South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-06-04
B Belgium and
Poland Clicked
Systema tically

" A-NAT O-Ms ADE = III a
memorandum presented by Minister
De Cartier and made public by the
state department Sunday, the Bel
gian government asserts that Ger
many's Industrial strangulation OF
occupied Belgian. Polish and Litn-
uanian territory, followed by
slavery OF the conquered people. has
been carried on under a plan work
ed out in cold blood during Au-
gust, 1914, by DR.. w. Rathnau of
Berlin.
This is in answer to Germany's
claim that the deportation OF Bel
gians for enforced labor was a mill
itary and economic necessity. More
over, replying 10 the German state
ment that depOrtations have ceased,
il is declared that they continue
without care for the seeds of hate
that are sown in the hearts of the
victims and those near and dear to
them and which threaten TO render
all social intercourse impossib bic,
perhaps for centuries. between two
important portions OF the peoples
of Europe"
Reviews Belgium's Woes.
The memorandum is devoted
largely TO a review OF the German
policy toward Belgium and the lat
ter's sufferings and most of the
charges it makes already have been
brought TO the attention of the gov
eminent by its own official repre-
sentatives. In delivering il, Mir
lister De Cartier said:
This document is complete
refutatiOn of the excuses offered by
the German authorities for these
acts of barbarity and is a clear
statement of the successive steps
by which Germany has sought to
breaK down the patriotic spirit of
the Belgian workmen and to enslave
them for work of military utility
against our own fellow country
men,"
Plan Systematic Exhaustion.
The general headquarters at Ber-
lin, it is charged, decreed the syste-
matte economic exhaustion Of Bel
GUM on the Rathnau plan for the
exploitation of all the economic re-
sources of occupied territories by
the German war machine, stifled
Belgian competitive industries for
the benefit of German industries by
the wholesale removal of machinery
and. raw material. by unjust seques-
tration, and by prohibitive tariffs;
bled the country white by war taxes
of over a million francs and by 9TH
er financial disabilities; prevented
relief for the unemployed thus
created by forbidding public work
and technical instruction; and final
IL made their enforced idleness the.
excuse for deporting them like cat
tie TO Germany or TO the firing line
to serve in war work against their
own brothers.
Says Ii is Hell.
Compelled il spite Of them
selves" says the monorandum. ito
undertake heavy toll and to work
outdoors during the severest season
OF the year, without having been
trained or hardened. exposed to ar
tillery fire, deprived of proper cloth
ing and scarcely nourished, multi
tude of these unfortunates soon fall
from exhaustion and from illness.
The mortality on the spot seems to
be considera BILE. The sick and dy-
ing who can still be transported are
sent home with less regard than
slaves received n antiquity from
their masters, who were interested
in the care of human chattels who
formed a part of their riches.
Through the pitiable condition OF
tn ese repatriated Belgians there has
been revealed the life which their
lead who remain be
hind at work. There is only one
word that can describe it: 1t is
hell
THAT deportations could be justi- |
fed by any danger 10 public order |
is characterized as absurd.
The population has no arms, the !
says. surrounded by /
a barrier of death dealing electric J
wires, the population is literally held /
in a cage. All constitutional hber- |
ties. liberty of opinion, of the press, |
Of reunion and of association, are /
The danger of disorder /
is so remote that the German ad- |
has maintained only /
relatively weak garrisons in Bel |
oi,rr,,