joint debtors. The two first monthly payments are to be made
by the 15th of January, 1915, at latest, and the following monthly
payments by the tenth of each following month to the military chest of
the Field Army of the General Imperial Government in Brussels. If the
provinces are obliged to resort to the issue of stock with a view to
procuring the necessary funds, the form and terms of these shares will
be determined by the Commissary General for the banks in Belgium.

At a meeting of the Provincial Councils the vice-president declared:
"The Germans demand these $96,000,000 of the country without right and
without reason. Are we to sanction this enormous war tax? If we listened
only to our hearts, we should reply 'No I ninety-six million times no!
because our hearts would tell us we were a small, honest nation living
happily by its free labor; we were a small, honest nation having faith
in treaties and believing in honor; we were a nation unarmed, but full
of confidence, when Germany suddenly hurled two million men upon our
frontiers, the most brutal army that the world has ever seen, and said
to us, 'Betray the promise you have given. Let my armies go by, that I
may crush France, and I will give you gold.' Belgium replied, 'Keep your
gold. I prefer to die, rather than live without honor.' The German army
has, therefore, crushed our country in contempt of solemn treaties. 'It
is an injustice,' said the Chancellor of the German Empire. 'The
position of Germany has forced us to commit it, but we will repair the
wrong we have done to Belgium by the passage of our armies.' They want
to repair the injustice as follows: Belgium will pay Germany
$96,000,000! Give this proposal your vote. When Galileo had discovered
the fact that the earth moved around the sun, he was forced at the foot
of the stake to abjure his error, but he murmured, 'Nevertheless it
moves.' Well, gentlemen, as I fear a still greater misfortune for my
country I consent to the payment of the $96,000,000 and I cry
'Nevertheless it moves.' Long live our country in spite of all."

At the end of a year von Bissing renewed this assessment, inserting in
his decree the statement that the decree was based upon article
forty-nine of The Hague Convention, relating to the laws and usages of
war on land. This article reads as follows: "If in addition to the taxes
mentioned in the above article the occupant levies other moneyed
contributions in the occupied territory,