The Transportation of the German Dead.
Here is another fraud of the same kind. When the number of the German dead is too great for burial on the field of battle they evacuate the surplus into other districts. The bodies are usually transported in closed vans. But sometimes these are lacking, and the bodies have to be packed into goods wagons. Nothing outside indicates the contents of these wagons; it may be supposed that the authorities have no desire to publish the extent of their losses. For this reason the corpses are always hidden under something else; one sees passing, for example, what appears to be a trainload of sugar-beet, but in reality the bodies of soldiers are being transported. A biologist might call this an interesting case of protective mimicry.
Some Lying Placards.
The German authorities have no scruples about posting up false news. For several weeks one might read, on the walls of the Hôtel de Ville at Vilvorde, the following placard:—
Notice.
Antwerp surrendered to-day with its army.
The District Commandant.
(Signature illegible.)Vilvorde, 9th October, 1914.
With its army! When the Germans were all crestfallen at having laid hands on an empty nest!
This is merely grotesque; but here are three placards which belong to the system of intimidation à outrance.
We have already stated (p. [147]) that placards exhibited in Louvain stated that the town of Mons was forced to pay a fine because a civilian had fired on the German army. Now the fact was wholly imaginary; never did any civilian of Mons fire on the Germans; never did they accuse one of having done so; so that they never had occasion to fine the town on that account. All is false here, from the first word to the last.
While at Louvain they were posting up the placard relating to Mons, they were exhibiting at Mons a notice according to which certain inhabitants of Soignies had fired on the German troops. This also was a sheer falsehood. No such action was imputed to any inhabitant of Soignies. At Charleroi they advertised the statement that they had inflicted a penalty on Anderlues for a similar offence. Here, once more, both accusation and penalty were pure inventions.