Belgium

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 9, 5 December 1916, Page 5

Belgium

THE DEPORTATIONS. " BAD FAITH BY GERMANY. INDUSTRIAL RUIN PLANNED. ORGANISED SLAVE TRADE. »'ress Association—Copyright, Austra lian and N.Z. Cable Association (Received 8.-15 a.m.) New York, December 4. M, De Wiart (Belgian Minister) in a special cable to the Xew York World, says: The deportations are the result of barbarity and bad faith by Germany. They caused an aggregation of German marks in the Belgian banks, and Germany seized five hundred million marks, which were compulsorily invested in Germany. The invaders planned the ruin of certain industries and forced on the deportations in order to release Germans for the army in Belgium, and have supplied four-fifths of the Western army's needs. The total German profits from the occupation of the country amounted to two thousand million marks. Salaries are only paid to those workmen who sign the engagement registers and who are obliged to work in virtual slavery.

M. De Wiart concludes: "Will the country of Lincoln remain passive in the presence of organised trade in civilised men."

APPEAL TO CIVILISATION*

AGAINST HUN BARBARITIES. Press Association. -Copyright, Australian and N.Z. Cablo Association. London, December ■!. The Anglo-French and Russo-Italian Governments have issued a declaration, stating thai by deliberately creating unemployment in Belgium as an excuse for its deportations, and recommending tile wholesale removal of foodstuff's from .Belgium, and other similar measures, taken contrary to pledges, in order to relieve their own desperate situation, the Germans are tearing up every guarantee whereon the work- of the Neutral Relief Commission is based. The Governments, therefore, appeal to the civilised world on behalf of innocent and helpless civilians to sec that ibis great work of international benevolence is not destroyed by such treachery and violence.