Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1918-02-04
Report of German Disregard OF
Human Rights on File in
State Department.
OVERWHELMED WITH HORROR
Minister to Belgium Declared 1t Was
Difficult to Write Calmly and Justly
In View Of the Huns Gratu-
ltous Cruelty.

t0rted 6y We Hm mttHdry tedd-
ers, whick ercited the Indignation Of
the civilized wOrId, have been thus
officially SET FORTH:
The plan of setting forth the essen
tial facts of the deportations and
forced labor of Belglans is set forth
by the committee on public infOrma-
tion as follows: the documents, that
is to say, small fraction of those
which could be cited, tell the story and
only such comments are added as are
needed to enable the reader to easily
grasp the connection of events.
"The deportatiOns were the
most vivid, shocking, convincing single
happening in all our enforced Observa-
tiOn and experience of German dis
regard Of human suffering and human
rights in Belgium. m."-Vernon Kellogg
in Atlantic Monthly, October, 1917.
A summary of the whole situation,
down to January. 1917, can be OBJ
tained by reading continuously the re-
port of Minister WhltloclS, taken from
the files Of the state department. This
tells of the brutality of the depOrta-
tlons.
'Legation of the United States of
America, Brussels, Jan. 16, 1917.
'The Honorable. the Secretary of
State, Washington.
"Sir: have had 1t In mind, and !
might say, on my conscience, since
the Germans began to deport Belgian
workmen early Ia November, to pre-
pare for the department detailed
report on this latest instance Of bru-
tally, but there have been so many
obstacles in the way Of obtaining evil
dence on which calm and judciOus
opinion could be based, and one Is
80 overwhelmed with the horror Of the
thing itself, that 1t has been. and even
now is, difficult to write calmly and
justly about'it. I have had to content
myself with fragments of dispatches
! have from time to time sent to the
department and with doing what /
could, little as that can be, to allevi-
ate the distress that this gratultous
cruelty has caused the population of
this unhappy land.
WhitIccIs Opposed Belgian Idea.
an order to unde stand fully the
situation, It Is necessary to go back to
the autumn of 1914. At the time we
were organizing the relief work, the
Comite Nati0nal-the Belgian relief or
ganiZatlOn that cOilabOrates with the
commission for relief in Belgium
proposed IN arrangement by which
the Belgian government should pay
to its own employees left In Belgium,
and other unemployed men besides,
the wages they had been accustomed
to receive. The Belgans wished to
do this both for humanitarian and pa
triotc purposes; they wished to pro-
vide the unemployed with the means
of livelihood. and, at the same time,
to prevent their working for the Ger
mans. / refused to be connected In
any way with this plan, and told the
Belgian committee that 1t had many
possibilities of danger; that not only
would It place q premium on idleness,
but that II would ultimately exasper-
ate the Germans. However, the policy
was adopted, aud has been continued
in practice, aud on the rolls Of the
Comlte National have been borne the
names of hundreds of thousands
some 100000, I belleve-of idle men
receiving this dole. distributed through
the cOmmun2s.
"The presence Of these unemployed,
however, was constant temptation
to German cupidity. Many times they
sought to obtain the lists Of the chO-
meurs, but were always foiled by the
claim that under the guarantees COW
ering the relief work, the records Of
the COmitc National and its various
subOrganiZoiions were immune. Rath-
er than risk any interruption Of the
ravitaillement. for which. while l0ath
10 own any obligation to America, the
Germans have always been grateful,
since il has had the effect of keeping
the population calm, the authorities
never pressed the point other than
with the hm gomasters Of the COM
munes. Iiia,Ily. however, the mill
tary party. always brutal. and with an
astounding ignorance of public 0pn-
Ion and OF moral sentiment, deter
mined to put these idle men to WORK.
General Won Kissing and the civil
portion Of his encourage had always
been aud even now are opposed to this
policy. and think have sincerely done
what they could. first, to prevent its
adoption. and secondly, to tighten the
rigors o. tx Implication"
German Promises Worthless.
In the early days Of the German ad-
vance into Beiglum, the people had
learned to fcar the worst. This was
particularly tsue 10 Antwerp. In or
der to alleviate their fears and to OBJ.
tain guarantees which might hasten
the restoration Of settled conditions.
CardiLal Mercler secured from the
German government at Antwerp prom.
ises. and IN II circular letter dated Oc-
tober 10th. 1914 asked the Clergy Of