DESPICABLE CRUELTY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 149, 24 June 1918, Page 5

DESPICABLE CRUELTY.

HUN BUTCHERS IN BELGIUM. NIGHT OF TERRIBLE TORTURE. (Received 5.45 a.m.)

LONDON, June 23. 51. Jodin, writing in "LAme Beige" (The "Belgian Soul"), a periodical secretly published in Belgium, describes the sequel to a trial of many civilians at Charleroi. The sentence was not announced to the 19 condemned men, but their families were summoned by telegraph, and each was informed that six would lie shot next morning, and that perhaps their relative would be one. They vainly implored-to know the truth. They were allowed to visit the prisoners, where they wept and lamented. The butchers desired that the cells should echo with the sobs and prayers of all connected directly or indirectly in the sentences, and all- were compelled to suffer awaiting the morning's bloodshed. Wives and children stood all through the night at the prison gates, alternating between infinite despair and groundless hope. Dawn brought the certainty, the fusillade did its work, and only" then were the names of the six announced. — (A. and N.Z. Cable.)