IN THE GERMAN GRIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 137, 9 June 1917, Page 15

IN THE GERMAN GRIP.

A TALE OF SUFFERING AND MISERY. A moving story of tbe sufferings of the people of the French village of Voyennes (now liberated from the enemy) during the German occupation, is told ln the "Dally Chronicle" by Philip Gibbs, whose Information was obtained from the village priest. "For a year," said M. Ie Cure Caron, "my people here have had not a morsel of meat and not a drop of wine, and only bad water, ln which the Germans put their tilth. "'But those things do not matter, those physical things. It was the suffering of the spirit that mattered. And, monsieur, we suffered mentally so much that it almost destroyed our Intelligence, it almost made us silly, so that even now we can hardly think or reason, for you will understand what Is meant to us French people. We were slaves after the Germans came in and settled down upon ns and said—'We are home; all here is ours!' They ordered our men to work, and punished them with prison for any slight fault. They were the masters of our women; they put our young girls among their soldiers, they set themselves out deliberately at first to crush our spirit, to beat us by terroj, to subdue us to their will by an iron rule. THE PROL'D FRENCH SPIRIT. "They failed, and tbey were astonished. 'We cannot understand you people,' they said. 'You are bo proud; your women are so proud.' And that was true, sir. Some women not worthy of the name of French women wereweak —it was Inevitable, alas! — but for the most part they raised their heads and said—'We are French; we will never give in to you, not after one year, or Iwo years, or three years, or four years.' JU*be Germans asked constantly—'When do you think tbe war will end?" We answered — 'Perhaps in five years; but in the end we will smash you.' And this made them very angry, so our people went about with their heads up. scornful, refusing to complain against any severity or any hardship. "Secretly among ourselves it was different. We could get no news for months, except lies. We knew nothing of what was happening. Starvation crept closer upon us. We were surrounded by the ores of hell. As you see, we are In tbe outer section of the great Somme battle line, and very close to it. For 50 hours at a time the roar of guns swept round ns, week after week and month after month, and the sky blazed around us. "We were afraid of the temper of the German officers after the defeat on the Mnrnc, and after the battles of the Somme Germany was like a vrounded tiger—fierce, desperate, cruel. Secretly, though our people kept brave faces, they feared what would happen If the Germans were forced to retreat. "Last §unday a week ago at this very hour, when the people were all in their houses under strict orders, and already the country was on fire with burning villages, a group of soldiers came outside there with cans of petroleum, which they put into the church. Then they set flre to it. and watched my church burn in a great bonfire.' ARRIVAL OF THE BRITISH. "At this very hour a week ago I watched it burn. That night the Germans went away through Voyennes, and early in the morning up ln my attic looking through a pair of glasses I wi- four horsemen ride ln. They were Bridsh soldiers, and our people rushed out to them. Soon afterwards came some Chasseurs d'Afrique, and the Colonel gave mc the news of the outer world to which we now belong after our years of isolation and misery.

"Our agony had ended. The Germans knew they were beaten; monsieur. A commandant of Ham said, 'We are lost.' After the battles of the Somme the men groaned and wept when they were sent off to the front. 'God,' tbey cried, 'the horror of tbe French and British gun fire; oh, Christ save us!' During the battles of the Somme the wounded poured back a thousand or more a day, nnd Ham was one great hospital of bleeding flesh.

"The German soldiers have bad food and not enough of It, and their people are starving as we starved. The German officers behaved to their men with their usual brutality. I have seen them beat the soldiers about the head while those men stood at attention, not daring to say a word, but as soon as the officers are out of the way the men say, 'We will cut these fellows' throats after the war. "We have been deceived. - After the war we will make them pay.' "

So tbe cure talked to mc, and I have only given a few of his words, but what I have given is enough.