New Britain herald., 1916-12-12
DUTCH APPEAL TO U. 5. FOR BELGIUM
Can No Longer Be Silent on Plight
 Of Unhappy Neighbor

London, Dec. 12.-The Associated
 Press has received from Amsterdam all i Appeal to the American People" by the Holland section of the League of President Niemeyer and Secretaries Delafaille and Wa1ch. follows: Your president has said that soon- CT or later . moment would come when the war would make the posi- tion of neutral nations unbearable 1 For us Hoilanders that moment has arrived, not through our own suffer- ings, but because we cannot longer passively contemplate the ghastly suf- fering inflicted by Germany upon Bel gium, our neighbor.
 ''The eloquent protests of the Bel gian government and of the higher clergy have acquainted you with the facts. A glance at the section of The Hague regulations Of 1907 which deals with the law of war on land will make it obvious to you that the sole reason why the prohibition of this modern slave dealing was not in cluded was because no delegate imagined it would ever be necessary.
 "Indeed, one must turn to the his tory of the early ages of long past centuries before international law ex- isted to find a parallel. to the enslav- ing of the Belgians. The Hague reg ulations stipulated that the honor and rights Of the family must be re- spccted,' but the German government deliberately drags the Belgian fami- lies apart
 Cruelty Moro Vivid Every Day,
 ITO us this cruelty is more vivid every day. Every day members of fugitives, in spite of the deadly elec- tric wire which the Germans have erected along the frontier. succeed in escaping to the Netherlands. From them we learn the painful details of the unutterable despair of the women and children who are left behind and of the agonizing scenes which take place when husbands, brothers and sons dragged from their homes and wome enfoll1, are packed into cattle and freight cars and thus transported to an unknown destination and put to an unknown fate.
 ITO put an end to this--to arrest this hellish scourge. which at this mo- ment lacerates the whole of northern France and western Russia-there is but one way open, and that is collec- tive action on the part of the neutral nations.
 And for you, citizens of the mightiest of the neutral states. it is in our opinion the right and duty to take the leadership upon you. Only if you place yourselves at our head can any success crown our efforts. This tyranny is not to he borne in pa tence, and tho neutral nations can no longer stand idly by while in west ,crn Europe te most primitive laws of humanity, observed even by unciv ilized races. are trampled under foot.
 We appeal to you to urge your government 10 energetic and decisive action and to call upon other neutral nations to rally around you. That they will find faith and strength in your leadership is evidenced by the stream of messages expressive of sympathy and a desire to cooperate which have reached us from the mo- ment we published our intention to make this appeal to the American peoyle We do not hesitate to take 1t upon ourselves to speak with firm conviction in the Hame of humanity, and our hope is firmly fixed on that sense of justice which has always formed one of the most cherished tra ditions of the citizens of the United States.
 Americans, we are convinced that you will not disappoint our expecta- tions.'