HEEL OF THE HUN.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13975, 10 September 1917, Page 7

HEEL OF THE HUN.

HARSH TREATMENT OP BELGIANS, "MOST DASTARDLY FORM OF BLACKMAIL." j (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association) ■ NEW YORK, September 6. The Belgian Government has given 'the Paris correspondent of The New. York Times a s'.atemcnt describing the I sufferings of the Belgian people. They impressed the rakers in "Hungerlaiiil," behind the Flanders front, "The press gang system, begun in October, 1916, has been continued without intermission, and men of from seventeen to forty-five years arc seized haphazard, irrespective of health or social position, and employed on military work in the construe!ion of railroads. They arc treated brutally, and beaten unmercifully. Complaints of illness and exhaustion arc unheeded, and they are not even permitted to receive packages of food from their families. Six hundred men were taken from Hollcbcke, of whom twenty-two are now dead and one hundred and eight are reported incapacitated.. When the inhabitants refused to serve they were forced into service by military gangs. The departure of the Americans from Belgium removed the last scruples of Die invaders. The cost of living has now quadrupled. Butter is eighteen francs a pound,-ami'potatoes, which are the staple diet, are entirely lacking. The 'Germans arc forcing the Courtrai residents to distribute food, and are practising the most dastardly form of blackmail."