Part 4 (1/2)
To-day, in this most tragic hour of Belgian history, when so many leaders, so many patriots, have been imprisoned, deported or shot, after twenty-nine months of constant threats and persecutions, we might ask ourselves: Is Belgium at last cowed into submission?
Listen, then, to Belgium's voice, not to the voice of the refugees, not even to the voice of the King and his Government, but to the voice of these miserable ”slaves” whom Germany is trying to starve into submission. Letters have been dropped from these cattle trucks rolling towards Germany or towards the French front. They all tell us of the unshakeable resolution of the men never to sign an agreement to go to Germany, and never to work for the enemy: ”We will never work for the Germans and never put our name on paper” (_onze naam on papier zetten_)--”We will not work for them. Do the same when you are taken.”
(_Faites de meme quand tu dois aller_.) Two young men imprisoned in Ghent write to their father: ”They will have to make us fast a long time before we consent to work for the King of Prussia.” Another man who was stopped when attempting to escape writes: ”They tell us here that the Germans will make us work even if we do not sign an engagement. It would be abominable. _Take heart, the hour of deliverance will strike one day, after all_.” Another workman sends the following message to his employer: ”We are here two thousand and three hundred men. They cannot annihilate us. _It is not right that our fate should be better than that of our brothers who suffer and fight at the front_. We cannot make a step without being threatened by the gun or the bayonet of our jailors.
_I am hungry ... but I will not work for them_.”
And as the slave raids reach one province after another from Flanders to Antwerp, from Hainant to Brabant, as the fatal list of deportees increases from 20,000 to 50,000, from 50,000 to 100,000, from 100,000 to 200,000, whilst the cries of women and children are heard in the streets, whilst the modern slaves tramp along the roads carrying a light bundle of clothes on their shoulders, from everywhere in Belgium the strongest protests are sent to the Governor General, by the communes which will not consent to give the names of the unemployed, by the magistrates who will not see the last guarantees of individual right trampled upon, by the Socialist syndicates which are defending the right of the workmen not to work against their own country, by the chiefs of industry who show clearly that the whole responsibility of the labour crisis rests on Germany alone, by the bishops of the Church, who refuse to admit that, after two thousand years of Christian teaching, a so-called Christian nation should fall so low as to revive, for her own benefit, the worst custom of Paganism.
The energy of these protests is wonderful if one considers the conditions in which they have been made. The town councillors of Tournai were asked to draw up a list of unemployed. They refused; as the Germans insisted, they pa.s.sed the following resolution: ”The munic.i.p.al council decide to persevere in their negative att.i.tude.... The city of Tournai is prepared to submit without resistance to all the exigencies authorized by the laws and customs of the war. Its sincerity cannot be doubted, as it has shown perfect composure and has avoided any act of hostility during a period of over two years ... But, at the same time, the munic.i.p.al council could not furnish weapons against their own children, fully conscious that natural law and international law, which is derived from it, forbids them to do so.” (October 20th, 1916). We possess also the German answer, signed by Major-General Hopfer. It is a necessary supplement to von Bissing's unctuous literature. Major-General Hopfer calls the resolution ”an act of arrogance without precedent.”
According to him, ”the state of affairs, clearly and simply, is this: the military authority commands, the munic.i.p.ality has to obey. If it fails to do so it will have to support the heavy consequences.” A fine of 200,000 marks is exacted from the town for its refusal, besides 20,000 marks for every day of delay until the lists are completed.
The case of Tournai, like that of Antoing and a good many small towns, is typical. The officers commanding in these districts either disregard the ”mot d'ordre” given in Brussels or do not think it worth their while to keep up the sinister comedy played in the large towns. Here ”Kultur”
throws off her mask and the brute appears. We know at least where we stand. The conflict is cleared of all false pretence and paltry excuses.
The councillors of Tournai appeal to some law, divine or human, which forbids a brother to betray his brother. It is not without relief that we hear the genuine voice of Major Hopfer declaring that there is no other law than his good pleasure. That settles everything and puts the case of Belgium in a nut-sh.e.l.l. Men like him and the commander of the Antoing district--another Major, by the way--are invaluable. But they will never become Generals unless they mend their manners.
From the perusal of the Belgian protests and of all particulars received, two things appear clearly: First, in spite of all the official declarations, whether the raiders are able or not to get hold of the lists, there is no real discrimination between employed or unemployed.
And, secondly, in many districts, unemployment has been deliberately created by the authorities in order to justify the deportations.
We cannot discover any method in the raids. In some places, all the able-bodied men from 17 to 50 are taken away; in others the priests, the town-clerks, the members of the ”Comite de Secours,” and the teachers are left at home; in others still a certain selection is made. _But everywhere some men who were actually working at the time or even men who had never been out of work since the beginning of the German occupation have been obliged to go with the others_. The proportions vary. In the small town of Gembloux, of a total of 750 inhabitants deported, _there were only two unemployed_. At Kersbeek-Miscom out of 94 deportees only two had been thrown out of work. At Rillaer, the Germans have taken 25 boys under 18 years of age.[6] In the district of Mons, from the numbers taken down in fourteen communes, we gather that the proportion of the unemployed varies between 10 and 15 per cent. of the total number of deportees.[7] Among the 400 men taken from Arlon (Luxembourg) were 43 members of the ”Comite de Secours” who were working in connection with the Commission for Relief, so that not only the people supporting their families are being deported, but even those who employed themselves in alleviating the sufferings of the whole population. This practice has been repeated in several other towns, for instance, in Gembloux and Libramont.
Whether the people are ordered to present themselves at the town-hall or seized in their own homes, whether they are taken forthwith or allowed a few hours to prepare themselves, whether they are forced to sign an agreement or not, the same fact is evident: the criterion of employment is never considered as a sufficient cause for exemption.
In certain districts where, in spite of the requisitions, no unemployment existed, the authorities have manufactured it. Some of the new coal mines of the Limbourg province have been closed on the eve of the raids. The case of the Luxembourg province is still more typical.
”We have not to enquire here,” declare the senators and deputies of this province, ”if unemployment has been caused in other regions by the disorganisation of transports, the seizure of raw stuffs and machines, the constant requisitions, and other measures which were bound to penalize the national industry. One fact remains incontestable; it is that, so far as the Luxembourg province is concerned, unemployment has been non-existent. During the worst periods, we have only had a small number of unemployed, and thanks to the initiative taken by the 'Comite de Secours' all, without any exception, have been at work without interruption.” After enumerating a great number of works of public utility which had been approved by the German authorities, construction of light railways, drainage of extensive moors, creation of new plantations, water supplies, etc., ... the report goes on: ”And to-day most of these works, which had been approved and subsidized by the province and by the State, have been suddenly condemned and interrupted.... _Such official obstacles to the legitimate and useful activity of our workmen renders still more painful for them, if possible, the measures taken against them by those who reproach them for their idleness and who prosecute them to-day under the pretext of an inaction which they have deliberately created_.”
In the face of such testimony all the German argument crumbles to pieces. As Monseigneur Mercier puts it decisively: ”It is not true that our workmen have caused any disturbance or even threatened anywhere to do so. Five million Belgians, hundreds of Americans, never cease to admire the perfect dignity and patience of our working cla.s.ses. It is not true that the workmen, deprived of their work, become a charge on the occupying power or on public charity under its control. The 'Comite National,' in whose activity the Germans take no part, is the only organisation concerned in the matter.” But even supposing, for the sake of argument, that the 43rd article of the Hague Convention should justify some form of coercion in the matter, the new measures should only be applied to some works of _public utility in Belgium_. Far from encouraging such works, the Germans have stopped them, seized _employed and unemployed_, and sent them either to _Germany_ or to some _war-work_ on the Western front. To put it simply, they wish to avoid public disturbance where there is no disturbance, to save money which is not their money, to deport unemployed who are not unemployed, to oblige them to work against their country instead of for their country, and in Germany instead of in Belgium. They are doing everything but what they want to do, they go anywhere but where they are going, and they say anything but what they are thinking.
[Footnote 6: Letter of Cardinal Mercier to Governor von Bissing, Nov.
29th, 1916.]
[Footnote 7: Reply of the Deputies of Mons to Governor von Bissing, Nov.
27th, 1916.]