GERMAN "SLAVE RAID."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16300, 5 August 1916, Page 8

GERMAN "SLAVE RAID."

WHOLESALE DEPORTATIONS "THE LATEST FOUL STAIN." ADMISSIONS OF OFFICERS. (Received 1.30 a.m.) Times. LONDON. August 3. A Yellow Book—a French official documentdealing with the slave raid in the North of France, discloses that the German authorities in April issued an appeal for agricultural labour, which, however, met with a meagre response- This resulted in an order for wholesale deportation, excepting young children, mothers and old men.

An hour and a-half s warning was given, and clerical and civil protests were disregarded. A bishop went to a general, who told him "to be quiet and get out." The labouring classes suffered most, as from 20 to 30 per cent, of the women were taken. Some parents lost their reason when they saw their daughters taken.

Some of the German officers admitted that nothing could cleanse the German flag from the latest foul stain. The splendid spirit of the victims was the outstanding feature. They defiantly shouted, "Vive la France," and sang the Marseillaise.

Those deported were employed in digging roads, mending trenches, and making munitions- The worst feature was where the women were employed as cooks to the German troops and as servants for the officers. Others were working on the railways, in factories and in mines. The most inhuman hours were insisted upon. They were not paid and were liable to flogging.

A large number of civilians who had been interned since the outbreak of the war were working immediately behind the German lines in France.