BELGIUM’S VALIANT CARDINAL

New Zealand Tablet, 1 February 1917, Page 13

BELGIUM’S VALIANT CARDINAL

- 'Documents-received in England-early in December give - the 'text ;of the reply of General von Bissing, Military « Governor of Belgium, to Cardinal Mercier’s letter of October 19, and the Cardinal’s rejoinder of November 10. , : . ; v General von Biasing’s reply, dated October 26, begins by denying any violation of the assurance the German commanders gave at the beginning of the war that no men would be removed from Belgium, declaring that such removals had been justified by * the clandestine emigration of large numbers of young men wishing to join the Belgian Army.’ He adds: * The German ■ authorities would have been quite justified in following the <example of England and France, but they have not done so.’ Contending that the employment of Belgian unemployed in Germany has nothing to do with the conduct of the war, but is purely a social and economic measure. General von Bissing says ; ‘ Great Britain’s merciless economic isolation of Germany bears equally on Belgium; it deprives her of raw materials and prevents the export, of manufactures and thus deals a vital blow, leaving masses of the people unemployed and bringing a state of public calamity to Belgium.’ • Says Many Went Voluntarily. General von Bissing then declares that the Belgian people realised the state of affairs and that tens of thousands of them have gone to Germany voluntarily, where they could get better pay. Others would follow, he says, but are deterred by influence systematically brought to bear on them. He concludes by inviting the Cardinal to study the situation from a social and economic viewpoint. Replying on November 10, Cardinal Mercier recalls the promise made by Baron von Huene, and subsequently confirmed by Baron von der Goltz, and says ‘ The undertaking was explicit and entirely without time limit that "young people have nothing to fear that they may be sent to Germany either to be enrolled in the army or employed at forced labor.” This engagement has been violated every day a thousand times for fifteen days. In answer to General von Bissing’s charge that England and France have done such things, Cardinal Mercier reminds him that he should look to those countries for revenge, not toward a peaceful and disarmed population. The Cardinal then denies that Belgian workers menaced public order, saying : ‘ Five million Belgians and some hundred Americans are wondering witnesses of the dignity and impeccable patience of our working classes.’ Cardinal Mercier then says that if, as von Bissing declares, such labor has nothing to do with the conduct of the war, properly speaking, it has something to do with the war ‘ improperly speaking. For even if a Belgian does not take, up arms, he releases the hands of a German workman who will take them up.’ Tells Him of His Words. The letter concludes as follows; ‘ Monsieur Governor,At the beginning of my letter I recalled the noble words of your Excellency : “I have come, to Belgium to heal the wounds of your country.” If your Excellency could, as we priests do, enter the homes of the working people and hear the lamentations of the wives and mothers to whom your decree brings mourning and poverty, you would be better able to see yourself that the wounds of the Belgian people are open and bleeding. Two years ago they say there was death, there was pillage, there was burning. But it was war. To-day it is no longer war. It is cold calculation, desired destruction, the domination of might over right, the humiliation of man in defiance of humanity. It depends on you, your Excellency, 'to silence the voice, the cries of outraged conscience. May God, on Whom we call with all the ardor of the soul of an oppressed people, inspire you with the pity of the Good Samaritan,’