"The degradation of it! The degradation of it as they walked into this great market square, where the pens were erected, exactly as if they were cattle--all the great men of that province--the lawyers, the statesmen, the heads of the trades, the men that had made the capital of Hainaut glorious during the last twenty years. "There they were collected; no question of who they were, whether they were busy or what they were doing, or what their position in life. 'Go to the right! Go to the left! Go to the right!' So they were turned to the one side or the other. "Trains were standing there ready, steaming, to take them to Germany. You saw on the one side the one brother taken, the other brother left. A hasty embrace and they were separated and gone. You had here a man on his knees before a German officer, pleading and begging to take his old father's place; that was all. The father went and the son stayed. They were packed in those trains that were waiting there. "You saw the women in hundreds, with bundles in their hands beseeching to be permitted to approach the trains, to give their men the last that they had in life between themselves and starvation--a small bundle of clothing to keep them warm on their way to Germany. You saw women approach with a bundle that had been purchased by the sale of the last of their household effects. Not one was allowed to approach to give her man the warm pair of stockings or the warm jacket, so there might be some chance of his reaching there. Off they went!" John H. Gade, in _The National Geographic Magazine_, May, 1917. The Belgian women sent a touching appeal to Minister Whitlock: THE APPEAL OF THE BELGIAN WOMEN. "BRUSSELS, "_November 18, 1916, 46 Rue de la Madeleine_. "His Excellency Mr. BRAND WHITLOCK, "_Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America_. "MR. MINISTER: "From the depths of our well of misery our supplication rises to you. "In addressing ourselves to you, we denounce to your Government, as well as to our sisters, the women of the nation which you represent in our midst, the criminal abuse of force of which our unhappy and defenseless people is a victim. "Since the beginning of this atrocious war we have looked on impotently and with our hearts torn with every sorrow at terrible events which put our civilization back into the ages of the barbarian hordes. [Sidenote: No shadow of excuse for deportations.] "Mr. Minister, the crime which is now being committed under your eyes, namely, the deportation of thousands of men compelled to work on enemy soil against the interests of their country, can not find any shadow of excuse on the ground of military necessity, for it constitutes a violation by force of a sacred right of human conscience.