"GOD AND MAN WILL JUDGE."

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

"GOD AND MAN WILL JUDGE."

AN OFFICER'S TERRIBLE STORIES A CASE FOR JUDICIAL ENQUIRY. A Loudon vicar has sent to '' The Times" this letter from his son, an officer now serving with the Expeditionary Force. The tales he tells are so horrible that "The Times" procured in confidence before publication the name and the regiment of the officer. Girls in the Trenches. Here is his unvarnished tale as told ito his father:— "Here I am in the thick of it. This may interest you, as I am writing it in the firing line. We arrived in this place about 8 o'clock iast night, having i marched 56 miles. All last night we entrenched, and at 5 o'clock this morning we got our first glimpse of the Germans. They advanced in solid masses. Their shells at first fell rather short, but they soon got the range, and at 6.30 a.m. their shells started to pitch in the trenches. The first one killed three of my poor fellows, including my sergeant. ... "I never realised what an . awful thing war is. You cannot Imagine at home the horror of it. lamin a small village on .the extreme left, and can see the horrible cruelty of the Germans to the inhabitants. We have- got three girls in the trenches with us, who came to us for protection. One had no clothes- on, having been outraged by the Germans. I have given her my shirt and divided my rations among them. In consequence I feel rather hungry, having had nothing, for 32 hours except some milk: chocolate. Caught in the Act. "We have been hard at the Germans all day (now 8 p.m.), and have successfully driven them back. Our men's shooting is wonderful and accurate. The Germans collapse like ninepins under it. The slaughter is awful. . . . I started this morning with 50 men in my trench, and now have 23 and no n.c. officers,. They are wonderfully cheery. I have been hit twice; one took the heel of my boot off, and one went through my shoulder, which is rather sore, so I must.have it dressed ... '' Another poor girl has just come in, having both her breasts cut off. Luckily, I caught the Uhlan' officer in the act, and with a rifle at 300 yards killed him. Anw now she is. with us, but, poor girl, I am afraid she will die. She is very pretty, and only about 19, and only has her skirt on. . . ." Then God and Man will Judge. Lord Selborne, in a letter to "The Times," applies the proper statement to those horrors. "Permit me to say," he writes, "that such statements as these cannot possibly be allowed to rest on anonymous authority. The civilised world has the right to demand that names and full particulars shall be given. "Either these statements are untrue or they are true. If they are untrue I am sure that you, sir, would most deeply regret having, given publicity to them in any form, and would feel that our righteous cause, was grievously injured by such a libel on the German Army. "But if they ore true, then God and man will judge." "Would it not be possible for trained lawyers or judges belonging to a neutral nation like the Netherlands or the United States to conduct a sworn { enquiry into such cases as _ are already! open to investigation? There must be ! many such among the Belgian refugees I in England and in the parts of Belgium ' not occupied by the German troops.'-' ! For Judicial Enquiry. j "The Times" discussed Lord ,Selborne 's letter thus: — j "We publish a letter from Lord Selborne, urging, ae we have already urged, that a judicial enquiry should be held at once into the charges that are j being made against the German Army, both officers and men. A question was |

THE COMMISSARIAT OF THE BRITISH FORCES ON THE CONTINENT.

ii.sked in Parliament about these charges, and the Prime Minister said,

with iinns in their possession are found in concealment."

Kven out of the dung-hills some have been drawn into the light of day. Who knows how long they will be permitted to see!

1 turn away and wend my "steps back to tho railroad station. Enough of these horrible pictures! But long after the train has started, and when I am already far away from these sad ruins, I still fancy I am breathing the odours of cold embers and putrefying bodies which envelop the dead city.

in reply, that the Secretary of State for War had received no official information about them, but that the matter would be enquired into. We may say that we ourselves receive many more accounts of deeds of cruelty and lust than we publish, and that we publish only those which seem to us, so far as we can judge, to be most worthy of belief. "In a matter of this kind education helps a man to distinguish between knowledge and hearsay, and we have therefore paid most attention to the statements of officers. We have published such statements as* we have published because there is a mass of evidence accumulating to the effect that atrocities are being committed without parallel in modern and civilised warfare, and because the world would not ;hear of this evidence if it were not : published in the Press. '' But we agree entirely with Lord ;Selborne that these statements ought .not to rest on anonymous, authority, and that now is the time for a judicial enquiry into them. We hope also that the Prime Minister's answer implies that such an enquiry will be held. Lord Selborne proposes that this ensquiry should be conducted by trained lawyers of a neutral nation; ..and that also seems to us a happy suggestion. No Reprisals. "But it ought to be clearly understood, if such an enquiry is held, that we do not desire it as a justification for any reprisals by ourselves or our allies. As Mr Churchill said in his speech at the Opera House, we are not going to imitate the crimes of our enemies, whether they are proved or only rumoured. However they may fight, we shall try to fight like gentlemen. Those who threaten the Germans with Bussian reprisals are paying a poor compliment to. our allies. They will not do for us dirty work that'" we are ashamed to do for ourselves. Threats of this kind may seem to give some colour to the charges which the Germans are already making against us, charges which we know to be baseless and into which we should welcome any enquiry. But on point it is unnecessary to protest. We have no German Louvain on our conscience, and we never shall have." No Retaliation. Sir Edward Fry writes to "The Times," saying:—, "The official adoption by the German Army in" Belgium of the methods of barbarism has raised a sincere outcry of horror throughout the civilised world. '' The of England as a whole have, I think, shown a praiseworthy absence of anything like lust for re-venge,-and will applaud Mr Churchill's admirable plea that we should fight like -gentlemen; but there is already evidence that in some quarters a clamour for reprisals may arise. Bussia comes the utterance, 'God help them when we get into Berlin,-' and from a learned English historian the hope that 'shrieking professors .... will intercede in vain for their beloved Germans when the facts are published to the world.' "If we are to make good our claim of fighting in defence of civilisation against a militarism to which nothingis sacred, it is essential that the people and the Press of England, of France, and of Russia should alike show stern self-control in the Vepression of any desire to 'get even' with our adversaries by adopting their practices. "It would be well if public expression could be given to this resolve on the part of the allied nations; it would be still better if their Governments would unite in instructions to their troops, expressly forbidding acts of imitative vengeance, and ,so leave, in the smouldering, and deser.vd towns of Belgium, an. isolated monument of the ethics of Prussian militarism."

DIED AT HIS GUNS. FAMOUS BRITISH ARTILLERY GENERAL. LONDON, September 21. Tlie correspondent of the Daily Mail" in France describes the death of

General Neil Douglas Fi-ndlay of the Royal Artillery as follows: "When at dawn on Saturday the British advance continued towards Soissons the enemy was fighting an exceptionally fierce rearguard action. A terrible shell fire was directed agaiust our artillery under General Fihdlay, temporarily situated in a valley by the village of" Prise. It seemed a matter of moments when we-should have to spike our guns, and General Findlay saw the urgency for action. " 'Boj-s,.' his voice echoed down the line, 'we are going to get every gun into position.' Then deliberately the general approached the regimental chap-

lain kneeling beside a gunner. 'Here are some of- my personal belongings, chaplain. See that they don't go astray.' "One by one our guns began to blaze away, and the general had a word of encouragement, and advice for every man. In vain his staff tried to persuade him to leave the danger zone. "Our range was perfect, the German fire slackened and died away, and with a yell our men prepared to advance. The outburst came too soon. One parting shell, exploding in a contact with Fmdlay's horse, shattered man and beast."