GERMAN ATROCITIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 9140, 14 May 1915, Page 5

GERMAN ATROCITIES.

FiHPORT OF THE BKYCE CGMFvHSSJQN. ■ •A I\ A P PALLIX(! 1 XI) ICTAIKNT. !iiDi'.ons catalogue of OrTRAGE. LONDON, Up? 13. Tho report o'l Lord }tryei'.\s_ Ocimiiis- 1 sior. is l»iiM-:! upon 1200 depositions, «1? taken by n;or. of Wai experience, who were jnsfcriii'iof! not to load witnesses,' I vat i.o impress them with the _ necessity To'- cjirof'wl r.iv! precise eviuon.ee.' I Th<> CnmLi!i',P'OTi' rejected evidence ! which \\:\s ciliated by oscitoTnent or : over-st i"iii»'f? emotion:-',, rind also lioar"■\y ovici'-nc'^.' oxco|H. Wi;ca it'was conifirpitvi h\ (Vvor,t testimony. •• - 'fho iViiX'citics commoncovl on

4. Fifty men, escaping from a burning house lit Merve, were taken outside the town and shot. Even children were killed. i'orty otheis were .siiot at Molen, and there was wholesale slaughter at Miche-roux and Sounuumu. '.these outrages were due to Gei'.u'l'an exasperation at the resistance of iVort Meron, which was barring the main road to Liege. Enraged at their losses, suspicious of the .t^uper of the civilians, and thinking to cow the Belgian nation, the German officers ana' men speedily, accuswuiiied themselves to "the slaughter of CH\uutnss. German diaries showed ifchat uic soldiers' gave themselves up %o debauchery in tne streets of Liege, where ihey raped lo or 20 women in open daylight upon tables in the Place de l'Liiivoraitio. The nigher German military authorities encouraged the stories that German suidiers had their eyes gouged out,' that uitirc had been treacherous murders, iiiur that their food had been poisoned. Tluvse talos were dinned into the e.a\s of the troops for the sake of justifying the measures taken to _ terrify the Belgian population. Individual acts of brutality were very Widely commuted, but the gravest charge against Germany is the killing .of 'civilians as part of a deliberate: plan. "If a line is .drawn from the Belgian frontier to Liege, and continued to Charltijoi, and a- second, line" is; drayrn. from Liege to Malines —along this ir-

regular figure* most of the systematic outrages weve. committed. The first scries ...f outrages was connected with

•the unexpected resistance of Liege. The slaughter from the 19th to the. end of August was due to the later Belgian resistance. Outrages were general while

General yon Buiow and yon Hausen wore attacking Nanuir and Dinarit. An outb.uoC of cruelty followed -tho iielg-ii.ii victory at Malines. Tho Commission was especially impressed by the shocking outrages in the smaller villages, showing that after_the troop:; had been encouraged in\.their career of terrorism, the more savage

and brutal natures committed wild excesses in legions where they were not •subject to observation. Many bodies of dead women at Maliiies bore bayonet wounds, and in several cases thoir breasts had been cut

off. Girls were dragged into fields, where they were stripped and violated, white some wero bayonetted. . A child of three years was found nailed to a i'armiioiise by its hands and feet. When 1500 people from Aersehot were marched to Louvain, some fell by the roadside, whereupon an : officer on a bicyaie. shouted, "Shoot them!"

The devastation of Louvain and the holocaust of the population was due to the Germans' desire to wreak yen-

gean'_e after their defeat. There is no evidence that the inhabitants fired on the Germans, though there is proof that the Germans fired on their own men. Some of the officers said they were acting with great unwillingness, but they would be executed if they disobeyed orders. Diaries show that the Ist Regiment of Foot Guards took 1000 prisoners on August 24, and shot 500. There was one case in which, children were roped: together and used as a military screen. -Three -soldiers ,went into action carrying young children, as a protection against flank fire. The . report concludes: —"Prussian officers regaici war as a sort of sacred mission. Ordinary mortality is superseded by a new standard .-justifying anything which conduces to success, however shocking and revolting it may be. This doctrine, proclaimed by the heads of the German Army, has' permeated the officers, and even, affecced tho privates, leading them to jns+:fy the killing of non-combatanfcs and accustoming thorn to the slaughtering of worn on and children. This doctrine is plainly se t out in the German official monograph upon the usages of war."