GERMAN LIES REFUTED.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12695, 15 November 1915, Page 1

GERMAN LIES REFUTED.

So many stories of imaginary cruelty inflicted on German residents in England, and particularly on German -women find children, have appeared in German newspapers. and been circulated by their means in neutral countries, that the British Home Secretary has seen fit to issue a specific denial to one of the worst of 'these newspaper reports. The official denial is as follows : "The attention of the Home Kecretary has been called to an article in the "National Xeituii",' professing to be bawd on a statement in the New York 'Staatszeituns." which, in its turn, professes to be based on iufoi-million from London, am! which makes a series of untrue stat.'i:> ( • af i about the condition and treatment I of German women and children in London. "This article states, for example, that these women and children are exposed to the fury of the mob whenever they venture out of doors: that they are compelled to beg in the streets; that the hatred of. the English towards them pursues them even to bloodshed: that they wander about the streets of London all day and ask for charity : that the German Hospital is the only place in London where they can receive free medical treatment : that they have been prevented from buying food. etc. The author even goes to such lengths as to state : 'When the mob has a chance it chases them like a wild animal, and the iiolite do not interfere until, in each individual ca.-e. thcy receive orders to do so from their .-lipenor officers; but then it is. as a rule, too late. One must have seen a London mob to believe what it is capable of: it has consideration neither for women nor infants.'. "The falsity of these disgraceful statements is patent to any candid observer of the actual conditions, but it may be well to state briefly what the actual conditions are. Every German woman who desires to return to Germany is given facilities for doing so, together with her children. Arrangements are made for assisting those who have not the means to make the journey, but who none the less wish to go. Nevertheless, thousands of women of German birth have made most urgent application to the British Government to be allowed to stay : and while the general policy is one of repatriation, exceptions have been granted in suitable cases. "The allegation that Gorman women and children are exposed to mob violence, and are not given all necessary protection by the police, is wholly untrue. Had any such instance occurred it must have been known to the authorities, and inquiry .at Scotland Yard shows that no report of any such instance has ever besn received, and no complaint relating to it has ever been made' by anybody. '"After the destruction by the Germans of the lives of many women and children in the Lusitania there was. for a short time, some rioting in certain of the poorer parts of London, anil the destruction of property of some Hernial! shopkeepers. Such conduct was instantly suppressed, and the wrongdoer- were punished. Even at that time no instance is known of any ill-treatment of any German woman or child. Even when popular indignation was deeply stirred by the dropping of bombs upon harmless civil; ins in poor iiir.irters oi' certain towns, and by the destructions of the lives of British women and -children thereby, there has been no disposition to take personal revenge on (U-rinan women and children who happened to be in the neighbourhood. - "The statements with regard to the destitution of these people arc equally false. No doubt many of them have found their incomes reduced owing to tbsir husbands' internment; this is a consequence which is regretted, but unavoidable. But it is untrue that they have lallen into destitution. A German woman who is in want has exactly the ] .■■".mi claim upon the local guardians of i the poor, and receives from ihem the I same measure of relief as an English I woman in similar circumstances.- No in-

- stance is known to the police of a German wom;':ii begging in the streets. It i.--. untrue, to say that the German Hospital is tho only place where they can receive medical treatment: they have the ; unie jiltoss, on tli\- sftinc terms, to «ul hospitals as the' British population themselves. "Tlu> whole of the article is written without any regard to the truth, and is evidently a'u unscrupulous attempt- to in-li'iem-s puS'l i ' opinion in neutral and hostile countries against Great Britain.