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Show BELGIAN PRIMATE A POLITICIAN Germans Regard Cardinal as Agitator and Circulator of Untruths. Berlin. Feb. 12, by Wireless to Say-ville. Say-ville. The following statement regarding re-garding the activities of Cardinal Mer-cier, Mer-cier, primate of Belgium who is now on a visit to Rome, was made public today by the Overseas News Agency. "The lteer which Cardinal Mercler and the Belgian bishops addressed to the German clergy on November 24, 1915, (regarding an investigation of allegations that atrocities had been committed In Belgium by Germans) did not reach Cardinal von Hartmann, archbishop of Cologne, until January 7, which explains why it has not been answered. The general impression prevailing In Germany, however, is that the letter was inspired entirely by Cardinal Mercier, whose intransl-ent intransl-ent attitude toward the German authorities au-thorities became manifest onvarlous occasions. "Before the war, Cardinal Mercier was an influential Belgian politician. For example, at the time of King Leopold's Leo-pold's death he sided publicly with the party in favor of colonial expansion expan-sion in the notorious Congo affair, demanding de-manding an increase In the Belgian army After the occupation of Belgium Bel-gium by German forces the cardinal preserved a similar attitude, using the influence of the clergy for agitation agita-tion of a purely political nature Ordered Prayers For Entente. "At the time of the great Anglo-French Anglo-French offensive the cardinal ordered that in all church of Belgium prayers be said for the victory of the entente forces At the same time on St Michael's Mich-ael's Day he published a pastoral letter let-ter comparing the struggle with that of St. Michael, the patron saint of Belgium, and Lucifer, suggestion in transparent tashion that he did not compare Germany with the Angel "During religious ceremonies in the fall, Cardinal Mercier declared to Belgian, Bel-gian, priests, assembled in the Malines seminary, that they :re .all -.obliged to offer tho greatest possible resistance resist-ance to the Germans. "The letter of tho Belgian bishops also discusses the allegation that German Ger-man soldiers attacked Belgian nuns When requested to Investigate this charge, Cardinal Mercier declined on the ground that he did not wish to hurt ony one's feelings. But the bishops of Liege, Namur, Bruges and Ghent declared that no such misdeeds had some to their knowledge. "All this corroborates the German Impression that the liberties granted freely to Cardinal Mercier in the interests in-terests of his exalted priestly vocation are being used by him merely for purposes pur-poses of political agitation which places pla-ces the German authorities in an awkward position " |