REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued)
Was Bissing against deportations?
"Then, in August, von Hindenburg was appointed to the supreme command. He is said to have criticized von Bissing's policy as too mild; there was a quarrel; von Bissing went to Berlin to protest, threatened to resign, but did not. He returned, and a German official here said that Belgium would now be subjected to a more terrible régime—would learn what war was. The prophecy has been vindicated. Recently I was told that the drastic measures are really of Ludendorf's inspiration; I do not know. Many German officers say so." (Continued on p. 54.)
If von Bissing had opposed the policy of deportation when his own judgment was overruled, he consented to become the "devil's advocate" and defended the system in public. Especially instructive is the following conversation reported by Mr. F.C. Walcott:
VON BISSING'S CONVERSATION WITH MR. WALCOTT.
"I went to Belgium to investigate conditions, and while there I had opportunity * * * to talk one day with Governor General von Bissing, who died three or four weeks ago, a man 72 or 73 years old, a man steeped in the 'system,' born and bred to the hardening of the heart which that philosophy develops. There ought to be some new word coined for the process that a man's heart undergoes when it becomes steeped in that system.
"I said to him, 'Governor, what are you going to do if England and France stop giving these people money to purchase food?'
"He said, 'We have got that all worked out and have had it worked out for weeks, because we have expected this system to break down at any time.'
Bissing says deportation plans were carefully prepared.
"He went on to say, 'Starvation will grip these people in 30 to 60 days. Starvation is a compelling force, and we would use that force to compel the Belgian workingmen, many of them very skilled, to go into Germany to replace the Germans, so that they could go to the front and fight against the English and the French.'
"'As fast as our railway transportation could carry them, we would transport thousands of others that would be fit for agricultural work, across Europe down into southeastern Europe, into Mesopotamia, where we have huge, splendid irrigation works. All that land needs is water and it will blossom like the rose.'
"'The weak remaining, the old and the young, we would concentrate opposite the firing line, and put firing squads back of them, and force them through that line, so that the English and French could take care of their own people.'
"It was a perfectly simple, direct, frank reasoning. It meant that the German Government would use any force in the destruction of any people not its own to further its own ends." (Frederic C. Walcott, in The National Geographic Magazine, May, 1917.)
A brief general view of the character of the deportations can perhaps be gained best from the report of Minister Whitlock.
REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued).
"The deportations began in October in the Étape, at Ghent, and at Bruges, as my brief telegrams indicated. The policy spread; the rich industrial districts of Hainaut, the mines and steel works about Charleroi were next attacked; now they are seizing men in Brabant, even in Brussels, despite some indications and even predictions of the civil authorities that the policy was about to be abandoned.
[The étapes were the parts of Belgium under martial law, and included the province of western Flanders, part of eastern Flanders, and the region of Tournai. The remainder of the occupied part of Belgium was under civil government.]
The deportations begin.
"During the last fortnight men have been impressed here in Brussels, but their seizures here are made evidently with much greater care than in the provinces, with more regard for the appearances. There was no public announcement of the intention to deport, but suddenly about ten days ago certain men in towns whose names are on the list of chômeurs received summons notifying them to report at one of the railway stations on a given day; penalties were fixed for failure to respond to the summons and there was printed on the card an offer of employment by the German Government either in Germany or Belgium. On the first day out of about 1,500 men ordered to present themselves at the Gare du Midi about 750 responded. These were examined by German physicians and 300 were taken. There was no disorder, a large force of mounted Uhlans keeping back the crowds and barring access to the station to all but those who had been summoned to appear. The Commission for Relief in Belgium had secured permission to give to each deported man a loaf of bread, and some of the communes provided warm clothing for those who had none and in addition a small financial Pitiable scenes. allowance. As by one of the ironies of life the winter has been more excessively cold than Belgium has ever known it, and while many of those who presented themselves were adequately protected against the cold, many of them were without overcoats. The men shivering from cold and fear, the parting from weeping wives and children, the barriers of brutal Uhlans, all this made the scene a pitiable and distressing one.
"It was understood that the seizures would continue here in Brussels, but on Thursday last, a bitter cold day, those that had been convoked were sent home without examination. It is supposed that the severe weather has moved the Germans to postpone the deportations." (Continued on page 67.)
Cardinal Mercier attempted to persuade the German authorities to abandon their terrible plans, reminding them of their solemn promises in the past:
"Malines, 19th October, 1916.
"Mr. Governor General:Another "Scrap of Paper."
"The day after the surrender of Antwerp the frightened population asked itself what would become of the Belgians of age to bear arms or who would reach that age before the end of the occupation. The entreaties of the fathers and mothers of families determined me to question the governor of Antwerp, Baron von Huene, who had the kindness to reassure me and to authorize me in his name to reassure the agonized parents. The rumor had spread at Antwerp, nevertheless, that at Liége, Namur, and Charleroi young men had been seized and taken by force to Germany. I therefore begged Governor von Huene to be good enough to confirm to me in writing the guarantee which he had given to me orally, to the effect that nothing similar would happen at Antwerp. He said to me immediately that the rumors concerning deportations were without basis, and unhesitatingly he sent me in writing, among other statements, the following: 'Young men have no reason to fear that they will be taken to Germany, either to be there enrolled in the army or employed for forced labor.'
"This declaration, written and signed, was publicly transmitted to the clergy and to those of the Faith of the province of Antwerp, as Your Excellency can see from the document enclosed herewith, dated October 16th, 1914, which was read in all the churches. [Printed on preceding pages.]
"Upon the arrival of your predecessor, the late Baron von der Goltz, at Brussels I had the honor of presenting myself at his house and requested him to be good enough to ratify for the entire country, without time limit, the guarantees which General von Huene had given me for the province of Antwerp. The Governor General retained this request in his possession in order to examine it at his leisure. The following day he was good enough to come in person to Malines to bring me his approval, and confirmed to me, in the presence of two aides-de-camp and of my private secretary, the promise that the liberty of Belgian citizens would be respected.
"To doubt the authority of such undertakings would have been to reflect upon the persons who had made them, and I therefore took steps to allay, by all the means of persuasion in my power, the anxieties which persisted in the interested families.
"Notwithstanding all this, your Government now tears from their homes workmen reduced in spite of their efforts to a state of unemployment, separates them by force from their wives and children and deports them to enemy territory. Numerous workmen have already undergone this unhappy lot; more numerous are those who are threatened with the same acts of violence.
Mercier's moving appeal.
"In the name of the liberty of domicile and the liberty of work of Belgian citizens; in the name of the inviolability of families; in the name of moral interests which the measures of deportation would gravely compromise; in the name of the word given by the Governor of the Province of Antwerp and by the Governor General, the immediate representative of the highest authority of the German Empire, I respectfully beg Your Excellency to be good enough to withdraw the measures of forced labor and of deportation announced to the Belgian workmen, and to be good enough to reinstate in their homes those who have already been deported.
"Your Excellency will appreciate how painful for me would be the weight of the responsibility that I would have to bear as regards these families, if the confidence which they have given you through my agency and at my request were lamentably deceived.
"I persist in believing that this will not be the case.
"Accept, Mr. Governor General, the assurance of my very high consideration.
"D.J. Cardinal Mercier,
"Arch. of Malines."
Municipal governments in Belgium appealed to the German authorities to observe their solemn promises. The two documents which follow illustrate Belgian appeals and German answers.
RESOLUTION OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF TOURNAI, OCTOBER 20, 1916.
"In the matter of the requisition made by the German authorities on October 20, 1916 (requisition of a list of workmen to be drawn up by the municipality) * * *
"The municipal council resolves to maintain its attitude of refusal.
"It further feels it its duty to place on record the following:
"The city of Tournai is prepared to submit unreservedly to all the exigencies authorised by the laws and customs of war. Its sincerity can not be questioned. For more than two years it has submitted to the German occupation, during which time it has lodged and lived at close quarters with the German troops, yet it has displayed perfect composure and has refrained from any act of hostility, proving thereby that it is animated by no idle spirit of bravado.
Council of Tournai refuses immoral and illegal demands.
"But the city could not bring itself to provide arms for use against its own children, knowing well that natural law and the law of nations (which is the expression of natural law) both forbid such action.
"In his declaration dated September 2, 1914, the German Governor General of Belgium declared: 'I ask none to renounce his patriotic sentiments.'
"The city of Tournai reposes confidence in this declaration, which it is bound to consider as the sentiment of the German Emperor, in whose name the Governor General was speaking. In accepting the inspiration of honor and patriotism, the city is loyal to a fundamental duty, the loftiness of which must be apparent to any German officer.
"The city is confident that the straightforwardness and clearness of this attitude will prevent any misunderstanding arising between itself and the German Army."
GERMAN REPLY TO THE RESOLUTION OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF TOURNAI.
"Tournai, 23rd October, 1916.
And is roundly lectured and fined.
"In permitting itself, through the medium of municipal resolutions, to oppose the orders of the German military authorities in the occupied territory, the city is guilty of an unexampled arrogance and of a complete misunderstanding of the situation created by the state of war.
"The 'clear and simple situation' is in reality the following:
"The military authorities order the city to obey. Otherwise the city must bear the heavy consequences, as I have pointed out in my previous explanations.
"The General Commanding the Army has inflicted on the city—on account of its refusal, up to date, to furnish the lists demanded—a punitive contribution of 200,000 marks, which must be paid within the next six days, beginning with to-day. The General also adds that until such time as all the lists demanded are in his hands, for every day in arrears, beginning with December 31, 1916, a sum of 20,000 marks will be paid by the city.
"Hopfer, Major General,
"Etappen-Kommandant."
The Commission Syndicale of Belgian workingmen also attempted to induce the German authorities to abandon their terrible plans.