The adventure of Eppeghem also deserves to be told in a few words.

In November 1914 a German soldier walking in the country fired at a hare or a pigeon. An officer turned up and questioned the soldier. As all sport is reserved for officers, the soldier, to avoid punishment, threw the blame on to the peasants. The matter was referred to Brussels, and on the following day officers arrived with forty Uhlans. A fine of 10,000 frs. was inflicted on the commune.

Some women living in a house which had by chance remained standing, near the field in which the soldier had fired, asserted that no inhabitant had fired a shot, but that they had seen the soldier fire. No one listened to them. "We must have 10,000 frs., and at once." But in this village, ruined from end to end, where scarcely a house was habitable, from which all the men had been deported into Germany, there was no means of collecting such a sum of money. "Since that is so, hostages will be taken," said the officers. The Uhlans organized a hunt, and seized the curé and three laymen, the only ones they could find; and even of these one was an inhabitant of Vilverde, who had obligingly been acting as a citizen policeman at Eppeghem. They were taken to Brussels, but on passing through Vilverde the inhabitant of that place was released, owing to the protests of his fellow-citizens. After ten days' imprisonment Baron von der Goltz, finding that there was nothing to be extracted from the communal treasury of Eppeghem, and that the curé and his two parishioners were being kept and fed at a loss, set them at liberty.

Hostages

The taking of hostages is also in flagrant opposition to the provisions of Article 50, but in conformity with the German Usages of War. The hostage guarantees with his own life that his fellow-citizens, with whom he has no influence, shall faithfully execute the orders of the German authorities.

The first care of enemy troops arriving in any locality is always to demand the provision of hostages; these are usually the curé, the burgomaster, the notary, the schoolmaster, and a few other notables. We may recall Liége, where the bishop, Mgr. Rutten, was taken hostage; Spa, Louvain, Charleroi, Gand, and Mons. In Brussels they demanded the delivery of 100 hostages, but afterwards withdrew the demand.

As to the fate which awaits the hostages if the German army is attacked, it is plainly stipulated in the proclamations: they will be shot, "without previous judicial formalities." Thus, it would have been enough for a Belgian patrol to renew its usual activities near Forest, and two hostages would have immediately been shot "without previous judicial formalities."

General Government in Belgium.

To the People of Forest.

Despite my repeated warnings attacks have again been made during the last few days by the civil population of the neighbourhood against German troops, and also upon the railway between Brussels and Mons.

By the order of the Military Governor-General of Brussels each locality must consequently provide hostages.

Thus at Forest the following are arrested:

(1) M. Vanderkindere, Communal Councillor.
(2) M. le curé François.

I proclaim that these hostages will immediately be shot without previous judicial formalities if any attack occurs on the part of the population upon our troops or the railway lines occupied by us, and that moreover the most severe reprisals will be carried out against the commune of Forest.

I request the population to keep calm and to refrain from all violence; in this case it will not suffer the slightest harm.

The Commandant of the Landsturm,
Halberstadt Battalion,
von Lessel.

Forest, 26th September, 1914.

If hostages try to escape they will be hanged and their village burned.