The enemy news agency, Transocean, which carries German propaganda to the Far East, together with all its untruths, distinguished itself yesterday by publishing the boast that ihe 200,000th Belgian worker had left Brussels to take work in the Reich, accompanied by his wife who also has a job to go to. The agency goes on to state that, with the employment of 200,000 Belgians in Germany, unemployment in Belgium has greatly improved, ana that from the 490,000 workless, shortly after the capitulation, the number had now been reduced to 75,590, the majority of whom are over sixty. "This means," the report continues "that the unemployment problem in Belgium has been practically solved, thanks to the cooperation of the German authorities." A more cynically impertinent piece of lying it is difficult to.conceive, What has happened in Belgium is that the workers have been forced to accept work in Germany to remedy the shortage of labour, or else starve in their homeland.
Two-thirds of Belgium's industries have ceased to work partly because they have lost their markets, but mostly because of the lack of raw materials. Coal mines are the exception, for-they are being worked harder than ever before the occupation in order to meet Germany's demand for coal. Large numbers of unemployed Belgians are faced with starvation at home, or slavery in the Reich. Those who refuse work offered them by the Germans are no longer entitled to unemployment benefit. Work in the Reich mean rotten food, bad housing and wages, of which only part is paid out, while the rest is "frozen" in Germany so that workers are unable to send anything to their families in Belgium. Those who still remain in their native land in employment find that their wages in spite of repeated promises, are not adjusted to the increased cost of living. Rations to be legally obtained are hopelessly insufficient. Bread is down to 225 grammes a head a day, rice to 200 grammes a month while other foods to eke out these meagre supplies are unobtainable, Meat disappeared from the Belgian menu as far back as last December while An Bon Marche, the big store in Brussels, has closed down its meat, butter and egg department, That is the real picture of conditions in Belgium. The workers are being forced to accept employment in Germany, where the need for labour is still great, despite the en-glovement of the Poles, or starve. When they ko to the Reich to work the conditions under which they do so are wretched. There is a slogan amongst the Belgians who will not accept work in Germany to the effect "S'il faut mourir chest mieux mourir à la patrie!" One day that phrase will be famous for it expresses both the tragedy and the heroic resolve of thousands of workers. w is the German reprisals rely consist of recalling Belgian prisoners 5f war who have been allowed to return to their homes and the imposition of fines which impoverish whole communities.
That is the sort of German cooperation which it is claimed has reduced Belgian unemployment. The German propagandists en-Weavour to persuade the world at large that their conduct in the occupied territories is that of a civilized people, whereas the world knows full well that it is not, but rather the behaviour of brutes who thus warn the rest of the world what it can expect if the Ger-Rane ever gained control over it. The tragedy of Belgium is in varying degrees the tragedy of every other nation which has fallen temporarily beneath the Nazi heel. Tt is the tragedy of suffering under the brutality of people who glory in the infliction of pain, in robbery and spoliation. It is possible that more Belgians will be forced to leave their tative land and accept work in the Reich. Hunger is a powerful recruiting agent for German employers and the Nazis will not lat fact to the fullest hesitate to make use of that fact t
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.