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Show SAYS G1TIZENS i FIRED UPON THE GERMANJROOPS German Officer Tells Why and How Louvain Was Destroyed and Many of Its Inhabitants Slain OFFICIAL GERMAN STATEMENT ISSUED Claim Made That Belgians Made a Sortie After Ap parently Friendly Relations f f (Qorresponden e of he Assoc ated Press ) BErLIN Sept An offic al Ger n an statement on the destruet on of , Lou a n has lust been g en out It S says Belg um is offic ally spread ng false J. repretentat ons about the occurrences through wh ch the c ty of Louva o -was c inado to s ffe It 3 cla n ed that Ger ijan troops having been repulsed by k Bel" ans making1 a sort e from Antwerp -were fired upon by m stal e by the Ger man girnson of Louva n and that in fi ths way fioht n occurred there B t I events prove ncontestably that the L Corn ins repulsed the Belg an sortie Dur ng th s battle before Antwerp Jn. an undoubtedly organ zed attack was rt irade upon the German troops at many j places in Louva n after apparently I friendly relat ons between the Germans gs and the cjt zens of the town had seemed P for twenty four hours to be beg nning a The attack was at first aalnst a jt landwehr battal on con poseu" of older men of qu e.t d SP06 t on and themsel es Si fathers of fam 1 es also a"a nst ec j tions of the general 6taff that had re gy, named in the c ty and upon n ovmg 5 columns of troops The Germans had many wounded and k lied t Germans Won a They won the upper hand howe er owing to the arr val of fresh troops by ra 1 w"ho were fired upon at the sta f tionj The truth of the forego ng state meats s established beyond all cav 1 k The c ty hall was saved but further attempts to ext nguish the fire were un successful. Yccord ng to the semi ofuc al "Sord deutsche Yllgenie oe Ze tun" the T p lomat e representat ves of Germany n neutral countr es have bee unpl ed w th material for rebutt ng the ha ges made abroad against German s manner if conduct ng the war The GerniaD overnn ent also nstructel ts m n ster 0 The Han e to ask tne Dutch govern uent n the nterests of hnn an tj to Impress urgently upon the Belg an gov ernment the necess tv of restra n ng the c v 1 populat on of Be giu-n from s ab solutely useless res stau e and the Dutch m n ster of fore n affa rs con 01 ed w th th s req est Ieanwh le a letter wr tten b a Ger n an ofiicer who was u Lou an 1 r ng the pr s ng of the 1 an nhab tants has been pr nted It s as follows Louya n August Dear Parents On the ot 1 we ame b tra n from Lrlege to Lou ana r ng he e at 9 p m Before he tra n s opped bul eta were pattering aga ns s slde and they were whs t g h ough the a r th ck and fas w en we got ou we had no dea w h t was going on The stat on es n a dep easlon and we stood there as f aught n a trap W e had eard some h ng- abou a fight with the Cng sh In the vicinity of Louva n and we hought that the had p oba b b oken hrough our nes and we e firing upon us Machine Gun in Street But we we e soon to ea n o he w se The c zens of Lou an wo ! ad hitherto kep ve y u e and shown themse ves f endl to us Bud denly began fir ng upon ou so d e 3 and convoys of p o sions and anmu n ion The shoot ng be an in the whole c ty as if by wo d of om mand In the ma n street a mach ne gun was mounted In the w ndow of a projecting house w ich vas bar i caded I was a dane o s uat on fo ou corps and d on staff who were quarte ed in t e clt I ew of t e f end y attl udc of t c Inhab tan s the, gar son of the c ti had been reduced to a 1 andfu of men o ho d the rallwav stat on The staff off! e s and the station guard wou d s mply have been n urdered and the station woud have bee b own up but thank God there was an error In th s ca u at on of the c t zens Search of Houbes Of course tl es d d not ant cipate at two batta ons had arr ved just Ave inutes before our tra n pu ed nto the station At fi st wo quickly fired several salvos into the houses and then all became qu et I was the first to be ordered to take my pla toon about e ghty f ve men and searc two ho ses to br ng out a the n en and se ze all tl e arms found n them , This went off' all r ght and other search ne; part es were o dered ou Yve set fire at pnee to 1 ouses n which arms and ammunition and suspicious ind v dua s ere found and these ras ca s were shot On Tuesdaj n ght about th rty such e ecutlons oceu red fterward we were again fired upon sudden y and we lad se e al dead and wounded The eupon we set fi e to th s en Ire qua ter of the c ty A horr bo set But hese peop e w led t thus Yesterdaj (Wed esdas we had on to protect t e ra wav stat on and the e we were fired upon aga n More Men Shot More ouses we e t en fired and some fifty or s ty nen s ot nc ud ng some Be g an so d e s n c an othes I t en searched a number of st eets vlt n platoon for a tns and ammu n t on n do ng w ch son e hea t end ng scenes occurred We were compefled to be se ero Last n Bht we we e let a one but our t oops were fi ed upon n anothe qua er of t e c tj Tor this reason the who e c ian populat on has today been herded toget er and tl s afternoon ou heavy artU er s go ng to leve e whole city w th the earth Matte s d d no ow ever o to t at extent, as D I ar He ffe c a al ector of the Deu s he banl epo ts He has jjst returned to Be n T om. a s t to Lo a and sa s that the c ty was by no means who y des royed The en re southern half and a part of the western sect o we e hard nju ed at all liven w e the German so d er we e do n ol unteer firemen a wo k In sav ng he bea t f c ty 1 a he epo ts they we e fired upon b civ ans |