The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 27. THE CULMINATION OF SAVAGERY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 April 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, APRIL 27. THE CULMINATION OF SAVAGERY.

The two recent incidents which will have caused the civilised world to stand aghast with horror are the reports of the boiling-down of soldiers' bodies for the extraction of oil, and the inhuman sinking of ships conveying wounded soldiers to Britain. Those who thought that these savages had reached the limit.of their atrocious powers must now recognise that the depths of infamy ancj iniquity have not yet been probed, and that the culmination of Huu savagery has not been reached. It is waste of lime t,o discuss the question of reprisals; there is only one course to take, and that is to utterly crush iliese arch-fiends whose sole aim is to terrorise the world with their frightfulness. It has to be remembered that they belong to a nation that boasted of its kultur which was to be passed on to the . unspeakable Turk.- If the atrocities and horrors committed by the Huns during the war is the outcome of kultur run riot, then it is plain that the refinement of intellectual perfection is merely another name for the lowest form of callous and remorseless savagery. 8 It in easy to understand why ljfcrlin officialdom took five days to deliberate on a plausible, denfai of the outrageous business of extracting oil from dead soldiers, an» act that places the nation as an outcast from civilisation and abhorent to all men. It i 3 too dreadful to think of, too repellant to dwell upon, and the disgrace can never be wiped out. That the Allies have to contend against such suDer-can-nibals is much to be regretted, for the work is such as is only fit for cuterfiarbarians steeped in crime. Still the war against these foul fiends must go on until the earth is relieve or their pestilentious presence, and their power for evil is totally destroyed.- No horror that they can perpetrate wil! now astonish the world. Tbey stand revealed ia all their ghoulish savagery—a nation of pariahs that befoul the earth, and yet the head of this people claims the protection of the Deity. There is no crime too foul for them to perpetrate, no lie too great for t'heni to utter, no trick too low down for them to play, no inhumanity too terrible for them to practice. And this is the nation which a few years ago claimed to be a model of intellectual attainment and the home of scientific progress! How are the mighty fallen? Two more hospital ships sunk! Dead soldiers boiled down for oil! Can humanity conceive anything more infamous? The long list of horrors grows apace. Even the generalissimo, von Hindenburg, set on foot a reign of torror in Belgium, accompanied by brutalitiis and barbarities that were coldly planned, studiously matured, and deliberately and systematically executed—deeds so cruel and monstrous that even the officers felt ashamed to perpetrate. Desperation lias turned the Huns into the fiends of the most frightful order. It will be noted that' in every case where these horrors have been perpetrated it has been against defenceless victims. Bravery and fierceness on the battlefield we all admire, but the torture of innocent and j defenceless victims stamps the actoris as criminals of the worst type. Surely, if they have not arrived at the culminating point of savagery, they must be approaching the limit. The wounded, the dying, land the dead have no longer any hope for humane treatment at the hands of these vile Huns, but the blood of the victims cries aloud for vengeance. All the laws of humanity have been outraged and justice demands an adequate punishment of the criminals. The day of reckoning must come, and the Allies should be prepared to administer that justice with a stern hand. Meanwhile the call is for men to gain the victory over these human fiends. When thia is won, there mUBt be no foolish leniency. The sinking of hospital ships cannot fail to arouse the men forming the Allies' fofces to do their utmost towards tin speedy termination of the war. Mow more than ever is it apparent that no effort must be spared to crush the enemy. The struggle is no longer a contest between the Entente and the Central Powers; it is a battle between civilisation and savagery, ar.d the future of the world is involved in the issue. Fori tunately that issue is not in doubt. The ! cause of freedom and humanity must prevail.