ORGANISED SAVAGERY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 251, 27 November 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

ORGANISED SAVAGERY.

GERMAN BARBARITIES

DELIBERATELY PLANNED

ATROCITIES BY TIME TABLE

Deeds of vandalism and brutality that would disgrace a savage continue to le perpetrated, suys a London paper, wherever th 0 Kaiser's Huns penetrate. As in Belgium, so now in France. There us 'Scarcely a hamlet in which some appalling deed of savagery, some insensate act of ruthless vengeance is not related and attested by over-whelming (/roof. There cannot be any doubt that rhe German campaign of outrage in Belgium was deliberately planned and ' provided.'' as ono investigator puts it. "with scientific machinery." Special machinery for incendarism accompanied the German forces, and special drill for it had been taught. The modern Huns named out a town with the methodical correctness with which a German batten - went into action.

'i he invaders' methods range from the refinement of cruelty to the depths r depravity. A favourite mod* of tort;.r P is to mass together large groups of 1 ■:-aceml citizens, keep them in a semiHtarved condition and tell them that they aire to b 9 shot. For davu these terror-striken folk await their fate, the wsp 'M.io thus caused being woif* than death itself. DEPTHS OF HUMAN DEPRAYITi. Human depravity has never reached such depths as it has during the progress of the modern Hun through Bel- < gium. Officers and soldiers have not been always conteut to kill out of hand and to burn quickly. They had to torture beforehand, and to desecrate and insult beautiful buildings before destroying them. A Belgian, talking on the point, used the illustration of a low. minded servant in envy of her beautiful mistress deliberately soiling tho pillow on which she wou'id sleep. Beautiful churches caned out—nay, rather Pitched—in lace-like bv mediaeval piety have been befouled. In one chateau of rare beauty the German officers, after pillaging the cellar and destroying the marbles and bronzes, brought in a cow from the fields, disembowelled it and spread its entrails and blood over the carpets and tapestries! Yery frequently torture has lieen applied "to the peasants, physical and moral torture of the cruellest kind. Peasants have he-en kept on their knees with hands uplifted for hours under threat of instant death if they moved. They have lieen shut up and told to be- ready to die in three hours, then 'released, then shut ip again, and again sentenced to death. They have been shut up for long periods with hardly any food or water, and with no means to observe tho deoencrr* of life. Sometimes death has folio-wed torture of this kind, sometimes not.

SHOT DOWN LIKE DOGS

Some of the Belgian refugees now lb London hare related terrible stories ol the treatment meted out to Belgians by Germnn soldiery. A young married woman, belonging to Aerschot, whoso husband was taken by the Germans, had a terrible experience to relate. Before she and -erne of her family escaped to Antwerp she was a witness to che brutality of the enemy. Speaking with great emotion, she said: —'"One day 1 saw a parly of German soldiers, headed by an officer, enter a cafe in Aerschot and drag a woman and seven men out into thy street. Tor no reason whatever this* eight innocent people were lined up in a row and shot dead. Then the Germans buried their bodies in a garden close by. Our priest a-sk<"d the officer in command who the people were who had b en buried, and he replied that they were Germr.,i soldiers who iiad been killed in battle. Our people »ere suspicions, and during the night ?onie of them opened the graves in the garden, and "ecqgnised the bodies as those of inhabitants of the town. They carried the dead to the local cemetery and re-interretl them there, reverently and sorrowfully. A prierst. who had bom active in Red Cross work, and had shown great bravery under fire, was captured. The Germans shot him, and ilung his body into an adjacent stream. Again, r woman who was ill in l>ed was '.brown into the street, in order that, a German officer, who was weary, could have a, rest. My mother and' father, both of whom are over 60, my husband, children, and myself, together with a number of men and women, were captured. W e were herded into the church, the doom of which were loeM. For two days we were, kept in the church the only food we got being som e pieces of bread that th e soldiers had thrown away, with undrinkablo water. It is true that some milk was given to the . liiklren, but you can imagine i\\p state • f terror we wire in, wondering and Tearing what would tome next. At las: • he Germans opened the doors and ;.]- lowed the women to go fro*'. But oui men, including my husband and my lather, weiv taken from us. and I have not seen or heard anything of them tincc."

HODIES HIPPED WITH BAYONETS

Amoug'-t the Belgian refugees who were hospitably received at Manehesr -.lris week were two or three Liegv ladies. One of them, Madame Beyloos. <.iid that between the market-place and the University- at Liege 6 be saw 37 men and hoys shot by drunken German soldiers, who afterwards ripped the bodies n itli their bayonets. _ Wemen who witnessed the.-© barbarities were forbidden by tho soldiery to cry. Another horror i i slaughter was witnessed by a woman in a village between Alost and Louvain. .-•ho saw 10 civilians shot and bayoneted in a small scullery. With a baby in her arms, and accompanied by heT husband and three young children, she tramped all through the night towards Antwerp.

DUG THEIR OWN GRAVE*?. •Several villages in the neighbourhood "I l'hillipc\illc and Give:, in Belgium, liivc hot n •entirely burned. Hervo and Uattico have been completely destroyed. Tiie inhabitants resisted and inflicted In aw losses on the Germans, who comujandee.r.d "i l * civilians to bury t.b'» German dead. After this task, which took i bcui tour days, had been completed. ■ ley were ordered to dig a hist pit. The Germans mado them sit on tho edge of ■' and thoc chot 18 oYthorn. Tho two ilio wore epared had to shovel in the <\trth on their felloiv-citizicns, and wero ibcu taken off as prisoners. " GDP 18 WITH IS! " TTnw a Herman oflicH 1 rewarded on© of hi-, c.en u In) showed kin<ln ,ss to n woman and child u;is tohl by a iva-int ftnin Aorsoho . A «(Hiiaii ami i hild, Ik. <,aid, ui'i-,. seized by soldiers, and !•. r<j ! "Uii.l m itli i'"0". back (<> hael;. They «> ro tlxpu thrown iytu 4 ticld. aud

left there all night, without any protection, exposed to heavy rain. A soldier who was stationed there on guard took pity on them in the morning, and was in tho act of cutting their bonds when a. German officer came up. Tho officer was wry angry, and punished the soldier by seizing his rifle and smashing it on his head. As tho Germans went through the streets thoy stopped everyone they met. They went through thou pockets and took nil their money. Those who had no cash' wore bayoneted. All the German soldiers who came to Malincß wore a can! on their helmets bearing the words. " God is with us." STRIPPED TO THE SKIN. A Belgian who arrived ,-it Ghent from Brussels with his wife, after an agitating journ.y, sated that two women who went to Brussels by tramcar from Ninove as far as Delbeck were at Dell>eek stripped to th<» skin in the preof a German officer, and all their Tothing was narrowly examimed. They wero eventually allowed to proceed on foot into Brussels. They had previously been searched on the tramcar by infantrymen, who frit in their pockets and thrust their hands into tlrir bosoms. On each occasion they were asked especially if they had any trench. or English, or Belgian newspapers. All

General von Hansen, one of the commanders of tlie German right Hank, which lias suffered so heavily by the (ire of the British Expeditionary Fore, is a Bavarian. He lias been retired from bis command because of his lark of sucevs. Together with General von KTuck, lie was supposed to circle round Paris, but it is now a matter of ancient history that ho failed. The Bavarians have been lighting with the Prussians, whom they dislike, and the. first signs of the disruption of the German Empire may bn seen by this commencement of internecine strife.

outside newspapers arc forbidden, tho official "lie" journal, published daily by t!ic Grmaiis in Brussels, and cill-.d tho " Vatcrland,'' ltoiug expected to fulfil all the needs of the citizens.

FOR THK HANGMAN. The rewaud of his iniquity will (shortly be roaped by -an inhuman German commandant. This ruffian, Major Pmsker by nnmp, has just been taken prisoner by tb« Russians. after plundering, murdering, end outraging the inhabitants at K.ULscl), in Russia. The Russian authorities nro strongly urged tr> hang him as a comino'.i criminal after a public rrial and cvidenc,, by witnesses, as it is dselared that li-« violalion of The rlngiiK* Convention would justify a refusal to treat him as a prisoner of war.

DOCTORS HAND CHOPPED OFF. Shocking stories of German barbaritiivs liavo been sent by the Duchess of Marlborough to her mother. Mrs. Belmont, at Washington. The duchess as-s-:-rU thai the charges atv made at first hand by doctors, orderlies, and nurstsa brought back to England wounded in France and Belgium. One doctor had his band chopped off, and a Red Cross nunse had the tendons in one of her hands cut. which is said to have been dono by Germans to prevent Them fr»m caring further for the wounded on the field.

PROCD OP BEING BEASTS. " We have, plenty of wine, to drink here, and wo drink it like water,' - wrote a Gorman soldier taken prisoner in France. "The first thing we do is to empty the cellars and fill our water W"les surreptitiously with wine. The beer is horrible, but good brandy can often be found. Looting is general. Picture to yourself rooms turned into piggcrio/v and sugar, rice, flour, broken window-panes, and wine glasses lying about everywhere. Linen is torn from cupboards and a silk dress is trampled under foot. The place looks like a robbers' cave. We have looted everything on which we could lav our hands, iniludincr women's stockings and underclothing. I myself am at present wearing a low-cut chemise."

A GERMAN CRUCIFIXION. In Ost*nd Infiriuairy there was a few [lays ago a Belgian soldier who had bo n driven mad l»y ihe ordeal of "frightfulne&s' 1 to which ho had boon subjected, by tho Gennan.s. It appears that ho had remained the only survivor of a Belgian patrol which had rep.lled tile attack of i hutch h«Mivi<T German advance post. Reinforcements arri\cd; Jill his comrades were killed, and he was taken prisoner. His captors rcped him up against a tne, in th<\ pofturc oi crticilixiou, but without lifting his f,ct from 'ho ground. A tiring party was order•',l to tako its stand at the UMtal twelvo pace/.-. Tim > after tim< their rifles ■.ven : up to t!i e "Present!" Sometimes i volley «a ; at that woiiVtlt fined hehind him. At hi-t In; was out down; somehow or other he scrambled within reach of the Red Cross. They wore very kind to him in OsteEd, but !o kop't babbling about cnteifirions and a crucifixion near Jerusalem. WOMEN* WITH ARMS CUT OFF". M. Gaston Coinhaire. the fliief Scout of Ghent, and his band of Scouts, who nrriwd ai Charing Cro.-s with 'J.*iO Belgian refugees, said he and other Scouts had seen some remarkablo happenings in the track of ihe battles. " T have seen in the n<M Cm.- . hospital: " lio »aid. " with their aruu rut off.

t .tl?4tff4NMl' and o'her sights too awful to mention. I saw the bombairdment of Mella, when the Scouts were employed in carrying messages to and from headquarters. 1 also saw a trainload of refugees ariive. It had been bombarded by the Germans and °ne girl of IS was killed, and also an old man. Many were wounded. In my opinion it is the German sol diers "who arc the ruffians, and not the officers always." HATS OFF TO BARBARIANB. ' In a remarkable proclamation issued by him, Major Wieck-mann, cxnnmandiiig the German forces which occupied the commune of Grioegnee, near Li?ge, ordered all civilians to show respect to Grrman officers by Unking off their hats and bringing their hands to their heads in military saluU-. In ease of doubt, whether an offi<vr is in question, any I German 6oldier should 1* saluted. Any. one failing in this mus; expect a German soldier to exact rcspeet from him by anv inrihod. Another order state** that "the entry of the Chateau des BruyetO and its- avenues is forbidden on pain of death from dusk to dawn.'' Nearly all the orders end with a threat of death for the slightest disobedience.