Chapter III: Part 3

The pathetic tale of a Belgian woman, who reached a place of safety after almost inconceivable hardship, was told in words which were few, but pregnant with tragedy and suffering. “Panic-stricken, we women fled from the burning town, and, half-running and half-walking, hurried from the dreadful scene. Mile after mile we covered, until our feet seemed as lead and our senses reeled. I am told we walked over seventy miles before we came to a railway. I wanted to bow down and kiss the cold iron rails. I fell exhausted, having carried my two children in turn. Footsore, broken-hearted, after the first joy of sighting the railway, I felt my head whirling, and I wondered whether it was all worth while. Then I thought of my deliverance, and thanked God.

“What did Louvain look like? Like what it was--a mass of flame devouring our homes, our property, and our relatives. Most of us women were deprived of our husbands. In the town everybody who offered any opposition was killed, and everyone found to be armed in any way was shot. Wives saw their husbands shot in the streets. I myself saw the Burgomaster shot, and I saw another man dragged roughly away from his weeping wife and children and shot through the head.”

An American’s Story.

A vivid word-picture of the scene is given by Mr. Gerald Morgan, an American, in the _Daily Telegraph_. “An hour before sunset we entered Louvain,” he says, “and found the city a smoking furnace. The railway station was crowded with troops, drunk with loot and liquor, and rapine as well. From house to house, acting under orders, groups of soldiers were carrying lighted straw, placing it in the basement, and then passing on to the next. It was not one’s idea of a general conflagration, for each house burned separately--hundreds of individual bonfires--while the sparks shot up like thousands of shooting stars into the still night-air. It was exactly like a display of fireworks or Bengal lights and set-pieces at a grand display in Coney Island.

“Meanwhile, through the station arch we saw German justice being administered. In a square outside, where the cabs stand, an officer stood, and the soldiers drove the citizens of Louvain into his presence, like so many

_Photo, Newspaper Illustrations, Ld._

_Face p. 87._]

unwilling cattle on a market day. Some of the men, after a few words between the officer and the escorts, were marched off under fixed bayonets behind the railway station. Then we heard volleys, and the soldiers returned. Then the train moved out, and the last we saw of the doomed city was an immense red glare in the gathering darkness.”

What M. Carton de Wiart Told Me.

Before leaving the subject of Louvain it is necessary for me to chronicle the following, which was told me by M. Carton de Wiart, the Belgian Minister of Justice. “As to the sacking of Louvain,” he stated, “we have here a statement dated August 30th, which has been handed to the Commission by a person of universal repute in Belgium, and which has been telegraphed to us. On August 30th that person went from Brussels to Louvain. On the high-road, when he got to a place called Weerde St. George, he saw only burning villages and peasants beside themselves with terror. When he reached Louvain and got to the American College--a large number of American students, young priests, and medical students come to Louvain--he found that fire had destroyed the whole town except the town hall and city station. This gentleman noted that on Sunday last the Germans kept on kindling new fires and placing straw so as to carry the fire farther. The cathedral and the theatre had been destroyed, and had collapsed completely. So had the famous library, one of the most precious in the world, especially as regards manuscripts and works of art. The town,” he says, “presents the aspect of an old ruined city, a city like Pompeii. In the midst of this scene of desolation the only people you could see were drunken soldiers carrying bottles of wine and liqueurs in their arms, and officers themselves sitting in the streets around tables drinking like their men.”

The “Times” Speaks Out.

Finally I give a quotation from the _Times_:--

“Deep and deadly must be the vengeance which the defenders of civilization will exact from these new apostles of brutality. Even Attila had his better side. He spared Milan. It has been said of him that, though he destroyed cities without remorse, he respected the laws of nations as they were understood in his day. The modern Attila respects neither the laws of nations nor the laws of God. His evil deeds cry aloud to Heaven and to the horror-struck watching nations. The infamous crime of the destruction of Louvain is without a parallel even in the dark ages. The harmless civil population had been disarmed a week ago. The German garrison at the gates of the town fired upon another force of their own countrymen. To conceal their blunder, they laid the blame upon the helpless townspeople. No denials were listened to. Some of the men of Louvain were shot, the rest were made prisoners, the women and children were flung into trains and carried off to an unknown destination, and the city was razed to the ground. Louvain has ceased to exist. A town of forty thousand inhabitants, bigger than Crewe or Dover or Colchester or Keighley, has been completely wiped out. The wickedness of this abominable act shall be expiated to the uttermost when the day of reckoning comes.

“Until now we have maintained an attitude of deliberate reserve upon the innumerable tales of German atrocities which have reached us. We published without comment the unanswerable list of shocking excesses committed by the German troops, which was sent to England by the Belgian authorities. When a German Zeppelin cast bombs upon ill-fated women asleep in their beds at Antwerp, we did no more than explain the bearings of international law upon conduct which has met with universal reprobation in Europe and America. But now the real object of German savagery is self-revealed, not only by the effacement of Louvain, but by the shameful admissions sent forth from the wireless station at Berlin. Last Thursday night the following official notification regarding Belgium came vibrating through the air:--

“‘The only means of preventing surprise attacks from the civil population has been to interfere with unstinting severity and to create examples which by their frightfulness would be a warning to the whole country.’

“Such is the cynical nature of the German apologia for the destruction of Louvain. Such is the character of the warfare of the modern Huns. They seek to strike terror into the hearts of their foes by methods which belong to the days of the old barbaric hosts, who were thought to have vanished from the world for ever. There must be no mistake about the opportionment of blame for this and numberless other crimes. We have listened too long to the bleatings of professors bemused by the false glamour of a philosophy which the Germans themselves have thrust aside.

“=The Kaiser and his people are alike responsible for the acts of their Government and their troops, and there can be no differentiation when the day of reckoning comes. The Kaiser could stop these things with a word. Instead, he pronounces impious benedictions upon them. Daily he appeals for the blessings of God upon the dreadful deeds which are staining the face of Western Europe--the ravaged villages, the hapless non-combatants hanged or shot, the women and children torn from their beds by cowards and made to walk before them under threats of all the infamies which have eternally disgraced German ‘valour.’=”

XII.

“=Just for a word--‘neutrality’--just for a scrap of paper Great
Britain was going to make war.=”--_The German Chancellor._

_The “scrap of paper” was the Powers’ treaty guaranteeing Belgium
neutrality._

French Protest to the Powers.

So numerous and so terrible were the outrages committed by Germans on French territory that the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, on September 2nd--a month after the outbreak of hostilities--was compelled to address a communication to the Powers which set forth a large number of authenticated cases of barbarity. In the course of this official statement it was explained that the indisputable facts set out were selected merely as examples, and that it was impossible to bring to the notice of the Powers every act contrary to the laws of war of which accounts were being received day by day. The series of memoranda were sufficient to establish the two following classes of facts:--

“First. The Armies and Government of Germany profess the deepest
scorn for International Law, and for treaties solemnly recognised
for Germany.

“Secondly. The devastations of the invaded countries (incendiarism,
murder, pillage, and atrocities) appear to be systematically
pursued by order of the leaders, and are not due to acts of
indiscipline.

“It is necessary to emphasise this two-fold characteristic of the
German proceedings. They constitute a negation of every human and
International law, and bring back modern warfare, after centuries
of civilisation, to the methods of barbaric invasions. We are
confident that such facts will arouse the indignation of neutral
States, and will help to make clear the meaning of the struggle
which we are carrying on in the respect of law and independence of
nations.”

To this _communiqué_ were attached ten separate memoranda, setting forth various specific charges against the Germans, and showing, among other things, how the Kaiser’s troops were killing the French wounded, and had even shot Red Cross nurses.

A Dead Man’s Diary.

“In the fifth of these memoranda,” says Reuter’s correspondent, “the German allegation that the civilian population had taken part in the war was strongly denied, and was declared to be nothing but a pretext put forward by the German troops to give them the appearance of reprisals. From the beginning of the war the Germans had made a practice of burning undefended villages and of assassinating the inhabitants, and evidence of this was to be found in letters and notebooks which had been taken from Germans, dead or prisoners.”

A notebook found on a corpse of a German lieutenant contained the following remark:--“We have fired the church of Villerupt and shot the inhabitants. We pretended that scouts had taken refuge in the tower of the church and had fired on us from there. The fact was, it was not the inhabitants of Villerupt, but Customs officers and forest guards who fired on us.”

The sixth memorandum gave detailed evidence in support of the charge that a systematic devastation of the country had been ordered by the German leaders. Letters found on German soldiers made it clear that the burning of villages and the shooting of the inhabitants were general measures, and that the orders were given by superior officers.

Attention was called to this violation of The Hague Convention, and it was pointed out that it was on the proposal of the German delegates at the second Hague Conference that an article was inserted declaring that the belligerent guilty of such violation should be liable to pay an indemnity.

In the remaining memoranda information was given as to the destruction of villages in the region of Paris, and the burning of Affleville, under circumstances of particular brutality.

The statement concluded: “The Government of the Republic, respecting International conventions which it has ratified, protests against those violations of International law, and holds up to reprobation before the opinion of the world the behaviour of an enemy who respects no rule and goes back on his signature affixed to International agreements.”

The Red Hand of Destruction.

Upon the Franco-German frontier the red hand of destruction was indeed laid heavily, and it seemed incredible that a civilised nation should resort to the methods of savages. Yet it was, alas, true, as was proved in hundreds of cases. Atrocities were committed everywhere; civilians, women, and children were shot down in blind rage. A German officer captured by the French near Blamont admitted that the Germans wanted no prisoners, and that the wholesale massacre of peaceful villagers was according to orders.

German infantrymen belonging to the Bavarian regiments systematically set fire to the villages through which they passed in the region of Barras, Harbone, and Montreux, for during the engagement no artillery fire could have caused such conflagrations. In the same district they forced the inhabitants to precede their scouts. According to the same report the German troops were daily massacring peaceful villagers, and actually made children march before them when debouching from the villages upon the field of battle.

An official report was made by M. Mirman, Prefect of the Meurthe and Moselle, to the French Minister of the Interior, after a visit paid to the districts of Bardonviller, Cirey, and Blamont, in the Luneville area. He stated that it was impossible to cite all the acts of savagery and brutality on the part of the German troops which had come under his notice. He could make out a long list of women, young girls, and old men and women who had been executed without the least reason and upon the slightest pretext. Houses had been systematically burned by order of the German officers as they advanced, and then again as they retreated.

Petrol on Burning Houses.

At Bardonviller, where one of the Kaiser’s sons was with the troops, eleven of the inhabitants had been murdered, among whom was the wife of the mayor, and a woman with her infant child, while seventy-eight houses were burned with petrol and specially-prepared faggots. After pillaging the town and looting everything they could, they fired on and demolished the church, and took fifteen of the inhabitants, including a magistrate, away as hostages.

At Bremeuil the Prefect found a pitiful and shameful state of affairs. There, five inhabitants, one a little lad, were butchered, as well as an old man of seventy-four, who was “trussed and shot like a rabbit.” The Communal building was destroyed, and nearly the whole town swept away, not during battle, but by the soldiers on their arrival.

The French troops in Lorraine had seized an entire mail, letters written by German soldiers to their families. In these it was shown that the chief occupation of the troops was eating and drinking, and in more than twenty of the letters it was stated that all French civilians were shot if they only looked suspicious or evil-disposed. All the men, and even boys under age, were shot.

Another official statement issued by the French Ministry of War stated that two Uhlans who were reconnoitring on the frontier entered the little village of Affleville. They were ejected by a patrol of three mounted riflemen. On the following day a detachment of Uhlans returned, set fire to a farmhouse, and killed the farmer, who attempted to save his property. The inhabitants protested that their village had not interfered with the enemy, but later that evening a further squadron of Uhlans arrived while all the villagers were attending service in the church, and after sprinkling the houses with petroleum set the whole place on fire. The terrified inhabitants fled without money or other property to Verdun, the parish priest being shot.

“We Kill Everyone.”

Many other sensational indictments of the blood-lust of the Kaiser’s savage hordes reached the French Ministry of Justice. The Curé of Pillon, in the Metz district, states that on August 10th fifteen Germans entered his house and pointed their rifles at him. He was dragged into the road and brought before the General. On the way there he was hurried along with the butts of his captors’ rifles. When he stopped they hit him. He took out his handkerchief, and they confiscated it. He shouted: “You are a set of brutes. Take me before one of your officers who speaks French.” An officer replied in French, “It’s all up with you.” A French shell burst not far from the German troops. The Germans threw themselves down, but compelled the priest to remain standing.

Seven lads from French Lorraine at Baroncourt saw a body of Uhlans driving before them old men, women, and children. They struck those that would not or could not walk. Three Uhlans moved aside to a field where a boy of fifteen was tending a herd of cows. The youth attempted to prevent the seizure of the cattle. The troopers shot him point-blank, and he fell without a cry.

In Lorraine a large number of letters written by German soldiers were captured, and these letters are full of descriptions of acts of wanton cruelty. Most of the writers make reference to food and drink. One says, “We have no need for money. We simply take.” In another it is written, “Before burning the village we took away everything that was eatable or drinkable,” and again, “The first village across the frontier was completely destroyed. It was a sight which was both sad and agreeable.” In another letter it is stated, “We have shot the inhabitants of from fourteen to sixty years old. There were thirty of them.” In twenty other letters the phrases recur, “All were shot. We kill everyone.”

“=The efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only be
termed foolish, but absolutely immoral, and must be described as
unworthy of the human race.=”--_Gen. Von Bernhardi._

Village Ruthlessly Bombarded.

Refugees from Lorraine had a pathetic story to tell. The village of Pontsurseille was burned on August 21st by the Germans. Like several others in the neighbourhood, it was close to the border-line, and courteous relations continued between its inhabitants and the enemy, even after the first days of the war. But on August 14th a body of Uhlans suddenly appeared and commandeered a number of things. They were supplied at once with 200 chickens, a quantity of oats, and some other provisions. The Guard Champêtre himself delivered the objects commandeered, and took them across the border into the German camp. He was not allowed to return immediately, and was detained for two days. On Monday, August 17th, when the Guard Champêtre had returned, a shell suddenly burst over the village. It exploded a few yards from a place where a couple of women were engaged in milking the cows. Other shells followed. They came from a battery erected on the other side of the border.

No French soldier had been seen at the village for three days. They had made their appearance only for a short time, and had fallen back. The firing stopped after a while, but was resumed during the night and continued for several nights following. All the able-bodied men had left for the garrisons, and only the women, the children, and some aged men remained. The Guard Champêtre was the only person with any authority that remained, and he took over the administration of the commune. Meanwhile he was compelled every day to go back and forwards between the village and the German camp and supply the provisions that were commandeered.

A young seminarist acted as secretary at the Mairie, and the wife of the Guard Champêtre took charge of the fire-engine and tried to put out the fire caused by the shells with the help of some other women.

On the night of August 20th it became evident that the Germans intended to lay the village in ruins. The bombardment was continued all night and the following day. The inhabitants took refuge in the cellars, which protected them against the shells. About forty of them found shelter in a big cellar belonging to a rich farmer, M. François Michel.

Helpless Children.

There were small children of three, six, and nine years, and infants only a few months old. The Guard Champêtre, assisted by his wife, directed everything. He had the openings protected by mattresses, which prevented the Germans from discharging their rifles into the cellar.

By making a hole in one of the walls he secured a retreat into an adjoining cellar. Suddenly an officer came, had the door opened, and ordered everybody to come out at once. M. François Michel was the first to step out, and he was instantly shot down by a group of soldiers standing by. Next a boy of six, a nice little lad, stepped out. He was also shot down. Everybody in the cellar then rushed back, amid cries of horror raised by the wife of M. Michel and his children.

The Germans shouted, “Come out, or we shall burn you alive,” and fired a volley down the steps of the cellar. The soldiers poured petroleum down the cellar and on the mattresses, and set fire to it. The people inside took refuge in the adjoining cellar, and the Guard Champêtre and his wife were the last to leave. From this cellar they finally escaped and fled across the field. The soldiers meanwhile had seized the young seminarist, and another young man, aged twenty, and shot them, declaring that they were of age for military service.

_Photo, Sport and General._

_Face p. 101_]

XIII.

The Desecration of Churches.

Other refugees from Lorraine had harrowing stories to tell of German brutalities, and many made statements which were officially registered. Whole villages, they said, had been put to fire and sword. One man told an official of the Catholic Society that he had, with his own eyes, seen two German soldiers chop off the arms of a child which clung to its mother’s skirts. Other narratives show once more that the Germans entered closed houses and shot or bayoneted the inmates on the pretence that they had been fired upon by them. Miners had in many places been wilfully entombed, and other miners had been forced to dig trenches for the enemy under the threat of being shot. Germans had stabled their horses in churches, which they desecrated, and even covered their animals with priests’ vestments.

Under their usual plea the Germans burned the town of Burzweiler, in Alsace-Lorraine, blowing up its factories.

An eye-witness, M. Gaudefroy-Demonhynes, who was attempting to return to France from Baden, made a sworn statement to a Paris magistrate, explaining how he had found himself on August 1st detained with other Frenchmen and some Russians at the railway station of Lorrach, in Baden, a few miles from the French frontier. The party were arrested by soldiers and taken to the police station, where they and their luggage were searched. They were then led under guard through the town amid hostile demonstrations by the inhabitants to the square in front of the railway station, where they found another party of about thirty Frenchmen and twenty Russians.

One of this party, a French commercial traveller, a stout man aged about forty, suddenly shouted “Vive la France!” Instantly the two soldiers guarding him took him before an officer or a non-commissioned officer, standing a few paces away from a group of officers. People standing between M. Demonhynes and the scene prevented him from hearing what was said, but a few seconds later a shot--only one shot--rang out.

“I don’t know who fired,” the witness says, “but I know that just before the report the Frenchman was standing before my eyes against the wall of a restaurant facing the station, held fast by his two guards in the position of one who is about to be executed.

“Hardly had the shot rang out than protests arose from our little band. Among those who protested most vigorously were three young Frenchmen from eighteen to twenty years old. They looked to me like students leaving Germany, like myself. I did not speak to them and do not know their names. Just as the soldiers seized him and his comrades one of the young Frenchmen tried to speak to an officer who was wearing a large, light grey cloak. This officer did not listen to him. Some order must have been given, I don’t know by whom.

“One of the three Frenchmen, who must have been told of the fate awaiting him, cried out in German ‘Don’t hold us. We aren’t afraid; we are Frenchmen!’

“This time the officer replied coarsely, half turning round, ‘Shut up.’ The three Frenchmen of their own accord placed themselves against the wall of the same restaurant. Two lines of soldiers were drawn up on either side of them at right angles to the wall. Other soldiers--how many I did not count--took up their position in front of them about eight yards away. A volley rang out. The three Frenchmen fell.

“Fresh cries arose from our party. Horror-stricken women began to weep. I did not see the bodies removed, but I saw them fall to the ground.

“At this moment a great uproar broke out. Another Frenchman, a big man with a great black beard, whose age and appearance I forget and whom I did not know, began to shout, ‘Cowards! Murderers!’ Soldiers surrounded him. He struggled with them. They speedily overcame him, and, without taking the trouble to stand him up against the wall, without the intervention of any officer, one of the soldiers thrust the barrel of his rifle against his body and shot him down point blank before my eyes.

“I saw these same soldiers dragging his body along the ground. The man was struggling still. I had not the strength to look any more. I heard other shots. I don’t know if there were any other victims.”

The German troops allowed no considerations of religion or respect for antiquity to interfere with their scheme of devastation. Great works of art and architecture and ancient churches were destroyed by fire or shell, and in more than one instance it is stated that cathedrals were used for stabling horses. To-day many are the ruined churches in Belgium. Of the beautiful cathedral of Louvain only the walls stand, for the interior is reported to have been ruthlessly shelled, pillaged, and finally set on fire. Other churches in the ill-fated city similarly suffered, while at Malines, too, bare walls and loose masonry are all that remain of what were until recently sacred edifices of exceptional interest to visitors by reason of their ancient treasures.

“=We believe that some of the generals and some of the officers have
encouraged these crimes, which would be impossible without such
countenance. Yet we trust that there are still German officers
whose characters can be respected.=”

--From the _Morning Post_.

XIV.

“=It is not a fair fight. Germany is fighting foully; she is defying
not only the rules of war, but the rules of humanity.=”--_Mr.
Richard Harding Davis_, the great American author.

Treatment of English Travellers.

The treatment meted out to English travellers and residents in Germany at the time of the outbreak of the war was equally in keeping with the modern culture of the nation. British subjects arriving in England were loud in their protest of the manner in which they were treated, and even British, French, and Russian Consuls were treated like criminals. In regard to the latter, a mock formality of presenting the Consuls with passports was gone through before their departure, but, provided with these so-called guarantees of safe conduct, they were subjected to the grossest insults on the way, the women being the chief object of the mob’s fury. Insulting inscriptions were scribbled on the walls of their compartments, and they were the objects of very hostile demonstrations. At every station brave soldiers of the Kaiser presented their revolvers at the heads of the travellers, came up to the carriage windows, jeered at the occupants, and often threw rubbish into the compartments.

Mr. Drummond Hay, the British Consul at Dantzig, the French Consul, M. Michel, and the Russian Consul were, with their families, turned out from their consulates at an hour’s notice. They were told that they would be taken to the Russian frontier, but in reality they were conveyed to Bentheim, near the Dutch frontier, _via_ Stettin, a journey which occupied three days. During the journey they were not given nor allowed to buy any food, and when the train reached Bentheim the travellers were curtly told to get out, and the Consuls were immediately separated from their families. The women and children were housed in a mean tavern under strict military guard, and the men, together with Mr. Drummond Hay’s sixteen-year-old son, were taken to the local prison. They were all put into one small cell, which they found already tenanted by M. Vassel, an attaché of the French Consulate at Bentheim, who had been imprisoned some days previously. M. Vassel had been arrested when looking after the luggage of the French Consul at Bentheim, who had just left for Holland.

In prison the Consuls were treated as though they belonged to the worst class of criminals. They were obliged to sleep on the floor, without covering of any kind, and with only a few wisps of straw between them and the cold stones, and their only food was the black bread which is served out to the ordinary convicts.

Having fallen ill on the journey, M. Michel asked to be allowed to see a doctor, but, in lieu of medical advice, he was given a very strong dose of castor oil, which made him very much worse. The conditions under which these four men and a boy lived cannot be described. The gaolers would not allow them nor anyone else to clean out the cell. Night and day the unfortunate prisoners were herded together. Their only recreation, a daily walk of half an hour’s duration, was taken in company with the convicts.

Ten days after leaving Dantzig Mr. Drummond Hay was set free, but the others were detained amid the awful surroundings which have been described.

It was ascertained that there were forty-eight other foreigners--among them fifteen Frenchmen--who are being kept in the town of Bentheim under the strictest military observation.

The state of affairs in Dantzig when the Consuls left was terrible; many people were being shot daily, often upon the very scantiest suspicion.

If the Germans treated responsible Government officials in the manner described above, how much worse was the case of unfortunate girls and women stranded alone in Germany. In many cases English governesses in German families were cast adrift, to starve and endure the insults of the savage enemy. Hundreds of English men and women, many of them tourists, were thrown into prison without any trial, and suffered the same indignities as did our Consul at Dantzig.

Englishwoman’s Experience.

A well-authenticated story was related by the headmistress of a London elementary school, who was in Switzerland when the war broke out and who returned to England prostrate with shock at the horror of scenes she witnessed while passing through Germany. The train, she said, was packed; all windows were closed, and the blinds drawn, and the passengers were forbidden on peril of their lives to raise them. Glimpses of troop trains were caught at intervals, and to allow these to pass frequent stops were made. The pace was slow, and the crowded, unventilated carriages became unendurably close. In the same compartment as the lady in question were two English women, whom she learned to be teachers in the provinces. One of these became ill, and at last, when the train came to a stop at a countryside place between stations--there was no means of locating it--her friend helped the sick girl to alight in order to breathe some fresh air. Instantly bullets hailed upon them, and both were shot dead. Their travelling companions dared make no attempt to recover the bodies, and when the train passed on they were left beside the line.

Two teachers of another London girls’ school state that a woman travelling with them through Germany was shot for failing to show her passport, and her body thrown out upon the line. Other ladies in the same train stated that they had been stripped by German officers on the pretence of searching them.

_Photo, Sport and General._

_Face p. 109._]

XV.

“=France must be so completely crushed that she can never again come
across our path.=”--_Gen. Von Bernhardi._ (This statement was made
long before war was declared.)

What Our Soldiers Say.

By innumerable acts of treachery and appalling savagery on the battlefield the German soldiers have forfeited for ever the right to the courtesies usually extended to an honourable foe. The opening phases of the war have shown them in the light of cold-blooded barbarians, rather than honourable soldiers. The well-attested stories of their shocking brutality have no parallel in the history of the world. And in practically every case these incredible acts of cruelty have been committed with the knowledge and approval of their officers. They are carrying out to the letter the advice of the Kaiser to act like the Huns of Attila.

British soldiers who have returned wounded from the front are emphatic in their assertions that the German gunners deliberately fired on the hospitals and Red Cross men. One man remarked, “They seemed to take a delight in aiming at hospitals, which had the Red Cross over them. In fact, anything with the Red Cross acted as a target. A church was being used as a hospital, and one of our officers, who had a flesh wound, was taken inside for medical attention. Whilst he was there a shell blew away the roof of the church, and injured him a second time. Fifty men went out under the Red Cross to pick up wounded. They were fired on, and only two of them came back.”

A member of the Red Cross organisation stated that the Germans have treated with actual brutality the British wounded who fell into their hands. Twenty-seven British soldiers who were being removed from the field in an ambulance were dragged away and made to march to the Town Hall of Mons, two falling unconscious in the streets on their way.

A resident of Ostend, in a letter to this country, put into words the prevailing opinion in Belgium. “These Germans are not true soldiers,” he writes, “they are murderers in uniform. They kill the wounded and shoot the women and children. At one of the charges at Liége the Colonel of the 9th Regiment of the Line was shot through the head, and when his body was recovered later in the day it was found that these German cowards had inflicted at least twenty bayonet stabs on the already dead body.”

Helpless Soldiers Maimed.

These terrible allegations are borne out by information which has been received by a British officer from his son at the front, who states that the enemy, on coming across wounded British soldiers, proceed to stab them through the right hand with a bayonet, with a view to rendering the hand useless for holding a rifle again.

A horrible story is told by a wounded British sergeant. Struck down by a bullet, he lay on his back on the battlefield of Mons, unable to move, around him many wounded men. The German soldiers advanced over their bodies, stabbing at them with their bayonets. Realising that his only chance of saving his life was to feign death, the wounded “Tommy” closed his eyes and kept perfectly still. As the Germans passed one struck him on the body a heavy blow with the butt of a rifle, with the result that one of his ribs was smashed. Clenching his teeth to prevent crying out he lay rigid, hoping against hope that the barbarous enemy would not see that he still lived. Then to his relief they passed on, but not before one of them had plunged his bayonet into his shoulder.

Such stories as these make one’s blood boil, but they are by no means isolated instances. Many wounded soldiers who have returned have declared that after the battle of Mons the Germans, especially officers and non-commissioned officers, passed over the ground and thrust their swords at the wounded men. One man escaped by hiding for twenty-four hours under sheaves of corn.

Yet another story is told by a wounded soldier who was also in the fighting near Mons. He said, “We had had to retire a short distance, leaving some killed and wounded behind. We saw the Germans come along. They carried away some of our men who were lying on the ground we had left. They placed them--and I am positively sure there were wounded as well as killed among them--on a hayrick. Then the rick was set on fire. It made us desperately wild, and we long to get at those Germans. If we only could have charged! As it was, we had to stay where we were, but I think we got in a good few shots of vengeance which found their billet.”

A lieutenant of an infantry regiment stated that the Germans captured a party of his men outside Liége, and in order to prevent their escape crushed their feet with the butts of their rifles. They then took one man and held him against a tree while their comrades beat him about the back with rifle butts. An infantryman named Legrande, who was in the trenches beside his brother at a point where the fighting was furious, and who is now in hospital at Brussels, told the following story. His brother was mortally wounded by a German bullet, and died in his arms. He himself was shot in the thigh, and almost at the same moment some German Uhlans rode over him, leaving him unconscious. When he recovered his senses he made an endeavour to crawl back to his own lines, which in the meantime had been drawn in. He was discovered by some German infantrymen, who stripped him, taking his water-bottle and everything. Legrande had to wait in a state of utter nudity until the middle of the night, and then strip the dead bodies of his comrades in order to clothe himself. Eventually he regained the ranks of his comrades in an almost dying condition.

Again the Germans, having despoiled dead Belgian soldiers of their uniforms, clothed some of their men in them and placed them at the head of their troops when an attack was made upon the Belgian troops.

The Khaki Uniform Trick.

The treacherous use by the Germans of British uniforms is instanced by one of the wounded men at present in England. “What made matters worse for us was the treachery of the enemy,” he stated, in the course of an account of the fight in which he had sustained his hurt. “We were compelled to fall back at one point, and left behind us our haversacks and greatcoats, which we had taken off to allow us to fight the better. Some time afterwards a body of men came towards us wearing the familiar khaki-coloured coats, and naturally we took them for friends. But they were Germans who had seized our coats and put them on in order to disguise themselves, and no sooner were they near us than they sent a murderous fire into our ranks. Later, when there was a lull in the fighting, we found a large number of Germans killed wearing the clothes of British soldiers, showing that they must either have stripped our dead or the British prisoners they had captured and used their clothes.”

A number of Belgian soldiers arriving in Folkestone have also described the behaviour of the enemy as too brutal for any civilised nation, and most of them had seen Belgian villagers drawn in front of the Germans to act as a screen for them. A favourite trick of the Germans was to terrify Belgian villagers by driving them along immediately in front of their heavy guns, where, owing to the elevation of the guns, they were really quite safe. Their experience had been that the Germans had no respect for the Red Cross, and that in fact they waited until the wounded had been picked up and would then fire. They confirmed the stories which had been told about the manner in which the Germans had killed wounded men.

In another case a French soldier, after the engagement at Spincourt, related that while he was on the ground with a bullet in his foot the Germans, seeing he was not dead, fired at him with a rifle, twice, point-blank, hitting him in the hip and shoulder, whereupon he became unconscious. The Germans, thinking he was dead, left him.

Many of the British wounded affirm that the Germans pay no respect to the Red Cross flag, but continually fire upon it and upon Red Cross men. The enemy have also frequently violated the rules of the white flag. These statements are supported by the Ostend correspondent of the Central News, who was the eye-witness of the disgraceful incident which he described in the following message:--“When I was in the neighbourhood of Malines the forts were under bombardment. From the Willebroek fort the Belgians were placing shells into a wood four miles distant, with the object of forcing out a detachment of Uhlans. Presently a party of Uhlans, exhibiting a white flag, came forward towards the Belgian trenches with a request for a cessation of fire for the purpose of collecting wounded. The temporary truce was agreed to. A Red Cross wagon came forward to collect wounded, and a party from the Belgian trenches went out for a similar purpose.

“Suddenly the German Red Cross van opened, and from out of it a mitrailleuse poured its deadly fire with such effect that some ninety of the Belgians fell dead. The retribution was swift and complete. The Belgian artillery again opened fire, and with well-directed shells laid low at least 200 of the treacherous Germans.

“Another incident of like character came beneath my immediate notice. A party of German cyclists, entering the village of Willebroek, shot down a child of seven years of age. The Belgian infantry opened fire upon the cyclists, and an armoured motor-car, carrying a captain and four men, pursued the marauders. It is with satisfaction that I can record that eight of the Germans will fight no more.”

France Makes a Formal Protest.

An official _communiqué_ issued by the War Office of Paris contains the following references to these outrages. It draws to the attention of the Powers signatory of The Hague Convention the following facts, constituting on the part of the German military authorities a violation of the Conventions signed on October 10th, 1907, by the Imperial German Government:--

“According to a report dated August 10th, 1914, sent by the General Commanding the Army in the East,” it continues, “the German troops have finished off a large number of wounded men by shots fired into their faces at close quarters, as has been demonstrated by the dimensions of the wounds. Other wounded men were deliberately trampled upon.

“On the 10th August the Bavarian infantry systematically set fire to the villages which they went through in Barbas, Montigny, Montreux, and Paruse districts, at a time also when no artillery fire on either side could have provoked such action. In the same district they compelled the inhabitants to go in front of their scouts.”

Another report, dated August 11th, 1914, says: “The German troops are burning villages, massacring inhabitants, and making the women and children march in front of them when they come out of the villages on to the battlefields. This was done notably at Billy, in the fighting on the 10th. They are finishing off the wounded and killing prisoners.

“The Government of the Republic, in view of such proceedings, which must be repudiated by the universal conscience of mankind, leaves it to the civilised Powers to make complete appreciation of these criminal acts, which are eternally dishonouring for a belligerent.”

XVI.

“=The wrong--I speak openly--that we are committing I will endeavour
to make good as soon as our military goal is achieved.=”

From a speech by _The German Chancellor_.

The Antwerp Outrage.

Next to the tragic and infamous destruction of Louvain, and the attendant atrocities committed in that beautiful old town, nothing has called forth more passionate denunciation than the cowardly attempt made by Zeppelin airships to drop bombs at Antwerp in the dead of night on its sleeping inhabitants. For the first time in history a death-dealing airship has attacked a city in this way. As a weapon the Zeppelin dropping bombs may be as destructive as great shells fired from siege howitzers. The horror of aircraft is, however, more terrorizing than that of any siege gun, because bombs can be thrown down from the sky on defenceless and sleeping cities. The civilized world has greeted with execration this inhuman method of prosecuting war.

Before even a fortified town can be bombarded, the rules of war provide for twenty-four hours’ notice before the commencement of actual bombardment. Here we have a great airship sailing high over a sleeping city. Without warning her crew drop death-dealing bombs from the sky in the dead of night. Surely the killing of unsuspecting men, innocent women, and sleeping children in this way is the most ruthless outrage ever attempted in war.

Piloted by a German who knew the city well--one of the many to whom the city opened wide its doors in the days before the war--the huge airship had for its objective the Palais du Roi, where the Queen of Belgium, the little Princes, and Princess Marie-José lay sleeping. Aided by the darkness, the crew of the Zeppelin felt confident of their ability to carry out their murderous programme. They had mapped out a career of terrifying destruction. In a track of devastation they meant to leave in ruins the Palais du Roi (which would also have involved the death of the Royal Family), the Bourse, the Palais de Justice, the Banque, and the Minerva Motor Works. But in no case was the treacherous aim attained. The cowardly raid proved a complete and utter failure, the only consolation provided the Kaiser being the slaughter of seven innocent persons and the wounding of some twenty others.

Girls Horribly Mutilated.

The bombs which were to have killed the Queen and her family and to have shattered the Bourse fell into an adjoining street, wrecked a house, and injured two women. That destined for the destruction of the Banque struck the attic of a house near by, killed a servant as she slept, and injured two others. Of the other bombs one fell into a shrubbery, dug a deep, funnel-shaped hole, uprooted shrubs, and plucked from their frames windows of the St. Elizabeth Hospital, where the wounded lay. Another--and the most successful bomb--struck a private house inhabited by poor people, murdered a woman, and horribly mutilated three girls, killed two Civic Guards, and seriously injured another. It was at a private house just off the Place de Meir that a bomb wrought much destruction to life and property. It tore off the top storey and split up the front.

Screams of Dying Women.

“As I arrived on the scene,” says a _Daily Telegraph_ correspondent, “a woman tottered out covered with lime dust, crying out, ‘Docteur, docteur!’ Beneath the ruins of the house two Civic Guards were dead. Within the house pitiful screams came from three girls who had been roused from sleep by receiving dreadful wounds on the face and body. One girl had half her face blown away; the two others were seriously wounded on the face. Evidently their bodies had been somewhat protected by the bed-clothes.”

The Zeppelin at the time of this appalling incident was almost stationary in the sky, some seven hundred feet from the ground. Needless to say, a panic at once ensued, and thousands of people took refuge in their cellars, while others dashed out into the streets in their night attire. Time after time the earth trembled as the terrible bombs fell, causing devastation everywhere, the spots being signalled, it is said, from the roofs of houses occupied by prominent Germans, of whom there was a large colony in Antwerp. Truly it was a night of terror, for the populace through the hours of tension did not know from one moment to another that they might not be blown to atoms. Ten bombs struck ten different streets. One which fell in the Rue des Navets made a hole six feet six inches in diameter and twenty-two inches deep. It was probably filled with shot, for all the houses in the vicinity were riddled by bullets, and presented the appearance of having been fired upon, all the doors and windows being broken and the ceilings having fallen in.

“=The best protection of undefended cities against German Zeppelins
is that a repetition of the Antwerp occurrence will be greeted with
execration by the whole civilized world.=”--_Times._

Enormous Damage to Property.

It was calculated that about nine hundred houses were more or less damaged and about sixty houses destroyed. In a single house four persons were found dead. Indeed, in one room two people had been blown to atoms. Three men were walking in the Rue de la Corne, when one of the bombs fell. One was killed and the other two mortally wounded, while another passer-by had his leg blown off. All the bombs, which created a terrific explosion, were found to have been in a steel cover one and a half inches thick and about a foot in diameter. The Zeppelin was, of course, fired upon from the forts with guns and rifles, but having launched its deadly missiles it moved off into the darkness.

A subsequent examination of the projectiles thrown showed that they had a double covering, the two covers being joined together by mushroom-shaped rivets, which act the part of bullets, and must cause horrible injuries, as the two covers or envelopes are torn to fragments by the explosive.

“=If Germany had fought fairly we should have retained the respect
for her which we had in the past; but her barbarous method of
conducting war by sea and land has made all the nations of the Old
World and the New regard her as the enemy of the human race.=”

--MILITARY CORRESPONDENT of _The Times_.

A Miraculous Escape.

The story of that terrible night would not, however, be complete without a reference to the miraculous escape of M. Vamberg, a cigarette-maker. Had he slept in the bed he usually occupied, he would now be a dead man. But for some reason he chose another bed in another room, his wife being absent in the country, and so saved his life. The bed which Mme. Vamberg occupies when at home was crushed by the falling roof. More than that, having been aroused by the sound of the cannon, and having jumped out of bed and rushed down to the first floor, M. Vamberg found himself suddenly hanging from the window, the house having fallen about his ears. He was rescued from this position by the firemen.

More Cowardly Raids.

But, as though not satisfied with the success of the first attempt, the Germans determined upon another dastardly raid. A few nights after the first outrage a Zeppelin again appeared over the city in the dead of night. Ten bombs were discharged, and damaged a number of houses. No lives were lost, however. A boy of fifteen had his right arm injured by a flying splinter, while his father and sister and one or two others were slightly injured. A graphic description of the raid is given by the _Daily Telegraph_ correspondent. “I was awakened,” he relates, “by the rattle of rifle-fire from neighbouring roofs and the hideous crash of exploding bombs. Hurriedly descending into the Place Verte, I was just in time to see an airship disappearing southward. She was at a tremendous height, but could be clearly seen in the rays of the searchlight. There was an incessant rattle of shots from rifles and machine guns from the darkened town, and shrapnel could be seen exploding like meteorites in the trail of the flying marauder. All round the Place Verte from the roadway, and from points of vantage on the high buildings, spurts of flame indicated the efforts of the firers to bring down the hated ship. Immediately the searchlights fixed upon her the Zeppelin made off at great speed.”

Worse than the Boxers.

Surgeon-Major Seaman, of the United States Army Reserve Corps, who helped to tend the wounded, was so indignant with these cowardly tactics on the part of the Germans that he communicated with his Government, asking it to join at once in exacting reparation from Germany for such infamies. He declared that in all his eight campaigns, of which one was against the Boxers in China, he had never seen an act of war so ruthless, so horrible, as the sight of three young girls mutilated and defaced, and of the dead young mother, all attacked in their beds at night. And with him the civilized world will agree.

Other airship and aeroplane raids were made on Antwerp and also upon Paris, but fortunately none has been attended with either great loss of life or destruction of property. But that such should be the case affords no excuse for crimes which rank among the greatest committed by the ruthless German army.

“=At this moment the words ‘German culture’ are synonymous for
rapine, murder, and hideous cruelty. This is a state of things
which ought to be grasped by the people of Germany.=”

--From the _Morning Post_.

XVII.