THE BELGIANS.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 3340, 8 September 1917, Page 2

THE BELGIANS.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF GERMAN OPPRESSION. (Received September 8, 0.40 a.m.) New York, September G. The Belgian Government has given to the Paris correspondent of the New York Times v statement describing the sufferings of tho Belgian people and the oppressed worKors in the "huiigerland" behind the Flanders front. Tho statement reads: "Tho pressgang system, which was begun in October of 1916, has been coutinued without intermission. Men of 17 to 45 years of age are seized haphazard, irrespective of health or social position, and are employed on military work, :and the construction of railroads. They are treated brutally and beaten unmercifully and complaints of illness and exhaustion are unheeded. They are not even jK-rmitted to receive packages of food from their families. Six hundred men were taken from Harlebeke, of whom 22 are now dead and 108 reported to be incapacitated. "When any of the inhabitants refused to serve, they were forced into service by cruel gangs. The departure of the Americans from Belgium removed the last scruples of the invader. The cost of living was quadrupled. Butter costs 18 francs (about 14s) per pound.. and potatoes, which are the staple diet, are entirely lacking. The Germans are forcing the residents of Coxirtrai to distribute food, and aro practising the most dastardly form of blackmail."