Part 24
The Belgian Constitution, after guaranteeing respect for these fundamental principles, regulates the exercise of political powers, all of which, it declares, "emanate from the nation." (Article 25.) "The legislative power is exercised jointly by the King, the House of Representatives, and the Senate." (Article 26.) The Deputies are elected directly by all the Belgian citizens who are 25 years old and who have lived at least one year in the commune, those who fulfill certain requirements of knowledge or capacity being allowed one or two supplementary votes. (Article 47.) Senators are elected on the same principles, with the difference that the voters must be at least 30 years old. The Senate also includes a certain number of members elected by the Provincial Councils. (Article 53.) For both chambers the voting is obligatory and secret, and the division of seats is arranged on a system of proportional representation that safeguards the rights of minorities. Subject to the responsibility of his Ministers the King exercises the executive power. (Articles 63 and 64.)
Judicial power is exercised through courts whose members are not subject to removal. (Articles 99 and 100.) A jury alone can deal with criminal cases, political charges, and indictments brought against the press. (Article 98.)
Finally, side by side with the three great political branches, the provincial and communal Governments deal with all matters of local interest. Chief among them are--for the commune: the City Council, elected by direct vote, and the "College of Burgomasters and Aldermen," whose members are chosen by the Common Council, with the exception of the Burgomaster, who is appointed by the King; and for the province: the Provincial Council, directly elected, the "Permanent Deputation," elected by the Provincial Council, and the Governor, who represents the National Government.
SETTLING THE LANGUAGE ISSUE
This rapid sketch suffices to show the democratic and liberal nature of the Belgian Governmental system. Such institutions permit of free discussion and facilitate the peaceful solution of the most irritating internal problems. As the protest of the Flemish societies puts it, "The Flemings are not a conquered nation; they have the same electoral right as the Walloons; they have all the means for safeguarding their just rights."
Belgium has always lived an intense life, yet this has never compromised its unity. Three great parties, the Catholic, the Liberal, the Socialist, struggle for preponderance, and their action extends to all parts of the country without distinction of language. Each of them supports an identical program, in Flanders as in Wallonia, regardless of whether the citizens speak Flemish or French. The party lines have never corresponded with the linguistic lines. In each are found leaders of the Flemish movement, whose aspirations have given rise to many speeches, but have never been repudiated as anti-patriotic. This movement is thus described by the Flemish societies in their protest against the "Council of Flanders": "It is the expression of the fundamental principle that every population possesses the inalienable right to develop itself according to its own character and its own language, life, and historic personality." But it remains essentially national and declares itself, in the document just cited, unalterably hostile to the separation of the country into two Governments with two capitals, two Ministries, two Parliaments. The Flemish societies see in separation only "a weakening that will lead to a catastrophe for the Flemings, as well as for the Walloons." They add:
Our most sacred political and economic interests are menaced by these absurd plans. The organic whole which has made of Belgium, through its commerce and industry, its rivers, ports and railways, its agriculture and workingmen, all working together under a single Government through scores of years, an economic power of the first order, would be dissolved, artificially weakened by contradictory influences, enervated by divergent official policies. The narrow
## particularism which in the past and present has done so much harm
would dominate. The balance between the different political, religious, and social tendencies in our country would be destroyed, and Belgium would be left in a state of crisis which, through long years, would render almost impossible the relief of the country and the curing of the wounds caused by the war.
RIGHTS OF FLEMISH TONGUE
In the years before the war the Belgian Parliament passed several laws intended to assure to the Flemish language the place that belongs to it in the national life, especially in the administrative, judicial, and educational departments. It will suffice to recall the law of May 12, 1910, on secondary schools, and the law of July 2, 1913, on languages in the army, making a knowledge of Flemish and French obligatory for admission to the National Military School. At the moment when the war broke out the Parliament was considering a proposition tending to organize Flemish high schools, and in a report to the King, Oct. 8, 1916, the Government declared itself "convinced that immediately upon the re-establishment of peace a general agreement of favorable sentiments, which it will try to promote, will assure to the Flemings, both in the higher schools and in all the others, that complete equality, in right and in fact, which ought to exist under the guarantees of our Constitution." (Moniteur, Oct. 8-14, 1916.)
Only after the war can the Government solve the problems arising out of the Flemish movement. The promoters of that movement themselves deplore the intervention of an alien power and scorn the traitors who have conspired with the enemy, accepting money and positions at his hand. It is as loyal Belgian citizens, they declare, that they are striving for reforms from which they expect a fuller intellectual development of Flemish communities, and they see in such culture a new force of unity for the nation, from which they by no means wish to be separated.
BELGIAN PREMIER'S VIEW
_Baron de Broqueville, the Belgian Prime Minister, said to a correspondent of The London Times:_
The Belgian people, after three and a half years of the most grinding oppression, have shown by the courageous defiance of enemy bayonets which brought about the collapse of the "activist" plot, that they have lost none of their sturdy resolve to be free; that the spirit which moved them to reject the German ultimatum of Aug. 2, 1914, is as strong as ever. * * *
Only one thing is worrying and humiliating in a quite special degree all Belgians in occupied territory. It is the fear lest abroad it may be imagined that there really is an "activist" movement in Belgium. All the reports we have received on this point amount to this: "No one in Belgium talks of this alleged movement, for it is nonexistent. There are a few miserable individuals in German pay--always the same--who intrigue and plot. All they have achieved is to arouse against them such feelings of repulsion and hate that they have been thrust forever forth from the nation, and nothing can cleanse them of their crime. For mercy's sake, beg people not to insult us by treating the agitation of these individuals seriously, and to stop seeing any agitation where there is nothing but the work of a few paid traitors.
It is in this sense that our compatriots write to us from behind the German barrier. There, as elsewhere, the most ardent advocates of Flemish claims reject foreign interference in internal policy, and they treat as traitors to the cause all those who accept bribes from the torturers of their country.
Stripping Belgian Industries
Germany's Use of the "Rathenau Plan" for the Exploitation of Belgium and Northern France
The German Government from the beginning of the war has systematically stripped the factories of Belgium and other conquered territory with the purpose, it is charged, of crippling industries in those countries, not only as a war measure, but as an economic means of preventing future competition. This phase of German war policy is treated in a brochure edited by Professors Dana C. Munro of Princeton, George C. Sellery of the University of Wisconsin, and August C. Krey of the University of Minnesota. It is issued by the United States Committee on Public Information under the title, "German Treatment of Conquered Territory." The editors find their text in this statement by Deputy Beumer, made before the Prussian Diet in February, 1917:
_Anybody who knows the present state of things in Belgian industry will agree with me that it will take at least some years--assuming that Belgium is independent at all--before Belgium can even think of competing with us in the world market. And anybody who has traveled, as I have done, through the occupied districts of France, will agree with me that so much damage has been done to industrial property that no one need be a prophet in order to say that it will take more than ten years before we need think of France as a competitor or of the re-establishment of French industry._
This exploitation for the benefit of German industry is an outgrowth of the plan suggested early in August, 1914, by Dr. Walter Rathenau, President of the General Electric Company of Germany, to establish a Bureau of Raw Materials for the War. The bureau (Kriegsrohstoffabtheilung) was made a part of the Ministry of War. Its operation in the occupied territories was explained in a lecture by Dr. Rathenau in April, 1916, as follows:
It was necessary to be sure of an increase in the reserve of raw materials both by purchase in neutral countries and by monopolizing all stocks found in the occupied territory of the enemy. * * * The occupation of Belgium, of the most valuable industrial parts of France, as well as of parts of Russia, made a new task for the organization. It was necessary to make use of the stocks of raw material of these three territories for the domestic economy of the war, to use, especially, the stores of wool found at the centres of the Continental wool market. Valuable stocks of rubber and of saltpeter were to be used for the profit of the manufacturer at home. The difficulties that are met with in keeping to the rules of war while making these requisitions have been overcome. A system of collecting stations, of depots and of organizations for distribution was arranged which solved the difficulties of transportation, infused new blood into industry at home, and gave it a firmer and more secure basis.
BRAND WHITLOCK'S STATEMENT
This plan, which has given German industry "a firmer and more secure basis," was used not merely to "make war support war" by contributions wrung from the conquered peoples, but also to destroy future competition--in violation of The Hague Convention, (Articles 46, 52, 53,) which Germany had signed. In the first months of the war a pretense was still made of acting under military necessity, but this was soon abandoned. On March 4, 1915, Brand Whitlock, American Minister to Belgium, reported to the State Department:
The Federation of Belgian Steel and Iron Manufacturers forwarded a protest to the German Governor General in Belgium, on Jan. 22, 1915, complaining that the German authorities have invaded the Belgian plants and seized the machinery and tools, which have been taken to pieces and sent to Germany in great number; in many cases no receipt was left in the hands of the legitimate owner to prove the nature, number, and value of the seized tools. Machinery to the value of 16,000,000 francs ($3,000,000) had been taken away up to Jan. 22.
Furthermore, the Feldzeugmeisterei in Berlin has entered into a contract with the firm Sonnenthal Junior of Cologne, which firm is to collect, transport, and deliver to German manufactories of war supplies all engines and tools seized in Belgium and France, and to bring them back after the war is over.
This contract provides, also, that the Sonnenthal Company has the right and even is compelled, in co-operation with the gun foundry at Liége, to pick out in factories of the occupied territory those machines which seem most useful for the manufacture of German war supplies and to propose the seizure of the machinery.
The Royal Belgian Government protests, with indignation, against these measures, which constitute a clear violation of Article 53 of the regulations of the Fourth Hague Convention. The items enumerated in Article 53 are limited and neither the seizure nor the transport to another country of machinery and tools used in industry are permitted; these implements must always be respected when they are private property, (Article 46.)
By the removal of these tools, the efforts made by the manufacturers in order to maintain a certain activity in the plants are nullified, numerous workmen are obliged to remain idle and are facing starvation. These measures will also retard the restoration of industry after the war is over.
Furthermore, the German authorities disregard in a systematic way the prescriptions of Article 52 of the above-mentioned regulations of the Fourth Hague Convention, which stipulate that requisitions in nature from towns and their inhabitants in the occupied territory can only be permitted when they are directly destined for the army of occupation.
UNJUST FINES
A dispatch from Minister Whitlock dated at Brussels, Aug. 2, 1915, gives a fuller memorandum on the subject, as follows:
Upon the arrival of German troops at Brussels, the city and communes of the agglomeration were required to pay as a war contribution the sum of 50,000,000 francs in gold, silver, or banknotes, the Province of Brabant having to pay, in addition, the sum of 450,000,000 francs, to be delivered not later than Sept. 1, 1914.
The sum of 50,000,000 francs imposed on the City of Brussels was reduced to 45,000,000 francs, but the city was later subjected to a penalty of 5,000,000 francs on the ground that two members of the German Secret Service had been attacked by the crowd without assistance having been rendered by the Brussels police. On this point it may be noted that when Mr. Max, the Burgomaster, at the beginning of the occupation, asked the German authorities to inform him of the names of the German secret police agents whom they intended to employ, he was told that there were no German secret police in Brussels.
In December, 1914, a contribution of 480,000,000 francs, payable at the rate of 40,000,000 a month, was imposed on the provinces.
At the beginning of April, 1915, a fine of 500,000 marks was imposed on the City of Brussels, which refused to repair the road between Brussels and Antwerp--a State road the repair of which devolved upon the State. But the German authorities had taken over the State moneys, and should, therefore, have assumed the expense of the work. Furthermore, this road is entirely outside of the territory of the City of Brussels, and, finally, the city had not the administration for the maintenance or construction of roads, and had neither material nor personnel to carry on such work.
On Jan. 16, 1915, on Belgians who had voluntarily left the country and had not returned by March 1, 1915, tenfold advance of personal tax was made; and many taxes were imposed on communes as indemnity for damages claimed by German citizens to have been suffered through acts of the inhabitants at the time war was declared.
When the German Army arrived in Brussels, it requisitioned for the daily support of the troops 18,000 kilos of wheat, 10,000 kilos of fresh meat, 6,000 kilos of rice, 10,000 kilos of sugar, and 72,000 kilos of oats. Similar requisitions were made, in all cities in which the German troops camped. The requisitions, however, exceeded the needs of the troops in passing or in occupation, and a large part of the requisitioned supplies was sent to Germany.
At Louvain the German authorities requisitioned 250,000 francs' worth of canned vegetables and at Malines about 4,000,000 francs' worth.
In Flanders and in part of Hainault the farmers were despoiled of almost all their horses and cattle and the little wheat and grain remaining. The little village of Middleburg, for instance, which numbers 850 inhabitants, after having given up 50 cows, 35 hogs, and 1,600 kilos of oats, was forced to furnish in January and February, 1915, 100 hogs, 100,000 kilos of grain, 50,000 kilos of beans or peas, 50,000 kilos of oats, and 150,000 kilos of straw.
At Ghent and Antwerp the German authorities found about 40,000 tons of oil-cake, necessary for the feeding of cattle in Winter, and seized it.
They also carried off several hundred thousand tons of phosphates from Belgium for use in Germany.
Walnut trees on private properties, as well as on State lands, were cut down and requisitioned.
Besides, draught horses--the result of a rational selection carried on through more than a century and probably the most perfect Belgian agricultural product--were carried off throughout all Belgium. Not only did the German Army requisition horses necessary for its wagons, mounts for its troops or artillery service, but it carried away from the Belgian stock horses absolutely unfit for military service, which were sent to Germany. The same is true as regards the cattle.
All crude materials indispensable for Belgian industries were requisitioned and sent to Germany--leather, hides, copper, wool, flax, &c. Furthermore, if not the entire stock, at least the greatest number possible of machinery parts, were shipped to Germany to be used, according to German statements, in making munitions which the Belgian factories had refused to produce.
At Antwerp, requisitions of all kinds of materials and products were considerable, notably:
Francs. Cereals 18,000,000 Oilcake, about 5,000,000 Nitrate, over 4,000,000 Oils--animal and vegetable--over 2,000,000 Oils--petrol and mineral--about 3,000,000 Wools 6,000,000 Rubber 10,000,000 Foreign leathers, to Dec. 1, about 20,000,000 Hair 1,500,000 Ivory, about 800,000 Wood 500,000 Cacao 2,000,000 Coffee 275,000 Wines 1,100,000
Cottons in large quantities--one house having been requisitioned to the amount of 1,300,000 francs. Other enormous requisitions were made on shop depots, &c., and are impossible of computation just now.
PAYMENT WITHHELD
The requisitions from Antwerp, which Mr. Whitlock enumerates, were the subject of a protest by the Acting President of the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce on March 18, 1915. He valued these goods at more than 83,000,000 francs ($16,600,000) and stated that only 20,000,000 francs ($4,000,000) had been paid by the German authorities. The reply of Governor General von Bissing on Sept. 24 shows that up to that time payment had not been made. The reason is indicated in the following statement of German policy, published in the Frankfurter Zeitung Dec. 21, 1914:
The raw materials which the Imperial Government has bought in Antwerp, Ghent, and other places will be paid for as soon as possible. The payment will be made only after the goods have been transported into Germany and after the valuation has been made, and _the payment shall be made in such manner that no money shall be sent from Germany to Belgium during the period of the war_.
Professor Munro and his fellow-editors have drawn freely upon the official texts printed in the work entitled "German Legislation for the Occupied Territories of Belgium," edited, in ten volumes, by Huberich and Nicol-Speyer, (The Hague, 1915-17.) These volumes cover the period from Sept. 5, 1914, to March 29, 1917, and contain a reprint of "The Official Bulletin of Laws and Ordinances" in German, French, and Flemish. The documents show that the first step under the Rathenau plan was to ascertain what raw materials and other supplies were accessible. Consequently, there were many ordinances commanding the declaration of certain wares. The following is an example:
Brussels, Dec. 11, 1914.
All stocks of benzine, benzol, petroleum, spirits of alcohol, glycerine, oils and fats of any kind, toluol, carbide, raw rubber and rubber waste, as well as all automobile tires, shall immediately be reported in writing to the respective chiefs of districts or commanders, with a statement of quantity and the place of storage. * * *
If a report is not made the wares shall be confiscated for the State and the guilty individual shall be punished by the military authorities. (_From "German Legislation," &c., Vol. I., p. 95._)
Such a declaration made it easy for the military authorities later to acquire the wares either by direct requisition or by forced sales. The following are examples:
Brussels, Aug. 13, 1915.
Article 1. The stocks of chicory roots existing within the jurisdiction of the General Government in Belgium are hereby commandeered. (_From "German Legislation," &c., Vol. IV., p. 148._)
Brussels, Jan. 8, 1916.
Article 1. All wools (raw wool, washed wool, tops and noils, woolen waste, woolen yarns, artificial wools, as well as mixtures of these articles with others) and also all mattresses filled with the wools above specified and now an object of trade or introduced into trade, found within the jurisdiction of the General Government, are hereby commandeered.
Wool freshly shorn or in any other way separated from the skin shall also be subject to seizure immediately upon its separation. (_From "German Legislation," &c., Vol. VI., p. 57._)
Between October, 1914, and March, 1917, there were ninety-two separate ordinances of the General Government commanding the declaration, forced sale, or confiscation of various materials. Of these, forty-five were issued in 1915 and thirty-five in 1916. How these decrees passed by rapid evolution from mere declaration to complete confiscation is instanced in these typical examples:
1. A decree issued at Brussels July 19, 1916, lists several pages of textile materials which are to be declared.
2. A decree of Aug. 22, 1916, enlarges the preceding list.
3. A decree drawn up July 19, 1916, but not published till Sept. 12, 1916, declares 75 per cent. of this material subject to seizure by the Militärisches Textil-Beschaffungsamt.
4. Later decrees of seizure cover materials overlooked in these.
STRIPPING BELGIUM OF METALS
Every scrap of metal in the conquered countries that could possibly be seized has been confiscated. The ordinance below is given as an example of the thoroughness of the system of requisitions. The prices to be paid were entirely too low, and the sixth section shows that the owners were not expected to part with their property willingly. The ordinance was issued at Brussels Dec. 13, 1916:
SECTION I. The following designated objects are hereby seized and must be delivered.
SECTION II. Movable and fixed household articles made of copper, tin, nickel, brass, bronze or tombac, whatever their state:
1. Kitchen utensils, metal ware, and household utensils, except cutlery.
2. Wash basins, bathtubs, warm-water heaters and reservoirs.
3. Individual or firm name plates in and on the houses, doorknobs, knockers, and metal decorations on doors and carriages not necessary for locking.
4. Curtain rods and holders and stair carpet fixtures.
5. Scales.
6. All other household articles or adornments made of tin.
The articles included under the numerals 1-6 are subject to seizure and delivery even when not contained in households in the narrow sense, but in other inhabited or uninhabited buildings and rooms, (_e. g._, offices of authorities, office rooms in factories and entries.)
SECTION III. Exempt from seizure and delivery:
1. Articles on and in churches and other buildings and rooms dedicated to religious services.
2. Articles in hospitals and clinics, as well as in the private offices of physicians, apothecaries, and healers, so far as these articles are essential to the care of the sick or the practice of medicine and cannot be replaced.
3. Articles in public buildings.
4. Articles which are part of commercial or industrial stores either designated for sale or useful in the business. For these articles a special decree is enacted.[3]
[Footnote 3: Such articles in trade and industry were declared seized Dec. 30, 1916. The form of that edict is practically the same as this, penalties being somewhat higher. The listing of these articles had occurred in July, 1916. Other items were added later and all were now declared seized.]
SECTION IV. Procedure of seizure is as follows: