Comite Industriel was formed for that object. It entered into negotiations with the Allied Governments in order to obtain permission to import raw materials into Belgium such raw materials, once manufactured, to be reexported and the proceeds realized applied to the purchase of foodstuffs necessary for the victualling of the Belgian population. The Allies were willing to agree to such an arrangement, but the German Government made the condition that payments for the exported goods should be deposited in a Belgian bank. England declared that she could not accept such a condition, which would have meant that the Allied Powers would be helping Germany, so the Comite Industriel dissolved without having achieved anything.
The numbers of the unemployed became dany more alarming. In 1916 they reached 650,000. On Oct. 16 1916 the Comite National made a fresh attempt to revive trade, proposing the authorization of exports, their proceeds to be handed to the Commission for Relief in Belgium as payment for food sent in return. Germany refused consent. Part of Belgian industry still remained active but the factories sequestrated by the enemy had great difficulty in finding labour, considerable numbers of the working-classes obstinately refusing to work in the interests of Germany. On Aug. 14 and 15 1915 appeared the first edicts instituting severe penalties for those refusing to undertake work for the German authorities.
The government of occupation was also undermining Belgian industries by requisitions of machinery and tools. Commissions of German engineers and heads of industry were sent into Bel- gium to seize from Belgian factories any machinery which could be utilized in Germany. The real object was to destroy Bel- gium's trade, as being a dangerous rival to that of Germany. Pure vandalism characterized these requisitions, the experts even destroying machinery which they found it impossible to remove.
Again official orders of Jan. 10 and Oct. 10 1916 forbade more than 24 hours work per week in the textile and boot-making trades; and those of Feb. 17 and July 21 1917 forbade work in all workshops and factories of Belgium save by authorization of the president of the civil administration.
The working-class population of Belgium was reduced to beggary. The masses of unemployed became more and more numerous. Germany desired them more numerous still. Public works started by provinces and communes to provide employ- ment were suddenly prohibited. Germany exposed her hand.
The president of the civil administration expounded the German theory in a speech delivered before the deputation permanente of Luxemburg. Relief of the unemployed, he said, was inadmissible in the case of persons deprived of work by the German regulations. Workers aged from 18 to 50 could go to Alsace-Lorraine or Germany, and work there for good wages. If able-bodied members of the working-class would consent to go to Germany, communes would be once more authorized to provide public work for the unemployed of under 18 or over 50.
Thus, by means of a skilfully planned series of edicts, Germany had attained her object had completely ruined Belgian indus- try and had created an unemployed class of nearly 700,000 work- ers, whom she forbade the public bodies to provide with work. Nothing remained but to transport this potential labour into Germany.
From 1917 onwards Belgian industry was subjected to sys- tematic destruction. By June 30 1918, 167 factories had been completely destroyed, 161 factories were mentioned by the administrative report to the governor-general of the section for commerce and industry as to be destroyed immediately, 93 large halls were being demolished, others had been cleared out, 52 halls were to suffer the same fate. Of the 57 high furnaces existing in Belgium, 26 had been razed to the ground, 20 were seriously damaged, n pnly remained fit for use.
The Service de Recuperation Induslrielle subsequently identified in Germany 24,308 Belgian machines and 89,635,640 kgm. of various kinds of plant. Machinery that could not be carried away entire, had been broken up by hammer blows and the pieces sent to Germany; 290,000 tons of iron, 7,000 tons of lead (coming
chiefly from the storing chambers for sulphuric acid) had been taken from the factories.
Metallurgical works, textile factories, chemical works, quar- ries (save those requisitioned by Germany), cemeteries, gun- foundries, works of public bodies all were completely despoiled. The collieries alone, being indispensable to Germany, were spared. But when the German army was in final retreat measures were taken to destroy the mines completely. On Oct. 26 1918 orders were given for work to cease in the coal-fields of Hainault. On Nov. i pits and machinery were mined, pumping and ventilation were stopped, boiler furnaces extinguished. This would have meant the putting of Belgian mines out of action for years. In face of such an act of vandalism the neutral Powers protested, threatening Germany with economic reprisals, whereupon pumping was recommenced, and the pits and machinery were spared.
In all this policy of destruction Germany had a double aim. On the one hand, she was ruining Belgian trade and eliminating future rivalry from that quarter; on the other hand, unemploy- ment was being daily increased, hundreds of thousands were being thrown out of work, and she was provided with a pretext for requisitioning human labour as she had already requisitioned raw materials and machinery. A series of edicts now prepared for that.
The Deportations. In Oct. 1916 the military authorities made the first requisition of men for work in Germany. At that time nearly a million persons were in receipt of public relief in Belgium. In Nov. burgomasters were ordered under heavy penalties to furnish the German authorities with lists of the unemployed receiving relief in their communes. In every case the enemy Government was met by refusal on the part of the communal authorities. The military authorities thereupon began a general requisition of able-bodied men throughout the country, whether unemployed or not. Notices posted in the communes ordered all men aged from 17 to 60 to present themselves at the Kommandantur in the town of the arrondissemenl. There the assembled men were paraded within double lines of infantry and cavalry. Non-commissioned officers next proceeded to designate those who were to be deported to Germany or to the zones of the front. These unlucky ones were immediately marched to the nearest station, put on a train, and sent under guard to Germany.
Generally speaking, the inhabitants of Flanders the zone d'etape were sent to the Yser front or to that in the north of France. They were set to work constructing railways, repairing roads, or digging trenches in the zone of fire. Many of them were killed by the Allied bombardment. Workers requisitioned from other parts of the country were concentrated in great camps at Munster, Altengrabow, Guben, Cassel, Meschede, Soltau and Wittenberg. They were ordered to sign labour contracts, and their obstinate resistance was met by the most inhuman methods of intimidation and coercion. Deprived of food, beaten even with blows of the bayonet left tied to posts in the snow for entire nights, numbers of them yet perished rather than work for the enemy. In the camps the " purveyors of men " came to take delivery of the human merchandise allotted to them, and dis- tributed it to farms, factories and mines throughout Germany. The invincibly recalcitrant were sent to Strafbataillonen at the front, where they were treated like convicts. Such camps, that at Sedan for instance, were responsible for many victims. From time to time convoys of sick were sent back to Belgium; the lamentable state in which they arrived provoked a great protest movement through all the country.
The first voice to make itself heard was that of Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines. He addressed a protest to the governor-general against the inhumanity of the deportations. In particular he said: "I will not believe that the imperial authorities have said their last word. They will consider our unmerited sufferings, the reprobation of the civilized world, the judgment of history, the chastisement of God." On Nov. 9 1916 the members of the Belgian Parliament in their turn addressed a courageous protest to von Bissing and appealed to the neutral legations. On Dec. 16 the magistracy in its turn protested. In
