WHAT ARE WE UP AGAINST?

Taranaki Daily News, 26 January 1916, Page 5

WHAT ARE WE UP AGAINST?

INHUMAN TEUTON BEASTS. To show what type of Immunity it )3 our men are contending against let Professor J. H. Morgan of University College, London, and late Home Office Commisisoncr with the British Expeditionary Force in Flanders speak. He tells the following story. In a certain town in Flanders he met the Mayor who gave him an interesting account of the occupation of the town by ,'the German force not long before. First of all a tall loutish German officer entered the Mayor's rooms at the Town Hall and without any warning or ceremony demanded within the next 'twenty-four hours, ten thousand kilos of bread, thirty thousand kilos of hay, forty thousand kilos of oats, five thousand* bottles of wine, and one hundred boxes of cigars. If these were not forthcoming, the officer stated, the Mayor would be shot. The Maypr, ,'n reply, called the attention of the officer to Article 52 of the Hague Convention which the German Government had signed and which provided that such orders as had been given could only be issued by the head of tho military authority. The officer thereupon scribbled an order and gave it to an orderly who shortly after returned with the documents signed by the officer in question. l 'Hi* Mayor thereupon went round tho town and after great difficulty obtained the material demanded. Immediately he returned he was placed under arrest, locked in a room and closely guarded. In the early hours of (he morning he was awakened and told he was to be sho'fc that day because someone was reported to have fired on the German troops. An hour or so afterwards ho was informed that the order was counter-manded for the present and he was allowed to see the Deputy-Mayor who shall tell his own story. "They have taken the bread out of our mouths," he said, "and everywhere they levy a distress upon our chattels. There is an ammunition wagon outside my home; they have put all the furniture of my dining-room upon it. They have also shot Jules Bounard."

"And why?" asked tho Mayor. "I know not," Baid the Deputy. "They found four gardeners returning from the fields last night and shot them too. They made them dig their own. grave* and tied their hands behind their backs with their own scarves."

"And tho women," continued the Deputy, in a tone of stupefied horror, "they aro crying, many of them and will not look one in the face. Somo of them have black eyes. And the young girls!" The Mayor turning to Professor Mor- [ "an as he told the story said the bitterest part of it was that he was powerless to prevent the horrors and indig- | nities tlia helpless and inoffensive citizens sneered. The Professor expressed I surprise that the Hun had spared him I after all, to which the Mayor replied as ho took down a piece of paper, that it was through no fault of theirs he was spared. Tho piece of paper was an order for the execution of the Mayor on the evacuation of the town. "You see, Monsier," he explained, "your brave soldiers were a little too quick for them. .You made a surprise attack early one morning and moved the enemy out. Please mind your cigar ash, Monsier. You see I rather value that slip of paper [near you. It is my. own death, warnfflt.V " "'""" '"" "'"•"".