The province of Hainault did not escape. At Charleroi, after the great battle which took place there, 108 persons were mas- sacred, at Marchienne au Pont 75, at Mons 39, at Tournai 34, at Chatelet 67. In the other villages through which the enemy forces passed, 182 persons were put to death.
It remains to mention the massacres perpetrated by the in- vaders in East and West Flanders. For these provinces, however, precise figures cannot be quoted, the work of compiling the lists of victims not being yet completely terminated.
The Occupation. Brussels once in her power, Germany began to organize the occupation of the country. The activities of the government of occupation headed successively by von der Goltz, von Bissing, and von Falkenhausen were considerable in all spheres. Always the same main policy emerged : in matters political, economic or social, the one aim of Germany was to make Belgium and all her resources serve the needs of the war; while preparing for her annexation at the very least for her absorption in the event of the German victory, and rendering her in any case innocuous as an independent nation by effecting her economic ruin.
The governor-general formed round him a central govern- ment, in which the Ziviherwaltung (civil administration) played the chief part. Executive powers were in the hands of the gover- nor-general, who legislated by promulgation of orders. A German governor was placed over each province. The Belgian commis- saries were deprived of their authority over the arrondissements, being replaced by Germans, subordinate to whom were the military commandants who controlled the cantons. The country was divided into the Gouvernement General, placed directly under the authority of the Zivilvenvaltung; and the Zones d'itapes, including Flanders, the arrondissements of Tournai and Mons, and the southern part of the province of Luxemburg, governed by the military authorities, who had the right of promulgating orders. These Zones d'etapes were completely separated from the rest of the country. Access to them and exit from them were forbidden without permits, which were not readily granted.
Everywhere bureaux de controle were established to keep a watch on the inhabitants, persons placed under their special surveillance being obliged to report themselves periodically. A network of espionage was spread over the country, enabling the authorities to know what citizens were dangerous, or even simply too influential, so that they might be regarded with sus- picion, and arrested on the first pretext.
Not only was the Belgian administration completely deprived of executive power, but the powers of the provincial councils were gradually undermined. In 1915 the right of meeting in ordinary session on fixed dates was taken from them, while the deputations pcrmanenles (administrative bodies appointed by the provincial councils from among their members) were placed under the direct authority of the presidents of the German pro- vincial civil administration. Still further, from 1917 onward these presidents in each province were authorized to assume themselves the powers of the provincial councils as regarded the receipts and expenditure of the annual budget, and the methods of raising the necessary funds to meet the expenditure. The struggle between the provincial councils and German authority became bitter indeed when the governor-general claimed their collaboration in assessing liabilities for the enormous war-tax varying between 40, 50 and 60 million francs per month with which he had saddled the country. Nearly all the provincial councils refused cooperation, preferring to accept an arbitrary assessment decreed by the government of occupation, rather than to yield a semblance of legality to its decisions. Hence- forward the military governors, and also the German presidents of civil administrations, were empowered to ensure the payment of the tax, and to that end had the right of raising loans in the name of the province. On July 6 1918 the provincial councils were definitively suppressed. Nothing then remained of the Belgian administrative system.
In vain, however, did Germany destroy the machinery of the country's self-government; she could not break the spirit of the nation. The glorious example set by men like M. Visart de
Bocerm6, burgomaster of Bruges, who at 80 years of age stood up fearlessly to the German military power, or like M. Max, burgomaster of Brussels, who boldly led the resistance of his townsfolk, going so far as to post on the walls an official con- tradiction of the news published by the Germans concerning the march of military operations, from, the earliest days of the occupation sufficiently indicated to the invaders what the public attitude was going to be. M. Max, when arrested and sent to Germany, there to be subjected to a system of reprisals, had for successor M. Lemonnier, whom in his turn the Germans were obliged to arrest and deport. In every class of society acts of admirable devotion occurred. Hundreds of Belgians were deported to Germany or shot. Names such as those of Gabrielle Petit, Philippe Baucq, the Englishwoman Edith Cavell, J. Cor- bisier, Louis Neyts, Bodson, Le Grand, Lenoir and many others stand for the heroism of an entire population.
Neither deportation nor executions could ever prevent the spying on behalf of the Allies carried on by thousands of Belgians, nor the publications of a secret press which fought energetically against the occupant power. On Feb. 2 1915 La Libre Belgique appeared. Each week until the Armistice it was published and distributed throughout Belgium. At Louvain the Revue de la Presse gave the most interesting extracts from the Allied press. In Brussels L'Ame Beige made vigorous political propaganda, continuing to appear despite the arrest and imprisonment of its editor. In 1918 Le Flambeau, by the method of analyzing foreign politics, taught the public why to expect victory. At Ghent L'Aulre Cloche stood firm against the Germans and against Activism, as did De Vrye Stem at Antwerp. Besides these journals, directed by secret committees of priests, lawyers, university professors and journalists, other smaller papers, appearing less regularly, such as La Soupe, Le Beige, Ca et La, Patrie, and De Vleemische Leeuw, sustained Belgian patriotism.
German Legislation. German legislation was abundant, more especially that of a repressive type. The most trivial regulations carried penalties of extreme severity. Maximum prices, requisitions of bread and cereals, were enforced by pen- alties extending to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 20,000 marks. Such Draconian measures were not imposed for the sake of the German army's safety; they applied only to the country's internal organization, martial law reigning over all that directly affected the army.
Military tribunals, without any intimation to the public of their creation or of their competence, were charged throughout the country with the application of these new laws. These courts afforded no security to those amenable to their jurisdiction, their procedure was neither public nor contested; the dossier not being even shown to the defence, they constituted a purely arbitrary means of government, not a judicial authority.
Along with these military courts von Bissing established by an order of Feb. 5 1915 a judicial system of two degrees. The Ger- man governors set over the Belgian provinces were given un- limited power of instituting penalties. Heads of arrondissements and commandants were empowered to institute penalties amount- ing to three weeks' imprisonment. Besides being thus granted legislative powers, these functionaries were authorized to try persons who disobeyed their regulations, the governors sitting as judges of appeal from the judgments of their subordinates. This edict, conferring as it did judiciary powers on officials, opened the door to administrative tyranny, destroying the in- dispensable safeguard afforded by the separation of judicial and administrative authority. Still worse, this edict established for repressive purposes the principle that a penalty imposed on a guilty person could, should the judge so decide, be inflicted on some other person. Such a measure, permitting the penalizing of an innocent person, when the culprit himself was out of reach, annihilated the personal liberty of the inhabitants of the coun- try. These penal powers were carried yet further by an order of Aug. 3 1917, authorizing the governors to sentence delin- quents to total or partial confiscation of property.
Besides endangering public liberty and security these edicts illegally weakened the authority of the Belgian tribunals. It
