GERMAN TYRANNY IN LILLE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1771, 3 January 1918, Page 1

GERMAN TYRANNY IN LILLE.

The treatment of the town of Lille at the hands of the German Governor, General von Graveriitjs, is described in a letter written to him by the Mayor, M. Delsalle, on July 17, protesting against a new exaction. The letter was as follows, the British equivalents of the amounts mentioned in the original being given:—“l have received your letter of July Ist. The contents have filled me with stupefaction. Scarcely have we paid the balance of a forced levy of £960,000 than you demand payment of a fresh sum of £1,320,000. During the first year of occupation, when the city of Lille was still possessed of a large portion of its resources, you demanded under various forms £1,120,000, during the second year a total of £1,200,000, and during the' third year, when the town is in the most utter distress, its trade annihilated, its shops closed, its industries destroyed, you double the tribute and raise it to £2,400,000. Such demands, continually increasing, are as exorbitant as they are unjustifiable. They are contrary (o the spirit and letter of The Hague Convention. They are in absoluate contradiction to the commentary on the said convention made by the German General Staff Itself. These contributions, fixed without any justification, rest on the most arbitrary foundation. Instead of diminishing they increase in proportion as requisitions, ruin, and devastation accumulate on an unhappy town. You threaten us with the most rigorous punishment in the event of resistance to your will, and, in particular, a fine of over £40,000 for every day of delay, This being so, if it had merely been a question of my personal security and that of a few notabilities, ! should not hesitate to reply by a formal refusal demands which appear* to me an abuse of force and a violation 01. law. But the fate is.ar. stake of a sailor omij; A'q pojqa.rfuo uoipqndod of sufferings, and I brave nut the courage to expose it. U> fresh severity. Consequently y'hereby declare to you, in the uame -of the Municipal Council, Gao ilie/cily of Lille, bowcd/benea! h ’fifi'/tV-sAuii, i-uj off from the omer worl/!, nimble k> appeal to any tribuna ! /c go im-i ihe arbitrary action to vliicb it, is subjected, will pay theyimw contribution at the dates Uxeu. mi! ' ill pay with the ■ kni£f'f|t[ifs4jiroat. ,, y I ;i::- 'A : .•■s' - .