BELGIAN REVENGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 67, 18 March 1916, Page 9

BELGIAN REVENGE.

WAR ON SPIES. SECRET EXECUTIONS. In spite of the heavy hand with which German military rule is administered in conquered Belgium the spirit of the Belgian people is by no means crushed. They look forward confidently to the time when the German armies in the western theatre of the war will be beaten, and the last German soldier will be expelled from Belgium. The Belgians annoy the military occupants of their territory by mutilating the official proclamations placardvd throughout the country announcing German victories in France, Russia, and the Balkans. When the proclamations boastfully record a successful German attack, and the capture of 1000 prisoners, enterprising Belgians add three noughts to the total of prisoners, and so render the boastful proclamation a subject of amusement to Belgian readers, and a subject of annoyance to the Germans.

The tragedy of the execution of the English nurse Miss Edith Cavcll, who was sentenced to death by a German court-martial at Brussels for assisting Belgian, French, and English eoliiers on recovering from their wounds to escape from Belgium so as to rejoin their regiments, stirred the Belgian people. How doep rs the resentment in Belgium at this official crime is shown by the revenue which followed. The trial of N'urae Cavell. M. Baiteq, and others who were charged at the same time, took place in secret, but »t was subsequently ascertained that the man 'who had be- j trayed them to the German , * authorities and* brought about their execution, was, a Belgian named Niels de Role. On the night of 6th January the dead body of dc Rode wae found in a street of the Brussels, suburb of Schaerbeek. Two bullets which bad been fired from a revolver were found in his body.

General yon Bissing, the German military Governor of Belgium, was furious when he learned that such a valuable spy had paid the penalty of his treason to Belgium. Every effort was made by tftc German authorities to discover who had sSiot de Rode, but the secret was in the hands of Belgian patriots, and the German efforte failed. But yon Bissing, in revenge for the failure, adopted once again the German expedient of fining the inhabitant* of the conquered city. A fine, of £20,000 was imposed on the city of Brussels, and an additional fine of £2000 on the suburb of Schaerbeek. Even the German military mind, as exemplified in yon Biasing, realised {hat the uhpoeition of fines in revenge for the death of a Belgian traitor was an outrage which would expose the Germans to just contempt, and therefore it was publicly proclaimed that the reason for the imposition of the fines was that the death of d« Bode by means of revolver shots showed that the German order to all Belgians to deliver up their arms had not been obeyed.

But the Belgian patriots who took upon themselves the task of avenging the betrayal of Nurse Cavell are continuing the work of destroying traitors and spies. Instead of using revolvers, and so exposing innocent Belgians to oppressive fines, they lhavc shown their contempt for the German authorities by adopting a more leisurely form of execution. A few days ago German soldiers found the dead bodies of two spies wtio had been hanged. On each body was pinned a card bearing the inscription, "Hanged for the crime of espionage. If the Belgians are forbidden to carry revolvers, they are not forbidden to provide themselves with good strong ropes to execute spies."