COLD-BLOODED GERMAN BARBARITY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2247, 5 September 1914, Page 7

COLD-BLOODED GERMAN BARBARITY

BELGIAN CITIZENS MASSACRED MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN SHOT DOWN (Rec. September 5, 0.5 a.m.) .. London, September 4, morning. The Hague newspapers gjve full descriptions of the sacking of Louvain by the Germans. Dutch eye-witnesEes state that prior to the outrage the inhabitants were thoroughly cowed and were so terrified that they hardly dared speak to each other; One eye-witness who was in the streets on the night Louvain was blotted out off the map, says he saw Germans shooting the inhabitants haphazard. As- each house caught fire, the Gennans battored in tho front doors oE tho next house; and when the frightened inhabitants rushed out they shot down men, women and children. Oho German boasted that ho had shot sixty-three people. INNOCENT MEN SHOT DOWN, (Rec. September 4, 10.50 p.m.) i Dieppe, September 3. The agent of the Belgian State Railways, in describing the Germans' cold-blooded raassacro at Aerschot, says a boy who had been brooding over hie oountry's wrongs shot a German colonel, who was tho commander in tho town, and killed him. All tho men in tho town, numbering 390, were thereupon driven into the Church and taken out in groups of three, and of every threo one was taken at random and led away and shot. The surviving 260 wcro forced, under threats of a general massacre, to dig huge graves and bury ihoir kinsmen and townsfolk. An Ostcnd telegram says the citizens oE. Namur were accused of assisting in the defence of tho town, and the Germane summarily shot eight meu in each of tho numerous streets. > BRITISH HOSPITALS SHELLED.. (Bee. September i, 11.20 p.m.) London, September 4, morning. Stories of German brutalities are accumulating from all quarters. . < At Lβ Havre, 'British Army medical' officers declare that when a German soldier is seriously wounded, his comrades simply shoot him dead in order to save trouble; moreover, they deliberately fire on the British medical corps and shell the hospitals. ANCIENT CATHEDRAL A HEAP OF RUINS. (Rec-September 4, 10.25 p.m.) -. Amsterdam, September 3. The Germans bombarded Malines on Wednesday. The Cathedral was reduced to ruins, but the shrine of St. Romhaut was rescued and conveyed to Antwerp with many other works of art, including the two >paintings by Kubens in the churches of Notre Damo and St. John. Malines is an ancient and important city of Belgium, and since 1559 the seat of the only archbishopric in the country. Tho chief importance of Malinos is derived from the fact that it is in'a souse tllo religious capital of Belgium—the Archbishop being the primate of the Roman Catholic Church in that country. The principal, building in the city is the extremely fiiie building dedicated to St. Rombaut. This cathedral was begun in the 12th, and finished in the 14th century, and although modified in tho loth, after a fire it remains one of. the_ most remarkablo specimens of . Gothic architecture in Europe. The massive tower of over 300 feet, which is described as unfinished because.the original intention was to carry it up to 500 feet, is its most striking external feature. The cathedral contained a fine altar piece- by Van Dyck, and the pulpit was incarvedoakof the 17th century. Another old palace is that of Margaret of Austria, regent for Charles V, which has been carefully preserved, and has been latterly used as a Court of Justioo. In the Church oi Notre Dame (,16th century) was Rubens's masterpiece "The' Miraculous Draught of Fishes," and in that of St. John was a fine triptych by the same master. The city has a population of about 60,000. 'A' VILLAGE PRIEST'S STORY. '(Bee. Septembeer 5, 1.5 a.m.) London, September 4. ' \ Mr. Oliver Madox Hueffer, of Boulogne, states 'hat he interviewed tho cure of a little village south-west of Brussels. The cure stated that a German officer rode over a little child in the street, killing her, and rode on cursing. One of tlhe crowd flung a stone at the Germans, who immediately fired, killing several villagers. The cure says twelve notables were then seized. Later on a villager fired a single shot, and five of the hostages were shot.' In addition, many of the villagers-were killed by indiscriminate volleys, and the village was burnt. . .