The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1918-07-18
Hindenburg's Responsibility for De-

|
portatiOns.
The responsibility for this atroci-
Gus program rests upon the military
| rulers of Germany, who had labored
so zealously to infect the army and
| the people with the principles of
| ruthlessness. 1t is significant that
the decree of October 8, 1915, fol-
lowed hard upon the elevation of
Hindenburg to the supreme COM
mard with Ludendorf as his chief
of staff. In his long report of Janu-
ary 16, 1917, Minister Whilock says:
Report of Minister Whitlock (Con-
tinued.)
"Then, in August, Won Hindenburg
was appointed to the supreme COM
mand. He is said to have criticized
Won Bissing's policy as too mild;
there was quarrel; Won Bissing
went to Berlin to protest, threatened
to resign, but did not. He returned,
and a German official here said that
Belgium would now be subjected to
more terrible regime-would learn
what war was. The prophecy has
been vindicated. Recently was told
that the drastic measures are really
of Lundendorf's inspiration; [ do
not know. Many German officers say
so."
If Won Bissing opposed the policy
Of deportation when his own JUDI
i1ent was overruled, he consented
to become the devils advocate and
defended the system in public. Es-
pecially instructive is the following
conversation reported by Mr.. =. c..
Walcott:
Won Bissing's Conversation With Mr..
Walcott.
81 went to Belgium to investigate
conditions and while there I had op-
portunity * to talk one day with
Governor General Won Kissing, who
died three or four weeks ago, man
72 or 73 years old, man stepped in
the SYSTEM born and bred to the
hardening of the heart which that
philosophy develops. There ought
to be some new word coined for the
process that a mans heart under
goes when it becomes STEPPED in that
system.
81 said to him, Governor, what
are you going to do if England and
France stop giving these people
money to purchase food?'
''He said, We have got that all
worked out and have had it worked
out for weeks, because we have ex-
pected this system to break down at
any time
"He went on to say, starvation
will grip these people in 80 to 60
days. Starvation is compelling
force, and we would use that force
to compel the Belgian workingmen,
many of them very skilled, to go into
Germany to replace the Germans, so
that they could go to the front and
fight against the English and the
French
"As fast as our railway transpor-
tation could carry them, we would
transport thousands of others that
would be fit for agricultural work,
across Europe down int southeastern
Europe, into Mesopotamia, where we
have huge, splendid irrigation works.
All that land needs is water and it
will blossom like the rose
"'The weak remaining, the old
and the young, we would concentrate
opposite the firing line, and put fir
ing squads back of them, and force
them through that line, so that the
English and French could take care
Of their own people,
1T was a perfectly simple, direct,
frank reasoning. 1t meant that the
German Government would use any
force in the destruction of any peo-
pie not it's own to further it's own
ends" (Frederic C. Walcott, in The
National Geographic Magazine, May
1919
A brief general view of the char
acter of the deportations can perhaps
be gained best from the report of
Minister Whitlock.