AMIENS CITY NOW ANOTHER RHEIMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1918, Page 6

AMIENS CITY NOW ANOTHER RHEIMS.

BOMBARDMENT BY THE GERMAN TERRORISTS. On the French Front, May 10. The German artillery, under orders from the 'Prussian and Bavarian Crown Princes, is doing its utmost to turn Amiens into another Rheims. Picardy's capital 'has already suffered terribly from this effort to carry out the German idea of striking, terror into the fatherland's enemies by destruction, of their most loved works of art, and every day add 9 to its suffering. The correspondent today went all over the city and observed the effects of the bombardment, which '-n* turned parts of the town into heaps of ruins and • killed 52 men civilians, 30 women and ichildren, besides wounding 62 men, 48 women, and 19 children before the population had an opportunity to escape. . Since the Germans have been within • cannon shot of Amiens after their recent advance during the offensive they have hurled no fewer than SSOO, mostly (i-inch and S-inch shells into the city. Every indication points to a systematic effort to dfistroy the public buildings, as the cathedral _ has been struck by shells which 'have pierced the Toof and walls, and the object of firing incessantly upon tho town cannot be explained ejocepfc upon the assumption that it is carried out with the purely barbarous idea of the destruction of the beautiful ' j objects its contains. . : Amiens lias joined Arras, Rliciin's, and , • Soissons in the sisterhood' of martyred cities. It is completely dead. Seven thousand' shell*, bombs, and aerial torpedoes have devastated the'place in the shortest time on record. It is worse .'wrecked' than and Arras, which have suffered four years of constant bombardment. | Twelve hundred Louses in Amiens , havo been hit. Scarcely any houses in the city arc untouched by the effects of the bombardment. The. cathedral still is intact,, despite nine shells which have crashed into it. The damage done to K this famous structure was principally '■ in the interior. The ftuge statue of • Christ lias been knocked to fragments. Workers are feverishly building sandi>ag barricades about the structure. At : times ten fires raged simultaneously. 'Firemen .from iParis who attempted .toextinguish the flames were bombed by | '• .-German aeroplanes and thwarted. Great , i portion) of the city have been swept by Lfire: The Germans ato using mustard gjßi against the 400 civilians who are; .still staying - near" their homes,, living in .ea.;vi». im£it their belongings can l>e ' moved; . ■ _ now-.'oiilr 3*name. .There . ii iioQijng more ,th«t caEfbe dastroysed; (jtywT nbQifajg: worth sfealS'g i aventnally eiptarf^tne