New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-04

IT the Germans continue 10 OcpoIt
Bclgians on their present plan they
will conscript 100000 men. Only ono
nation can prevent this, the United
States. II is time for us 10 speak. be
cause this slave drive is the most
wholesale and immense injustice IN the
whole German campaign Of frightful-
ness. They have moved on from point
TO point in unsettling the economic life
Of Belgium. They have destroyed her
export trade. They have made II I'M
possible for her to import raw stuffs TO
be manufactured into products.
Frees Germans for Fighting
Then. when her machinery lay idle,
they requisitioned the machinery on the
ground that il was unused. And now
that the workmen are unemployed they
deport them on the preteXt that they
are idle. gambling, etc By this pro-
erosion of measures they are freeing
several new divisions of the German
army, supplying their places by Bel
gian slave labor. They are lengthening
the war by several months. They are
violating human rights on a large
scale And they have turned one Of
the most industrious nations in the
world, first. into an idle, unemployed
community, and now into a serfdom.
Lord Bryce does not give interviews.
What he asked me TO do was TO submit
questions in writing, and TO these ques-
tions he has written answers. lie con
scented in this instance only because OF
the gravity Of the Belgian situation a
situation which is growing worse each
day, as the numbers Of men deported
increase.
The first question submitted 10 VS.
count Bryce was this:
America has been startled by Car
dinal Merciers statement concerning
the deportation of Belgian men. Our
people will appreciate statement, from
you as 10 the meaning Of this latest
German move"
Virtual Slavery, Says Bryce
Lord Bryce replied to me:
Nothing could be more shocking
than this wholesale carrying away OF
men from Belgium. | know Of no case
IN European history TO surpsss II. Not
even in the Thirty Years War were
there such things as the German gov
eminent has done, first and last, in Bel
gium. This last case is virtual slavery.
The act is like that of those Arab slave
raiders in Africa who carried of
negroes 10 the coast TO sell. And the
severity is enhanced because these Bel
gians and the work forcibly extracted
from them are going TO be used against
"lIaving invaded Belgium and muir
dered many hundreds, indeed, even
thousands, among them women and
children, who could not be accused Of
'sniping,' tho German military govern
ment dislocated the industrial system
Of the community. They carried off all
the raw materials of industry and
most Of the machinery in factories. and
then, having thus deprived the inhabi-
tants of work, the invaders used this
unemployment as the preteXt for de-
porting them in very large numbers
TO places where nothing will be known
of their fate, and they were not even
allowed 10 take leave Of their wives
and children.
Many of them may never be heard
of again. And Won Kissing calls this "a
humanitarian measure Actually, II is
all a part of the invasion policy. They
defend It as being war as they justify
everything, however inhuman, done be
cause the military needs of Germany
are alleged 10 call FOR n. IL shows now
hard pressed the military power is
beginning to find itself at this latest
stage Of the war.
Unparalleled Since Atilla's Time
1T is said that Atlila, when he
was bringing his hosts Of Huns out Of
Asia for his great assault on Western
Europe, forced the conquered tribes
into his army and made them a part Of
his invasion. / can hardly think of a
like case since then. In principle IL
resembles the Turkish plan when they
formed the Janissaries. The Turks
used their Christian subjects, taken
quite young and made Moslems, and en-
rolled them as soldiers Ito fight against
Christians TO nh their armies, of
which they were the most efficient part.
"These Belgians are not indeed actu-
ally made 10 fight. but tney are being
forced to do the labor Of war. some of
them probably digging trenches, or max
in shells, or working In quGrries TO eX-
tract chalk 70 make cement for war
purposes. The carrying Oft Of young
girls from Lille was terrible enough,
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