Since the spring of 1915 the posts have been operating between Belgium and Holland, so that those few privileged persons who have a correspondent in Holland might thus indirectly obtain news if the Germans had authorized correspondence through an intermediary. But they have strictly forbidden it (pp. [22]-[3]). They could easily organize a service enabling soldiers to write to their relations: "I am going on all right ... I am wounded ..." and enabling the relations to reply, so that the soldiers' families would be reassured; while now the only news arrives by precarious methods, and often goes astray. But what our enemies desire is to make the poor relatives suffer as much as possible. We do not believe that such a form of torture has ever in any previous war been inflicted on a whole population. It is untrue, it seems, that Bismarck was the first to use the words which have been attributed to him: "In territories occupied by our victorious troops the inhabitants must be left nothing but eyes to weep with." But he quoted them with an approval that made them his own. Now they have come true.
Here is quite another kind of moral torture. The Germans are fond of leading small groups of Belgian prisoners through the streets of Brussels at moments when the latter are as busy as possible: for instance, on Sunday afternoons. One can imagine the humiliation of the poor soldiers exposed to the curiosity of the crowd; but it delights their guardians. It was evidently the desire to enjoy, simultaneously, the misery of the prisoners and the impotent anger of the spectators which led the Germans, at the time of their entry into Louvain on the 19th August, and into Brussels on the 20th, to place a few Belgian countrymen, with their hands tied behind their backs, at the head of their columns. In ancient Rome captives used to walk before the triumphal car of the conqueror. Do not the Germans realize how utterly this practice is contrary to the humane principles enjoined by Article 4 of the Hague Convention? We must suppose that they do not; for not only do they not abandon the practice, but they make use of it to coin money.
Condemnation of the Town of Roulers.
Amsterdam, 29th May (Havre Agency).—The town of Roulers is condemned to pay a fresh fine of 1½ millions, because the population cheered Belgian prisoners passing through the town.
(L'Ami de l'Ordre.)
Impossible, it will be said, to invent tortures yet more diabolic. But no, when it is a question of doing evil, Kultur can surpass itself.
Imagine the mentality of the person who sent to M. Brostens, of Antwerp, the identity-disc of his son, who was taken prisoner. And imagine the inward joy of the sender in picturing the parents' despair on receiving the medal!
Refined Cruelty.
When they make prisoners they sometimes detach the identification-discs from the men and send them, unaccompanied by comment, to the parents, to make them believe that their son is dead.
This is what has just happened to M. Brostens, Lieutenant of Customs, of Antwerp. Having received, a few days ago, his son's regimental number, he went into mourning. So yesterday morning, what was not his amazement to see his son return, who, having been made prisoner at the beginning of the war, had succeeded in escaping.
(Le Matin, Antwerp, 14th September, 1914.)
Here, perhaps, the culprit was an uncultivated soldier. But what are we to think of the mentality of Baron von der Goltz, when he informs us by placard that a record is kept in a register of all aggressions against the German army, and that the localities in which such attacks have taken place may expect to receive their punishment?
General Government of Belgium.
It has recently happened, in the regions which are not at present occupied by the German troops in more or less force, that convoys of wagons or patrols have been attacked, by surprise, by the inhabitants.
I draw the attention of the public to the fact that a register is kept of the towns and communes in whose vicinity such attacks have occurred, and that they may expect their punishment as soon as the troops are passing through their neighbourhood.
The Governor-General in Belgium,
Baron von der Goltz,
General-Field-Marshal.
When one learns on what ultra-trivial hints the German troops have based their condemnation of the inhabitants, one may conclude that not a commune will escape repression. It was evidently this generalized terror which the Governor wished to inspire. He, too, wished to have the pleasure of inflicting moral torture.