The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-02-26
WHIlLU(,Is ) yllIAf
OF Ep,,IsIA..;..''SS
Report 0! German GjsroaaTd of
Human F:gntc on File il
State Experiment,
WITH HORROR
Minister 20 Bai5iuro Declared /! Was
Difficult to Write Calmly ard Justly
in View CT TIE runs Gratl.
itous Cruelty.

/
of Be7gians ond the forced labor IT,
torted Jv the "Hun" military lead
ers, ,ch;ch ercited thu Indignation Of
the ciri1ized morld, hare been thus
officially set forth:
The plan of setting forth the essen
tial facts of the deportations and
forced labor Of Belgians Is set forth
by the committee on public infCrma-
,, ton as follows: the documents. that
Is to say, a small fraction of those
which could be cited. tell the story, and
only such comments are added as are
needed to enable the reader to easily
grasp the connection of events.
"The deportationS =. were the
most vivid, shocking convincing, single
happening in all our enforced observa-
| tiOn and experience Of German dis
regard of human suffering and human
rights in Belgium. "-Vernon Kellogg
! in Atlantic Monthly, October, 1917.
A summary of the whole situation,
down, to January, 1917, can be OBJ
tained by reading continuously the re-
| port of Minister Whitlocl, taken from
the files of the state department. This
tells of the brutality of the deporta-
| tons.
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 q calm and judicious
opinion could be based, and one Is
so overwhelmed with the horror Of the
thing itself, that it has been, and even
| now Is, difficult to write calmly and
; Justly about 1t. I have had to content
myself with fragments Of dispatches
l have from time to time sent to the
department and with doing what l
could, little as that can be, to allevi-
ate the distress that this gratuitous
cruelty has caused the population OF
this unhappy land.
! Whitlock Opposed Belgian Idea.
"In order to understand fully the
situation, it is necessary to 60 back to
! the autumn of 1914. At the time we
were organizing the relief work. the
/ Comite National-the Belgian relief or
ganization that collaborates with the
/; commission for relief in Belgium
! proposed an arrangement by which
! the Belgian government should pay
to its own employees left In Belgium,
and other unemployed men besides.
the wages they had been accustomed
20 receive. The Belgians wished to
do this both for humanitarian and pa
triotic purposes; they wished to pro-
vide the unemployed with the means
| of livelihood, and, at the same time,
to prevent their working for the Ger
mans. refused to be connected In
any way with this plan, and told the
Belgian committee that it had many
possibilities Of danger; that not only
would it place a premium on idleness,
hut that it would ultimately exasper-
ate the Germans. However, the policy
was adopted, and has been continued
in practice, and on the rolls OF tine
Comite National have been borne the
names of hundreds of thousands
some 100000, Il believe-of idle men
receiving this dole, distributed through
the communes.
"The presence Of these unemployed.
however, was q constant. temptation
to German cupidity. Many times they
sought to obtain the lists OF the cho-
meurs. but were always foiled by the
claim that under the guarantees COW
ering the relief work, the records OF
the Comite National and its various
suborganizations were immune. Ratb-
er than risk any interruption OF the
ravitaillement, for which, while loatn
to own any obligation to America, the
Germans have always been grateful
since it has had the effect OF keeping
the population calm, the authorities
!. never pressed the point other tnan
I with the burgomasters Of the com
munes. Finally, however. the mill
tary party, always brutal, and with an
astounding ignorance of public opin'
ion and of moral sentiment, deter
mined to put these idle men to work.
General Won Kissing and the civil
norton of his encourage had always
been and even now are opposed to this
policy, and think have sincerely done
what they could, first, to prevent Its
; adoption, and secondly, to tighten the
rtgors of its application"
German Promises Worthless.
In the early days of the German ad.
vance into Belgium, the people had
learned to fear the worst. This was
particularly true in Antwerp. In or
der to alleviate their fears and to Cd
, tain guarantees which might hasten
the restoration Of settled conditions
Cardinal MERCER secured from the
German government at Antwerp prom
lses. and in a circular letter dated DC
! ,ohor 18th 1914 ASKED the Clergy OF