The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-11-28

under II, many of them open to the
sky, crowded with Belgian miners. AS
they went they sang La Braban-
pie gathered In crowds on the bridge,
flung down to them turnlps, potatoes,
anything and all they had; the cho-
meurs seized these raw vegetables
ate them ~ravenOusly, like animals. The
crowd Joined in their cries, the single
German sentinel on tine bridge running
about and imploring them to be still.
Every one Of the delegates had some
such tale to tell; they were half sick
with the horror of it. but they had
rendered all the help they could, even
when that help was oniy the sympathy
they could not refrain from express
Il was on Friday, the 9th Of Octo-
Der, q day OF cold rain ana wei leaves
falling dismally. At 5 o'clock in the
afternoon we went to the political de-
partment, the marquis Of Villalobar,
NJ. Won N~ollenhoven, ii. F~rancqui, M.
Emanuel Jansen and /, were met by
the Baron Won der Lancken and by Or,
Brohn and DR.. Reith. Before taking
up the question Of the deportations, Won
der Lahcken, opening the meeting IN
his formal way, sskec pr. Reth 70
read us a letter Just written by the
encouragement and addressed to the
protecting ministers. according what
we had asked at our latest interview
with him. representation on the vari-
Gus Zentrale, and a more stringent con-
troll. The letter was satisfactory 10
us. and after we had discussed some
of the details, the baron said that he
wished to define the attitude of the
general government In regard to the
Chomeurs.
We Discuss-and Discuss.
II was very still in the little salon;
we had made the formal protest, ana
Won der Lancken, sitting hv the m'r-
ble-topped table, began his reply ny
saying that in Germany the olu meh
working in the fields. while In Belgium
there were 700. 600 idle folk, more than
half OF them men for the most part
young and capable of working. His
eXcellency the governor general had
twice, publicly and officially, offerel
work to the chomeurs. but It mad been
refused; now, because of the lack Oh
labor in Germany, the general govern
ment was determined to force these
Belgians to go to work. The genera!
government, no said, felt that it mad
not only the legal, but the moral. right
to do this; that idleness was always
a menace, and that II the war con-
tinued a veal or two longer, these men
would lose the habit Of work complete
~, They would therefore be transferred
to Germany-some 10000 had already
been sent-where they would be set
to work in the fields, in the quarries
and elsewhere, but that not n OF
them would be compelled to work for
the army or for any military purposes
whatever.
lie paused a moment, with a wide,
e~xculpating gesture as OF n who ad-
mits some trifling exception. and said:
Il do not say that not one Of them
will work on a rail over which a mill
tary train may pass, but
The decision had been made: there
would be no resembling Of it, DR..
Brohn, who was a director in the
Krupp works, remarked that there were
hundreds of Belgians working in the
Krupp works. but not in the munitions
department. But. said one OF us, some
Belgians had been set to work making
trenches in Northern France. But this
the baron denied; no Belgian, he said.
had been employed at such labor save
those who had come voluntarily and
asked for work, though he did admit
that some Of them had been employed
on the new Notifications at Antwerp.
Then VillalObar and l by turns called
the baron's attention to the storm that
the reports of the seizures would pro-
duce in the world outside, and asked
him if they had considered the effect
the measure would have on the relief.
The baron replied that the comite ma
tional and the commission FOR relief
would be respected and that the en-
gagements entered into with them
would be respected. The governor had
not and would not ask the comite ma
tional for the lists of chomeurs, though
he would ask and would insist that no
family Of a Belgian taken away be
punished by having food taken from
them.
Then we called his attention to the
state of affairs in Luxembourg. There
we're no chomeurs in the province Of
Luxembourg; the communes had un-
dertaken public works, bridges, town
halls. ditches-any justifiable Improve
ment that might tighten the needs Of
the people. But the German civil pres
ident had ordered all this construction
discontinued: he had even zone so far
as to prohibit 'workmen living in one
commune to go into n~eighboring COM
| munes in search of work. DR.. Reith
replied for the baron, saying that these
public works had been undertaken after
the Germans had called for workmen,
which was doubtless accurate enough,
since the Germans had begun calling
for workmen almost Immediately after
the occupation. and that the Belgian
authorities had ~inaugurated these
works in order to defeat the German
plan to secure manual labor.
1t was a long and futile discussion;
one after another we brought up ali
the objections that so readily occurred
to the mind, but to no avail. There
was once more that impregnable i'm
passe, that magic phrase-military me-
cessity; messieurs les militaires had
pronounced lt,H and that closed all de-
bate. Baron Won der Lancken shrugged
his shoulders to show that he was
powerless and, besides, he had not beer