GERMANY'S SLAVE RAIDS BELGIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 January 1917, Page 5

GERMANY'S SLAVE RAIDS BELGIUM.

CARDINAL MERCIER'S PROTEST 'inc straits in which Germany flnJs itself are shown by her latest villainy UX' making slave raids in Belgium, and turning Poles into cannon 1 fodder. Brave Cardinal Mereier has issued £ protest to the civilised world against tlio deportations of Belgians to Germany foij . compulsory labor. i ! The Cardinal's letter is signed by Maton behalf of all the Belgian bishops, ex+ cept the Bishop of Bruges, with whom iuj was unable to get into contact. TO UNKNOWN DESTINATIONS^ "To-day nil able-bodied men are effM ried oil' pell-mell, penned up in and deporfed to unknown like gangs of slaves." '•To-day ten young Belgians succeeded in escaping from Belgian territory by swimming across tlio River Scheldt,'* says the Morning Poet's Amsterdam cor' respondent. "They were repeatedly *tred at by the German guards, but readied the Dutch village of Ossendrecht unhurt 'J'hev stated that all male civilians o.' between seventeen and thirty years Of* age in the district of Antwerp liave t), report themselves. "The Telegraaf learns that up to tli(S present 30,000 mule inhabitants of Ant-i werp have been conveyed to Germany* ■nid during their deportation serious distuibnnces occurred; Oil' Monday trains laden with civilians left the southern: station, and on Tuesday the departures took place from the icntral station, In many cases relatives had to be removed by force from the vicinity of the aty tiona. ' WITHOUT FOOD AND DRINK. • "At Termomle .i train conveying d(M portees had to wait for thirty-sit hour.i, and they were without food and drink all that time. This.whole .j?f the mala population of Waterloo has been conveycd to Germany. The male inhabitants of Brussels are last on the roster. Not oi.ly unemployed .workmen hut well-to* do inhabitants nre being taken to Ger4 many to work in war Industries. All over Belgium the anxiety of the populft* tion is increasing. Some eye-witnesses state that in many eases the people were I ncked like cattle in the trains. "Messages from Maastricht report that' there is a persistent rumor current tc| the effect that scenes of bloodshed occurred in Brussels. "The Germans decided to enrol thetri si) nds of sound men for enforced labor, but at the moment when the first of men were assembling at tfye Gare-dfl Nord a veritable revolt broke out as the result of nn insignificant incident. M is said that in the course of the melon which ensued thirty Germans were kiK Jed or seriously wounded, while tiler# were casualties among the Belgians. TLft city of Brussels is closed, and no one i; allowed to enter or leave it." "The wives and relatives are forbids den to come within 200 yards of the <st!W tion," says the Times' Amsterdam eow respondent. "According to the most recent reports the number taken from the Antwerp stations approaches 26,000, hut this probably includes men drafted into Antwerp from outside for trahspol'u with tlio big slave gangs. "The scenes are too pitiful for description; they are as pitiful as in the earl* days of the war. Conditions apgear to I ho" particularly bad in Antwerp,' whew the Germans nre exercising great brutal* i(y towards the unhappy slaves." Such are some of the details of thi4, J revolting action of the Germans. j ONE MORE CHIME. "It is quite clear now thai General von Bissins has broken the promise given by the late Field-Marshal Baron ron der Ooltz, who declared that «the liberty of the Belgian population would be respected," says the .Morning Post's correspondnit 'So that once again the Germans ?re exposed to the world nip violators of their promises and declarations." "It is a lie to say that only unemploy'i ed workmen are taken, for the German ij arc now taking even boys from colleges, and students from Universities and higli schools," says the Westminster Gazette, "It is not easy for neutrals to protestj in the present war, but certainly th« latest treatment of Belgium would amply warrant the strongest protest against; a disgraceful return to slavery." "We had fancied that the enormities_ perpetrated by the Germans on imhapp« Belgium had reached the limit which even Prussian 'militarism' would dare to inflict upon an unoffending nation," says the Times. "We were mistaken. Murder, arson, rape, and wholesale pillageall the abominations recorded in Lord Pryee's Report and in the voluminous publications of the Belgian Government —have been followed by, one more crime." (A PLAUSIBLE LIE. "Cardinal Mereier proceeds to say thai the Germans, in order to give to thoii measures jan air of plausibility leged that the unemployed in Belgium are a danger to the public order and a burden to official charity. "Cardinal Mereier, in a letter to Qeri« oral von Hissing, the Governor-General! replied that the latter knew well thai public order was not endangered, ana - that the unemployed made no demand* ,;n official charity. In his reply the Oo> vernor-Gencral abandoned his prcvtoffl arguments, and alleged that the B'.una all lotted to the unemployed tended to bOP den the finances. Ho continued: I " 'The prolongation of unemplnymotf will result in the woriwr# todae thtf kwwAiiV.""" 1