Hokitika Guardian & Evening star TUESDAY, JAN. 30 1917 BELGIUM’S TRIALS.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 January 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening star TUESDAY, JAN. 30 1917 BELGIUM’S TRIALS.

The cable news yesterday purported to give the first official account of the Belgian deportations, and the horrors to which the inoffensive people had to submit. The mail, which also arrived yesterday, brought a pamphlet issued by Eyre & Spottiswoode, of London, being the story of the Belgian deportations as told by Cardinal Mercier, the Archbishop of Meehlin, Belgium. It was published early in November last, and. is titled “A Signal of Distress from the Belgian Bishops to Public Opinion.” It •pens with this ominous sentence, ‘ ‘ Every day the military authorities deport thousands of inoffensive citizens from Belgium to Germany, and there condemn them to forced labor.” In October the Belgian Bishops entered a protest at the action of Germany, and copies of same were handed to the representatives of the Pope, Spain, United States, and Holland domiciled in Brussels. At that time the decrees ostensibly affected only unemployed Belgians, but by November “ all able-bodied men are being carried off indiscriminately, packed' in open trucks, and sent away, we know not where, like gangs of slaves.” The enemy took the districts in turn, from 800 to 1200 men being seized daily. “ The naked truth of it all,” says the circular, “is that every deported workman is another soldier for the German army.” The Belgian will take the place of a German workman, and the latter in turn will be made into a soldier for the Fatherland.” It is represented that 400,000 Belgian workmen are affected. -The Belgian Bishops thus describe the scene at a deportation: “ Bands of soldiers break into their peaceful homes, snatch youths from their parents, the husband from his wife, the father from his children, and guard with fixed bayonets the doors through which wives and mothers attompt to pass to bid a last fax'fewell to those who are leaving them ; marshal their captives in groups of 40 or 50, and hoist them forcibly into open trucks ; the engine stands ready under full steam ; as soon as the train is full a superior officer gives the signal for The Archbishop then recites how German governors in Antwerp and Brussels had promised there would not be any deportations, but “ the word of an honest man ” is cancelled in two years ! He makes a final appeal: ■* May Divine Providence deign to inspire all who have any authority, a’! who are masters of speech and pen, to rally round our humble Belgian Hag for the abolition of European slavery.” The plight of the Belgians is sad indeed. We

know, too, that the trials of the Be l ' gian women are of a kind unspeakable. Alas, that they should be so ; and also that in such circumstances the head of a great English-speaking country should talk of a phace without victory which might not punish the offenders and remove for ever their power to repeat the atrocities for which the Hun and his following are responsible. Truly would it have been the greatest tragedy of all had England not espoused the cause of Belgium. Let that cause be our charge to the bitter end, and all posterity will remember Britain with gratitude.