THE DESPOILING HUN

Evening Star, Issue 16559, 19 October 1917, Page 4

THE DESPOILING HUN

An English officer, writing to some relatives in tho United States on the eve of that country joining the allied cause, thu3 comments on the devastation and savagery of the Germans when they were compelled to vacate regions in Northern France wlvch. they had occupied for two and a-half years. "I want to tell you how delighted we all are over here that your great country has joined France and ourselves in this big world-struggle for freedom. It has cheered us all in the big task wo are carrying out, and wo all look forward to seeing the Star Spangled Banner. Did I_tell you that in my own regiment (the ) I commanded for four months an American company? Ther<> were 220 of there—every <rao n. U.S.A. citizen, but calling themselves Canadians, English, or anything else in order to enlist anc. fight. And well they have fought. I havo seen some of these American lads during the last month. Some havo won decorations, others have made tho greatest sacrifice. o( all. Those that remain are as proud at can be that America is now taking "part. "I must not say just where I am situated at, present, but it is close, up to tho muchadvertised ITindenburg line. I wish you could see the liberated country through wlich we have been pushing back the German rearguards. I have been in village after village whore never a shell lias fallen a<nd where -no fighting has taken place. Every house in them has been blown up, every scrap of furniture either carted away op burned after being smashed, and every singl« frmt tree chapped down. In most cases cvwi tho ordinary trees around cemeteries and by the roadside have shared the same fate, and I havo walked through many trampled gardens where even each rose treo has been broken off short near the roots. EVcry church I have seen has been blown up, and at one place that T was at a week ago every decent-looking grave had been rifled. Yet. in thnss very churchyards the Germane have always left one beautifuly-kept part where tbeir own dead-are buried. In many cases artificial wreaths, flowers, and even tombstones have been taken from the French graves to put on those of the German soldics. Tliev trust us to show the respect and honor to the dead that they themsclvc* havo never .eihown to others. "You have to see all this to believe it. for really the sight of these once beautiful villages in thi? countryside all delibcratelT destroyed without any military necessity makes one wonder if ,one is fighting men or devils. "After a year's fiehtins? against the Turk I say without hesitation that, with all h'» natural fanaticism and crueltv to non-Mon-lero.s, be is a, far cleaner fighter than theGerman, arod less cold-blooded.- I know that most of my men felt quite kindly tolerant toward 'Johnny Turk" when not actually firfvhng him. and when he was wounded or a prisoner they would give him their last drop of water or cigarette. After seeing those wrecked home 3, however, much tho size of their own bouses in England, they aro beginning to regard tfh» Germans as beasts." •