HUMANITY STAGGERED.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 15 October 1914, Page 3

HUMANITY STAGGERED.

NIGHT OP TERROR

"I have just lived through the most tragic night of the* war," wrote. Dr. Charles Sarolea to the London Daily Chronicle on August 25.

. "For the first time in history a great civilised community has been bombarded from the sky in the darkness of night. . Count Zeppelin, whom the Kaiser called the greatest genius of the century, has performed the greatest exploit of his life. He may well be proud of his achievement. He has mangled and slaughtered non-belligerents— men, women, and children. He has thrown Bombs on hospitals where the Belgians were tending German wounded; he has staggered humanity.

"On August 5 the German commaiir der warned General Leman at Liege that if the forts clicl not surrender the Zeppelin fleet Avo^'id i:iov© at once. The forts of Liege did net surrender, and fche Germans have been as good as their word. They have surpassed themselves m the art of striking terror, and they have placed, themselves outside the "pale of humanity.

"I was awakened at 1 o'clock this morning by a frightful cannonade. A Zeppelin had been sighted about 700 ft above the town. I at once went out into the streets, and for 11 hours—from one hour after midnight until. noon— I have scarcely left the scene of the catastrophe.

I "I have explored every one of the devastated streets. So far I have found ten bombs in ten different streets. It is ♦JmpossibFe as yet to get accurate statistics. In my calculation there are about 900 houses slightly damaged and about 60 houses nearly destroyed.

"The number of victims is unknown. In a single- house I found four dead. One room was a chamber of horrox-s, the remains of the mangled bodies being scattered in every direction. In the house opposite a husband and wife, whose only son had just died in battle, were killed —a whole family wiped out.

"The Place Dv Poids.Publique, where the tragedy happened, surpasses in horror .anything I have ever seen. I .brought the King's secretary, with me. It is :significarit that the' Zeppelin bombs were:,all aimepL 'at public; buildings,, at the barracks, at the Government offices and especially at the Royal Palace. 1 was given by the King's secretary two fragments of a bomb that had been found a few yards from the. palace.

"In order that all the Governments

of Europe and America should be informed, from ocular evidence, about this great German crime, and in order tliat the whole Diplomatic Corps might issue a joint protest against this outrage to the law of nations, I prevailed on the following to accompany me through the town: The TJnder-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Baron van der Elst, the Papal Nuncio, the Russian Ambassador (Prince Pougatchef), the Ministers of State, Vandervelde, Hymans, and Count Goblet d'Alviella, the King's secretary.

*"They were all terror-stricken. Prince Pougatchef was so horrified that he refused to follow me into the chamber of horrors. The population is in gloom; the, Zeppelin tragedy eclipses for the moment even the great battle which is being* fought in Brabant and Hainault."