EXPERIENCES IN LENS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16665, 9 October 1917, Page 6

EXPERIENCES IN LENS.

— --*■ . 3 GERMANS BLOW UP BUILDINGS. • The French deputy, M. Basly, v£ho is also Mayor of Lens, has reached Paris with a convoy of persons evacuated from the ' occupied districts by the Germans. He . was removed from Lens on. April 12 at the time when the British offensive was 3 causing the enemy a great 'deal of anxiety. 1 The Germans only allowed the party of ' which M. Basly was a member ' a few - minutes to pack up and, leave. The ( journey of; 11 miles between Lens and Dourgea w3s made on foot in a snowstorm J and terribly cold weather. The next aay the party had to wait five hoars at the railway station of Dourges without a fire 1 before leading for Belgium, in cattle trucks - with disgustingly-filthy floors, in which they had to stand for 22 hours, until they ■ , reached Havelahge, "where they were kept , until August 4, on which date they were ,■ repatriated. Speaking of General Klotz, whose, army , occupied Lens, M. Basly says:— This 5 Klotz had a truly German souL One day i I objected to his demand? on the ground t that they were opposed to the provisions of the Hague Conventions. He replied, contemptuously and jeeringly, 'The Hague Conventions are for us, and not for you.' As the Germans will not fail to make out • that it was the, British artillery which completely "destroyed Lens, I make a joint ! ot denouncing now the acts of devastation .scientifically committed by the Germans. Thus they blew up a church, a theatre, the Banque do France, and the new Hotel ■ de Ville. There was nothing that they i did not carry away, even down to the rails • from the. railways. ~ L "The hope of liberation never for a moment abandoned us, and on , several occasions during the violent pushes of" the English troops we believed deliverance to be imminent. I made an energetic protest against evacuation. Only three hours before our departure we wero ordered to be ready, and as we were not we were expelled by soldiers. Before leaving I demanded the municipal funds. The com* • mander sent them to me some days later, but of the £20,000, £3920 was missing, When we left, on April 11 the Germans blew up the arched caves where the Banque de France'had taken refuge { as j well as the church and the municipal offices. They blew up the mines as far ] ' back as 1915. There were no deportations , of women from Lens. " Every morning from seven to ten 1 o'clock the Americans and Dutch 'sent in 1 supplies and, the English interrupted their j , bombardment meanwhile. The remainder " . of the time we stayed in our caves. Since 3 our evacuation we have lived in camps at Maffe, near Namur, where we suffered ' 'terribly from hunger." I ! ■