SELF-CONVICTED.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 72, 25 March 1915, Page 7

SELF-CONVICTED.

r%ERMAN SOLDIERS' EESeELATIONS.'

A-fruitful.-publication shearingson the question of atrocifies and breaches of the daws of war committed by the German troops in France and Belgium reaches us from Paris. It consists of a pamphlet of 40 pages, cntitted Crimes Allemands d'apres des. Temoignages Allemands," prepared by-Professor Joseph Bedier, of the College-dc .France, and published by the Libnairie Armani Colin, Park, at 50 centimes. In this little work there are green«a number of extracts from the diaries of German soldiers which have fallien into the hands of the French,. aJong with facsimile reproductions ot;rtbe pages from, which the extracts are /taken. MASSACRE OF<CIVIXJANS. The first extract comes from a soldier of the 32nd Reserve Regiment of Infantry. 4th Reserve Cbrps: "3 September, Creil.—The iron bridge blown up. Because «of this the streets, set on fire, and civilians shot!" The bridge had been blown up by the retreating French "troops. ThY murdered civilians had'teothing to do with its destruction. A similar incident is related by a soldier named Hassemer, of the Sth Corps. "3/9/14. At Sommepy (Marne). — Horrible slaughter (Em schreckliches Blutbad.) The village burnt down; the French thrown into the burning houses. Civilians and all burnt together." The next extract, from -the diary of a Saxon-officer of tee ITSth .Regiment list Saxon Corps), describes on 26th August "the fine but-sad spectacle" he witnessed in a village north of Dinant—apparently Ardennes, which has furnished material for one of the. most harrowing- reports of the Belgian Commission. "At the entrance to tbe village there lay the bodies of some oOvillagers, who had been shot for having treacherously fired upon-our troops. In-xbe course of the night-many more were<shot, so that we could count more than 200. Women and children, with lamps«in their hands, were forced to witness this horrible spectacle. Then we ate-our rice in the midst of the corpses: we had eaten nothing since morning." WOMEN HANGED. Another diary relates- how a German soldier had his first sighi-of war. "Langeviller. 22nd August.—Village destroyed by the 11th Pioneers. Three women hanged on trees. These .are tbe first dead I have seen." Another entry in the*same diary, entered eight hours later,, reads.: — "We have destroyed-eight houses with their inhabitants. In one-of these alone two men with their wives* and a daughter. 18 years old, were bayoneted. The girl filled mc with sorrow, she had such an innocent appearance: but one can do nothing to stop a crowd whose passions have been excited, for at such times they are not men but beasts." The extracts relating to this subject may be closed with one penned by the reservist Schlauter, 3rd Battery, 4th Regiment of Artillery of the Guard: — "23rd August. In Belgium.—Of the inhabitants of the village 300 have been shot. Those who survived the volley fire were commandeered to dig the graves. You should have seen the I women then; but nothing else could be done. In our march on Wilot things went better. The inhabitants -who wished to leave were allowed to go where they pleased. B»rt whoever fired was shot. As we left Owele the muskets chattered; but the—fire, women, and the rest of it"! These last words, though phrased with intentional ambiguity, tell their own tale. NO QUARTER TOiPRISONERS. Professor Bedier also furnishes evidence relating to the treatment of prisoners and wounded. He gives the text of an order which was issued on 26th August by General Stenger, commanding the 58th German Brigade:— ""From to-day onwards no more prisoners are to be taken. AH prisoners are to be slain. The whether with or without weapons, to be slain. Even the prisoners grouped into bodies [for convoy] arc to he slain. We leave no enemy alive behind us.—(Signed) Oberleutnant und Stoy; I Oberst und Regiments—Kommandeur [Neubauer; General-Major und Brigade j Kommandeur Stenger." j "It is true." says M. Bedier, "that I ' cannot produce the autograph of Gene- | ral Stenger. and it does not fall to-me to I reveal the names of the German -pxisonj ers who have given evidence in connec- ! tion with the matter." But, he asI serts, "thirty soldiers of Stertger's bri- ! gade have been interrqgaied at our j 'depots de "prisonniers.' I have read | their depositions. All •ayrree that this j order was actually transmitted to-them on August 26th; in oner-corps by Major Mosebach. in another by Lieutenant I Curtiu, and so forth. Most of them j profess not to know whether the order was put in execution. But three nf them say that it was given effect to under their eyes in the forest of Tbiaville. where ten or twelve wounded Frenchmen, who had previoirsly been taken prisoners by one battalion, were finished off. Two others-saw the order carried into execution along the ThiavUle road, where some wounded, discovered in tbe ditches alongside by a company on the march, were likewise dispatched."