grave wrong to the blood that has been shed. Among such half measures I include the intention of treating Belgium merely as a pawn, which might be used to recover or extend our colonial possessions. As regards the extension of our colonial possessions, the Belgian Congo is certainly to be aimed at, and I desire to insist that a German colonial empire, whatever its shape, is indispensable for Germany's world policy and expansion of power. But, on the other hand, I am of the opinion that only such frontiers as will contribute to the acquisition of greater freedom on the sea are calculated to make colonial possessions valuable. Consequently, the supporters of the colonial movement must also demand the Belgian coast, together with the Belgian hinterland. If we give up the Belgian coast our fleet will lack important bases for its share in the protection of our colonial empire. I am conscious that the demand that we shall retain all Belgium and link it up in one form or another with the German sphere of power is a great aim, which can be achieved only by determined and self-sacrificing courage and by the utmost energy and skill in negotiations. Let us apply a saying of Bismarck, that in policy, if in any sphere, faith moves mountains, and courage and victory are not cause and effect, but identical." Pan-German War Methods Predicted a Century Ago Benjamin Constant's "De l'Esprit de la Conquête," first published in 1813, and now reissued a century later, contains this passage of extraordiary presci ence: * "If a purely military race were to arise today, since its ardor would be based on no conviction, no sentiment, no idea * it would assume the ferocity of a warlike people, but it would preserve the spirit of commercial calculation. These resuscitated Vandals would not have the ignorance of luxury, the simplicity of manners, the disdain of all sordid actions which characterized their rude forefathers. They would combine the refinements of effeminacy with the brutalities of barbarism, excess of violence with the cunning of avarice. * The practical knowledge they had acquired would but help them to draw up the more skillfully their decree of murder and spoliation. * They would overrun the world with murder for their means and pillage for their end * separated by a moral abyss from the rest of mankind. They would become objects of universal horror." * * * * German Terrorism in Belgium By an Escaped Civilian The ruthless severity of German rule in Belgium has continued with little change since the death of Baron von Bissing in April, 1917, and the advent of Governor General von Falkenhausen as his successor. A detailed report issued by the Belgian Government in September indicated that the forcible deportation of men and women to Germany was continuing without intermission. The extortion of enormous sums from cities by military force increased in frequency during the Autumn of 1917. On Nov. 1 the Province of East Flanders was fined $2,000,000 because it had failed to place 40,000 Flemish laborers at the service of Germany by that date. At that time the Relief Commission reported that 7,000,000 Belgians were facing starvation and could be saved only by $25,000,000 a month from the United States-which is being furnished with Government aid. A protest to the Governor General published on Dec. 12 showed that the suffering people of Belgium were compelled to pay an annual tax of $162,000,000 to their German oppressors. A Belgian Gray Book issued in October refuted the German charge of civilian attacks on soldiers at the beginning of the war, and gave itemized figures showing that between 40,000 and 50,000 Belgian houses were destroyed by the invaders at that time. Conditions at the beginning of 1918 were sketched in The London Times by an escaped Belgian as follows: ST INCE I crossed the wire, a few weeks ago, I have had time to adapt myself to my new surroundings and to understand how completely isolated from the rest of the world we are in Belgium. It is not so much that we lack news from the war, for we have learned to read between the lines of the German communiqués and to draw our own conclusions. But we do not realize in the least the conditions prevailing in neutral and allied countries, the various currents of opinion and interests, the infinite complexity of the problems raised by the great conflict. Three years of persecutions and of moral and physical sufferings have brought us to such a pitch of glowing enthusiasm for our friends and of irreconcilable hatred of the foe that there is no room left for intellectual subtleties and sentimental reserves. We have become, it is true and perhaps in the nobler sense of the word-fanatics. We no longer discriminate between God and country. The war has become a religious conflict in which all will be won or lost, and the fervor with which we worship our martyrs is only equaled by the horror and loathing we feel for our enemies. * * * Patriots are shot, literally, every day in Belgium-there is an average of thirty death sentences a month. They belong to every class and every party. Among the killed there is one Deputy, one Burgomaster, many people belonging to the professional classes and, of course, many more workmen and peasants, including women and children. That is, so far as we know, for von Falkenhausen, the new Governor, has ceased to publish the names of his victims, seeing that, instead of terrorizing their compatriots, it only stirred their zeal to emulate them. Among the men imprisoned or deported o Germany are many well-known names: at least ten Deputies and Senators, no fewer than fifteen Burgomasters and Aldermen, several Judges, and some eminent professors. The post of Burgomaster of Brussels is particularly dangerous. M. Max is still in a German cell, and his successor, M. Lemonnier, and the Alderman Jacqumain have followed him to prison. Such is the fate of all those who openly or secretly oppose German rule, no matter whether they are right or wrong. The only law in the country is dictated by the German tribunals. Even those who do not belong to the various organizations which help the young men to cross the frontier to join the army, circulate forbidden papers, or manage to send news abroad, are still exposed, every day, to the most severe sentences. If the Governor chooses to transform the University of Ghent or to set up a new administration, the professors or the officials are not allowed to send in their resignations and to remain faithful to their pledges. It is not enough not to work for Belgium, and the mere fact of refusing to work against Belgium is punishable as a crime. The consequence is that thousands of men and a great number of women are engaged on some secret work, and that all the spies of Germany have not been able to check their activity. I have heard people wonder how, after so many arrests, our organizations are able to go on with their work. There is a very simple explanation. For every man or woman arrested, two others offer to take their place. The whole nation has become a huge secret society. Failure is not due to the want of skill and activity of German agents. Every measure which brutality and cunning can contrive is taken against our patriots. Under the slightest suspicion they are dragged from their homes and imprisoned. For weeks and months they are isolated, unable to communicate with anybody, even with their advocate, subjected daily to the most searching examination. They are told that their denial is useless, since some of their relatives have been compelled to confess their guilt, or that, if they will confess their crime, they will be allowed to see their wives or their children, who are dying. I have myself spent some weeks in the prison of St. Gilles, (Brussels,) and have been subjected to this kind of torture. If this fails, threats and blows are used by the examining officers. I know a boy of 16 who was repeatedly struck for refusing to denounce his "accomplices." Once on the blacklist of the secret police, the patriot, whether guilty or not, will do well to leave the country. If they cannot catch you in the act, the German agents have other means to arrest you. They manage, for instance, to slip a copy of La Libre Belgique in a drawer or behind a frame while searching your house, and proceed to convict you for circulating this forbidden paper. This manoeu vre caused the arrest of a well-known Brussels barrister. He had previously had a visit from a supposed "colleague" from a neighboring town, who told him that his wife, who was as the time in the country, had been arrested, and advised him to hide all compromising papers. The same "barrister headed the body of gendarmes who searched the house a few hours later. Another method which has caused any amount of harm is known as the sheep," and is supposed to have been invented by one of Germany's arch spies, Ober-Leutnant Henry. A disconsolate individual is introduced into the prisoner's cell. Amid sobs and tears, he tells his companion all he has gone through and poses as the innocent victim of German oppression. Confidence calls for confidence, and, unless the prisoner is on his guard, the kind sheep" succeeds in drawing from him some confession of guilt. The next day the two men are called together before the Judge, and the "sheep" becomes ac cuser. Such vile work is not necessarily done by Germans. We have our traitors and 66 activists " and profiteers, but they are beyond the pale. They no longer belong to the nation. They have yielded to the boches, and with them they will leave the country if they are wise. The Belgians have lost nothing of their splendid confidence. The final victory of the Allies is not even questioned, and I prefer not to think of what would happen if they should ever be induced to conclude an unsatisfactory peace. It would be the worst blow that could befall us. It would be the ruin of all our efforts to hamper the enemy's activity, of all the hopes for which we have suffered and shall perhaps still suffer so long. The Belgians are waiting anxiously for the return of King Albert, but they are waiting still more anxiously for the advent of justice and the punishment of the culprits. That spirit animates every thinking man in the country, from Cardinal Mercier to the Socialist workmen who drafted the striking manifesto published in July. Crossing from Belgium to France or Holland is a perilous undertaking; it is less easy to do it now that it is barred by a double fence of electrified wire and guarded by a sentry every fifty yards and patrols during the whole night. Many have failed and tried over and over again, ten times, fifteen times even before succeeding. A large number of those who make the desperate bid for liberty are. killed by the sentries or captured and deported to prison camps. There is perhaps some exaggeration in the statement current in Belgium that the enemy needs a whole army corps to keep us from slipping through the prison gates, but if we consider that the Dutch-German frontier must be guarded as well as the DutchBelgian, and that thousands of spies and secret agents are kept busy in the occupied territory, this estimate does not se m very far from the truth. Nothing can give a better idea of the obstinate resistance opposed by the Belgians to German edicts and regulations than the statement of a German newspaper-the Deutsche Juristenzeitungwhich estimates at no fewer than 100,000 the number of sentences inflicted on the people during one year only, (1915-16.) Most of them, of course, are fines or short terms of imprisonment. Formerly we used to have the choice, and many rich people preferred to go to the St. Gilles prison rather than help the enemy by paying their fine. But the prisons have become so crowded and the financial situation of the empire has become so bad that only the destitute preserve the privilege of sacrificing their liberty. The others, if they refuse to pay, have their watches taken from them or are obliged to give up a piece of valuable furniture. In Brussels these things are sold by auction in a shop in the Rue de la Limite. Hunger as a Weapon In their attempt to break Belgian nationalism the enemy has found a forceful ally-hunger-and the moral power necessary to resist the former is nothing beside that which is required to resist the second. Mainly on account of the submarine menace and of the torpedoing of a number of relief ships the imports of the Commission for Re lief have fallen this year far below the average. The workman must live on a ration of 300 grams of bread a day and the platter of soup provided by the communal authorities. This is about half the food necessary to keep alive in ordinary times a man who is not doing any physical work. If the shop prices were not so prohibitive and if the Germans had not commandeered for their Zentrale all potatoes, sugar, and fats so that the direct sale of these foodstuffs entails great risks for the trader - then those who work at half wages or receive some help from outside might still purchase some extra food. But even the privileged few who receive $1 a day cannot possibly do so under the present conditions. Eggs cost 16 cents each, coffee $3.75 a pound, butter (when available) $3, milk 12 cents a pint, a small cabbage 37 cents, potatoes (very seldom available) 25 cents a pound, lard $4.25 a pound. There are neither sugar nor fats. "Will They Come in Time?" The situation is made worse, especially in Winter, by the enormous price of coal ($50 a ton) and of clothes and boots, ($20 to $30.) Even the upper class has to suffer. In the Hainaut Province, where I was traveling this Summer, the number of destitute has increased from 60,000 to 400,000. The workmen are obliged to take part of the rations of their wives and children if they want to do any work; they are losing weight at a fearful rate and their mortality has trebled during the last year. I have had the opportunity of talking to them and have visited their homes. They take only two meals a day and often fast on Sundays. The situation is not so bad in the country, where such necessaries as eggs, milk, butter, and potatoes may be obtained more or less at the same price as in England, but in the industrial districts, and more particularly in the army zones, where frequent requisitions of labor compel the men, and in some cases the women, to work behind the German lines, the physical and moral sufferings are such as to rend the heart of the most hardened observer. It looks as if the whole race was rapidly perishing before your eyes. Whenever these people talk to you you are confronted by the same anxious question, "Will Conditions in Germany [Reported to London officials by Serbian prisoners who escaped Dec. 14, 1917.] ES SCAPED Serbian prisoners in London describe the state of affairs in Germany as very bad, particularly in regard to food shortage but as not yet desperate. The German people are beginning to groan under the iron discipline of imperial militarism; they are irritable, and their nerve is undoubtedly shaken. The people were told that the war would be over by this Christmas, and are depressed at the certain prospect of falsified hopes. Every one is talking of peace, but talking in whispers, to avoid arrest and possibly being sent to the front. The adult population, these men report, is not starving, but the mortality among the children, owing to poor feeding, is very great. A large number of children have been sent to Holland, or distributed in the villages in the hope that they may there survive this crisis. The most serious conditions prevail in the great towns, where frequently bloody conflicts occur between the famished mobs and the police. In the villages, however, one may see at any time starving people from the towns begging for bread. Nobody talks about the military operations, but every success, or reverse, makes itself felt among the people. "Very often we saw the whole family weeping," say these Serbian soldiers; "the gathering together of a family for meals is often the saddest of occasions. Often we met people weeping-men as well as women-by the roadside." Coffee, there is none; instead of coffee they are frying acorns and rye and drinking the liquid. The whole of the metal currency-nickel as well as silverhas been withdrawn, small stamps being used as substitutes. Those who have tried to retain metal money have not profited, since it has been pronounced illegal tender, and they themselves are prosecuted. Live stock for the army is requisitioned every month. The bread of a whole village is baked in one place, and is black as earth. Up to September, 1917, every person was getting twelve pounds of bread per month; then the monthly allowance was reduced to nine pounds. In spite of the police supervision the people are hiding food. At harvest time wheat was smuggled by night and buried underneath the floors. This wheat, which they must grind secretly with a hand mill in the night, provides a few loaves, which have to be concealed-and even eaten-with equal furtiveness, if they are to elude the scrutiny of the police. One day when roused to anger, "I will tell about you," said one of these Serbian prisoners. 66 Don't, please, tell of us to anybody," A Dutch observer who had traversed "Conversation everywhere is about |