of the help of his commune and of the "Comité National." However, as it
is still left to Belgian tribunals to decide which reasons are
"sufficient" and which are not, this decree is not very harmful.

On May 2nd, 1916, the rising tide creeps nearer to us. The power of
deciding on the matter passes from the Belgian tribunals to the military
authority, and thereupon every striker becomes a culprit.

On May 13th, there is a new decree by which "the governors, military
commanders, and chiefs of districts are allowed to order the unemployed
_to be conducted by force_ to the spots where they have to work." This,
no doubt, in order to avoid the crowding of prisons, which would have
necessarily followed the last decree. It only remains to declare that
the workers can be deported to complete the process and to legalise
slavery.

This step was taken on October 3rd last, when an order, signed by
Quartier-Meister Sauberzweig and issued by the General Headquarters of
the German Army, was posted in all the communes of Flanders. This order
warned all persons "_who are fit to work_ that they may be compelled to
do so _even outside their places of residence,_" when "they should be
compelled to have recourse to public help for their own subsistence or
for the subsistence of the persons dependent on them."

[Footnote 4: Another poster dated from Menin (August, 1915) reads as
follows: "From to-day the town is forbidden to give any support whatever
even to the families, wives, or children of workmen who are not employed
_regularly on military work_.."]

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