BRUTAL CONDUCT OF THE GERMANS IN FRANCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15718, 19 September 1914, Page 7

BRUTAL CONDUCT OF THE GERMANS IN FRANCE.

GALLANT FRENCH BOY'S REVENGE ON CAPTAIN.

GERMAN SHOT FOR AIDING WOUNDED ENEMY. Paris, September 17. A French sergeant, who was lying in a house wounded, was maddened at a German lieutenant's insults to a Frenchwoman. He seized a revolver and shot the lieutenant, whereupon the captain ordered the arrest of 15 miners, whom he accused of firing on Germans. They, were taken in couples and shot. While the wounded sergeant lay on the ground awaiting his turn, a lad named Emile Despres, age 14, gave him a glass of water, . Th« German captain beat Despres with the flat of his sword, and "said that he would be shot with the rest. Finally only Despre3 and the sergeant remained alive. The lad's eyes were bandaged, and he was made to kneel. The captain waited a few minutes and ordered the bandage to bef removed.. He then said: "You wanted to give the sergeant a drink, give him a bullet instead. Your life will be spared if you kill him." The boy pretended to aim the rifle at the sergeant, but turned and killed the captain instead. Despres and the sergeant were immediately riddled with bullets and stabbed with bayonets.

After a fierce fight in the Vosges a German found a French soldier unconscious, shouldered him, and was conveying him to an ambulance, when another German soldier, shouting, " You are carrying a dirty Frenchman," shot the German in the back. Bearer and burden fell and lay side by side for long hours until rescued on the arrival of French troops, They were sent to a hospital in Savoy, and arc now lying in adjoining beds.