SCHLESWIG IN WAR TIME.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1506, 5 February 1916, Page 4

SCHLESWIG IN WAR TIME.

A Danish journalist, writing of Schleswig in war time, says : While these Danes from Schleswig have to fight the battles of that Prussia which they loathe and hate, the Prussian authorities are more brutal than ever towards their non-oombatant relatives in Schleswig. From the very moment that war was declared Schleswig was placed under martial law. Military dictatorship replaced civil government. The highest authority was no longer invested with the Lord-Lieutenant of Schleswig, but was transferred to the commanding officer of the Altona garrison, whose rule is one of blood and iron. No other opinion is tolerated than that of the military caste. The editors of the Danish newspapers in Schleswig were flung into prison or despatched to the front, and their papers are now written with a German sword. These papers must be better edited now than before the war—at any rate the German press never quoted them before, except in fits of Teutonic wrath ; now it finds many proofs of the love of everything German by the Danish population! The province swarms with spies, and denunciators flourish as in Belgium. No one feels safe. Innocent people are kept in prison for months without trial and then released without any explanation or excuse. On the night following the outbreak of the war the military authorities arrested in the most brutal way no fewer than 300 prominent Danes in Schleswig. The men and women were dragged half dressed through the streets and freely insulted by the German rabble. Most of them were kept in prison for weeks. None was prosecuted, for even the German spies failed to trump up a charge against any of these highlyrespected citizens. This wholesale arrest was only undertaken with the object of frightening the population into submission. In fact, this was the first example of that German “frightfulness” which has placed the German nation outside the pale of civilisation.