BARBARITIES IN WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 179, 27 January 1912, Page 9

BARBARITIES IN WAR.

SOME HORRIBLE EXAMPLES. The wholesale massacre of Arab women and children by the Italians has roused the indignation of the whole of Europe. Such frightful cruelty and btirbarisf as reported by the various war correspondents out in Tripoli seem to be a relic of the middle and early ages. Yet these very nations which are crying down the Italians—and this without hearing the Italian, side of the question —have had war horrors of their own just as dreadful, if not worse. The Turks themselves, for example, can give most people points where sheer wanton brutality is concerned. In 1876, when Bulgaria made a feeble attempt at insurrection, the Turkish soldiers perpetrated unnameable horrors. No fewer than 15,000 non-combatants were slain without any mercy. SPAIN'S SOILED REPUTATION. The outrages of the Turks against the Armenians will be remembered by most people. When fighting against Russia the Turks used to light fires round the Russian wounded and roast them to death. Spain has always had rather a bad reputation for the way it conducts its wars. During the Carlist wars, for instance, both sides killed all their prisoners. At Valfogona, on July 17, 1874, 86 Republican captives were shot in cold blood by order of the Carlist General j Saballo. The Spaniards were responsible for another "Black Hole of Calcutta" so recently as August, 1896. At 6 o'clock on the evening of August 30 the Spaniards proclaimed martial law in Manila. At midnight they had arrested 189 alleged insurgents and put them in a tiny dungeon. This dungeon had only one small windoWj which the Spaniards deliberately closed. The flight was one l ' of the hottest of the year, and it is not to be wondered that 54 of the miserable captives died in that stiflling prison during the night. The hundred 1 odd sur-' viyors were led out and shot the follow*' ing day. In March, 1898, a hundred and fifty men, unarmed, were seized at a secret meeting. The Spanish authorities, though they had met with no resistance, never made the slightest enquiries about their, captives. They sjiot every one without any trial whatever. Germany is not anxious to be reminded of some of the atrocities of the war with France in 1870. In one case the little' French village of Bazeille was attacked just before daybreak on Septem- 1 ber Iby an overwhelming force. Every building in the place was burnt.to the ground and the whole of the defenceless French peasants were slaughtered. France cannot boast of a particularly; clean record ,of the past. On June 18, 1845, the French General, Pellissier,. captured 500 Arabs in a ca,ve in Algeria. He suffocated them'all by sinoke. Like tfife' Russians, the French were accused of burning their captives at Tonquin. They had some excuse, however, for the natives invariably murdered and tortured their French prisoners in as cruel a way as they possibly could. , MURDERED 173 APACHES. In 1870, during the war between America and the Indians, Major Baker murdered 173 Apaches —men, women and children. To show the inhuman way in which the war was carired on, the following quotation from a New York paper is sufficient:— ■ "Against the Apaches all means are justifiable. Let their submission be obtained by showing white flags or otherwise, and the instant t£ey are taken let them be shot. Poison them with strychnine. Decimate them by artificiallyinduced small-pox. Anything —anyhow— so that they are exterminated." After which, perhaps, the Italians are not so cold-blooded and as people think they are!