BELGIAN SERFS

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13461, 16 April 1917, Page 7

BELGIAN SERFS

Two fairly important convoys of reparti a ted persons hailing from Northern France, which tliey had left ten days before, passed through Borne, and they all vouclul for the following statement:—

Four thousand Belgian civilians are now in Laon itself. On the first days after their arrival they received no food at all, and on the fourth a Mixture of meal and raw turnips. They are very badly nourished, hut the French population are absolutely forbidden to give them the least scrap of food, and any infraction of this rule is punishment, either by imprisonment or blows with the whip. At Parisis and Septvaux almost all the French population have been cleared out and replaced by Belgians who had refused to work in the German trenches. On the day of their arrival they were left without food, and afterwards they likewise had meal and raw turnips, Bread they never saw. Most of them are men from 16 to 35 years. At Marleffe, under similar conditions, there were about 800 Belgians, Flemings from the Ghent district, who were set to work on the construcion of railway lines. Several who refused to perform this task were charged by the troops and four or five were killed.

Altogether in the Laon region there were about 20,000 Belgians, almost all from East Flanders, living in misery, and forbidden to receive any help from the inhabitants. The French, however, were in the habit of throwing pieces of bread into the hedges so that the wretched Belgians might be able to keep body and soul together. Watching these slaves at work is forbi under a penalty of a 30-mark fine, and those who dare to speak to them are thrown into prisons. Those who fall down utterly exhausted by the hard work and lack of food the brutal Germans take it upon themselves to kick and flog.