BELGIUM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 99, 22 September 1914, Page 5

BELGIUM

A NIGHT OF HORRORS.

FURTHER GERMAN OUTRAGES.

A POLICY OF TERRORISM.

London, September 20.

The Belgium Commission's third report states th£t between six thousand and eight thousand inhabitants of Louvain were confined a whole night in the riding school. The space was so small that all had to stand. Several women lost their reason and a number of children died in their mothers' arms.

The Germans completely burned Vise, except a religious establishment, and shot several citize*s.

Evidence emphasises the improbability of a rising of a disarmed population. Witnesses declare that the first shots were fired by intoxicated Germans at their own officers. It is notorious that during the same period Germans killed one another in tho eajnp at Tesch. A number of places situated in the triangle—Villvorde, Malines and Louvain—wero plundered and partially destroyed and the inhabitants shot without trial. Women who were unable to escape were exposed to tho brutal instincts of the Germans. Allowing for isolated cases of hostility, there was nothing to justify the shooting, burning and pillaging throughout nearly the whole of Belgium. No provocation has been proved at Vise, Maisade, Louvain, Wavre or Termondc. The Germans alleged that the Belgian Government had distributed arms to the inhabitants, that the. Catholic clergy preached a sort of holy war, and that the women were as ferocious as the men, but these statements are a tissue of falsehoods. The burgomasters everywhere warned the inhabitants against acts of violence. The true motive of the atrocities was to terrorise and demoralise the people in accordance with the inhuman theories of German military writers. The commission is using only facts, supported by trustworthy evidence. A Berlin message states that the Education Department has taken measures to protect Belgian works of art, as the military protection is inadequate.

Brussels, September 20.

A German general in Brussels has ordered the removal of the Belgian flags, as provocative to the Gcrmaas.

In connection with the German outrages, witnesses vouched that a Uhlan oflicer sabred a man of SO because he shook his fist, at the intruding Germans, who took his wife of 78 years, slit her forearms, and fixed her with two bayonet trusts to the wall in order to compel her to disclose the whereabouts of her money. London, September 20. The Germans wilfully shelled the old tower of the Town Hall at Tcnnonde.