SLAVE RAID IN LILLE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2837, 31 July 1916, Page 7

SLAVE RAID IN LILLE

A BRUTAL BUSINESS Australian-New Zealand Cablo Association. (Eec. July 20, 8.15 p.m.) Paris, July 29. The nation is angered at the news which is slowly filtering into Paris of the slave raids the Germans conducted at Eastertido at Lille and other towns. It lasted three weeks, and was carried out with refinements' of moral torturo J which only tho Germans are capablo of j devising. - As it would bo too kindly j to take whole families, one to five mem- 5 bers were selected.' The towns were raid- ; ed quarter by quarter withoul notice. i An eye-wituess at Lille writes: "The women had not slept for eight dayß wondering what the fate of tho other inhabitants would be, till bodies of soldiers came at daybreak and tore children from their mothers and nurses, not even saying whither they were going. Other victims were seized .in tho streets and tramways. An officer on Good Friday evening passed through Lille picking up victims, who were immediately taken to a church or school, where innocent girls were herded with women of the town. A num•fcer was given each, as though they vere so many cattle. Fifteen hundred to two thousand were thus taken daily, until the temporary concentration camps sembled ' slave markets. This, con-. tiuued throughout Saster week. The brutality of the business even disgusted some of the German officers. Those at Koubaix refused to'obey orders to take children at night time. Many were transported to tho Aisne departments, and then Ardennes, on the pretext of carrying out agricultural pursuits. Some were* obliged to work as officers' orderlies." NEUTRALS TO BE INFORMED. OF THE DETAILS OF THE CRIMES. Australian-New Zralajid Cnble Association. (Eec. July 29, 8.15 p.m.) Paris, July 28. The French Government intends to inform neutrals the details of the German crimes on civilians in invaded countries,' and is preparing a Yellow Book showing the inhuman measures taken against women, girls, and infants. Twenty-five thousand between the ages of fourteen and fifty-five were taken at Koubaix, Tourcoing, and Lille, and transported at midnight. For ten nights the streets were guarded with machine-sum-'. Officers entered houses and requisitioned those whom (hey chose, and concentrated them indiscriminately in churches and schools pending departure. Even after being torn from their homes and families (hoy sang the "Marseillaise."