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Show AIMED "TO MAKE POM DESERT German Syctcm Reckoned on Starvation of People to Promote Pro-mote Imperial Ends. VON KRIES REVEALED PLOT Country, After Population Had Been I Systematically Done to Death, Was to Be Reotocked by Ssttlcrs From Germany. The extent of human misery in Poland 'caused by the German occupation oc-cupation vas as great as that in Belgium Bel-gium and France. The entire heart-Icssness heart-Icssness which characterized the kaiser's kai-ser's high officers is well shown in a statement by Mr. Vernon Kellogg, prepared for a pamphlet issued by the committee on public information, informa-tion, which, we copy. . The systematic exploitation of human hu-man misery hy the Gorman authorities In Poland followed the general plan laid down by the kaiser's orders. In order to prove the Identity of procedure proced-ure it will he enough to present the detailed report prepared specially for a pamphlet issued by the committee on public information and written by Mr. Frederic C. Waloott. A fuller and in some ways more touching treatment ; Is given in his article, "Devastated Poland." in the National Geographic Magazine for May, 1017. j "September, 1917. "Poland Russian Poland is" perishing. per-ishing. And the German high command, com-mand, imbued with the Prussian system, sys-tem, is coolly reckoning on the necessities neces-sities of a starving people to promote its imperial ends. "West Poland, which has. been Prussian Prus-sian territory more than a hundred years, is a disappointment to Germany; Ger-many; its people obstinately remain Poles. This time they' propose swifter : measures. In two or three years, by grace of starvation and rightfulness, they calculate East Poland will be thoroughly made over into a German province. "In the great Ilindenburg drive one year ago. the country was completely . devastated by the retreating Kussian army and 'the oncoming Germans. A million people were driven from their homes. Half of them perished by the roadside. For miles and miles, when I saw the country, the way was littered with mudsoaked garments and hones picked clean by the crows though the larger bones had been gathered by the thrifty Germans to be ground into fer- Other people are for Germany!! ivill tn j work upon. Humanity, liberty, equality, j the rights of oihers all foolish talk. Democracy, an idle dream. The tni9 j Prussian lives only for this, that t lis i German state may be mighty and great "All the woes In the long count against Germany are part of 'he Prussian Prus-sian system. The invasion of Belgium, the deportations, the starving of subject sub-ject people, the Armenian massacres, atrocities, fright I'uhiess. sinking the Lusiiania, the submarine horrors, the enslavement of women all piece Into the monstrous view. The rights of nations, na-tions, the rights of men, the lives : -id liberties of all people are subordinate to the German aim of doiuini.u ever all t lie world. "FK10ni:i!lC C. WALCOTT." Mr. Yernon Kellogg's statement Is as follows : Saw Only Massacre and Ruin. "It was my privilege and necessity in connection with the work of the commission f,,r relief in Belgium to spend several months at the great headquarters of the German armies in the west, and later to spend more months at Brussels as the commission's commis-sion's director 'or Belgium and occupied occu-pied France. It was an enforced opportunity op-portunity to see something of German practice in the treatment of a conquered con-quered people, part of whom (the French and the inhabitants of the Belgian Bel-gian provinces of Fast and West Flanders) Flan-ders) were under the direct control of the German general staff and the several sev-eral German armies of the west, and part, the inhabitants of the seven other Belgian provinces, under the quasi-civil quasi-civil government of Governor General von Bissing. I did not enter the occupied occu-pied territories until June, 1015, and so, of course, saw none of the actual invasion in-vasion and overrunning of the land. 1 saw only the graves of ihe massacred and the ruins of their owns. But J saw through the long hard months much too much for my peace of mind of how the Germans treated the unfortunates un-fortunates under their control after the occupation. "I could understand why certain towns and villages along the Mouse and along the lines of the French and English Eng-lish retreat were badly shot to pieces. There had been fighting in these towns and the artillery of first one side and then the other had worked their havoc among the houses of the inhabitants. But there were many towns in. which there had been no fighting and yet all too many of these towns also were in ruins. It was not ruin by shells, but ruin by fire and explosions. These were the famous 'punished' towns. Either a citizen or perhaps two or three citizens had fired from a window on the invaders or were alleged to have. Thereupon a block, or two or three blocks, or half the town was methodically and effectively burned or blown to pieces. There are many of these 'punished' towns in occupied France. And between these towns and along the roadways are innumerable isolated single farmhouses that are also in ruins. It is not claimed that thero was any sniping from these farmhouses. farm-houses. They were just destroyed along te way and by the way, one may say. When the roll of destroyed villages vil-lages and destroyed farmhouses in occupied oc-cupied France is made known, th world will he shocked again by this evidence evi-dence of German thoroughness. Found Neutrality Impossible. "But the horrible methods of thai deportation were such that we, although al-though trying to hold steadfast to fi rigorous neutrality, could not but protest. pro-test. Mr. Gerard, our ambassador to Berlin, happened at the very time of this protest to make a visit to the great headquarters )i the west and the matter was brought to the attention bf certain high oflierrs at headquarters on the very day of Mr. Gerard's visit and in his hearing. So that he added his own protest to that of Mr. Poland, our director at the time, and further deportations were stopped. But a terrible ter-rible mischief had already been done. Germany Must Be Civilized. "I went into Belgium and occupied France a neutral and I maintained while there a steadfastly neutral behavior. be-havior. But I came out no neutral. 1 cannot conceive that any American (Yi-joying (Yi-joying an experience similar to mine could have come out a neutral. He would come out, as I came, with tbo ineradicable conviction that a people or a government which can do what the Germans did and are doing in Belgium and France today must not be allowed, if there is power on earth to prevent it, to do this a moment longer than can he helped. And they must not he ul- tilizer. Deliberate Policy of Starvation. "Warsaw, which had not been destroyed de-stroyed once a proud city of a million people was utterly stricken. Poor folks by thousands lined the streets, leaning against the buildings, shivering in snow and rain, too weak to lift a hand, dying of cold and hunger. Though the rich gave ail they had, and the poor shared their last crust, they were Stan ins there in the slreets In droves. "In the stricken dry, the German governor gov-ernor of Warsaw issued a proclamation. proclama-tion. All able-bodied Poles were bidden bid-den to go to Germany to work. If any refused, let no other Pole give him to eat, not so much as a mouthful, under penalty of Gorman military law. "It was more than the mind could grasp. To the husband and-father of broken families,, the high command gave this decree: Beave your families to starve; if you slay, we shall see that you do starve this to a high-strung, sensitive, highly organized people, this from the authorities of a nation professing pro-fessing civilization and religion to millions mil-lions of fellow Christians captive and starving-. "General von Kries, the governor, u-as kind enough to explain. Candidly, they preferred not quite so lunch starvation; star-vation; it might get on the nerves of the German soldiers. But. starvation being present, it must work for German Ger-man purpose: Taking advantage of Ibis wretchedness, the working men of Poland were to be removed ; the country coun-try was to be restocked with Germans, t was country Germany needed rich alluvial soil brlti-r suited to German expansion than distant possessions. If the Poland that was had to perish, so inch the better for Germany. To Make Poland German Province. "Uemove the men, let the young and .voak die. graft German slock on the women. See how simple it is: with a crafty smile. General von Kries concluded, con-cluded, 'By and by we must give back freedom to Poland. Ycry good; it will reappear as a German province.' "Slowly, I came to realize Ihat this monstrous, incredible thing was Hie Prussian system, deliberately 'li""("i by the circle around the r i -h I . I!nil l.;.-.-:;('-'l Into Ihe C":"l'"n pcul.le till i, ,-. cam- " -I' '' ':'"' German I pli! are it-'' 'I building ihe slate of no oilier account. lowed ever to do it again. "I went: in also a hater of war, and I came out a more ardent hater of war. But. also. I came out with the Ineradicable Ineradic-able conviction, again, that the only way in w hich Germany under its present pres-ent rule anil in its present state of mind can lie kept from doing what it has done is by force of arms. It cannot can-not lie prevented by appeal, concession or treaties. Hence, ardently as 1 hope that all war may cease, I hope that ihis war niay not cease until Germany realizes Hint the civilized world simply ''' nut idlow such horrors as those ! I'm , Inch Cci-iicmiv is ri-spuiisilile In i I'.-ifiiini ami l icni - to be any longer poss.bU. "VKKXOX KKLI.OGG." |