THE LOUVAIN HORRORS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16646, 3 September 1914, Page 7

THE LOUVAIN HORRORS.

DESCRIBED BY AN AMERICAN. DESTRUCTION* DONE SYS- .'" TEMATICALLY. VILLAGES. (Received September 3, 1.10 a.m.) • LONDON, September 2. . ■ Mr Richard-Harding Davis visited Lottvain. He states that President Wilson urges Americans to be neutral, but he.had never,seen the war. It is," said Mr Davis, "right to stand on the-side line if everything is fair, but not if one, man foule and I gouges." ' v j He saw the Germans after the destruction of Louvain like men who had been, through an orgie, laughing hysterically and shouting. The destruction was done systematically and continued for thirty-six hours. The Germans started in the heart of the city and: worked to the outskirts street by street, gathering furniture from church, house and shop, and when they saw the first floor burning they passed on. . •> ' Mr Davis > saw a hundred men led' *way to be shot while an officer stood ftta cart telling their wives, mothers I arid,sisters what was -going to be done. Even the German official report, as given to the American and Spanish Ministers, only stated that the son of the Burgomaster .fired on the chief of staff of the general commanding in Louvaari. If that were true,, the boy should have been shot and the master ended. Instead the general immediately ordered the destruction of'the The whole march of the Germans from Liege to Brussels was a succession •f wrecked villages.