The daily Alaskan., 1918-02-18


 ~Then, in August, Von Hindenburg was appointed to the supreme con- mand. He Is said to have criticized Yon Bissing's policy as too mild there was a quarrel; Won BlssIng went to Berlin to protest, threatened to resign, but did not. He returned, and a Ger man official here said that Belgium would now be subjected to a more ter. rible regime-would learn what war was. The prophecy has been nndicat- ed. Recently was told that the dras- tic measures are really of Ludendorfs inspiration; do not know. Many Ger man officers say so."'
 If Von BlssIng had opposed the pol icy of deportation when his own tudg- ment was overruled, he consented to become the devils advocate" and de- tended the system In public. Rspe- cially instructive is the following con- versation reported by Mir. F. Q Wal colt:
 "I went to Belgium to investigate COuulllOuSt buu MHilc thSAS h"N " portunity to talk one day with Governor General Von BIssing, who died three or four weeks ago, a man seventy-two or seventy-three years old, a man steeped In the system, born and bred to the hardening of the heart. which that philosophy deFelops' There ought to be some new word coined for the process that a mans heart undergoes when 1t becomes steeped in that system.
 "I said to him, Governor, what are you going to do If England and France stop giving these people money to pur- chase foodT
 Won Bisslng Relied on Starvation.
 "He said, We have got that all worked out and have had 1t worked out for weeks, because we have ex- pected this system to break down at any time
 He went on to say, Starvation will grip these people ln thirty to sixty days. Starvation is a compelling force, and we would use that force to compel the Belgian worklngmen. many ot them very skilled, to go to Germany to replace the Germans. so that they could go to the front and fight against the English and the French
 "As fast as our railway transpor- tation could carry them, we would transport thousands of others that would be fit for agricultural work, across Europe down into southeastern Europe, into Nfesopotamla, where we have huge, splendid irrigation works. All that land needs Is water and 1t will blossom like the rose.
 "'The weak remaining, the old and the young, we would concentrate oppo- site the firing line, and put firing squads back of them, and force them through that line, so that the English and French could take care of their own people,
 Tt was a perfectly simple, direct, frank reasoning. It meant that the German government would use any force in the destruction of any people not it's own to further its own ends. - Frederick c. WaIcOtt, in National Geo. graphical Magazine, May. 1917.
 A brief general view of the character of the deportatIons can perhaps be gained best from the report of Minis ter Whitlock.
 'The deportations began in October in the Etape, at Ghent, and at BruGes, as my brief telegrams Indicated. The policy spread; the rich industrial dis tricts of Hainault, the mines and steel works about Charleroi were next at tackled; now they are seizing men in Brabant. even in Brussels, despite some indications and even predictions of the civil authorities that the policy was about to be abandoned.
 IThe etapeS were the parts of Bel gium under martial law, and Included the province of western Flanders, part of eastern Flanders. and the region of Tournai. The remainder of the oc- cupied part of Belgium was under civil government.l
 PitiabIe and Distressing Scene.
 During the last fortnight men have been impressed here In Brussels, but theIr seizures here are made evidently with much greater care than in the provinces. with more regard for the cnnearnnces. ThG~e wrs-,nO public an