"The day after the surrender of Antwerp the frightened population asked itself what would become of the Belgians of age to bear arms or who would reach that age before the end of the occupation. The entreaties of the fathers and mothers of families determined me to question the governor of Antwerp, Baron von Huene, who had the kindness to reassure me and to authorize me in his name to reassure the agonized parents. The rumor had spread at Antwerp, nevertheless, that at Liége, Namur, and Charleroi young men had been seized and taken by force to Germany. I therefore begged Governor von Huene to be good enough to confirm to me in writing the guarantee which he had given to me orally, to the effect that nothing similar would happen at Antwerp. He said to me immediately that the rumors concerning deportations were without basis, and unhesitatingly he sent me in writing, among other statements, the following: 'Young men have no reason to fear that they will be taken to Germany, either to be there enrolled in the army or employed for forced labor.' "This declaration, written and signed, was publicly transmitted to the clergy and to those of the Faith of the province of Antwerp, as Your Excellency can see from the document enclosed herewith, dated October 16th, 1914, which was read in all the churches. [Printed on preceding pages.] "Upon the arrival of your predecessor, the late Baron von der Goltz, at Brussels I had the honor of presenting myself at his house and requested him to be good enough to ratify for the entire country, without time limit, the guarantees which General von Huene had given me for the province of Antwerp. The Governor General retained this request in his possession in order to examine it at his leisure. The following day he was good enough to come in person to Malines to bring me his approval, and confirmed to me, in the presence of two aides-de-camp and of my private secretary, the promise that the liberty of Belgian citizens would be respected. "To doubt the authority of such undertakings would have been to reflect upon the persons who had made them, and I therefore took steps to allay, by all the means of persuasion in my power, the anxieties which persisted in the interested families. "Notwithstanding all this, your Government now tears from their homes workmen reduced in spite of their efforts to a state of unemployment, separates them by force from their wives and children and deports them to enemy territory. Numerous workmen have already undergone this unhappy lot; more numerous are those who are threatened with the same acts of violence. [Sidenote: Mercier's moving appeal.]