[Sidenote: The Belgians have got no charity from the Germans.] "It is not true, I said in my letter of October 19th, that our workmen have troubled, or even anywhere threatened the public peace. Five million Belgians and hundreds of Americans are the astonished witnesses of the dignity and the flawless patience of our working class. It is not true that the workmen deprived of work are a charge upon the occupying power for the charity which is dispensed by their administration. The _Comité National_, in which the occupying government has no active part, is the sole purveyor of subsistence to the victims of enforced idleness. * * * [Sidenote: The German plan makes Belgians war against their own country.] "Each Belgian workman will liberate a German workman who will add one more soldier to the German army. There, in all its simplicity, is the fact which dominates the situation. The author of the letter himself feels this burning fact, for he writes: 'nor is the measure one which affects the conduct of war _properly speaking_ (_proprement dite_)'. It is, then, connected with the war _improperly speaking_ (_improprement dite_); which can only mean that the Belgian workman, although he does not bear arms, will free the hands of a German workman who will take up the arms. The Belgian workman is forced to co-operate, in an indirect but evident manner, in the war against his country. This is manifestly contrary to the spirit of the Hague Conventions. "Here is another statement: _unemployment is not caused either by the Belgian workman or by England; it is brought about by the régime of the German Occupation_. [Sidenote: No disorder is caused by Belgians.]