Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-04-25

supposed Cl1At the severe W06tn0r NAo
moved the Germans to postpone the
d~eportations.
The rage, the terror. and despair
excited by this measure all over Bel
GUM were beyond anything We had
witnessed since the day the Germans
poured into Brussels. The delegates
of h Commission for Relief in Bel
GUM. returning to Brussels. told the
most distressing stories of the scenes
of cruelty and sorrow attending the
seizures. And daily. hourly. almost,
since that time. appalling stories have
been related by Belgians coming to
the legation. 1t is impossible for US
to verify them. first because it is
necessary for vi to exercise all pos
sible tact in dealing with the subject
at all. and, secondly, because there is
no means Of communication between
the Occupations Gebiet and the Etap-
pen Gebiet. =.
Transportation everywhere in
Belgium is difficult, the vicinal rail-
ways scarcely operating any more be
cause Of the lack of oil. while all the
horses have been taken. The people
who are forced to go from one village
to another must do 60 on foot or in
vans drawn by the few miserable
horses that are left. The wagons Of
the breweries, the one institution that
the Germans have s~crupulously re-
spected. are hauled by oxen
THE well-known tendency Of sensa-
tional reports to exaggerate them
selves. especially in time Of war. and
in a situation like that existing here.
with no newspapers to serve as q daily
clearing house for all the rumors that
are as avidly believed as they are
eagerly repeated. should, of course. be
considered, but even If a modicum of
all that Is told is true. there still re-
mains enough to stamp this deed as
Il am constantly in receipt OF re-
ports from all over Belgium that tend
to bear gu the stories one constant
ly hears Of brutality and cruelty. A
number of men sent back to Mons are
said to be in a dying condition, many
OF them t%ubercular. At Malines and
at Antwerp returned mon have died,
their friends asserting that they have
been victims OF neglect and cruelty, Of
cold, of exposure, of hunger.
Il have had requests. from the
Burgomasters Of ten communes from
La Louviere. asking that permission
be obtained to send to the deported
men In Germany packages Of food
similar to those that are being sent
to prisoners Of war. Thus far the
German authorities have refused to
permit this except in special instances
and returning Belgians claim that
even when such packages are received
they are used by the camp authorities
only as another means Of coercing
them to sign the agreements to work.
1T is said that in spite of the lib
eral salary promised those who would
sign voluntarily no money has as yet
been received in Belgium from work.
men in Germany.
"One interesting result of the de-
portations remains to be noted, a re-
suit that once more places in relief
the German capacity for laundering
limos as great as the German ca
pacity for cruelty.
They have dealt a mortal blow to
any prospect they may ever have had
OF being tolerated by the population
OF Flanders: in tearing away from
nearly every humble home in the land
a husband and a father or a son and
brother they have lighted a fire of
hatred that will never 70 out: the
v brought home to every heart in
the land, in a a that will Impress its
horror 1ndelibly on the memory of
three generations, a realization of
what German methods mean, not. as
with the early atrocities in the heat of
passion n the first lust of war. but
by one of those deeds that makes one
despair of the future of the human
race. a deed coldly planned, studious-
" matured. and deliberately and sys-
tematically executed, a deed so cruel
that German soldiers are said to have
Wept In Its execution. and SO mon
strous that even German officers are
now said to he aaha mod"