DREADFUL PICTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1916, Page 6

DREADFUL PICTURE.

[FROM SERBIA. STORY OF AUSTRIAN ATROCITIES. (From a correspondent of the Wellingi ton Dominion). Salonika, November 11. [As the cable reports come to hand telling of the cruelty of the Austrians to the Serbs, readers for some reason or other are apt to think that in some cases tha accounts are exaggerated—that it would he impossible for human beings to stoop so low as to commit on their fellow creatures the atrocities reported. The following description of the conditions which have obtained in Serbia more or lea ifrom the commencement of the -war will, however, convince the most sceptical. It comes to hand from a New Zealander attached to the New Zealand forces in Salonika, and contains the identical particulars given him by one who has been connected with relief work in Serbia since the early part of this year. The account will be the more interesting to our readers as the correspondent's informant left London to work in the despoiled land . of our Ally, with funds which had been sent from Gisborne, in New Zealand, for relief purposes in Serbia.]

From almost the commencement of the war it will be remembered that the Austrians invaded the north-west portion of the country, and consequently the north-west districts have suffered more than other portions. At the time of invasion the corn was just ready for harvest. The harvesting was carried out by the Austrians very rapidly, the grain going to fill large storehouses in their own country. The sheep, cattle and all other grazing stock were all driven off, simply as a matter of course, and even the fowls were pillaged. This did not happen merely in a few isolated cases. Every farm was treated in a similar manner, and a fanner who was missed was indeed very lucky. All this time the people had been looking on with evident alarm. They had expected when the war commenced thai; it would at least be carried on in a civilised way, and rightly considered that surely if their enemies invaded their country they would treat with respect the property of their conquered foes. They, however, describe the sweeping of their land in the above way as if it was actually part of the conquering. The lands and storehouses having been completely "swept," the Austrians now turned their attention to other booty. In Shabatz, a town in the north-west of Serbia, there were eight banks carrying on hisiness, and in every building all the safes were broken into and the contents removed, presumably to help defray the cost of the war. In nne bank alone two million francs were confiscated. This procedure was adouted in every town invaded. Attention was next drawn to the shops and puiilie buildings, and it is said that a special appliance was brought from Austria ;o facilitate the opening of the shutters of the Serbian shops. Nothing of value was left, and the roughest methods wee adopted in extracting the booty from the buildings. In Shabatz safes which have been broken open now are to be seen outside the buildings all over the town, and one of the sights of Shabalz to-day is the number of safes lying about. To show how intentionil it was for the invaders to loot whatever of value they came across, our correspondent's informant told the following narrative:—"l came across some Austrian prisoners further south who were being held by the Serbians. "<Vhy did you break so many safes open?' I asked; to find out, if possible, some of the instructions which must have been given to the pillagers from their officers. 'Oh!' replied one broad-shouldered Austrian, 'the people had left them locked.' The seriousness of the Austrian as he made this remark convinced me more than if he had given me a score of instructions that the order had been passed—'Pillage everything."'

AFTER PILLAGE—MASSACRE. But the worst has to come —the brutal massacres or" old men and women and little babes, whose cries for pity will, it is hoped, never cease until the Austrian nation is humiliated in the dust. Never has liistqry had such a tale of crime to tell during its long annals—never did ignorant heathen act with such ruthlessness as is laid at the door of so-called Christian Austria. Now that the property had.been carried off, including in most cases the household furniture, utensils, etc., the Austrians started a campaign of systematic villainy and bloodthirsty revenge, the poor victims being for the most part the old men and women, invalid soldiers, and little children. In Shabatz, the town already mentioned, 1500 such people were hounded together and driven into a church which had been partly destroyed by shells. This church had a seating capacity of 500, yet these I.iOO prisoners were kept locked up inside for three days and three nights, without either food or drink—babes were born there, mothers died from lack of medical aid, and many of the weaker little ones died from exhaustion. At the expiry of this period 150 were picked out from the prisoners and deliberately shot beneath the church walls (this number included women as well as men), thereafter being thrown into a pit. Those of the balance wlio remained alive were taken to Austria and treated as so-call-ed hostages.

BUHXEB ALIVE. In the school at Prcnjavor 4!) people were locked up, and the school set on fire, with the consequence ihat not one escaped, all the forty-nine being burned alive. In another house in the sametown about 150 people were treated in a simila\ manner, their remains being simply strewn along the roadside. In ■fLesiutza about 120 people were driven together on the side of a bank, on the top of which ran the railway line. The men, who were all over 50 years of age, were compelled to dig a large hole, 'on completion of which the whole number were shot, and the earth simply shovelled over their hodies. Thus the murderers roved about from Tillage to village, and everywhere they went "ran blood"—the blood of the poor Serbian victims, A SAD STORY. The saddest story perhaps is that of an old man of 70, who was shot dead before his house. The poor, sorrowing wife, heart-broken wiMi grief, managed to totter into the house with the iW mftgU bod;, It was duak, »nd

she had lighted a candle and sat mourning beside the body. Presently the sound of the Austrian soldiers were again heard. The old woman left the body of her husband, and hid under a bed in another part of the house. The house was then searched and after she had been found she was beaten most unmercifully, and finally dragged to the room where the body lay, and the prostrate form was again riddled with shots before her very gaze. When the people ol the village heard what was going on they (led for safety to the house ofrone of the inhabitants. About fifty people, mostly women and children, arrived at this house, and hid in different rooms. Tlie Austrian?, however, were not long in gaining admission, and immediately dragged all out into the courtyard, where a mock trial was conducted. After this they were all taken again into the house, and every single person, male and female, was bayoneted and thrown down a trap-door which led to a cellar below the floor of the house. Not even poor babes were spared, and one was actually bayoneted while it clung to its mother's breast. After the soldiers had gone, some of the villagers went to the cellar, and only twenty-one out the fifty remained alive. fn another town the Austrian soldiers placed poisonous mixtures into the chemicals, and the narrator of these details saw the actual order by an Austrian official for this nefarious scheme to be put into action. It had apparently been mislaid by the perpetrators, and fell into the hands of the intended victims. The above arc only a few of the atrocities that were ' committed, but quite enough to show that the despoiling of Serbia by the Austrians was nothing short of systematic pillage and barbarous murder.