GERMAN ATROCITIES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 242, 27 October 1914, Page 3

GERMAN ATROCITIES.

An Appalling Catalogue.

Horrors Heaped on

Horrors.

LONDON, September 18th. The second report of the Belgian Commission of Inquiry on the atrocities committed by tlie Germans during their operations round Louvain and Malines forms a veritable catalogue of horrors. It makes ghastly reading, and if the shocking tales contained therein stood alone, we might feel inclined to discredit them. Unhappily, they have received corroboration from too many other sources to be passed over as mere efforts of imagination on the part of Belgian peasants driven crazy by fear and suffering. And the Committee who place these things on record is composed of men of standing, who have made Jhe most careful investigations into "the stories before publishing them, and promise in due course to publish the evidence and documents upon which their reports were based. The present report declares that in the village of Corbeck Loo, near Louvain, on August 19th, a young woman and some of her relations were surprised by a band of German soldiers. The persons who were with her were locked up in a deserted house, while she herself was dragged into another cottage, where she was brutally treated by five soldiers. In the same village on August 20th, German soldiers fetched from their house a young girl, about sixteen years old, and her parents. They conducted them to a small, deserted country house, and while some of them held back the father and mother, others entered the house, and finding the cellar open, forced the girl to drink. They then brought her on to the lawn in front of the house and subjected her to further brutality. Finally, they stabbed her in the breast with their bayonets. BURNING AND MUTILATION. Belgian soldiers entering Hofstade on August 2.5 th found the body of an old woman who had been killed by bayonet thrusts. She still held in her hand the needle with which she was sewi»g when she was killed. A woman and her son lay on the ground, pierced by bayonets. A man had been hanged. At Sempst were found the bodies of two men, partially carbonised. One of them had his legs cut off at the knees; the other had the arms and legs cut off. A workman who had been struck several times with bayonets was, whilst still alive, saturated with petroleum and thrown into a house to which the Germans set fire. A woman was killed in the same way.

A witness declares that he Baw, on August 26th, not far from Malices, an old man tied by the arms to one of the rafters in the ceiling of his farmhouse. The body was completely carbonised, but the head, arms and feet were uaburnt. Further on, a child of about fifteen was tied up, the hands behind the back, and the body was torn open with bayonet wounds. Numerous corpses of peasants in positions of supplications, their arms lifted and their hands clasped, were found on the ground. The Belgian Consul in Uganda, who is now a volunteer in the Belgian army, reports that wherever the Germans passed, the country has been devastated. The few inhabitants who remain in the village tell of the atrocities committed by the enemy. TbUB, at Wackerzzeel, seven Germans are said to have horribly treated a woman and then to have killed her. Everywhere there is ruin and devastation. At Buecken many inhabitants were killed, including a priest, who was over eighty years old. Between Impede and Wolverthem two wounded Belgian Boldieru lay near a house which was on tire. The Germans threw these two unfortunate men into the flames. J CIVILIANS MURDERED. After dealing with the causes which led up to the bombardment and burning of Louvain, the report states that the corpses of many civilians encumbered the streets and squares. On tbe road from Tirlemont to Louvain alone a witness counted more than fifty. On the doorsteps of houses could be seen the carbonised bodies of inhabitants, who, biding in their cellars, were driven out by the fire, tried to escape and fell into the flames. The suburbs of Louvain-suffered the same fate and the report affirms that the houses in all the, districts between Louvain and Malines and most of the suburbs of Louvain itself have practically been destroyed. On Wednesday morning, August 26th, the Germans brought to the station square of Louvainmore than 75 persons, including several prominent citizens, amongst whom were Father Coloboet and another Spanish priest, and also an American priest. The men were separated from their wives and children, and after having been subjected to the most abominable treatment were forced to march to the village of Campenhont in front of the German troops. They were shut up in the village church", where they passed the night. About four o'clock the next morning a German officer told them they had better go to confession, as they would be shot half an hour later, but shortly after they were liberated. Later they were again arrested by a German brigade, which forced them to march before them in the direction of Malines, and a German officer said they were going to give tbem a taste of Belgian quickfircrs hefore fAntwerp. They were at laßt released on the Thursday afternoon at the gates of Malines.

(To be continued)