A DREADFUL PICTURE FROM SERBIA

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2673, 20 January 1916, Page 6

A DREADFUL PICTURE FROM SERBIA

STORY OF AUSTRIAN ATROCITIES (From a Correspondent of Tee Dominion). Salonika, November 11. [As tho cable reports come, to band telling of the cruelty of tlie Austrians to the Serbs our readers for some reason or other are apt to think that in 6ome cases tho accounts aro exaggerated—that it would be impossible for human beings to stoop so low as to commit on their fellow creatures the atrocities reported. The following description of tho conditions which have obtained in Serbia more or less from the commencement of tho war will, however, convince the most sceptical. It comes to band from a New Zealander attached to the Now Zealand forces in Salonika, and contains the identical particulate given him by one who bas been connected with relief work in Serbia since the early part of this year. She account will be the more interesting to our readers as our correspondent's informant left London to work in the despoiled land of our Ally, with fundls which had been sent from Gisborne, in New Zealand, for relief purposes in Serbia,]

From almost the commencement of the war it will be remembered that the Austrians invaded the north-west portion of the country, and consequently the northwest districts have suffered more than other portions. At the time of invasion the corn was just ready for harvest. The harvesting was carried out by the Austrians very rapidly, the grain going to fill large storehouses in their country. The sheep, cattle, and - all other grazing stock were all driven off,' simply as a matter -of course, ■ and even the fowls : were pillaged. This did 1 not happen merely in a few isolated cases. Every farm .was treated in a similar manner, and a farmer who was missed was indeed very lucky. All this time the people had been looking on with evident alarm. Thov had expected when the war commenced that it would at least be carried oh in a civilised way, and! rightly considered that surely if their enemies invaded their country they would_ treat with respect the property of their conquered foes. They, however, describe the sweeping of their land in the above way as if it was actually part of the conquering. The lands and storehouses having been completely "swept," the Austrians now turned their attention ,to other booty. In Shabatz, a town in' the north-west of Serbia, there were eight banks carrying on business, and in. every building all the safes were broken into and the contents removed, presumably to help defray the cost of the war. In one bank alone two million francs were confiscated. This procedure was adopted in every town invaded. Attention was nest drawn to the shops and public buildings, and it is said that a special appliance was brought from Austria to facilitate the opening of tho shutters of' the Serbian shops. Nothing of value -was left, and the roughest methods were adopted in extracting the booty from the buildings. In Shabatz 'safes which have been broken open now are to be seen outside the buildings all over the town, and one of the sights of Shabatz to-day is the number of safes lying about. To . show how intentional it was for the invaders' to loot whatover of value they came across, our correspondent's informant told the following narrative:—"l came across some Austrian prisoners further south who were being held by the Serbians. 'Whydid you break so many safes open?' I asked; to find-'out, if possible, some of the instructions which must hdvo been given to the pillagers, from their officers. 'Oh!' replied one broad-shoulder-ed Austrian, 'the people had left them lockedl.' The seriousness-of the Austrian as he made this remark convinced me more than if he had given me a score of instructions that the order li'ad been passed—'Pillage everything.' "

After Pillage—Massacre. But the worst has to come —the brutal massacres of old men and women and little babes, whose cries for pity will, it is. hoped, never cease unftil the Austrian nation is i humiliated hi the dust. Never has history had such a tale of crime to tell during its long annals—never did ignorant heathen net with such ruthlessness as is laid at the door of so-called Christian Austria. Now that the property had been carried off, including in most cases the household furniture, utensils, etc., the Austrians started a campaign of systematic villainy and bloodthirsty revengo, the poor victims being for the most part the old men and women, invalid soldiers, and little children. In Shabatz, the town already mentioned, 1500 such people were hounded together and driven into a church which had been partly destroyed by shells. This church had a seating capacity of 500, yet these 1500 prisoners were kept locked up inside for three days and three nights, without either food or . drink— babes were born there, mothers died from lack of. medical aid, and many of the' weaker little ones died from exhaustion. At the expiry of this period 150 were picked out from tho prisoners and deliberately shot 'beneath the church walls (this number' ■ included women as well as men), thereafter being thrown into a pit. Those of the balance who remained alivo were taken to Austria and treated as so-called hostages. ' In tho school at Prenjavor 49 people were locked up, and the school set on fire,-with the consequence that not one escaped, all the forty-nine being burned alive. In another house in the same town about 150 people were treated in a: similar manner, their remains being simply strewn along the roadside. In Lesiutza about 120 people were driven together on the side of a bank,' on the top of which ran the railway line. The men, who were all over 50 years of age, were compelled to dig a largo hole, oil completion of which the whole number were shot, and tho earth simply shovelled over their bodies. Thus the murderers roved about from village to village, and everywhere they went "ran blood" —tho blood of tho poor Serbian victims. .

The saddest story perhaps is that of an old man of 70; who was shot dead before his house. The poor, sorrowing wife, heart-broken with grief, managed to totter into the house with the poor mangled body. It was dusk, and she had lighted a candlo and sat mourning besido the body. Presently the sound of the Austrian soldiers wore again heard. The old woman left tho body of her husband, and hid under a bed in another part of the, house. Tho house was then searched and after she had been found she was beaten most unmercifully, and finally dragged to the room where the body lay, and the prostrate form was again riddled with shots before her very gazo. When the people of the village heard what was going on they fled for safoty to the house of one of the oldest inhabitants. Atiqut .fifty people, mostly women and children, arrived at this house, an 3 liid in different rooms. The Axistriaus, however, were not long in gaining admission, and immediately dragged all out into the courtyard, where a mock trial was conducted. After this they were all taken again into tho house, and every singlo person, malo and female, was bayoneted and thrown simultaneously down a. trapdoor which led to a cellar below the floor of the house. Not even poor babes w'ero spared, and one was actually bayoneted, while it clung to its pother's bjeast. Af.ter the «Mers.

had gone, some of the, villagers went to tho cellar, and only tweuty-ono out of the fifty remained alive. 1 , In another town the Austrian soldiers placed poisonous mixtures into tho chemicals, and the narrator of those details saw the actual order by an Austrian official for this nefarious scliemo to be put into action. It had apparently been mislaid by the perpetrators, and fell into the-hands of the intended victims. . The above aro only a few of the atrocities that were committed, bub quite enough to show that tho despoiling of Serbia by the Austrians was nothing short of systematic pillago and barbarous murder.