The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1916-12-22
What is Americas Duty?

III
4 1 feebly in protest against the deportation OF
I Belgian civilians from their own land by the Ger
z mans and twice has Germany gone ahead in band
Il disregard Of Uncle Sam. The Americans of the
Eastern States appear to be in earnest however.
in urging further action the part OF the state
department in this matter and it may be that what
t the murder OF Americans on the high seas could
not rouse the government into doing the enslaVe-
ment OF hundreds of thousands of Belgians may
bring about.
1t is not only that Belgian men and youths are
5 being carried away into slavery AOi that Belgian
girls are being dragged from their families for
probably the worst fate that could befall anyone,
but being left behind old men, old women, the
|. sick and the very young of the population, and
these are probably being condemned to the slow
death of starvation. The British have issued a
most solemn warning to the neutral world that
they must petforce discontinue the sending OF re-
lief supplies into Belgium if Belgium labor is to
be used wholly for the assistance of Germany in
the war. Horrible as the alternative is to con-
template none can expect the British to draw from
their own not too plentiful supplies to support
the families of those who working for the
enemy. This warning of the British is published
elsewhere in this issue.
II The situation in Belgium is summarized by Col
lier's Weekly in its current issue summary with
which Americans should familiarize themselves, in
view of the possibility that this question may be
very live American question before the holidays
have passed. Golfers says, in part:
The facts about Belgium and northern France
worth determining partly because there are data
enough justify sound conclusion, and because that
sSSo Bepisns ssxe steIy BEEN deported for work
in Germany and because it is now proposed to increase
involving an infntude of suffering of grief and of
injustice especially If the expatriates are obliged to
start their doefu journey without sufficient clothing
RooI 4 - that ha afinnn aapnfa
Has the American people any clear dutyi Is any re-
sponsbihty laid upon the United States government
mentf' All this is a subjec for sober and cautious
examination. But in calmness let US not forget
that to those the spot the Belgian dePortatons
not an abstraction. They a fact which terrorizes
an entire nation Crowds of wives, mothers, and sis
gather the railroad stations to often for
the last time their husbands sons and brothers. hyS-
terical have thrown themselves the rails to
sons of neutral nations as remain in Belgium d. in
J, spite Of the bunting of their by more than
s SS Ssr prove e And Sas "ny
European government, in 1916 and in 1917, the right
enforce upon the citizens of invaded territories the
alternatives Of treason or slavery in strange landf
The German policy of arresting subjects of Belgium
without specific exp lanation and shipping them to
German destinations unknown, dates from 1915
do the blood stained depoations of Armenians by
the Turks This Turco- Teuton policy was extended
to northern France in April 1916. Forced labor was,
of course already commonplace of the German Occu-
patton, and had always included work in the most
Lille ordered all persons fourteen years of age
hold themselves in readiness for forced evacuation
hour and a halfs notice Victims of this pro-
ceeding showed considerable courage They sang their
national anthem as the crowded cattle in which
they had been herded moved out of the railway
tiOns. The work to which they set when they
reached Germany OF points behind the firing line in
cuded mining and quarrying the coal iron, and steel
industries, farming, roadwork, munitions making
trench digging, and, for the women, cooking and
washing for the soldiers, and service officers
orderes" In Lille, Roubaix and Tourcoing. in the
occupied portion of northern France $4,000 per-
wrenched from home. They were, in all
civilians. Yet of the tasks at which they
have been set works which, by Article LII of the
Fourth Hague Convention (duly signed by Germany
too), cannot be demanded from prisoners of
The young women sent into Germany from north.
France range from sixteen to twenty years of
, age. What has meant to place these young girls
under the authority of hostile soldiery is better
imagined than elaborated.
1t is only fair to Germany that the blanket
pretext alleged in defense of her actions in Belgium
and northern France is that the attitude of England
renders it increasingly difficult feed the pOpula-
tion.' A reasonable explanation of that diff
Guilty has been found in the that Germans have
stripped those populations of their materials; that
their live stock has gone to supply the GERMAN army
and German civilians that their grain has been requ
sitioned; that their cities have been subjected
tortionate and (by the Hague Conventions forbidden
tax leVes. Moreover, the deportation of Begians u.s.
u is declared fat violation of the pledge given to
Cardinal Mercier by the German governor of Ant.
weTp, to the effect that Belgans would be sent
Of their own country, pledge confirmed by Field
Marshal Won der GOltZ, late governor general. At
first Belgans were expatriated only the pretext
n, that they were out of work" and would be given
suitable work to do in Germany More recently the
T German authorities have dropped this pretense Of
exiting only the unemPoyed for the removal o Bel
r, Gians from their own country to labor in Germany
releases from industry n equal number of Germans
who can be sent to the trenches.
4 -:O:-