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At the beginning of August last, a certain number of Socialist leaders, in occupied Belgium, succeeded in arranging a meeting, in spite of German regulations, and passed the following resolution, which they sent to the Minister Vandervelde, in London:  “The Belgian working classes are decided to endure all sufferings rather than to accept a German peace, which could neither be lasting nor final.  The Allies must not think that they must hasten the conclusion of the struggle for us.  We are not asking for peace, and we take no responsibility for the Socialist manifestations made in neutral countries on our behalf. We ask those who want to help us not to let the idea that we long for peace influence their decisions.  We pass this resolution in order to prevent the disastrous effect, which such an argument might produce.”

The Belgium people has never departed from this attitude, and it is the plain duty of all those who are defending them, to conform, in the spirit and in the letter, to their heroic message.  In the “Appeal” of the Belgian workers to the civilised world, sent during the worst period of the slave-raids, the idea of a truce is not even entertained.  On the contrary, the workers declare that, “whatever their tortures may be, they will not have peace without the independence of their country and the triumph of justice.”  An eye-witness of the raids was telling me, a few days ago, that, on some occasions, the men in the slave trains are able to communicate with the people outside:  “They shout, of course, ‘Long live Belgium’ and ‘Long live King Albert,’ but the most frequent cry, in which they seem to put their last ounce of strength, is:  ’Do not sign,’ which means:  ’Do not sign an engagement to work in Germany, do not sign a compromise.’” And I have not the slightest doubt that, if they had heard of the German peace offers, they would still shout, “Do not sign, do not sign a German peace!”

We know what this attitude costs them.  We know, from the report of those few men who have been sent back to Belgium from the Western front and from the German camps, the tortures to which the modern slaves are being subjected.  These men were so ill, so worn out, that their family scarcely recognised them, and greeted them with tears, not with laughter.  It was like a procession of ghosts coming back from hell.  At Soltau, the prisoners are given only two pints of acorn soup and a mouldy piece of bread, every day.  They are so famished that they creep at night to steal the potato parings which their German guards throw on to—­the rubbish heap.  They divide them amongst themselves and eat them raw to appease their hunger.  After the first week of this regime, several men went mad.  Others were isolated for a few days and given excellent food.  “Will you sign now?  If you do, you shall be kept on the same diet; if not... you go back to camp?” The great majority refused ... and were sent back.  This is not an isolated report.  All the accounts agree, even on the smallest details, and the deportees who have been able to write to their families tell the same story as those who, being henceforth useless, have been sent home to die.