A WORKERS' APPEAL TO WORKERS

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 91, 17 April 1917, Page 6

A WORKERS' APPEAL TO WORKERS

]?6lk>wing on the , fall- of Antwerp:? in October, i 914, it became the policy of the-Germans to restore confidence in the' Belgian population, in order that the ■economic-life ;of Belgium might be maintained.. With this end in view, the. Military . Governor of/ Antwerp, Baron yon Hnene, issued an- assurance calculated *to recall the refugees who had fled into Holland, and to induce Belgians generally to -return to. their civil occupation^. In taking this action, the Military Governor made no reservations, and did not hedge' his statement with any ambiguity. Ho-made a written declaration containing the following words: " Young men need have no fear of being carried off into Germany, either for enrolment in the army or for forcible employment." This assurance was later confirmed to Cardinal Mercier, before witnesses, by the German Governor-Gen-eral, the late Field-Marshal v yon der Goltz; but last year ■it was simply, set asidej and the forcible deportation of Belgians to Germany for purposes of compulsory labour became the -established policy of the occupying Power. Confronted by Cardinal Merrier ■ with the German assurance of 'October, 1914, the present Governor-General, Baron yon Bissing, made a reply essentially Prussian. Ho wrote: "The employment of the Belgian unemployed in Germany,, which has only been initiated after two years of war, differs essentially from the captivity of men fit for military service. Moreovflii tho measure is not reUtad to the fiQnducj, gf i&e, vw, gropwljr epssfe'.

ing, but it is determined by social and economic causes." As the assurance of 1914 was absolute and unreserved, not

limited in. time, and as much economic as military in its scope, this attempt to

whittle it is a now monument to German hypocrisy. With withering scorn Cardinal Mercier comments on Yon Biasing's twistings: "Asiftho word of an honest man wero terminable at the end of a year or two! „ . . As if, in fine, every Belgian workman who takes tho place of a German workman did not enable tho latter to fill a, gap in the German army!"

Germany seeks to excuse her breach of faith on the ground that it is economically necessary to deport the Belgian workmen because they are unemployed, andHhat they Are unemployed because Britain has stopped supplies of.' raw material to Belgium. The truth'is that the supply of raw material and other tilings needed for the re-victualling of Belgium was stopped because Germany turned them to her own benefit. Not only did she do that, but she removed to Germany such raw material as Belgium possessed, along with Belgium's manufacturing machinery, and thus she created that unemployment which provided her with, a pretext to deport the Belgian workers also. In verification of this Prussipji plot we quote from an-ap-peal of 500,000 Belgian workers to their fellow labourers in the United States, in which appeal occurs the following statement : " The Germans created the Belgian want of work and kept it up to benefit themselves: (1) By refusing England, who consented to introduce new raw materials, the indispensable diplomatic control to prevent the manufactured goods being taken by the Germans ; (2) by preventing, by means of terrible edicts, _.the Belgian communes, associations, «<fd private. Belgians from giving work to the unemployed, from attending to their professional education, and from employing them in work of public utility." The day after the German -authorities discovered that this appeal had been sent acrossrthe frontier into Holland they increased the monthly tribute levied on the Belgians from 40 million to 50 million francs, but illegal levies cannot wipe out. the deadly sting of this exposure of Prussian methods. Nor is tho sting confined alone to the enemy. We wonder whether the following sentences helped to make up the mind of President Wilson:—

"The Belgian working class looks to the neutral Powers. Belgium wonders if this time, in face of this crime of lese-humanite, their conscience in re-

volt will not inspire at'last the energetic gesture which suits the occasion. To allow such an abominable deed t<^ be committed—is it not taking part in it? The working class of Belgium wonders with anguish if neutral countries this time again will wash their hands, like Pontius Pilate, under pretext that the German calumnies do not correspond to the complaints of their victims. Belgium, martyr for right, wishes no 'more verbal contestations nor platonic sympathies. She wants actions. . ... American workmen, from ; the bottom of our distress, we look to you. Act!".

At a time when Labour in New Zealand may strike a real blow for the Belgian workers by striking its best blow in tho essential industries, is it not pardonablo to commend this Belgian appeal to earnest consideration? Can it be denied that the cry from Belgium rings truo? Here is a people who sought no war, who only seek the right to, work; and they are deprived of work, home, and liberty by a rampant aiilitari&m to which democracy's only effective reply is compulsory service. The subjection of personal liberty to military compulsion is not a plot against freedom; it is freedom's only protection. Compulsory service exists to-day as an insurance against just such an evil as has overwhelmed both labour and capital in Belgium; and Belgium is not only an. example, but has a direct human claim on our sympathy and support. If we are to give that support, we must fight our best and work our best; and only in that way can we respond to Belgium's call for actions rather than words. The Belgian workers present to the workers of the world a clear-cut issue, and no amount of casuistical contention can obscure the answer that onght to be made.,