763.72115/2631c
The Secretary of State to President Wilson
My Dear Mr. President: I have been more and more disturbed by the policy of the German Government in the deportation of the civil population of Belgium as the magnitude and purpose of the removals have become more apparent.
The mere fact of the deportation of civilians from a particular region by military authorities is not, in my opinion, reprehensible. There may be ample justification for such action because of military necessity. Prior to the present case we have had two examples of the removal of civilians from their homes, the Armenians by the Turks, and the French in the neighborhood of Lille by the Germans.
In the case of the Armenians I could see that their well-known disloyalty to the Ottoman Government and the fact that the territory which they inhabited was within the zone of military operations constituted grounds more or less justifiable for compelling them to depart from their homes. It was not to my mind the deportation which was objectionable but the horrible brutality which attended its execution. It is one of the blackest pages in the history of this war, and [Page 43] I think that we were fully justified in intervening as we did in behalf of the wretched people, even though they were Turkish subjects.
In the case of the French at Lille and other towns in the vicinity I can conceive that military expediency may have furnished good reason for the deportation. Located near the battle lines, as they were, the difficulty of furnishing the population with food and shelter may have warranted the removal of a portion to a greater distance from the war zone. But, as in the case of the Armenians, the German military authorities showed towards the inhabitants of the Lille section a ruthlessness and inhumanity which caused needless distress by the separation of families and by deportation without due regard to age or sex and without opportunity to prepare for departure.
. . . . . .
In the case of the Belgians the conditions seem to be utterly different. They do not appear to be deported because they are in the field of active operations or because of the difficulty of furnishing them with food, since that is being done through the Belgian Relief Commission. It is not the helpless or weak who are being transported but only males who are physically fit to work. They are being taken to Germany, according to reports, for the purpose of being placed in factories and fields in order that the Germans now engaged in manual labor may be mustered into military service, thus increasing the military strength of Germany without impairing her industrial efficiency.
Of course these Belgians are going unwillingly and are being forcibly compelled to labor for their conquerors. They are to all intents in a state of involuntary servitude. To use a more ugly phrase, they are slaves under a system of slavery which has not been practiced in regard to civilian enemies by civilized nations within modern times. It arouses in me, as I am sure it must arouse in every liberty-loving man, an intense feeling of abhorrence and a desire to find some way to prevent the continuance of a practice which is a reversion to the barbarous methods of the military empires of antiquity.
Now, Mr. President, I have nothing definite to propose. As you know I have firmly supported the policy of avoiding all protests on account of inhuman methods of warfare by belligerents which are in violation of international law. I still believe that that policy is wise and should be continued. But in all such cases the conduct complained of was never admitted to be the definite policy of a Government, nor was the inhumanity of the individual cases conclusively proven. The present case is different. Germany has not yet denied the act or the purpose of the act. Her Government appears rather to excuse it though, in my opinion, no excuse offered [Page 44] can in any way relieve that Government of the enormity of the crime of making slaves, not of prisoners of war (which would be bad enough), but of peaceable non-combatants who have by the fortunes of war come within its jurisdiction. It is a direct and unjustifiable blow at the principle of individual liberty—an essential element of modern political ideas, if not of our civilization.
As I say, I have nothing to propose at the present time but I feel that we ought to consider very carefully whether some way cannot be found to bring moral pressure upon Germany to cause her to abandon a policy which invites the protest of the civilized world, and which will greatly increase her difficulties when the time comes to negotiate a treaty of peace, unless I misjudge the temper of her enemies. If we desire to see peace restored in Europe, no step would be more efficacious than to convince Germany of the imperative need to abandon this policy. I do not believe that any efforts, which we might make, to bring the belligerents together could possibly succeed while Germany persisted in enslaving the civilian subjects of her enemies who have fallen into her hands. To attempt to do so would, I am sure, arouse bitter resentment and place us in a most embarrassing position.
In this connection I may call your attention to a letter which I wrote you on the 15th18 reporting an interview with the Belgian Minister in which he desired me to ask what would be your attitude toward receiving from the King of the Belgians a request to act more formally in behalf of the deported population of his country. I have been thinking over the matter and I can see no very strong objection to receiving such a request. Indeed it might offer an opportunity to seek to prevent the carrying out of a policy which, it seems to me, if persisted in, will so arouse the Allies that the possibility of peace in the near future will be almost unthinkable.
At your convenience I would like to discuss this subject with you for I feel that we must determine upon the course of action which should be pursued.19
Faithfully yours,
- Ante, p. 39.↩
- President Wilson’s reply, dated Nov. 26, 1916, no copy of which has been found in the Department files, is printed in R. S. Baker, Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters (Garden City, 1937), vol. VI, p. 343. For Secretary Lansing’s instruction to the Chargé in Germany containing the text of the protest to be presented to the Chancellor, see Foreign Relations, 1916, supp., p. 70.↩