"The General Government had recourse also to indirect methods of compulsion. It seized the Belgian Red Cross, confiscated its property, and changed its purpose arbitrarily. It attempted to make itself master of the public charities and to control the National Aid and Food Committee.
"If we were to cite in extenso the decree of the Governor General of August 4th, 1915, concerning measures intended to assure the carrying out of works of public usefulness, and that of August 15th, Trickiness of German rulers of Belgium. 1915, 'concerning the unemployed, who, through idleness, refrain from work,' it would be seen by what tortuous means the occupying Power attempts to attack at once the masters and the men."
October 12th, 1915, the German authorities took a long step in the development of their policy of forcing the Belgians to aid them in prosecuting the war. The decree of that date reveals the matter and openly discloses a contempt for international law.
DECREE OF OCTOBER 12, 1915.
"Article 1. Whoever, without reason, refuses to undertake or to continue work suitable to his occupation, and in the execution of which the military administration is interested, such work being ordered by one or more of the military commanders, will be liable to imprisonment not exceeding one year. He may also be transported to Germany.
Germans flout international law and order Belgians to work for them.
"Invoking Belgian laws or even international conventions to the contrary, can, in no case, justify the refusal to work.
"On the subject of the lawfulness of the work exacted, the military commandant has the sole right of forming a decision.
"Article 2. Any person who by force, threats, persuasion, or other means attempts to influence another to refuse work as pointed out in Article 1, is liable to the punishment of imprisonment not exceeding five years.
"Article 3. Whoever knowingly by means of aid given or in any other way abets a punishable refusal to work, will be liable to a maximum fine of 10,000 marks, and in addition may be condemned to a year's imprisonment.
"If communes or associations have rendered themselves guilty of such offence the heads of the communes will be punished.
"Article 4. In addition to the penalties stated in Articles 1 and 3, the German authorities may, in case of need, impose on communes, where, without reason, work has been refused, a fine or other coercive police measures.
"This present decree comes into force immediately.
"Der Etappeinspekteur,
"Von Unger,
"Generalleutnant."Ghent, October 12th, 1915."
Cardinal Mercier's brief comment is as follows: "The injustice and arbitrariness of this decree exceed all that could be imagined. Forced labor, collective penalties and arbitrary punishments, all are there. It is slavery, neither more nor less."
October 3, 1916, German Government inaugurates wholesale deportations.
Cardinal Mercier was in error, for the German authorities were able to imagine a much more terrible measure. In October, 1916, when the need for an additional labor supply in Germany had become urgent, the German government established the system of forced labor and deportation which has aroused the detestation of Christendom. The reader will not be misled by the clumsy effort of the German authorities to mask the real purpose of the decree.
THE DECREE OF OCTOBER 3, 1916.
"DECREE CONCERNING THE LIMITING OF THE BURDENS ON PUBLIC CHARITY....
German verbal camouflage.
"I. People able to work may be compelled to work even outside the place where they live, in case they have to apply to the charity of others for the support of themselves or their dependents on account of gambling, drunkenness, loafing, unemployment, or idleness.
"II. Every inhabitant of the country is bound to render assistance in case of accident or general danger, and also to give help in case of public calamities as far as he can, even outside the place where he lives; in case of refusal he may be compelled by force.
"III. Anyone called upon to work, under Articles I or II, who shall refuse the work, or to continue at the work assigned him, will incur the penalty of imprisonment up to three years and of a fine up to 10,000 marks, or one or other of these penalties, unless a severer penalty is provided for by the laws in force.
"If the refusal to work has been made in concert or in agreement with several persons, each accomplice will be sentenced, as if he were a ringleader, to at least a week's imprisonment.
"IV. The German military authorities and Military Courts will enforce the proper execution of this decree.
"The Quartermaster General, Sauberzweig.
"Great Headquarters, 3d October, 1916."
Hindenburg's responsibility for deportations.
The responsibility for this atrocious program rests upon the military rulers of Germany, who had labored so zealously to infect the army and the people with the principles of ruthlessness. It is significant that the decree of October 3, 1916, followed hard upon the elevation of Hindenburg to the supreme command with Ludendorf as his chief of staff. In his long report of January 16, 1917, Minister Whitlock says: