Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1918-09-07
MORE GERMAN GRAND LARCENY.

that it cannot conceive of ever getting enough
to satisfy its voracious appetite. The more they
get the more they want and little they care
how they get it nor what suffering it entails.
Ever since the war began the savage Hun
has made poor little Belgium the special target
Tor its greed and Unsuitable thirst for exacting
gains. Naturally every German was driven to
the point of throwing away all pretense of any
thing like fair treatment toward Belgium because
the latter wouldn't give them carte blanche to
wade through their tiny country and capture
Paris.
During the first four years of the war Ger
many has exacted war contributions from Bel
GUM amounting to S466,OOO,000. This in addi-
ton to vast amount of machinery, materials
men and women taken out of the country to help
sustain Germany. 1t is interesting to review the
financial activities of the Hun in Belgiun since
the fatal twentieth of August 1914, when the
German hordes swept into Brussels.
From the time the German armies began
hacking their way through the little kingdom
numerous towns and cities were burned and war
contributions levied upon them The first move
made by the German Staff upon entering town
was to proceed to the City Hall and announce to
the Burgomaster that, for resisting the advance
of the Kaisers armies, his city or town had been
fined so many thousand or million francs, as the
. case might be- More than 200,000,000 francs
We're thus levied between August and November,
1914
Then Field Marshal Baron Won der Goltz-
Pasha decreed that Belgium would have to pay
a monthly contribution of 100000 francs dur
ing one year, not to be increased and not to be
renewed. The promise proved to be simply an
other scrap of paper. In November, 1915, Baron
Won Kissing announced that, although his pre-
decessor had made such promise in good faith
AS if German had the slightest inlIling of
what good faith means-it would be necessary
to renew the monthly contribution of 100000
coo francs for another year On the twentieth
of November, 1916, instead of abolishing the
burdensome tax, Won Kissing decided that, ow-
ing to the duration of the war, the high cost
of living, and probably many other vouble and
fimsy pretexts he would have to raise the
monthly payments to 100000 francs. He
added orninously temporarily 1t proved to
be temporary, indeed for on the first of May,
1917, the contribution was further raised to
100000 francs.
Even this tremendous flow of gold into the
Golfers Of the highwaymen did not satisfy the
grabbing appetite of the military men and on
the twelfth Of September, 1916, they seized"
430,000,000 marks, constituting all the deposits
IN German bills of the Banque Rationale and the
Societe Generate de Belgique, the two largest
banks in Belgium When one of the directors
Of the Societe Generate refused to divulge al
combination they threatened to blow open the
safes with high explosives The director rath-
er than have the vaults Of the institution
wrecked, decided to do their bidding. Thus was
pe1petrated what will probably go down in his
tory as the greatest burglary of modern times.
Is it any wonder that men of perception and
common sense, men who believe that Justice
should be done insist that Germany should be
brought to the bar of justice like an ordinary
criminal and sentenced? Is it any wonder that
seh-respecting nations rebel at the idea of sit
ting at the peace table with such thugs and
pilferers? Is it any wonder that there is grow
ing sentiment in this country, first suggested
and ever since fostered by that stanchest of
real, simonpure Americanism the Manufacture
er's Record that not only must the damnable
Huns be treated like criminals but that they
must be made to pay a. huge indemnity for all
that they have taken away from others They
entered this war for the one big purpose Of
pltmdering the world and now-damn them
let them eat crow It isn't question Of Chris