ALLEGED ATROCITIES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8413, 12 January 1899, Page 4

ALLEGED ATROCITIES.

The following appeared in a recent issue of the Hong Kong Daily Press : — We have had placed at our disposal a copy of a telegram in Spanish, evidently intended for the Madrid press, in which allegations of cruelty are made against the Philippine troops recently operating in the north of Luzon. Our Manila correspondent mentioned in his letter of Oct. ]fl that Leybe, who is well known in Hong Kong had been sent by Aguinaldo in charge of an expedition to attack the cities in the extreme north of Luzon, that he had brought the district completely under the control of the insurgents, and that in his report he mentioned the capture of 124 friars and lay brothers, many Spanish soldiers with their arms and property, nnd silver and valuables to the amount of 800,000 dollars. It is in these operations that the atrocities are alleged to have been committed, but the allegations, of course, come from the Spanish side, and are probably exaggerated. The telegram translated reads as follows :— " The news received of the Tagal invasion of the towns of Ctigaynn is horrible, Apnrri and other places, in the absence of Spanish troops, and relying upon the promise of the insurgent chiefs that the lives and property of persons of all classes would be respected, surrendered, and received them with music and the pealing of bells. They proved perfidious, however, stealing the money of the Spanish civil officials and military officers and the more loyal natives, and sacked the convents and churches. The Bishop was slapped in the face, beaten, and subjected to the greatest insults, despoiled even of his clerical' robes. The iriars were subjected to incredible ill-trcatmcnl, being beaten with sticks, kicked, hung up, and placed in the sun for several hours during the time of the greatest heat. The natives were forbidden to render the fathers any assistance or to salute them. Hungry anil naked, the Indians and Chinese furtively supplied them with food and clothing. It is reported that two friars were savagely murdered. One sixty ye.'irs of ago wns placed under a horse's saddle and jumped upon till blood poured from his mouth and nose. The other was obliged to put on a native rain coat and was cm ried in triumph for two hundred yards and then cudgelled to death amidst savage cries. The nuns of the girls' school were stripped of their habils and treated infamously, their cells profaned, and they themselves compelled to assist at profane fmu-tious. The Tugalos cay they will teach the C.iguynnes to despise Spanish priests, tin; Bishop, friars, and all things ecclesiastic. Notices have been posted in all the towns proclaiming freedom of belief, civil burial, and prohibiting the taking tif the sacrament, religious processions, and church observances. The parish books have been taken by the Kntipuman. -Must phiccs are without priests.' 1