The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1918-02-01


Belgium:
Brussels, October 2, 1917.
Your Excellency: In a public proc
lamation the governor Of Brabant
blames the communal authorities and
the people of Belgium for their lack
of cooperative spirit as contributing
to the manifest and deplorable failure
of the organization of the potato sup
ply undertaken by the German admin
istration.
Were this charge founded or fact
we should leave it to you to judge
whether it be prudent thus to see the
poorer classes against their magis-
trates when you have taken authority
from US and have charge of maintain
ing public order, or whether it be gen.
erous to use such language when the
accused are not at liberty to reply.
But these charges are not justified,
and it is u duty as de jure repre-
s~entatives of the nation to make them
the subject of this protest.
When the national committee, by
the Intervention of the ministers who
protected it, received freedom from
requisition for the domestic supply Of
cattle and fodder, it offered to extend
to the products of our soil, thereafter
to be reserved for our population, that
disinterested and efficient organiza-
ton which, solely from the resources
Of the country ard to admiration of
all, it had been able to create for i'm
ported products.
Cooperation Refused.
This cooperation, though worthy of
all confidence, was refused by your
administration.
According to the Belgian law of
August 4, 1914, the permanent deputa-
tons were empowered to assume this
task; knowing the country, it's re-
sources, it's institutions, it's character,
they would have been able properly to
execute it. The law of August 4 was
suspended by your predecessor.
Spontaneously, with that wonderful
spirit of taking the lead which char
acterizes our land and, viewed as one
of the practices of freedom, renders
it so superior to nations which look
for their well-being nowhere but in a
Capitalization of administration and
authority, intercommunal associations
and communal food supply services
have for some time been established in
all districts of our country for the
production, purchase, and distribution
of domestic products.
In the face of a shortage in the fuel
supply in this country these associo-
tions had come to an agreement with
the producers. A simple, direct, ard
practical system of coal distribution
was about to be put into operation
which would have supplied every
house next winter. Your administra
ton saw fit to oppose this promising
project.
istory, to which the governor of
Brabant appeals, will record with re-
gret the error of attempting to as
sumo a task so difficult for one who
is a stranger to the country, to its
manners and customs. Furthermore
your ordinances refer to German mill
tary courts the infraction of food
police regulations which, in the terms
of the promises hitherto made, con-
Germ the Belgian population and no.
body else.
Fraud in Full Swing.
The result is that monopoly and
fraud are in full swing, that in this
country rich in coal and potatoes the
people during the coming winter will
go cold because they have no coal, will
suffer hunger because they have no
potatoes. Such is the picture of DESC
lation upon which, as Of right, we
direct your whole attention. But it is
profoundly unjust to load the respon-
sibility for these ills upon Belgian
public administration, for never has
communal authority more courageous
ly done its duty than in our country in
these tragic times.
And while your administration has
been unsuccessful in meeting the liza
bilities which it has incurred, and
which it might we'll have left to the
Belgians, note that it charges to the
Belgian budget, yet for its W pro-
fit, the following items:
Thus one after the other every one
of these difficult and complex under
takings having to do with the requi-
sition and distribution of the products
of our soil have found themselves rele-
gated to centrals organized by your
administration. Uniformly the Bel
gian institutions have been wiped out
or deprived of every means of effect
i've intervention. And when their ex-
ce~llencies, the ministers protectors of
the national committee, expressed the
desire for a control under guarantee
they obtained no real satisfaction.
In every detail, therefore, it is your
administration which has prevented
the Belgians from exercising personal
supervision over the fair and equal
distribution of those products of their
own soil which have been exclusively