Mr. Grew appeals to the Chancellor
Mr. Grew accordingly took up the whole question with the Chancellor, and among other arguments urged the promises which the German Government had solemnly made to the Belgian civilians through Baron von Huene and Baron von der Goltz. [These pledges are set forth in detail in Cardinal Mercier's letter of October 19th, 1916, quoted in full on preceding pages.] Mr. Grew found it impossible to persuade the Chancellor to secure the abandonment of the policy of deportations, and thereupon urged that the policy should be modified. His formal statement of this phase of the negotiations is as follows:
"The points of amelioration which I then suggested as a concession to Belgian national feeling and foreign opinion were as follows:
"1. Only actual unemployed to be taken, involving a more deliberate and careful selection.
"2. Married men or heads of families not to be taken.
"3. Employees of the Comité National not to be taken.
and asks certain concessions
"4. The lists of the unemployed not to be required of the Belgian authorities, but to be determined by the German authorities themselves, as a concession to Belgian national feeling, and the Belgians, who had already been imprisoned for refusing to supply these lists, released.
"5. Deported persons to be permitted to correspond with their families in Belgium.
"6. Places of work or concentration camps of deported persons to be voluntarily opened by the German Government to inspection by neutral representatives.
"A few days later Count Zech, the Chancellor's adjutant, called on me and communicated to me informally and orally the following replies to the various suggestions which I had made for concessions and points of amelioration:
but with slight success.
"1. Only actual unemployed were to be taken. The selections would be made in a careful and deliberate manner.
"2. Married men or heads of families could not in principle be exempted, but each case would be considered carefully on its merits.
"3. Employees of the Comité National are regarded as actually employed and therefore exempt.
"4. It was essential that the Belgian authorities should co-operate with the German authorities in furnishing lists of unemployed, in order to avoid mistakes. Only one Belgian had been imprisoned for refusing to give such lists, and orders had now been given for his release.
"5. Deported persons would be permitted to correspond with their families in Belgium.
"6. Places of work and concentration camps would in principle be open to inspection by Spanish diplomatic representatives.
"American inspection might also be informally arranged if desired.
"On December 2nd, the Minister at Brussels communicated to me the text of a telegram which he had sent to the Department on November 28th, stating that he had been encouraged by the report of the results of my interview with the Chancellor." * * *
The telegram to which Mr. Grew refers was the following:
MINISTER WHITLOCK'S TELEGRAM OF NOVEMBER 28, 1916.
"Brussels, via The Hague, November 28, 1916.
"Secretary of State,
"Washington.Germans are deporting the skilled Belgian workmen.
"We are naturally encouraged by Grew's telegrams concerning his conversations with the Chancellor. It is probable that the orders [for softening the rigors of the deportations] have not yet been put into effect, as the recruiting of Belgian workmen continues without distinction as between the employed and unemployed. I have received creditable information that choice is made with great rapidity, which allows no time for examination. Mayor in the Province of Namur had given a list of unemployed as one hundred. Practically none of the persons in this list were taken by the Germans, but from the same district hundreds of employed were taken. Apparently the choice is based entirely on the skill and physical fitness of the workmen. There is a great demand for blacksmiths and iron workers. The identification cards from the Commission for Relief in Belgium issued to men working for the Comité National were respected in Antwerp; nine men holding them were taken at Mons; over thirty at Namur, and a few each day in various parts of the country. Over forty thousand are engaged in various departments of relief work, however, and this is but a small percentage. It is reliably reported that very bad conditions exist in the Province of Valenciennes, and that many men have been taken there. They have been without food for sixty-three hours and have no blankets. Apparently they have been deprived of food in order to oblige them to work for the Germans.
"Whitlock,
"American Minister."
The American minister and the representatives of other powers were able to secure some lessening of the severity of the deportations. Minister Whitlock says:
REPORT OF MINISTER WHITLOCK (continued).
Neutral representatives are allowed to request reconsideration of special cases.
"We have, of course, done all that was in our power to ameliorate the conditions without in any way seeming officially to intervene. I have already reported to the Department the conversations I have had with the officials. Recently I induced the Political Department to request that we bring to their attention any case of flagrant injustice, and on the basis of this admission we have been sending from time to time to the German authorities the names of certain deported Belgians who were working at the time of their seizure and therefore did not come within the purview of the rule laid down by the German Government that the unemployed should be deported. Other neutral Legations in Brussels have done the same, and the work has assumed proportions that are so large that I fear they may defeat its ends. The Legations of Spain and Holland have organized similar bureaus, and so many requests for repatriation are received that I have been compelled to rent rooms in a vacant house, across the street from the Legation in the rue Belliard, to carry on the work. The necessary staff and supplies for the work have been furnished by the Comité National, which has organized a central bureau that investigates all reports received by the Legations in order to determine whether or not the They run into high figures. persons mentioned have received financial assistance since the war, and, as well, to avoid duplication in representations. Inasmuch as it is difficult to make exceptions, I fear, as I said before, that the very mass of these requests will prevent their being examined with any care. So far as we are able to determine, about 100,000 have been deported, and of those less than 2,000 have returned.
"The Spanish Legation which, because of the fact that Spain is charged with the protection of Belgian interests in Germany, claims precedence in this matter, * * * makes a demand for the return of each and every one who applies, and sends in about two hundred names each day. The Dutch Legation * * * forwards each request that is presented, and, owing to the fact that after the fall of Antwerp, assurances were given by the German Authorities through the Dutch Government to Belgian refugees in Holland that they would not be deported should they return to Belgium, they are receiving a great many. I am told that they submit over fifteen hundred each day. * * *
"We have a great many requests, and although we try not to discriminate we attempt to pick out the most deserving cases, though now that I have written that phrase I feel a certain shame in it because all the cases are deserving.
Germans rarely allow food packages to reach deported Belgians.
"I have had requests from the burgomasters of ten communes from La Louvière, asking that permission be obtained to send to the deported men in Germany packages of food similar to those that are being sent to prisoners of war. Thus far the German authorities have refused to permit this except in special instances, and returning Belgians claim that even when such packages are received they are used by the camp authorities only as another means of coercing them to sign the agreements to work.
"It is said that, in spite of the liberal salary promised those who would sign voluntarily, no money has as yet been received in Belgium from workmen in Germany." (Concluded on p. 78.)