror provoked by the butchery at Dinant, Aerschot, etc., relegated to the background the purely material crimes. But these—the pillage, methodically conducted, of our towns, villages, farms, and châteaux—the outrageous requisitions of provisions and of the raw material of industries—the formidable taxes which drain us of coin—the fines which rain upon the communal administrations and on private persons—and many other infractions of the Hague Convention—have exercised on our economical life an extremely depressing effect, but have produced no echo abroad: doubtless because only those can understand the whole extent of our misery who daily rub shoulders with the thousands of starving and unemployed people who drag themselves from one end of the town to the other in quest of work that is not to be found, or who mingle with the interminable files of women who go in search of rations of bread and soup for their families.
Let us briefly consider the principal causes of famine which prevails in Belgium.
1. Exaggerated requisitions, out of all proportion to the resources of the country. They are of two kinds:—
Firstly, those which have emptied the country of grain, cattle, forage, and other foodstuffs.
Then the requisitions of the raw materials intended for the factories, which have completely paralysed industry, especially in the Flanders. One example will suffice. All the workshops of Termonde were burned save one—the Escaut-Dendre establishment, which makes boots and shoes. But the Germans sent into Germany both the leather and the shoes which were in the warehouse. The factory is thus condemned to stand idle for lack of raw material, and also for lack of funds. Those industries of which the machinery has been removed are also, of course, doomed to paralysis. The German authorities threaten to despoil our factories of all the copper forming part of the machinery, which would reduce them one and all to impotence. It is an ironical fact that this measure was announced by a propagandist leaflet addressed to the Belgians.
2. Having made a clean sweep of the greater portion of all that was indispensable to us, the Germans have been careful to take our money from us. Under every imaginable pretext, and often without any pretext at all, they have imposedcrushing taxes upon us. The regular payment of these taxes showing that the public coffers were not yet quite empty, the Germans hastened to impose fines upon us, which vary from 5 frs. to 5 millions. The private banks, too, are threatened every moment with the removal of a portion of their funds.
3. It is needless to insist on a third cause, which reduces our working-class families to idleness and poverty: the destruction of an enormous number of factories—some bombarded, but most of them burned of set purpose.
4. We have already seen that many factories which remained intact are condemned to inactivity by the lack of raw material, or because they have been deprived of their machinery. The others are equally paralysed.
The stoppage of traffic on the railway lines, the impediments of all kinds placed in the way of inland navigation, the absence of maritime navigation, are causes more than sufficient to prevent the importation of raw materials and the exportation of manufactured products. Of all these obstacles the most important is assuredly the suppression of goods traffic on the railways. "Why," say the Germans, "do not Belgian employés return to their work, since our military trains would in any case be run by our own men?" Hypocrites! The slowness and irregularity of the trains is highly inconvenient to the German army, and it would much like to see them resume their normal speed; but for this it requires the assistance of the Belgian staff. Is it not obvious that if our railway-men resumed their labours they would at the same time facilitate the transport of German troops and munitions?
Let us again cite the prohibition of "circulation" between 8 or 9 o'clock and 6 o'clock, which is an obstacle to night work, which is quite indispensable to the large industries; and the suppression of the special trains by which the workers travelled.
5. Commerce has suffered no less than industry. There is no telegraph, no telephone, no posting of closed letters; that is, no means of sending or receiving orders. No railway, no horses, no motor-cars to deliver goods or to supply customers. And, to cap all, the slightest journey necessitates all sorts of exaggerated expenses: there is the acquisition of a passport, the train journey at the rate of 10 cm. per kilometre, hotel expenses, etc. The expenditure might be a minor matter, but what of the waste of time? Before 1st July, 1915, any one going from Liége to Brussels for business purposes had first of all to waste one or two days in procuring his passport; the journey occupied at least half a day; and after interviewing his client he would find that there was no train back to Liége on the same day. In short, he would have to allow four days for a journey which in normal times took half a day.
Other causes of famine are:
The scarcity and high cost of provisions.
The financial difficulties in which the public powers are involved.
The paralysis of industry and commerce, resulting in unemployment—that is, in suppression of wages.
In short, a diminution of resources, accompanied by an increase of expenditure; so that the public coffers are almost powerless to come to the aid of private distress.
That is how we stand in Belgium.
It is not our intention to depict the poignant distress which has overwhelmed our country. We shall merely explain briefly how we try to cope with it; this will suffice to give some idea of it.
Creation of Temporary Shelters.
Let us first of all consider the country districts. Even when a few houses only of a village have escaped incendiarism the inhabitants have returned thither and have resumed their customary labours. Must they not plough and sow, under penalty of preparing for themselves another year of wretchedness? Where houses exist no longer they live in a cellar, or an outhouse to which some kind of roof has been improvised; families passed the winter of 1914-15 in a potato-silo,[31]under the shelter of a few mats of straw. In the ruined villages the first anxiety of the public powers and the relief committees was therefore to provide provisional shelter.
In the towns and industrial districts the most urgent necessities are of another kind. What is lacking most particularly is employment. The administrations have therefore set themselves to provide the unemployed with paid occupations which do not demand apprenticeship—the clearing of ruins, the levelling of soil, the digging of reservoirs, etc. The communal coffers being empty, communal vouchers are issued.L'Événement Illustré, in its fourth issue, gives reproductions of some of these vouchers, of which, it states, there are more than 500. In the communes near Louvain, where the poverty is particularly poignant, it has been necessary to create vouchers for 2 centimes (at Wilsele) and 5 centimes (at Herent).
From the outset stringent measures were taken to make up for the insufficiency of provisions and to prevent speculators from obtaining possession of existing stocks. The most important of these regulations are the following:—
(a) Fixing of maximum prices.(b) Prohibition of the exportation of provisions from the commune.(c) It is forbidden to give animals provisions intended for human beings.(d) Collective exploitation. Many communes have set up in business as bakers, butchers, restaurant-keepers, coal merchants, dealers in colonial produce, etc. They prepare bread and soup daily, and these are provided gratuitously to the poorest, or sold at a low price to those who still have a few savings. In the Brussels district there had been distributed by the 31st January, 1915, to adults, 30,060,608 rations, comprising soup and bread, and to the children 932,838 rations, consisting chiefly of milk, phosphatine, and powdered milk.
(a) Fixing of maximum prices.
(b) Prohibition of the exportation of provisions from the commune.
(c) It is forbidden to give animals provisions intended for human beings.
(d) Collective exploitation. Many communes have set up in business as bakers, butchers, restaurant-keepers, coal merchants, dealers in colonial produce, etc. They prepare bread and soup daily, and these are provided gratuitously to the poorest, or sold at a low price to those who still have a few savings. In the Brussels district there had been distributed by the 31st January, 1915, to adults, 30,060,608 rations, comprising soup and bread, and to the children 932,838 rations, consisting chiefly of milk, phosphatine, and powdered milk.
Certain communes also sell meat; others have installed communal stores for the sale of all kinds of provisions, especially preserved foods, dried vegetables, salt, potatoes, etc.; almost everywhere coal is sold retail; petroleum was sold as long as it could be obtained. Moreover, the collectivities are distributing enormous quantities of clothes; in the Brussels district alone by the end of January 660,865 frs. worth of clothing and footwear had been given to the necessitous. Abuses have asfar as possible been guarded against, (1) by the "household card," theCarte de ménage, which indicates the number of persons composing each family; and (2) by the limitation of the quantity of each kind of goods which the household can obtain during the week.
The basis of alimentation is bread. Therefore particularly Draconian rules have been elaborated for the bakeries.
The National Relief Committee.
Many problems presented themselves simultaneously, and with an extreme urgency. In all communes local committees have been set up, entrusted with the equitable distribution of provisions among all the inhabitants. We say "all the inhabitants," for the reader must not form any illusions as to our condition: there is not a single Belgian family which, if left to itself, could obtain its daily bread; the general rationing to which the whole population is subjected makes rich and poor equally dependent on the National Committee of Relief and Alimentation.
To organize the feeding of the public would have been a task above our strength if Belgium, in her present distress, had been abandoned to her own resources. But the misfortunes which have come upon us because we could not consent to comply with the orders of a tyrannical and perjured neighbour—the poverty which cripples us more completely day by day, as requisitions, pillage, taxes, and fines deprive us of our last resources—the massacres and the incendiarism which have turned into deserts the most fertile and most densely peopled provinces of Europe—the molestations and annoyances whichhave reduced to unemployment a working population whose activity is proverbial—in short, the unmerited misfortune whichKulturhas inflicted upon us—all this has awakened, in all the civilized nations, a current of sympathy and solidarity with poor Belgium.
By Germany our country was condemned to perish of starvation. The miracle which alone could save us has been effected by the charity of Spain, Scandinavia, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Argentine Republic, Brazil, and, above all, the United States. Since the month of November 1914 vessels laden with provisions have been regularly leaving the American ports for Rotterdam, whence the food is despatched, principally by means of barges, into Belgium, and distributed, in the smallest villages even, by the care of the National Committee of Relief and Alimentation. This Committee is an extension throughout the whole country of a commission which was formed early in September 1914 to succour the Brussels district; it is under the patronage of their Excellencies the Marquis of Villalobar, the Spanish Minister, and Mr. Brand Whitlock, the United States Minister. In January and February 1915 the Committee was induced to concern itself also with the country round Maubeuge, and the Givet—Furnay—Sedan district.
The mission of the National Committee is equitably to distribute relief and provisions. But it does not itself collect these resources; as they derive more particularly from the United States it is an American Committee, the "Commission for Relief in Belgium," which undertakes to collect and administer funds. It is the American Committeewhich despatches to Rotterdam, from American ports, the steamers carrying food and clothing. In each province the American Commission has a delegate who supervises the distribution of provisions and relief; he assures himself that nothing is diverted to the use of the German army. The Commission for Relief in Belgium sits in London, its chairman being Mr. Herbert Hoover.
A serious difficulty cropped up immediately. Foreign beneficence was eager to aid the Belgians, but not, obviously, the butchers who occupy our country. It was therefore necessary at all costs to prevent the German army from seizing the provisions and subsidies despatched by America.
On the 16th October, 1914, the German authorities undertook to exempt from all requisitions the provisions imported by the National Committee. But this promise was promptly violated. The Germans, it is true, did not requisition the wheat, but they did requisition the bread made from that wheat. Moreover, they pretended that their engagement of the 16th October, 1914, general as it was, did not affect Flanders, aterritoire d'étapenot subject to the Governor-General. This is the effect of their letter of the 21st November, 1914. Up to the present it has been impossible to get them to keep the engagements to which they subscribed on the 16th October; for although they have extended to cattle-foods the promise that nothing should be requisitioned by the troops placed under the orders of the Governor-General—theterritoire d'étapebeing thus excluded—they have, on the other hand, forced the communes of Flanders to open grain markets, in whichthey make purchases, thus continuing to impoverish the food-stores of the country.
While they exclude Flanders from the region exempted from requisitions, they take care not to breathe a word of this exemption in their own newspapers. TheK.Z., on the 4th January, andDer Volksfreundon the 5th declared that requisitions of foodstuffs were suspended throughout Belgium.
Despite the difficulties raised by the Germans, the National Committee of Relief and Alimentation has rendered our country inestimable services, which only those who have visited our towns and rural districts and have seen the work of the local Committees can form any conception.
We borrow from the report of the Executive Committee for the month of January 1915 (published in Brussels 15th February, 1915) a few figures (seetable, p.176) as to the distribution of relief during the month of January.
But the National Committee extends its beneficent action over many departments which are not mentioned in this table.
Here, according to the same report, is the list of these departments:—
I. Department of Alimentation (Foodstuffs).II. Agricultural Section of the National Committee.III. Relief Department:1. Subsidies to Provincial Committees.2. Construction of Refuges (100,000 frs. for Luxemburg)3. Organizations patronized:A. Central Refugee Committee.B. Assistance and support of families of officers and under-officers deprived of their means of sustenance by the war (first subvention 50,000 frs.).C. Assistance and support of Belgian physicians and druggists ruined by the war (first subsidy of 10,000 frs.).D. Assistance and support of artists (first subsidy 10,000 frs.).E. Assistance and support of infantile charities.F. Assistance and support of destitute persons.G. Assistance and support of the homeless (Accommodation section).H. Assistance and support of destitute churches (two subsidies of 5,000 frs. each).I. Assistance and protection of the unemployed.J. Assistance and protection of lace-makers (subsidy of 129,749 frs.).K. Union of Belgian Towns and Communes.L. Belgian Intelligence Agency for Prisoners of War and Persons Interned (monthly subvention of 3,000 frs.).4. Co-operative Society for Loans and Advances.5. Advances to Provinces and Communes.6. Clothing.
I. Department of Alimentation (Foodstuffs).II. Agricultural Section of the National Committee.III. Relief Department:
1. Subsidies to Provincial Committees.2. Construction of Refuges (100,000 frs. for Luxemburg)3. Organizations patronized:A. Central Refugee Committee.B. Assistance and support of families of officers and under-officers deprived of their means of sustenance by the war (first subvention 50,000 frs.).C. Assistance and support of Belgian physicians and druggists ruined by the war (first subsidy of 10,000 frs.).D. Assistance and support of artists (first subsidy 10,000 frs.).E. Assistance and support of infantile charities.F. Assistance and support of destitute persons.G. Assistance and support of the homeless (Accommodation section).H. Assistance and support of destitute churches (two subsidies of 5,000 frs. each).I. Assistance and protection of the unemployed.J. Assistance and protection of lace-makers (subsidy of 129,749 frs.).K. Union of Belgian Towns and Communes.L. Belgian Intelligence Agency for Prisoners of War and Persons Interned (monthly subvention of 3,000 frs.).4. Co-operative Society for Loans and Advances.5. Advances to Provinces and Communes.6. Clothing.
1. Subsidies to Provincial Committees.2. Construction of Refuges (100,000 frs. for Luxemburg)3. Organizations patronized:
A. Central Refugee Committee.B. Assistance and support of families of officers and under-officers deprived of their means of sustenance by the war (first subvention 50,000 frs.).C. Assistance and support of Belgian physicians and druggists ruined by the war (first subsidy of 10,000 frs.).D. Assistance and support of artists (first subsidy 10,000 frs.).E. Assistance and support of infantile charities.F. Assistance and support of destitute persons.G. Assistance and support of the homeless (Accommodation section).H. Assistance and support of destitute churches (two subsidies of 5,000 frs. each).I. Assistance and protection of the unemployed.J. Assistance and protection of lace-makers (subsidy of 129,749 frs.).K. Union of Belgian Towns and Communes.L. Belgian Intelligence Agency for Prisoners of War and Persons Interned (monthly subvention of 3,000 frs.).
A. Central Refugee Committee.B. Assistance and support of families of officers and under-officers deprived of their means of sustenance by the war (first subvention 50,000 frs.).C. Assistance and support of Belgian physicians and druggists ruined by the war (first subsidy of 10,000 frs.).D. Assistance and support of artists (first subsidy 10,000 frs.).E. Assistance and support of infantile charities.F. Assistance and support of destitute persons.G. Assistance and support of the homeless (Accommodation section).H. Assistance and support of destitute churches (two subsidies of 5,000 frs. each).I. Assistance and protection of the unemployed.J. Assistance and protection of lace-makers (subsidy of 129,749 frs.).K. Union of Belgian Towns and Communes.L. Belgian Intelligence Agency for Prisoners of War and Persons Interned (monthly subvention of 3,000 frs.).
4. Co-operative Society for Loans and Advances.5. Advances to Provinces and Communes.6. Clothing.