Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-12-10
=: The Truth About Belgium =:
BY BRAND WRITLOCK

that were as revolving as the acts
they sought to excuse.
The account OF the work of those
gray press-gangs in any one OF the
lovely little villages of Flanders or
Brabant might have served as a re-
sumo of what went on everywhere,
! If IL were not for the fact that the
slight difference in detail and meth
Cd, making the varied taste and the
virtuosity in cruelty of those in com
throws a flood of light on the es-
sentially irresponsible nature of the
whole German organization.
Lying Pretense
The earlier pretense that they were
taking only those men who were nv
ing in idleness on the charity of their
absent government was abandoned
even as soon as the excuse was put
forth. IL is perhaps well that 1t was,
since that position was as untenable
under international law and the code
of morals professed by every nation
that had a sovereign and seal, as
the indiscriminate SlaVe-driVlng that
followed.
The excuse that the men wished to
labor was equally stupid and void,
for the men would not work when
offered it, and. as will be seen, were
not even shown the consideration in
spired by those economic motives,
when human motives were wanting,
that used to lead masters to feed
their slaves sufficiently to support
them in a physical state tit for Ia
Dor. And If, among the intellectual
classes or among the working men,
among the journalists or preachers
or professors, or among the Social
lists who. on the avenged OF Kari
Marx, had founded a theory not only
of the dignity and freedom and in
Er-raf EafNF a
of labor, but had based a claim to
dominate it then and nOw-if among
those there was any objection or
opposition, any moral repugnance
anywhere in the German nation, then
or later, il never found, so far as /
know, any public voice or utterance.
was told that Kissing disapproved,
and that certain of his henchmen
disapproved, and l heard stories to
the effect that soldiers in executing
orders actually wept at the scenes
they were compelled to witness, and
that even officers turned away in
shame, but no one ever gave any
public expression to the sentiments
that did them Sucn unusual credit,
The policy, in difiance, one would
say, of the conventions of The Hague
if it did not seem ridiculous to invoke
again those mutilated charters
wherein short years ago we thought
TO record the progress of the human
species, had been instituted, as early
as 1915 in the zone. of operations,
that inferno whose history will not
be written until it's rightful occu-
pants shall have been released to re-
count their hideous sufferings. But
that was not surprising; anything
was to be expected of the war zone:
1t spread up into the lowlands of
Flanders, where old men of the
Landstrum were quartered in peas
ants houmes, living in some sort or
understanding by which they got ON
well enough, carrying water for the
housewives. helping with the chores,
able to converse in those vocableS
that are so much alike in Flemish
and in Low German, and perhaps
paving the way as blessing shrewdly
OWNED, to some sort of an under
standing with the population, which
he hoped. by his subtle schemes, 20
turn to the imperial advantage later
on.
l have given perhaps, in dwelling
so long on personal events of far less
importance than the great tragedy TO
which they were ancillary, some
glimpse of what was going on in
those obscure villages where the
sIavegangs were plying their hideous
and heinous trade. We had, indeed,
ourselves, only glimpSeS, for news,
when il dealt with German deeds,
travelled slowly and circumspectly in
bElkluNl III lllOSE udg anu TIC uN
tails were long in re Iching US. They
came in slowly. bit by bit, and even
then do not tell of the dreadful story
that some day will be told in Bel
GUM
There lies before me as / write a
letteI, written in Flemish by the sis
ter of .he cook in a certain home in
Brussels. The woman who penned
it sent it, as its contents reveal, by
stealth from her village in Flanders
and the master of the house where
its recipient worked gave it to me.
L cannot read it in the original, but
IL was translated for me, literally,
word for word, out of its poor faulty
Flemish into French, and from the
French l have tried to put it into
English, as literally as may be, so
that it might retain some flavor of
its original. To me ii has all the
pathos that IS part of the fate of
the poor in all lands. 1t gives an inn
preston, however vague. of the SOr-
row and despair that were in al
those little cots with the red tiles
scattered over Belgium. This is the
letter:
Dear Sister, write you these
few lines to let you know that we
are all in good health and hope YOU
are the same. l have lots of news
for you, but it is not very good. With
out doubt you have already heard
that the young men who were liv-
ing on the committee have had to go
away to work but without knowing
where. They say they must &c to
work in Germany. Saturday Albert
received his letter and Franz of
your brother Alois also.
You can imagine that * was not
very agreeable to us to see them
all go away like that. Just think,
four hundred and siXtv-five boys
from Tamme alone, and Monday they
I'll had to go to Termonde, and there
they locked them up with twenty
eight hundred others in the barracKs
until now. Thursday. rhis morning
they went away on the train. we
think for Germany. but we don'i
know vet. Sunday we sewed all day
to prepare their clothes. which they
must take with them-two working
suits. two shirts. two pairs of socks.