Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-12-13
:: The Truth About Belgium =:
. - BY BRAND WHTTLOCK

fact. it was said that they were dig
ging trenches.
Thursday. the twelfth of October,
and Friday, the thirteenth, were SIN
lister dates in the territory OF East
Flanders, for the seizures were be-
gun everywhere in those days. Two
thousand. some said twenty-five
hundred. men were locked up in the
storehouse of the Societe Anonyme
Ia Liniere-"La GantoiSe,' large
flax-spinning factory at Client. The
men were held there by German
troops and the selection was made
after a most cursory examination.
The men thus imprisoned were not
all of them unemployed workmen:
some of them We're clerks or Small
tradesmen. They refused to work
posed contract. They were kept I'M
prisoned. hudd;ed together in an in
sufficient space. with no sanitary
arrangements. no place TO sleep eN-
day they were taken out-of-doors
for exercise under n heavy military
guard. All the while, by means Of
threats and every manner of intiml-
dation. the Germans tried to eNtort
from them if not their signatures TO
the contract, their consent to work
for the Germans. Finally they were
shiDped off to Germany, and they.
and DE Leeuw van Vlaanderen."
The shops of Van den Kerhove
were "requisitioned," the directors
having declined to permit their plant
to work for the Germans. Then the
Germans seized the shops and IN
stalled German foremen, but the men
refused to work under them, or 10
work for the Germans at all. Then
as a German improvement on the
old system of the lockout, they were
locked up and given no food, in or
der to force them TO work for their
conquerOrs. They were closely
guarded. but out of the factory win
their friends picked up and thus
learned of their sufferings.
Bruges Had a Pine to Pay
In the old city of Bruges, which,
like Client, was in the district, the
effort to induce the laborers 10 WORK
for the Germans was made In
somewhat different fashion. Toward
the end of september the German au-
thorities ordered the city of BruSes
to provide four hundred worlImen, in
groups of one hundred, FOR employ
ment on the west front. The DUR
gomaster of BrugeS, Count NlZaft,
and his colleagues in the municipal
administration, replied in the proud
spirit of the old free city, saying
that il was for the workmen them
selves to decide whether they would
work for the Germans or not; as for
the city fathers. they would neither
provide the laborers nor give their
names to the German authorities
The German kOmmandant then asked,
or perhaps ordered, the burgomaster
and the aldermen to appear at MS
home. They went and the kom-
mandant laid down the law: the Ger
mans were masters, they had the
fuh 90 n thar
orders were not to be discussed but
TO be obeyed.
But it was not I'm the traditions
of Bruges for the municipal author
tiles to take orders from any one;
the whole history of the proud and
lovely old city had been one long
defiance by burgomaSter and alder
men or some truculent overload. The
burgomaster and the aldermen per
sisted in their stout refusal, and the
kommandant informed them that
they were dismissed from office; they
were to return to their houses and
remain there considering themselves
pes was to be fined one hundred
thousand marks for each days delay
in providing the workmen. The kom-
mandant, in the German municipal!
way, had a professional mayor ready,
Lieutenant Rogge, a German officer
functions of burgomaSter of Schwe-
rim. and he was named burgomaster
of BruEeS.
The Germans then demanded the
lists of the chOmeurS. but NJ. Henri
van Naillie. who was director of the
municipal service for the aid of the
unemployed, refused TO give the lists
without the authorization of the
Comite National at Brussels. And
so he. too. was arrested at his home
and put in prison, whence the Ger
mans took him to the employment
him back to prison where, without
trial. he was condemned to remain
for twenty-eight days and to nay a
fine of three thousand marks. or. In
default. to spend tWenty-eight days
longer in prison.
The German police were then sent
to the homes of the chomeurs whose
them to appear. Workmen or men
who appeared capable of work
ing, were seized Unfortunately in
the streets and at the office, where
all men between the ages Of sixteen
and forty-fiv were compelled to re-
port at intervals. AS rapidly as
groups of one hundred men were as
Sembled, they were put under guard,
conducted to the barracks, and on the
following day shipped off in the
tramWay toward MeerDeek, near the
Dutch frontier. All along the way
people gathered. women weeping, un-
til German guards dispersed them.
The Germans were constructing
trenches just then along the DLtcn
frontier, in fear, it was supposed, of
a British invasion from that direc-
ton. The men refused to work In
these trenches. Then they were i'm
prisoned in large building and told
that those who would not work could
not eat. Some of the men, aftel
two DAYS without food, surrender
others held out longer. The same
thing occurred in all the communes
near Bruges.
Burgomaster Royce. however. not
withstanding the fact that he was
professional mayor. did not succeed
verv well in directing the municipal
affairs of Bruges. II was not the
-. .Lsn.r a nnrtnrn q Rh1pian