PILLAGING BRUSSELS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 593, 4 January 1916, Page 10

PILLAGING BRUSSELS.

HOW BELGIANS ARE MADE TO SUFFER.

Three Belgian refugees, recently escaped from Brussels, have been interviewed by a correspondent of the London "Times," who reports them as saying: "Numbers of German families now inhabit Brussels. They arrive and take any house or apartment that has been left by its owners, and force the doors open or drive out the caretakers. Then —if any good pictures or furniture are in the house—you soon see carts at the door, and the things are packed off to Germany. The robbery is open and shameless! Oh, they know what is valuable. Do you believe the treasures of Louvain library are burnt? We do not! Vanloads of stuff left the place before the lire. The country suffers under the huge tax—4,ooo,oool'.—which has lo be paid monthly. But in addition constant tines are exacted. The Germans cut, for example, a telephone wire in the town, say it has been done by a Belgian, and impose a heavy line on the whole district. A few days later they cut one in another quarter and line that.

And the fines have to be paid. A man refused to work for the Germans and gave as a reason that he was an employee of the Belgian Government. For this refusal the whole of Brussels was lined. But the Brussels population has from the beginning firmly refused to obey orders and salute every passing officer, and even dared openly applaud a British aeroplane. 'They were furious and would have liked to kill us, luil they couldn't kill the whole population which was all rejoicing.' News was very hard to get. They received fantastic tales of German victory, foreign papers were sometimes smuggled in and fetched from .")!' to 20f."