Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/271

 arrive at an equitable solution of this problem the greater part of our working-class population will be condemned for long years to suffering, poverty, and lack of work, from which their only escape would be emigration en masse.

German authority has by threats and violence exacted from our towns the payment of several millions in money since the beginning of the German occupation. They requisition, moreover, for the needs of the army a monthly contribution of fifty millions in corn, and that has been increased to sixty millions. They have seized several millions in raw food material and machinery. They have carried out much destruction for military operations: in many cases this was simply to terrorize the population and assure for the future economic advantage by suppressing a troublesome competition.

The Belgian nation must indemnify the victims of all such violence, and this charge will be added to those which we have enumerated.

It would be the height of injustice to allow the victim of this oppression to bear