The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-01-30

professional organizations. cooperative
and charitable associations included.
are prohibited Anybody who might
try to organize any kind of a society
would be arrested at once, and probably
meet o still more dreadful fate The
first military governor who came to
Serbia at once issued an edict strictly
prohibiting any politics in the coun-
try. Now it is easy to imagine what a
reactionary and military regime can
understand by the word polite At
present there - only one printing eS
tabli>hment in Belgrade, the one main
tanned b. the military government. and
that prints the Beogradske Novine (Bal
News. All private printing saops
were closed after having been looted.
The Serbian characters are not al.
lowed to be used in trade or on mail
going through the postotiice 1t IS not
necessary TO add that all political ac-
tlvlty IS prohibited, and that it is even
extremely dangerous to say what YOU
thlnk, or, indeed, to have any indie
pendent ideas at all. Entirely innocent
plddle class citizens, ignorant peas
ants, and laxative women run the risk.
If their hamless conversations are over
heard by sneaks or commented upon,
Of being Immediately thrown into pris-
on or even sent to the gallows. The
most elementary human rights are not
secure in Serbia. In the villages the
gendarmes are III possession of unlimit-
ed power and rule everything Their
methods furnish the best picture of the
system applied to subject peoples bv
. IL
ing. tale-bcaring, annorances Of al
kinds, theft, and often even murder
form the mode Of action of the gal-
darmes in the villages. In the cities
these privileges are possessed by Off
GERS and 'non-coms.
In Belgrade a lieutenant named
Widmann at the police headquarters cx-
erciscs unlimited power over the lives
and liberties of the inhabitants De
pendent upon his authority. any inhabi
tant of Belgrade may be arrested.
! boxed on the ears, driven out Of The
/ city, or, above all. informed, something
/ which spells al indirect sentence Of
! death. In literal sense of the words
/ all Belgrade has often passed through
/ the hands of this gendarme. from the
! former minister to the humblest dav
/ ldhorer. There is hardly a person in
Belgrade who has not had to complain
/ 1T having been abused, insulted and
wounded i'm his most sacred sentiments
! by this Austrian GeSSler, who acts with
/ out any reason and without any offense
/ having been committed by those whom
/ he persccute>. This method of mis1sinr
| Serbian citizens, reducing them to the
status of beasts, expressing them and
/ constantly making them feel this de
graduation, constitutes the essence of the
( Austro- Hungarian policy of occupation
in Serbia. The name of Lieutenant
Wilmann will live in the memory OF
future generations as a living symbol
of how Austria Hungary brought kuI
tur' TO Serbia.
Referring to the oppression prevail
ing III that part of Serbia under tht
domination Of the Bulgarians, the state
ment says that everything ascribed Il
Austria Hungary applies to Bulgaria
only In greater degree. The gruesom,
details Of the horrors accompanying
the deportation Of more than $50 .O01
Serbian civilians to Austria, and the
massacre OF some 10000 Serbs follow
fihG Tic dltfiIig aIdiiigt tHa intaaer.
IN Southern and Eastern Serbia la,
March, which have been recounted il
numerous articles printed in the Amer
lean pres, are told again in the Social
ist statement and the whole civilize,
world is asked to help with supplies AM
funds in the work of saving the rem
nanti of the Serbian nation still ii
tho occupied territory from being at
terIy wiped out