THE BUTCHERY OF BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3014, 27 February 1917, Page 5

THE BUTCHERY OF BELGIUM

M. MAETERLINCK'S CALL TO 'AMERICA. ■■• : The A T ew York "Tribune" recently brinied.au appeal by M, Maeterlinck, the distinguished Belgian author-poet, Xo the American people to intervene to jsave the Belgians from Germany's'monstrous inhumanity. The appeal is telegraphed from Paris by the "Tribune's" correspondent/ to whom M. Maeterlinck said: "Tell the American people that the JJvhole world is watching them to see (if they still retain the spirit of their fathers, the founders of their great (country, Does America understand ,what is being done to Belgium and the Belgians? There are not words in the .human language to tell the story; there is no precedent in history. One must (go back beyond the deluge. .What (Some did was to make slaves and care iJov them tenderly and preserve their 'jive3_and Tisefulness. What Germany lie doing is wholesale murder. She seeks jto destroy a race. Germany is practising not merely slavery but also The. population of all-Belgium jis being systematically starved into conijsnmption, and other diseases stalk trough the land. The miserable inhabitants are dying liko animals: (women and children are being herded into Germany to make munitions for }the German army, and every man be.tween the ages or 18 and 30 is being rtaken. not to German faotories but to Hihe German trenches. There are 60,000 Belgians under'forced labour digging •trenches for the Germans behind SoisRonß. They, are half-starved men 'seized from the factories and dragged into the frozen fields of winter, clothed often only An a single garment, and driven with the bayonet to dig trenches fond set up wire entanglements. Only lon Saturday I received word of the (death of one of their old, friends a He (had been seized by one of the German .glare gangs and was killed m the firstline German trenches behind Soissons.. ■ ' That is is not war. That is murder. [That is butchery. Tho United States isigned treaties with Germany agreeing jto abide by tho principles of humanity in making war. Germany has broken these treaties, broken her faith, broken iher word. Now let America act, let {America at the head of a league rf neutrals force Germany into the road Jof humanity. No mere words'will sufface; there must be summary; action. |All the world''knows of the friendship tof the American people for Belgium. iLet them now force their will on tho Government and make the Government fact. I have watched the recent signs of arising of the American people. It (has been hard to understand why they 'hare not risen before, but now they •seem to be in motion. The world is watching to see if the strength of their fathers still lives'in them.: They are .the only leaders great enough, powerful'enough to act. Force alone will Eerve." •■ , ■ •-.■•.