Their cities were occupied by German garrisons; their houses sometimes filled with German officers or requisitioned in order to serve as a German _Casino_ or _Soldatenheim_. Every month, at the local _Kommandantur_, the young men of age to bear arms, the former civic guards, etc., must present themselves. A very severe control was established in order to prevent the young men from escaping to Holland and rejoining the Belgian army. In order to prevent this, the Belgian frontier to the north was provided with three lines of electrified wire and soldiers were constantly patrolling, ready to fire on those who should succeed in cutting the wires and passing. These terrible threats did not prevent thousands of young Belgians from facing the ordeal and from getting through these wires, on their way to the Belgian army on the Yser. From Holland, they went to England, then reached France where they were received in Belgian instruction camps and prepared for “doing their bit” in the Yser trenches. The parents or relatives of these young Belgians were held responsible for the escape of their sons and heavily fined or imprisoned. The German administration applied, indeed, the principle of collective responsibility. For the fault of one individual, the whole community was punished. So, for instance, cutting of a telephone wire, singing a patriotic song, distributing secret newspapers, all this was punished by heavy fines imposed on a whole town or village. Everywhere the German criminal or secret police, organized by Governor General von Bissing, was at work, trying to get as many Belgians as possible into prison. The German military penal code was applied to Belgium for offenses termed as endangering the security of the German army. These crimes were punished by military tribunals, where no Belgian barrister was admitted, and where people were condemned to death or to heavy penalties without appeal. In one year alone, 1915-16, 103,092 Belgians were thus condemned by these military tribunals, and 100 death penalties were pronounced, many of them being immediately executed. The best-known cases were those of Edith Cavell, Gabrielle Petit, Franck, Baekelmans, etc. This régime of terror did not curb the courage of the people. The Germans tried to create despair and dissension by spreading false news, by announcing loudly and daily their victories, by creating German or Germanized papers, such as _Le Bruxellois_, by exciting the animosity against the Allies, especially against England, by boasting that the Belgians had been left in the lurch by their influential friends.