The New York Times/1916/11/22/Spain Intervenes to Aid Belgium
SPAIN INTERVENES TO AID BELGIUM
Her Ambassador in Berlin Files a Strong Protest Against Deportations.
BRITISH TELL OF PLEDGE
Lord Robert Cecil Declares German Officials Promised Not to Exile Belgians.
MADRID, Nov. 21, (via Paris.)—A semi-official note made public here today announces that the Spanish Ambassador in Berlin has handed the German Government a strong protest against the deportation in Belgium. The protest came from the Spanish diplomatic representative at Brussels. The Ambassador, who is charged with the protection of Belgian interests, asked the Government to relinquish its measures for deportations and to release those who had been the victims of it.
The note says that pending the outcome of the protest the Spanish Government has instructed its Ambassador to do his utmost to obtain better treatment for the deported men.
LONDON, Nov. 21.—In the House of Commons today Lord Robert Cecil, War Trade Minister, confirmed statements, made on the floor, that 25,000 Belgian men had been deported from Belgium to work in German coal, iron, and steel industries in the Rhine Province and Westphalia. He said that after the surrender of Antwerp the Military Governor gave Cardinal Mercier a solemn written assurance that no Belgians should be deported, and that assurance was confirmed by Field Marshal von der Goltz, now dead, who at that time was Governor General of Belgium.
Lord Robert added that the German officer under whose orders the first deportations from Flanders were carried out was formerly Governor of Brussels, and “was directly responsible for the execution of Nurse Cavell.”
The British Government, Lord Robert added, would support every Belgian protest, but the only way to solve the question was “to prosecute the war with all our powers and make it a cardinal point to secure the liberation of Belgian territory and Belgian citizens from this oppression.”
The Common Council of Antwerp has refused to deliver lists of the unemployed to the Germans, according to a Reuter's Amsterdam dispatch quoting the Telegraaf. As a consequence, the dispatch says, the Germans are now calling men of all classes to the police stations for examination as to the identity of their papers. These men are said to have the choice of a German labor contract of three or six months or immediate deportation to Germany. The Telegraaf adds that an official letter has been sent to all Burgomasters demanding lists of unemployed under penalty of deporting citizens of all classes to Germany.
The Belgian Refugees' Committee at Flushing has petitioned Queen Wilhelmina to intercede with Germany in an endeavor to stop the deportations of Belgians, says a dispatch to the Exchange Telegraph Company from Amsterdam.
AMSTERDAM, Monday, Nov. 20, (via London, Nov. 21.)—According to the frontier correspondent of the Telegraaf, a number of Belgians who had been deported to Germany have returned to Belgium, having paid a ransom to the Germans. It appears, the correspondent says, that the Germans first offered a ransom for 1,000 marks, and, none offering to pay this amount, reduced it to 500 marks, which also many refused to pay.