THE LATEST CRIME AGAINST BELGIUM

New Zealand Tablet, 8 February 1917, Page 36

THE LATEST CRIME AGAINST BELGIUM

The indignation excited In neutral countries, as well as amongst the inhabitants of the Allied nations, by the deportations from Belgium has not caused the Germans to abandon the slave-raiding campaign. They are case-hardened, and can now commit no outrage that would make them blush (says the Catholic Times). It is none the less the duty of all who have the interests of Christian civilisation at heart to continue to protest against their wickedness, and to hold it up to opprobrium. In a telegram which the Belgian Foreign Minister has sent to the Belgian Ministers to the HolySee and to Spain, explaining the gravity of the wrong inflicted on Belgium, he states that the Germans will soon have deported three hundred and . fifty thousand men. The Minister has given instructions that the Holy See and the King of Spain be urged to invite the German Government to reflect on the consequences of its crime against humanity. According to information given, by an Italian journal, the Holy Father has been in communication with the German and Austrian Governments on the subject, and it may be taken for granted that he has done all he possibly could do to impress upon the Germans the iniquity of their* conduct. The Belgians may have to suffer for some time longer from German brutality, but, as Viscount Grey has assured the Belgian Foreign Minister, the day is coming when they will be liberated once and for all from the dangers that menace them so long as the enemy occupies their country. ■ *