Belgians Under the German Eagle

by Jean Massart

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 Our enemies accepted with enthusiasm an unlucky proposal—made by certain communal administrations and immediately withdrawn by them—that the absent persons should be subjected to a special tax, equal to ten times the personal tax.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.