The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-31
l PROTEST DIVISION
 ] OF BELGIUM INTO STATES
Deportations of Conquered
 People Into Germany Still Continue.

| Havre, Aug. 31.-The Belgian gov ernment has addressed 8 long and earnest protest to the allied and neu- l tFal governments against German Vio- lations of international and moral law in the redistricting of Belgium, sol l that it will have two governments and two capitals, instead of one, and in deporting ar arresting Belgian offi-
 cials who resigned their posts rather l than continue in office under the new
 regime. 1 The protest begins by the citation l of Article 43 of the Fourth Hague l Convention, according to which an 1 occupying power must, in so far as it | is possible govern occupied territory I in conformity with the territory's
 own law. The protest then points out
 that this clause was violated by the l Germans in March, 1917, by decree creating two administrative regions, with capitals at Brussels and Namur,
 and by the decrees of April 13 and
 June and 10 confirming the exc
 cution of the March pronunciamento.
 These decrees, says the protest com pletely overturn Belgian law and gravely violate the Belgian Constitu-
 ton, which divides Belgium into pro- vinces and places the capital at Brus- l sels.
 'The German decrees,'' says the | protest, "superimpose divisions of l provinces and on each division made 4 up of provinces in manner that the Constitution does not recognize. They l dismember one of the provinces and l put in it two capitals in place of one. l The measures have only the goal of serving the Germans interests to the l detriment of Belgium, and creating
 scnism between the Belgians."
 | The protest then takes up the part I which Belgian officials played in the administration until "certain of them have felt it theid duty to resign, so as to show the sentiments which anil l mate the entire body of Belgian func-
 tionarfes." The result of these resig- nations, says the document has been 1 to subject the country to new rigors II contrary to human law. The Ger II man government has denied them the
 right to refuse their service, and has arrested and deported them to Ger
 many. though when they originally agreed to carry on their normal func-
 tions it was under the express stipu- lation that The Hague Tribunal con-
 ventions would be respected. The pro- test concludes as follows:
 In the presence of systematic fla grant violation of international law by the acts denounced above, the Be1- gian government protests solennly | against the administrative separation ! which the Occupying power is forcibly : establishing in Belgium, and against acts of violence. to which functionar- fes are subjected who exercise their
 incontestable right to refuse to lend their hand to what they consider in s justice as abusive and unjustifiabIe t measures. The Belgian government denounces this new violation of hu-
 man rights to the allied and neutral
 governments who subscribed their Q signatures to the convention concern. 8 ing the laws and customs of war on n earth.
 a It is officially announced by the !, Belgian government that the Ger . mans have ordered the Bank of Cour- ttrai. West Flanders, to transfer its
 funsd immediately to Brussels.
 About a thousand Flemish civilians
 have been deported to Zeebrugge tc A do work of a military nature, accord ing to the official announcement Ci. vihans also are being similarly em.
 ployed at Blankenberghe and near the Dutchborder. Near Ypres the Ger
 mans are requisitioning barges in
 large numbers, but fifty-five out o1
 sixty boatmen at that point have re- fused to work for the Germans. de- spite promises of good pay
 At Malines all walnut wood has
 been requisitioned to make rifle \ stocks.
 Official announcement was made ir \ Germany on June IA, in connection K with the previously announced inten.
 tion to redistrict Belgium. that Herr H Schaibele, a Baden official, had beer
 made chief of the administration o1
 the Flemish part of Belgium, witt aEresidence in Brussels, and Herr Han iel. a Prussian, chief of tie admins
 tration of the Walloon di trict, with residence in Namur. Schaibele'. Htjurisdiction was to extend to the pro E s vinces of Antwerp, Iimbourg, Eas
 and West Flanders, and the district of Brussels and Louvain, and those O.
 Haniel to the provinces of Hainault
 Liege, Luxembourg, Namur, and tn, \ district of Nive1le.
 vt Dispatches from Holland have an
 nounced that the Germans were de
 porting all Belgian officials who re
 fused to recognize. the splitting up O