Wednesday, the 5th May, eighty members of the civic guard of Emines and Warisoulx were arrested for the same reason; forty signed the declaration and were released. The rest were transported to Germany on the evening of the 6th May as prisoners of war. Similarly on the 5th May, in the afternoon, 170 men, part being members of the civic guard and part militia-men of the communes of Taviers, Dhuy, St.-Germain, Hemptinne, Villers-lez-Heest, and Bovesse, were arrested because they refused to sign their identification cards. The Government hopes that these men will reflect and hear reason, and that they will submit spontaneously to this measure, which serves only for purposes of registration, so that they may be released. It is expressly added that the signature of the identification cards imposes no engagement on the signatory; these cards contain only information as to identity, and all the Belgian militia-men, as well as the members of the civic guard, have been several times informed upon this point. (_Communicated._) (_L'Ami de l'Ordre_, 7th and 8th May, 1915.) Let us look into this case. In the first place, there never was a civic guard at Rhisnes nor at Emines, so that it is absolutely fraudulent to give this title to all the male adult inhabitants; and since they have not been civic guards they have never borne arms against Germany, and cannot therefore engage to cease doing so. Here again appears the German duplicity in all its beauty. The men of Rhisnes and Emines assure us that the paper said "no longer bear arms against Germany." The Germans have imposed a communiqué upon _L'Ami de l'Ordre_ which gives another version--"not to bear arms." But in the communiqué provided by the German authorities and published in _La Belgique_ on the 5th June, our enemies recognize that the document said "no longer bear arms." However, a German communiqué is never entirely truthful; and this one forms no exception to the rule. Conforming to the truth in this respect, it departs from it in another. It says, in effect, that the men of Rhisnes "regarded themselves as still belonging to the Belgian Army." What absurdity! They refused to sign precisely because the Germans wished to make them say that they did belong to the Army! In August and September 1914 the Germans were sending Belgians into Germany as civil prisoners; in May 1915 they were sending them as prisoners of war. The difference is important, since the Hague Convention states that the cost of maintenance of war prisoners falls upon their country of origin, but that it is not speaking of civil prisoners. This is why the civilians of Rhisnes and Emines went to Germany as prisoners of war, as did the curé and the vicar of Cortemarck (p. 72).