CONVICTED OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2428, 6 April 1915, Page 6

CONVICTED OUT OF THEIR OWN MOUTHS.

' ATROCITIES RECORDED IN GERMANS' DIARIES. Under Clause .75 of- the German army service regulations, soldiers aw advised to record their experiences in the form of a diary. The object the military authorities _ had in - view In waking this regulation is to have the diarieß sifted so that any valuable in-' formation they contain, which is likely to prove of service in organising' the next German war, may be collected. The regulation is not obeyed by all the German soldiers, but judging by , the number of diaries which have Been found on German prisoners, a large, number of soldiers are carrying out the practice. But the instructions to beep a diary have had a result which the German military authorities did not foresee. The diaries found on German prisoners • have furnished the Allies with irrefutable testimony ,refarding ths 'atrocities committed 'in 'ranee and Belgium by German soldiers.

Trooper Hassemer, of _ the Eighth Army Corps, recorded in. his diary that at Sommepy on the Marne there was •'a horrible blood, bath. The village burnt and razed to the ground. The Frenoh driven back into the burning houses. Civilians all burnt together. An officer, of the . 178 th Regiment, 12th Army Corps, whose diary has fallen into the hands of the Belgian authorities, gives a description' of the devastated village of Bouvignes, north of Dinant. "Outside in the country the spectacle of the murdered inhabitants lying on the ground baffles all description," he wrote. "The 'firing at close range has nearly, blown their heads off. Each home has been' searched in every corner, and the inhabitants dragged from t-Heir hiding-places, the men shot, the women and children shut up in a convent, from which shot 6 were fired." .

Private "Phillipp, of Khmenzj' Saxony, first : company, first battalion "of tho 178tli regiment, gives in his diary an even more ghastly picture of what took place at this village. "At night, .at 10 o'clock, the first battalion of ths 178 th ivont. down to the, burnt village to the' north of Dinant," he wrote. "A sad and impressive sight which makes one shudder.' At the entrance of the village were lying about 50 men, shot because theyhad been fifing treacherously at our troops. In the night many others were also shot. We were able to count more than 200. Women and children with lamps in their hands were compelled to witness the ghastb scene. We then ate our rice, in , the midst, of 'the corpses, for we lad eaten nothing since morning." ;