Civil Prisoners

( Originally Published 1915 )

Extract from a note addressed on the 30th of March, 1915, by M. Davignon to the German Government, through the medium of the Spanish Government:

" As far back as the 2nd of October, 1914, the Government of the King . . . forwarded to the Imperial German Government, through the obliging offices of the United States Minister in Brussels, its energetic protest against the systematic removal from Belgium and deportation to Germany of civilians innocent of any participation in the war.

" This protest was on several occasions recalled to the mind of the Royal Government of Spain.

" On the 28th of February last the Imperial German Government handed to the Spanish Ambassador in Berlin a Note which was communicated to the Belgian Government, and which declared that: All Belgian subjects who are neither criminal nor suspect will receive permission to return to Belgium.

" If we may congratulate ourselves on this result, due to the efficacious intervention of the Government of His Catholic Majesty, we cannot, however, refrain from pointing out that the Note of the Auswärtiges Amt is a complete confession of the violation by Germany of international law and the international Conventions. The Government of the King notes the fact that the thousands of Belgians now sent back to their homes were neither criminal nor suspect, but consequently were inoffensive citizens. These unfortunate people were torn from the families of which they were often the sole support, deported into Germany, and treated, in the course of the journey and during a detention of six months or more, like the vilest criminals.

" The King's Government finds itself obliged solemnly to renew its former protests and to make the most emphatic stand against procedures which constitute a flagrant violation of Article 50 of the IVth Convention of The Hague, and are a defiance of the most elementary laws of humanity.

" Basing itself upon the very information with which the Imperial Government has furnished it by the communication of the list of Belgian prisoners of war, into which the names of numbers of civilians have crept, the King's Government is in a position to affirm that the improper procedures exposed above have affected Belgians of all ages, of all social conditions, be-longing to all parts of Belgium. In certain localities almost the entire male population was led into captivity. A great number of civilians have died in prison. . . . Five men died of senile debility; two others were seventy-six years of age. A woman, Mme. Leonie Denorme, was ' taken dead' to the lazarette at Schneidemühle. And no doubt many other unfortunate and innocent people have succumbed in analogous circumstances.

" The Imperial German Government will bear the responsibility of these actions."