GERMAN ATROCITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 113, 6 October 1914, Page 6

GERMAN ATROCITIES.

CGLD-BLOODJiD MURDEES.

SWORN STATEMENTS.

A terrible etory of the murder in cold blood of fivo French civilians by (Ici'mart sold.ers at Lorrach, on the I'Viiuto-fier.iiiiu frontier, on August before Germany had declared war on Franco, is tout .bv an eye-witness, M. monhynes, in a sworn statement to a Pans magistrate by the Temps:— -Mi Demonh-nes, who was attempt mp to return to Franco from Baden found himself deta : :.od with other Frenchmen and Russian-* at a railway station at Lorrach, in Dadim, a few mnikß from the French frontier.

The party were arrested by soldiers and taken to th e police station, where they and th.-ir luggage were searched. They were tiicn Jed under guard through the town amid hostile demonstrations by the inhabitants, to the square in front of-the railway station, vhi.re they found another party of Frenchmen and twenty Russians. ONE SHOT O-JTLY.

Ono of this party ?. •. Frcncli conunpreial traveller, a stout ma,"? about forty, suddenly .shouted -]'' va Ja France!''

j.iUtaiitlv iho two soldiers guarding lum, took him before an oH'icur or a r.ui-commissioned oil'ittr standing a few paces away from a group of officers. People standing between M. DomonLynes and "the scene preivented him hearing what was said, ibut a few seconds later a shot—only one shot—rang out. '■' l don't- know who Crc-I," the witTess says, '-b,tt 1 (know that just before the report the Frenchman was standing before my eyes against the wall of fl restaurant facing the station, held f;i3t by his two guards in the position of one who is about to be executed, Hardly luul the shot rung out when protests arose f'.*om our little band. Among those vho protested most vigorously wore three young Frenchmen from eighteen to twenty years old. Thev looked to m>- Pee students leaving Oerniany like mu-'lf. I did not speak to them and do not Itnow their nanwi." '".hist as Che soldiers seized h : m and h : s comrades on ■ of the voting Frenchmen tried to .-v'.".!• io an officer who w'-

o e-r v-i.vl- '!'..;■ V Pen g'vcli, I dull't kli-iw bv who.p. "(lie of :,..,■ i'-.- e .-•.«•>, :••■;. "/.M have bi-n to'd of .he f-it'.' th.il w-i .iwailmg him. crh d -ml : n >'. ,r->.-.n : 'l)i n't. hold us; we aren't afraid; we are 1 !• leheumcn.' '■'i'li's (!:•;. i'i- n!T r-or renVed cnar.-- 1 -. l>".!f tuniiii'r ri'Miid: SV.it. up!' The three I'l'.-iirhn-■". nf Mi"'r own accord, .n'.ici'd the-" •■', •- '":a..']-t the wall of the -.ii.,1,. r.>(-ii:r-„t. •■Two lines <■'[ --'MVrs worn drawn nn on iv.Vr .-''■' of Hi'in e' T ,;r.il. em-h's io Hie wi,\ Other soldiers how re.",!-.- i fl 1-1 .:c-l count ten': [!■.:.■■ ,«>■■;•„,.» ;- f r; -i,l of them. a'...-,t e's'.t vnvl. .hvkv. A '...lie" rang on'.. TV Pre, Frenchmen fell.

WOMMN IN TEAP.S. '''•'"e-lt i-r". - ..rose f:em our ptrly. Tie >«ri-tricki -. women lieg.vn to weep. I did not see -V' bodies removed, but 1 ■'■!■'■ I hem fall to the ground. "At this monent a great uproar broke, out. Another Frenchman, a bit' ivn with a <rr.-Mt -black heard, whose nf" 'ind appeanM.yo T forget and whom ' i]'A not know, began to shout: "Cow- ;' Irl ! Murderers!'

"Soldiers surrounded him. Tie struggled with them. Thev i-perdilv ovcr-'ci-r e. him. and without taking the trouble to s-liin.il him ftgun-.t the wall, without tlv 'li'terventlon of anv officer, one of lh" soldiers thrust the barrel of his rift- against his body and shot him down point b'ank before m.v. eyes. "I saw tlin-c s-inie soldiers dragging bis body akui'x the ground. The man was shrugglimr «t ; ll. I had not the •■l'-emrth to look .inv more. T heard ol».-' ihoi-.a. 1 "irii'l- know if there w r" anv Vier victims." Ar . Dem.eihi 'i".'. who, with the ren n-,„i.. r „f H'n nnrtv. was eventuallv allow.d to pror-eH on hv iournev. sn.'-s tw i-.-ri voumr m n n, students returning from Hermanv Io Lvoih. told h'm that ||. - 1,-,.1 j. : .,.i, rVriinn soldiers kill two lta'iins in 'he tvtvn in which he was Imvel-'n'r and in which ho heard the SniMl.l of -d'olK.

One lwliri was shot, they said, becaii--' lr- wanted l-he window shut and p.otosted w'son his request was refused; the other because he repulsed a soldier -"bo L!i"1 to sit down on him by 'svn- of a joke.