Through the Iron Bars: Two Years of German Occupation in Belgium

-factories, ruined by the blockade, have been turned into war-factories, the majority of Belgian industries have remain

onquerors' threats, passed the frontier, all the rest of the working population kept up, under the most depressing conditions, a great patriotic strike, the "strike of folded arms." If they could not, as the 20,000 young heroes who crossed the Dutch frontier, join the Belgian army on the Yser; they could at least wage war

red provinces. After the outcry caused by the atrocities of August, 1914, there came a natural reaction, a sort of anti-climax. Fines, requisitions, petty persecutions do not strike the imagination in the same way as the burning of towns and the wholesale massacre of peaceful citizens. It had become necessary to follow thin

asing, would no longer tolerate the resistance of the Belgian workers, and would even attempt to enrol in her army of labour all the able-bodied men of the conquered provinces. The slave-raids coincide with the "levée en masse" in the Empire and with the organisation of the new "Polish Army": "If every German is made

ll-treated the vanquished, but he spared him his calumnies. The only law was the law of the stronger, but the stronger did not pret

dangerous and so depraved as the brutality of civilised men. Brutality does not exclude honesty and pity. Attila listened to the prayers of the Pope and spared Rome. The Kaiser's lieutenant does not listen to Cardinal Mercier's protests. The Huns, as most strong men, made a point of keeping their word. The Germans seem to make a point of breaking theirs. When I compared the fight of Belgium

clamation to the effect that all Belgians of military age would be reduced to slavery and obliged, under the penalty of physical torture and under th

ing with England and France a traitorous attack against Germany, then it becomes quite plausible. To massacre 6,000 civilians and burn 20,000 houses in cold blood looks rather harsh, but if you begin by giving "a solemn guarantee to the people that they will not have to suffer from the war" (General von Emmich's first proclamation) and end by saying that women have emptied buckets of boiling water on the heads of your soldiers and that children have put out the eyes of your wounded, it becomes almost a kind proceeding. In

for your crime. Who doubts that every town visited by a Zeppelin is fortified, that every ship sunk by a U boat carries troops or guns? The old Hun killed everything which stood in his way; the modern Hun does the s

only, but a series of promises, an accumulation of solemn pledges. It seemed worth while ap

rnor von der Goltz posted in Brussels: "I ask

hurch of the province in order to reassure the people after the fall of Antwerp and to stop the emigration: "Young men

twerp to General von Terwisga, commanding the Dutch army in the field, declar

her provinces under German rule by Governor von der Goltz, two aide-de-camps and the Cardinal's privat

refugees to come back: "Normal conditions will be restored and the refugees will be allowed to go back to Holland to look a

sing posted in Brussels: "The people shall never

neutral powers after the Lille raids tha

eparing and ordering the recent deportations. We are not opposing a Belgian testimony to a German one, neither are we, for the present, propounding even our o

ian workmen to resume work. They were brought, under military escort, to their workshops, imprisoned, starved, and about two hundred of them were deported to Germany, where they were submitted to t

the above conditions (that is to say, resume work with handsome wages) the prisoners will be released...." The "p

r the repair of the rolling stock. When they had refused to resume work, at the beginning of the occupation, a few hundred German workmen had filled their posts. These had been sent back to their military depots. The patriotic duty of these Belgians was evident enough: by resuming their work, they released German soldiers for the front and increased the number of co

iculties for the German Army. If such an attitude is maintained I will hold the communal authorities responsible and the population will have only itself to blame if the great liberties granted to it until now are suspended." This clumsy declaration is signed by Lieuten

, to concoct a few decrees in order to legalize it in the eyes of the world. He had, you see, to save appearances. You cannot get on with no law at all. It might shock neutrals. So, if you break all the art

ilful dramatist, you must prepare the public to take in a situation. There is a true arti

out a sufficient reason" and a fine of ￡500 or a year's imprisonment to anyone who encourages refusal to work by the granting of relief. Notice that the accomplice is punished more heavily than the principal culprit. The idea is c

f deciding on the matter passes from the Belgian tribunals to the

o be conducted by force to the spots where they have to work." This, no doubt, in order to avoid the crowding of prisons, which would have nec

posted in all the communes of Flanders. This order warned all persons "who are fit to work that they may be compelled to do so even outside their places of

om to-day the town is forbidden to give any support whatever even to the families

s various answers to Cardinal Mercier. It was first stated that the men seized would not be sent to Germany, then that only the unemployed were taken, and fi

nal Mercier his formal written promise that no deportations should take place) declares that the men are to

urnish the lists (of unemployed) the German administration will itself designate the men to be deported to Germany. If then ... errors are committed, the burgomast

his population being composed, according to the same document, of men and women between 17 and 46 years of age. If they refuse "they will be placed in a battalion of civil workers, on reduced ra

tter to Cardinal Mercier, October 26th), that: "No workman can be obliged

the African slave drivers, we are now unable to discover any difference whatever. The old plague which had been the shame of Europe for more than two centuries has risen again from its ashes. It appears before us with all its hideous characteristics. People are torn from their hom

sation forbade any man, sixty years ago, to force another man to work for him. Civilisation to-day does not forbid a man-a conqueror-to force another man to work against himself. The old slave only lost his liberty. The new slave must lose his honour, his dignity, his self-respect. He has only one other alternative: dea

rulers of Belgium, whether they be in Brussels or in Berlin, whether we call them von Bissing or Helfferich, live in the comfort of their homes, surrounded by their families, and when assailed by protests, can still play hide and seek around the broken pillars of the Temple of Peace and wave arrogantly, like so many fla

t the only judge on international l

the Belgian workmen in their appeal to the working classes of the world. "On the Western Fron

ens, the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, says: "The men are sent to occupied

aon and Soissons. Some of the men, exhausted by the bad treatment inflicted upon them, have been sent back to Belgium in a critical condition, and have written a full statement relating their experiences, signed by