We cannot discover any method in the raids.  In some places, all the able-bodied men from 17 to 50 are taken away; in others the priests, the town-clerks, the members of the “Comite de Secours,” and the teachers are left at home; in others still a certain selection is made. But everywhere some men who were actually working at the time or even men who had never been out of work since the beginning of the German occupation have been obliged to go with the others.  The proportions vary.  In the small town of Gembloux, of a total of 750 inhabitants deported, there were only two unemployed.  At Kersbeek-Miscom out of 94 deportees only two had been thrown out of work.  At Rillaer, the Germans have taken 25 boys under 18 years of age.[6] In the district of Mons, from the numbers taken down in fourteen communes, we gather that the proportion of the unemployed varies between 10 and 15 per cent. of the total number of deportees.[7] Among the 400 men taken from Arlon (Luxembourg) were 43 members of the “Comite de Secours” who were working in connection with the Commission for Relief, so that not only the people supporting their families are being deported, but even those who employed themselves in alleviating the sufferings of the whole population.  This practice has been repeated in several other towns, for instance, in Gembloux and Libramont.

Whether the people are ordered to present themselves at the town-hall or seized in their own homes, whether they are taken forthwith or allowed a few hours to prepare themselves, whether they are forced to sign an agreement or not, the same fact is evident:  the criterion of employment is never considered as a sufficient cause for exemption.

In certain districts where, in spite of the requisitions, no unemployment existed, the authorities have manufactured it.  Some of the new coal mines of the Limbourg province have been closed on the eve of the raids.  The case of the Luxembourg province is still more typical.  “We have not to enquire here,” declare the senators and deputies of this province, “if unemployment has been caused in other regions by the disorganisation of transports, the seizure of raw stuffs and machines, the constant requisitions, and other measures which were bound to penalize the national industry.  One fact remains incontestable; it is that, so far as the Luxembourg province is concerned, unemployment has been non-existent.  During the worst periods, we have only had a small number of unemployed, and thanks to the initiative taken by the ’Comite de Secours’ all, without any exception, have been at work without interruption.”  After enumerating a great number of works of public utility which had been approved by the German authorities, construction of light railways, drainage of extensive moors, creation of new plantations, water supplies, etc., ... the report goes on:  “And to-day most of these works, which had been approved and subsidized by the province and by the State, have been suddenly condemned and interrupted.... Such official obstacles to the legitimate and useful activity of our workmen renders still more painful for them, if possible, the measures taken against them by those who reproach them for their idleness and who prosecute them to-day under the pretext of an inaction which they have deliberately created.”