The Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1914. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11215, 22 October 1914, Page 4

The Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1914. EDITORIAL NOTES.

.The tales told in the cablegrams of atrocities perpetrated by German iroops seem too horrible to be true 'But they are being confirmed fully t» correspondents who have jeen with their own eyes some of the horror, that have been perpetrated by ***>»"* troops in Belgian and French temtoij. . Tiie worst offences seem to have been committed by soldiers who had got out .of hand. But the official German- -' method is bad enough, as shown by the ' following translation of a proclamation 'issued in Rheims during the brief period when the Germans held that town: —

"In tit 3 event of an action being iought either to-day or in the immediate future in the neighbourhood of Rheims. or in the town itself, the inhabitants are warned that they must remain absolutely calm and must in no way try to take' part in the fighting. They must not attempt to attack either 'isolated soldiers or detachments of the German army. The erection of barricades, the taking up of paving stones in the streets in a way to hinder the iriovements of troops, or, in a word, any action that may embarrass the ■ German army is formally forbidden. ' With a, view to securing adequately the safety of the troops and to instil calm 'into tho population of Rheims, the persons named below have been seized as . -hostages by the Commander-in«Cbief of u the Germany army. These hostages will bo hanged at the slightest attempt at disorder. Also, the .town will be totally or partly burnt and the inhabitants will be hanged for any infraction of tho above." The hostages included eighty-one of the most prominent citizens of Rheims.

A horrifying account of Gertmn atrocities in Belgium telegraphed to the "New York Herald" by Mr E. Alexander Powell, a well-known American journalist. A week or two later Mr Powell was in -a portion of Belgian -territory occupied by the Germans, and he received an invitation to meet General von Boebn, the officer who commanded the troops responsible for the ' '■■ sacking' of Louyain and the destruction of the historic university and library ■•of that city. The General wished to "refute" the charges that had been made against the German soldiers, and his conversation with Mr Powell throws an interesting light upon the attitude of mind of the commanders who have been doing tho work of the Prussian War Lords in Belgium and France. Tho correspondent mentioned that ho had visited the town of Aerschot a few days previously, and had found it a "ghastly, blackened, blood-stained ruin." "When wo entered Aerschot," replied the General, "tho son of the Burgomaster came into the room, drew a revolver, and assassinated my Chief of Staff. What followed was only retribution. The townspeople only got what they deserved!" The American had seen the mutilated bodies of women and children after the destruction of Aerschot, and he stated that fact to the German General. " There is always danger of women and children being killed during street fighting," was tho reply. "If the women and children insist on getting in tho way of bullets, so much the' worso for the .■wuxiieu and children."

.7; The correspondent pressed his point. . ..The bod.es he had seen, he stated, did "hot represent merely the result of stray ehots striking women and children who happened to be in the streets when fighting was proceeding. "How about the woman whose body I saw with the hands and feet cut off?" he said. " How about the white-haired man arid his son whom I helped to bury outside ©f Sempst, and who had been killed ", ;& »ierely because the retreating Belgians Bad shot a German soldier outside their house? There were twenty-two bayonet wounds in the old man's face. I counted them. How about the little girl, tWo years old, shot while in her Another's arms by a uhlan, and whose funeral I nttonded at Heyst-op-den-Berg? How about the old man that was hung from the rafters of his house by the hands and roasted- to death by 1 a bonfire being built undor JiiiuP"

General von Boehn rondo an illuminating reply. "Such things are horrible if they are true," he said. "Of course, our soldiers, like soldiers in all armies, sometimes get out of hand, and do things which wo would never tolerate if wo know it. At Louvain, for example, I sentenced two soldiers to twelve years' penal servitude apiece for assaulting a woman." Statements ,of that kind should be bound in a book for presentation to tho people who say there is glory iu war.

One' little story told by Mr Powell is worth recording. When ho visited General von Boehn he had with him a photographer named Thompson, who obtained permission to, take some photographs of tho German troops for publi-cat-ion in American newspapers. " A field battery rumbled past," writes Mr Powell, " and Thompson made some remark about the accuracy of American, gunners at Vera Cruz. ' Let us show you what our gunnors o-in do,' said the officer, and gave an order. There, were more orders, a perfect yolley of them, a bugle shrilled harshly, the eight horses strained against their collars, the drivers cracked their whips, and the gun left tho road, bounded across the ditch, und swung into position in-the adjacent field. On a knoll three miles away an ancient windmill was beating the air with its huge wings. The shell hit the windmill fair and square, and tore it into splintera." It was pretty shooting and it illustrated well the ai-tude of the Germans towards the unfortunate people whoso country they have converted into A battlefield. It did not occur to the gunnery officer to wonder how many peaceable civilians were working in the j mill.