BELGIAN WOMAN'S HEROISM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2354, 9 January 1915, Page 2

BELGIAN WOMAN'S HEROISM

HER LIFE FOR HER COUNTRY. Every now and again out of the accounts which filter through to us from the war theatre, there comes the tale of- some thrilling deed of heroism, of self-sacrifice, of daring, that stops short at no penalty that will have to be paid, however terrifying. Bravery would seem to be the common prerogative of all the nations that are involved, although, perhaps naturally, we hear more about our own soldiers than of the deedß of the others, and in the latter case our .powers of deduction have been somewhat more exeroised.

Women too have borao an active pari in the war, and £rom the pen of a wellknown journalist comes the following story, which was told to him by a leading physician of Aix-la-Chapelle. and which appeared in one of the loading newspapers of the day:— "During the investment and bombardment of the -Liege defences," the story goes, "a battery of German siege guns was mounted in the village of Dolliain, which has already been mentioned. From the accuracy with which shots from the Liege forts fell among them, the Germans speedily became convinced that some one in the village was seoretly communicating with the defending fortresses, telling the gunners there when a shell overshot the German lines or fell Bhort. "A local physician was caught in. the aot of sending carrier pigeons to' Liege with advice for the better handling of the Belgian guns.; The Germans shot him in his house' among his pigeons. Nevertheless, the Belgian firo continued to be marvellously fatal. "Then another discovery was made. | A young _ girl, the daughter of a well-to-do citizen,- was using a telephone that, through some oversight, the ■ Germans had failed to' destroy. From the window of her father's house she watched the effect of the Belgian shells, and after each discharge she would call the fort in Liege and direct the batteries there how to aim the next 'time. For days she had been risking her life to do this service for her country. "She was detected, tried by courtmartial, convicted of violating the articles of warfare by giving aid to the enemy, and condemned to be shot. Next morning this girl, blindfolded and with her arms bound iehind her, faced a firing squad. As I conceive it. no more heroic figure will be produced in this war than that Belgian girl, whose name the world may never know. "I do not know how the American people will view tho execution of military law on that brave young woman," said my informant. "I do know that the officers who tried her sorely regretted that, under their oaths to do their duty without being influenced by sentiment or by their natural sympathies, they sentenced her to death. They could do nothing else. She had been instrumental in causing the killing and wounding of many of the men.' By tho rules of war she had risked her life, and she lost it. The troops had killed the man who used tho carrier pigeons. They had no right and no powor to spare the girl who, over tho telephone, directed the fire of their enemies. But if I were a Belgian I would give my last cent to rear a monument to her mem- I ory." So muoh for Belgian provocation and for German reprisals under the inflexible Prussian code.