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Show BELGIAN SENATORS IN BRUSSELS SEND SIGNED PROTEST HAVRE, Dec. S. Twenty Belgian sen- a tors and twenty-three Belgian deputies now living in Brussels have taken the personal risk of sending a signed protest i to General von Bissing against the de-j de-j portations. They also sent copies of i their protest to Brand Whit lock, American J minister to Belgium, and to the ciiplomatic ; representatives of other countries, i "On ninny occasions." Fays the letter j to the diplomats in part, "civilised power? pow-er? have intrvned in favor of oppressed J peoples. Many times they have K'ven projection pro-jection to pnpuhi lions driven from their I firesides, and yet those peoples were not I carried off into slavery, it remained for , the frightful war. of which we were the i first victims, to offer such a spectacle to ; the world. AVe arc rersuaded that Bel-j Bel-j gium will not have appealed in vain for I the aid of your government to protect it ! from the pitiless edict that violated at the ' same time the rights of man and the ; fourth convention cf The Hague, with all ; the laws of humanity." I The letter to General von Bissing be-! be-! gins as follows: Excellency: It seemed that no pain could be added to those with which we have been weighed down since tho occupation of our country. Our liberties lib-erties have been abolished, our industry in-dustry and commerce annihilated, our raw material and instruments of labor la-bor exported, our public fortune ruined, destitution succeeding easy circumstances. Privations, anguish and bereavement, bereave-ment, all that we have endured, without with-out other revolt than the mute protestations pro-testations of our souls. We suffered in common, and our, common pains lightened the burden of our individual misery. But now ;i new violence faiis uron and tears opart our families. Hundreds, thousands of peaceable citizens citi-zens of all ages and conditions a civil population have been abruptly and brutally snatched from their firesides and deported into Germany. Hundreds, thousands of women, children and aged have been abandoned, aban-doned, deprived of support and given over to the anguish of a separation, the duration of which no one can fore-tee. fore-tee. The spectacle of their despatch is such that, rather than confront it, the recruiting soldiers refuse to weeping wives and despairing relatives the consolation of a last parting;. Among the signers of the protest are four former ministers, Baron de Favereau, president of the senate; Count Woest, ! Jules Vandenpeereboom and Joseph De-voldfer. De-voldfer. Among the deputies who signed it wer4 Baron Albert de Huart and Count de l3mburgh-Stirum. |