this except in special
instances, and returning Belgians claim that even when such packages are
received they are used by the camp authorities only as another means of
coercing them to sign the agreements to work.

A MORTAL BLOW TO BELGIANS.

"By the deportation of Belgians to work in Germany," says Mr. Whitlock's
report, "they have dealt a mortal blow to any prospect they may ever
have had of being tolerated by the population of Flanders; in tearing
away from nearly every humble home in the land a husband and a father or
a son and brother; they have lighted a fire of hatred that will never go
out; they have brought home to every heart in the land, in a way that
will impress its horror indelibly on the memory of three generations, a
realization of what German methods mean, not as with the early
atrocities in the heat of passion and the first lust of war, but by one
of those deeds that make one despair of the future of the human race, a
deed coldly planned, studiously matured, and deliberately and
systematically executed, a deed so cruel that German soldiers are said
to have wept in its execution, and so monstrous that even German
officers are now said to be ashamed."

And if these acts were not sufficient to convince the world that Germany
"is without the pale" so far as civilized warfare is concerned her
conduct in wantonly destroying property in Flanders while in retreat
could permit of no other conclusion.

After the violation of Belgium and the destruction of the Lusitania and
the adoption of the policy of sinking neutral ships on sight for
military advantage, or "necessity," why shouldn't the soldiers pollute
wells, kill trees, carry off the girls, smash the household furniture
not worth taking away and smear the pictures on the wall, just for
revenge or in the sheer lust of destruction?

It makes no difference, so far as the principles of humanity are
concerned, whether the German army is in victory or suffering defeat,
advancing or retreating. The treatment accorded the evacuated cities of
the Somme district was foretold by the treatment of the cities occupied
early in the war. Here is the wording of an order posted during the
victorious invasion of Belgium:

"Order--To the people of Liege. The population of Andenne, after making
a display of peaceful intentions toward our troops, attacked them in the
most treacherous manner. With my authority the general commanding these
troops has reduced the town to