A SCENE IN BELGIUM.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13598, 7 October 1914, Page 2

A SCENE IN BELGIUM.

DESTRUCTION OF A HAMLET

A CRUEL NECESSITY-

"Our little' country has always been the battlefield of Europe, and whether we fought or did not fight we had all the same to suffer the terrible consequences." So write a Belgian soldier, who had be-on in the thick of the oarly fighting round Liege, in a letter to a brother living at Cardiff.

Ho describes in vivid language the destruction of the little hamlet of Boncelles —licit by ruthless Germans intent on vengeance, but by Belgian soldiers, to whom the work was one ' of cruel necessity. He says:

"I shall never forget the sight of it. One hundred and thirty houses and the church of Bonc-olles, forming one big blaze in the middle of the night, and the poor inhabitants helping the soldiers to destroy their own little houses and all their contents.

"It was about ten o'clock on Monday night when an engineer officer, surrounded by an army of sappers, knocked at every door, ,afid gave the message that the* houses had to be burned down to allow the fort to operate their guns without obstruction. There was no time to be lost, and those who liked could find shelter in the fort. While the officer was speaking the sappers were already bringing in wood, cotton and petrol. The inhabitants round the forts were previously informed that the necessity might arise for destroying their houses, but in this case the usual preliminary notice had not been given, and most of them had gone to rest when the knock on the door came to tell them their fate. I could not describe all the heartrending scenes, we had to witness. All I re-

member is women in tears and children praying. Think that most of those women have husbands, brothers, or sons at the front, and now they come to burn their houses.

"And all they do is weep. Some of them implore tho soldiers to let them at least take some furniture away, and throw themselves at the officers' feet. But they are gently raised and led outside. In the meantime soldiers rushed in and threw bundles of wood under the staircase, poxired petrol over them, and lit them. In an instant the house was ablaze. A woman tried to rush in and save some souvenir, but was ordered back by the soldiers. Perhaps her own son was amongst them. It had started raining, and at some places the fire had gone out, but immediately the soldiers cam© on with fresh lots of cotton, saturated with petrol, which they stuck through the window at the end of their bayonetß. ..

"A man who had just been led out of a house, and who had been standing outside with his wife and children, watching with stupid look the progress of the fire, rushed away, as if mad, got hold of a mass of saturated cotton, and helped the soldiers in their work. The example had been given, and in a moment all the other peasants followed. Af half-past ten at least fifty little homes were already burning. Then fire had to be set to the old quaint church with the square tower, where two hours ago the peasants had been praying. Wood and cotton had to be heaped tip as far as the altar, and in the tower as high a<s possible. A little later all that remained was a high burning torch, which soon listed over and came down in a cloud of smoke and flames. One hundred and thirty houses were destroyed in that way, and then all trees in the neighbourhood were cut down."