Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1916, Supplement, The World War

File No. 763.72115/2498

The Chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (Hoover) to the Secretary of State

London, October 10, 1916 .
[Received October 24.]

Dear Mr. Lansing: I have a request from the American Embassy in London to furnish you with a short confidential statement with regard to the evacuation of certain persons from Lille during April 1916.

In this matter I send you herewith:¹

(1) Memorandum prepared at the time by Mr. Poland who was then our director in Belgium and northern France;

(2) Memorandum prepared by Mr. Wellington, our staff representative in Lille;

(3) English translation of the brochure issued by the French Government on the matter.

Our summary of the incident is as follows:

1. The German General Staff determined upon the evacuation of a large number of people from the congested urban sections around Lille into the agricultural sections of northern France. The objective was two-fold—to relieve the congestion and food difficulties in the urban areas, and at the same time to furnish more labor to the agricultural sections in order to increase the productivity of those areas. They initially called for volunteers, but securing none, gave orders that compulsion should be used.

2. These orders were carried out with great brutality. People were seized, regardless of class, sex, and family membership. They were loaded on to railway trains on a few hours’ notice and damped into agricultural districts without any preparation; all sexes were thrown promiscuously in the open, under conditions of the utmost hardship.

3. The immediate protests at the German headquarters by Mr. Poland, backed by Messrs. Wellington and Richardson, all of the relief commission, later on seconded by Mr. Gerard, brought about an investigation as to the methods employed, a suspension of the measures, and ultimately the rescission of the project. Furthermore, as a result of the investigation initiated, some four or five thousand women, children, and infirm have been returned. The balance have now settled amongst the agricultural population and we do not believe they are specially discontented.

4. The relief commission provided foodstuffs for the people en route, gave them extra rations upon their arrival, and provided them with blankets, shoes, etc., in the refugee camps, generally protecting them in the best manner we could with the limited resources at our disposal.

5. It is our belief that the brutality of the operation was largely the fault of the local commandants and lack of adequate arrangements for the reception of and distribution of the évacués. We do not believe that any such brutalities were committed with intent of the high authorities. We believe they honestly and expeditiously corrected the matter as far as they were able when it came to their attention, and we are informed that disciplinary measures were taken. We do not believe the stories of rape, concubinate, etc, spread in the propagandist press.

The incident is one of sufficiently terrible order, but as things go in this war, it has resulted in less volume of human suffering than many other continuing barbarities in Europe.

Yours faithfully,

Herbert Hoover

1. Enclosures not printed.