BOMBING OF HOSPITAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16870, 7 June 1918, Page 5

BOMBING OF HOSPITAL.

LATEST GERMAN OUTRAGE.

DOCTORS AND NURSES KILLED.

LONDON", May 28. Reuters correspondent at British headquarters states that on Sunday the German airmen bombed a number of British hospitals grouped far in the rear of our line. It is estimated that more than a score of machines participated in the attack. The casualties amount to some hundreds killed and wounded. The machines flew very low. so that it is impossible to believe that the Red Crosses on the white grounds were invisible to them.

One t liree-seater aeroplane was forced t< laud by the anti-aircraft lire, and the three occupauts were taken prisoner, line of these men. a leader of one of the squadrons, cynically argued that it was a pity ne placed our hospitals where it was convenient for the German airmen to bomb them.

Mr. Perry Robinson, the Times correspondent. states that the hospital bombed consisted of a large, group of buildings i overing a great area of ground, all conspicuously marked, and with an entire absence of concealment, making it quite helpless and impossible to miss. It was attacked with tile utmost ferocity. It. was one of the most horrible outrages of the war. proclaiming the Hermans to be lepers outside the pale of civilised nationalities, 'i he scenes inside the tents were most harrowing, and the casualties among nurse-, patients, sisters, doctors, and attendants far exceed the wor.-t London raid.

The tents were tilled with helpless wounded, many unable to lie moved owing to the nature of their injuries. The nurses and sisters walked about smiling and chatting with their poor charges while the bombs crashed, some paying with their lives for their heroism. A number of enemy planes flew low and machinegunned the tent attendants' quarters. Mr. Hamilton Fyfe. Dailv Mail, says that the casualties were euually divided between the patients and the staff; some o' the patients were light-headed and feverish, others bad their liinhs immersed in running water. A b unb fell in the sleeping lints, killing a number of officerssisters, and attendants.

Mr. Peirival Phillips. Daily Exprec-. says that giant aeroplanes were used. In the fracture cases ward, where utterly helpless men were slung in wooden frames to avoid thrv slightest jar. the bombs ,-et the frames and the building rocking, causing the most intense agony. Then a bomb crashed through, killing a number and wounding others.

i lie Times, commenting on the hospital outrage. recalls the German proveib.

"One ha- never «J• •i 1 learning. The Hermans arc bent mi teaching the world that Kipling's i 'la.-.-ific at ion of mankind into human beings and Hermans wa> scientifically exact. The latest German exploit i* on a par with ail the abomina • tio:is which have caused the Henna-: name to slink in the nostrils of humanity since the war began. and will <an.»e it I" ,-tmk while memory endure*. To outrages of this kind there is hilt one answer fierce, relentless war upon the Herman* and their kind till they are utterly vanquished, an i then their 0.-tracism from the s..< iety of civilised nations. The Uoverument must bring home the atrocious crimes of the enemy - committed deliberately and persistently— until every man. woman, and child understands it. ''Herman" is a synonym lor all that is dastardly upon earth. Upon the scientific" felons who know neither truth nor chivalry let there be among the allies a ban outlasting in duration and intensity even the remembrance of chastisement which the allies are more than bound to inflict upon them.