Chapter III · THE GERMAN MIND, SELF-DEPICTED (continued 3)

"You have been told that your comrades who are prisoners in Germany have been forced to march against Russia beside our soldiers." Yet your common sense must tell you that this would be a measure quite impossible to execute. When the day comes when your comrades who are prisoners return from our country and tell you with how much benevolence they have been treated, their words will make you blush for what your newspapers, and your officers, have dared to tell you, in order to deceive you in so incredible a manner. Every day of resistance makes you sustain irreparable losses, while with the capitulation of Antwerp you will be free from all anxiety. Belgian soldiers, you have fought enough for the interests of the princes of Russia, for those of the capitalists of perfidious Albion. Your situation is one to despair of. Germany, who is fighting only for her life, has destroyed two Russian armies. To-day no Russian is to be found in our country. In France our troops are about to overcome the last resistance. If you wish to rejoin your wives and children, if you wish to return to your work, in a word, if you wish for peace, put an end to this useless struggle, which is ending only in your ruin. Then you will quickly enjoy all the benefits of a favourable and perfect peace.

von Beseler, Commander-in-Chief of the Besieging Army.

When examples of this circular were brought to us in Brabant, we at first thought it was a hoax. But we had to submit to the evidence; the idea of this proclamation had really been conceived and executed by the Germans.

After the fall of Antwerp the campaign continued. Was it not necessary to prevent the Belgians from going to join the Allies in the direction of Flanders? With this end in view, the Germans attempted to throw suspicion on the conduct of the Belgian military authorities at the time of the taking of Antwerp. It was again the Écho de Bruxelles which was entrusted with the publication of the first false news. Shortly after the accomplishment of this pleasant task, the Écho de Bruxelles disappeared for ever: doubtless it was no longer required.

As for the defamatory libels which were uttered in November and December, in order to incriminate the conduct of the civil authorities of Antwerp, it is not yet known by whom they were instigated, worded, and distributed; but we have a reasonable conviction that the Germans were not unaware of them. In any case they did what they could to profit by this disagreement, and they also did their best—in vain—to revive the question when the Belgians, by common accord, had settled their differences.

But the Germans had not yet given up the idea of fomenting conflicts among us. In an article entitled Belgische Umstimmigkeiten (Change of Temper in Belgium) the Kölnische Zeitung of the 22nd November, 1914 (2nd morning edition) referred to a telegram from Berlin which stated that news received from Breda (according to the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger) asserted that seven Belgian officers had deserted and had there been interned. To verify this was very difficult, the more so as in November 1914 no postal or telegraphic communication was permitted between Belgium and Holland. The rest of the article informed us that on the 5th November—a fortnight before their desertion—these officers had received from King Albert the Cross of the Order of Leopold: they had thus waited to desert until they had been made the object of special distinction, which is at least peculiar. And then, setting out from the Yser, they crossed the German lines to be interned at Breda, in Northern Brabant. Strange! strange! And all this in order to inform us that these officers, disheartened by the servile and treacherous attitude of the King, refused again to send their men into battle, for the sake of the English.

Inciting the Belgians against the English.

It will be remarked that the English always receive a good share of the venomous slime which the Germans, as M. Spitteler says, spit upon the King, the Government, and the Belgian authorities. "England—there is the enemy!" says the Hassgesang Gegen England—i.e. Song of Hatred of England, the work of Herr Ernst Lissauer.

It would be tedious to mention all the innumerable articles intended to arouse in us a hatred of England. We may mention the opinion of Dr. Hedin, reproduced on the placard of the 9th November, 1914; the proclamation of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, inserted, for our edification, in Le Réveil (29th October), as well as the declaration imputed to the Flemish "poet" Cyrid Buysse (placard of 12th December, 1914). But these lovers of truth forgot to announce, a few days later, that M. Buysse denied the truth of the German declaration. A mere instance of forgetfulness, no doubt, unless the Amsterdam-Copenhagen-Berlin-Brussels route, which was covered by the so-called declaration, had suddenly grown too long for truth to travel by.

D.—A Few Details of the Administration of Belgium.

The preceding chapter has informed us how the Germans bore themselves towards the inhabitants of the territory occupied in conformity with—or rather in contravention of—Articles 42-56 of the Hague Convention. Treachery and untruthfulness are the chief weapons employed by our enemies. We need not return to the subject. We desire now merely to refer to some details relating to the administration. Details, we said; and in truth we shall consider neither the financial administration of the country, nor its judicial administration, nor its political administration, nor any of the other great cog-wheels essential to the life of a nation. We shall confine ourselves to very simple facts which any one can remark and understand.

(a) Present Prosperity in Belgium.

There is nothing of which the Germans are more proud than their talent—real or illusory—for organization. Accordingly they professed their intention of re-establishing the normal state of affairs in Belgium, in spite of the war, and they are always informing the whole world that everything has resumed its regular course in our country.

Assertions of the German Authorities.

Even in his inaugural proclamation (2nd September, 1914), von der Goltz took the trouble of informing us that work was to be resumed. But the Germans had placed such impediments in the way of inter-urban relations that all activities were necessarily suspended. In October he accorded "facilities of communication," as we were informed by the announcement of the 15th, which meant that "circulation" was no longer absolutely prohibited, and that he who had the means to obtain a passport, and could spend a day or two in procuring it, would thereafter be authorized to travel from Louvain to Malines, or from Namur to Liége. As these measures, though so full of solicitude for the general welfare, did not produce all the results that were expected of them, the communal authorities were advised to refuse relief to the unemployed (6th November, 1914). Nothing came of that advice!

To the numerous obstacles already mentioned we must add one other: the railway-workers and the artisans employed in many of the foundries and workshops of Belgium were perfectly well aware that their labours would principally benefit the Germans, so that by returning to their workshops they would be committing an unpatriotic action. To overcome this passive resistance the Germans multiplied their proclamations in the industrial centres. It was wasted effort.

In the meantime the Governor-General, in the vain hope of galvanizing the labour organizations, sent to Germany for well-known Socialists, who, under the pretext of having a chat with the leaders of the trades unions, were really to inculcate the idea that it was their duty to urge a resumption of work. The visits of the German Socialists have been described by M. Dewinne, of Brussels, a militant worker, in the Parisian journal L'Humanité.

Infatuated as the Germans might be, they could hardly delude themselves as to the failure of their attempts at subornation. This did not prevent Baron von Bissing from issuing declarations dealing with the situation which were truly touching in their sincerity.

News Published by the German General Government. Normal Situation in Belgium.

Vienna, 19th December.—The Sofia correspondent of the Neue Freie Presse has had an interview with Field-Marshal von der Goltz, who declared: "The situation in Belgium is entirely normal. The Belgian population is acquiring the conviction that the Germans are anything but cruel."

The General Government in Belgium.

Berlin, 15th December.—To the correspondent of the Hamburger Korrespondent, the new Governor-General in Belgium, General Baron von Bissing, has made the following declarations: I wish to maintain order and tranquillity in this country, which has become the base of operations for our troops. Our army must know that order prevails behind it, so that it may always give its attention freely only to what lies before it. I hope also that I shall succeed, hand in hand with the civil administration, in doing a great deal for the economic situation. When the Emperor appointed me Governor-General he charged me, with particular insistence, to do everything to assist the weak in Belgium, and to encourage them.

The General Government in Belgium.

The Parasitical Exploitation of Belgium admitted by Germany.

But, you may ask, had not Germany other than military reasons for wishing to revive the economic life of Belgium? A semi-official article in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, which was brought to our cognizance by the Düsseldorfer General-Anzeiger of the 30th December, 1914, informs us upon this point. The article emanates from Governmental circles in Brussels, probably from the immediate entourage of the Governor-General. Its object is to reply to the complaints formulated in Germany, according to which the authorities deal too gently with the Belgians. Instead of trying to revive Belgian industry, it would be better, say the critics, to crush it completely, in order to suppress future competition: on the other hand, it is claimed that the contribution of 480 million frs. is insufficient to reduce us to impotence, and that we ought to have been more severely "squeezed." The German Government in Belgium defends itself briskly against the reproach of sentimentality; it asserts that it has never allowed itself to be guided by an exaggerated mildness (and we are ready to declare that on this point at least its assertions maybe credited!). It would surely not be very intelligent, it protests, to strangle outright a country so ill-directed. Would it not be preferable to exploit Belgium scientifically, so as to make her yield as much as possible? The argument amounts to this: do not let us kill the goose that lays the golden eggs; but of course it is understood, although one need not express it explicitly, that when it is no longer in condition to lay, we shall not hesitate to cut its throat.

The Tenfold Tax on Absentees.

Many Belgians have left the country. That is easily understood. Those who were present at the massacres of Visé, Louvain, Dinant, Termonde ... hastened, in their terror, to abandon those haunts of horror. Those who lived in the towns left intact, such as Brussels and Gand, but who heard people talk of the massacres and the burnings, had also only one idea: to fly before the arrival of the Germans. Even those Belgians who did not leave at the outset eventually grew weary of the insupportable vexations inflicted on us by the authorities. Others took flight because they knew themselves to be threatened with imprisonment. Moreover, many of those who had means had prudently retired to foreign countries, to the great fury of the Germans; there was no way of getting at these "bad patriots," as it seems a German-Swiss journal called them (K.Z., 11th February, 1915); no way of forcing them to pay war-taxes. Moreover, it was these émigrés who should have kept alive the industries de luxe; finally, they were conspiring together abroad, and rendering services to the Belgian Government at Havre. If only they could be forced to return! Our enemies accepted with enthusiasm an unlucky proposal—made by certain communal administrations and immediately withdrawn by them—that the absent persons should be subjected to a special tax, equal to ten times the personal tax. The communal councils which conceived the idea of this tax immediately realized its illegality, but Baron von Bissing seized the occasion which this afforded him of persecuting the émigrés. He published, on the 16th January, a special decree on the subject of the "additional extraordinary tax upon absentees" (Belg. All.). It may be remarked that the tax touches only those who possess a certain competence.

Here are two facts which show how far life was normal in Belgium in the spring of 1915, and how far the Belgian workers were delighted to place themselves at the service of Germany.

Railway Traffic in Belgium.

(a) An article in the Düsseldorfer General-Anzeiger of the 19th April, 1915 (morning), asserts that the traffic on the Belgian railways is beginning to revive; indeed, says the writer, there are thirty-eight trains daily leaving the Gare du Nord in Brussels. He exaggerates slightly. Six weeks later, when traffic had become more active, a table, dated the 30th May, 1915, which appeared in the "Belgian" newspaper L'Information, gave the movements of trains in the Gare du Nord and Gare du Midi of Brussels for the month of June. We find that only thirty-four departures are given for the two stations. Thirty-four trains in June 1915—and in June 1914 there were 292. Compare the figures.

Trouble with the Artisans of Luttre.

(b) The insufficiency of the number of trains is in reality one of the things that most embarrasses the German authorities (see Frank. Zeit., 16th January, 1915, first morning edition). In and about the railway workshops, for example, on the sidings at Luttre, there are hundreds of locomotives out of repair and waiting for attention. But the workers employed in these shops do not intend to work for the Germans. In vain do the latter protest that engines repaired by the Belgians shall be employed only for Belgian traffic. What guarantee have they that the locomotives will not serve to transport German troops, or munitions intended to kill our brothers? Is it not a matter of public notoriety that a contract is merely a scrap of paper?

To enable the workers to resist the solicitations of the Germans the necessary relief has been distributed for the maintenance of their families. The Germans know very well that it is this money which prevents them from subduing the workers to their will. They therefore proceed with the utmost severity against the persons whose duty it is to distribute the relief. Early in April 1915 they imprisoned thirty of the notables of Luttre, Nivelles, and the neighbourhood, whom they accused of assisting the working staff of the Luttre workshops. A German official declared that the prisoners had been arrested neither by the civil authority nor the military, and that they would not proceed to trial. At the same time the administrations of the communes neighbouring upon Luttre were forced to display a proclamation requiring the men to resume work. Among the promises made to those who should resume work was one that the prisoners should be liberated. So thirty notables were thrown into prison, and kept there, in order to force Belgian artisans to work for the Germans! When it was found that in spite of everything the men would not return to the shops, the prisoners were sentenced to undergo various punishments, the maximum term of imprisonment being three months. As for the recalcitrant workers, many were sent to Germany, where they were treated in the most inhuman fashion.

Traffic Suppressed at Malines.

At the construction shops of Malines the Germans went a different way to work. There again workers were needed to repair railway material. Three hundred were called for. As they did not present themselves their addresses were obtained, and one fine morning soldiers called at their houses and manu militari led them to the shops. But there the men folded their arms and persisted in doing nothing. The Germans had to let them go.

How to obtain their submission? The Germans threatened to suppress all traffic in Malines. A singular fashion of punishing workless men who refuse to betray their country, especially after declaring that the only "guilty" persons were those who had organized the collective refusal to work! (La Belgique, 9th June, 1915). But, in accordance with the juridical principle that "the innocent must suffer with the guilty," our enemies punished the market-gardeners of the Malines district and prevented them from sending their cabbages and rhubarb and peas and asparagus to market.

After the lapse of some days the Governor-General removed the prohibition. But he did not wish it to seem that he had repented of his decision, however unreasonable the latter might be, so to keep himself in countenance he posted up a statement that a sufficient number of workers had resumed work (placard of 10th June, 1915). However, the Baron von Bissing cannot have been ignorant of the fact that none of the strikers of the Malines workshops had returned; the only workers whom the Germans had been able to recruit were some unemployed persons from Lierre, Boom, and Duffel, who had never set foot in the shops before. As they could not be employed in the manufacture of railway material, they were made to dig trenches in the direction of Wavre-Ste Catherine and Duffel.

The workers whom the soldiers led to the shops by force related that their escort begged them not to resume work, because they would then be obliged to leave Malines and to go to the Yser, a prospect which inspired them with the keenest terror.

(b) The Germans' Talent for Organization.

"The industrial and commercial prosperity" which Belgium is at present enjoying is, of course, due to the Germans' incontestable spirit of organization. "This sense of discipline and order, which the foreigner calls militarism" (Voss. Zeit., 12th February, 1915, morning), has enabled the officers of the reserve to accomplish such wonderful things that Herr Oswald F. Schütte, correspondent of the Chicago Daily News (see K.Z., 6th May, 1915, first morning edition) can scarcely find the words to describe them. "We understand," adds the same journalist, "that the Government at Havre does not look with a favourable eye upon the success with which the German administration has once more made life worth living in Belgium."

They are certainly something to be wondered at, the officers who are administering our country. Would you have proof? The Belgian officials of the Bridges and Highways Department refused to obey the Germans, so that the latter appointed their engineer officers to direct the work of repairing roads. But the work was naturally carried out by Belgian contractors. On macadamized roads the breaking of stones, which formerly cost from 18 to 22 centimes per square metre (about 2d. per square yard), now costs 60 to 65 centimes. Good business, you will say, for the contractors and their men. But no!—the difference goes into the pockets of the officers.

Conflict between Authorities.

This method of procedure naturally results in conflicts between the various administrations. We have already related (p. 157) that the city of Brussels was condemned to pay a fine of half a million francs because the civilians and the soldiers were in disagreement. Muddles of this kind testify to something quite different from a brilliant talent for organization, which the Germans would have us believe is the distinguishing mark of their administration.

Suppression of the Bureau of Free Assessment.

In order to give the impression that they alone are capable of re-starting the economic machine in Belgium, the Germans begin by dislocating the existing machinery. Thus, a group of advocates and surveyors created a bureau for the gratuitous assessment of the damage caused by the war to real estate. This body was working to the general satisfaction, when suddenly, in March 1915, the Germans decided to take its place. Now observe their methods. The applicant who wishes the damage suffered by his property to be estimated has to begin by paying a provisional deposit, after which he finds that the costs of the assessment have to be paid out of his own pocket. What this really comes to is this: the Germans, having burned a house and reduced its owner to poverty, demand that the latter shall pay in advance for the evaluation of the damage done.

The Belgian Red Cross Committee Suppressed.

Another example of the suppression of a body working in a normal manner. As soon as they occupied Brussels the Germans began to meddle in the doings of the Directing Committee of the Red Cross Society, and appointed a delegate to the Society. They then tried to force the Red Cross to exceed its duties, which were clearly specified by the international convention known as the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field. Neither in the text of the Convention of 1869, nor in that of the Convention of 1906, is there any question of other patients than soldiers wounded during hostilities. Doubtless it is a matter for praise if the Red Cross of each country should extend its action to needs existing in time of peace; in Belgium, for example, the Red Cross has organized ambulances in the International Exhibitions. But it is none the less true that its essential mission, and the only mission foreseen by the International Convention, is to ameliorate the condition of soldiers who are victims of warfare. It was therefore an abuse of the Red Cross to impose other aims upon it; to compel it, for example, to organize "the relief and support of women by means of labour." The Red Cross of Belgium decided, with abundant reason, that it could not in time of war assume novel functions, nor, above all, could it set apart for the same sums of money which were largely derived from private subscriptions entrusted to it for the succour of the wounded; it therefore refused to involve itself. After lengthy negotiations the Governor-General suspended the Belgian managing committee from its functions, and seized the funds.

We should mention that the Central Administration of the Red Cross, sitting in Geneva, decided that the Brussels Committee was in the right.

Attempting to justify their illegal attitude, the German authorities established a special journal, La Croix Rouge, Bulletin officiel de la Croix Rouge de Belgique, printed in Flemish, French, and German. This journal continues to pretend that the Belgian Committee was legally dissolved, as it would not "assist the people in the present melancholy situation."

In vain did the Germans endeavour to put the world off the scent as to their intentions. They knew perfectly well that the National Committee of Relief and Alimentation patronized and subsidized without distinction all the benevolent undertakings which applied to it (p. 176). The real aim of our enemies is to supplant the National Committee. This committee is a private institution in which they have no voice, which greatly annoys them; at most they can endeavour to make it believed that the revictualling of Belgium is effected with their assistance. But this, as may be supposed, is not enough for them; their real aim, their unavowed object, is to obtain entire control of the National Committee, in order to exercise there also their talent for organization—or, more precisely, their talent for peculation. The 40,000,000 frs. per month does not sate their appetite. What an indefinite perspective of fleshpots could they only lay hands on the revictualling of Belgium!

The whole affair of the Red Cross was conducted with annoying duplicity—annoying even to us, who nevertheless were beginning to grow accustomed to their campaign of lies. For months there were negotiations between the Belgium Managing Committee and the German authorities, represented by the Graf von Hatzfeld-Trachenberg. At each interview the latter brought forth fresh demands on the part of the Governor-General, but he always added that he was acting reluctantly, and that in his opinion the demands were unjustified; only, of course, he had to obey. (This is, by the way, the classic procedure. Whenever a German commits a dirty action he entrenches himself behind discipline.) These lame discussions lasted until the 16th April, 1915; upon a final refusal on the part of the Belgian Committee to exceed its proper functions, Graf von Hatzfeld-Trachenberg gave orders for the decree of dissolution to be read.

(c) The Belgian Attitude toward the Germans.

Our enemies spread the report that the relations between occupants and inhabitants were greatly improving, and that the Belgians had abandoned their provocative attitude, which was so unpleasant at the outset of the war. They also asserted that by the end of October the people at Antwerp had ceased to display any antipathy towards them (Köln. Volksz., 30th October, 1914, morning edition).[44] But, in truth, they flattered themselves when they stated that the Belgium people regarded them with glances full of hatred. Hatred? No; merely glances full of disdain, when by chance one could not do otherwise than gaze at them; but, as a rule, the Belgians turn their eyes away, as they turn their backs upon German music.

At Liége, in Brussels and Antwerp, and at Malines, when an officer addresses a Belgian the latter pretends not to hear (N.R.C., 20th October, 1914, morning edition), or simply states that he has not time to speak to the other; or he replies in Flemish; or else, having affected to listen to him with all the marks of the most exquisite politeness, he leaves the German standing still without replying a word. The ladies more often reply, but it is only to beg the Germans not to speak to them. The officer who asks his way is almost certain to be sent in a contrary direction; while he who climbs on the platform of a tram finds that all the passengers immediately turn their backs upon him; and this rotation is executed with the regularity and precision of a reflex movement. The officer who begs a a passer-by to lend him his cigar that he may obtain a light, sees the other disgustedly throw away the cigar which an enemy has touched. The child whom an officer condescends to caress pushes away his hand with an indignant expression, and makes the ugliest grimace he knows of. In short, they are the objects of universal detestation.

Perhaps it will be said that this attitude is peculiar to the towns which have been little or not at all affected by the war. But no! In localities which were largely burned down, such as Aerschot, Eppeghem, Dinant, and Louvain, the population behaves in a manner even more characteristic. At Dinant the children sing at the tops of their voices a Marseillaise with new words, expressly anti-German, in which a good deal is said about pigs. At Louvain some officers who used to amuse themselves with a phonograph which reproduced the record of the song Gloria, Vittoria, had to give up using it in June 1915, because the passers-by accompanied the refrains with other words: Gloria, Italia. At Eppeghem and Aerschot the children play at soldiers, with Belgian police bonnets on their heads, yelling La Brabançonne. One would say the sight of those calcined ruins, far from intimidating the Belgians, as the butchers had hoped, only whets their rebellious spirits, and that the certainty of final success has completely effaced, in the soul of the people, the memory of the terrors experienced at the time of the burnings and killings.

Not only is the Belgian population far from fraternizing with them, as they try to make the world believe, but it neglects no opportunity of proving that it is animated by very different feelings. It must be confessed that when we openly wear the Belgian or American colours it is with a double object: to advertise our attachment to our country, or our gratitude to America, and also to make the Germans furious. The little celluloid portraits of the King and Queen which one wears in the buttonhole serve the same purposes. After the Germans had imprisoned M. Max in a German prison many people displayed his portrait. This was extremely disagreeable to our enemies (Köln. Volksz., 30th September, 1914, morning edition); but precisely for that reason people persisted in wearing the little medallion until the German police demanded its forcible removal.

When the Governor-General, in the interviews which he granted the correspondents of the N.A.Z. and the Berliner Tageblatt, pretended to regard the wearing of the Belgian or American colours as a piece of childish mischief, he was simply trying to put them off the scent, for he of all people had no illusions as to the significance of the ribbons which the Belgians are wearing in their buttonholes. This significance was as follows: The Germans pretend (1) that their armies are victorious and will remain so; (2) that they will be able to dictate their terms, and will annex Belgium; (3) that this will be easy, as the Belgians are already abandoning their provocative attitude, and are beginning to fraternize with their persecutors. For the moment we cannot reply publicly to lies 1 and 2; as to 3, any Belgian who wears a little rosette tacitly proclaims that he does not wish to be taken for a craven, and that his anti-German feelings have lost none of their keenness.

Other Germans try to deceive their compatriots as to the feeling of the Belgians for their oppressors. Here is what Herr Walter Nissen says, the Bruxelles correspondent of the Düss. Gen.-Anz. (23rd July, 1915):

"Opinion in Belgium is daily becoming more conciliatory. Belgium may, for the moment, be compared with a woman who is beginning to love despite herself, and who, through pride and vexation, says 'No!' as loudly as possible, for fear anyone should see what is happening to her. But one does see it, despite the ribbons of the national colours—indeed precisely on that account."

Is this incurable blindness? Is it an ineradicable spirit of falsehood? Does Herr Nissen really doubt the sincerity of our anti-German manifestations? During the months he has lived in our midst he must have discovered that we do, systematically, everything we can to displease the Germans, until they issue decrees of prohibition.

Here is a last trait which can leave no one in doubt as to the feelings of the Belgians. In March 1915 the German authorities organized a concert in the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels. There were only three known Belgians present, among them a professor of the University of Brussels. The University showed its disapproval by sending him to Coventry.

(d) Behaviour of the German Administration.

The preceding pages have already informed the reader that the Germans have not accustomed us to look for either gentleness or sincerity. But hitherto we have not insisted on their administrative procedure, which nevertheless deserves examination.

But first let us picture to ourselves the mental condition of the Belgians since August 1914. Cut off from all intellectual relations with foreign countries, we receive independent newspapers only in secret, at the peril of our liberty, or even of our lives. Every day, on the other hand, the newspapers, mutilated by the censorship, printing only the news—often false—which is favourable to the Germans, are instilling their slow poison into our brains. No matter: the people still repulse all attempts to foment disunion and demoralization; they pull their belts a little tighter rather than go to work for the enemy; they continue, to the last, to display our colours; in short, they have retained, unshaken and unshakable, their faith in our just cause and the final victory.

The German newspapers are full of admiring articles describing the firmness of mind evinced by the German people, for they, too, consent to certain privations to ensure the success of their arms. Wonderful! The German people are unfailingly encouraged by their newspapers, their pastors and priests, their schoolmasters and professors, and by lectures and innumerable pamphlets. Everything that might cause their resolution to falter is carefully concealed from them. They are, moreover, accustomed to hold no other opinions than those which are officially presented to them. To falter, under these circumstances, would be almost incomprehensible. But in our country, on the other hand, everything is done to exhaust us, to dishearten us. The least success of the German arms becomes the "final crushing" of the enemy; the executions of Belgians who have aided their country are immediately advertised on every hand; and, finally, we are prevented, by every imaginable means, from spreading good news or preaching confidence. That in spite of all the Belgian should retain his tranquillity of mind and even his good humour is almost unbelievable, but it is true.

Here, then, is a population which is systematically refused the least item of comforting information, but which, on the other hand, is treated prodigally to everything of a nature to demoralize it; a population which, in order not to sink into despair, has to make an effort every moment of the day; a country in which it is strictly forbidden to do anything to encourage those who may suffer from a temporary depression, or to sustain and reassure those who feel themselves threatened. Is it not obvious that such pitiful psychologists as the Germans will resort to intimidation to reduce this population to their mercy? Everything is magnified into an offence, and all offences are punished by the heaviest penalties; the Germans even going so far as to threaten with death him who spreads "false news"—that is to say, who communicates news to his fellow-citizens which is displeasing to the Germans.

The Appeal to Informers.

The placards already cited show amply the diversity of the offences which may be committed, and the punishments which may be inflicted. But we must not forget those notices which order the inhabitants, often on pain of death, to inform against those persons who possess arms; to denounce those who are believed to be strangers to the commune; and those suspected of acting in a manner contrary to the orders of the German authorities.

Here are some of these notices:

Detention of Arms.

The communal administration forwards the following document:—

Important Warning.

It has come to my knowledge that the inhabitants of the country are still hiding arms and munitions in their houses.

Those who still have arms in their possession (whether firearms, bows, cross-bows, arquebuses, or knives and swords of any description) will not be punished in any way if the arms and munitions are deposited by the 15th December (noon precisely German time) at the house of the burgomaster of the commune, to be handed over to the military commandant.

After the date indicated all persons found in possession of arms or munitions will be shot. An account also will be demanded of the burgomasters concerned, and also of all the inhabitants of the houses or farms in which arms or munitions are found, as well as the neighbours of the guilty persons.

The death penalty will be imposed on all who learn of the existence of arms or munitions without warning the burgomaster of their commune, who must warn the military commandant.

The present decree forms the last appeal to the population to surrender their arms, and once the 15th December is past the severest action will be taken.

The burgomasters are personally responsible for ensuring that this warning receives the widest publication.

They are required to deposit with the nearest military authority not later than the 15th December (at six o'clock in the evening, German time) the arms and munitions that shall be delivered to them.

The Commander-in-Chief.

Thielt, 5/xii/14.

(Le Bien Public, 11th December, 1914.)

By Order of the Military Authority.

The inhabitants of Dieghem are strictly forbidden to assemble in groups.

Moreover, the inhabitants are required to bring to the Secretariat, Chaussée d'Haecht 48, those persons whom they believe to be strangers to the commune, in order to verify their identity.

The Burgomaster, G. De Connick.

(Posted at Dieghem, October 1914.)

On the Order of the German Military Authority.

The Commissary of the Arrondissement of Verviers calls the attention of the communal administrations and the inhabitants of his jurisdiction to the following regulations:—

The severest penalties will be inflicted upon offenders: whosoever shall damage the roads, telephones, or telegraphs will be HANGED. The same penalty will be inflicted on every person in whose house arms, ammunitions, and explosives shall be found. The house in which these objects are discovered will be destroyed by fire, and all the men encountered on the premises will be HANGED.

Rigorous penalties will be inflicted on localities in which roads, telephones, and telegraphs shall be damaged.

For their own safety the inhabitants of communes are invited to make known to the commandants of étapes those persons suspected of disobeying the present order or of opposing the measures taken.

On the other hand, those communes which remain tranquil, and in which this order is strictly obeyed, will enjoy the full protection of the German Government.

von Rosenberg, Colonel commanding the 29th Brigade. Verviers, 22nd August, 1914.

Those who are believed to be strangers; those who are suspected of acting contrary to orders ... it is a régime of organized suspicion, a reign of terror, informing erected into a governmental process.

The most abominable thing which the Germans have conceived in this respect is that they encourage the denunciation of militia-men by their fathers, mothers, wives, or sisters. It is a principle admitted by all civilized nations—and also, no doubt, by Germany—that the Courts definitely abstain from evoking a conflict between the paternal and maternal instinct and the duty owed to justice. It is considered that it would be revoltingly inhuman to force a father or mother to bear witness against a son. Sophocles, in the Antigone, ranks this prejudice among "the immutable laws, unwritten, which are from all eternity." Now, in Belgium, when a young man leaves his family to rejoin the Belgian army, the German authorities enjoin upon his parents, his brother, or his sister, the duty of denouncing the absent man; in other words, his father or his mother—yes, we said his mother—must deliver up the son because he is doing his duty toward his country (notice of the 9th April, 1915). And the Germans are not content with threats. If the Germans forget their promises, at least they scrupulously carry their threats into execution. At Hasselt they imprisoned a woman whose son had rejoined the Belgian army (p. 152). At Namur they have on many occasions punished the parents of soldiers who had not committed the crime of denouncing them. And not content with inflicting these disgraceful penalties—disgraceful to those who impose them—they have forced L'Ami de l'Ordre to give publicity to these sentences, to the number of ten or more. Here are the details of one sentence:

According to § 3, No. 2, of the Imperial decree of the 28th December, 1893, concerning the extraordinary proceedings of the Council of War for foreigners, the Governor of the fortified position and the province of Namur has pronounced a deprivation of liberty against the following Belgian subjects: the farmer, Félix Duquet, of Jemeppe, two months; his wife, Victoire Duquet, née Swain, one month. They had harboured their son, Clement Duquet, Belgian soldier, who had lost his regiment, for several months, instead of notifying him to the German authority; by so doing they acted in contravention of the proclamation of the Government of Namur, dated 19th September, 1914.

(L'Ami de l'Ordre, 8-9th July, 1915.)

Assuredly for the Germans the word "humanity" is void of meaning; they have replaced it by "Germanity." No doubt they regard maternal love among the Belgians as being of an essence so inferior that they need not take it into account. Yet in order not to wound the sensibilities of their own soldiers, nor those of their "brothers by race," the Flemings, they omitted any mention of mothers in the German and Flemish texts of their notice of the 4th April. As we have already stated, they feel that they need not observe towards the feelings of the Belgians—and above all of the Walloons—the same consideration as is shown towards those of the Germans.

German Espionage.

Informing cannot exist without espionage. Now we know that the Germans are past masters in this art. Every one of our towns has been favoured by a swarm of spies, male and female. In the streets, on the promenades, in the cafés, in the trams[45]—everywhere one is conscious of the invisible inspection of secret agents. Woe to him who utters aloud an opinion unfavourable to Germany, or complains of a too outrageous placard or announcement, or criticizes a passing officer or any one connected with Germany, or abuses the German army: immediately a lady or gentleman hails a German soldier, and the offender is taken to the Kommandantur. And when a Belgian enters the Kommandantur he does not know when he will come out again; there he awaits, sometimes for several days, his turn to be interrogated; and after that imprisonment is certain. Not, of course, that he is always condemned; it sometimes happens that the offence has not been proved; but even so, "his hash is settled," for while he has been waiting his turn his house has been searched, and where is the house that does not contain some letter from a son or a brother who is a soldier? Prohibited correspondence! Sentenced!

Agents-provocateurs or "Traps."

A close espionage surrounds those who undertake the carrying of letters or the introduction of newspapers. In this case the spies work principally by means of "traps"—agents-provocateurs. A spy introduces himself to the person suspected of dealing with correspondence; he pretends he has a letter to send or receive. If the suspect listens to him, a picket of soldiers and policemen arrives on the following day to make a search. Other spies will speak in the street to a seller of newspapers; they will ask for a French or English journal, and scarcely has the vendor taken the forbidden journal from his pocket than a hand falls upon his collar.

It is also by means of "traps" that the Germans catch those who enable our militia to escape from the country. A young man, of the proper age, goes in search of the suspected person, and by means of false papers passes himself off for a patriot who wants to take his place at the front. Arrangements being made, the spy departs; but a skilfully set trap enables him to catch a whole group of young fellows. It matters little to our cause, however, since for every one arrested hundreds cross into Holland every week. Many Belgians devote themselves to this patriotic task, though they well know that in case of failure they will be sent into Germany or shot. It should be said that their most active helpers are the soldiers of the Landsturm, the guardians of the frontiers, who, according to an established tariff, for the sake of alcohol or money, close their eyes as our militia-men cross the frontier.

One step further along the path of the informer, the spy, and the "trap," and we come to means whose ignominy is such that even the Germans themselves are forced to admit their dishonesty.

Thus, at Liége most of the letter-boxes on the house-doors are closed by means of nails. Why? At the end of 1914 many citizens of Liége used to receive Le Courrier de la Meuse, a newspaper edited and printed at Maestricht by Belgian refugees. There was no great mystery about its distribution; the paper was simply slipped into the letter-box. But the German agents spied on the vendors, and having done so, searched the houses at which the newspaper was delivered. The subscriber, of course, was condemned to pay a fine. Did part of this go to the spy? It is probable; in any case it was not long before the spies were importing Le Courrier de la Meuse in order themselves to place it in the letter-boxes of well-to-do houses. A search conducted immediately revealed the prohibited article, and, in spite of the indignant denials of the victim, the fine was inflicted.

At Ferrières, near Jemelle, worse than this was done. A German priest pretended that the curé of Ferrières had repeated, before a witness, a private conversation held some hours earlier. Moreover, he wanted to garble the conversation. The abbé's action was repugnant in such a degree that even Baron von Bissing himself was a little uneasy about the matter, and revoked the punishment awarded to the Belgian.

While the mission of the spies and agents-provocateurs—including the abbés-provocateurs or ecclesiastical "traps"—was to procure the condemnation to various penalties of as many Belgians as possible, other "agents" in the pay of Germany commenced a vast inquiry, in order to prove, in the face of the evidence itself, the crimes of the "francs-tireurs." Well!—in spite of all the manœuvres of spies and provocateurs and the inquirers themselves, in spite of the personal rancour which impelled a few rare Belgians to become the accomplices of the Germans, and to denounce, in a spirit of vengeance, certain of their fellow-citizens, never did the Germans succeed in mentioning a single name, not one single name, of a Belgian civilian accused of having fired upon the German troops. We say expressly "accused," and not "convicted," to show that nowhere, in village or provincial town, although petty rivalry is so acute, and although informers, even though anonymous, would have been welcomed with joy by the Germans, nowhere was any one found to assert that a Belgian civilian had fired on the German troops. No, it was so improbable, so manifestly false, that not even the most miserable of wretches would have dreamed of formulating such a calumny.

The Germans wanted to make us believe that anonymous letters were pouring in upon them, but that they, as upright administrators, refused to follow up these accusations (Declaration, 4th May, 1915). Obviously a lie. We know them capable of themselves fabricating these anonymous accusations, simply to cause the Belgians mental uneasiness, and to give rise to mutual suspicion. This is yet another attempt to cause dissension.

For the rest, they have since then admitted that they have invited denunciation. Worse than this: denunciation is enough to procure condemnation; it is not necessary for the offence to be proved.

Notice.

Cases are increasingly frequent in which letters are sent to Belgian soldiers at the front by means of intermediaries.

I remind the public that this is strictly prohibited. Any person denounced to the German authorities for such action will be subjected to a severe penalty.

The Governor of the Fortified Position and the Province of Namur.

(L'Ami de l'Ordre, 13th June, 1915.)

We should never come to an end were we to mention all the tricks and shifts that enter into their methods of administration. We will confine ourselves to relating one or two more.

According to the Hague Convention, the functionaries of an occupied territory who remain at their posts must declare that they will undertake nothing, and will refrain from everything, that may be contrary to the interests of the occupier. Note two essential points: it is only the officials who are required to sign this agreement, and they undertake to refrain from anything that may be hurtful to the occupier.

Now in January 1915 the German administration of Namur wished to force the entire male population of the canton of Éghezée between the ages of eighteen and forty to sign the following declaration:—

"I the undersigned promise, conformably with the Hague Convention of the 18th October, 1907, to continue scrupulously and loyally the fulfilment of my functions, to undertake nothing against the interests of the German Empire, and I promise to prevent all that might be injurious thereto."

In certain communes the inhabitants, meaning well and imperfectly informed as to their rights and duties, signed this declaration, which is an improper one, as it was required of all the inhabitants, and not only of the officials; moreover, it made the signatories promise to prevent what was injurious to the Germans, not merely to refrain from it. Up to a certain point, therefore, all the inhabitants were obliged to place themselves at the service of the German authorities. Some burgomasters refused to allow the document to be signed as it stood. They added, on their own authority, the following sentence:—

"With the reservation of being able to respond freely to the appeal of the Belgian Government if the latter comes to resume possession of the country at present occupied by the German armies."

The Germans did not accept this addition; they proposed a new form of words:—

"I the undersigned promise, conformably with the provisions of the Hague Convention of 18th October, 1907, to continue scrupulously and faithfully in the performance of my functions, to undertake nothing against the interests of the German Empire, to refrain from all that might injure it."

In many villages the people again refused to sign. Men between 18 and 40 years of age cannot promise to continue in the performance of functions which they have never fulfilled. What did the Germans do? They forced all the male inhabitants of the recalcitrant communes to present themselves daily at Éghezée, the chief town of the canton. But eventually they realized that it was iniquitous to make these men lose half their day every day simply because they, the Germans, were demanding an absolutely illegal thing. So the daily muster at Éghezée was abandoned.

The German administration falsely invoked the Hague Convention of 1907 in addressing the peasants, who doubtless did not even know the Convention by name, and it tried twice over to take advantage of their good faith. It is not surprising that the inhabitants of the province of Namur should have become suspicious, so that they would not willingly put their names to any paper presented by the Germans. In May it was only after long negotiations and threats that the young men of Rhisnes and Emines signed their identification cards, which, according to the Germans, "imposed no engagement on the signatory." We have not ourselves seen the wording of this card, so we cannot speak as to its tenor; but it is curious that the Germans should be so insistent upon the signing of a card having so little significance.

They also wished to impose, on the civic guard of Rhisnes and Emines, the engagement that they would no longer bear arms against Germany. More than half the men refused, and were sent as prisoners of war to Germany.

Monday, 3rd May, in the morning, sixty-nine Belgian militia-men of the communes of Rhisnes and Emines were arrested because they refused to sign their identification cards, which contained nothing else than the information as to their persons necessary to complete such a document. They were taken to the prison of the fortress. On 6th May they were questioned a second time, and, having all without exception signed, they were immediately released.

Tuesday, 4th May, 107 members of the civic guard at Rhisnes were arrested because they refused to sign the declaration that they would not bear arms against Germany and her Allies during this war. In the course of the same day forty-nine signed the declaration and were released. The other fifty-eight maintained their refusal, and were transported to Germany as prisoners of war on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday, the 5th May, eighty members of the civic guard of Emines and Warisoulx were arrested for the same reason; forty signed the declaration and were released. The rest were transported to Germany on the evening of the 6th May as prisoners of war.

Similarly on the 5th May, in the afternoon, 170 men, part being members of the civic guard and part militia-men of the communes of Taviers, Dhuy, St.-Germain, Hemptinne, Villers-lez-Heest, and Bovesse, were arrested because they refused to sign their identification cards. The Government hopes that these men will reflect and hear reason, and that they will submit spontaneously to this measure, which serves only for purposes of registration, so that they may be released.

It is expressly added that the signature of the identification cards imposes no engagement on the signatory; these cards contain only information as to identity, and all the Belgian militia-men, as well as the members of the civic guard, have been several times informed upon this point.

(Communicated.)

(L'Ami de l'Ordre, 7th and 8th May, 1915.)

Let us look into this case.

In the first place, there never was a civic guard at Rhisnes nor at Emines, so that it is absolutely fraudulent to give this title to all the male adult inhabitants; and since they have not been civic guards they have never borne arms against Germany, and cannot therefore engage to cease doing so. Here again appears the German duplicity in all its beauty. The men of Rhisnes and Emines assure us that the paper said "no longer bear arms against Germany." The Germans have imposed a communiqué upon L'Ami de l'Ordre which gives another version—"not to bear arms."

But in the communiqué provided by the German authorities and published in La Belgique on the 5th June, our enemies recognize that the document said "no longer bear arms." However, a German communiqué is never entirely truthful; and this one forms no exception to the rule. Conforming to the truth in this respect, it departs from it in another. It says, in effect, that the men of Rhisnes "regarded themselves as still belonging to the Belgian Army." What absurdity! They refused to sign precisely because the Germans wished to make them say that they did belong to the Army!

In August and September 1914 the Germans were sending Belgians into Germany as civil prisoners; in May 1915 they were sending them as prisoners of war. The difference is important, since the Hague Convention states that the cost of maintenance of war prisoners falls upon their country of origin, but that it is not speaking of civil prisoners. This is why the civilians of Rhisnes and Emines went to Germany as prisoners of war, as did the curé and the vicar of Cortemarck (p. 72).

We have already cited (p. 233) one case of premeditated abuse of a signature. Here is another: In October 1914 the German authorities of Mont St.-Guibert (between Ottignies and Trembloux) had the following placard posted:—

Notice.

1. All the male inhabitants of the commune aged from 18 to 45 years, rich or poor, must present themselves to-morrow, Tuesday, morning, the 6th October, at 7 o'clock in the morning (Belgium time) at the railway booking-office.

2. These inhabitants can no longer change their place of residence; their names have been given to the military authorities.

Those who do not carry out this order, who seek to escape, will be made prisoners and will render themselves liable to be shot. The families of offenders will be taken as prisoners and their property destroyed.

3. English, French, or Russians who are in the locality must be delivered to the military authorities. The same with Belgians having belonged to the Army who are deserters or have been prisoners. Offenders will be punished by death.

4. Fire-arms of all kinds which are still in possession of the inhabitants must be deposited immediately with the commandant of the railway-station. Those who are discovered to be still in possession of these arms, after the publication of this notice, will be shot.

5. Assemblies for roll-call will be held from time to time. The day and hour will be given in advance.

6. Umbrellas and sticks are forbidden at the station. Men must not present themselves in a state of drunkenness.

Mont St.-Guibert, 5th October, 1914. The Burgomaster, E. Wautier.

The Commandant of the Railway-station, Hamich, Sergeant.

This placard threatens penalties, even shooting, for the failure to attend at the railway-station; moreover, the offender's family is of course held responsible. So far it is commonplace enough. We will say nothing as to the grade of officer who thus disposes of the lives of citizens—he is a sergeant; but we know that the humblest German soldier possesses every right. What does rather surpass the usual level German administrative procedure is the fact that the burgomaster, whose name figures at the bottom of the placard, knew nothing of the latter until it was posted. The sergeant had used his name without deigning to consult him.

To give a complete idea of the administrative methods employed by the Germans against our country, it will be as well rapidly to describe how they behaved in a certain locality immediately after proceeding against the "francs-tireurs." Hitherto we have dealt only with places where they did not have to carry out "reprisals." We will now select Andenne, on account of the particularly savage character of the "repression" which drenched this unhappy town with blood and fire. Here are the facts in their tragic sequence:—

The German patrol which penetrated into the town on the 19th August, 1914, went straight to the house of the communal receiver and seized the funds: 2,232 frs.

On the following day the bulk of the troops arrived. That evening, between 6 and 9 p.m., a very sharp fusillade broke out. Immediately the civilians were accused of having fired, and the troops began to shoot down the inhabitants and burn the houses.

On the following morning—the 21st August—all the inhabitants not yet shot were driven into the Place des Tilleuls. The men were herded on one side, the women on the other. From time to time Major Scheunemann, who commanded the operations, had a few men shot, sometimes before the whole population, sometimes a little apart. During the morning the soldiers dragged the corpse of the burgomaster, Dr. Camus, into the Place. As soon as Major Scheunemann learned of the death of the first magistrate, he appointed as burgomaster M. de Jaer, who was one of the group of persons waiting their turn to be shot. From that moment the order was given to kill no more; they contented themselves with sack and pillage. There were then 300 houses burned at Andenne and at Seilles, and 300 inhabitants were shot (11th Report).

We will confine ourselves, as regards the events which followed the burning and the massacre, to reprinting the placard posted at Andenne during the first ten days of the occupation:—

Inhabitants of Andenne.

By order of the German military authority occupying the town of Andenne:—

All the men are held as hostages.

Per shot fired on the German troops, there will be at least two hostages shot.

The hostages will be fed by the women, who will carry them the necessaries close to the bridge at 6 in the evening and 8 in the morning.

Women are strictly forbidden to converse with the hostages.

All the streets and public places will immediately be cleaned by all the women of the town, on pain of immediate arrest.

It is strictly forbidden to move about the town after 7 in the evening and before 7 in the morning, on pain of severe repression.

The dead will immediately be buried without any formality.

Young people over 14 and the women must give their assistance in every case of requisition.

It is strictly forbidden to show oneself at the windows.

By order of the German military authority, The Burgomaster Designate, E. de Jaer.

The Secretary, Monrique. Andenne, the 31st August, 1914.

Proclamation.[46]

On the 20th August of this year there was firing from numerous houses of the town of Andenne on the German troops who were passing through the town; bombs also were thrown. It is certain that the first outbreak of firing occurred, according to a certain plan, at precisely the same time in several streets: in the Rue Brun, the Rue de l'Hôtel de Ville, the Place des Tilleuls, and several other streets. A number of soldiers have been killed or wounded and war material damaged.

After denying the first attacks, there was again firing from many houses for several hours, and again on the 21st August, at two o'clock in the afternoon, an under-officer was killed by a shot from one of the houses in the Rue de l'Hôtel de Ville.

Those guilty inhabitants who have hitherto been found have been shot by the Council of War, but it was not possible to find the persons who arranged the plot.

We appeal, however, to the honour of the City of Andenne, which appears in the eyes of the civilized world as a nest of murderers and bandits.

Perhaps it is possible to restore the honour of this town; this is why the inhabitants are invited, in their own interest, to communicate to the military authority all that may make it possible to make progress in revealing the plot and its authors.

He who delivers proofs capable [of revealing, etc.] receives according to their value a reward of 500-1000 frs.

The measures which have been taken will or might be sooner mitigated as soon as inquiry shall have made progress to make known the guilty.

The Commandant of the City.

Andenne, the 22nd August, 1914.

Andenne, Sunday, 23rd August, 1914.

Official Notice.

Between Saarburg and Metz there has been a great battle. The German troops have made 21,000 French prisoners.

Long live His Majesty the Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia and Margrave of Brandenburg!

Scheunemann, Major and Chief of Department.

Official Notice.

The revictualling of the population will be effected by the efforts of the Military Administration, assisted by the Civil Administration of Andenne constituted by the German Government, as far as possible.

1. In this connection, the sale of provisions and commodities is strictly forbidden.

2. Householders are advised to report at once the quantity of their provisions. Commodities will be taken for cash or redeemable voucher.

3. It would be in the interest of the population to announce exactly the quantity of their provisions.

4. Provisions not exceeding two days for the family need not be reported.

5. All the available forces of the commune are in the care of the Administration for the harvest.

Properties abandoned will be harvested as the rest.

The Commandant of the Town of Andenne.

27th August, 1914.

Proclamation.

I have confidence in the Administration and in the population, that now each will be careful to obey as strictly as possible the orders of the Kommandantur in order to soften as far as possible the misfortune caused by the criminal deeds of a few inhabitants.

This is why I object to all that prevents the free circulation of the inhabitants. I trust that none of the inhabitants of Andenne and Seilles will make use of their liberty save for the prosperity of the commune.

The Administrations of Andenne and Seilles are working with me day and night to bring about a settled state of affairs.

All questions of revictualling and welfare must be addressed directly to the Administrations of Andenne and Seilles, which have also the power to require the inhabitants to work.

The German Army displays the greatest severity and energy if it is perfidiously attacked by the inhabitants, but it sincerely desires to use justice and humanity towards the people, if the conduct of the inhabitants permit.

Der Kommandant, Schultze, Hauptmann.

Andenne, 25th August, 1914.

To the Inhabitants of Andenne.

We call the attention of the population to the proclamation which the Military Commandant has just handed to us on leaving.

I am leaving this town in the expectation that it will perform, as during the last few days, and also in the future, all that may ensure orderly conduct towards the German Army.

I hand over the new bridge to the town for its use, and require it to be responsible for its safety and to maintain it in good condition.

For the present a small garrison will remain here, which will be fed and lodged by the town.

If all energies are permanently directed upon the prosperity of the town of Andenne and Seilles these localities will soon be cured of the grave wounds which the war has inflicted upon these communes, by their own fault.

Schultze, Hauptmann.

Andenne, 28th August, 1914.

We are profiting by this occasion to congratulate and to thank the inhabitants of Andenne for the admirable manner in which they have behaved, during these latter days, and we urge them strongly to assist the Communal Administration to repair as far possible the great misfortunes which we have experienced.

The Burgomaster delegated by the Military Authority, E. de Jaer.

The Secretary, Monrique. Andenne, 28th August, 1914.

Proclamation.[47]

1. From Saturday, 29th August, 1914, midday, all the clocks must be set to the German time (one hour earlier).

2. Assemblies of more than three persons are strictly forbidden under penalty of fines.

3. To move about after 8 p.m. the authorization of M. le Commandant is required.

4. Arms must be deposited with the guard at the Casino, by noon on the 29th inst.

Where arms are still found in the houses after this date, the householder will be hanged.

5. The German troops requiring absolute tranquillity, workmen can return to work at once. Tho least revolt on the part of the inhabitants will result in the complete burning of the town, and the men will be hanged.

Simons, Lieut.-Col. and Commander-in-Chief. Becker, Captain and Commander-in-Chief.

To the Inhabitants of Andenne.

Dear Fellow-Citizens,

We are happy to announce to you that the military authority will show the greatest goodwill towards us if, as we doubt not, the worthy population of Andenne continues to remain perfectly quiet, to labour with courage, and to obey authority with docility, as it has done up to the present, for which we thank it.

At a military fête, at which the military authority expressly invited us to be present, all the troops, including the officers—in our presence, and before many of the notables of Andenne, and Dean Cartiaux in particular—repeatedly shouted "Hurrah for Andenne!"

In the name of all of you, much affected, we expressed our thanks.

Dear friends, have confidence in us; we are working with all our souls for the safety of Andenne.

We have assured the military authority that the soldiers might be perfectly at ease in our midst, that none of us would wish to commit the least aggression—that, on the contrary, we shall all treat the Germany Army with complete loyalty. We have been responsible for you. In return, we ask you only one thing: it is, to continue to do what you have done until to-day, and, if, by some impossible chance, there should be among us an ill-conditioned person who might be capable of compromising honest people, point him out to us; for our worthy fellow-citizens must not be responsible for the crimes of a scoundrel.

Let the German Army be sure that the communal administration will with the utmost promptness hand over to it any one guilty of an act of ill-will, whoever he may be.

Dear fellow-citizens, patience and courage to support privation. Be easy in your minds; we are with you.

The Burgomaster delegated by the Military Authority, Dr. Ledoyen, E. de Jaer, Councillor Lahaye. The Secretary, Monrique,

Andenne, 30th August, 1914.

Proclamation.

I am under the impression that the greater portion of the inhabitants desire tranquillity, therefore I invite them not to leave the town.

Before employing violent means, I shall make a strict inquiry to discover the guilty persons in case a revolt should break out.

I therefore expect of the population of Andenne that it will do everything to ensure that no German soldier shall be molested otherwise I shall be forced to act in accordance with the measures of my first proclamation.

Becker, Captain, L.I.R. 29, and Commandant-in-Chief.

One word as to these placards.

Placard of the 21st August.—The men are all regarded as hostages; the women have to feed them; they also have to clean up the town.

Placard of the 22nd August.—The military authorities declare, on the 22nd of August, that Andenne, where the "attacks of francs-tireurs" were repressed during the night of the 20th and the morning of the 21st, is already regarded by the whole civilized world as "a nest of murderers and bandits." It offers a reward of 500 to 1000 frs. to any one who will denounce the author of the plot. It also promises, to excite the zeal of the informers, that the severe measures in force will be mitigated as soon as the leaders are discovered. (No one was denounced.)

1st Placard of the 23rd August.—This announces the great victory between Sarrebourg and Metz: 21,000 French prisoners were taken. (An attempt to demoralize the population.) Note that the Wolff Agency reported only 10,000 prisoners; where did Major Scheunemann find the other 11,000?

2nd Placard of the 23rd August.—The Germans are attending to the revictualling of Andenne. (In reality the people of Andenne were starving.)

Placard of the 25th August.—The German administration is strict, but just. (The people of Andenne had noticed the severity.)

1st Placard of the 28th August.—Once again the inhabitants are urged to remain calm, and are congratulated on their good conduct. (The burgomaster was forced to countersign this proclamation. Had he seen it first?)

2nd Placard of the 28th August.—The German time is made compulsory. Assemblies of more than three persons are prohibited. If arms are found in a house their owner will be hanged. At the least disturbance, the complete burning of the town and the hanging of the men.

1st Placard of the 30th August.—The German troops, having pillaged Andenne and shot down its inhabitants, now shout "Hurrah for Andenne!" Then a fresh appeal to informers.

2nd Placard of the 30th August.—The German authorities now promise to make an inquiry if there is another revolt. (This inquiry would have been a novelty.)

E.—Ferocity.

We may be brief, for the cruel character of Kultur is so obvious, and appears so plainly from the documents cited, that it would be idle to insist upon it.

If it were necessary to justify our aversion, we need only remark that the cruelties recorded were systematically premeditated. Do not the Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege (Usages of War on Land according to the Great General Staff) state that the observation of these usages is not "guaranteed by any sanction other than the fear of reprisals," and that the officer, the child of his age, carried away by the moral tendencies which affect his country, must protect himself "against exaggerated humanitarian ideas," and must realize that "the only true humanity often resides in the unmitigated employment of these severities?" If such principles are professed by the highest authorities, the German soldier will not shrink from any degree of violence; for he knows that wickedness will not merely provide him with amusement; it will also help to achieve the final aim of warfare.

So that the officer shall be in no danger of forgetting the spirit in which he should conceive his relations with the enemy population, he carries some such aid to memory as the Tornister-Wörterbuch. If he has letters or proclamations to draft, he has recourse to L'Interprète Militaire of Captain von Scharfenort, professor and librarian at the Academy of War in Berlin. M. Waxweiler (in La Belgique Neutre et Loyale, p. 265) has already drawn attention to the cruel and odious character of this vade-mecum, so we will not enlarge upon it. It was after consulting L'Interprète Militaire that a certain placard posted in Belgium in the August of 1914 was drafted. It gives no details as to the "lugubrious cruelties"; it applies both to towns and villages; it speaks of the "mayor" instead of the "burgomaster"; it is neither dated nor signed; in short, it presents all the characteristics of an "emergency placard," drafted beforehand.

Proclamation.

We are not making war upon citizens, but only on the enemy army.

In spite of this, the German troops have been attacked in great number by persons who do not belong to the army. They have committed acts of the most lugubrious cruelty not only against combatants, but also against our wounded and our doctors who are under the protection of the Red Cross. To prevent these brutalities I order that which follows:

1. Any person who does not belong to the army and who is found arms in hand, will be shot instantly. He will be regarded as outside the laws of nations.

2. All arms, rifles, pistols, Brownings, sabres, daggers, etc., and all explosive material, must be delivered immediately by the mayors of every village or town to the commander of the German troops; if a single weapon is found, no matter in what house, or if any act has been committed against our troops, our transports, our telegraph lines, our railways, etc., or if any one gives asylum to francs-tireurs; the guilty persons and the hostages who will be taken in each village will be shot without pity. Besides this, the inhabitants of the villages, etc., in question will be driven out. The villages and towns even will be demolished and burned. If this happens on the road of communication between two villages or two towns, the inhabitants of the two villages will be treated in the same manner.

I expect the mayors and populations will be able, by their prudent supervision and conduct, to ensure the safety of our troops as well as their own.

In the contrary case, the measures indicated above will come into force.

Signed: The General Commanding-in-Chief. (No name.)

The appeal to brutality comes from above. In 1900 the whole world shuddered at the advice which Wilhelm II gave the expeditionary corps setting out for China. "Follow the example of the Huns," cried the Kaiser. Why, then, do the Germans profess to be annoyed when compared to-day with the soldiers of Attila—or when their motto is spelt Gott mit Huns?

A German lieutenant, whose military note-book we have had before us, does full justice to his companions. After the massacre and burning of Ottignies on the 20th August, 1914, he wrote as follows (we translate):—

The inhabitants were in the square, under a guard of soldiers. Several men were condemned by the Council of War and at once put to death. The women, dressed in black, as in a solemn procession, then departed. Among those who had just fallen, how many innocent were shot! The village has been literally sacked: the "blond brute" has shown himself for what he is. The Huns and the freebooters of the Middle Ages could not have done better. The houses are burning now, and when the action of the fire is not enough we raze what remains standing.

Very suggestive too is the placard of the 26th April, 1915, in which Baron von Bissing informs us that according to Mr. Fox, an American journalist, the Germans have committed no useless "cruelties." Then there are useful cruelties? Really the Governor-General, who seems to know his subject, ought to publish a table differentiating the various qualities of cruelty.

But a thing that does surprise us is that the virus of cruelty should already have contaminated civilians—I mean the Catholic members of the Reichstag. Herr Erzberger, the same who asserted, and who perhaps is asserting still, that the Belgians invaded Germany on the 2nd August, wrote what are perhaps the most coldly ferocious words imaginable: "Above all, no sentimentality!" (N.R.C., 6th February, 1916, evening edition).

Such advice bore fruit, as we shall discover when we come to examine, in succession, the physical and moral tortures in which our executioners delight. But first let us cite a few examples of aggravations. By that we mean acts of malice which do not endanger the life or reason of the victims, but which reveal, perhaps the more clearly for that, the desire to torment.

1. Aggravations.

A general remark occurs to us at once: it is that the Germans have failed in their object. For instead of exasperating us to the point of forcing us to commit some imprudence, which they would have been obliged to repress, they simply made sure of our profound contempt. To tell the truth, each fresh persecution makes us furious for a day; but the sense of irony soon regains the upper hand, and then we have only one anxiety: to make their latest form of vexation ridiculous by all the means in our power.

Nothing better shows the contrast between the German mentality and the Belgian than the manner in which we have obeyed the decree concerning the German time.

After only a week's occupation the inhabitants of Andenne were obliged to set their clocks to the German time. At Namur, too, this was required from the 31st August. Elsewhere the German time was enforced only at a much later date, and only in respect of the clocks in cafés. Many cabaret-keepers merely stopped their clocks; others had fitted a second small hand, an hour in retard of the first; others wrote beneath the clock "German Time," or even "This clock is an hour fast." In the window of a Brussels watchmaker, in the midst of many clocks which indicated more or less precisely the German time, was one which was specially labelled "Correct Time"—and that one told, of course, the Belgian time. In short, every one did what he could to avoid letting his customers regard the German time as the true time. And really, if one has adopted, as is the case in Germany and in Belgium, the system of hourly segments, it is obvious that Belgium ought to form part of the segment of Western Europe, not part of that of Eastern Europe. It is, therefore, solely in a spirit of aggravation that Germany forces her time upon us; and she is fully aware of this, as her public notices are always careful to speak of "German time," not of "Central European time."

Treatment inflicted upon Belgian Ladies.

What do you think of the additional suffering inflicted on ladies condemned to several weeks' imprisonment for having conveyed letters from Belgian soldiers to the parents of those soldiers, or for speaking a little too boldly before an officer, or for some other crime of a like nature? It is a delicate idea to shut them up in common with half a score of other prisoners, in a room containing no convenience but a pail furnished with a cover. They are lucky if the company does not include some very dubious characters.

We need not insist: these are aggravations, not serious at bottom, but their irritating nature can only be fully appreciated when one suffers them daily, or hears them described by friends or relatives who have been their victims.

After the examples of collective and impersonal malfeasance dictated by some high officer desirous of justifying the fair fame of Kultur, we will take those cases in which the personality of the author clearly reveals itself, and, let us say at once, in which this personality instantly excites the disgust and indignation of all merely civilized persons.

The Germans reached Capelle-au-Bois on the 30th August. But on the 31st they were repulsed by Belgian troops. On the 4th September they returned in force and forced back the Belgians; not without difficulty, however, for they had many killed, of whom nineteen were buried at Capelle-au-Bois. With the Belgian troops as they withdrew went all the inhabitants of the village, leaving behind them only a few helpless old people. In this all but empty village, where no one was left to offer them the least resistance, the Germans hastened to kill several inhabitants—four, it is believed. Then, under the orders of Captain von Puttkammer, the strong-boxes were broken open, the objects of value packed and sent to Germany, and the wines carried to the bank of the canal and into the houses occupied by the officers. On the evening of the 4th September the troops set fire to the village. Thanks to incendiary pastilles and benzine pumps, the fire spread rapidly; 235 houses were burned of the three hundred which formed the heart of the village. So far all was as usual; but here is the characteristic fact. The better to enjoy the spectacle the troops spent the evening on the bank of the canal; there they organized a little orgie, over eight hundred empty bottles being afterwards discovered.

At the same period the Germans established a few miles further to the west, at Londerzeel, pillaged and then burned the house of the notary, M. Van Hover. They had tried in vain to open the safe, so, furious at their failure, they poured benzine into it and set fire to it, procuring at least the satisfaction of knowing that all the papers would be reduced to ashes.

What are we to think of the officer who, lodging in the house of a curé in the province of Antwerp, found it amusing to tear pages from the books which formed his host's library, or to gum them together, so that in seeking to separate them the owner himself would tear them? Note that it was no clown who devised this kindly pastime, for he took care to choose, in the Latin books, the pages bearing the most important passages.[48]

Filthy Amusements.

Others preferred to defile things. When in August and September 1914 we were told that the Germans were amusing themselves by depositing ordure in their beds we refused to believe in such perversion. But a walk through Eppeghem, Sempst, and Weerde was enough to enlighten us. Not only had they emptied all the houses, rich or poor; not only had they taken the trouble to smash into quite small pieces all the glass and crockery they could not carry away; not only, in the grocers' shops, had they delighted themselves by mixing snuff with the butter, and tacks with the cloves, and pepper with the flour, but all the bedding bore the malodorous traces of their visit.

Let it not be imagined that this mania of beastliness is peculiar to the common soldiers. The officers who spent the night of the 19th August, 1915, at Cortenburg, between Louvain and Brussels, were infected by the same Kultur. In a certain house they carefully laid the table in the dining-room, without forgetting the serviettes, and then deposited a souvenir on every plate. In another house in Cortenburg they chose, as a receptacle, the tall hat of the householder. In the château of Malderen (Brabant), having taken all that pleased them and broken the rest into small pieces, they opened a card-table, deposited their excrement there, and carefully closed it again.

Another manifestation of the scatological mania: Many hundreds of German Army surgeons met in congress during the Easter holidays of 1915, in Brussels. On the last day of the congress, Wednesday, the 7th April, a banquet was held, on the premises of the Palais de Justice. On the Thursday morning it was discovered that the surgeons had left souvenirs behind them; they had evacuated the surplus of food and liquor consumed by the three natural orifices, and had chosen for their purpose the most beautiful halls of the Palais. Frankly, we should not have expected this from the doctors; it is true, however, that they were German military doctors.

A man amuses himself as he can—or, to put it more plainly, according to his mentality. After all, these beastly habits, disgusting as they are, are not those whose results are most disagreeable.

There are others who seek violent contrasts. Thus, at Houtem, while the church was burning, on the 13th September, 1914, a military band was playing its liveliest selections at a few yards' distance. At Monceau-sur-Sambre, on the 22nd August, officers were playing the piano in the château of the demoiselles Bourriez, on the Trazegnies road, when the soldiers had already lit the upper floors. At Louvain, on the 25th August, 1914, in a café near the railway-station, soldiers set fire to the upper floor without warning the proprietor, and remained below, where they kept a mechanical piano going. They were thus able to enjoy the despairing expressions of the inmates when they discovered that they could no longer hope to save anything.

2. Physical Tortures.

We shall not here refer to the innumerable cases of torture cited in the Reports of the Commission of Inquiry, nor those reported in Nothomb's La Belgique Martyre. We will confine ourselves to facts of which we have personal knowledge. The Germans will, of course, seek to deny them. So it is as well to begin by a declaration of their own. Vorwärts, on the 23rd August, 1914 (the very day on which the chief atrocities were committed in the Dinant district), protested against the proposal made by a German officer, not to kill francs-tireurs outright, but to wound them mortally and leave them to die slowly in agony, while forbidding any one to go to their assistance. What to our mind is even graver than the proposition itself is the fact that the Deutsches Offizierblatt accepted it as quite a natural thing.

It is clear that where they are proved, the cruelties committed by our enemies must be denounced, and that everything must be done to prevent their repetition. However, we must not allow the recital of these cruelties to force us to resort to a sort of policy of retaliation, or lead us to wash out what others have done with innocent blood.

What are we to say when we find an organ like the Deutsches Offizierblatt expressing its sympathy for the following proposition: The "brutes" captured as francs-tireurs should not be shot outright, but should be fired upon and left to their fate, all succour being prevented? What again are we to say when it is added that the destruction, in reprisal, of whole localities even does not represent "a sufficient vengeance for the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier assassinated"? These are the imaginings of bloodthirsty fanatics, and we are ashamed to perceive that men capable of speaking thus exist in our nation. Such expressions, even if they are not carried into action, are truly of a nature to place our struggle in an unfavourable light all the world over.

(Vorwärts, 23rd August, 1914.)

The Fate of the Valkenaers Family.

One of the most horrible tragedies of this war was the massacre of the Valkenaers family, at Thildonck, on the 26th August, 1914, while Louvain was burning. Because they had not prevented the Belgian soldiers from utilizing their farms as points of support, the members of the two Valkenaers households were shot down in cold blood. Of these fourteen unfortunate people three were grievously wounded and seven killed. The better to amuse themselves, the Germans forced the elder of the young girls to wave a sort of flag.

During the preceding night (that of the 25th August), in Louvain, they had savagely mangled the corpse of a young woman.

On the afternoon of the 25th, being still in the immediate neighbourhood, at Bueken, they had seized the curé and cut off his nose and ears before giving him the coup de grâce (p. 238). At the same time began the torture of the curé of Pont-Brûlé, to end only on the 26th.

At Elewijt, on the 27th, they amused themselves by amputating the hands of four men—the three brothers Van der Aa and François Salu.

A little further to the east the first German troops who had passed through Schaffen, near Diest, on the 13th or 14th August, had there tortured the blacksmith Broeden. All day long he had laboured, shoeing the horses of the enemy's cavalry. Early in the evening he repaired to the church, with the sacristan, with the object of saving some precious articles which had not been placed in security. He was surprised by the soldiery and seized. Successively the Germans broke his wrists, his arms, and his legs; perhaps he suffered yet other tortures. When he was practically lifeless the soldiers asked him whether he thought that he would in future be capable of undertaking any kind of labour. On his replying, in an almost inaudible voice, that he did not, they declared that in that case he ought not to continue to live. Immediately they threw him, head first, into a ditch dug for the purpose; then the ditch was filled, leaving his feet protruding.

In other parts of the country also the most varied tortures. At Spontin, near Dinant, on the 23rd August, 1914, they pierced the curé and the burgomaster with bayonet-wounds until death ensued; but first they had bound each man with a strong cord, drawn violently tight round the waist by the combined efforts of two soldiers. It must be supposed that the officer who presided over the "severities" at Spontin had quite a special affection for cords, for having taken alive some 120 inhabitants of the place (the rest were killed, shot down while they were trying to escape), he had them all tied together by the wrists and conveyed them towards Dorinn; but many were shot before reaching that village.

On the same day, in Dinant prison, a soldier strangled a baby in the arms of its mother because it was crying too loud.

At Sorinnes, still in the Dinant district, and on the same day, Jules and Albert Houzieaux were burned alive.

At Aiseau, on the 21st August, the Germans shut two men into a house, to which they set fire. But the unexpected arrival of a shell prevented them from enjoying the sufferings of their victims.

At Hofstade chance favoured them better; they threw Victor de Coster, whom they had just stripped, into the furnace provided by his own house; his servant shared his fate.

We must suppose that the Germans take great pleasure in the contortions of the hanged. Herr Heymel had to content himself with admiring the corpse of a priest swinging in a tree; and his friend, Herr Klemm, was careful to devote, to the memory of this comforting spectacle, a drawing, published in Kunst und Künstler (January 1915). Herr Heymel expresses his great satisfaction before this spectacle; but what pleasure he would have experienced could he have witnessed the hanging of the men whom the Germans boast of having hanged to the trees of the Herve district; or could he have assisted to hang that inhabitant of Èvelette, whom the soldiers put to death at Andenne, on the 20th; or the cabaret-keeper who was strung up to a lantern before the Louvain railway-station, on the night of the 26th; but our fastidious littérateur would have tasted the keenest delight at Arlon, when an old man was put to death; he remained hanging for hours, with his feet just grazing the soil (p. 351).

The Germans, perhaps, will say—supposing they think they ought to excuse themselves—that these executions were carried out as a result of the attacks of francs-tireurs, or after the mutilation of the German wounded by Belgian civilians. But it will be impossible for them to allege these lies as circumstances extenuating the inhuman treatment which they inflicted upon Belgian soldiers at the time of their first attacks on the forts of Liége, on the night of the 4th August; that is, a few hours after the commencement of hostilities. Not only did they maltreat in every imaginable manner their Belgian prisoners, but certain German soldiers pushed Kultur so far as to refuse water to poor wounded fellows dying of thirst; more, they even gave themselves the atrocious pleasure of spilling on the ground the water contained in the wounded men's own flasks, and this before their eyes.

3. Moral Tortures.

The physical tortures which the Germans have inflicted upon us cannot rival their methods of moral torture. In these they have achieved refinements worthy of the inventive genius of an Edgar Allan Poë.

Moral Torture before Execution.

To force those about to be shot to dig their own graves, as they did at Tavigny,[49] is quite a commonplace method. In the Fonds de Leffe, on the 23rd August, 1914 (p. 360), they perfected their mode of operation. They had called up eight men of Dinant to bury the victims as they were shot (there was so much work to do that it had to be entrusted to experienced hands). In the evening each of the gravediggers dug his own grave; four were shot, and buried by their colleagues; just as these were about to suffer the same fate an officer "pardoned" them: not out of humanity (that would have been too decent), but simply because their services would be required during the following days.

At Dinant, during the bloody days of the 23rd and 24th August, they invented many other moral tortures. On the morning of the 23rd they shot, in a meadow of the Fonds de Leffe, a group of thirteen men. But instead of leading them all together before the firing platoon, they cunningly prolonged their pleasure; the thirteen unfortunates were tied, in succession, to the same tree, and shot down one by one.

The whole of the 23rd was consecrated, in the Fonds de Leffe, to killing the men in small batches of half a dozen; these were shot either before their wives and children, or at a short distance, but within earshot, so that the family should lose none of the groans of the dying.

When, later on, the women and children were shut up in a windmill, having first been marched in front of the corpses, the Germans allowed themselves the distraction of lighting fires before the windows from time to time, in order to make the women believe that they were about to be burned alive with their children, and to delight in their anguish.

While men were being shot in the Fonds de Leffe, horrible massacres were being committed at Leffe and at Dinant, at only a few minutes' distance. Here, too, men were shot before their families—for example, Victor Poncelet and Charles Naus—and the survivors were forced to pass through the midst of the corpses. The officers, too, devised more complicated diversions; for instance, allowing a group of women and children to escape into the mountains, in order to shoot them down from a distance.

A moral torture commonly employed is that which consists in making people believe that they are going to be killed. All the inhabitants of Sorinnes were placed before machine-guns, and a German chaplain, speaking French, ceremoniously shook each man by the hand. At Dinant two or three hundred persons were lined up against a wall; then a pastor recited the prayers for the dead (perhaps the chaplain of Sorinnes had found another opportunity for his pleasantry), and an empty machine-gun was pointed at them. An officer laughed as though his sides would split while he threatened, with his revolver, some fifteen women shut up in the convent of Prémontré, at Leffe.

Pretended executions and threats of execution were everywhere in common usage. At Wépion, near Namur, on the 23rd August, 1914 (the day of the Dinant horrors), the Germans packed the women into boats, and told them to row into the middle of the Meuse. They took aim at them several times; then, having sufficiently amused themselves, they allowed them to return to the bank.

On the 28th September, 1914, a group of civil prisoners from the north of Brabant were going towards the railway-station, whence they left for Germany. The procession was preceded by a military band, which played funeral marches, so that they were convinced that they were being led to execution.