THE GENTLE GERMAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7293, 4 January 1902, Page 4

THE GENTLE GERMAN.

HIS CONDUCT IN 1870 TOWARDS HIS ENEMY. (By H. W. WILSON, in the- "Daily t Mail.") The protests in which non-official Germany is indulging, with so much unnecessary heat, against the supposed' barbarism of the British, methods' of making war in South Africa, would be ridiculous were there not danger of such talk adding fuel to 'the prevalent flames of exasperation against this country in Germany. To. show how illogical it is for Germans to adopt their present attitude, in< view of their own severities in 1870, and to prove how short is the memory of the German veterans who are now dteDouncing Mr Chamberlain and Lord Kitchener, I shall give some authentic examples of the action cf the German troops during the w«r with France. Such examples might be multiplied to almost any extent, but I shall for the most part choose instances noted by observers with the German Army, and who were therefore, it may foe safely presumed, inclined to make out the best case possible for the Germans. I shall also go to German military authorities and to the orders issued by the German Staff, in each case giving my reference. WHY FRENCHMEN WERE SHOT. In the later period- of the war the Germans claimed the right, though they did not always enforce it, to shoot all Frenchmen found bearing arms, provided these Frenchmen' were not in a uniform which could be easily discarded. They refused to recognise cashes and badges as sufficient uniform. And this though they had in, 1813 issued instructions to their own Landsturm, during the. struggle with Napoleon, to this effect: — "The object of the Landsturm is to arrest the march of the enemy. . ... A special uniform for them is not allowed, because this would betray the wearer and render him more liable. to pursuit and capture by the enemy." (Sectito 39, Field Orders, 1813.) " The honest German solider," says Colonel von Widdern (" Franco-German War," 546), "was all the more embittered by thi9 behaviour (guerilla tactics) of the FrancsTireurs and National Guards, because they were wont at need hastily to assume the appearance of inoffensive peasants by throwing away aod hiding their arms and getting rid of the badges of military service. That under such circumstances the Germans gave short shrift to such fellows caught redhanded, will be thought only reasonable, even though it is quite possible that the. innocent suffered at times. The German authorities had nothing for it but to punish the parishes where outrages occurred against German soldiers, or where the railways and telegraphs had been destroyed, by levying money contributions or by burning down one or two homesteads. Suoh punishments and the shooting of French civilians taken/ with arms in their hands at last led the inhabitants themselves to attempt to stop these enterprises." FINING AND FARM-BURNING. Now for some instances of this shoo&ing and burning. Near Launois, tihe same authority (Page 552) states <tihat & German ocxnvoy was attacked 1 by a body of FrancsTireurs in blouses. Seventeen vehicles were •captured 'by the French, who went 'on to derail a miiitary train. For this tlhe farm which was the scene of ttthe fighting was ■burnt down, a. fine of £400 mas levied upon the hamlet, and six prisoners were shot. On St Quentin, the prefect of which dared to oppose a small body of German troops, a fine of £36,000 was levied. Near Ohesfcres the Germans were opposed! by a small force of French irregulars outside the village. There was nothing whatever Ao show that the people of the village had anything to do with the affair- Nevertheless, our German author tells us that the " Germans entered wxaithfully, . «. . made the burgomaster and fourteen other inhabitants prisoners, and! burnt dowm several homesteads." (Page 554.) At Marcilly the French irregular punished 1 the ' Germans severely in a straightforward' fight. The 'Gemnans responded by "shooting seven of the Francs-Tireurs, who always retreated. An equal number of the inhabitants also were taken arms in hand and put to death." A few days later the villages of Conflans and Marcilly were consigned to the names. (Page 556.) As the guerillas persistently cut the railways, according to the same German author, French citizens were "accommodated" on the locomotives of the militaiiy trains and treated as hostages. In the constant reprisals and; punishments the Colonel admits, with the honesty of a soldier, that "death was often inflicted upon innocent persons." (Page 566.) TERRIBLE PROCLAMATIONS. I will now give a few specimens of the orders issued fry the German staff, illustrating the treatment of the conquered : — ■ ".NANCY, Jan. 22, 187 i. " His Majesty fhe King of Prussia, German Emperor j, because of the destruction of the bridge of Fontenoy, east of Toul, orders: — "The nei-gh.bouriE.g- dostrtet will pay a fine of £400,000. This is to be brought to •the knowledge of the public, noting that the application of the fine will be subsequently indicated, and that the payment of the said sum will be exacted with the extremes* severity. "VON" BONNTN, Governor of Lorraine." Next day -the " Official Journal " published' at the order of the Governor this polite •intimation : — . "EE to-morrow — Tuesday, January 24, at twelve noon, five hundred 'workmen from the works in the town are not at the station, a certain number- of workmen and 'the heads of the works will be seized 1 and shot." The next document in my collection is a notice published by General von Schmadel, It states : — "The railway bridge at Fontenoy, near Toul, has been blown up. " In punishment the village of Fontenoy will be completely "burnt. " The same fate will befall every place where such an incident occurs. "January 22." Here is another placard affixed in the streets of Orleans in 1871 : — "I inform the inhabitants that all persons taken with arms in their hands, acting against Uh.e German troops, aradi who are not soldiers, or who commit any act of hostility of any other kind, or who are guilty of treason, will be irrevocably put to death. > ' " Those prisoners alone will be recognised as soldiers who wear uniform, or who can •be '-made out at rifle range to be wearing distinctive signs which- cannot be removed from fthefat dress." "* ' I conclude my' string of public notices with this, which is the sternest of ihe series :■—■ "Notice.— ln the night of the 6-7 th, several shots were fired from the hills round upon the troops who, had entered Belval, levying requisitions. Charles Miroy, pastor of Cuchery, aged forty-two, in whose parish Belval lies, and who hid aud distributed arms to the inhabitants, has been arrested as the instigator of these hostile acts, and in virtue of the decision of a court-martial has been shot to-day for treason towards the German Army. — Von Rosenburg Gruszczynski." STARVING FRENCH PEASANTS. Where men are supposed to be absent with the French Army, the Germans in territory occupied by them levied a fine of £2 a day upon their nearest relative (letter of Count Renard to the French Mayors of-^fhe Meurthe Department, quoted in Oanonage, "Histoire Militaire,* 11. 237). The inhabitants of districts occupied were compelled to surrender all weapons, to feed the Prussian troops, and to send all then- carts, carriages, vans and waggons for the German transport; service. (Id.) No trouble was taken to feed the. French inhabitants. Dr Ryan, who was engaged in ambulance work during the war, has left this on record in his book (156-7) : i" It was a problem," he says, " what i

vrould become of the inhabitants in these country districts, where the Prussians (aa my host and hostess informed me) had carried off their cattle, their hay, straw, and corn, had eaten up their meat, bread, and vegetables, and in many instances had finished up, when they thought the people had baulked them of supplies, by burn- / ing the houses over the heads of the Frenchmen." Or is it humanity to prisoners that is the question? Let Dr Ryan speak again (Page 281) : " They (the prisoners) were marched along, or rather driven along, before half-a-dozen mounted troopers ; and when any straggled or fell behind, these put' spurs to their chargers and rode in among their captives, in some instances trampling them under the horses' feet, and lashing them with their riding-whips in -he most wanton manner. The sight was enough to make one's blood boil." There is, too, that true and ghastly story of the prison on the peninsula of Iges, into which the beaten, French Army was driven after its surrender at Sadan, arid there left for days to suffer all the horrors »of starvation. The story is told without a word of exaggeration by M. Zola in his " Debacle." " Not one precaution," he writes, "seemed to have been taken, not one effort to tare been made to feed the 80,000 men whose agony began in that frightful hell." Yet with this record behind them, the German veterans pretend they are insulted when a British statesman declares that our action has not been so severe as theirs. . . - (