MACKENSEN OF THE HUNS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2723, 18 March 1916, Page 12

MACKENSEN OF THE HUNS

SKETCH OF AN IRON AUTOCRAT,

In the course of a speech in the Hungarian Parliament, which the "Morning Post correspondent says created great merriment, a member described tho activities of Marshal von Mackenscn at the time ho had his headquarters in lemesvar, in Southern Hungary, before the Serbian offensive actually began. It was' complained that the Gorman ueneral behaved as if he were in a captured town.

iv r • a - r he'arrived he found that food prices were excessively high, ana he there and then issued an oraei fixing tho maximum prices at a much 'ower figure than the Government had hxed thorn earlier, and when he was warned of the illegality of the, order, lemesvar being in Hungary under the Hungarian laws, he answered:—"l am quite satisfied that the people and the soldiers in this town and in the zone under my command will Tather have food at cheap and illegal prices than at uear and legal prices." Nothing -would deter him from his resolve to give the people cheap food. Ihe merchants went to him in a deputation, and told the General that they had paid much higher prices for their stock than the prices fixed by him. "If you say another word," he answered, "I will have you all locked up." Thus Temesvar was a happy and contented town as long as it was under the command of General Mackensen.— When complaints reached him that dealers' were not respecting the maximum prices he had fixed, he placed armed soldiers in the "shops, and gave orders to have the shopkeepers arrested at {fie first sign of revolt. It was also related that he ordered some contractors to build military barracks, and gave thorn three days to finish the work. The contractors protested, saying that they would require fen days. "Unless you do the work in two days," ho told them, "I will have you all locked up, and will have j £he head contractor shot' to-day," The barraoks were finished in toyo days. | As the Serbian elements in the south of Hungary were tho particular objects of the General's suspicions, he ordered all the Serbian priests to Temesvar, a_n3 _ thoip he prohibited them ' from ringing their church bells, for, as he put it, "The bolls have beon ringing to so many different tunes lately that I am not sure that their language is not understood by the enemy." One dangerous prfest hu invited to breakfast, a tlx! kept him there for lunch and supper also, so tKnt he might find our if the man was reliable or not. Finally lie decided to keep him for good under severe survoillance.