GERMAN EXTORTION IN BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 223, 8 June 1918, Page 10

GERMAN EXTORTION IN BELGIUM

THE ART OF TYRANNY

AS PRACTISED BY THE HUNS

(By C. D. StellingJ

(Circulated by the Colonial Institute.) Tho Germans are masters of the art of refined tyranny. Their iirst stc-n when they havo annexed a small country is to organise, with Iho nid of intrigues bribes, and promises, any disaffected political elements they can unearth, and seek thereby to build up a "house riivided against itself." Thu#rccently they set up in Pol.'jnd a Regency Council drawn l'rom a small and insignificant reactionary Germanic element, in no way representative of tho Polish people, and they took similar measures in the Ukraine, Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland.

In Belgium their task was more diflicult. It was not possible to discover there any pro-German elements; but the Machiavellian Prussian was not to be baulked, and he succeeded in disinterring the remains of lulofnnet "Activism. In pre-war days there was a certain amount of intellectual, rather than political, agitation fur (he establishment of a Flemish University, and for • making Flemish as well as French the official language of the country. But what little antagonism there was between Flemish and Walloon vanished immediately on the outbreak of war, and Belgium" presented, as she still presents, a united front to tlio common foe.

However, under the German occupation no stono was left unturned to revive tlio old antagonism and intensify it. Their efforts signally failed, but they contrived to win over a few worthless and corrupt individuals whom they ap. pointed to lucrative positions, and so they gave a semblance of reality to tlio existence of a party in favour of separation. But though they have done everything possible to keep "Activism" alive, it has made no progress in Belgium, and the mass of Belgians will have nothing to do with it. Yet it has its uses for the Gorman Command. It serves, for instance, as a pretext for extorting money from the oppressed people. Thus tho following notice was rccentlv posted up. by tlio German Kommandaiitur ivi Brussels, following a spontaneous demonstration of the people against "Activist" intrigues:— ' "On February II a political manifestation, concerted between tho communes of Brussels, took place in front of tho Town Hall. A numerous crowd gathered in the Square; the Belgian polico did nothing to prevent the demonstration. These circumstances brought about the intervention of German military forces, thanks to whose prudent action tho manifestation did not assume more serious proportions, and disorders and counter-manifestations were averted. "Public political manifestations are forbidden by the order of July. 30, 1916. Further, all political gatherings ii.ust be authorised by the local Kommandantur.

"In the present case these orders were deliberately disregarded by the communal administration. Therefore the communes have been burdened with a penal contribution of 2,000,000 marks (,£100,000), to be paid in one sum. "It is due, then, to the organisers or these manifestations, to which the communal nnthoritie. arc Jio strangers, that Brussels is constrained once again to pay considerable penal contribution." On this Barefaced extortion the official Belgian bulletin, in which the notice has been reorinted, comments as follows: "The alleged counter-manifestations had n? existence in fact, as the whole population shares the sentiments of the demonstrators. They aro suggested with the object of mitigating the ,considerabl« moral effect of the Brussels protestation. It is scarcely necessary to underline tlio ponderous and impudent irony of the concluding lines of this document." . But tho document furnishes another ngregious cxamplo of the Gorman skill in killing several birds with 0110 stone. They raised 2,000,0CA marks; they provided a specious justification for the theft; and they laid upon the-Brussels officials the stigma of incurring this penalty for the people.