SERB WOMEN SHOT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3096, 29 May 1917, Page 5

SERB WOMEN SHOT

GERMAN WRITER WHO "CAST DOWN HIS ETIiS." The Serbian Legation recently issued the following:—A German author, Oscar Maurus Fontana, who accompanied the German Army to- Serbia, publishes in. the German review the "Stage" of January ■la long description of itlio deeds of the German troops on Serbian territory, which is the uioro remarkable because it contains a great number of cynical admissions and "explanations" of the.atrocities committed on the civil population. Among others he describes the following scone:—' -• '

"During a march wo came to a l*?use which was ou fire; that was a signal. Shells were raining on us. The soldiers put out the firo and brought along threo women and au aged Serb whom they had found near the fire. They are accused of having set the house on fire. They reply, 'No.' They are told to confess. They reply, 'Wβ have douo nothing—it was dono by others, it is our own houso which, is burning—it was set alight by other people.' . "They are then asked how many Serbian troops have passed that way. They reply, 'Wo don't know.' Thereupon the commander says, 'Shoot them.' The group stand still. This takes their breath away.- , . "Nobodv tells these women in their own native tongue what is going to be done to them. But they have understood; they cast down their eyes like an animal exnecting a blow; they do not utter a I-sound. A ' momontary .shiver passes through them. They do not lelievo, they do not comprehend; their eyes loojc for deliverance—expect a miracle. They walk slowly, or rather drag themselves; before their condemnation they had looked fixedly at some of us, mutely and without tears, in such a manner that we also had to cast down our eyes. . . . Afterwards tho crackling of the rifles was heard."