A TREMENDOUS ARMY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 221, 22 October 1914, Page 8

A TREMENDOUS ARMY.

followed- was only retribution. The townspeople only got what they deserved." '■' But why wreak your vengeance on women and'children?" "None has been killed," the general asserted positively. "I am sorry to contradict you, general," I asserted with equal positivenes's, I have myself seen their mutilated bodies. So has-Mr Ginton, secretary of the American Legation at Brussels, who was present during the destruction of Louvain." - "Of course, there always is danger of women and children being killed during street fighting," said General-yon Bochn, "if! they insist On coming into the street. It is unfortunate, but it is war.'' Data Startles General. ! "But how about a woman's body 1 l saw, with her hands and feet cut off? | How about a white-haired man and his sou whom' I helped bury outside Semp!stad, who had been killed merely bej cause a retreating Belgian had shot a I German soldier outside their house? | There were twenty-two bayonet wounds* |.on the old man's face. I counted them. How about the little girl two years old who was shot while in her mother's arms by a-Uhlan, and whose funeral I attended at Beystopdenberg? How about the old man who was hung from -the j- rafters in his house by his lipoids and roasted to death by a bonfire being built under him?" The general seemed somewhat taken aback by the amount and exactness of my data. "Such things are horrible, if true," he said. "Of course our soldiers, like soldiers of all armies, sometimes get out of hand and do things which we would never tolerate if we knew it. At Louvain, for. example, I sentenced two soldiers to twelve years' penal servitude for assaulting a "woman. " Louvain Library Incident. , "Apropos of Louvain," I remarked, "why. did you destroy the library? It was one of the literary storehouses of the world." "We regretted that as much as any one else,'' answered the general. "It caught fire from burning houses and we could not save it." , "But why did you burn Louvain at 'all?" I asked. "Because the townspeople fired* on pui* troops. We actually found machine guns in some of the houses.'' And; smashing his fist-down on the table, he continued: "Whenever civilians fire upon our troops we will teach them a lasting lesson. If women and children insist on getting in the way of bullets, so much the worse for the women and children." " How do you explain the bombardment of Antwerp by Zeppelins?" I queried., . \.; "Zeppelins have orders to drop their bombs, only on fortifications and soldiers," he answered.

MILES OF GERMAN SOLDIERS. AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT'S "SCOOP." - [Early in September the censor passed * cable message which told of an American correspondent having motored for Ihours through, the German lines. The, -following is the,essential portion of this. story, which was sent by E. A. Powell to the Ohicago "Tribune." Tho writer explains that he was asked by General Tan Boehn, Commander of the Ninth Imperial Army, to interview him on f .-the subject of the Belgian atrocities, so that America would be placed in posses-' fiion of the facts.] - . 'September 12. ' Half a mile out of Sotteaem our. _ road into the great highway ' 'Which leads through Lille to Pari si. We suddenly found ourselves in the midst ; of the German army; It was a sight " never to be forgotten. Far as the eye •could see stretched solid columns of inarching men, pressing westward, ever • "westward. The army was advancing in three ' mighty columns along three parallel roads. These dense masses of moving men. in their elusive blue-grey uniforms * looked for all the world like three mon- : «trous serpents crawling across the '--'■ countryside. T~: American flags which fluttered from ~ -our-'windshield proved a passport in ' : themselves, and as we approached the \~"'<sloße-locked ranks they parted to; let : : usthrough. * r" For five solid hours, travelling always - at express train speed, we motored be- /. 'tween the walls of the marching men. " In time the constant shuffle of boots < and the rhythmic swing of grey-clad - arms and shoulders grew maddening, < - and. I became obsessed with the fear :' that I would send the car ploughing ; , Intothe human wedge on either side. , Endless Ranks. ' ■' It seemed that the ranks never would ■' - end, and as far as we were concerned * ' they never did, for we never saw or / heard thtf end of that; mighty column. s< We passed regiment after regiment, 1 'i after brigade of infantry, and ;« after them hussars/Uhlans, cuirassiers, 1 *■< field batteries, more infantry, more ' N field gnns, ambulances, then siege guns, i 7 -each drawn by thirty horses, engineers, < -*' telephone corps/pontoon waggons, ar- : motor cars, more Uhlans, the -- : sunlight gleaming on their forest of ■■ , lances, more infantry in spiked helmets, : - "all - sweeping by as irresistible a&{ a < :• inighty river, with their faces turned ■ ' toward Prance. _ " This was the Ninth Meld Army and / composed the very flower of the Enypire, ,\ including the magnificent troops of the -'-- Imperial Guard. It was first and last '-* A fighting army. The men were all ' young. They struck me as being keen , >: as Tazors and as hard as nails. The j ','■ horses were magnificent. They could ; * aot have been better.. The field guns >.' of the Imperial Guard were almost \ the size of any used by our army. ■ \r- -Thirty-two Horses to One Giant }"' ■ Howitzer. ,- ' % ' JBut the most interesting of au, of\ | . course, were the five gigantic howitzers, '- oach drawn by sixteen pairs of horses. " These howitzers can .tear a city to pieces ,at a distance of adozen miles. v Every contingency seems to have been '"-foreseen. Nothing was left to chance " or overlooked. Maps of; Belgium, with -which every soldier is provided, are the finest examples of topography I have ever seen. Every path, every farm building, every clump of trees, ' - and every twig is shown. - " -At one place a huge army waggon - containing s. complete printing press ""'■was drawn up beside the road, and a ,v morning edition of f< Deutsche Krieger; " : Zeitung" -was being-printed and-dis-/-tributed to the passing men. It con- -: tained nothing but accounts of German victories, of which I never had heard, .- but it seemed greatly to cheer the men. .-* " Field kitchens with smoke pouring '" from their stovepipe funnels rumbled c * down the lines, serving steaming soup *'" and coffee to the marching men, who j". held out tin cups and* had them filled ,-; without once breaking step. > ' Covered Waggons Hide Machine Guns. There were waggons filled with army cobblers,. sitting cross-legged on the floor, who were mending soldiers' shoes , just as if they were back in their little shops in the Fatherland. Other waggons, to all appearances ordinary ..' two-wheeled farm carts, hid under their arched covers nine machine guns which . could instantly be brought into action. The medical corps was as magnificent ' as businesslike. It was as perfectly - ' equipped and as efficient as a great city hospital. '. Men on bicycles with a coil of m- . sulated wire slung between them strung a field telephone from tree to tree so " • the general commanding could converse "with any part of the fifty-miles-long - column. The whole army never sleeps. When half is resting, the other half is advancing. The soldiers are treated as if ■< they were valuable machines which must be speeded up to the highest possible efficiency. Therefore they are well fed, well shod, well clothed, and worked as a:negro teamster works mules. Soldier Given Terrific Beating. Only men who are well cared for can inarch thirty-five miles a day week in and week out. Only once' did I see a man mistreated. A sentry on duty in front of the general headquarters failed to salute an officer with sufficient promptness, whereupon the officer lashed him again and again across .the face with a riding whip. Though welts rose with every blow, the soldier stood rigidly at attention and never quivered. On the correspondent's arrival at General von Boehn's headquarters, the general began by asserting that the stories of, atrocities perpetrated on Bel-' gian jioncombatants were a tissue of lies. c "Look at these officers about you," " he said. *' They are gentlemen like yourself. ' Look at the soldiers marching past in the road out there. Most of them ~are fathers of families. Surely you don't believe they would do the things they have been accused of." Explains Aerschot Crimes. '•'Three days ago, general," I said, t( l was in Aerschot. The whole town <. now is but a ghastly, blackened, bloodstained ruin." Z*'' t»""' f When we entered Aerschot the son % 'of the burgomaster came into the room, drew a revolver, and assassinated niy f- } '' fjhief of staff/' the genera! said. "What,