AMIENS CITY NOW'ANOTHER RHEIMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14635, 19 June 1918, Page 6

AMIENS CITY NOW 'ANOTHER RHEIMS.

BOMBARDED BY THE GERMAN TERRORISTS. On the French Front, May 10. The German artillery, under orders from the Prussian and Bavarian Crown Princes, is doing its utmost to turn Amiens into another Rheims. Picardys capital has already suffered terribly from this effort to carry out the German idea of striking terror into the fatherland's enemies by destruction of "-their' -most loved -works of art, and every day adds to its suffering. The correspondent to-day went all over the city and observed the effect of the bombardment, which has turned parts of the town into heaps of ruins and killed 52 men civilians, 30 women and children, besides wounding 62 men, 48 women, and 19 children before the population had an opportunity to escape. Since the Germans have been •within cannon shot of Amiens after their recent advance during the offensive they have hiirled.no fewer than 5800, mostly 6-inch and^ 8-inch, shells into the city. Every indication points to a systematic effort to destroy the public buildings, as th* cathedral has. been struck by shells which haye pierced the roof and walls, and the object of firing incessantly upon the town can not be explained, except upon the assumption that it is carried out with the purely barbarous idea of the destruction of the beautiful objects it contains. ' Amiens has joined ATras, Rheims and Soissons m the sisterhood of martyred cities. It is completely dead. Seven thousand shells, bombs and aerial torpedoes have devastated the plac^e m the shortest time on record. It Is worse wrecked than Soissons and Arras, which have suffered' four years of constant bombardment. ''.•■■'."■ Twelve hundred houses m Amiens have been hit. Scarcely any houses m the oity are untouched by the effects of the bombardment. The cathedral still is intact, despite nine shells which have crashed into it. The damage done to this famous structure was principally m the interior. The huge statue of Christ has been knocked to fragments. Workers are feverishly building sand -bag barricades about the structure. 'At times ten fives raged simultaneously. Firemen from Paris who attempted to extinguish -i the flames were bombed by German airplanes and thwarted. Great portions of the city have been swept by fire; The Germans are using mustard gas against the 400 civilians who are still staying near their homes, living m oaves until their belpnjfings can be moved. Amiens is now only a name. There is nothing more that can be destroyed, and nothing worth .stealing leftj should the Germans eventually capture' the city.