MURDER MOST FOUL!

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 165, 2 April 1918, Page 6

MURDER MOST FOUL!

« . AN AMERICAN PREACHER ON THE WESTERN FRONT THINGS SEEN THAT ALL SHOULD REMEMBER (By Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis.) 11. Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis. one of America's foremost ministers, of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn (of which the first pastor was Henry Ward JJcecher), spent July and August in a personal investigation of tho battlefields of France and Belgium from which the Germans had been, expelled. He desired to learn for himself the. • exact conditions and to (and out whether all the reports of German atrocities would be confirmed by a -personal study. Since he returned to America. Dr. Hillis has delivered a number of public addresses. The discourse printed below was delivered from the pulpit at Baltimore to a church packed to the doors. It attracted enormous interest, enabling Americans to grasp the meaning of Prussia's war against civilisation, Christianity and democracy.

To many in Groat Britain the facts sot out by Dr. Hillis are known. But they are not known to all. They should he known to :dl. Once the truth of this indictment sinks into the heart and mind of every citizen, and the date when the war will end is determined. The ivar can only end when the Prussian Government, responsible for these fearful outrages, 5s shorn of its power for evil. "We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose," declared President Wilson, "because we know that in such a Government following such methods we can never have a friend, and that in the presence cf its oiganised power, always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can he no assured security foi the democratic Governments of tho world." i Here are in brief the records of more than a thousand individual atrocities that go with the original photographs, affidavits, and documents resting in the archives of France against tho day of reckoning. Here German efficiency for you —and organised by ( hhte tlev'il him'seill Take, thesci pages found in the diaries of German soldiers, August 22. Notebook cf Private Max Thomas: "Our soldiers are so excited we are like wild beasts. Today destroyed eight houses, with their inmates. Bayoneted two men with their wives and a girl of eighteen. The little one almost unnerved me, so innocent was her expression." Diary of Eitel Anders: "In Vendre all the inhabitants, without exception, were brought out and shot. This snooting Was heartbreaking as they all kiir.lt down and prayed. It is real sport, yet it was ready terrible to watch." "At Haecht I saw the dead body of a young girl nailed to the outside clooi of a cottage by her hands. She was about fourteen or sixteen years ola." Page '21. Affidavits H-R7. In returning from Malines eight drunken soldiers were marching through the street. A little child of two years came out. and a soldier Bkewered the child on his bayonet and carried it awav, while his comrades sane. D. 10-45. Withdrawing from Hofstatle. in addition to other atrocities, the Germans cut off IMb. hands of a boy of si\-te"n.' At the inquest affidavits were taken from twentv-live witnesses; who saw the hoy before he died or just afterwards. .Passing through TTnecht, in addition to the young women whom tf"> Germans violated and killed, affidavits were teken and thn photoT.nphs of a child three venrs old nailc l to n. donr hv i+s hands and feet. Affidavits D. 100-8. Carefully Planned Atrscities. That all these atrocities were carefully planned in advance for terrorising tho people is proved by the fact that on the morning of August 25 the officers, who had received great kindness from Madame Roomans, a notary's wife, warned her to make her escape immediately, as the looting and killing of all the citizens, men. women and children, was about to begin. These records could be multiplied by thousands. Upon the retreat from one oitv alone inques+s weri> held unon the bodies of- over 600 victims, includinrr very aged men and women and babes unborn, removed bv the bayonet from their mothers. Tt i" tV logical result of the charge of the Kaiser te his armv: "Give no nuartor an'l take no prisoners. Let all who fall into your hands be at votir mercv." The Gennril Staff of tho German Army published a renvnm! several years before, fhev began this war. They pxnlicitly eWced their soldiers to break +he will of the peonle hv cruelty. Witness t'""s from the "War Mn-iuol" <"i page 52: "A. war is conducted with pnpi-ofv nierelv against the combatants of the pnemy States n"d the position +bey occupv, but it will and muM i» like manner sepk to d»sirov the total intel'iMtial a .nd material resources of the latter." And witness this injunction to atrocity, page 35: "Bv steeping himself in military history an officpr will lip aide to guard himself against excessive hiimaniterianism. It will tench him that certain severities are indisppnsah'e to war. Humanitarian chums, such as the protection of men and goods. can only be taken into I consideration in so far as the nature an object of the war perI mit." Therefore the War General gave each German soldier his token, largo as a silver dollar, bidding tile soldier "Strike him dead. The Day of Judgment will ask you no questions.'' Jesus said: "Take heed that ye offend not one of My little ones." ' The Kaiser says: "I have done away with Josus's teachings." The Master, who loved the little children, said: "I was an hungered and ye gave Mo no meat. I was athirst and ye gave Me no drink. Therefore, depart from Mo-into everlasting fire, prepared for the dovil and his fellows." Tho War Stan' answers: "Don't be afraid. Look at your token. The Kaiser will take care of you iu tho Day of Judgment. Kill old men and little children, loot merchants' houses, violate women: the Kaiser will sec that the God of Justice asks you no questions." The result was logical and inevitable. Terrorism a Necessary Principle. On August 27 General von Lieber gave out lus proclamation: "The town of Waevre vvill bo set on (ire and destroyed witiiout distinction of persons. The innocent will suffer with the guilty." After this town was destroyed and all tho inhabitants killed, from the diary of a soldier slain on the /retreat wo find this page: "We lived gorgeously ; two or three bottles of champagne at each meal; all the girls we want. It is fir.o sport," Are we surprised that many of the letters and journals taken from the bodies of Germans quote General von ilartman's sentence: 'Terrorism is a principle made necessary by military considerations." German-American objections that these towns were destroyed because the inhabitants had fired upon the invading army from the windows of their houses are conclusively mot and answered by another letter, written by a German officer to his wife: "On approaching a village a soldier is sent on in advance to insert a Belgian rifle in tho -cellar window or stable, and, of course, when this weapon is found wo take it to the Burgomaster and then ■ the sport begins." On a little board in one ruined vil-

liige I read tineso words: "Marie, aged sixteen; dead August "24, 11)15. 'Vengeance is mine; 1 will repay, saitli the Lord.'" The hundreds. of atrocities personally investigated only servo to interpret Ambassador Aiorgeiitb.au's statement as to Armonia—that the Turkish soldiers and German officers massacred hi Armenia half a million people, that tiioy might movo into their farmhouses and little shops and stores. The glory of every great city and country is its scholars, with their love of truth and their stainless lives. We have had our civilisation at the hands of men who loved the truth supremely, pursued the trutli eternally, and cherished the truth above their fear of 'hell or hopo of heaven. The world has its liberty, its science, and its law at the hands of the heroes who preferred the truth above life. Concerning the patriots, the reformers, and the statesmen, we can only say they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were crucified in Jerusalem, poisoned in Athens, tortured in Ephesus, exiled in Florence, burned at the stake in Oxford, assassinated iu Washington. But the iron autocracy and militarism of Germany debauched her university men. Here in my hand is an address to the civilised world, signed by ninetythree German professors. They all receive thoir salaries from State endow-

ments. Any hour the Kaiser can cut off their income. When the indignation of the civilised world flamed out against Germany in the winter of 1915, the German Government asked these professors to sign a document, and these men had been so degraded by the German philosophy of militarism and autocracy that they obeyed—losing their souls to save their salary. And consider what they signed! In the previous August Bethmann-Hollweg issued a statement to the world, saying that, as to the violation of Belgium's neutrality, "the wrong—l speak openly—that we arc committing," etc. Cermany's University Professors Debauched. These ninety-three professors signed a statement, saying: "It is not tmo that we wronged Belgium." In'the Kaiser's address that has been published, ho says: "Give no quarter, take no prisonors. Let all who fall into your hands be at your mercy. Make yourself as terrible as the Huns." Now this address was circulated in postal cards all over Germany. Realising the mistake, these professors sign a statement, saying: "It is not true that our soldiers ever injured the life of a single Belgian." Socrates or Dante, or even Galileo, Savonarola, Milton, Victor Hugo, or Lincoln would have died a. thousand deaths by faggots or upon the rack rather than have signed their names to such a statement—to lies. The Kaiser and Bethmann-Hollweg must have been desperate and bewildered when they had to endeavour to counteract their own documents at the beginning of the war by asking their professors "to contradict those documents during the middle of the war. It makes evorji university professor almost ashamed of his calling. Think of Harnack and Euckcii, with their moral cowardice and their intellectual impotency! Plainly that is what Nietzsche

meant when he said (page 131, "Ecce Homo"): "Every crime against culture that has been committed for 100 years rests upon Germany."

All men lovo their native land, but the Frenchman's love has a uniquo quality. The patriotism of the Englishman is- undemonstrative. The Britisher surrounds his homo and his garden with a high brick wall, conceals his finer feelings from his closest friends, and when he enters his club in Pall Mall and disappears behind the threshhold, the door is closed upon a tomb. The American's patriotism is largely academic; nations! safety through isolation breeds contempt for danger. The time was when his love of country was vociferous on the Fourth of July, but tho enthusiasm has died down, until he is now ready to extinguish even a tirecracker. The occasional speaker deals in historical statements about the four wars fought by our country. But the Frenchman's love of country has a tender, gentle, wooing note. He speaks of La Belle France as Dante spoke ot Beatrice, as Petrarch spoke of Laura, and the name of France lingers upon his lips as music trembles in the air after the song is sung. The reason, doubtless, is found in the fact that the French people have carved tho hillsides and smoothed the valleys and adorned the ridges and mountains with vineyards, until the whole land is_a thing of radiant beauty. It is love that has made France beautiful, just as the lark, after completing tho nest, makes it soft and warm by pulling the down out of her own bosom. The French people love France as an artist loves his own canvas, as Bellini loved the missal he had illuminated, and as that young architect loved the little Roslyn chapel upon whose, delicate capitals he had lavished his very soul. i (To be Continued.)