KAISER'S ARMY CRIMINALS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 179, 2 June 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

KAISER'S ARMY CRIMINALS.

INDICTMENT OF GERMANY IN THE FIELD AND AT HO.ME.

TELL-TALE DIARIES

OUTLAWRY THE ONLY FITTING SENTENCE FOR THE TEUTONIC RACE.

The German papers would declare it was a mark of shame if the prisons were opened in enemy countries »o obtain recruits for the Army. But to a certain degree that is what has happened to us in Germany. I. will not say that the majority of the excesses, which go far beyond the horror that is peculiar to war, have been committed by released criminals, but this question deserves our especial attention. —Herr Liebknecht, speaking in the Prussian Landtag.

The speech of the German Socialist leader, quoted above, would make -i fitting preface to Professor J. H. Morgan's book on "German Atrocities'' (punished by T. Fisher Unwin), which is an appalling indictment of the Teutonic race. The Professor's investigation was made at the request of the British Government, and he nas put un record a hideous accumulation of incidents in the German operatba-t in France.

As a companion volume' to Professor Morgan's book, we have in " Degenerate Germany,'' writt-en by Mr. Henry do Halsalle (published by f. Werner Laurie), a vivid picture of the home

The sight of the trenches and the fury, not to say bestiality, of our men, in beating to death the wounded English affected me so much that, for the rest of tlie day, 1 was tit for nothing.

A letter written by a Bavarian and addressed to a girl, ran: —

I have killed many French. I have also bayoneted several women. During the fight at Badonviller I did for seven women and four young girls in five minutes. During the battle we fought in the streets and those women fired on us.

Professor Morgan referred to the record of crime in Germany; .Mr. de Halsalle substantiates the reference. His book deals with mediaeval Germany, the German Princes of the eighteenth century, and the Germany of to-day.

The picture painted i y pro-German's in Britain ha-, represented the Teuton race as "pious and peaceful." Mr. de Halsallcs' book may be commended to the peace cranks. He gives astonishing facts, all taken from German sources, and mostly from the writings of distinguished German men, of the conditions within the Empire. The social evil has assumed such proportions in Germany that it is a fatal sign of degeneration. Low wages paid to women workers is one of the main causes—the average income of women factory employees throughout the German Empire, according to the teport of the Statistical Bureau, is only six shillings a week. ' Marriage in England has !>een playfully termed a lottery; but in Germany," states Mr. th Halsalle, "it is a sordid affair of barter."