The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1918-12-19
Report of German Disregard of
Human Rights on File in
State Department.
OVERWHELMED WITH HORROR
Minister to Belgium Declared X Was
Difficult TO Write Calmly and Justly
In View of the Huns eratu-
ltous Cruelty.

torted By the Hun" military lead
erS, which ercited the indignation Of
the ciriliecd ,rorld, hare been thus
officially SET forth:
The plan OF setting forth the essen
tlal facts of the deportations and
forced labor of Belgians is set forth
by the committee on public informa-
ton as follows: the documents, that
is to say. small fraction of those
which could be cited, tell the story, and
needed to enable the reader to easily
grasp the connection of events.
1.-THE deportations were the
most vivid shocking, convincing, single
happening In all our enforced observa-
ton and experience of German dis
regard of human suffering and human
rights in Belgium. Vernon Kellogg
in Atlantic Monthly, October, 1917.
summary of the whole situation,
down to January, 1917, can be OBJ
tanned by reading continuously the re-
port of Minister Whltlock, taken from
the files of the state department. This
tells Of the brutality of the deporta-
lions.
Legation of the United States of
America, Brussels, Jan. 16, 1917.
1.-THE Honorable, the Secretary of
State, Washington.
"Sir: l have had 1t in mind, and |
might say, on my conscience, since
the Germans began to deport Belgian
workmen early in November, to pre-
pare for the department a detailed
report on this latest instance of bru-
tally, but there have been so many
obstacles in the way of obtaining evil
dence on which a calm and judiclous
opinion could be based, and one Is
so overwhelmed with the horror of the
thing itself, that 1t has been, and even
now is, difficult to write calmly and
Justly about it. have had to content
myself with fragments of dispatches
I have from time to time sent to the
| department and with doing what
could, little as that can be, to allevi
| ate the distress that this gratuitou
cruelty has caused the population o
this unhappy land.
WhltIock Opposed Belgian Idea.
'In order to understand fully tn
situation. 1t is necessary to go back +
the autumn of 1874. At the time w
were organizing the relief work, tn
Comte National--the Belgian relief or
ganlzatlon that collaborates with tn
commission for relief In Belgium
proposed an arrangement by whic
the Belgian government should pa
to It's own employees left in Belgium
and other unemployed men besides
the wages they had been accustome
to receive The Belgians wished t
do this both for humanitarian and pa
triotic purposes; they wished to pre-
vide the unemployed with the mean
!: of livelihood, and, at the same tim'
: to prevent their working for the Gel
: mans. | refused to be connected |
!: any way with this plan and told til
!: Belgian committee that 1t had man
possibilities Of danger; that not onl
would 1t place a premium on idlenes
but that 1t would ultimately exaspe
ate the Germans. However, the polio
: was adopted and has been continue
in practice, and on the rolls of tt
Comlte National have been borne II
names of hundreds of thousands
: some 100000, I believe-Of idle me
: receiving this dole, distributed throue
: the communes.
: "The presence Of these unemploye
however, was a constant template
: to German cupidity. Many times thu
: sought to obtain the lists of the ch
: meurs, but were always fooled by Il
: claim that under the guarantees co
: ering the relief work, the records
: the Comlte National and its vario
: suborgnniZations were immune. Rat
: or than risk any interruption of 4
: ravitaillement, for which, while lon
- to own any HjliG tior to America, &
= Germans have always been gratefl
since it has had the effect of keepi
: the population calm, the authoriti
never pressed the point, other tn
: with the burgOmasters of the CO
munes. Finally, however the mi
tary party. always brutal, and with
: astounding ignorance Of public op
= ion and of moral sentiment, det
: mined to put these idle men to wo
: General Won Kissing ana the ei
: portion of his encourage had alwa
: been and even now are opposed to Il
- Npolicy, and think have sincerely dc
: what they could, first, to prevent
= adoption. and secondly, to tighten
: rigors of its application"
: German Promises Worthless.
= In the early days of the German
= vance into Belgium, the people h
- learned to fear the worst. This v
= particularly true in Antwerp. In
= der to alleviate their fears and to
= tain guarantees which might hast
. the restoration of settled conditio
= Cardinal MERCER secured from
German government at Antwerp pre-
ises, and in circular letter dated I
- tober 10th, 1914, asked the clergy