SCENES OF HORROR AT TAMINES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 154, 25 November 1914, Page 8

SCENES OF HORROR AT TAMINES.

WHOLESALE MURDER OF CIVILIAN'S. -.sa, London, October 14. London has been regaled this week with a fearful story of German "kultur" as exhibited by her soldiers at Tamiues, a small Belgian town near Ligny, containing, perhaps, 0000 inhabitants. Jt seems that on August 21 Ta•mines was the scene of some skirmishing between French and German advanced parties, and in the late afternoon was occupied by a strong force of the Kaiser's men, who, having driven oil' the Trench, proceeded to a carnival of murder, arson, and pillage. Tim story of their iniquities is told by a Belgian refugee, a commercial man of good standing, who escaped by hilling in a cistern for over forty hours. On the first nighl of the German occupation tlu; soldfcrs shot several civilians on the pretext that they had fired on the soldiers, and then burnt their homes, a crime which involved the death of at least a dozen people, chiefly women and children. But it was on the morrow that the Germans started to butcher the inhabitants on a -wholesale scale. Having succeeded in repelling a French attack, the invaders commenced their ghastly work without loss of time. The story told by the refugee is as follows: —

! "After tlie battle the (iermans searched the town for civilians. Many had fled to hiding, but as the battle ended they began to coino back. Everybody was seized, men, women and children, and taken to one of the churches. Then the women and children were told to go to a school near by. About 7 o'clock the men were told that they were wanted to go out and bury the soldiers who had fallen, and the horses. They were all taken to the main square, and set in lines against the wall. The Cure was one of tlie prisoners, and also an abbe. The square was commanded by mach innguns, and an ofiicer was in command. He made them all call out 'Vive l'Allomagnc,' and then the order was given to fire. Townsmen, to the number of 475, wore lined up, and altogether there were 523 people, including strangers, in the square, when the firing started. In addition to these about a hundred escaped by way of the Sambre. The river runs close to the square, and when the machine-guns started firing several men jumped into the river. One of mv friends told mo that he and some others remained in the river till 5 o'clock next morning; some of them swam across and made good their escape, but a few days later, for nearly a mile down stream, one could see the bodies of those who had been drowned. v J as not the end of our horrors At night the soldiers, who had got drunk m tlie town, came back. Their Red Cross £ e ™ an Soldicrs ' I,elcl interns so that their comrades could see, and again ?! J*"? PlnngPd their bayonets into the bodies of the dead as thev lav on the square. It was one of my friends in the town who told mo that'the Red Cross men were there. He was one of those who had been shot at, but had bar 6 b Un t r -» th , e I)OfHcS of ot,lcra who been killed, and he was wounded twice in the hand by their bayonets who? I™? anotllcr mfln whom I know' whose body was similarly twice pierced' Tlm sold'ers pillaged the bodies of the' I

■SteßftCMe^S j«. «™ c A p 3s , s;,x? q ?r SSs?s s&££™s: «H) civilians were Zw. wf ,Cast 300 houses burnwl „ , (,Pat ''' ov « of nearlyhi If f ®n- age to tl,(! this estimate including the? P oun <te. 'oot taken by t^ ( £. vall,e «'c