FRANCE AND FLANDERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 182, 11 January 1915, Page 6

FRANCE AND FLANDERS.

GERMAN MALTREATMENT OF PRIhSTS. TORTURED AND SHUT. B CARDINAL MERCIER AFFAIR. London, January 8. The Belgian Legation has issued a record of the maltreatment of the Catholic clergy in Belgium, including the case of an invalid octogenarian at Bcuchen, who was accused of firing on the Gerinaus. He was thrown into a ditch, dragged through the streets by his legs, and shot. A priest at Gelrode was beaten with ft rifle butt until his blood dripped, then shot and thrown into the river. Twenty-six innocent priests were killed in the Malines diocese, ten at Liege, twenty at Namur, and three at Tournai. Amsterdam, .January S. Tyd, the printer of Cardinal Mercier's pastoral, w;'.s lined 500 marks with the alternative of 50 days imprisonment. Times and Sjdnev Sun Services. There arc reports that the Germans imprisoned the jiintrr of Cardinal Mereier's pastoral, and dispatched couriers in motor-ears to interrupt the reading of the pastoral during mass, and removt priests from the sacristy and confessional.

The Nieus Vendug declares that it would not be astounded if the Germans did not dare (o maintain the arrest which will cause a formidable movement in the Catholic world. Militarism is !..:e a bee which stings in its rage.

A PLAUS.iII.F, TALE. THE INCIDENT SETTLED. Home, January S. The Vatican is informed that the Herman authorities merely addressed to Cardinal Mercier a most deferential request to abstain from an attitude calculated to interfere with the difficult and delicate task of maintaining order, and convincing the hostile population of a sincere desire for their good, also that the Germans intended to fulfil the Christian principle and avoid the bloodshed possible as the result of the suppression of tumults. Amsterdam, January S. Advices from Berlin state that the Mercier incident has been peacefully settled. FRENCH (Ji r xCIAL REPORT. I FRENCH AIRMEN'S SUPERIORITY. Paris, January 8. A communique states that the French infantry captured a hillock at Lombartzvile and progressed at La Boiselile and Avelny, near Arras, also in the Rheims, I Thaim and Altkirch districts. Artillery destroyed the enemy's trenches and breastworks between Jonchery and Souhain. The enemy mined ami blew up French trenches westward of llauteChevauchee in the Avgonnes. This was followed by a violent attack, which was repulsed with the bayonet. A French eye-witness relates that French aviators between December 25 and 31 dropped thirty-four bombs and eight thousand darts on the Germans at Gercourt, Dondrien, Nampoel and St. uilaire. Many of the bombs were dropped on several railway stations in Alsace and Lorraine. The Zeppelins have not ventured to attack since the French airmen's aggression began.