HOW GERMANS HAVE MADE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 244, 12 October 1918, Page 21

HOW GERMANS HAVE MADE WAR.

80ME PAST INCIDENTS rN THE BHSTOBX OF TOE HDK, tie world has stood agnast at the toners perpetrated during the last four 7«ra fey the "'disciples of Knltur" —horrors ■TfiWi (It has been popularly declared) are •toohitely without precedent. Such, howWγ, is far from being the case. A writer in a Birmingham, paper recently dug sutnevhat extensively into the historic past of Geaaanj, and ohe following incidents he Iw eelected from a host of others of a risiilir nomber, as illustrating the methods Oie "gentle and gentlemanly" German has »4opted In order to "get one better" than hie enemy. As will be noted, the incidents over a period of about eleven hundred ?•»!*, and there is a somewhat remarkable "family likeness" running through the whole series. They tell their own story »8d point their own moral, so that further wnmeiit is quite unnecessary. Incident I.—Louis, sou of Charlemagne (4.D. 814-840), regarded his nephew Bernard (the son of his elder 'brother) a* a dangerone rival. He ordered hie wife, the Empress Irmganj, to send for the young man, with the solemn assurance that he would be allowed to come and return Iα perfect safetj. Bernard came accordingly, and lonis caused his eyes to be torn out in so terbarooe a fashion that he died a few days afterwards. Incident ll.—lothiar (the son of Louis) revolted against his father, and, after a tsharp »iege, took the city of Chalons, T*lch sided against him, and which was defended *y Duke Bernard, one of the Kfflperor'e counsellors. On his entry into the town Lothair murdered liernard'n son. Hl« daughter, a schoolgirl in the Couvent, ■waa dragged from her sanctuary, fastened "P in an empty wine cask, and thrown fpom the city walls into the river. Incident 111.-nHenry the Sixth (A.D. IMS) qnelled a revolt against his rule with * 'miliar fist." Count Jordan, one of the 'ebel leaders, -was punished by being placed °a a red-hot iron throne and having a *rt*«t i ron crown nailed to hia head. His colleague, Richard, Count of Palermo, was «ed to the tall of a horse, dragged through We streets of Capua, and afterwards hanged «y one leg to a gallows. Here lie remained " two days, until the King's f no l put an en «J to hie agony by mercifully tvin- a great "tone to his neck. Incident IV.-In the aiussite warp (early niteenth century) zi ska , a one-eyed leader «tlie Bohemians, burned two hundred W»Ple in the church at Brod. The eecre•ry to the Chapter at Prague had the to fall into the hauds of this "Wy" ohnmpion," and was tortured by "wng his deifh torn off by pincers, and 4S afterwards roasted In a tar ■barrel. At men, women, and children were "ea to the blazing cathedral and burnt

: Incident V.—ln 1525 the Peasant Army " j ca-ptured Weinsburg. They then formed irp lin two lines, armed with swords, scythes, pitchforks, and other rustic weapons, and j their pri-wners Tvere made to run do-wn 1 the Line thus formed, to be hacked to pieces Iby the vktors. The Countess of Helferj stein, carrying her taby, flung herself at ■' commander, pleading for the life of her irasbamL "Friends," shouted "Little .Tack," "behold how I treat the daughter of an ' Knrperor!" He threw her down and knelt on her breast. The child was wounded by a eword-prlck and the Wood spurted over the Countess' face. She was then ' held up that she might witness her hus- ; band's murder. Finally, a cart was heaped ■ with dune, the Countess and her wounded ; child were mounted on it aud driven a.Tvay 1 'midst the jeers aud laughter of the mob. 1 'I/Uther wrote a pamphlet against the 1 Peasants, in whicji he called on the princes 1 and rulers of Ocrmany "to strangle and ; stab them, eren as a man would a mad 1 dog"! Incident VI —Count Tilly (KfcO) took ' i the city of Magdeburg after a severe : struggle and a siege by a force of Croatian ' mercenaries. For two days after the city 1 had fallen Tilly left the victorious army ■ entire liberty to loot, burn, massacre an 1 they pleased. On the third day, when he 1 made his triumphal entry, the stark bodlee '■ of 20,000 civilians lay in the streets. t Incident VII.—In the Frau co-Germ an war I (IS7O-J) the victorious army used the most i "barbaric methods." Towne, villages, and i hamlets were swept out of existence. The penalty for cutting telegraph wire or tor I damaging railway tracks was the taking of i ten men from the nearest village and , ehooting them the slightest i semblance of a trial. The whole of the > country from the Jlhine to Paris was swept ) bare. All men fonnd with arms were shot . out of hand. Brutality, bestiality, were , unchecked. I '.Such are a few specimens from the i inexhaustible past of Germany. Yet is It ) a moot question 'whether she has not i "improved" on her former methods— ! whether, indeed, she has not only "broken , , all records," hot reached —the "limlf'l