ZEPPELIN ATTACK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15728, 1 October 1914, Page 8

ZEPPELIN ATTACK.

ATTEMPT UPON ANTWERP. A NIGHT OF TERROR. American papers to hand contain accounts of the German Zeppelin night attack on Antwerp. A protest against the outrage was sent to the New York Herald by Surgeon-Major Louis L. Seaman, of the United States Army, who was with the wounded at Antwerp. He cabled from Antwerp on August 26, as follows:—

" I am with the dead and the wounded of the Zeppelin slaughter. The Germans attacked the sleeping city like a hyena in the night, murdering helpless women and children. In the name of civilisation let America protest. This war is only assassination. I appeal especially to the Peace Society."

Mr. E. do Cartier, Belgian Minister to China, described the bombardment of the Royal palace by a Zeppelin balloon as a deliberate attempt to destroy the living quarters of the structure. In this section of the palace at the time were Princess Marie Jose, Prince Leopold and Prince Charles, children of King Albert. The Princess is eight years old, Prince Leopold is 13, and Prince Charles is 11. The huge airship hovered directly over the apartments of the King and his family, and then dropped a bomb. If the hurler of the missile had not miscalculated the velocity of the wind, which caused the Zeppelin to drift, the explosive would have fallen directly over where the children were sleeping. As it was, the bomb fell about 100 yards away in the Street of the Twelve Apostles. Mr. de Cartier said he was confident that the American Government would realise the inhumanity of this " barbarous method of warfare." King Albert and the Royal family left the palace for secret quarters. Every precaution was being taken to protect the sovereign from peril. One bomb partly wrecked the hospital of Saint Elizabeth, but, fortunately, there were no patients in the building. The bombs exploded with terrific force and threw the inhabitants of Antwerp into a condition of semi-panic.

Tragic Night War. Dr Charles Sarolea, the special correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle, telegraphed the foLowing account of the attack on August 25 :— " 1 have just lived through a most tragic night war. For the first time in history a great civilised community has been bomnamed lroni the sky in the darkness of night. Count Zeppelin, whom Kaiser YViihelm of Germany called the greatest genius of the present century, lias perloaned the greatest exploits ot his lne. He may lie proud ot trio acluevement, for ne lias mangled and slaughtenxi non-Ui-iiigerents, lueii, women and ntue ciiii(iieli. Lie nag Uirown bumo6 on no»pitais, wnere the be.giaiia were Gliding tno German wounueu. He has staggered numanity.

Un august 5 the German commander warned General Leiniau at Liege tnat if vne iorts mere d.<l not surrender a Zeppelin lieet, would move at once on tne torts. .Liege aid not surrender and the tjcimans have been as good as their word, iney iiavo surpassed themselves in tile art of striking terror and lut-y have placed tin luaelvcs ouuside the paae ol humanity. 1 was awakened at one clock tins morning by a lriglitiul cannonade. A Lappeiin nad been sighted about seven bun-' arcd leet above tne town. lat one© went out into tlie streets, and for eleven hours, from one hour alter midnight until noon 1 scarcely left the scene ot catastrophe.

" i have explored every one of the devastated streets. So far I have lound ten bombs in ten different streets. It is impossible yet to get accurate statistics, but according to my calculations there were about nine hundred houses slightly dam. ageo and about sixty nearly destroyed." I

Protest to United States. Belgium filed forma] protest to the United States Government against Ger many's attack on Antwerp with bombs thrown from a Zeppelin airship. Mr. Havenith, xMinieter of Belgium, took the protest; to the State Department, Washington, and filed it with -Mr. Bryan, Secretary of State. Mr. Havenith branded the attack a 'war against women and children." He said the bombs killed ten persons, four of them women, and wounded eight, lie contended that the bombardment wafl a violation of Article 26 of the Fourth Hague Convention. Air. Bryan declined to intimate whether -e United States would take any action m regard to the protest.

MAGNIFICENT, BUT NOT WAR. THE SLAUGHTER AT LIEGE. A Belgian who took part in the defence of Liege thus describes the fighting:— "Some of us late arrivals only managed to get to our posts when the German attack began. It was night-time. We replied sharply with our guns. Until the dawn came we had no very distinct idea of what our practice .was Then we noticed heaps of slain Germans in a semicircle at the foot of our fort. 'Die German guns must have been much less successful, because they rarely hit us that night! They did better at daybreak. We did better still. As line after line of the German infantry advanced, we simply mowed them down. It was terribly easy, monsieur, and I turned to a brother officer of mine more than once and said 'Voiia! They are coming on again, in a dense close formation! They must be mad !' They made no attempt at deploying, but came on, lino after line, almost shoulder to shoulder, until, as we shot them down, the fallen were heaped one on top of the .other, in an awful barricade of dead and wounded men that threatened to mask our guns and cause us trouble. I thought' of Napoleon's payingif ho said it, monsieur: and I doubt it, for he had no care of human life!— magnifique, mais ce 'est pas la guerre! No, it was slaughter—just slaughter! ~

So high became the barricade of the dead and wounded that we did not know whether to fire through it or to go out and clear openings with our hands. We would have liked to extricate some of the wounded from the dead, but we dared not. A stiff wind carried away the smoke of the guns quickly, ami we could see some of the wounded men trying to release themselves from their terrible position. I will confess I crossed myself, and could have wished that the smoke had remained !

" But, would you believe it. this veritable wall of dead and dying actually enabled these wonderful Germans to creep closer, and actually charge up the glacis? Of course, they pot no further than half way. for our Maxims and rifles swept them buck. Of course, we had our own losses, but they were slight compared with the carnage inflicted upon our enemies."

A PEOPLE'S WAR. Ail the British war correspondents agree in declaring that the French soldiers are full of fun; light-hearted, as if they were going to manoeuvres merelv. They do not under-rate the enemy, bat they are inspired by a cheery confidence that they are going to beat him this time. " Excursion to Berlin" some humorist chalked on a troop train leaving Bordeaux. This may be. as a captured Uhlan remarked, an " Offizier-krieg " (officers' war) in Germany, but there is no doubt as to its being in the fullest sense a " volkskrieg" (people's war) in France,