And in the face of all this our people evidenced restraint
and admirable dignity, although they were provoked that day
by seeing the automobiles going around which were taking
away these unfortunate people. They all went away shouting
"Vive la France. Vive la Liberte!" and singing the
Marseillaise. They cheered up those who remained; their poor
mothers who were weeping, and the children. With voices
almost strangled with tears, and pale with suffering, they
told them not to cry as they themselves would not; but bore
themselves proudly in the presence of their executioners.
Another document shows better than all this talking the treatment the
French have been receiving from the Germans for over thirty months.
This document is a German notice which was found at Holnon, northwest
of St. Quentin. The document bore the official seal of the German
commander.
HOLNON, 20th July, 1915.
All workmen, women and children over fifteen years of age
must work in the fields every day, also on Sunday, from four
o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock at night, French
time. For rest they shall have a half-hour in the morning,
an hour at noon and a half-hour in the afternoon. Failure to
obey this order will be punished in the following manner:--
1.--The men who are lazy will be collected for the period of
the harvest in a company of workmen under the inspection of
German corporals. After the harvest the lazy will be
imprisoned for six months and every third day their
nourishment shall be only bread and water.
2.--Lazy women shall be exiled to Holnon to work. After the
harvest the women will be imprisoned six months.
3.--The children who do not work shall be punished with
blows from a club.
Furthermore, the commandant reserves the right to punish men
who do not work with twenty blows from a club daily.
Workmen in the Commune of Verdelles have been punished
severely.
(Signed) GLOSE,
COLONEL AND COMMANDANT.
APPENDIX V
HOW GERMANS TREAT ALSACE-LORRAINE
Von Bethmann-Hollweg, Count von Hertling and Herr von Kuhlmann state
that Alsace-Lorraine is a province of the German Empire by right and
by fact, and that it is firmly attached to Germany.
The following picture shows how this _German_ province is treated by
Germany:
_Treatment of the Civilian Population_
The Government has established for the duration of the war an
insurmountable barrier between Alsace-Lorraine, which is called a
territory of the Empire, and the rest of the German states. Briefly,
Alsace-Lorraine is treated as a suspect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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