CARDINAL MERCIER REPLIES
Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, in behalf of the Belgian bishops, issued a proclamation of protest on November 7, addressed to the neutral nations and appealing for their aid in opposing the proceeding. His protest is in these terms:
"The military authorities are daily deporting thousands of inoffensive citizens in order to set them to forced labor.
"As early as October 19 we sent a protest to the governor-general, a copy of which was also sent to the representatives of the Holy See in Brussels, Spain, the United States, and the Netherlands. The governor-general, in reply, refused to take any steps."
