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]

SECTION IV. Procedure of seizure is as follows:

All alteration of the articles subject to seizure is forbidden. All judicial disposition or change of ownership is interdicted, except in so far as the following paragraphs permit.

SECTION V. Obligation to Deliver. The delivery of the seized articles must be made at the time and places designated by the Division of Trade and Industry; it can also be made before the requisition at the Zentral-Einkaufsgesellschaft for Belgium. Upon delivery the ownership of the articles is vested in the German Military Administration.

Articles of artistic or historic value, if so recognized by the Bureau of Delivery, need not be delivered.

The Bureau of Delivery may, for unusual cause, grant exemptions from delivery.

SECTION VI. Indemnity. The following prices will be paid for the delivered articles:

	Francs.
Copper, per kilo	4.00
Tin	7.50
Nickel	13.00
Brass	3.00
Bronze	3.00
Tombac	3.00

In arranging the weight, seizures of nondesignated materials will not be included.

The payment will take place on the basis of the estimate made by the Bureau of Delivery. Payment will be made to the deliverer without question of his ownership.

If the deliverer refuses to accept the payment he will be given a receipt, and the determination of the indemnity in this case will follow through the ReichsentschÄdigungskommission according to the rules in force.

SECTION VII. Persons and Corporations Affected by This Decree:

1. House owners, inhabitants and heads of establishments.

2. Persons, associations, and corporations of a private or public nature whose buildings or rooms contain articles enumerated in Section 2.

To this group, furthermore, belong also State, Church, and community business and industrial establishments, including business, industrial, and office buildings in the ownership, possession, or guardianship of military and civil authorities. For buildings abandoned or not occupied by their owners or inhabitants, the communal authorities are responsible for the execution of this decree. The district commanders are authorized to furnish further instructions to the communities in this case. If dwelling houses are occupied as quarters by German military or civil authorities the execution of this order rests upon the military authorities concerned.

SECTION VIII. Confiscation. [Failure to comply with the provisions of the decree entails confiscation.]

SECTION IX. Co-operation of Communities. [Local authorities ordered to co-operate in execution of this order.]

SECTION X. Certificates of Exemption. [Verwaltungschef empowered to issue certificates of exemption.]

SECTION XI. Punishment for Violations. Any one who intentionally or through gross negligence violates the present decree or supplementary regulations will be punished with imprisonment not to exceed two years or a fine not to exceed 20,000 marks, or both. Any one who urges or incites others to violate the present decree or its supplementary regulations will be punished in like manner, unless he has incurred graver punishment under the general law. The attempt is punishable. Military courts and military authorities are empowered to try cases. (From "German Legislation," &c., Vol. IX., pp. 398-394.)

Some industries which were not directly useful to the Germans were at first allowed to resume work in whole or in part, for the Government did not wish to cut off all sources of the enormous indemnities which it was levying upon towns and individuals. But the rival manufacturers in Germany objected angrily against this policy. Thus Dr. Goetze, head of the German Glassmakers' Union, wrote in the Wirtschaftzeitung der ZentralmÄchte, Nov. 10, 1916:

It has become vital to the German manufacturers of glass wares that the Belgian manufacturers should be stopped from going to neutral markets, and it must be admitted that the German Civil Administration has fully recognized the necessity of arranging this matter according to the demands of the German industry, and that it has taken suitable action. [In spite of this some Belgian shops were able to do some exporting and had affected the market price.] Measures must be taken to stop this. For this reason the factories of Central and Eastern Germany, which are most directly concerned, have secured the promulgation of an order stopping importation, transit, and exportation. * * * We must demand that the German Civil Administration of Belgium should first of all look out for the protection of the interests of the German industry.

In addition to securing the aid of the German Government in ruining Belgian industries which competed with them, German manufacturers have also been aided by the German Government in obtaining Belgian trade secrets. For example, Dr. Bronnert secured a permit from the War Ministry to visit the factory at Obourg for making artificial silk. He took full notes of all that he could learn when he visited it, on Dec. 9, 1916, and carried away designs and parts of the machinery. Dr. Bronnert is a director of a German factory for making artificial silk which competes with the Belgian factory. (From the "Informations Belges," No. 307.)

When Belgium attempted to protest against the illegal requisitions, citing The Hague regulations, they received answers such as the following, which was read to the Municipal Council and notables of the town of Halluin, June 30, 1915:

Gentlemen: What is happening is known to all these gentlemen. It is the conception and interpretation of Article 52 of The Hague Convention which has created difficulties between you and the German military authority. On which side is the right? It is not for us to discuss that, for we are not competent, and we shall never arrive at an understanding on this point. It will be the business of the diplomatists and the representatives of the various States after the war.

Today it is exclusively the interpretation of German military authority which is valid, and for that reason we intend that all that we shall need for the maintenance of our troops shall be made by the workers of the territory occupied. I can assure you that the German authority will not under any circumstances desist from demanding its rights, even if a town of 15,000 inhabitants should have to perish. The measures introduced up to the present are only a beginning, and every day severe measures will be taken until our object is obtained.

This is the last word, and it is good advice I give you tonight. Return to reason and arrange for the workers to resume work without delay; otherwise you will expose your town, your families, and your persons to the greatest misfortunes.

Today, and perhaps for a long time yet, there is for Halluin neither a prefecture nor a French Government. There is only one will, and that is the will of German authority.

The Commandant of the Town,

SCHRANCK.

(From Massart's "Belgians Under the German Eagle," New York, 1916, pp. 192-3.)

GERMANY'S PROFITS

The German profits from the Rathenau plan were summarized thus frankly by Herr Ganghofer in an article published in the MÜnchener Neueste Nachrichten Feb. 26, 1915:

For three months about four-fifths of the army's needs were supplied by the conquered country. Even now, although the exhausted sources in the land occupied by us are beginning to yield less abundantly, the conquered territory is still supplying two-thirds of the needs of the German Army in the west. Because of this, for the last four months the German Empire has saved an average of 3,500,000 to 4,000,000 marks a day. This profit which the Germans have secured by their victory is very greatly increased by another means. That is the economic war which, in accordance with the rules of international law, is being carried on against the conquered land by the exhaustion of the goods which belong to the State, which are being carried to Germany from Belgium and Northern France. These are in enormous quantities and consist of war booty, fortress supplies, grain, wool, metal, expensive hardwood, and other things, not including all private property which cannot be requisitioned. In case of necessity this private property will, of course, be secured to increase the German supply, but it will also be paid for at its full value. What Germany saves and gains by this economic war, carried on in a businesslike way, can be reckoned at a further 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 marks a day. Thus the entire profit which the German Empire has made behind its western front since the beginning of the war can be estimated at about 2,000,000,000 marks. For Germany this is a tremendous victory through the sparing and increase in her economic power; for the enemy it is a crushing defeat through the exhaustion of all of the auxiliary financial sources in those portions of his territory which have been lost to us.

Of the branches and management of this economic war I shall have more to say. Then people will learn to banish to the lumber room of the past the catch phrase about "the unpractical German." A German officer of high rank at St. Quentin characterized this happy change which has taken place in our favor in these half-serious, half-humorous words: "It is extraordinary how much a man learns! Although in reality I am an officer of the Potsdam Guard, now I am in the wool and lumber business. And successful, too!"

Governor General von Bissing's testimony on this subject, as recorded in his "Testament," will be found in full in Current History Magazine for February, 1918, pp. 330-38. Among the passages from it quoted in the pamphlet here under review is this:

The advantages which we have been able during the present war to obtain from Belgian industry, by the removal of machinery and so on, are as important as the disadvantages which our enemies have suffered through the lack of their fighting strength.

LANGHORNE'S DISPATCH

That the systematic exploitation and destruction in Flanders and Northern France were still going on in the Fall of 1917 is shown by the following dispatch from the American ChargÉ d'Affaires in Holland:

The Hague, Sept. 29, 1917.

Secretary of State, Washington: A person who has recently arrived here from Ghent gives the following information as to conditions in East and West Flanders and Northern France:

The looms and machinery are being taken away from the textile mills in Roubaix and Tourcoing and sent to Germany. Such machines as cannot be removed and transported have in some instances been dynamited, and in others are being destroyed with hammers. In the neighborhood of Courtrai in Flanders all the mills have been ordered to furnish a list of their machinery. The measures which have been applied to the north of France will be carried out in Flanders. All textile fabrics have been requisitioned by the military authorities, even in small retail stores, and woolen blankets have been taken from private houses. There is also extensive requisitioning of wine. In the larger cities in the course of the past few weeks large numbers of children of from 10 to 15 years have been brought in for office work. There is a rapid increase in the number of women brought in for this purpose. A marked animation was observed in the Etappen inspection at Ghent last week. It is believed that at the meeting of the inspection something unusual was being discussed.

LANGHORNE,

Charge d' Affaires.

DESTRUCTION STILL GOING ON

That the Rathenau plan is still wringing the remnants of industrial supplies from Belgium in 1918 is shown by documents still later than those printed in the brochure just reviewed. In January linen and mattresses were being taken from hotels, boarding houses, and convents all over Belgium. The inhabitants were forbidden by law to have any wool in their possession, but were offered a substitute made of seaweed. The large electrical plant at Antwerp known as l'Escaut was stripped of its machinery, which was transferred to a German plant. Belgian kitchens did not escape. The huge copper pans and kettles, the glory of Belgian housewives, had to go to Germany with the bright jars and jugs of the milkmaids. Nearly every conceivable brass, copper, and bronze object had been requisitioned by that time.

The Belgian Government sent out a statement on Feb. 17, 1918, containing these passages:

The German authorities then aggravated the evils of industrial stoppage by forbidding public works and commandeering the factories and metals and leather for military purposes. After this they instituted the barbarous system of deporting workmen to perform forced labor in Germany, a system which they had to interrupt officially, after some months, because it proved revolting to the conscience of mankind, but only to substitute for it immediately the forced labor of the civilian population, in work of military value, by the order of the military authorities. This system is still being cruelly maintained in the zones lying back of the fighting line in the provinces of East and West Flanders, Hainault, Namur, and Luxemburg.

Meanwhile, the commandeering has become general, and affects both natural and manufactured products and also tools, motors, and means of transportation, whether mechanical or animal. Finally, fiscal and administrative measures have been taken to close the last remaining outlets for Belgian products into neutral countries.

These facts are incontestable. They are proved by many rules and regulations officially published by the German authorities.

At present the raid upon the last economic resources of occupied Belgium has been carried on to such an extent that they are methodically taking away all the machinery from the factories, which they themselves have made idle, in some cases to set it up again in Germany, in other cases, to break it up and use it for grapeshot.

The purpose of this entire system of destruction is double: First, to supply deficiencies in German industry; secondly, to put an end to Belgian competition and later to subject Belgian industry to that of Germany when the time comes for refitting the factories with machinery after the war.

The proofs collected by the Belgian Government in support of this statement are conclusive. It is significant that in general the task of systematically stripping Belgian factories was intrusted to German manufacturers who were the direct competitors of the Belgian owners. Some of them have taken advantage of their official positions to steal secrets of manufacturing processes, for example, at the artificial silk shops of Obourg, and personal methods of production and sale.

And as to the fact that Germany is destroying the factories for a military reason without any regard for the economic needs of Belgium or for the rights of nations, it is sufficient to cite the following passages from a semi-official note that appeared in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 392, of Dec. 18, 1917, in which Germany distinctly pleads guilty:

"All measures taken in Belgium are inspired by military necessity.

The exploitation, under military control, of Belgian factories in order to repair locomotives and automobiles, and also to obtain material of war for the front, is carried out for the purpose of relieving the strain on German industry and economizing transportation. It has become necessary to strip the Belgian factories of their machinery and other fittings, because all German industry is busy filling orders for material of war. * * * By relieving the home market from the necessity of enlarging our own factories we are accelerating the production of munitions and other products. * * * In consequence of the intense activity of all German industry our machinery and other equipment is tremendously overworked, and must from time to time be partly replaced by new machines, while, furthermore, we must be able to furnish spare parts rapidly unless we wish to see our output of munitions diminish. The machinery and equipment required for these purposes are evidently brought from Belgian factories. The destruction of whole factories for the production of grapeshot is effected in order to maintain at its present level the supply of iron and steel in Germany, or, if possible, to raise it. * * * It is not only possible, but even evident, that, in view of all the steps taken by the military authorities, the question of keeping up work in some of the factories of the occupied country must be subordinated to considerations tending to spare the lives of German soldiers and thus protect our national power."

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This record of the deliberate crippling of Belgian industries was brought up to March 6, 1918, by an official dispatch to the United States Government, quoting the statement of Belgian refugees to the effect that dynamite was being used to destroy machines and equipment in factories in the Mons district. Rails of tramways were being taken up, and in some cities they were entirely destroyed. Meanwhile, deportation of men, and even of children 13 years old, was proceeding, several hundred boys between the ages of 13 and 15 being taken from Mons alone.

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