"WE OUGHT TO HAVE FOUGHT GERMANY"

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 147, 18 February 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

"WE OUGHT TO HAVE FOUGHT GERMANY"

THE GRAND DUCHJEbS OF LcxmmJßti. tins rarfiarkable interview, seby Refcta Melmburg, her fortutor, fhe beautiful Grand of Luxemburg, who perrefuses the Kaiser's offer son as husband, tells how the have stolen her country.) have stolen my country. Like thieves, they sneaked into my land, and overnight they my flower gardens into openfor their cavalry horses.'' spoke the fair ruler of Luxemwhen I recently saw her in her is only twenty-one years of age, girl-ruler of Luxemburg; handsome, unmarried, and five younger sisters to take care youngest, Sophie, is only thiryears old; next, Elizabeth, four- ; Antoinette, sixteen; Hilda, and Charlotte, nineteen. It not easy for me to interview this Duchess. BY MEN WITH BAYONETS. the handsome entrance to the there stand two Prussian Whenever anyone approaches entrance, unless one can produce parchment, he or she, two sharp-edged bayonets. must give me sufficient reason seeking an interview with her A pair of blades were levat my breast. I have been her tutor. I— —" a slender girl rushed out of the towards me,totally ignoring the of the two unwanted guards, holding out her arms cried ■My dear old teacher! Do - not althese horrible creatures to frg'.ten this she took my arm, nnu the two bayonets we passed into the Palace, where in previous. I had the honour of teaching her Highness her first French les- ■ had scarcely seated myself ■ beside when she broke out, with tears down her cheeks, now crying, H sobbing, saying : satisfied with destroying our fu' scenery, they have also stollocal government, our post, our establishments, and they forcibly taken charge of our railfor which we have spent more Hin 15,000,000 francs. HrE FEEL WE WERE ROBBED." ■< TLev seized our telegraph system, whenever my people protested too they arrested them and sent Bm to remote Prussian military prisHs: more than 200 of my leading have been sent out of their to Germany. people, my once happy and people, are to-day poor and verge of starvation. 1 have to receive a permit a Prussian officer before I can mv own car on my own roads, in H,- own'land. I must even get a perfrom a Prussian officer before I can ■e the telephone which was establishby our own funds. ■"This is annexation; not annexation conquest, but annexation stealing. ■"The peop'e of Belgium ha.e reason ■ be proud of ther great achievoHents in fighting the arrogant c-on-but we feel we were robbed in small hours of the night. we suspected the treaty-break.. intentions of the Pussians ws would Hive rushed to arms. ) ■•'lf we had had. forty-eight hours we would have put at least ■.OOO men on our eastern frontier. ■ "We are as big as Montenegro, and ■ r country is as mountainous, but we Hid implicit faith in international law, Hid we thought we were immune. H' For all practical purposes my counis annexed, and the misery of m\ Hopie is deeper than that of the BelHians; in addition we hang our heads H shame before the world for not havHg" fought the stealers of our coun•l ENVY THE QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS." •• in sincerely envy the Queen of ye U?l<nans in her present posit on; for iv present plight is more bitter than "■ 1 hey were cowards. For many ears these Prussians have been ploting against my country in accordance ith that general German plan. •• My countrv, with its 300,00U poplat'ion, has been harbouring hundreds f German spies, and when the appointed hour came these men turned mt to be officers in the Imperial Gernan armies. Even my two German r : vers were disguised officers; and i-iien that fateful first of August night iad arrived they appeared in Gel man miforms. . "The Germans had their outposts esabiifched everywhere in my country, ind mv up-ii.specting people had always 1-cated these treacherous spies with he utmost consideration. x "Thev have publ shed broadcast that [ have"received the Iron Cross from he "German Emperor. It is not true [ have received a medal from the Red Cross officials. FORCED TO EAT WAR BREAD. "They have also pub'ished that the Imperial German Government has com Donated my people for the damage tlu v have done to my beautiful land. ,r lvi"t is al-o false. They cannot compensate for the damage the SOO.OUO Germans have done to the scenery jf , v land with money; and even then, t!r*v have only paid the paltry sum oi j'.jii.OOO for "destroying hundreds of |~" : l(linL'- 'for military reasons.' They m : u r mention the fact that we have ~ e . lt more than lor our Roe: Cro'-s in taking care of titer wounded ( '-"\nd now my own people are stnrvuv,. and they must beg their daily !, r ~ a d from the hands pi their robTiie Luxoinburgers are, indeed. ef.rving. . f •n 1( , working-men wh.o were formeiiv emp'oyed in the tanneries. dVrtsKerps breweries and wine groves are now woi'ikng for the invaders of their counr,v - and instead of the wages they r i>.d to receive they now receive men - ti' kets. entitling them to "Kfv bread •md. n rare instances, to " K bread. •vliieh is commonly known as the war bread." . , r rr . The "K" bread consist* of fifty pei rent of rve, thirty per cent of potatoes. and tw-nty I'"' X j oats and rh-i «hilo t(i( \ Ts K bread j ; percent, pig* Moon. \ in,or Luxemburg! And the 1 ■ 111'> G.-fid Pie : • ••<. hert ft of her lib. ei:ami ! icr b.-'-vod country.