"JUSTICE FIRST"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 26, 25 October 1918, Page 5

"JUSTICE FIRST"

GERMANY'S CRIMES'AND ENORMITIES KIPLING'S APPEAL IN VERSE (Eec. October 24, 7.15 p.m.) London, October 23. Mr. Rudyard Kipling has written a war poem entitled- "Justice First," condemning Germany's crimes and euormities, and urging that peoplo with a heart of beasts must re-lcarn the law. Mr. Kipling writes:— "Heavy the load we undergo. And our own hands prepare, If we have parley with the foe, The load our sons must bear. Before we lose the world that bids new worlds to birth, Needs must wo loosen first 1 the sword of justice upon earth; Or else nil else is vain Since life on earth began, And the spent world sinks back again Hopeless of God and man." —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. INHUMAN CHEATS .. THE LATEST INSTANCE 01? GER- . MAN DISHONOUR. (Rec. October 21, 7.15 p.m.) Amsterdam, October 23. A fresh and striking instance of the. inhumanity of the German authorities has been discovered in Belgium. The Boldiers.in the liberated territory found a large number of Russian soldiers belonging to German 'abour companies. They had been captured three years ago. The Russians were treated with the utmost brutality and forced.to labour behind the firing-line. They were utterly ignorant of tho Russian revolution, the Tsar's death, or the Brest-Litovsk peace. , —Reuter. THE POPE AND ThThUN BARBARIANS AN APPEAL TO THE NEW CHANCELLOR. ■ x (Rec, October 24, 7.15 p.m.), Rome, October 23. Evidently the Pope does not-accept the German protestations of innocence iw regards outrages and devastations. The official organ of the Holy See, "The Osservatore Romano," declares that the German armies which destroyed and burned the Franco-Belgian cities and towns must be compelled to evacuate France and Belgium. Tho paper announces that tho Poje has addressed a direct appeal to the Chancellor, Princo Max of Baden, to prevent further unnecessary devastations. The Holy See has made, a similar appeal to the Papal Nuncio in Bavaria.—Reuter. Cardinal Merrier has informed the Pope that Germany has agreed to liberate the Belgian deportees and political prisoners.—"The Times." THE "TORTURE POST" IN BELGIUM. London, October 23. The Unionist and Liberal War Committees debated the position of prisoners of war in Germany and elsewhere. Tho Liberal Committee resolved that tho Allies, as a condition of peace, must insist on the surrender and trial of. all suspected of cruelties to prisoners. The twenty-third report cf thp Belgian Commission details many atrocities on Belgian prisoners in Germany, including the "torture post." Sometimes men wero tied to posts for twenty-four hours and beaten with ritte butts. At Munster, in September, 1914, seventeen Belgians were shot because they did not obey quickly enough the sentry's order to lino up. British prisoners state that the Bulgars havo not treated the British with deliberate cruelty, • but the Serbians wore viciously ill-used. Out of fifty thousand only twenty thousand survived their brutal handling. British officers saw Serbs reguilarly beaten and ofton shot without excuse.—Aus.-N.Z. Cablo Assn.

THE GERMAN DEVASTATIONS AN AMAZING COMMISSION. Amsterdam, October 23. Wolff's Agency announces that Germany has formed a Neutral Commission to investigate' the devastations by the German armies in iretreat. The commission includes Marquis Villalobar (Spanish Minister), van Vollenhoven (Dutch Minister), and three others. An amaziiig feature is that the direction of the commission has been handed to Baron yon Derlancken, who was largely responsible for the murder of Nurse Cavell.—Aus., N.Z. Cable Assn. HORRIBLE BRUTALITIES IN BULGARIA HOW THE SERB PRISONERS WEEE TREATED. (Rec. October 24, 7.15 p.m.) London, October 23. Mr. Ward Prico. writing from Sofia, says: "The first party of British prisoners have arrived. They .state that generally they were well treated. Their sufferings principally were due to the ignorance and callousness of their captore, who stinted their food. Tho prisoners niajnly subsisted on home parcels. There was much malaria and influenza, and two hundred died. The Sorb prisoners were treated with horrible brutality. Of fifty thousand only thirty thousand survived. The Serbs were thrashed and worked to death, and often prisoners were killed. They lay in mud when they were ill, and were allowed to die without the slightest attempt being made to alleviato their sufferings. The Russian prisoners were similarly treated.— "The Times." FULL REPARATION London, October 23. In the House of Commons Lord Robert Cecil said that he was unable to specify the total amount tho,t had been levied by tiifi Germans on the cities and towns of Belgium and France, but full reparation formal part of the war aims of the Allies.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. POLAND FOR THE POLES Amsterdam. October 23. The "Vossischo Zeituiig" learns from Vienna that the Austrian occupation authorities at Warsaw lmve formally handed- over the administration to the Poles—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. CONGRESS OF OPPRESSED NATIONS NEW ERA FOR MID-EUROPEAN STATES. (Rec. October 24, 9.10 p.m.) New York, October 23. At Philadelphia delegates representative of the oppressed nations of Europe opened a conference in the Independence Uall with the object of arranging a working basis for a mid-Europe union of small States. M. Masaryk, tho president, announced, that the new Czechoslovak flag worild bo red rnd white, the red being taken because bloodshed had been necessary to gain their indepen-dence.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. :