HUN ATROCITIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9043, 14 May 1915, Page 6

HUN ATROCITIES

SHOCKING JiEVEUTIOHS U- Telegraph—Press Ab-o'm'?t : '’.’'-Copyr : atl LONDON, May 12. A Blue Book containing the, report of the Commission, headed by Viscount Bryce, ivtiicli inquired into the alleged atrocities "by Germans in Belgium, has linen published. Jt states that it has pruned that there wore deliberate, systematic. and organised massacres ol tho civil population in many parts of Belgium. Women and children had been used as a shield by advancing Germans. Murder, lust, and pillage prevailed on a scale unparalleled in any war by civilised nations during the past throe centuries. SLAUGHTER AND RAPE liy Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright (Deceived May Id, 8.80 p.m.) LONDON, May 13. Viscount Bryce’s report is based on twelve hundred depositions, all taken hv men of legal experience, who were instructed not to lead witnesses, but to impress. them, with the necessity for careful and precise evidence. They rejected evidence which was tainted by excitement or overstrained emotions, also hearsay evidence, except when confirmed hy direct testimony.

The atrocities commenced on tho fourth of August, when fifty men, ■escaping from a, burning house at Horve. were taken outside tho town and shot.

Even children were killed. Forty others were shot at Melen. There was wholesale slaughter at Micheroux and Sonina line. These outrages were duo to the German exasperation at tlio resistance of fort Fleron. which was barring tlio main road to Liege. Enraged at their losses, suspicious of the temper of the civilians, and thinking to cow the Belgian nation, the Gorman officers and men speedily accustomed themselves to the slaughter of civilians. A German diary shows that the soldiers gave themselves up to debauchery in the streets of Liege. Thev raped fifteen or twenty women, in the open day, upon tables, in , the Place de I’Universitie. THE GRAYEST CHARGE. The higher military authorities encouraged the soldiers. Stories of German soldiers’ eyes hang gouged out. that there had been treacherous murders, and that food i vas poisoned were tales dinned into Oho cars of the troops for the sako of .ustilying the measures taken to terrify the population. i Individual acts of brutality were i ■rory widely committed, hut the gravest jhargo against Germany is the killing af civilians, which was part of a deliberate plan. If a lino were drawn from the Belgian frontier to Liege and continued to Charleroi, and a second line drawn from Liege to Maliues, along this irregular figure most of the systematic outrages were committed. The first scries of outrages was ■ connected with the unexpected resistance at Liege. 'The slaughter from the nineteenth to the end of August was clue to the later Belgian resistance. The outrages were general while General Von Buiow and General Von Hausen wore attacking Namur and Dinant. An outburst of cruelty followed the ‘Belgian victory at Malines. HOW WOMEN AVER® TREATED. The committee was especially impressed by the shocking outrages in the smaller villages, showing that after tlio troops had been encouraged in their .career of terrorism, their more savage itnd more brutal natures prompted them to commit wild excesses in tlio regions not subject to observation. Hanv bodies of dead women were found at Malinos with bayonet wounds. In several cases the breasts wore cut oft. Girls were dragged to a field, stripped and violated, and some were bavoneted. A child of three was found nailed in a farm house by the hands and feet. ' When fifteen 'hundred people at Aorshot were marched to Louvain, rnd some fell hv the roadside, an officer on a bicycle shouted: “Shoot them.” WREAKING VENGEANCE. The devastation of Louvain and the holocaust made, of the population was due to the Germans’ desire to wreak vengeance after their defeat. There is no evidence that the inhabitants fired on the Germans, though there is proof that the Germans fired ■on the Germans. Some officers said they were acLr.g with great unwillingness, but that ■they would be executed if they did not obey. Diaries show that the first regiment of Foot Guards took one thousand prisoners on the twenty-fourth of August and shot five hundred. There was a case of children who were roped together and used us a military screen. . Three soldiers went into action carrying young children for protection ; against flank fire. MORALITY SUPERSEDED. The report concludes; “Prussian officers regard the war as a sort of sacred mission, and ordinary morality is superseded by a. new standard justifying anything which conduces + o the Germans’ success, however shocking and revolting. This doctrine, proclaimed by the heads of the array, permeated the officers and even affected the privates, leading them to justify the killing of non-combatants, and accustoming them to the slaughtering of women and children. “This doctrine is plainly set out in the German official monograph upon the usages of war.” PRISONERSJN GERMANY TYPHUS IN TEN CAMPS. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright -• (Received May 13, 11.45 p.m.) LONDON, May 13. The American Ambassador in Berlin, Mr Gerard, has reported to Sir ] Edward Grey that typhus has broken : out in ten camps in Germany where British and Indian troops are prisoners.