"It is to law and humanity that we appeal, solemnly and with the hope of being heard, for we have the profound conviction that by our voice, at this tragic hour, the great voice of the working class of the entire civilized world expresses its sorrow and its protest. "Accept, Excellency, the homage of our most distinguished consideration." (Here follow the signatures of the Members of the _Comité Nationale_ and of the _Commission Syndicale_.) "We transmit this letter and previous correspondence to the Ministers and representatives of Foreign powers at Brussels, as well as to our comrades of the Commission Syndicale des Syndicats in Holland." The files of the State Department contain authentic copies of very many such moving protests. The foregoing ones are taken from this pathetic collection, and from it may be cited, by way of further illustration, some passages from two others: PROTEST OF BELGIAN MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. "BRUSSELS, _9th November, 1916_. "To his Excellency, BARON VON BISSING, "_Governor General in Belgium_. [Sidenote: Belgian legislators recite the wrongs of Belgium.] "EXCELLENCY: It seemed that no suffering could be added to those under which we have already been weighed down since the occupation of our country. Our banished liberty, our destroyed industry and commerce, our raw products and instruments of work taken out of the country, the public fortune ruined, want succeeding to wealth in families formerly most prosperous, privations, anxieties, and mourning. * * * [Sidenote: The "summary and sorrowful" procedure of the Germans.] "Is there need to relate the scenes which the region of the étape has been the theater of for several weeks, and which are now being reenacted, during the past days, in the territory of the Government General, where this scourge threatens to extend from commune to commune until its victims are counted by hundreds of thousands? The notices posted on the walls and reproduced in the papers tell sufficiently what it is. Everywhere the same procedure, summary and sorrowful: arrests in mass, men classified arbitrarily among the unemployed, herded together, divided into groups, sent toward the unknown. * * * "The authorities prefer to give them work in Germany, where the representatives of the [German] Industrial Bureau promise them 'good wages,' if they consent to work there 'voluntarily,' and where they may expect, in case of refusal, famine wages. What physical and moral depression is counted on in order to force their hand? [Sidenote: Everyone knows what Germany wants Belgian workers for.]