“ ‘God knows, you are not sent out there to work for the welfare of the people in your charge but to squeeze the utmost out of them, so that the German people may live. That is what I expect of your exertions. This everlasting concern about foreign peoples must cease now, once and for all.
“ ‘I have here before me reports on what you expect to be able to deliver. It is nothing at all when I consider your territories. It makes no difference to me if you say that your people are starving.
“ ‘One thing I shall certainly do. I will make you deliver the quantities asked of you; and if you cannot do so, I will set forces to work that will force you to do so whether you want to or not.
“ ‘The wealth of Holland lies close to the Ruhr. It could send a much greater quantity of vegetables into this stricken area now than it has done so far. What do I care what the Dutchmen think of it.
“ ‘The only people in whom I am interested in the occupied territories are those who work to provide armaments and food supplies. They must receive just enough to enable them to continue working. It is all one to me whether Dutchmen are Germanic or not. They are only all the greater blockheads if they are; and more important persons than they have shown in the past how Germanic numskulls sometimes have to be treated. Even if you receive abuses from every quarter, you will have acted rightly, for it is the Reich alone that counts.’ ”
And now I come to the next excerpt:
“ ‘I am still discussing the western territories. Belgium has taken care of herself extraordinarily well. That was very sensible of Belgium. But there, too, gentlemen, rage incarnate could seize me. If every plot of ground in Belgium is planted with vegetables, then they must surely have had vegetable seed. When Germany wanted to start a big campaign last year for utilizing uncultivated land, we did not have nearly as much seed as we needed. Neither Holland nor Belgium nor France have delivered it, although I myself was able to count 170 sacks of vegetable seed on a single street in Paris. It is all very well for the French to plant vegetables for themselves. They are accustomed to doing this. But, gentlemen, these people are all our enemies and you will not win over any of them by humane measures. The people are polite to us now because they have to be polite. But let the English once force their way in and then you will see the real face of the Frenchman. The same Frenchman who dines with you and in turn invites you to dine with him will at once make it plain to you that the Frenchman is a German-hater. That is the situation, and we do not want to see it any other way than it is.
“ ‘It is a matter of indifference to me how many courses are served every day at the table of the Belgian king. The king is a prisoner of war; and if he is not treated as such, I will see to it that he is taken to some other place where this can be made clear to him. I am really fed up with the business.
“ ‘I have forgotten one country because nothing is to be had there except fish; that is Norway.
“ ‘With regard to France, I say that it is still not cultivated to the greatest possible extent. France can be cultivated in a very different way if the peasants there are forced to work in a different manner. Secondly, inside France itself the population is gorging itself to a scandalous degree. . . .