GRUESOME WAR STORY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19617, 22 October 1925, Page 9

GRUESOME WAR STORY

ITS ORIGIN REVEALED. TOR CHINESE CONSUMPTION. Pres* Association— By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, October 20. “Tho story of Germany boiling down tho bodies of her dead soldiers during the World War to utilise the fata lor fertilisers was started as a bit of British propaganda in China,’ said BrigadierGeneral J. V. Charteris (who during tho war was chief of the British intelligence unit, and who was the author of the story), when he revealed the origin of tho ‘tale for the first time in a talk to the National Arts Club. “When England was worried over the seeming pro-German proclivities in China,” said the general, “1 concocted the idea of switching the titles of two pictures taken from dead German soldiers. One bore the caption and showed a train of dead horses being taken to the fertiliser factories. The other was one depicting dead German soldiers being taken to the rear for burial. Labelling the dead soldiers with the caption ‘Cadaver,’ I sent it to the Chinese newspapers and then forgot about it. However, tho story swept over tho Continent, arousing England, so that eventually it was the subject of a debate in the House of Commons.”—‘Reuter.