The Benson signal., 1918-01-12
BELG|ANS HERDED
IN CATTLE PENS
Participants Testimony of Deg
radiation Accompanying De-
p0rtati0n From Mons.
SCENES OF FIENDISH CRUELTY
Women Forbidden to Give Food and
Clothing to Men Facing Privation
and CoId-United States
Appeal Unheeded.


Conspicuous among cold-bzooded
acts Of cruelty committed By the
Germans, to their everlasting dis
grace, the deportation from Mons Is
prominent. Official documents pub
hshed By the committee ON public
information tell part of the harrow-
ing story.
A vivid sketch of the deportations
from Mons, ordered by German author
tiles, drawn by participant, may we'll
be cited here:
Il will take the 18th of November
of last year [1916]. A week or so be-
fore that placard was placed on the
walls telling my capital city of Mons
that in seven days all the men of that
city who were not clergymen, who
were not priests, who did not belong to
the city council, would be deported.
AT half past five, in the gray of the
morning on the 18th of November,
they walked out, $500 men at Mons,
myself and another leading them down
the cobblestones of the street and out
where the riOting would be less than
IN the great city, with the soldiers on
each side, with bayonets fixed, with
the women held back.
1.-The degradation of it! The degra-
dation of it as they walked into this
great market square, where the pens
were erected, exactly as if they were
cattle-all the great men of that prov
ince-the lawyers, the statesmen, the
heads of the trades, the men that had
made the capital of Hainaut glorious
during the last 20 years.
"There they were collected; no ques-
ton of who they were, whether they
were busy or what they were doing,
or what their position in life. Go to
the right! Go to the left! Go to the
right! So they were turned to the
one side or the other.
"You saw the women in hundreds,
with bundles in their hands, beseech-
ing to be permitted to approach the
trains, to give their men the last that
they had in life between themselves
and StarvatiOn-a small bundle Of
clothing to keep them warm on their
way to Germany. You saw women ap-
proach with a bundle that had been
purchased by the sale Of the last
Of their household effects. Not
one was allowed to approach to give
her man the warm pair of stockings or
the warm jacket, so there might be
some chance of his reaching there. Off
they went John II. Gade, in the Ma
tional Geographic Magazine, May,
1917.
The Belgian women sent touching
appeal to Minister Whitlock:
Appeal of Belgian Women.
Brussels, Nov. Is, 1916, 46 Rue de la
Madeleine.
"His Excellency, Mr.. Brand Whitlock,
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary of the United States
of America.
"Mr. Minister:
From the depths of our we'll of
misery our supplication rises to you.
"In addressing ourselves to you, we
denOunce to your government, as well
as to our sisters, the women of the
nation which you represent in our
midst, the criminal abuse of force of
which our unhappy and defenseless
people is victim.
"Since the beginning Of this afro
cious war we have looked on impotent-
ly and with our hearts torn with every
sorrow at terrible events which put
civilization back into the ages of the
barbarian hordes.
"Mr. Minister, the crime which is
now being committed under your eyes,
namely, the deportation of thousands
of men compelled to work on enemy
soil against the interests of their coun-
try, cannot find any shadow of excuse
on the ground of military necessity, for
it constitutes violation by force of a
sacred right of human conscience.
Called "Monstrous Extremity.
"Whatever may be the motive, it
cannot be admitted that citizens may
be compelled to work directly or indi-
rectly for the enemy against their
brothers who are fighting.
"The convention of The Hague has
consecrated this principle.
Nevertheless, the occupying power
is forcing thousands of men to this
monstrous extremity, which is con-
trary to morals and international law,
both these men who have already been
taken to Germany and those who to-
morrow will undergo the same fate,
if from the outside, from neutral Eu-
rope and the United States, no help is
offered.