BELGIAN ATROCITIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 271, 26 April 1915, Page 2

BELGIAN ATROCITIES.

■— EXODUS FROM MALINES. TERROR-STRICKEN INHABITANTS. , The Agent-General for New South Wales has forwarded a circular relating to the sufferings of several hundred Belgian refugees, mostly children, before they reached their 7 present comfortable quarters at Highfield. The following are extracts:—"Nothing short of murder and outrage could be worse than their recent experiences. For live weeks following the abandonment of home theirs was a long.-drawn-out agony. When the Germans advanced on Malines from the east, the roads leading north and west from the doomed town witnessed perhaps the most pitiful sights of all their long history. Men, mostly old, women and children hurried along, some with a few belongings, others with none. Behind them cannon were booming, houses burning, and dense volumes of smoke ascending to the sky. Tiiey gave little thought to where tliey were going; their one desperate desire was to escape the enemy. Along one of these roads went our 70 little girls from the Cathedral Orphanage in the charge of their matron and Canon de Wcvr<]t. 01 Malines Cathedral. Throughout four weeks circumstances drove them hither and thither. Their sufferings were great, but the courage of the reverend canon and the matron was high, and eventually the weary, homeless party reached' Holland. ' A few days later arrangements were made for their conveyance to Kngland and lodgment at ITiirlififtld. "The inhabitants of Highfield afford striking evidence of the ruin of Belgium and her people. Tliey include the families of professional rnnn—lawyers, doctors, engineers, etc.—who are as penniless as the little orphanage girls now their companions in distress. Their homes are burnt, their properties de- ! stroyed, their livelihood gone for the time being. Some of thein arrived at < Highfield with nothing but the clothes I they stood up in, and in many cases these clothes were all too few. A lart of 14 was in a semi-nude state. He is one of seven children, exclusive of the orphanage girls, who have lost both parents at the hands of the Germans. The ' tragedy of it all is unspeakable, but it | lives in the eyes of the refugees, child- j ren ns well as adults. And the pathos j is touching to a degree. A lady of over > 70 brought with her from her old home I three canaries in a cage, and, notwithstanding her sufferings, gave them such ; care that, the birds daily cheer the refugecs with song."