THE OFFICIAL STATEMENTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 22 February 1916, Page 5

THE OFFICIAL STATEMENTS.

SOME ACTIVITY ON BRITISH

FRONT,

RESULTS NOT IMPORTANT

UNHAPPY BELGIUM

IMPORTANT MEMORANDUM BY SIR E. GREY.

THE GERMAN POLICY EXPOSED

FIXED INTENTION TO IMPOVERISH COUNTRY.

I .LONDON, Feb. 211 i General Sir Douglas Haig reports that the enemy on Saturday night raided the trenches westward of Sei-r, after a heavy bombardment, but failed completely. The enemy south-east of Boesinghe seized an unimportant advanced post. Our aeroplanes made a successful night raid on the Cambrai aerodrome and exploded bombs inside the shed. AMSTERDAM, Feb. 21. A German communique says: We stormed 350 yards of the British position on the Yser Canal, and attempts to recapture them failed. There is vigorous fighting southward of Loos. LONDON, Feb. 21. Sir Edward Grey has issiied a copy of a memorandum that he sent to the Belgian Minister in response to frequent representations of the impending ruin of Belgian industries and universal unemployment. Sir Edward Grey states that he understands the strong feeling among the Belgians that their distress is attributable solely to the action of the Allies in preventing imports, and that it is often contended that this action does not appreciably harm Germany, while it involves painful loss on the people of our ally. Britain is not convinced that Belgian industry can be maintained without considerable gain to the enemy; still, the Government is anxious to assist, and therefore has permitted certain exports from Belgium for the same reason that she has permitted the importation of raw ma- j terials to Belgium through the Relief Commission. The undertakings de- ! manded from the Germans were that they would permit free importation of , raw material and the export of the i goods manufactured therefrom, through ' the Relief Commission, and also to be free from embargo or the requisition of stocks similar to the raw materials held by manufacturers remaining in the country. The scheme was submitted to the Germans four months ago^ but no reply was received. | The memorandum shows that Bel-' gium is being used to supply Germany. ! Sir Edward Grey says that the Ger- ' mans are determined to enter into no arrangement for the relief of Belgium until they have taken from the' coun- j try the last ounce of material and have caused widespread destitution, forcing the Belgians later to emigrate to Ger- ] many. ' ' ! This German policy should be. fully exposed. The exports from Belgium to ! Germany in November, on one route ' only, were 74,000 tons of coal. CIOO tons of phosphates, LOO lon.s of lead, ; 1350 tons of or©, and If HO tons of bri- j quettes. Previous exports included 1600 casks of fanning extract, *nd h?lf . the output of the Belgian textile rcills was requisitioned. All the most essen- j tial materials for Belgian industries are controlled in German interest row, ' and the fixed policy of the Germans to impoverish the country stands revealed. Britain must disclaim any responsibility ' towards the Belgians for \the evils which the enemy has caused and refuses to remove.