HOW GERMANY RULES BELGIUM

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 27 July 1917, Page 1

HOW GERMANY RULES BELGIUM

TERRIBLE TALES OF JUDICIAL TYRAXNY. An interview was had by a representative - of -Reutcr in London recently w'ith a Belgian gentleman of high, social position^viio succeeded in escaping from Belgium, irr.oviing that he was about to fall into tiie car-os of th£ German secret police, and N? just arrived in. London. He rave a *■ ■. account of tie Germans' so-call_d j- 1 • di' methods, which have produced a veritable reign of terror,, in-marry rcsp.-c.:s resembling thej procedure of the Tnquis-Uoa "In a' vague way the world knows son-.*.'-thing of German military tribunals; cue I doubt if it is realised, that something iikr? 1,000 citizens are condemned every aionih for -patriotic offences. During . the "three months preceding January last 42 death, sentences were inflicted in one court alone. A German was ordered to arrest ' franc: tireurs' in tlie early , days of the war, but as he was unable to. find any, and ; not dai-ing to present himself before his caief empty-handed, he simply arrested the first unoffending peasants he met on- the road. This sort of thing now happens daily in she ; campaign of persecution directed. . patriots. _ .. " Large cities like Brussels and continue to swarm with spies, and -a ; visit small towns and even villages"'AviicVi they ■think there is the slightest chanca.- t-t> prosecute their abominable 'trade; If thev - do not succeed in discovering a genuiue .brims - they invent one, and force perfectly ■ njn'ocsiiT-'' people to 'confess' imaginary offences or denounce friends. Occasionally the secret police disguise themselves as escaped fcY.,,.e:-. prisoners or pose as guides ready to -help vns distracted people 'to escape inselectric wire frontier. Wheji tney have «i.c- ---_ ceeded in gaining the confidence of bieir victims they promptly denounce them to. th.s ; korimandatur. The next stage in the ■ tragedy is prison, from which escape most impossible. Every day the 'vieitms-'ai-i--visited in their cells. not by Judges and lawyers, but by officers and pGLicc bullies, who wring confessions from ihe:n. I know'one man who was cross-exammed im this -way for eight hours without intermission-' - and without food. When the first torturer was exhausted he was replaced" by a- teecohd ■■■' who continued, the ordeal. The prisoner, refusing to confess, was threatened and struck in the face. GERMANS USE THIRD-DEGREE v , 3IETHODS. '"ln a prison where I have been I met some peasants who . were charged with help- ' ; ing a young man to join the Belgian armj\ These prisoners were led into a separs.!.:room, and every time they returned ui = . faces were bleeding. Another batch of oners was suspected of circulating forbiaacn newspapers. Among them was a wta. hunchback lad, from whom the police to extract information. He was removed from his ceil and invited to a lodging town occupied by a . police agent -and-" hii mistress. They gave ,the man drink promised . him all sorts of things, .'but instill refused to confess. Thfe women •ui;" - . attacked' the victim, and tried;. to- • strangle':< him with a scarf, l'o avoid further vioieiu;*: he J,confessed,' .but retracted every no.i when taken back' to prison.. Sometimes 'agents provocateurs,' disguised as prisoners mix with the patriots, abusing t"he ■ <■ - and complaining of their cruelty. In ttay they obtain the sympathy and coniiati;co of their companions, and, • if the latter are unwise enough to trust them, they are promptly confronted with them and oai. to confess their guilt. I know also c_i where relatives and friends of pru... .. were arrested, and the latter told thai. . mother or sister had denounced them, i-j.o ■

ing the sufferings to which they wou.u subjected the prisoners preferred, to conUi- - even an imaginary crirne rather than ; their dear ones ill-treated by the Germanbullies., I know for a- fact that in on. prison a pregnant woman was awakeneu , the middle of the night by an electric flashed into her eyes and a revolver appi.i_ against her forehead in order to terrorise i£~: into a confession. VJS&Y FEW ESCAPE. "It can easily be imagined that una;; such-circumstances many enter the but few succeed in getting out. Wflice«,r or not they committed the offence oi • ;_i they are accused, they generally . ■■ guilt, preferring imprisonment or evzu caa / ■ to such moral ana physical- tortures.-'xu*.;•: is a mere farce. ' In most cases the dt-uni-/---. ants may not receive the help of a barrister. This depends entirely on urS good-will' of the governor of the ■ ■ ' The usual procedure is for the German ererk, after the indictment has been -read, - U> a few words for the 1 defence, without' havJigany knowledge of the case. If a ; barrister' does attend in the case he is not allowed to! communicate with the prisoner either in , prison or elsewhere, so that it is impossible, tor him to obtain knowledge of the iacis. The only way to help the prisoner is to obtain inlormation -,by bribery from the cierk in charge of the dossier, and after the man has been esndemned to address a pesiticai to ■the Governor-General."'