The same kind of argument is used at the present moment with regard to the wholesale deportations which are going on in Belgium.  To justify his slave-raids, Governor von Bissing denounces England’s blockade.  It is the economic policy of England—­not German requisitions—­which has ruined Belgium and caused unemployment:  “If there are any objections to be made about this state of affairs you must address them to England, who, through her policy of isolation, has rendered the coercive measures necessary.” [1] But the argument is used more for the sake of discussion than in the real hope of convincing the public.  General von Bissing can have very few illusions left as to the state of mind of the Belgian population.  He knows that every Belgian worker, would answer, with the members of the Commission Syndicale:  “All the Allies have agreed to let some raw material necessary to our industry enter Belgium, under the condition, naturally, that no requisitions should be made by the occupying power, and that a neutral commission should control the destination of the manufactured articles.” [2] Or, more emphatically still, with Cardinal Mercier:  “England generously allows some foodstuffs to enter Belgium under the control of neutral countries ...  She would certainly allow raw materials to enter the country under the same control, if Germany would only pledge herself to leave them to us and not to seize the manufactured products of our industry.”

Such arguments are extraordinarily characteristic of the German mind, as it has been developed by the war:  “Let Belgium know that she is suffering for England’s sake.  Let England know that, as long as she enforces her blockade, her friends in Belgium will have to pay for it.”  It is the same kind of double-edged declaration as that used on the occasion of the Allied air-raid on Brussels.  Literally speaking, it cuts both ways.  The excuse becomes a threat and the untruth savours of blackmail.  Healthy minds work by single or treble propositions.  If we did not remember that our aim is to analyse the beautiful and heroic side of the occupation of Belgium, rather than to dwell on its most sinister aspects, we should recognize, in this last manoeuvre, the lowest example of human brutality and hypocrisy, the double mark of the German hoof.

[Footnote 1:  Answer of Governor von Bissing to Cardinal Mercier’s letter, Oct. 26th, 1916.]

[Footnote 2:  Letter of the “Commission Syndicale” to Baron von Bissing, Nov. 14th, 1916.]

* * * * *

In spite of the most authentic documents, of the most glaring material proofs, it might be difficult to realise that the human spirit may fall so low.  It seems as if we were diminishing ourselves when we accuse our enemies.  We have lived so long in the faith that “such things are impossible” that, now that they happen almost at our door, we should be inclined to doubt our eyes rather than to doubt the innate goodness of man.  Never did I feel this more strongly than when I saw, for the first time, a caricature of King Albert reproduced from a German newspaper.