Part 3 (1/2)

4th. A few weeks later, this promise was confirmed verbally to Cardinal Mercier _and extended to the other provinces_ under German rule by Governor von der Goltz, two aide-de-camps and the Cardinal's private secretary being present. (See letter from Cardinal Mercier to Baron von Bissing, October 19th, 1916).

5th. November, 1914. a.s.surances given by the German authorities to the Dutch Legation in Brussels in order to persuade the refugees to come back: ”_Normal conditions will be restored and the refugees will be allowed to go back to Holland to look after their families_.” (See also the letter of the Dutch Consul in Antwerp urging the refugees to come back to their homes.)

6th. July 25th, 1915. Placard of Governor von Bissing posted in Brussels: ”_The people shall never be compelled to do anything against their country_.”

7th. April, 1916: a.s.surances given to the neutral powers after the Lille raids that _such deportations would not be renewed_.

Now, let us confront these texts, not even with the facts which come to us from the most trustworthy sources, but with the German decrees and proclamations preparing and ordering the recent deportations. We are not opposing a Belgian testimony to a German one, neither are we, for the present, propounding even our own interpretation of what occurred. We will merely oppose a German doc.u.ment to another German doc.u.ment and let them settle their differences as best they can.

The first trouble began in April and May, 1915, in Luttre, at the Malines a.r.s.enal, and in several other Flemish towns, when the German authorities exerted every possible pressure to compel the Belgian workmen to resume work. They were brought, under military escort, to their workshops, imprisoned, starved, and about two hundred of them were deported to Germany, where they were submitted to the most cruel tortures. (See the _Nineteenth Report of the Belgian Commission of Enquiry_.) The threats and persecutions are sufficiently established by three placards issued by the German authorities.

The first one, posted on the walls of Pont-a-Celles, near Luttre, says, among other things: ”If the workmen accept the above conditions (that is to say, resume work with handsome wages) _the prisoners will be released_....” The ”prisoners” being several hundred workers who had been imprisoned in their shops and deprived of food. (April, 1915.)

The second, _signed von Bissing_ (so that n.o.body could imagine that these measures were taken by some too zealous subaltern) and posted in Malines, on the 30th of May, tells us that ”_the town of Malines must be punished as long as the required number of workmen have not resumed work_.” These workmen were employed by the Belgian State--which owns the country's railway--for the repair of the rolling stock. When they had refused to resume work, at the beginning of the occupation, a few hundred German workmen had filled their posts. These had been sent back to their military depots. The patriotic duty of these Belgians was evident enough: by resuming their work, they released German soldiers for the front and increased the number of coaches and engines, of which the enemy was in great need for the transport of troops. If you will compare this poster with the one printed above and dated July 25th, you will be confronted with one of the neatest examples of German duplicity.

Other people have broken their promises after making them. It was left to Governor von Bissing to make them after breaking them.

The third doc.u.ment is still more conclusive. On June the 16th the citizens of Ghent could read on their walls that: ”The att.i.tude of certain factories which refuse _to work for the German Army_ under the pretext of patriotism proves that a movement is afoot to create difficulties for the _German Army_. If such an att.i.tude is maintained I will hold the communal authorities responsible and the population will have only itself to blame if the great liberties granted to it until now are suspended.” This clumsy declaration is signed by Lieutenant-General Graf von Westcarp. And to think that, even now, Governor von Bissing perseveres in maintaining that no military work has ever been asked or will ever be asked from the Belgian workers! As the French proverb says: ”On n'est jamais trahi que par les siens.” [4]

But, like the man who marries his mistress after the birth of the first child, the Governor General was thinking of ”regularising the situation.” He knew that his att.i.tude was illegal. He decided, therefore, to concoct a few decrees in order to legalize it in the eyes of the world. He had, you see, to save appearances. You cannot get on with no law at all. It might shock neutrals. So, if you break all the articles of the Hague Convention one by one, like so many sticks, the only thing to do is to manufacture some fresh regulations to replace them. And everything will again be for the best in the best of worlds.

That is where German subtlety comes in. You must not do things rashly, at once. Like a skilful dramatist, you must prepare the public to take in a situation. There is a true artistic touch in the way this General of Cavalry succeeds in gradually legalizing illegality.

In a first decree, dated August 10th, 1915, a fortnight after his last pledge, Governor von Bissing promises from fourteen days' to six months'

imprisonment to anyone dependent on public charity who refuses to undertake work ”without a sufficient reason” and a fine of 500 or a year's imprisonment to anyone who encourages refusal to work by the granting of relief. Notice that the accomplice is punished more heavily than the princ.i.p.al culprit. The idea is clearly to deprive every striker of the help of his commune and of the ”Comite National.” However, as it is still left to Belgian tribunals to decide which reasons are ”sufficient” and which are not, this decree is not very harmful.

On May 2nd, 1916, the rising tide creeps nearer to us. The power of deciding on the matter pa.s.ses from the Belgian tribunals to the military authority, and thereupon every striker becomes a culprit.

On May 13th, there is a new decree by which ”the governors, military commanders, and chiefs of districts are allowed to order the unemployed _to be conducted by force_ to the spots where they have to work.” This, no doubt, in order to avoid the crowding of prisons, which would have necessarily followed the last decree. It only remains to declare that the workers can be deported to complete the process and to legalise slavery.

This step was taken on October 3rd last, when an order, signed by Quartier-Meister Sauberzweig and issued by the General Headquarters of the German Army, was posted in all the communes of Flanders. This order warned all persons ”_who are fit to work_ that they may be compelled to do so _even outside their places of residence,_” when ”they should be compelled to have recourse to public help for their own subsistence or for the subsistence of the persons dependent on them.”

[Footnote 4: Another poster dated from Menin (August, 1915) reads as follows: ”From to-day the town is forbidden to give any support whatever even to the families, wives, or children of workmen who are not employed _regularly on military work_..”]

But there is more to come in the story. Three guarantees were left, which have been quoted again and again by the German Press and by Baron von Bissing in his various answers to Cardinal Mercier. It was first stated that the men seized would not be sent to Germany, then that only the unemployed were taken, and finally that these would not be used on military work. These last guarantees have been repeatedly broken.

Again, I will leave the Germans to condemn themselves.

In his decree published at Antwerp, on November the 2nd, General von Huene (the same man who had given Cardinal Mercier his formal written promise that no deportations should take place) declares that the men are to be concentrated at the Southern Station, ”whence ... they will be conveyed in groups to _workshops in Germany_.”

In a letter sent by General Hurt, Military Governor of Brussels and of the province of Brabant, to all burgomasters, it is said that ”where the Communes will not furnish the lists (of unemployed) the German administration will itself designate the men to be deported to Germany.

If then ... errors are committed, the burgomasters will only have themselves to blame, for _the German administration has no time and no means for making an inquiry concerning the personal status of each person_.”

Finally, an extraordinary proclamation of the ”Major-Commandant d'Etapes” of Antoing, dated October 20th, announces that ”_the population will never be compelled to work under continuous fire,”_ this population being composed, according to the same doc.u.ment, of _men and women_ between 17 and 46 years of age. If they refuse ”they will be placed in a _battalion of civil workers, on reduced rations_.” Here is the address of one of these militarised civilians dropped from a train leaving for the Western front and picked up by a friend: X., 3 Comp.

Ziv. Arb. Bat. 27.--Et. Indp.--Armee No.