THE STORM BURSTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 101, 26 October 1925, Page 7

THE STORM BURSTS

CORPSE-FACTORY ; STORY

SENSATION CAUSED IN ENGLAND

EVIDENCE FROM GERMAN

SOURCES.

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COr-YMGHT.)

(SIDNEY SU.N CASH.)

(Received 2Gth October, 11 a.m.)

LONDON, 25th October

Mr. Baldwin is intervening in the controversy, aroused by General Charteris's statement in America that tho wartime reports regarding the "conversion" of German corpses for the recovery of fat was his own invention. Nothing will,, however, be dojic until General Chartcris returns. •

The official viewpoint is that no Government could do other than ,dis ; . avow, responsibility for the, invention; of the story. It is pointed out thati • the report that the Germans were utilising human corpses arose from; statements in Germany's own news-' papers. ' j The-".Lokalanzeigcr*s" war corres-' pondent, on -10th April, 1917, referred to a great corpse conversion;, establishment at Evergnicourt. Tba ■ word used was "kadj.ivervenvertu.ng-:-sanstalt." Similar statements appeared in other German, newspapers. 1 The British captured and photograph-; kaUy : reproduced an order to the Sixth „ German Army,. dated 21st .December, 1916, reading: 'fit is sary again to draw attention to the fact that when corpses arc delivered ■to corpse ..utilisation establishments, details arc to accompany -.thorn,, showing which troops .and. units they arc rfrom, the date of. death,. aaul illness; also_ information -regarding epidemics;'^ A : search of: i the war museum lias failed-to reveal the forged - diary ; to .which • General: Chartcris referred to-in,-his speech.

"STUNNING DECLARATION"

In a newspaper dispatoh, Sir Sydney 'Low, an ex-member ,of Lord NorthelifiVs .propaganda, committee,: states: "Our main guiding rule.was to tell; the truth, though,not the whole .truth, which-.was impracticable in time of .war. We did not invent,,or knowingly circulate, falsehoods. Accordingly, J ..am utterly confounded by General-Charteris's stunjuiug declaration that he, when oiuo of .'the' .heads of ithe Intelligence Department; deliberately forged one of. the.,most ■terrible-indictments of Geirman i.brutality and callousness. When the .Germans explained that the corpse 'factory-disposed of animals--and not of humans, I accepted-thci denial. The' ■ question was never ■ sell Jed, ■ because 1 the Germans refused to allow neu-. trals to examine the .fat from the' corps'os. If ■General Cha.Tteris's ver-i sion is correct, we owe Germany an' apology, and it should'-be .fully and! frankly given.' 1 ' ' j FOUND AT ST. QUENTIN I A Tank Corps officer, in a letter' to the "Dispatch," .-recalls that dur- ; I iugtho battle.of St.-QiU'ntin in ,1918,' he found an underground tunnel,near, the 'St. Quentiu Canal, containing 1 huge vats, one of which contained! :throe :iiakcd .Germans. The corpses' were bound .together with wire. An-; other .vat .was three-quarters full of' an unspeakably horrid liquid, in which -was a body stripped to .the waist, lie says, "I .firmly believe it! was a. corpse conversion factory, a,]-: though the Germans stated it was a.! kitchen which a shell had destroyed. >>(l