The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-01-11

Emperor William, should the war
come TO an end without intentional
damage being caused to my residence
or TO these two communes, the neces-
gary sum to complete the amount OF
100000 francs imposed by you upon
Sissonne.
"As a sovereign prince, I wish to
deal in this matter with the sovereign
who, during 10 years, called me his
friend and has decorated me with the
Order of the Knight of the Black
Eagle.
"'My conscience and my dignity
place me above fear, as also my per
sonal viii shall elevate me above re-
greet; but should you destroy the
Chateau de Marchais, which is one of
the centers of universal science and
charity. should you reserve TO this
archaeological and historical gem the
treatment you have given to the Ca
thedral of Reims-when no reprehen-
sibIe action has been committed there
the whole world will judge be-
tween you and myself.
81 tender to your excellehcy the ex-
preston of my high regard.
ALBERT, Sovereign Prince of Mon
AGO."
Deportations and Forced Labor.
Until the present war the whole civ
ilized world has boasted of its advance
in humanity. This advance has been
marked in many fields, and in none
had greater progress been made than
in the protection to be given to the
private citizen in an invaded country.
As far back as 1868, in the "Instruc-
tions for the Government of Armies
of the United States in the Field"
the United States declared:
'.23. Private citizens are no longer
murdered, ensIaved, or carried off to
distant parts, and the inof sive in
dividuaI is as little disturbed in his
private relations as the commander
of the hostile troops can afford to
grant in the oyerruling demands of
vigorous war.
f'24 The almost universal rule in
remote times was, and continues to be
with barbarous armies, that the pri-
vate individual of the hostile country
of liberty and protection, and every
disruption of family ties. Protection
was, and still is with uncivilized peo-
pie, the exception"
Reversion to Barbarism.
These declarations were made in the
midst of our Civil war-one of the
worlds fiercest conflicts. A half-cen-
fury later, after more than so years
of progress, the German government
has gone back to the methods used
by fbarbarous armies" and "unciv-
ilized people" 1t has deliberately
adopted the policy of deporting men
and women, boys and girls, and Of
forcing them to work for their cap
tors : it has even compelled them to
make arms and munitions for use
against their allies and their own flesh
and blood.
No other act of the German govern
ment has aroused such horror and de-
testation throughout the civilized
world. Thousands of helpless men
and women, boys and girls, have been
enslaved. Families have been broken
work-or worse-in strange land,
and their relatives have not known
where they have been taken, or what
their fate has been.
This system of forced labor and de-
portation embraced the whole of Bel
GUM, Poland and the occupied lands
of France.
WhitIoek's Story of Horrors.
In less moving phrases, but in dead
~ confederation, the continuation of
| the report of Minister Whitlock says:
"The rage, the terror, and despair
excited by this measure all over Bel
GUM were beyond anything we had
witnessed since the day the Germans
poured into Brussels. The delegates
of the commission for relief in Bel
GUM, returning to Brussels, told the
most distressing stories of the scenes
/ of cruelty and sorrow attending the
seizures. And daily, hourly almost,
| since that time appalling stories have
been related by Belgians coming to
the legation. 1t is impossible for us
to verify them, first because it is nee
tact in dealing with the subject at
all, and secondly because there is no
| means Of communication between the
| Occupations-Gebiet and the Etappen-
| Gebiet. Transportation everywhere
in Belgium is difficult, the vicinal
| railways scarcely operating any more
because of the lack of oil, while all
| the horses have been taken. The peo-
| pie who are forced to go from one
| village to another must do so on foot
or in vans drawn by the few miser-
able horses that are left. The wagons
of the brewerfes, the one institution
| that the Germans have scrupuIously
| respected, are hauled by oxen.
One OF FouIest Deeds in History.
1.-THE welI-known tendency of sensa-
tional reports to exaggerate them
selves, especially in time of war, and
/ In a situation like that existing here,
with no newspapers to serve as a daily
| clearing house for all the rumors that