A NATION ENSLAVED.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 251, 16 February 1917, Page 2 (Supplement)

A NATION ENSLAVED.

BELGIUM'S MARTYRDOM.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RECENT OUTRAGES.

Be'gi: m is ;it present tic scene of ( t; cities whi.li have p rlia; s not •en mjitchcvi in E ro, e since Alva sought to crush the Netherlands more than 3<W) years ago. After robb'ng j terrorising, and starving a large I>:>rt of ike | ovulation of Belgii m during to past to years, ti eG rm.in.s are now seizing tie able-'o lied men of the land !.y tlio sands. and sending them to work as slaves —at the promised wage of .'id a day—in Gornim.r. Ti.ere is reasm to I e'ieve (says t: e Londn D iiv Expree), that ii.ore than 250,000 Belgian men will soon ha o 'en ro nded up and driven t.i slavery, with the alte native of imprisonment, torture, <r death

if they refu e to work for their German taskmasters. These -t .t nient-; are bo. ne o t l>y cab Us recently received 1 ere, both through the Pro s and private sources.

I i is piohal le tint far mo e than LOU,Oi.O lave already been to n from their home-. ;.nd enslaveJ, or a month ago it was known ti at more than i 0.0.0 k. d I ©en seized ani deported fr in the provin es ot B.lgian Elander* alene—the lountry adjoining the fighting line and since then the brutal method of t! e press-gang has Icen ap-

plied in the le-t ot Belgium. From Antwerp ii ore trail 23.000 men have been deported, an] Brussels mi man. other <itit s have been subjected t>, at any rata partial "sweeps."' Fr< in some 1 laces every ahle-'odieil n an of mil'ta: y a_:e has been tvken.

TKAIXLOADS OF SKHFS. Day by day train'oads of men of all < 1 s-es and if every age, from more youths to 43 years or more, leave Belgium for destinations known only to the s iper-mon-t r.s who a:o carrying out tins twentictli-Lentuiy copy of the BatylonUin ia.ti.ity. It is I eli ved that -erne of t! o victims have been tiken to the Verdun liont and there lom- ! oiled to dig trenches; but the bulk of the captives are unquestionably intended for work in Girman fa tor'es and German fields, to fill the gaps caused by t'ro calling i;p of G.rman workmen for army servire. L nhappy as the lot of the Belgians has been sin c the G imans invaded tl.eu- co. n.ry, tnise j ress-gang slave laijs aie reu IciMig it fair more te rib e. Hubert': —>inie the ma-sacres and lo.tings cf the invasion—the Belgians have been subjected to the commandeering oi' tin ir gooJv, to heavy fines, to deprivati n of tood-st ffs, to lnipris nm nt; end fieqi:ent sheotings for all kinds of trumped-up olfen.es; I.ut at any rate thu buLk of them have been permitted to live in their former homes. Now the fear of exile hangs over every man's load, and c\ery woman and child in tlie aid kno>\s that at any n;om nt German -o'di rs may knock at the housj door and, at the po'nt ot the bayonet, d i o bus'and, fath r, or I rot'.er a. ay without a no Kent's warning, to le .-wall >■:. el up in the staie i.rjiy whi h <o.s to Germany for no one l no«s lo v long, and to retirn —if e.er—no one kno as whc.i. STUI'EFYIXG BLOW. The stupefying blow has :.ir<.ady fa'lon on many thomanis o families. The I read-w inner has suddenly vanished — seized by the G.rman press-gang at Jus work, or duly "mobilised'' at a tew hour*' notice, and the di»'Wcted women and children are hft with no man to gain their livelihood, and with uoiio to prote.t t rem against the license 1 -brutality of the German so'dier.

Imagine the idd terror of the Belgian wife when tie elm; of the German heel cn the pavement stops at her d or, when the fat.ier, sitting perhaps at his midday m.al, is summoned in guttural tones to s.ep o .t, and a fev minutes la'.er I e is mardiei off to tlie railway station with his neighbours, while the children c'ing in fright to their moth.r'.-i sorts!

I n.a;;in> the implacable hatred in the he-irts of theso thousands of ivonun agmmst the German nat on and the German soldieiy, and the savage fury in tl o hearts o: t!ie Belgian men, rin.ed ro nd wit'i steel, : nd realising that .sfTiught.r wi'l le tiie inevitable consequence of any attempt to break I ose.

Ve: there ha e been such attempts, nid aln-ndy many fierce struggles have occurred m Belgian stnets letueen Irenzied m 11 and women am ed with sticks, kni es. sons, sometimes with revolvers, and the be:t r-a-med Germ n troops. It is not always po s'ble for outraged humanity to submit, even in tlie I.T'e of death, to into'erable wrong, and desperate Belgians in several t-win have violently roised their tormentors The Germans take every pro-aution to prevent news of thee snnll but bloody insurrections from leaking not, but Brussels is kno\n to have been the si ene of at least on > grim street fight, in which the infuriated ii U'ans killed 3) German >o!diers, while the troops >liot down many of the dauntless crowd. DE-T'AIR 6 LAST FIGHT. In Toureoing also a fight took place wh n 300 m il who had loon ca; tiered by t!io prcsjs.g;ing were being man hod to t! or it.way st.ition. The crowd, enraged at the silci tof the e .'3OO men being t in from their homes, los a'l control whea it saw one of the victims struck on tho head with a rifle bcraus? Hp did not hurry, ;md in a few m mclits '-he German guards wire fighting lor t' cir livis. Two of thcin wc.o kuo ked down and st ne.l to death, while the rest iro e t(>d then solve, with their gens. Although the soldieis ,sot down many ot t i< ir assiii.ints, the insurgent lle gians wcio n.-t ilNpe'sel ■ nil a -((uatiron o: German cavalry i barged ('o'li the .streets. At .Moils and at Glynt eniwds uttauked nhij military X aid-i wi.h sti l.s, srons, I nive,. and even with lunr>s ot eoai.

Si, l It are some if the 'n id cuts of the (ie.riiian reign < f ten or in Bol.iuni t day. I'm* Germans ha<e a' andomd w hat l.o ( >" they o.er had < f "re on iling r Belgium to it, late. The.v l-n nv that nothing ln:t armel f. r. o will work t eir uill in Belgium, , nd they ao so w. I| «tA;:iv if the fierce anger which the driven have lou-cl that the. a;p'oa hex to the rail.iay .-tations are. geurdei with machine gi.ns, and tho )' lativt s i>f i apt nd n en a o fo:! idd n. on pain < f being s' ot d hvii, to a)>proai h tie stations when the Vave trains are tilled. So, at a n ; >po t'ul dwamc. tlie weeping women and child, nun stan I in pitiful crowds while th • men are herded li'<e cattle into trucks Th en-la-.ed m n are sometiu os al\nvo | tn take with them a small blind I e —on this (omession tlie Germans | rid.theirs'lvc—.Mil they are on'eied to |r vid) tl.oniseivos with two di;.s f ol I e|. re they -tait, but in ni mero s ca-0' the raids have been snd 'en men. e en e'rand-'oys, lia-o 'eon capture! in the liticvts nr have lorn c-ill, d out. Ironi their work-hips and there driven into the train, witho t even a c' an ■ • o.' letting their families know that thov were miz d, much le-s o:' 'caking an. i te a ction or suing good-' ve. I "e p efs-sr.n.4 ' e..an :♦« wo:k e.u'v

iu Octi'er, and since then tie slave ' raids havo incieas; d in frequency and in ri.thles-ness. Men of every callng, including priests, lawyers, school teachers, fa.rm labourers, taime s. and artisans, have been snatched troai their L t>our—while st fi> of two or three hentired men haxe b\n taken at once, in ord r to le foriel to woik under bayonet rule in Germany. Ti:ere is no esca;e. When the time comes for a raid tie military pre-s-g.ang takes possession oi a street, enters the houses, searches fr<m (dlar to roof, and dri.es nun out with the butt or to liayonet if they da o s' row any si.ns cf resist an e. In ■oino places the simple me. hod has In en follo.ved of surrounding, a factory and marching off the whole ef the workmen. Hundreds el villages have '©en strippi d of most of their able-bodied men. In some places women have been sdz d, and in at least one instan e truekloads of women ha\e I eon se.n mth*their hand-; tied behind their lacks. While the men arc treated 1 witli s'aeer l.rutali y. driven with blo.s as though they were cattle, the women are often subje t.'d to gross insists sueh as cliarac-teri.-ed the cond.ct o: the German troops in the early days of the war. Hie rrfisal of the Belgims to re egos* the I enefits which they have deiivc.l from Geim n jack-bxt role, and their intin-ilied I Utenoss against the s a-.e dn ers -e m to have loased the wo st pas-ion oi the a.my of occupation. FACTORIES STRIPPED. It is ile r that the object of the slave raids is tw.fold. In tho first place, the Gernrns seek to compel more Belgians to v.ork for them in B lgi m, on pain of c'eipo tation; ana, in th 0 s-eond plr.c. l , they intend filing up the German war lactones with Belgian workmi n. Son.e 70,000 Belgian railwaymrn (eased work when tha Germans overran the country, and they have refused ever s,nco to ret irn, rea'ising that by s.> doing they would release an <qu-nl or larger neniber oi Germans for military duty. Tho .sands of pc»t- ffice workers | a so went on strike again.-t the nvaders. All theso men and the'r families havo prefer, ed pri ation f„r ;i.ore th;n two years iather ihan Jiel x > the en my. But besides these there ;.re hundreds of to; sands <f men who have leen workless fcr a year or more, not beiarse they wished to ie idle, hut l;e----cai.6j t. e Germans pre rented thim from woi km s. As oon as the Gera an tren.h line was est ibliJ ed, the invaders began a syst.m tb removal o. Belgian machinery. Factory after faitary was entirely stripped, and trainh.ads of vali able mach'nery wcie sent ta Germany. But this was only one method of reducing Belgi. m to *t e po nt of s anation. Anotl er, e'>en n ore jotent, was the seizure cf raw materials. Wool, cotten, ali kini's of meta».s, rubber - , hide 1 , and tim'er —to menti n enly a few raw mateiials—were sv.e* into Germany . \\ here the Belgian owners reeched any a; of tie lobtjery, it gen era, ly took tie form of a promise i n the part oi tlie German Gove.nment ta j ay t ire:> m nt'rs after the end of war—a promise never intended to !>_• fulfilled. The commandoering cf lubr> at ng oil (ompeKed m.'ny wi rks to chse, even t'ough t' ev had nrateiiil to woik on for the simple rca.-on that without oi. to nachinerv wo; Id not run. STARVED .VXD TORTURED. 1' o | ort of Autacrp has cf iour;e, ' een < los d -si ice the Germrn occupati in this enlarging the aie.i> of i nemployment. E.en at the risk ot allow•ng the Germans ■« derive indirectly soma advantage the Bntis'i Government olfered some monti s ago to permit the importation of raw materials for Belgian factories un.'er the saper-*i-ion cf the Heli-f Commis-aon, but Germany ref. s.d to allow fch's. She wished to reiuce Belgium to starr.-.. ten, and ill s pave the way lor the enslaviimnt of a nation. Ever sine the invasion.the Germans have forced a certain niLmJxy of Belgians to work lor them in Belgium, lowns near the fighting lin • havo isolated, and the n en driven by •■-ta!.ration to work under German contiol. Where starvation was insufficient, torture wa s applied. Men were tied to tries or conipe led at t e ' ayonet'a point to walk up and do.vn for hours carrying weights which were tied to their arms or backs. he i Mxtv men retired to work lor tne Germans m a b:rl>cd-wire la tory near Cai. trai th.ev were amsted, and a.s they still refusal, their wives were then thrown into prison.

'Hie German, have not even stopped ai murder to <om_el Belgian nxn to work i«T them. It is believed tJiat twelve men employed in a Ghent facto: v were shot early in October for resisting ren o a' to Germany. Bi;t at fir-t the (ii'mians endeivonred by the thnat oi compulsion to indu o men tn vo'nnteer i'or work in Germany. ITiey cal'o.l 01 uneinploy.d men to agreements to go to Germany when cal e l on. with the alternat-iv? of Ik>ing taken by force if they declinel to go willingly. Thin came an order for net merely unemployed men whom th" Germans have never supported or relieved—'nit for all Bc'gi'.n men of milit iry age 10 report themselves at tlii> 10.-al lnadq arttrs within fortyeight l.oar.s 0:1 pain of death. SHOT AT SIGHT. Whatever t'<- ) retext may he. it n ■ lor that the en huement of 8.-Liini is due to Ge many's la, k o" men. Tie German-- first role ed the Belgians of their to Is. tlieir mae!iinery. and their raw materials: no-, they mile the nn-e-nployni' nt <if Be'gian- an excuse for tin ir eiislave-iu nt. The deportation of li'en who weu-i lot unemployed shows that the pretext was not the reaJ rents;>n l-ehind the latest crime of Gorman I arkirisni.