MORE ATROCITIES IN BELGIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 218, 22 February 1915, Page 5

MORE ATROCITIES IN BELGIUM.

INHUMAN TREATMENT. Times and Svdney Sun Services. London, February 19. The Press Bureau states that tlic Belgian Commission at its last, sitting received sworn testimony of rape, massacre, pillage, incendiarism, and the murder of priests and the odious profanation of churches whilst service was being held. Eighteen men were placed in a row, including boys of sixteen and seventeen, and were condemned to be shot, amid shrieks of the women crying, "Shoot ma with my husband." The men were lined up and the soldiers fired. Many were only wounded, but the Germans finished them off by battering their skulls with rifle-butts. The massacre over, the Germans plundered the corpses. DISCUSSED BY SOCIALISTS. A STORMY SESSSION. Received 22, 1.10 a.m. London, February 20. It transpires that the secret session of the International Socialists conference in London was extremely stormy. The French and Belgian delegates moved a resolution holding Germany responsible for the Belgian atrocities. Ramsay MacDonald and Keir Hnrdie opposed the motion. insisting that the atrocities had not been scientifically proved. SIDELIGHTS ON GERMAN METHODS Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 21, 5.5 p.m. London, February 21. The Belgian Commission's further report on the violation of the rules of war says the Germans have so often repeated that the civil population was intending'to rise and assassinate them that they ended by believing it. They lived in such a state of nervous apprehension away from the fighting line that the least noise made, them jump. A bursting bicycle tyre or fog-signal provoked the inevitable cry that-: "The Belgians are firing upon us," with sinister consequences of pillage, murder, rapine, and incendiarism. STRUGGLE IN THE TRENCHES.

A BRITISH SUCCESS. Received 21, fi.3o p.m. London, February 20. The Chronicle's Dunkirk correspondent states tliat the Middlesex Regiment on Monday evacuated their unsuitable trenches after mining them, but the fuse failed to explode. The Germans then occupied tlie trendies, and enfiladed th,. other British trenches. The British attacked, and had to cover 400 metres. They routed the enemy, inflicting great losses. MORE FIGHTING AT YPRES.

ENEMY EEPULSIib. GERMAN BATTALION ANNOTATED Received 22, 12.15 a.m. I'aris, February 20. Odicial: 1 mportant forces of Germans am attacking the Allied trenches east t>f Ypres, After an intense bombardment they charged with tin; bayoii-o, were reputed. onr artillery shelling tlie reserves. There were very high Geri :min losses. Prisoners state that an entire battalion was annihilated in the Champagne district this week. ' "¥ A CRACK SHOT'S WORK. ..v i I REMARKAII LE TillAV IiRY. CREWS OF MACITIXi: GUNS PICKED! OFF. Received 22. 12.55 am. London, February 20. O'Lcary, a crack shot, formerly in the mounted police of Canada, led the assault of the Irish Guards at the brickfield of La Bassce. When lf>o yards away he easily outstripped his companions, and on Hearing the German trench dropped to the "round and picked oil' the whole of the five men forming a machine-gun ■lew before they could slew the sun. ITe then rushed to the second barricade and shot three more, and his comrades coiindeted the rout, the brickfield being captured in half an hour. Had the Gcrmaus been able to use the machine-guns the whole of the company might have been wiped out. O'Lcary brought ; n three prisoners.—Delayed message.