General Heindrich also made some show of remedying this state of affairs by advising the mayor of Lille to ask for the assistance of the Swiss Government. The mayor of Lille attempted this application on the 28th November, but the German authorities took care not to transmit it (see the _Temps_ of the 20th December). The fact that the German requisitions amounted to pillage was recognised by the American Commission of Relief for Belgium, which gratuitously distributed ten to twelve million francs’ worth of provisions a month. On the advice of Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Hoover, President of this Commission, asked the German Government to abstain from requisitioning provisions of any kind, as otherwise American subscriptions would have the effect of indirectly contributing to the support of the German army, which would take pains to pillage officially the provisions sent for poor Belgians. The German Government replied that it would _consent to refrain from requisitioning provisions to the east of Ghent_. This was as much as to confess that the German military authorities had taken away from the inhabitants of Belgium provisions of which they stood in need. OTHER EXAMPLES OF OFFICIAL PILLAGE Examples of official pillage of every kind practised by Germany are to be had in abundance. Sometimes it was the military authorities who shamelessly seized the deposits in private banks. This was shown to have taken place at Liège, Dinant, and Louvain, where quite a large sum of money was taken from the Bank de la Dyle and 12,000 francs from the Banque Populaire. At Lille the savings bank was robbed. Sometimes pillage took the form of fining newspapers. In this way the _Croix du Nord_ had to pay 150,000 francs for having described the German army in one of its articles as “a flood of Teutons.” At Châlons-sur-Marne, the German commandant asked M. Servès, deputy mayor, “to have all the shops in the town opened, so that the soldiers might buy what they needed.” When M. Servès remarked that it would be well that sentries should be stationed before the shops, the German officer replied that it was for the police of the town to keep order. M. Servès replied that there were no longer any police. Then the commandant came in in a towering rage and shouted: “There should have been. It is not fair that people who remain in the town should alone have to bear the burden. Those who have fled must bear their part. Consequently our soldiers will be instructed to break open the doors of shops and take what they want.” And pillage, officially ordered, began. To mitigate the odium of it General Seydewitz warned the town that he was reviving the security of 500,000 francs, which had been demanded on the first day of occupation as a guarantee for the requisitions. But this half-million was taken again as an instalment of the monetary contribution levied on the town. THE CHAPTER OF GERMAN ADMISSIONS