SATIN FOR SANDBAGS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11947, 5 March 1917, Page 1

SATIN FOR SANDBAGS.

HUN REIGN OF ROBBERY IN LILLE. A prominent trader who through ago and g/ckuess was allowed to leavo Lino jusfc before Christinas, recently arrived. iu Pans, ami gave examples of tno barbarous practices ol winch the inhabitants arc the victims. In il'lo the Germans exacted a. tri1/uto oi £720.000, which the municipality refused to pay. Wiiereupon the Germans went to the municipal vaults and opened tho sales with blowpipes in approved burglar style. Two motor, cars were required ro remove the bullion stolen from tho city's coders. When the people were ordered to supply an enormous number of sandbags. they replied that it was impossible. "AU right," said the Governor, "we will make them ours;-Ives. ' jinn soldiers then seized every kind of material, oven satins and silks, m the shops and warehouses, and exported them to Germany, where the sacks were made, and. tho city had. to pay the bill. Some shops have had their entire stocks taken iu return for requisition notes. If the Germans do not find what they want they take anything they please. Their officers have sent wag-gon-loads of stuff to Belgium to bo sold on their behalf. Tfc has even been known for German traffickers to arrive and open shops to resell to the inhabitant* the goods stolen from thorn by tho invaders. When tho population turned a deaf car to an order to surrender all lead, zinc, aluminium and copper in their possession in exchange tor "scraps oi paper," tho shops and houses were entered by force and everything seized which contaiuwl these metals, and dispatched to Germany. About £40,000.000 worth of requisition bonds were stored at the Town Hall awaiting tho day of settlement, but tho Germans, in order ;o escape liability for these receipts, set tire to ihe building. Ono of the most cruel imports is the tax of 10s, -os. and sometime-; ,40s on dogs. The people of T.ille kept- their pots for a, long time, but finally saw that in paying the hater! tax they were giving the enemy weapons to use against, their own French soldiers. Then tho inhabitants of +-ho stricken city sacrificed their f<r.ir-?ooted friends.