"Germany has been martyrizing Belgium. She has from that moment onwards turned the land into a prison: the frontiers are armed against Belgians like a battle front.. All our constitutional liberties have been abolished. There is no longer safety anywhere; the life of our citizens is at the mercy of the policeman,--arbitrary, limitless, pitiless ... Belgian industrial idleness has been the creation of the Germans, maintained by them for their own profit.[32] To these 500,000 unemployed they have for the last month been saying: 'Either you will sign a contract to work for Germany, or you will be reduced to slavery.' In either case, it means exile, deportation, forced labour in the interests of the enemy, and against the interests of our country: formidable punishments, the cruellest ever invented by tyranny for the punishment of crimes--and what _are_ the crimes alleged?... On the western front, Belgian workmen--your brothers and ours--are being forced to dig trenches, to build aviation camps, to fortify the German lines, and when the victims, in spite of everything, are firm in their refusal to take part in work forbidden by International Law, they are starved and beaten into illness, wounded, and sometimes even _killed_. "In Germany, they are turned on to work in mines, and at lime-kilns, quite regardless of their age, profession, or trade. Youths of seventeen, old men of seventy, are deported in haphazard masses. _Is not this a revival of ancient Slavery with all its horrors_?... Do you know, brothers, what the Germans throw to their victims by way of pay? 30 pfennigs (3d.) a day! "Workers: _Never forget that the soldiers-who are_ _acting as the torturers or our Belgian workmen are themselves German workers!_ "In the depths of our distress, we count on you. It is for you to act! For ourselves, even if brute force succeeds for the moment in reducing our bodies to servitude, we shall never give our consent. "A final word: Whatever tortures we may undergo, we do not wish for Peace except with the independence of our country and the triumph of justice. "THE WORKMEN OF BELGIUM." FOOTNOTES: [32] By levying on Belgium a war contribution which already exceeds £40,000,000--by transporting to Germany food, merchandise and various products to the value of more than £200,000,000--by seizing and despatching to their own country the greater portion of our raw material, machines and accessories--by issuing threatening edicts to prevent localities from using the unemployed on their own important works of public utility. CONCLUSION What is our object?