Our intellectual pasture also includes placards. In the first place, the Notices, Orders, and Proclamations of all kinds. Then the News published by the German Government, placards usually written in three languages, in the principal towns. In Brussels, where they are known as Lustige Blätter, they are particularly numerous. At Louvain, Vilverde, and Mons they are in manuscript, and usually written in German only.
Two important sources of documentation are completely closed: photography and correspondence by post. The taking and reproduction of photographs is strictly prohibited, above all in the towns ruined by the Germans.
Notice.
Whosoever produces, without authorization, representations of destruction caused by the war, or who displays, offers for sale, sells, or otherwise distributes, by means of postcards, illustrated reviews, daily newspapers, or other periodicals containing such representations, above all of buildings or localities burned or devastated by the war, will be punished by a fine not exceeding 5,000 marks or a term of imprisonment not exceeding one year. The seizure of formes and plates which shall have served for the reproduction of these representations, as well as their destruction, may also be ordered.
The Imperial Governor,
Freiherr von Huene,
General of Infantry.Antwerp, 1st December, 1914.
(Posted at Antwerp.)
Regulations as to Correspondence.
The sending of letters by carrier is prohibited. Until about the middle of December correspondence was carried from town to town by the carriers who undertake the goods traffic since the suspension of the railways; one could still, therefore, easily enough obtain news. But, as a souvenir of his joyous entry, the Herr Baron von Bissing, who succeeded the Herr Baron von der Goltz as Governor-General in Belgium, suppressed this little supplementary vocation of the carriers. Thus Senator Speyer was condemned to pay a fine of 1,000 marks and to undergo 10 days' imprisonment for the conveyance of letters. We have no longer the resource of sending letters by carrier pigeons, as these are closely scrutinized by the Germans. Finally, two remaining methods of transmitting letters were taken from us: the use of a bow and arrow (N.R.C., 1st January, 1915), and enclosure in a loaf baked in Holland and sold in Belgium. So it is needless to say that we have neither telegraph nor telephone.
There is nothing to be done but to go in search of information oneself, after finding out the hours (highly variable) during which one is allowed to "circulate" in the localities through which one has to pass.
Since then it has become very difficult to obtain precise information as to an event which has occurred in another locality, for obviously one cannot trust a missive of this kind to the German post, which accepts only open letters, and passes them through a cabinet noir; moreover, it does not guarantee communication with all points.
By Order of the German Authority.
After 8 p.m. (7 p.m. Belgian) there must be no lights in the windows of the houses of the town of Herve.
The patrol has orders to fire into every window lit up, giving upon the street.
Ad. Cajot, Sheriff.
F. de Francquex, Judge.(Posted at Herve.)
It must also be explained what administrative formalities one had to fulfil in order to obtain a lodging. Thus, from January 1915 no one could obtain a lodging in Gand, whether in an hotel, or a boarding-house, or apartments, without first obtaining the authorization of the Kommandantur.