The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-06-13

bread and some Of the cOmmunes pro-
vided warm clothing for those who had
none and in addition small financial
allowance.
''As by one of the ironies of life the
winter has been more excessively cold
than Belgium has ever known it, and
while some of those who presented
themselves were adequately protected
against the cold, many Of them were
without overcoats. The men shiverlng
from cold and fear, the parting from
weeping wives and children, the bar
riers of brutal uhlans, all this made
the scene a pitiable and distressing
one.
ut was understood that the seizures
would continue here in Brussels, but
on Thursday last, bitter cold day,
those that had been convoked were
sent home without examination. 1t is
supposed that the severe weather has
moved the Germans to postpone the
deportations.
Rage and Despair.
1.-THE rage, the terror, and the 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
the commission for relief in Belgium,
returning to Brussels. told the most
distressing stories Of the scenes OF
cruelty and sorrow attending the SELF
ures. And daily. hourly, almost, since
that time, appalling stories have been
related by Belgians coming to the le-
CATION. It is impossible for us to veri-
fy them, first because it is necessary
for US to exercise all possible tact in
dealing with the subject at all, and,
secondly, because there is no means OF
communication between the Occupa.
lions Gebiet and the Etappen Gebiet.
Transportation everywhere in Bel
GUM is difficult, the vicinal 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 to anoth-
er. must do so on foot or in vans
drawn by the , few miserable horses
that are left. The wagons Of the brew
cries, the one institution that the Ger
mans have scrupulously respected, 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 daily
clearing house for all the rumors that
are as avidly believed as they are Gag
erly repeated, should, Of course, be
considered, but even If modicum OF
all that is told is true, there still re-
mains enough to stamp this deed as
one of the foulest that history records
II am constantly in receipt Of re-
ports from all over Belgium that tend
to 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. ;, AT, Malines and at
Antwerp returned men have died, their
friends asserting that they have been
victims of neglect and cruelty, Of cold,
of exposure, Of hunger. S1t &ss'
nvgt Promises Are Not Kept. '.'''.
~ II have. had requests from the bur
gomasters of ten, comrnunes 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 pris-,
oners off, war. Thus far the German
authorities have refused to permit this
except In special instances, and re-
turning 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 liberal
salary promised those who would sign
voluntarily no money has as yet been
received in. Belgium from workmen in
Germany. 4...
zone interesting result Of the de-
portatiOns remains to be noted. q re-
suit that once more places In relief
the German, capacity for laundering al
most as great as the German capacity
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 hus-
band and a father or son and brother
they have lighted fire Of hatred that
will never go. out they have brought
home to every heart in the land, In
way that will impress its horror indel-
IDLY on the memory Of three genera.
lions, a realization Of what German
methods mean, not, as with the early
atrocities in the heat of passion and
the first lust Of war, but by one Of
those deeds that make one despair Of
the future of the human race, a deal
coldly planned, studiously matured,
and deliberately and systematically exc
cuted, a deed so cruel that German SOL
diers are said to have kept in its exc
cution, and so monstrous that even
German officers are now said to be
ashamed" .r....
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ~NtsH~>sHNSS