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Show THEVES KIDDIES 'IDQUZEYANKS! Garrison of 3500 U. S. Soldiers Sol-diers and Headquarters Staff 500 in Charge. Proclamation of General Pershing Outlines Plans of Moderation. .i-N'cw York Times-Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) TREVES, Dec. t. The American army Oi occupation has adopted a policy of the greatest moderation toward the population pop-ulation of Rhenish Prussia. Our policy, which wa3 more or less in the making when we crossed the German border un SJunday, has become established in three "davs, during which the Germans have v given no trouble, receiving us everywhere with sullen docility, but docility, nevertheless. never-theless. In his first proclamation General Perching Per-ching told the Germans that we were not making war upon civilians and that they would be disturbed as little as possible as long as they did not disturb us. And so life hereabout goes on perhaps more nearly normal than when the German army was passing through. In this city of To.CM'O we have a gar's gar-'s rlson of about r00 troops, the general headquarters staff of about 500, and a few war correspondents. They are feeding feed-ing themselves and not occupying much room. c Lenient Policy. . One ma-" say that of ali the allied armies ar-mies occupy ing German territory the j American army of occupation has the ; most lenient policy. Rut it must he un- , derstood, and the Germans are being told, 1 that this leniency is predicated solely ; upon Die good behavior of the ponula-Hon. ponula-Hon. No abuse of kindness will be over-J looked. i In Treves the shops are a!! open, the 1 l-fstau rants are doing good business, street cars are running, newspapers are being issued In other words, there is no unnecessary interference with the ordinary or-dinary life of the people. j Those in a position to know tell me that the Germans are becoming less sul- i len. They stop Americans on the streets 1 to say that they have relatives in the United States. In fact, it seems that an 1 abnormally largo proportion of the people , of Treves have relatives In the United States, and the number seems to be giowing hourly. j The attitude of American soldiers to-j ard little children also is a factor in i the situation. Whenever one sees a dough- j boy in the streets in an idle moment one sees a group of little children about htm. : and many of the doughboys, talk German. ! No Special Grudge. ' -' ! One cannot wonder thai American i fighting men feel less heartily toward 1 . German civilians than the fighting men : of other countries may. for, despite mi!i- I tary orders, personal feelings play the ! largest role in such a situation. The America n men have not lost 2.1100.000 comrades, their homes have not been destroyed, de-stroyed, they have not been emhittered by more than four years of the struggle. They came to Europe to defeat the German Ger-man army. Now that that is done, they a re living up to the president's words, that thev have no special grudge against the German people. 4 The situation in occupied tcrritorv is Intensely Interesting from a psychological standpoint. One finds none of the personal per-sonal hatred of Americans that one heard much ahout. One hears on all sides expressions ex-pressions of gladness that Americans, instead in-stead of French, are occupying the region here. This is not because the Germans hate the French, but they fear that the French ha te 1 hem. One hears at all 1 hues the stock expressions of hate for England. Especially interesting was the entrv of the Thirty-second di Ision into the zone just north of Trier. Many men of this division are from Michigan and Wisconsin, Wiscon-sin, and speak German, and frnm this region many emigrants have cone to America In 1 lie. town of Bit burg I found five of eight families who had relatives in the Fnited States. Thev boasted the fact that Detroit has a Bit-burg Bit-burg street and Captain Charles l.lcder-pruyn l.lcder-pruyn nf the divisional intelligence reached F.itburg. the home of his uncle, mayor of the town. Perhaps it t as he-cnuse he-cnuse the Americans had been there Ihlrty-siv hours, but when T visitor Rit-burg Rit-burg today ft seemed the population way most friendly of any I had seen. Food Is Ample. Hundreds asked the Americans why thev had come into t ho war. and iii their conversations I overheard America Ameri-ca ns in every case tell 1 hem it was to 1 id the world of Prussian militarism. This sounded not bad to the.people, who themselvea now have ahout enough of it. Fond conditions continue to appear far belter than reported across the line. The population needs flour, but if the rich were made to divide with the poor there would be no starvation this winter. Prea thing I ho atmosphere hereabouts, one feels that the rh'h are going to share whether thev will or not. The . revolut ionary authorities have an extra - ordinary firm and withal dignified grip on the situation, and those authorities h re not controlled by Berlin or bv the upper plasses. indeed, the German revolution peems to have been surprisingly well done. American occupation is intelligently, if sullenly, accented everywhere. As a local dignitary expressed ft to me: "Nnw that ynu are here, we arc going V-(o make the best of It." When T remarked that it did not an-pear an-pear 1 hat t he population needed to be so sullen, he replied: 'WeH. you don't expect ns to shout about it. do ynu?" All in all. the German people in our sector seem to be nn their good behavior. be-havior. They are now getting a square deal from the Americans, and the German Ger-man generall.- known bow to grasp an opportunity for self welfare. |
