Let us remark, while dealing with these violations of Article 23 of the Hague Convention, that Germany signed this Convention. But on her part this was merely a comedy, for it is a rule with her rulers that they cease to follow its prescriptions as soon as they are in opposition to the _Usages of War_, according to the Great General Staff. Now among the duties which the occupier may impose on the inhabitants--according to Germany--is the supply of transport and the digging of trenches. In other words, Germany, though she readily approved of the Hague Conference, makes war according to her own principles, which are far less humane; but she none the less demands that her adversaries should observe the rules of the Convention. * * * * * _Measures of Coercion taken by the Germans._ On several occasions our enemies have sought to force the Belgian population to manufacture explosives and munitions for them. But the Belgians have always refused, even when their resistance inevitably condemned them to starvation. The workers of the explosives factory of Caulille, in the north of Limburg, resumed their tasks only under the most terrible threats (_K.Z._, 21st December, morning edition). The case of Caulille, announced to its readers by a German newspaper, shows the cynicism with which our enemies violate the Hague Convention, which is in part their own work. The same effrontery appears in the placard of the 19th November, 1914; this threatens severe penalties against Belgians who dissuade their compatriots from working for Germany. One could understand that the Germans might punish those who used force or threats to prevent any one from working for them; but to punish those who "attempt" to act by simple persuasion! This was a mere timid beginning. On the 19th June, 1915, our enemies posted about Gand a placard stating that severe measures were about to be applied to factories which, "relying on the Hague Convention, had refused to work for the German Army." The Communal Administration of Gand has supplied us with the following notice:-- NOTICE. By order of His Excellency the Inspector de l'Étape,[25] I call the attention of the commune to the following:-- "The attitude of certain factories which, under pretext of patriotism and relying on the Hague Convention, have refused to work for the German Army, proves that there are, in the midst of the population, tendencies whose object is to place difficulties in the way of the administration of the German Army. "In this connection I make it known that I shall repress, by all the means at my disposal, such behaviour, which can only disturb the good understanding hitherto existing between the administration of the German Army and the population.