Horrors of Belgium

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVIII, Issue 288, 14 May 1915, Page 5

Horrors of Belgium

.SLAULiiJTWi JJV THE GKiUIAXS. ALL A DEUBtKATE HL/W. CKI-JvW'v to \v;;.\u:.\ asd iteecivcd .May I:,, S.:jrJ j,. m , i ,;, U>nUo>J, Ju.iy 13. to b, uu jtouM t;..a mere >-t,-, ael.Ocra to, VHtemaU-, «„a or B mu„.„ iu.ussueres ol inc civil jmjnuaa,,, ,„ Jllttll . liurt 01 lWgmm. \> u ih,.„ ; „ 1U WMe «""'». Jlurui-r, „„ L) au - u ~u u J ~". ™ IW " 11 » SBiI '■ ii.-j.uni.ieu,. ... J.i, tur £r a en -" M '' ■-" ; -

■ihe Blue liook is b.uui 0.1 IAKJ depositions, an takc-u by men 01 legal fAjieru'iic.-, luMi-uccca hot 10 'wnu witnesses bill, 1., u.,pi-e, s u ,en, w.i.i the necessity ior caix-mi ana precise evidence. ihey netted evidence tainted oj- incitement and overstrained emotions; m 6 o hearsay except wlieu eoniniiied by direct te;t.moiiy of atrocities. iney commence,! .with August. Fifty men escaping 1 10111 a burning house at' Hene were taken outsiue tlie town and shot. Even ui» cuhiren were killed, i'ony others weie snot at Melon ami mere was uiioleaa.e suuguier at Miclieroux and Soumanne, liiese oimagus were due to German exasperation at re.aista.uv at I'oil l'.eron, widen barred Wl -' to Liege. The Herman* lieu: Ciiragosl at los ; "s and Hie suspicious temper in civilians. Thinking to cow the Belgian motion, the Herman oflicers and men speedily accustomed themselves to the blaughter ol' civilians. A German diary s-.iows that soldiers gave themselves up to debauchery in the streets of Liege, and raped fiiteen to twenty women in open day upon tables in the I'iaee de l'Lniversitie.

Two higher military authorities «n----oucraged Uie stories 'that German soldiers' eyes were gouged out, that there had been treacherous murders, and that food had been poisoned, The tales were •tinned into the ears of the troops for the sake of justifying the measures taken to terrify, the population. Individual acts of brutality were very widely committed, hut "tho gravest charge against Ceriflanv is that the killing of civilians una part of a deliberate plan. If a line was drawn from the Belgian frontier to Lege nnd continued to Charleroi, and a second line drawn from Liege to Millings, it was along this irregular figure that most of the systematic outrages were committed.

The lirst series of the outrages were connected with t'lo unexpected resistance at Liege and the slaughter from August 10 to tlit* end of August was due to the later Belgian resistance. Outrages wert! general -while General von llulow and General von llausen were attacking Nannir and Dinant. All outhurst of cruelty followed the Belgian victory at -.Maliiies.

J lie committee was especially impressed with the shocking outrages in smaller villages, showing that after the troops were encouraged in their career of terrorism erimiii of a more savage and more brutal nature were committed. There were wild excesses in regious which were not subject to observation. Many bodies of dead women nt 'Malincs showed bayonet wounds and there wera several cases of breasts being cut oiT girls, who wero dragged into a field and stripped, und violated, while some were bayonetted . A child of three was found nailed to a farmhouse by its hands and feet. When 1500 people from Aershot marched to Louvain some fell on the roadside and an officer on a bicycle shouted to his men to shoot them. The devastation of J.ouvam and tins holocaust of the population was due to the German desire to wreak vengeance after defeat. There was no evidence that inhabitants fired at the Germans, though there was proof that Germans fired on Germans. iSome,officers said they wero acting under great -unwillingness, bub they would bo executed if they did not obey. Diaries show that tile First Regiment of Foot Guards took a thousand prisoners 011 August 24th, and shot five hundred. There was a ease of children being roped together and used as a military) screen. Three soldiers went into action carrying young children for protection against flank fire. The report concludes: Prussian officers regard the war as a sort of sacred 'mission, and ordinary morality is superseded by the new standard justifying anything which conduces to success, however shocking or revolting. This doetrine was proclaimed by the heads of the army, and it permeated officers and even affected privates, leading them to justify t'le killing of non-combatants and accustoming them to slaughtering wot men and children. The doctrine is plainly set out in the German official monograph upon the usages of war.