WESTERN ATTACK.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1917, Page 5

WESTERN ATTACK.

GHASTLY CONDUCT. THE DEAD VIOLATED, GRAVES RIFLED. TOMi-.-. ..JXES EVEN STOLEN FOR GERMAN DEAD. Received March 29, 10 p.m.' Heuter Service. Paris, March 29'. A French headquarters, correspondent states that the full atrociousness of the conduct of the Germans is now appearing. They not only broke open vaults in the churchyards and used them 8.3 machine-gun shields, but systematically pillaged the graves for the'zinc and lead linings of the coffins, and possibly for ornaments and jewels. Cemeteries were torn up and coffins broken up, the remains of the dead being scattered in the rubbish and filth thrown in the graves. The Germans show an almost exaggerated respect for their own dead. Their trim and gaudy cemeteries abound with pompous epitaphs to the fallen German heroes, characteristically inscribed on tombstones stolen from neighboring French cemeteries.

AN ORGY OF FRIGHTFULNESS. WHAT AN AMERICAN SAW. New York, March 28. Mr. Wythe Williams, the New York Times Paris correspondent, wag the first civilian to survey the whole 300 square miles of the re-conquered territory. Ho cables: "We looked into the utter blackness of the German soul. Past atrocities are trifling compared with this orgy of hate and frightfulness. The wilful destruction is indescribable. "We were impressed with the enormous strength of the evacuated positions. The main concrete line seemed impregnable. It was practically ten miles from barrier to barrier of barbed wire on a solid foundation.

_"I am convinced the inhabitants lived in a bondage worse than that of a galley slave. American food was received, but much was taken by the Germans themselves. Old men, women, children', and cripples were left near the charred remains of their houses. The young women and girls were herded with the retreating army for a slavery one does not dare to contemplate/. A woman told me her husband' had been shot, her two sons sent into bondage, and her three daughters forcibly carried off. This is a typical experience."

HINDENBURG'S CRIME.

ORDERS DEVASTATION OF .COUNTRY. London, March 28. Mr. Philip Gibbs mentions that General von Hindenburg visited Roisel on the 10th and personally directed the retirement. He ordered the devastation of the abandoned country.

HUNS TAKE RELIEF FLOUR. "f SUBSTITUTE SAWDUST. CAUSES GREAT MORTALITY. Times Service. Received March 29, 11 p.m. London, March 29. Mr. Whitaker, American relief commissioner, just returned from Belgium, states that the Germans hampered food supplies that the American (Relief Commisison sent to Roubaix, intercepting several train loads and substituting German rye flour and 30 per cent, of sawdust for the American flour, this producing indigestion, the putty-like substance causing such illness and death that the gravediggers were unable to dja sufficient graves. ■ ,:; j "■'