PRUSSIAN FIENDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 145, 14 November 1914, Page 7

PRUSSIAN FIENDS.

violation ,\M) .\in;i)Kr>. FKH.IiTFII, ATKiil iTMS OF Till r..u;i;.u;ur.s tfx tuns.

Al. (hayct, ('onsul-IJencral for France in .\listruha, has rccenUv received a ii'llir t'r.im Ahidaine (. ha ,cl. who is visiting iit the -.an'h t,i' .France. Til,' lettir contains i.-ri-i!.!,. stories, fiom eye-witnesses and sulicrer-. of the initiates committed liy Fni ; --iaii-: F.xtracts follow from Madam" ("navel's lctler.

If you knew what we heard a few days ago! Kcpcat it aimmjr your acquaintances, J pray yn\; Yn'c whole world ought to jmlUf tho-c hurburoiis Teutons.

These are not iiew-ca'-er -iories. I have Hiu talcs fiom tii<- vi-ry mouths of poor n-i'iig-'i's from natural, who came here, like a poor, wretched herd of human cattle, escaping from slaughter by a miracle.

There are two 'women —two sisters-in-law, named Thomas- aial eleven children. The husband and the two eldest sons are at the war. and do not know the fate of their people. These poor creatures owned a. pretty house

and a comfortable, income, and \u\i\ lost evcrylhintf. They have now not a y.emiy. nor a chanjie of clothing. F.ve-ry-thinc; lias been taken from them, everytinny burned. ISut they don't own .-peak of that. They don't think of ii, in .-pile of the misery they suffer. What liaums their minds, what breaks llieir lu-aris, what draws sobs from them at every moment, is tile horrois tiny have witnessed

"Oh, madame," one of the women faid to jiii-, "i would rather hi' dead, so .is no longer to sot ia my thoughts what i have seen with my eyes!'' She tells me. the name of a young girl in hiv village whom the I'iilans tied down to si tabic, and before the 'eyes of Iher parents £.;:!) f-mail with horror, they violated her one after the other. And there v.ere eight of them! Then one of the sons of the woman who tells the story, a hoy only ten 'years old interrupts, lie' pulls my dress to .say to me:

"They killed my poor grandmother's cow. As grandmother wept, and begged to them, they shot 'her." "And a neighbour of mine." says the other refugee, "was- a beautiful young woman, whose husband,, a sergeant of infantry chasseurs, was 'fighting five kilometres away. The Prussians seized t'hem, and as she resisted too much they killed her child to punish her. Then tliev killed her.

''We buried her in the garden," the woman added. "Three days later, after tiie French Chasseurs retook the village, and the sergeant, full of joy, came back, we could only show him the grave in the garden." One. of the girls, 22, years old (Madame Chayet continues) looking like a hunted animal, said to me:— "As for me, madame, I had only one thought—to drown myself in order to escape. To die is nothing. • But to be tortured and dishonoured, that is too much."

She added,, trembling, "They cut off the breast and fingers of the. women t'hey -violated. I can swear it to you, madame. I saw it." What can I add to such tales (Madame Chayet concludes) but this last, which was told to me by refugees from ¥01*111? A quite young woman soon about to become a mother, attracted the attention of these brutes. They surrounded her, and pierced her 'through with a bayonet thrust. As a souvenir they out off her breasts and 'toot them away. ' It is the French race they wish to destroy. They direct their rage particularly against boys and make hecatombs of them.