A BELGIAN MARTYR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 95, 15 January 1918, Page 6

A BELGIAN MARTYR

DEATH SENTENCE CONFIRMED BY THE KAISER,

A young Belgian lady, the daughter of wealthy parents, who for over three years has euffered at the hands of the Germans in Belgium, and who succeeded in escaping into Holland, whence she- journeyed to London, recently related her experiences to a representative of the "Central News." The girl was arrested as a spy because she had written letters to her sweetheart, who is serving in the Army, and sent to prison for three months. ' "I had to work from'seven o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock at night, and tolerate the most abusive insults," she said. "A very large number of my friends were arrested, including a young man. The Germans did all in their power to induce him to speak, promising him a free pardon if he would 1 implicate- others. The man resisted all their persuasive methods, and then they inflicted the most terrible torture. Then he was tried and sentenced to death. Belgians sentenced to death have the right to appeal to the Kaiser, and this young man made, the appeal. We learned later that the reply was: 'If he will speak his life will be soared; if not, then he mil?* die.' The day Vtfore he was taken out to die he was put in a cell decorated with flowers and civen the most costly food to eat. Everything was clone by the Germans to persuade him to sneak at the last moment, even when he was standing before the firing party ho was to d it was not too late. Althoneh onlv a mere youth of twenty-ore years, that brnve fellow died for Belgium without uttering a word which would give the enemy any information."