"Excellency, our heart and our reason refuse, then, to believe that it is for the good of our class and to avoid an additional calamity to our country, that thousands of workers are suddenly torn from their families and transported to Germany. Public sentiment has not been deceived and in reply to the grievous complaints of the victims, there echo the indignant protests of the entire population, as expressed by its representatives, its communal magistrates, and those persons who constitute the highest incarnation of law in our country. "Furthermore, the arbitrary and brutal manner employed in the execution of these sad measures has raised all kinds of doubts regarding the object in view: the need, above all, is to obtain workmen in Germany, for Germany's profit, and for the success of its arms. "While at Antwerp they did not take any young men from 17 to 31 years who were under the régime of control, in the Borinage they call all the men from 17 to 50 years of age; in Walloon Brabant all men over 17 years, without making any distinction between the employed and unemployed. Men of all professions and of all conditions have been taken--bakers, who have never ceased to work in our co-operatives of the Borinage, for example; mechanics, who always had employment; agricultural workmen, merchants * * * At Lessines on the 6th instant, 2,100 persons were taken away, all workmen up to 50 years of age. Several cases are cited where old men with five or six of their sons have been exiled thus by force. [Sidenote: The tears of the mothers and the children.] "Distressing scenes occur everywhere. The unhappy ones gathered together in the public squares are rapidly divided into gangs. They had been directed to bring a small amount of baggage; they are taken at once to the railway station and loaded in cattle cars. They are not allowed to say good-bye to their families. No opportunity is given to them to put their affairs in order, even the most pressing ones. They do not know where they are going, nor for what work, nor for how long. Taken away at the beginning of the winter, after two years of privations, having no further resources and no means to provide themselves with warm clothing or with other indispensable articles, what privations are they going to endure? How will they live there? In what state will they return? This mystery and this anxiety are the cause of the ceaseless tears of the mothers and little children. Distress and despair reign in the homes. "Listen, Excellency, to these tears and these sobs. Do not permit our past of liberty and independence to be ruined. Do not permit human rights to be violated in its holy of holies. Do not permit the dignity of our working classes, which has been acquired after so many centuries of effort, to be trodden under foot.