The Snowflake herald., 1918-03-22

ed into French districts where their
provisioning would be easier.'
"'At night, at about two o'clock in
the morning, whole district of the
town was invested by the troops Of Oc-
cupation. To each house was distrib-
uted printed notice, of which we give
herein an exact reproduction, preserv-
ing the style and spelling (See docu-
ment, above.)
"'The inhabitants so warned were to
hold themselves ready to depart an
hour and half after the distribution
of the proclamation
"'Each family, drawn up outside the
house, was examined by an officer, who
pointed out haphazard the persons who
were to go. No words can express the
barbarity of this proceeding nor de-
scribe the heartrending scenes which
occurred; young men and girls took
hasty farewell of their parents-a fare
well hurried by the German soldiers
who were executing the infamous task
-rejoined the group Of those who were
going, and found themselves in the
middle Of the street, surrounded by
other soldiers with fixed bayonets.'
""Tears of despair on the part of
parents and children so ruthlessly
separated did not soften the hearts Of
the brutal Germans. Sometimes, how
ever, a more kind-hearted officer yield
ed to too great despair and did not
choose all the persons whom he should
by the terms of his Instructions
have separated
Herded Like Cattle.
These girls and lads were taken
in street cars to factories, where they
were numbered and labeled like cattle
and grouped to form conveys. In these
factories, they remained II, "A or 36
hours until train was ready to re-
move them
"The deportation began with the
villages of Roncy, Halluin, etc., then
Tourcoing and Roubaix. In the towns
the Germans proceeded by Districts
:" In all about 10000 persons are said
to have been carried off up to the pres
ent. This monstrous operation has
taken eight to ten days to accomplish.
1t is feared, unfortunately, that it may
begin again soon.
"'The reason given by the German
authorities is a humanitarian (?) one.
They have put forward the following
pretexts: provisioning is going to
break down in the large towns in the
north and their suburbs, whereas in
the Ardennes the feeding is easy and
cheap
1T is known from the young men
and girls, since sent back to their
families for reasons of health, that in
the department of the Ardennes the
victims are lodged in a terrible man.
ner, in disgraceful promiscuity; they
are compelled to work in the fields. 1t
is unnecessary to say that the inhabi
tants of our towns are not trained to
such work. The Germans pay them
1.50 m. But there are complaints of
insufficient food
"Barbarity of Slave Drivers"
"They were very badly received in
the Ardennes. The Germans had told
the Ardennais that these were "volun-
teers" who were coming to work, and
the Ardennais proceeded to receive
them with many insults, which only
ceased when the forcible deportation
of which they were the victims became
known
Feeling ran especially high in our
towns. Never has so iniquitous a
measure been carried out. The Ger
mans have shown all the barbarity of
slave drivers
""The families so scattered are in
despair and the morale of the whole
population is gravely affected. Boys
Of fourteen, schoolboys in knicker-
bockers, young girls of fifteen to six
ten have been carried off, and the de-
spairing protests of their parents failed
to touch the hearts of the German Off
GERS, or rather executiOners.'
zone last detail: The persons so
depOrted are allowed to write home
once month; that is to say, even less
often than military prisoners
'Such are the declarations which we
have collected and which, without COM
mentary, confirm in an even more
striking way the facts which we took
the liberty of laying before you.
"We do not wish here to enter into
the question of provisioning in the in
vaded districts; others, better quail
fed than ourselves, give you, as we
know, frequent information. 1t is
enough for us to describe in a few
words the situation from this aspect:
Entire Population in Misery.
"The provisioning is very difficult;
food, apart from that supplied by the
Spanish-American committee, is very
scarce and terribly dear. People
are hungry and the provisioning is in
adequate by at least a half our popu-
lation is suffering constant privations
and is growing nOticeably weaker The
death rate, too, has increased consid-
erably.
Sometimes inhabitants of the in