Evening journal., 1917-12-10
BRAND WHITLOCK'S
OFFICIAL STORY
Continued from Page Ten

Continued from Page Ten
seizures. And daily, hourly almost. since
that time appalling stories have been
related by Belglans 70 the Legation. II
is impossible for us TO verify them.
first, because IL is necessary for us TO
exercise all possible tact in dealing
with The subject at all. and. secondly,
because there Is no means OF COM
munlcation between the Occupations
Gebiet and the Etappen- Goblet.
Transportation everywhere in Bel
gium Is dlnlcult, the viclnal railways
scarcely operating any more because OF
the lack OF oil. while all the horses
have been taken. The people who are
forced TO go from one village 10 an
other must do so 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 scrupulously respected, are hauled
by oxen"
The well-known tendency OF sensa-
tional reports 10 exaggerate them
selves. Whitlock points out. gives oeca-
sion for great prudence IN believing
rumor but he adds that even II q mod
icum OF all that is told Is true there
stlll remains enough TO stamp this deed
as one of the foulest that history re-
cords.
Then he adds.
81 am constantly In receipts Of re-
ports from all over Belgium that tend
10 bear out the stories one constantly
hears Of brutality and cruelty. a num-
Der Of men sent back to Mons are said
to be in a dying condition. many Of
them tubercular. st Malines and Ant
werp returned men have died. their
friends asserting that they have been
victims Of neglect and cruelty, Of cold,
0f exposure. Of hunger"
Whitlock and the Spanish and Dutch
Ministers protested against the depor-
tation Of men who were at work al
ready, because they clearly did not
come within the brutal German order
that all unemployed men should be
deported. The Spanish Legation lodged
protests concerning about 200 men a
day and the Dutch about as high as
1900 Whitlock at that time estimated
that 10000 persons had been deported,
Of whom only 1000 were returned.
Belgian burgomasters asked Whitlock
to obtain permission 10 send packages
Of food 90 the deported. similar to those
sent TO prisoners Of war, but, except
In special instances. this was refused.
Whiilock concludes his report as fol-
lows:
zone interesting result Of the de-
p0rtatiOns remains TO be noted a re-
suit that once more places ln relief the
German capacity for laundering. al
most as great as the German capacity
for cruelty. Until the deportations were
begun there was no intense hatred on
the part Of the lower classes, that is.
the workingmen and the peasants. The
old Germans Of the Landstrum had
been quartered in Flemish homes; they
and the inmates spoke nearly the same
language; they got along fairly we'll
they helped the women with the work,
the poor and the humble having none Of
those hatreds Of patriotism that are
among tho privileges Of the upper clas-
ses.
1T is conceivable that the Flemish
population might have existed under
German rule; IL was Teutonic in its
origin and anti-French always.
but now the Germans have changed
all that. They have dealt a mortal blow
TO any prospect they may ever have
had Of being tolerated by the popula-
tion OF Flanders; in tearing away from
nearly every humble home in the land
a husband and a father or son and
brother they have lighted a fire Of
hatred that will never 90 out; they
have brought homo 10 every heart IN /
the land In way that will impress its |
horror indelibly on the memory Of three |
generations, a realization Of what Ger
man methods mean, not, as with the
early atrocities, in the heat Of passion
and the first lust Of war, but by one 70 |
those deeds that make ono despair Of
the future of the human race, a deed
coldly planned, studlously matured and
deliberately and Systematically exccu-
ted, a deed so cruel that German sol. /
diers are said 20 have wept in its exc
cution and so mOnStrOuS that even
German officers are now said 10 be
ashamed"