IN GERMAN OCCUPATION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2419, 26 March 1915, Page 6

IN GERMAN OCCUPATION

FATE OF FRENCH TOWNS THE ENEMY'S FOUR RULES ("Morning Post" Special Correspondent.) There is naturally considerable ignorance as to the existing condition of things in those portions of Franco which are in German occupation, because tho veil of silence has been much more opaque in regard to them than in tho case of Belgium. Yet the most lively anxiety prevails on the subject, since the districts occupied comprise oome of the most prosperous manufacturing centres in the country, from the great ironworks on the Luxembourg frontier to the textile industries towards Lille. I have had the good fortune to meet- a friend, a textile manufacturer in the. north, who has just returned from a visit, which comprised Jeumont, Hirson, Roubaix, Tourcoing, Maubeuge, etc. It is obviously injudicious to tell how he managed it, but it was a plucky thing to do, and it can be readily understood that he did It at considerable risk. He found conditions very much more normal than one would suppose, for tho Germans are proceeding with their customary methodical system of consolidating their hold on the country and the organising of their material interests. They adopt four general rules in this policy. First, they take possession of, or, in other words, steal, all materials useful to their own national defence. Second, they aim at supporting their armies upon the ground they occupy, appropriating the houses, the various stocks of comestibles, live stock, poultry, etc.—in a word, all species of provisions. Third, they proceed to make a profit by soiling back to the dispossessed inhabitants what stores tliev caro to spare at greatly enhanced prices. Fourth, they take full possession of all industries producing prime materials —steel works, mines, farms, etc. —and run them methodically wir the available labour, which they compel to remain and work, under German managers and foremen, precisely as if they intended to stop where they are for good. The Military Covernor. Such conditions, of course, do not apply to the places immediately affected by the actual fighting, where everythng is necessarily subsidiary to the work of the army, and the buildings, etc.. are occupied by soldiers engaged in Dattle. Behind these, however, there are the broad tracts of country, which are as tranquil as those to the rear.of our own lines. When the Germans take possession of a town their first care is to instal a Military Governor in the town hall, who puts himself in contact with the Mayor and the Magistrates, and proceeds to asB ure the due continuance of the civic administration under his _ direction. He sits in the Mayor's private office, the latter, however, being accommodated in close proximity so that he may carry out tho various requisition orders issued by the supplanter—in short, act as the intermediary between the German administrator and the civil population. The German. Governor's next step is to take all means ho may deem necessary to secure all the public stores capable of use by the troops or tho inhabitants —Hour, wood, coal, metals, machines, cloth, etc. Should the Mayor have fled and the local manufacturers be absent, such stores are 6imply packed up and shipped away without remark, as simple loot; but if the authorities are present they are given a requisition note for all material taken. In Jeumont, for instance, the Germans found _ about a thousand tons of copper wire in the clectrical works—a valuable prize for them at the present time, and worth somewhere about £50,000. This copper was simply packed off at once without further formality. When the administrator takes possession of all the stores, flour, preserved meats, etc., whether left by the French troops or in the town warehouses, he draws up an inventory of them. The German military authorities take what they want, ana the rest is retailed to the hungry inhabitants at prices fixed by the Governor. _ These prices are usually about twice the normal, so that in some of these frontier places flour costs over three shillings a stone. In this way the Germans not only find free board and lodging, but they make a huxtering profit by re-selling the stolen property and cynically reselling it tp the dispossessed. £80,000 Found at Maubeuge. In some places they have been lucky, too, in finding money still remaining. In Maubeuge they found over £80,000 in the City treasury, while in many of the banks they have picked up an odd £10,000 or so from time to time. In such cases thoy spare the townsfolk a direct personal contribution. Furthermore the Germans are anxious to keep industries and manufactures going, at least that is to say such as do not compete with their national industries. This is particularly the caso with the rich iron ore mines in the French Lorraine district, which have always been coveted bv the Germans, who require the mineral as an enormously useful adjunct to their coalfields. German engineers and foremen are already on the spot, and every available workman is pressed into the service. Cloth-weaving mills are less interesting to them, because they have their own factories, which are happy to see their French competitors eliminated. Nor is agrioulture neglected, for the farmers are made to go on _ with the preparation of crops, which their present rulers seem fondly to suppose will be harvested for their'benefit. Electrical works and ironworks are likewise running almost normally for the use of the invaders; but possibly the most colossal piece of assurance on their part is the compulsory teaching of German in the schools, which is actually being dona at present with teachers brought from Germany for tho purpose.