HOW GERMANY RULES BELGIUM

Evening Star, Issue 16469, 6 July 1917, Page 6

HOW GERMANY RULES BELGIUM

TERRIBLE TALES OP JUDICIAL TYRANNY. An interview was had by a representative of Reuter in London recently with a Belgian gentleman of high social" position, who succeeded in escaping from Belgium, knowing that ho was about to fall huo the hands of the German secret police, and who has just arrived in London, lie gave a terrible account of the Germans' so-called judicial methods, which have produced a renewed veritable reign of terror, in many respects resembling the procedure of the Inquisition. “ In a vague way the world knows something of German military tribunals; but I doubt if it is realised that something like 1,000 citizens are condemned every month for patriotic offences. During tho three months preceding January last +2 death sentences were indicted in one court alone. A German sergeant was ordered to arrest ‘franc tircurs ’ in tho early days of the war, but ns ho was unable to find any, and not daring to present himself before his chief empty-handed, he simply arrested the first unoffending peasants lie mot on tho road. This sort of thing now happens daily in the campaign of persecution directed against tho patriots. SWARMING WITH SPIES. “ Large cities like Brussels and Antwerp continue to swarm with spies, and they oiton visit small towns and even villages' where they think there is the slightest chance to prosecute their abominable trade. If they do not succeed in discovering a genuine crime they invent one, and force perfectly innocent people to ‘ confess ’ imaginary offences or denounce friends. Occasionally tho secret police disguise themselves as escaped French prisoners or pose as guides ready to help tho distracted people to escape through the electric wire frontier. When they have succeeded in gaining the confidence of their victims they promptly denounce them to the kommandatur. Tho next stage in the tragedy ts prison, from which escape is almost impassible. Every day tho victims are visited in their cells, not” by Judges and lawyers, but by Gorman officers and police bullies, who wring confessions from them. I know ono man who was cross-examined in this way for eight hours without intermission and without food. When the first torturer was exhausted he was replaced by a second who continued the ordeal. The p'risouer, refusing to confess, was threatened and struck ill the face. GERMANS USE THIRD DEGREE METHODS. “In a, prison where I have boon I met some peasants who wore charged with helping a young man to join tho Belgian army. Those prisoners were led into a separate room, and every time they returned their faces .were bleeding. Another baloh of prisoners was suspected of circulating forbidden newspapers. Among them was a weak hunchback lad, from whom tho police hoped to extract information. He was removed from his ceil and invited to a lodging in town occupied by a police agent and his mistress. They "gave the man drink and promised him all sorts of things, but he still refused to confess. The women then attacked the victim, and tried to strangle him with a scarf. Ter avoid further violence he ‘ confessed,’ but retracted every word when taken back to prison. Sometimes ‘ agents provocateurs,’ disguised as prisoners, mix with the patriots, abusing the Germans and complaining of their cruelty. In this way they obtain the sympathy and confidence of their companions, and, if the latter are unwise enough to trust them, they are promptly confronted with them and obliged to confess their guilt. I know also cases where relatives and friends of prisoners were arrested, and the latter told that their mother or sister had denounced them. Knowing the sufferings to which they would be subjected the prisoners preferred to confess even an imaginary crime rather than see their dear ones ill-treated by the German bullies. I vknow for a fact that in one prison a pregnant woman was awakened in the middle of the night by an electric torch Sashed into her eyes and a revolver applied against her forehead in order to terrorise her into a confession. VERY FEW ESCAPE.

“It can easily be imagined that under such circumstances many enter the prisons but few succeed in getting out. Whether or not they committed the offence of which they arc accused, they generally admit guilt, preferring imprisonment or oven death to such moral and physical tortures. Trial is a more farce. In most cases the defendants may not receive tho help of a Belgian barrister. This depends entirely on “the good-will of the governor of the district. The usual procedure is for the German clerk, after the indictment has been read, to speak a few words for the defence, without having any knowledge of the case. If a barrister does attend m the case he is not allowed to communicate with the prisoner either in prison or elsewhere, so that it is impossible for him to obtain knowledge of the facts. The only way to help tho prisoner is to obtain information by bribery from tbe clerk in charge of the dossier, and after the man has, been condemned to address a petition to the Governor-General.”