Show DRIVEN TO atrocities GERMAN COMMANDER TELLS correspondent by E ALEXANDER POWELL by cable to the chicago Trl tribune buns headquarters in n tho the field of 0 tho the ninth imperial army chateau lafere ne near ar Del glum three weeks ago tho the government ot of belgium requested roe me to place before the amort amerl can people a list ot of specific and authenticated atrocities committed by the german armies upon belgian non combatants today general von boehn commanding the ninth imperial field army acting mouthpiece of the i n an general staff has asked me to place before the american people the I 1 german version of the incidents in question so far as a I 1 am aware I 1 am the only correspondent in the present war who has motored for an entire day through the ranks of tho the advancing german army who has dined as a guest of the german array army dom roander and his staff and who has had bad tho the progress of the army on the march arrested in order to obtain photographs of tho german troops this unusual experience came about in a curious and roundabout way invited by general von 0 boehn after an encounter in the streets of ghent last tuesday between a german military automobile and a del bel elan armored car in which two german soldiers were wounded american vice consul van ilea hee persuaded ded the burgomaster to accompany him immediately to the headquarters of general you yon boehn to explain the circumstances and ask that the city should not be held responsible for the unfortunate affair in the course of the conversation with mr van ilea hoe general von doehn remarked that copies of papers containing articles written by alexander powell criticizing the german treatment of the belgian civil population had come to hla his attention and said he regretted he ha could not have an opportunity to talk with powell and give him the german version mr van ilea hea said by a fortunate coincidence I 1 happened to be in ghent whereupon the general asked him to bring me out to dinner the tha following day and issued a sate safe conduct through the german lines though nothing was said about a photographer I 1 took with me photographer to donald Thompson Thom 4 As there was wan some doubt regarding the propriety of taking a belgian driver into the german lines I 1 drove the cir myself in midst of laisers kaisers Kl sera men half a mile out of em out our road debouched debauched debou ched into the great highway which beads through lille to parla paris we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of the german army it was a eight bight never navor to be forgotten par as the eye could see aee stretched solid columns of marching arching in men press ing westward ever westward the army was advancing in three mighty columns along three parallel roads these dense masses of moving men in their elusive blue gray uniforms looked for all the world like three monstrous serpents crawling across aaros a the countryside american flags which fluttered from our windshield proved a passport in themselves theme elvea and as we approached the close locked ranks they parted to let us through for five solid hours traveling always a at express train speed we motored between the walls of the marching men in time the constant shuffle of boots and the rhythmic swing owing of gra gray y clad arms and shoulders grew maddening and I 1 became obsessed with the tear fear that I 1 would send the car plowing into the human wedge on either side miles of german soldiers jt A seemed that the ranks never would end and as far as wo we were concerned they never did for we never saw or heard the end mighty column after regiment brigade after brigade of infantry and after them hussars hussary hus sars uhland chiras field batteries more infantry more held field guns ambulances then siege guns each drawn by 30 horses engineers telephone corps pontoon wagons armored motor cars more uhland aho the sunlight gleaming on their forest of lances more infantry in op spiked blied flied li helmets elmets all sweeping g dy by us as irresistible as a mighty river with their faces facea turned toward france this was the ninth field army and compos composed bil the very tory flower ot of the empire including the magnificent troops of the imperial guard it was first and last a fighting army the men were all young they struck me as being keen men as razors and as hard as nails the horses were magnificent they could not have been better belter the field guns of the imperial guard were almost twice the size of any used by our array army thirty two horses hones draw howitzer hut but the most interesting of all of course were tho the flie five gigantic howit each drawn by I 1 pairs of horses these howitzers howit can tear a city to pieces at a distance of a dozen miles every contingency seems to have been foreseen nothing was left to chance or overlooked maps of belgium with which every soldier to Is provided Y ed are the finest examples of topography I 1 have ever seen every path every farm building every clump of trees and every twig Is id shown at one place a hugo bugo army wagon containing a complete printing preas was drawn up beside the road and a morning edition of deutsche Dou tache kreiger wan ans being printed and distributed to the pas ng men it contained nothing but accounts of german victories ot of which I 1 never bad heard but it seemed boomed greatly to cheer tho the men field kitchens with smoke pouring from their stovepipe tunnels funnels rumbled down the lines serving steaming soup BOUP and coffee to the marching arching in men who hold held out tin tia cups and had them filled without once breaking step covered wagons hide machine guns there were wagons filled with army cobblers sitting cross crosa legged on the floor who wore were mending soldiers shoes just as aa it 11 they were back in n their little shops in the fatherland other wagons to all appearances ordinary ordia two wheeled farm c carts a arts hid under their arched canvas covers nine machine guns which could instantly be brought into action the medical corps was as aa magnificent as businesslike it was waa as aa per factly equipped and as an efti clent as a great city hospital men on bicycles bici cles with a coll of insulated wire slung between them strung a field telephone from tree to tree so BO the general commanding could converse with any part ot of the 60 50 miles long column the whole army never sleeps when halt half Is a resting the other halt half to is advancing the soldiers are treated as if they were valuable machines which must bo be speeded up to the highest possible efficiency therefore they are well fed well shod well clothed and worked as an a negro teamster works roul Qi only men who are well wall cared for can march 35 milesa day week in and week out only once did I 1 see BOB a man mistreated A sentry on duty in front of oc the general headquarters failed to salute an officer with sufficient fent promptness whereupon the officer lashed him again and again across the face with a riding whip though welts welta ro rose a with every blow the soldier stood rigidly at attention and never quivered finally reaches von boehn it was considerably past midday and we were within a few antles of tho the french frontier when we saw a 11 au guidon idon which tho pre presence of the head of tho the army planted at the entrance of a splendid old AB we passed through the tha iron gates and whirled up the stately tree lined drive and drew up in front of the terrace a dozen officers in staff uniform came cam a running out to meet us for a lew few ini minutes n utes it t felt as 11 IF wo wares being welco welcomed in e d at a country houed in A arneri me ca instead of at the headquarters of tho the german army la in the field so perfect was tho the field telephone service that the staff had been ablo able to keep in touch w with ath our burp progress along alg the lines and were batting dinner for us after dinner wo we grouped ourselves our elvea pelves on the terrace in the self conscious attitude people always assume when having their pictures taken and Thomp thompson ka made some photographs photo graphe they probably are the only ones onea of this war at least of a german aGerman general and an american war correspondent who was not under abresi arresi arrest then we gathered about tho table on which was spread a staff map of the war area and got down to serious business the general began by asserting that the stories of atrocities perpetrated on belgian non noncombatants combatants noncom balanta were a tissue of lies look at these officers about you ho he said they aro are gentlemen like yourself look at the soldiers ing past in the road out there most of them are fathers of families surely you dont believe they would do the things they have been accused of explains berschot achot crimes crimea three days ago general I 1 said bald 1 1 I w was as in berschot the who whole 10 town now Is but a ghastly blackened bloodstained ruin when we entered berschot achot the son of tho the burgomaster came into the room drew a revolver and ed my chief ot of staff the general said what followed was only retribution the ille townspeople only got what they deserved but why wreak your vengeance on women and children none has been killed the tha general asserted positively 1 I am sorry to contradict you general I 1 asserted with equal but I 1 have myself seen their mutilated bodies so has mr air ginson secretary ot of the american legation at mussels brussels who was present during the tha destruction of louvain Lou of course there always Is danger of women and children being killed during street fighting said general von docan it they their insist on coming into the street it Is unfortunate but it la in war data startles general gut but how about a womans comans body I 1 saw with her hands and feet cut off how flow about a white man and his son whom I 1 helped bury outside semp stad who had bad been killed merely because a retreating belgian had shot a german soldier outside outsize their house there were 22 bayonet wounds on an the old mans mana face I 1 counted them how ab about nut the little girl two years old who was shot while in mir hir in inot others herff arms I 1 by a uhlan and whose funeral I 1 attended at HOW about tho tha old man who was waa hung from the raf rafters terr in his house by his bis hands bands ind and roasted to death by a bonfire being built under him the general emel somewhat taken take aback by the amount mid and exact ness of my data such things are ara horrible it if true he said of course our soldiers like soldiers of all armies sometimes get out of hand and do things which we wa would never tolerate it if we nye knew it at louvain Lou tor for example I 1 sentenced two soldiers Eold lors to 12 years penal servitude apiece for or assaulting a woman louvain library incident apropos of louvain Lou valo I 1 remarked why did you destroy the library it was one of the literary storehouses ol of f r the world we regretted that as much as an any one else answered the general at it caught fire from burning houses house sand and we could not save it out but why did you burn louvale louvain at all I 1 asked because the townspeople fired on our troops we actually found mi mn chine guns uns in some of the houses bouses anil and smashing his flat down on the table ho he continued whenever civilians fire upon our we will teach them a lasting lesson it if women and children insist on getting in the th way of bullets so much the worse to for the women and children how do you explain the tha bombard me ment n t of anaw antwerp a rp b by y zeppelins zeppelina Zepp elins 1 queried explains zeppelin bombs Zepp zeppelina zeppelins elins have orders to drop theli bombs only on fortifications and soldiers h he As an a matter ot of tact fact J I 1 remarked they only destroyed dea troyed private houses and clyl civilians lians several of them women if one of those bombs had dropped yards ards nearer my hotel I 1 be smoking one of your excellent cigars oday thin la is a calamity which I 1 thank god happen it you feel for my safety as aa deeply 1 as aa that general I 1 said earnestly you can make quite sure of 0 my coming to no harm by sending rending no more zeppelina zeppelins Zepp elins well he bo said laughing wo we will think about it lie continued gravely 1 I trust you will tell the american people through your paper what I 1 I 1 havo aye told you today lot thorn them hear our side bide of this atrocity bus business thess it is only justice that they should bo be mado made familiar with both sides of 0 the question I 1 I 1 have quoted my conversation with the general as nearly verbatim as aa I 1 can remember irn embr it I 1 have no co commentate comment in gentit at tomago to maite awill I 1 will leave it to my readers to decide for themselves just Jus how convincing bifi cl n g a are r a the tha answers ot of thi the ger ma man n general staff to tho the belgian accusations cusat ions one t photograph german army B before a forg wei we began our conversation I 1 I 1 asked abbed the genera general it sir mr thompson might be ba permitted to s graphs of the great urney passing piro minutes later thomp thompson 0 waar whirled away in a military ano motor to r car cicero ned by a fan a army officer fleer of who had attended th tho a arny army school at fort riley 4 seems beams they stopped the car beside the road in a place where the light was good and when thompson saw caw approaching a regiment or battery of which he wished a picture he would tell the officer whereupon the officer would blow his whistle and the whole column aou would ld halt just juet wait a few minutes until tho the dust settles nettles thompson would remark lighting a cigarette and the ninth imperial army whose columns stretched over the countryside as far as the eyo eye could see aee would stand in its tracks until the alt air was sufficiently clear to get a picture thus far the only one who has sue ceedee in halting the german army Is little photographer from kansas show thompson Thom pion gunnery As aa a geld battery of 6 the imperial guard rumbled past thompson made some remark about the accuracy of the american gunners at vera cruz let us show you what our gunners can do said the officer and gave ai an n order there were more orders a perfect volley viley of them a bugle shrilled ha harshly rahly the eight horses strained against their collars the drivers cracked their whips and the gun left the road bounded across a ditch and swung into position la in an adjacent field on a knoll three miles away an ancient windmill was beating the air with its huge wings the shell hit the windmill fair and square and tore tori ill it into splinters good bori work thompson observed critically it those fellows of yours keep on be able to get a job in the american navy after the war in all the annals ot of modern war I 1 do not believe there Is a parallel to this american war photographer halting with an upraised peremptory hind hand the advancing army leisurely photographing regiment after regiment and then having a field gun of the imperial guard go into action solely to gratify his curiosity |