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Show AGED CURE TELLS OF SLAVERY BEHIND FOE'S LINE IN FRANCE Spirit of His People Never Broken by Tyrannies of Enemy; Thousands Saved by American Food. F.ROM A STAFF CORRESPOND-1 CORRESPOND-1 FN'T OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. British Headquarters in France, March 26, via Tendon, Ten-don, 10:15 p. m. This is the story of the priest of Voyennes, ! Monsieur Ie Cure Caron, who stood ' today in the shadow of the still hot walls of his church, which had been set alight oy the Germans the day they slipped away from this plain little lit-tle village perched above the valley of the Somme. Flashes of passionate protest minsled with a spirit of proud resignation in his recital of the life at Voyennes during the two and one-half one-half years of German control a civil imprisonment which ended Monday last, when, through field glasses from the loft of his presbytery, the priest, who also was acting mayor, saw four khaki-clad horsemen on the road and knew that the Germans had gone and British relief was at hand. A few minutes later a French cavalry cav-alry patrol appeared, and the allies had formed a new link in the pursuit of the common foe. Today the booming boom-ing of the guns in this pursuit could be heard over a stretch of eighty battle bat-tle miles. Slaved for Invaders. The cure told how a few narrow scars in the earth, known as German trenches, ribbons of barbed wire behind be-hind them and a bit of shell-torn waste called "no man's land"' had isolated a section of the French people peo-ple from their country as effectually as if they had been suddenly transplanted trans-planted to another hemisphere. He told how in Voyennes women, j children and old men lived and toiled for the invaders in utter ignorance of what was going on in the world about them, just as other thousands still shut within the German lines are living, toiling and wondering today. They were told long ago that their beautiful Paris was to fall within a week and would be pillaged and burned. I,ater they were told "Paris Is dead," and the Germans added insult to Injury, the old priest exclaimed, by pronouncing it "Paris" instead of "Paree." Germans Enraged. The inhabitants of Voyennes submitted sub-mitted to enemy domination with heads erect and patient calmness that the Germans could not understand. "We will break your pride," Prussian Prus-sian officers declared, "and make you slaves. All France shall fall at our feet." Pale, drawn and old as was the cure, nevertheless he seemed Imbued with sudden, defiant strength as he raised himself to his full height and continued: "I told them that never again would France yield to such a foe. They taunted us and said they would crush Europe in a lew months. We replied that France would fight five years and more If necessary. Sometimes they laughed scornfully at this, but lately they could not contain their fury that the war was lasting so . long.'' "And did the people suffer much?" he was asked. "Ah, yes," he replied. "Our food did not last long. Then we had to work for the Germans and take what they gave us. Sometimes it was so ; bad that even the cats refused to eat. Then the Americans began to feed us, and tliat saved thousands of lives. Our people are very grateful. i Set Fire to Church. "But let us not dwell on the physical physi-cal side today, but Bpeak of the mental men-tal and moral anguish we endured, for it seemed like the span of a hundred hun-dred years. It has left us all but imbecile. I scarcely can keep my vagrant va-grant thoughts together." . Last Sunday when early mass was over the German commandant at Voyennes appeared at the church with soldiers bearing petrol cans. He bluntly told the priest that he was tired of the war and, as one means of bringing the end nearer, he was go- j ing to burn the church. The priest thought It was a cruel jest, until he was escorted-to hia house and held a prisoner there. He was compelled to look on lmpotently while the inflammable inflam-mable liquid was sprayed about and the torch applied in a dozen places. Of all the ancient interior, only the wooden crucifix against the altar wall, by some strange freak, escaped the flames. Late at night the Germans rode away. Not another building in all Voyennes was touched. "But," said the old priest, "I lived to see the German spirit broken from the unspeakable arrogance of their first onslaught and threat toward the parish until a few days ago an officer of-ficer met me in the street and said: 'Father, we are lost. I have done much In this war that rests heaviry on my conscience, but I have done it under orders. I dare not disobey.' "I told him that he surely would be absolved, for he was not to blame. There were others of higher station who must make answer to their God." Commander an American "When the Germans first came, the commander sought me and said that the people of Voyennes had fired on his troops and that reparations would be demanded. It was the same old story, and I told him it was a lie; that we had no firearms; that if shots were fired it was done by German (Continued on Page Two.) TELLS OF SLAVERY BEHIND FOE'S LUES (Continued from Page Que.) troops as an excuse to make us suffer. suf-fer. The commander did not carry out llis threat. We have had many commanders since then and, one and all. they have ruled their men with a discipline of Iron. Some of the officers treated their subordinates like does; they said the men were their slaves, as the French would be. I saw an officer one dav, without reason whatever, cuff his'orderly so hard that the man's eve was black for a week. The soldier's sol-dier's only reply was to click his heels together and come to salute. 'Some of the villagers asked the men why thev submitted to such treatment. They replied that they were helpless now as part of a militarv mili-tarv machine, but when the war was over their time would come. For a loni; time now the German soldiers have had no coffee and their rations have been growing less and less. I tell you with all solemnity that when the war is ended there will he a reckoning reck-oning and Germany will know a blood-red blood-red revolution. "The best commander we liad was the one before the last, who spent fifteen voars in America and married an American girl. lie had tasted the jovs of liberty in a free country and his every act, no matter how stern, was tduched with kindness, lie spared us much. "We knew last autumn of the battles bat-tles of the Somme. for we saw wounded wound-ed Germans coming back until the roads scpined choked with mangled men. We saw other thousands going back to the trenches after a brief rest and heard them cry out: 'Jesus, have mercy! Jesus, save us!' We heard wounded men tell of the maddening mad-dening fire of the British and French guns and we heard the tumult of those guns ourselves. Our situation, too, was maddening we, who would only be saved by our brothers' devastation of our beautiful France. "Many of our girls were taken from time to time. Now all women able to work and have no children dependent de-pendent on them have been carried away as slaves to Germany. We pray that they may suffer no sadder fate." |
