GERMAN EXTORTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1918, Page 7

GERMAN EXTORTION.

NOBILITY OP THE FRENCH. Washington, Oct. IS. The dignity and nobility with which officials of the stricken city of Lille, France, have met the extortionate demands of their German masters is revealed in a letter frori Charles de la Salle, Mayor of that city, to the German general-in-chief, Gravenitz, a copy of which has reached here. The Mayor wrote: "Your letter is at hand. Jt causes me very great surprise. Hardly had we repaid the balance of the imposed tax of 24,000.0Ct1> when you asked for a new payment of 33,000,000. During the first year of your occupancy, when Lille was still in possession of the greater part of its resources, you claimed the sum of 25,-000,000; during the second year the sura of 30,000,000, and during the third year, when the city was in dire distress, you doubled the tribute and raised it to 00,000,000 ''Such heavy demands are as extortionate as they are unjustified. They are contrary to the spirit and letter of The Hague Conventions! 'They are in absolute contradiction with the. commentorv that the German General Staff made in its convention as I pointed out in my last year's correspondence. contributions, established without'justification, rest on the most absolute basis. Instead of decreasing, they increased in proportion as requisitioned ruin and devastation are piled upon this unfortunate city. In fact, you threatened us with the most severe punishment in case of resistance to your will, and especially with a fine of a million per day for delay. Under these conditions-. If only mv personal safety and that of a few officials were imperilled I would not hesitate emphatically to refuse demands which seemed to me to be an abuse by force and violence of right. But the fate of a population weakened by three years of privation is at stake, and I have not- the courage to expose it to new cruelties. "In consequence, I beg to state in the natiit of the Municipal Council which I represent, that' the city of Lille, curbed under the yoke, isolated from the world, unable to appeal to any court against the arbitrary power of which she is the victim, wilj. pay the new contributions on the dates indicated, but she will pay them under duress." The letter does not indicate whether the levy is in marks or francs, hut it is assumed to be in francs, as all previous levies by the Germans, have been.