OCR Text |
Show URGED TO SLAY 1 AND SPARE NOT German Soldiers Incited to Acts of Cruelty by General Von p Bissing. 'EMANATION OF HIGH KULTUR' Governor General of Belgium on Record Rec-ord as Declaring the Innocent Must Suffer With the Guilty Irvln Cobb's Tale of Horror. The hurrors deliberately and systematically sys-tematically inflicted upon the people of Belgium by the German soldiers, l vruhr the orders of their command ing officers, are shown in all their tMeoutneet by official documents and the testimony of eye-witnesses. as well as by letter written by German Ger-man eoldiere in the field. The brazen bra-zen effort of Emperor William to east the odium of the fearful deeds on the lirlyiiins is also shown. Quotations Quo-tations yiven are from documents already made public or in the possession pos-session of the government at Washington. Wash-ington. This Interview was reproduced In the Berliner TafebUtt of November 20, mil. Mr. 9. C. Walenrt of the Belplnn roller ro-ller cotmnlraioa tells in the Qeogtastv icnl Ifagastns for May, 1017, of meeting meet-ing Gen vim Bernhardt : "A I walked out, Oon. von Ban hnnll ciiine into the room, on expert artilleryman, a professor in one of their wiir eollegeal I met him the next norning, and he naked me If I hud rend his hook, 'Germurry In the Next War." "I said I hud. He snld: 'Do you know, ti i y friends nearly ran me out of the country for that? They snld, 'Yon hnve let the cat out of the bag.' I snld. 'No, I have not, because nobody will believe It.' What did you think of Itf "I snld, 'General, I did not believe a word of It when I rend It, but I now feel thnt you did not tell the whole truth ;' nnd the old genernl looked actually pleased." Speaklnc on August 20, 1014, at Minister, of the extreme inensures which the Germane felt obHajso1 to take against the civil jMipulntlon of Bel-glum, Bel-glum, Gen. von Biasing said: "The Innocent must suffer with the guilty. ... In the repression of Infamy, human lives ennnot he spared, nnd If Isolated houses, flourishing villages, vil-lages, nnd even entire towns nre annihilated, anni-hilated, that Is assuredly regrettable, but It must not excite Ill-timed sentimentality. senti-mentality. All this must not In our eyes weigh its much as the life of a single one of our brave soldiers the rigorous accomplishment of duty Is the emnnatlon of n high kultnr, nnd In thnt. the population of the enemy countries can learn a lesson from our army." Officers Encouraged Atrocities. Gen. von Bissing, after his appointment appoint-ment ns governor general of Belgium, repented In substance the above opinion opin-ion to a Dated Journalist. The Interview Inter-view Is published In the Dusseldorfer Anzeiger of December 8. 1014. Irvln S. f'obb states Ills conclusions on the responsibility of the higher C.er-mnn C.er-mnn command for the ntrocltles: i"But I was an eyewitness to crimes Which, measured by the standards of hnmanlty and civilization. Impressed : me as worse than any Individual ex-1 cess, any Individual outrage, could ever have been or can ever be ; because be-cause these crimes Indubitably were Instigated on a wholesale basis by order or-der of officer of rank, and must have beiti carried out under their personal supervision, direction, and approval. "Taking the physical evidence offered offer-ed In fore niir own eyes, and buttressing buttress-ing it with the statements made to us, not only by natives, but German soldiers sol-diers ami German officers, we could reach hi" one conclusion, which was that here, in SUCB and lUCh a place, those in command bad aald to the troops: 'Spare tills town and these people.' And there they had said: 'Waste this town and shoot these people.' peo-ple.' And lure the troops bad dlscrlm-Inately dlscrlm-Inately spared, and there they had Indiscriminately In-discriminately wasted, In exact accordance ac-cordance with the word of their supe- rtora." Irvln Oobb, Bpeaklng of I'rus-sinns, I'rus-sinns, New York. I9XT. pp. 88-84. Hoodwinked German People. These Ideas, then, were systemat i. ally impressed upon the military and official clasaea, It was necessary, however, to work upon the mind- of the Herman people, an that they might lend themselves to the inhuman policies poli-cies advocated by the military leaders. To do this was difficult, for, M aSS been shown often, many of the civilian civil-ian leaders of public opinion. II ami Again, expressed their horror of the new spirit Which was animating the military authorities. The relchstag debates give ample evidence of this, and the task of the military leaders would have been still more difficult If ih.. relchstag hd any real power. (See War Information Series No. 8, Y'The Government of Germany;" see . No Oerara'a "My Four Years In Ger- i many," chapter '-.) fe a The military authorities and those P V i sympathy with theiil have-done all In their power tu stimulate a hatred of oilier peoples in the minds of (he Oer- iitans. A campaign of education be fore the wnr win carried on with the object of liopressini; upon the minds of the Hermans the treacherous nature of the peoples atulnt whom the military mili-tary lenders were anxious to wage wnr Not only were the Hermans gradually grad-ually led to believe thnt It was necessary neces-sary to tight a defensive war against mis. niptilous foes, hut also thnt these foes would Violate every precept of hll-mnnlty. hll-mnnlty. and consequently must he crushed without mercy as a measure Of self defense. The fruits of this cnmpnlgn of suspicion and hatred he-came he-came evident when almost nt the oilt-brenk oilt-brenk of the war many Hermans he- t came possessed with the belief that the Whole population of Belgium, the first country to be invaded, had violated vio-lated every role of honorable warfare, that the frnncs-tlreurs (guerrillas) were everywhere present doing their deadly work In secrecy or under the coVfr of darkness; that women nnd even children were mutilating and killing kill-ing the wounded or helpless prisoners. Extract from a letter written by a Herman soldier to his brother. (This letter, now In the possession of the United states government, was obtained obtain-ed for this pamphlet from Mr. ? C. Grew, formerly secretary to the United Stntes embassy at Berlin.) "November 4, 1014. "The battles nre everywhere extremely ex-tremely tenacious and bloody. The Bbgllahmetl we bate most and we want to get even with them for once. While one now and then sees French prisoners, prison-ers, one hardly ever beholds French black troops or Englishmen. These good people are not overlooked by our Infantrymen that sort of people is mowed down without mercy. The losses of the Englishmen must be enormous. enor-mous. There Is u desire to wipe them out, root nnd nil." Urged to Kill Without Pity. Extrnct from another letter to o brother: Schleswlg, IB, 8 14 (Aug. 25, 1014). "Denr Brother, . . . You will shortly go to Brussels with your regiment, regi-ment, ns you know. Take care to protect pro-tect yourself against these clvlllnns, especially In tho villages. Do not let nnyone come too near. They uro very clever, cunning, fellows, these Bel-glnns; Bel-glnns; even the women nnd children are armed and tiro their guns. Never go Inside a house, especially alone. If you take anything to drink mako the Inhabitants drink first, and keep at a distance from them. The newspapers newspa-pers relate numerous cases In which they hnve fired on our soldiers whilst they were drinking. You soldiers must spread around so much fear of your-solves your-solves that no civilian will venture to come near you. Bemaln always In the company of others. I hopo that you have rond the newspapers and thnt you know how to behnve. Above all hnve no compassion for these cut-'throats. cut-'throats. Make for them without pity with the butt-end of your rifle anil the bayonet. . . . Tour brother. WILLI." The emperor gnve his sanction to the reports of the brutal nets of tho Belgians In a telegram to President I Wllu.n "llerlin, via Copenhagen, Sept. 7, 1014. "'I feel It my duty, Mr. President. to Inform you ns the most prominent representative of principles of humanity, human-ity, that after taking the French fortress fort-ress of l.oimwy, my troops discovered there thousands of dumdum cartridges iitnde by special government machln , ei-.v. The same kind of ammunition ' was found on killed nnd wounded troops and prisoners, also on the Brit-, Brit-, ;i troops. Yon know what terrible wounds and suffering these bullets In-l! In-l! it and that their use Is strictly for-lildden for-lildden by the established rules of International In-ternational law. I therefore address a sob inn protest to you against this li'liil of warfare, which, owing to the tii tfs of our adversaries, has be- iinie one of the most barbarous known In history. Not only have they em- ; ml these atrocious weapons, but i Uelgtan government has openly an- ci nmgi-d and long since carefully pre . r. tod the participati.M of the Belgian civil population In the fighting. The atrocities committed even ty women nd prleata In this guerrilla warfare, on wounded soldiers, medical staff i nurses, doctors killed, hospitals tttPCked by rifle lire, were such that . -i in rata finally were compelled to lake the most drastic measures In order or-der to punish the guilty and to fright-i fright-i ii the bloodthlr ity population from nntlnulng their wort of vile murder nnd horror. Borne villages and even the old town of I wen (l.oiivaln). excepting the Una hotel da villa, had to be destroyed in self-defense, nnd for the protection of my troops. My heart bleeds when I see that such measures have become unavoidable and when I think of the numerous Innocent In-nocent people Vho lose ibeir home ami property as u consequence of the barbarous bar-barous behavior of those criminals. Signed. William. Emperor and King.' HEUAitD. Berlin." Loreni ifnller in the German Catholic Cath-olic ltevlew, Per Fels, February, 1016, made the following statement In regard re-gard to the emperor's telegram: "Officially no Instance has been proven of persons having tired with the help of prleata from the towers of churches. All that has been made known up to the present, and that has been made the object of Inquiry concerning con-cerning alleged ntrocltles attributed to ' Catholic priests during this war, has been shown to be false and altogether Imaginary, without any exception. Our emperor telegraphed to the president of the United States of America that even women and priests had committed commit-ted atrocities during this guerrilla warfare war-fare on wounded soldiers, doctors and nurses attached to the field unibu- I lances. How this telegram can be reconciled rec-onciled with the fact stilted above we shull not be uble to learn until alter itm war." |