FIENDISH ATROCITIES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 14049, 20 July 1916, Page 6

FIENDISH ATROCITIES.

FRESH LIGHT ON GERMAN BARBARITY. FURY AND BESTIALITY. Ghastly stories of German barbarity towards British troops and also civilians (men, women, and children) are brought to. light in "German Atrocities," by Professor J. H. Morgan) late Home Oflice Commissioner with the British Expeditionary Force. It appears that at tlie battle of Loos some 4U British prisoners were placed by their captors m a circular traverse , (or species of trench). The Germans then proceeded to : bomb the traverse with hand grenades till all but one of their victims haid perished. This is the narrative of a solitary man who survived : — • ' "After we had been there about two minutes .a bomb was s tin-own into the traverse where we were, one bomb from oils side and one from the other. 1 shouted to the men to clear out if pos- j sible. Only one man and myself jumped i over the parapet. . . . Tlie other man was shot. I heard the Germans bombing this circular traverse continu- j ally for about 15 minutes. At first the men I left, were crying out, but after about ten minutes this ceased." As damning are documents written by German soldiers, where the enemy bead's witness against himself. One is an .entry in a diary, and runs thus : — "The sight of. the trenches and the fury, not to say bestiality, 'oi our men in beating to death the wounded English affected me so much that for the rest of the day I was 'fit for nothing." The new evidence adduced as to the atrocities includes a large number of depositions of British soldiers who were interrogated in the hospitals in France. The following are some of their statements : — "Private C—^, York L.1,, 2nd Battalion: — At a village about three miles south-east of Ypres, 45 of us advanced to rush a house ; only seven of us reHurned. We were only about 15 strong /when we got there. We heard shouts ' and a disturbance inside; it was the I Germans making , for the oellars. Oap- '■ tain A — — went upstairs, after leaving * some men on the Cellar steps; I followed liiin. In the back room, upstairs was a Maxim gun. In one of the other rooms was a girl about 15— she lwd nothing on except a man's oyercoat. When we broke into' the room we thought she was absolutely mad. .iShe cried out something, but we could not understand -what it was. She rushed out of the room into the front bedroom, which was locked. We smashed it in with out rifle-butts, and there found a woman, her mother, with her right breast all bleeding, and her clothes torn— her breast had been cut as if with a sword, not a bayonet." "This soldier,'/ Professor Morgan notes, "was at times in great pain when lie spoke, but his mind was clear. I am convinced he spoke the truth. "Private R. M'K , 2nd Royal Irish — On the advance from the Marne to tho Aisne in 'September' wo passed through ft village, and saw n baby propped _up at' tlie window like a doli. About six of us went into the house with 'a sergeant, and found the child dead — bayoneted. We found a tottering kind of old man, a, middle-aged woman, and a youth, all bayoneted." "Driver B , R.F.A. :— ln the next village before we got to the Aisiie, the villagers showed Us the dead body of a woman, naked, on the ground, badly , mutilated, her breasts cut off, and her .body ripped up. They said 'Alle- | rnands.' " I "Private W -, ] s t Cameron High- • landers: —On the Aisne, September 14, 1. was told by Sergeant-Major C , of Cainerons, that Captain H (com-

; n landing our company) was lying in a field having his wounds dressed by oue of our own bandsmen, acting as a stretcher-bearer. Captain H — ■ and the stretcher-bearer were shot by a. German officer. The sergeant-major (who had besn taken prisoner by the Germans) saw tliis happen." Iu "Leaves from a Field Notebook," the grim story '.'The Wiltshires" tells how tlie regiment stormed a farmhouse at Ypres and found there two women who had besn maltreated in the German fashion. The Germans had taken refuge in the cellaa*, a-nd it was decided to smoks them out:— "We soon'eerd'em acoughing. There wur a terrible deal o 1 smoke, and there wur we a-waiting at top of them stairs for 'em to come up like rats out of a hole. And two on 'em made a rush for it and we caught 'em just 1 ike's we was terriers by an oat-rick ; we had to be main quick. 'Twere like pitching hay. And then three more, and then more. And nom of us uttered ;i word. An' when it wur done and we had claned our bay'nets in tho stray, Capt'n 'e said. Men, you ha' done your work as you ought to ha' done.' " He paused for a moment. "They be bad fellows,' he mused, "0 Christ! they be rotten bad. Twoads they be ! I never reckon no good 'ull come to men what abuses wiinmen and children." . V In "The Coming of the Hun" we havt a very precise account of the treatment of a mayor at the hands of the invader, and tho mayor's retort with a flash of humor which would have cost Tiim his life but for an unexpected British advance.