File No. 763.72115/2549
The Minister in Belgium (Whitlock) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 15, 8 a. m.]
14. My 13.1 Impressment of workmen continues in the Government General as well as in the Etappe. Not only unemployed, but also employed are taken. Even very many members of communal and provincial committees of the Comité National, the undisturbed operations of which have been specifically guaranteed by Governor General to the patron ministers of the relief work, have been and are being removed. The harsh measures will doubtless soon become general. Men are torn from their homes and families without warning and apparently without previous selection. Many sad and tragic scenes and instances of military brutality reported. The alarm is general but the population is in general calm. Statements that people go voluntarily or that they refuse to cultivate their soil are incorrect. The number that go voluntarily is exceedingly small, though many have signed contracts in duress.
Am of the opinion that if the measure could be carried out by civilian, and not military authorities, amplification palliative features could be obtained. Venture to suggest that the reports published in German papers be taken with very great reserve.
I have taken no steps with German authorities here other than the informal conversations with Lancken mentioned in my No. 12, November 1, 6 p. m., and shall make no official representations unless so instructed by the Department. The question is in the hands of military authorities who would probably not be influenced by what I might say. Bissing is highly in sympathy with the policy.
I understand that the matter is being taken up by Grew with Chancellor at Berlin and am keeping him informed as to the situation. Have suggested to him that “if the German Government feels that the policy must be continued—and they are, of course, the only judges as to that, and have no doubt taken into consideration the question of the poor impression it will create abroad—the following suggestions might be worthy of consideration as a means of ameliorating the situation. I beg you, however, not to quote them as coming from me:
- (1)
- [Measures] to be applied to real unemployed only. This can be ascertained without the lists of unemployed, as done in Ghent and Bruges;
- (2)
- Married men or heads of family not to be taken;
- (3)
- Concentration camps of the deported persons in Germany to be voluntarily opened by the German Government to inspection by representatives of American Ambassador, Berlin. This act alone would have a most beneficial effect, American representatives suggested, as more confidence would be placed in them abroad than in those of any other nation.
Greater importance is expression of opinion from the Commission Relief Belgium:
The first recruiting of workmen from Belgium and northwest France has created the basis for the most bitter anti-German reactions that we have yet seen, and it must seriously jeopardize the whole relief, as the British Government is only too anxious to find excuses for its suppression. If the recruitment continues, the errors made in selection by seizure of married men, old men, boys, and actually employed workmen, and better class people, without notice, should at once be eliminated by more deliberate and careful selection of appropriate unemployed workmen only, and Mr. Whitlock’s suggestion of ah independent inspection service, which would certify to the non-military character of [employment], to living conditions appropriate to free workmen, and regular wages, and to arrangements for [correspondence with their families and regular remittance of wages, would all tend to mitigate the unfavorable impression now being created and would give us more hope of defending the relief.
- Not printed.↩