The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1918. GERMAN CRIMINALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1918. GERMAN CRIMINALITY.

Those who considered that Huns had, in their crimes which had already become known, reached the limit of their barbarity, will, on reading the latest disclosure have cause to alter their opinion. A recent cable states that a British prisoner has arrived who bears impress of cruelty that is almost incredible in the twentieth century of the Christian era. Branded on the forehead "Germany/' his tongue cut to render him speechless and his fingers sliced off, this victim of German "Kultur" is enough to make the blood of all civilised people boil with indignation and horror. One wonders how such fiendish barbarians can expect any mercy at the hands of those will sit around the peace table. The cult of cruelty and terrorism in _ Germany has had full play during the war, and it is satisfactory to know that the day of punishment is at hand, but it will be a very difficult task to deal out sentences adequate to meet such crimes afc that mentioned above, yet unless this is done sternly and with determination the Allies will fail in their duty to suffering humanity. For the German authorities to advance the plea that these crimes were committed either by irresponsible soldiers or by order of superior officers only aggravates the offences. The system which permits such excesses must necessarily inculpate the highest authorities and they must be made to shoulder the responsibility. They deliberately encouraged terrorism as part of the conduct of the war and they must bear the punishment of their foul deeds. Even President Wilson has pledged his word to that end, and he has declared that no true American would dream of visiting Germany, and this view-will meet with general endorsement by citizens of all the civilised nations, who.can neither forget nor forgive such odious monstrosities. How long it will take Germany to demonstrate a genuine repentance time alone will show, but in pressing for due punishment now, the Allies cannot rightly be charged with a desire for vengeance on a beaten foe. They have a duty to perform, and though it is an unpleasant duty, it has to be done, or justice will be a byword among the nations. As the Germans have gloried in their crimes so must they submit to penalties that will fit those crimes. These barbarian Huns in the course of the war have left a trail of horrors that are unparalleled in Jiistorv. At Bohain, Mr Philip Gibbs (the war correspondent) met an old Frenchman who said: "You are English soldier, come and see what the Germans have done in Bohain. Go round these streets and speak to our women. Go to our town hall, which cost great sums of money, and see how, before they left, they blew it up and burnt it to the ground Go to our factories, which wera filled with machinery by which our people earned their bread before the war, and you will see that they have left nothing; not one bar of iron, not one little wheel; nothing; nothing. Tell your soldiers and your people that the Ger mans are devils, bandits, brigands, pigs and brutes. Tell them how they made your prisoners suffer; how they starved them so that they dropped dead a.3 they walked." He pointed to a little field through a gap in the red brick houses, and said, "There are graves of English ■ soldiers who starved to death in Bohain" He pointed to the doorway close to us, and said, "Outside that houer I paw one of yoar men drop down dead from hunger."

We have not yet heard a tithe of the inhumanities dealt out to Allied prisoners, but the gruesome stories are gradually being made known, and eaeh one serves to harden the hearts of the victors against the despicable foe. IV would be unreasonable to expect that such horrible crimes can be dimmed by memory for many years to come, and then only such an expiation that can appeal to all right minded people. Until then Germany must to be regarded as unworthy of a friendly thought or deed. It is not the nature of the crimes which hare been conceived and executed by such devilish ingenuity and hate that have to be considered, but the fact that these outrages were part of premeditated and persistent policy. That is why the whole nation is involved in the guilt and must suffer accordingly.