TRAIL OF THE SAVAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 251, 1 April 1915, Page 6

TRAIL OF THE SAVAGE.

CAPTIVES BLINDED AND BAYONETXED.

More inhuman acts oi savagery by the. | German soldiers are immured in tli- i ninth, report of the Belgian Commissioi.,! which has been investigating the German violation of the rules of war. The report deals with incidents which happened in the communes of Lebbeke and St. Gillc3-ks-Termonde, when the Ger- . mans reached the distr.ct in September. Among the brutal incidents which the ' Commission specify are the following: On September 2 a German patrol, under the pretext that they were avenging six German soldiers shot by the (Belgian troops on the lands of Lebbeke, set on' tire ihree farms i n the hamlet of Hijzicle. \ On September 4 the Germans entered'; the village of Lebbeke, breaking win- ; clows, smashing in d'oors, and -.luntiug; mvay women and children. The" men were dragged from their homes to serve as a Irving shield for the advancing | troops. '.Soon after the village was bombarded. The church was taken as a special target, and was hit by several shells, which caused grave damage. Then pillage and arson commenced. Only the pleading.; which th u burgomaster addressed to General 'Groneu saved the village from complete destruction. The German army 'began to shell Termondc at D.lo a.m., and soon afterwards it entered the town, and arrested as hostages Dr. Van YVinckei, president of ' the Red Cross Ajsoeuition, who was attending to the wounded, and also the ! chaplain and M. Caesar Schelle'kens, the | secretary of the United Civil Hospitals. They were taken to the centre of t : ie ! place, accompanied by various townsmen who were arrested on the waif. Meanwhile the soldiery were pillaging cellars and the shops of confectioneis, lakers, grocers and spirit merchants Meanwhile General Von Boehm was

POSING FOR HIS PHOTOGRAPH on the stairs of the Town Hall. About 5 p.m. the German commander ordered Sill the criminals in the gaol, to the. number of 135, to be set at liberty. They spread over the neighborhood. 'Next day began the complete destruction of the town by fire, under the direction of Major Von Sommerfeld. The hospital was not spared; it was drenched with petroleum and set alight. The sick, wounded arid old people wer e carried out, but one epileptic man perished in the blaze. As at Louvain and Andenne, all the better quarters of the town where the soldiers would find tho most plunder were set on fire. On September 4 the Germans also shelled for more than an hour the little village of A'ppels, though no Belgian force was posted there. Some minutes after tho bombardment stopped the Germans entered the place and set fire to the house of Casimir Laurya, who had been wounded by a splinter from a shell. The wretched man was left to perish in 1 lie flames. Many inhabitants of Lcbbeke, St. Gillcs and' Tcrmond-j were arrested by the Ger....ui troops and sent off to Germany The pariah priest of Lebbeke, hi* curate, the communal seere- j iary, the notary and about -15'i> other j people were interned partly at the camp of Cotau, partly at the camp of Minister. During the whole of their journey and for the first, par* of their imprisonment I they were j

TREATED IN A MOST ODIOUS

FASHION.

While on the march three of them, exhausted by, hunger, tried to turn off from the road. They were at once put to death. Two were bayoi".'tted, and the third was thrown down on the] ground and clubbed. Twenty-five people of Lebbeke and St. Gille-3 were murdered by Germans on their own lands. Excepting four men, all were killed by Wows, from 'bayonets, pick oi hatchets, Most of i'ifiu were so disfig'ir.'d, that it Was oiily possible io identify thtir ■bodies by the objects found on them. Twelve men, all of Lebbeke, had all taken refuge in the farm of Octave Verhulst. They were tied together and led to the back of the farm, where they Were murdered. Their bodies were all thrown into the same trench. Six men of St. Gillcs wei"« tied arm-to-arm and conducted to Lebbeke. The Germans put out their eyes and then killed them with their bayonets. Three others were killed by sabre-cuts on the head in the presence of their wives and children. When Termonde was reoccupied by Belgians new atrocities took place. Dir.itig the fighting some German soldiers, under an officer, compelled 15 civilians to march in front of them on the road to St. GiUos a man who had received five bayjonet thrusts in the . abdomen was tied up as if crucified to a door, his right hand bound to the door handle, his left to the bell pull. After the fall of Antwerp the Germans occupied Termonde in force. They drove out th e few inhabitants who remained, and proceeded to plunder all that was left in the town. .The factories were roblied of all finished stuffs and of certain raw material. The Law Courts, the arsenal", and almost all the few,private houses that stood intact were set on (ire.