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Show SAYS STORIES OF llTflOGIIIES ARE MYTHICAL Correspondent of the Asso ciated Press, An Amen can, Exonerates the German Troops REPORTS NOT BORNE OUT BY THE FACTS Belgian Civilians Accused of Bringing Punishment Upon Themselves by "Sniping " NEW YORK Sept 16 An Associated Press staff correspondent 6f American b rt and antecedent Trno was sent from the New York off ce and was caugrht in Brussels at the time of the German in vasion he d as a p soner for se eral days and f na lj escaped to Ho and has sent by mail the following- story of hs experiences, j The night before the Germans en tered Brusse s when the Belgian cl H guards and refugees "began pouring into the cltv frorn the direction of Lou a n they1 brought stor es of un speakable German atrocit es mal treatment of o d men and cl 1 dren and the vio at on of women 1 e Bel an -capital ree ed w th ap prehension "With n an hour the gai ety t e i aclty and br la cj Of the city went out like a broken arc 1 ght The radiance of t e cafes was ex changed for darkness whispering groups of residents broke up hurried ly and locked themselves in their 1 on es wl ere they put up the shut ters and d ew in the tri colored Bel gian flags The h stoHc Be glan city event t oug a state of morb d con sternat on remarkably 1 ke that f om which t suffered on June 18 1816 when it t emb ed wit the fear of a French Ictor at "Waterloo Dissolved Into Myth In less than twenty four hours tie Belgian clt zens were chatting com fortab y with tl e Overman Invaders and t e allegat on of German brutality aoid demonical torture d ssolved into one of the mj ths which ha e accompan ed all wars Neither in B ussels nor in Its en yjrons was a s ngle offensive act bo far as I know committed by a German soldier In a city of over half a m 1 lion people Invaded by a host! e army of perhaps a quarter of a mil Ion soldiers no act sufficiently f agrant to demand punishment or to awaken pro test came to my attention Tl o frightful reports that had pre ceded the German army into Brussels inc uded the d sembowe ng of o d men and the impal ng of ch dren on lances just outside Louvain Investigation ot on y fal ed to substantate these run ors but I cou d not even d scover any one in the immed ate vicin ty who credited t em An ejewitness of un impeachable verac ty told me that the worst behavior he had observed dur ing the f rst German entry into Lou ain (August 19) was that of a Ger man so d er who leaned from h s ho se and kissed a pretty r em sh girl who broug t him a g ass of beer Only One Case I marched for das with the Ger man co umns often only one day be h nd the f ghting with the houses that had been burned stl 1 smou dering the ground freshly bro en by shells and trampled by horses and aaen and the memory of, the German advance v vld in the m nds of the inhab tants I interviewed an average of twenty persons in each of a dozen towns and found on y one instance of a non combatant who had been k led with out a just f ab e provocation Tn this case the e dence d d not clear y pro e that the man had been wanton ly murdered He I ved in one of the tjpical sma 1 Be glan countrys de houses which comb ne the comforts of home with the lure of a small publ c bar This house was at the north end of Merbes le Chateau a town through which a large part of the German army passed on the road to Mau beuge A son of the murdered man whose name was Arthur N codem showed me blood clots on the floor marking the p ace where Nicodem fe I is throat cut by a saw edged Ger man saber Probable Explanation It was sa d by "ome in ab ta ts ' that the mu dered n an showed a pal of blnocu a s but a more probable exp anat on was tha Eng sh out posts had concea ed t emse ves in the house from wh ch tl e poured a ra n of f re upon the first German nvad (Continued on Page Two) SAYS STORIES FROM BELGIUM IE FALSE ! (Continued from Page One.) ere. The inference that the shooting: was done by Belgian civilians may have inflamed the Germans to reprisals, repris-als, in that neighborhood four houses had been burned and one was still ablaze as I passed on Wednesday, August 26. This town of Merbes-le-Cheteau. which had been the scene of an unimportant un-important sltirmish between the Germans, Ger-mans, and English on the previous Sunday, was riddled with rifleshots. The email number of windows intact showed that the Germans liad made a deliberate assault upon the residents or" the town. But the inhabitants themselves admitted that all of the shooting had been done hy a comparatively com-paratively small number of Germans and that the firing had not been begun be-gun until lOnglish soldiers who had concealed themselves in the houses fired first upon the Germans. I have emphasized the one fatality I of the noneombatant because the news of it traveled up and down the Sam-I Sam-I bre and across to Mantes-Wlberie and j Scire-Sur-Sam ore. multiplying as ft ! we.ut and developing ghastly and inhuman in-human details until it seemed an unanswerable un-answerable reproach to the whole German empire. "With this one possible pos-sible exception. T did not encounter in Nivelles, in Binclie, Buissfere or Solre-Sur-Sambre or any of the other towns I visited a single incident of mistreatment mis-treatment of any sort by German officers of-ficers or soldiers. City in Ruins. Buissiere pa rticularly the lo"r part of the city had ' been virtually destroyed by a crossfire from French and German artillery. Tops of breweries brew-eries had been hurled bodily to the ground and walls had either disappeared dis-appeared or hf-nnie grotesquely dislodged. dis-lodged. The whole city lay In smoking smok-ing ruins, with only its drawbridge, across the Sambre and a few marble statues and boa (houses towering a hove the debris. Rut here, two days after the battle, women and children were moving comfortably Rbout the tnwn and not a single complaint was uttered against German conduct. The town of Solre-sur-Sambre Is a small village about five miles south of Bulsslere. and Is Important not as a battlefield, but as a center about whifh French a nd German conflict waged steadily for two days A ugust 2-1-24 Die French line, after making sporadic stands, being forced on k steadily over the French border until the movement became a flight. In this town 130 French killed and more -.--than a hundred wounded were brought in in a single day. Auguste Blarfaux. burgomaster, said that he knew of no cases of German cruelties, save distant dis-tant rumors whhh he had learned to discredit. It ought to he said to the credit of the Belgians that they have not allowed their bit terness town rd t he Germa ns to carry them into unfair un-fair recrlmlnal ion. Consul's Opinion. Robert . I. Thompson. American consul con-sul at Aachen, visited TJcge during and after the capture of the forts. It is the opinion of Mr. Thompson that no outrage was committed bv Germans during the several days' fighting there. There are. of course, reported outrages out-rages beyond investigation, either on ; account of their vagueness or because ! it is impossible to weigh the provocation. provo-cation. It Is known, for instance, that 112 natives were killed In Renouchamp. not far from Ardennes; German soldiers say t tin t they were killed because they fired" upon them from the roofs and windows of the houses. The history of the absolute destruction destruc-tion of the historic city of Ixuvnln, with Its cathedral and Its unlversilv, is hy this time well known. The German version of this Is that the inhabitants, under the direction of the burgomaster, established themselves them-selves in the church, where thev also installed a machine gun. Thev proceeded pro-ceeded to greet the- Germans with a deadly fire. The Belgians say. on the other hand, that part of the German army, mistaking one of their own retiring divisions for t he enemy, opened fire , upon them, whereupon, deluded into thinking this an assault bv Belgian civilians, the Germans razed I ho whole city. Story Given Credit. j f have not been able to acquire nm- , direct evidence In regard to Micro lost two Instances, but the explanation generally credited bv rilnlnt r-mn ted persons Is that the Belgians who hnd I la Id down their Hrms ncenrdln to the burgomaster's nrocliwnn ' lop n the entrance of the enrmv took them up Agnln when It looked kh ir the Cer- mans were retreating from the town and opened fire, from th-ir windows upon a retiring German train. The most ii ul horltn ti ve, Gorman l-nlw l-nlw I of German offenses counts ft otn Major Genera I ThaddeuH von .! i (,!,. sky, mllitfi ry governor of Rnjs.se hi. who informed itie that in nu ttirous eases, he had been vrv.-vf W1n fi pretense of frlendlincyK ,- Belgian civ I Mn iiH. who In t cr fired upon he German aoldlei h from wi ndown a nd from between the rouf tiles. This wan done. lie hh Id, ii Tier H dec Iji ru I Ion of surrender hy Die liurgorna:Uei urn a ,T1IIIW Till i in proclamation . warning the citizens against anv show of resistance. In such "violations of the rules of ' war, the general said, he punished the offender by burning the houses from which the shots were fired. Blanket Extenuation. This explanation of the burning of villages is given with such perteet unanimity bv all German officers and men that lb go into separate instances in-stances is unecessa ry. It seems to serve as a sort of blanket extenuation for all German severities. I can only say that In every case of reported outrages out-rages or reprisal which was susceptible sus-ceptible tb Investigation I have found cither that the outrage was a figment fig-ment of the Belgian mind, or that it was more than half excused by circumstances. cir-cumstances. I have actual knowledge of the sniping by Belgian civilians at Manage and other towns, and even the Belgians Bel-gians admit tiiat In a few instances they have been guilty of this. This furnishes a provocat ion for the only German severity which 1 have had an opportunity to observe the burning of houses. A Belgian fugitive from a suburb of Charleroi brought to Nivelle a story of the Germans marching the priest a nd several of the inhabitants before the army as a protection against fire from , the houses. This has received ample verification, hut hardly comes under the heading of atrocities. Had Some Experience. The prevalence of the Belgian prac-I prac-I ttce of sniping from the houses was perhaps indicated hy the warning of the German officer who act cd as guard for five American or res pond -ents, Including myself, who w ere being be-ing taken en prisoners from Brau- mont to Aachen in an army irain. We were advised to lie down on the floor of the car. as the Belgian snipers sni-pers would shoot at ns from the houses, hut there was no tiring. This, of course, is not a brief tor the German artny; it Is an account of German conduct as It appeared to an impartial observer who had the rather rath-er extraordinary opportunity of traveling trav-eling for days with the German columns, col-umns, over a distance of more than a hundred miles through a dozen important impor-tant cities and towns. Sometimes 1 was near enough to the front to see the white artillery smoke spurt into clouds along the horizon and hear the double detonations which came from artillery at short range. At other times I trailed behind through ' the desolate waste which a vlvtorious army leaves behind it. But tiie waste was the Inevitable footprint of war. markirg the most utter dreariness, misery and despair, hut not with a hint of savagery, of wanton butchery, or of excels. Cases of Courtesy. On the contrary I witnessed numerous numer-ous cases of the most rniefnl courtesy cour-tesy on Lhn part of German soldiers, In Brussels t hey not onl y pa Id their cafe bills, but tipped gone mind y. Along the road, when a Gcrnmn officer of-ficer or soldier entered a Belgian house for food or shelter It was pot ' with a demand, but a request. In spite of the confusion a nd errors which arose from a strange tongue, there was almost no friction of any sort. Tiie German soldiers were punctiliously punctili-ously considerate Hnd polite to women and children, apologizing for the discomfort dis-comfort they were ca using. 1 'pon leaving a house where they had been given shelter 1 ha.ve seen them shake hands with the concierge, peasant woman, or. In Home casea, with the gentlewoman of a Belgian villa , as pleasantly as If they were bidding adieu to their hostess at a week-end house party. So many Instances of this sort are at hand that a recital of them would be tedious. 1 have seen GertnJiii HM. dlers helping Belgla n women with their housework mid playing with the children. Natumllv Inclined tu bo gruff with their soldiers, the German officers always turned to the l-'remh prisoners with a pleasant, word, and treated them with every consideration. Not a single exception to this -1 i 1 1 1 y toward prisoners hns rome to my attention. French Weil Satisfied. PAWS, via London. Sept. ir. If);, H. The Matin discussing the withdrawal of the Germans points out that In order to rover ita ret real and avoid the blocking of mnds open lo It the Germa n a rmy will have to mark time end fight a second sec-ond n nd per ha pa a t bird hn t tic. Thene bal'les will he fought under conditions, according lo the Matin, certainly mod favorable fa-vorable for the Kierudi forces, whhh, thanks to their reinforcements n nd tin rapidity of movement fissured them by the railways will tie nble to face nil ee,il-utilities ee,il-utilities without anxiety. No German Moratorium. MOW V(IHK, Kept, Ifi. ..( '(Mlh Vnn RrrnMoiff. 1 he flerina n em I hint. a dor lo the I ! li I ted Slates, t oda y gave nut h,, following an I In text of a uieaa go in i,J(l received hom the German foieigu office of-fice : "London report Gcrii.au mora I oi i 1 1 tM ex I ended to end of Hcp(.mhr. M,p1 (1 . lorhini could l lot be r.lendoi. becaiinc Germany never ordered one. All haidvi and iniHlneiSR going on uh usual." |