The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-09

part of the urban population to the land as such an energetic measure followed automatically.
 "An appeal to the inhabitants of the cities asking them to volunteer to work for pay at cultivating the land and gathering the crops met with no success Therefore, the only thing left to do was forcibly to draft the city people who were able to work. The city commandants in the three north ern French cities announced the com ing transp1anting in proclamation which was also imparted verbally in the town halls concerned and ex- plained to the local authorities. In this proclamation the reasons for the measure were made public and special attention was directed to the fact that the persons who were to be trans planted would be sent to the interior of the occupied provinces of France and there, far behind the front, would be employed in agricultural work, but not in military tasks for pay and with their maintenance fully assured. Each of those transplanted was to be al- lowed to take 66 pounds of baggage with him, and the people were ad vised to get this baggage ready at once.
 Calls It Military Measure.
 ''The selection of those to be trans planted had to be begun without de- lay, as the failure of the attempt to get volunteers had already resulted in time being irretrievably lost. The transplanting was a military measure, an action in connection with the war, and was, indeed, unavoidable, for it's object was thes applying of labor es- sential for the insuring of the har- vest The extraordinary favorable April weather necessitated a speeding up of Spring cultivation. This was what decided the time for the selec- ton, which, by the way, was not be- gun at o'clock in the morning, as is asserted in the enemy and neutral press, but at o'clock, after the pop ulation had already been ordered in the proclamation not to leave their homes before 6 o'clock in the morn ing. A good sized group of people was gathered together and at the rendezvous They were first of all fed from the field kitchens that had been
 Says Workers Were Selected
 Although alrady during the arrang- ing of the manner of transportation, a material percentage of those who had been originally ordered to go had been released, a special investigation ser vice was instituted after the work of transplanting had been accomplished for the purpose of seeing if any hard- ships had resulted from circumstances either overlooked at that time or due to later developments. As a result of this investigation, 1898 of the, transplanted persons were sent back.
 "The result of the transplanting has been a greater exploitation of the soil and an increase in the harvest. The majority of those sent to the country are by no means dissatisfied with their position, as is evinced by their own remarks, especially as their reception bv the country folk was extremely friendly, their food good, and their sufficient. The complaint of lack of communication with their rel atives has been followed by the install Iation of regular service for the ex- change. of news. A great many of these people have declared their read mess to stay in new places of abode even after the harvest haS been gath- cred and the work of preparing the soil for the new crops finished,
 Justified by Law
 From the standpoint of fnterna- tfonaI law, the measures adopted by the military administration of the oc- cupied district appear to be fully jus tified by Artcile 43 of the Hague Rule for Land Warfare, which reads as follows:
 After the legal authority has ac- tually passed into the hands of those occupying the country, the latter are