Belgian Deportees.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 268, 20 April 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

Belgian Deportees.

BRUTAL TREATMENT IN GERMANY. TEMPTATIONS SCORNED. Compulsory labour has been instituted in the interests of tho Belgian workmen themselves.—Baron von Bissing.

According to information received by the Times from occupied Belgium, it appears that some of the deported Belgians who wero ill have been sent back to their homes- They return from Soltau. There are now at Soltau 11,000 deported Belgians who refuse to work for the Germans.

One morning the Germans, finding that 70 of their victims were nearly c yif«, ii iddler' tho i. into a . attle truck attached to a goods train. At one station after another, as the train passed the districts from which the Belgians had been taken, they were made to get out. Some of them took three days and three nights to get to their destination. In ordinary times an express train takes six hours to go from Soltau to Brussels. They \uie occasionally given iv i.d and water: that was the only care they received during the journey. They arrived home thin, emaciated, and coughing. They were received with tears. It seemed to their families and their friends that it was but their ghosts which had returned- Some of them have described their adventures and these descriptions agree in all points—a conclusive proof >,i their veracitv.

For food tho Belgiaus were given at the Soltau camp—at 6 a.m., a decoction of boiled acorns only; at noon, half a litre (about a pint) of soup, composed mostly of water with some turnips, carrots, shrimps, and camphor, without bread or potatoes; at 3 o'clock, 250 grammes (about \\h) of black bread, very bad and often mouldy; in the evening, half a litre of the same soup as at noon,sometimes containing bran or maize. On this abominable diet even the strongest decline in health, and the weak are not long in falling seriously ill and succumbing. Some die every day. Two wen mad in the first week of their captivity. These unfortunate men are so tormented with hunger that in the evening they creep irto the kitchen like thieves and collect the parings of potatoes—the potatoes themselves are intended solely for the German staff—the turnip and carrot skins, which they share among themselves and eat raw to appease their hunger.

One workman, tired of so much misery, attempted to eseape, and was brutally killed. He was shot and finally despatehed with bayonets. In spite of such martyrdom, the men / still refuse to work. The most tempting offers, with good food and high wages, are made them. The great majority prefer to face hunger and death.

Various methods arc adopted in order to obtain the consent of the men to work. One day 40 artisans wero taken away. A week later they returned. Iliev told their comrades that they had been taken to the Grand Duchy of Badcu, whore they had boon given abundant and excellent food for a couple of days ; then they were informed that they would receive the same amount every day if only they would consent to work. On their re-iiir-al *hey were scit back to Soltau, remaining 3-3 hours in a cattle-truck without food and without being able to get out.

On another day a man appeared in the camp dr-ssed as a se. - 4J.n't of the Bth Belgian regiment of the line. In excellent French and Flemish he harangued the captives, telling them that they were very stupid to endure such sufferings; no one would be grateful to them for it; that the middle classes in Belgium were still living luxuriously ; that the Government at Havre did not care what happened to them, and would take no steps to intervene on their behalf because it was common knowledge that the deported Belgians would be doing nothing contrary to the dictates of patriotism in accepting peaceful work in Germany, and so on. Later the Belgians discovered that this indivdiual wa.s a German recruiting sergeant disguised as a Belgian soldier.