Outrages at Aerschot

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 26, 17 September 1914, Page 5

Outrages at Aerschot

DIABOLICAL ACTS OF CATHEDRAL DESECRATION.

INHUMAN WRETCHES LET LOOSE UPON THE TOWN.

(Received 10.15 a.m.) London, September 1. Louise* Mach, the Antwerp.correspondent of Lie Evenin'? News', describes the horrors at Aerschot. .In the Cathedral on the High Altar, there were w-any ( empty wine and beer bottles. The offertory box had been stolen and replaced by beer bottles, and bottles of filth were everywhere. The Madonna’s head had been cut off and large crucifix burnt. The altar brocades had been slashed and the pictures chopped from the frames. A dead pig was on one side of the chapel. These outrages were the work of drunken soldiers. Street after street in Aerschot had been destroyed and were blackened ruins. At the chemists’ premises, the Germans mixed all the drugs together. They shot the burgomaster’s two children. A. German colonel was shot in the burgomaster’s servant's room from outside the luilding by, it was supposed, the girl’s sweetheart. The girl and her swain were instantly executed.