SATIN FOR SANDBAGS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 272, 4 May 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

SATIN FOR SANDBAGS.

HUN REIGN OF ROBBERY I>* LILLE k

A prominent trader who through age and sickness was allowed to leave Lille just before Christmas subsequently arrived in Paris, and gives examples of tho barbarous practices of which tho inhabitants are tiie victms.

In 1915 the Germans exacted a tribute of £720.000, which the municipality refused to pay, whereupon the Germans went to the municipal vaults and opened the safes with blow-pipes in approved burglar style. Two motor-cars were required to remove the bullion stolen from the city's coffers.

When tho people were ordered to supply an enormous number of sandbags they replied that it was impossible. "All riglit, "said the Governor, "we will make them ourselves." Hun soldiers then seized every kind of material, even satins and silks, in the shops and warehouses, and exported them to Germany, w Here tho sacks were made, and the e t v had to pay the bill. Some shoj)s have bad their entire stocks taken in return for requisition notes. If the Germans do not find what they want they take anything they please. Tneir officers have sent wagon-loads of stuff to Belgium to be sol don their behalf. It has even been known for German traffickers to arrive an dopeii shops to resell to the 'nhnh tants the yoods stolen from them bv the invaders.

When the population turned a. deaf ear to an order to surrender all lead. 7iw, aluminium, and copper in their possession in exchange for "scraps of paper,' the sliop,s and houses were entered l iy force and everything seized which contiv'ned those metals and despatched to Germany.

Ahout L'40.000,011(1 worth of ret|iiisition bonds were stored at tho Town Hall awaiting the day of settlement, hut tho Germans, in order to escape liability tor these receipts, set fire to the build : ng.

One of the mo.st cruel imports is the tax of 10s, 20s, and sometimes 40s, on dogs. The people ol l>iHo kept their pets tor a long time, hut finally taw that in paying the hated tax they were giving tne enemy weapons to use against their own I reneh soldiers. Then the inhabitants of tho sunken cif acnlieed their four-footed friends.