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M. DELPECH: Besides the economic detachments to which I have just drawn the attention of the Tribunal, detailed to remove and redistribute machinery either to factories working in the country on behalf of the occupying power or to factories in Germany, these operations were directed by the Machine Pool Office.

Such offices were set up in all the occupied territories of Western Europe during the last months of 1942, upon the order of the Minister for Armaments and War Production, for example, the Defendant Speer, and the Office of the Four Year Plan, for example, the Defendant Göring.

The Machine Pool Office for Belgium and Northern France was set up upon the decision of the Chief of the Military Economic Section in Brussels under date of 18 February 1943. Its activity has already been outlined to the Tribunal in connection with the spoliation of non-ferrous metal industries. Its activity did not stop there; it is found in all branches of industry. The Exhibit Number RF-185 (Document ECH-29) can give us figures on its activity. This activity continued to the very last days of the occupation. Requisitions of machinery and instruments were not limited to industry; Documents Numbers ECH-16 and ECH-15 (Exhibits Numbers RF-193 and 194) show the extent of the requisitioning of scientific instruments.

I have finished with the levies on industrial material.

I shall present briefly in the fourth chapter the question of services, first of all:

1. The billeting of troops. By an ordinance dated 17 December 1940, Page 88, the Germans imposed the costs of billeting their troops upon Belgium. Having done this, the occupation authorities justified themselves by a rather liberal interpretation of Article 52 of the Hague Convention, according to the provisions of which the occupying power may require levies in kind and in services.

The Wetter report (Document Number RF-186) wrongly contends that the Convention does not specify by whom the settlement should be made; Article 49 gives the right to make the occupied country defray the expenses.

Therefore Belgium had to meet expenses to the amount of 5,900 million francs for billeting costs, equipment, and furniture. The payments of the Belgian treasury for billeting is estimated in the report of the Belgian Military Administration at 5,423 million francs.

It is evident that under the pretext of billeting costs, other expenses were entered to the detriment of the Belgian economy, as in other occupied countries—the purchases of furniture which was to be sent to Germany.

2. Transport and Communications.

To assure transport and communications, the Belgian treasury had to advance a total of 8,000 million francs. As already pointed out to the Tribunal, the seizure by the occupation authorities covered even the river fleet to the extent that the transport plan restricted the use of rail to the operation troops.

According to Article 53 of the Hague Convention, the occupying army has the right to seize means of transport and communications provided that it returns them and pays indemnity. That army, however, does not possess the right to make the occupied country pay the costs of transport put at the army’s disposal. That is, however, what Germany did in Belgium.

3. Labor.

The deportation of labor to Germany and forced labor in Belgium have already been explained to the Tribunal. It therefore seems unnecessary to stress this point (Page 91). At the most, we should recall certain consequences unfavorable to the Belgian economy. The measures concerning the deportation of labor caused an economic disorganization and weakening without precedent.

Secondly, the departure of workers and particularly of skilled workers inadequately replaced by unskilled labor—women, adolescents and pensioners—brought about a decrease in production at the same time as an increase in the cost price, which contributed to complicating the problem of the financial equilibrium of industrial enterprises.

Third observation: The requisition of labor was the cause of political and social discontent owing to the dispersion of families and the inequalities which appeared in the requisition of workers.

Fourth and last observation: The workers were required for spheres of work which were not necessarily their own, which resulted in a loss of their professional skill. Personnel were divided and unclassed. The closing of artisan workshops brought about changes more or less felt in certain branches of production. The losses thus suffered cannot be measured in terms of money, but they are none the less important to be submitted to your jurisdiction.

I have finished with this subject and will turn to a last chapter, Chapter V, the acquisition of Belgian investments in foreign industrial enterprises.

Since 1940 according to their general policy in all occupied countries of Western Europe, the Germans concerned themselves with acquiring shares in Belgian financial enterprises abroad. The official German point of view emerges clearly from a letter dated 29 July 1941, from the Minister of Finance to the Military Commander in Belgium. I have submitted it under Number 187, in the document book (Document Number RF-187).

This conception of the right to acquire shares is certainly very far from the idea as laid down by the Hague Convention in respect to the right of requisition. It clearly shows the German leaders’ determination for enrichment at the expense of Belgium.

Thus, the Germans, since May 1940, sought to obtain influence in Belgian holding companies. Not being able to violate directly international laws, particularly Article 46 of the Hague Convention, they strove to influence the members of the executive boards through persuasion rather than by force.

In the course of a conference held on 3 May 1940 at the Reich Ministry of Economics, dealing with Belgian and Dutch capital which it would still be possible to acquire, it was decided that the Military Commander in Belgium should take all necessary measures to prevent, on the one hand, the destruction, transfer, sale, and illegal holding of all bonds and stocks of these countries and, on the other hand, to induce Belgian capitalists to hand over their foreign securities to the Germans. The minutes of this conference are found in the document book under Number RF-187 above.

To prevent the flight of any capital, an ordinance of 17 June 1940 was promulgated, subjecting to authorization the sending abroad of any securities and any acquisitions or disposal of foreign securities.

From 2 August 1940 the German leaders and the Defendant Göring himself took a definite stand on this point. In the course of the general remarks on economic plundering secret directives issued in this respect by the Defendant Göring were read to you. It is the document submitted under Number RF-105 (Page 97).

In spite of the German assurances and in spite of the wish of the occupying power to preserve the appearance of regularity, the German desire to absorb certain shares met with serious resistance. The occupation authorities several times had to resort to compulsion to conclude sales, in spite of the rights which they had reserved for themselves in the above cited decree of 27 August 1940. This was particularly the case with regard to the shares held by the Belgian Metal Trust in the electrical enterprises of Eastern Silesia and, still more clearly, the case regarding the shares of the Austrian Metal Company, which at that time were wanted by the Hermann Göring Works.

The Belgian ill-will increased as the German determination to pillage became more evident. In this report of 1 December 1942, Exhibit Number RF-191 (Document Number ECR-132), the German Commissioner with the National Bank very clearly denounces this resistance on the part of the Belgian market. Almost all acquisitions which could be realized by the Germans were settled by means of clearing (Page 98).

The balance of clearing capital credited to Belgium, to the amount of 1,000 million Belgian francs on 31 August 1944, represents a forced loan imposed upon Belgium without any legal or logical relation to occupation costs, unless it is the Germans’ will to hegemony.

Such a practice, contrary to the principles of international law and to the rules of criminal law of civilized nations, falls under Article 6(b) of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and constitutes an act of pillage of public or private property such as is envisaged in the above-mentioned text.

Closely allied to the acquisition of shares and always within the framework of legality, the levies made by the German authorities on foreign, enemy, and Jewish property, should be pointed out to the Tribunal.

As to foreign property seized by the Germans, it must be mentioned that this measure was applied to French capital in Belgium in spite of numerous protests by the French Government. As to Jewish property, for the years 1943 and 1944, the figures are presented in Document Number ECH-35 (Exhibit Number RF-192).

With this I conclude the presentation of the economic spoliation of Belgium (Page 100).

The damage caused to Belgian economy in its principal branches have just been submitted to the Tribunal. The statistical data have been taken either from German reports or from official reports of the Belgian Government. The available estimates and figures are not yet sufficiently exact to fix the costs of war, the occupation and economic spoliation of Belgium; some losses and damages cannot be expressed in money. Among them, first of all, we must mention the privations resulting from the German commandeering of a large part of food supplies and from the particular situation of billeting and clothing. This purely material aspect of the question should not cause us to overlook the consequences of the occupation upon the public health (Page 103). For lack of statistical data, it is difficult to show precisely the final state of public health resulting from the particular circumstances.

One fact, however, must be remembered: The considerable increase in the number of persons who were eligible for special invalid diets. This number rose from 2,000 a month in 1941 to more than 25,000 a month in 1944. It had, therefore, increased more than tenfold, in spite of the rationing measures which became more and more severe.

This increase in nutritional aid given to sick persons deserves the attention of the Tribunal, less for itself and for its statistical interest, than because it is the indication of the increase of disease in Belgium. This increase is itself the result of the undernourishment of the population during the four years of occupation.

This deplorable state of affairs, however, had not escaped the attention of the occupation authorities, as appears from the letter of the Military Commander in Belgium already quoted which is found in the document book under Document Number RF-187: