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Show WRITTEN RECORD ONITRQCITIES Diaries of German Soldiers Tell of Murder and Pillage in Belgian Cities. CALLED "DISGRACE TO ARMY" No Discrimination Made Between Innocent In-nocent and Guilty Infants Shot In Dead Mother Arms Tes- ftimony of Brand Whitlock. Very main German soldiers vhn have been taken prisoner had kepi diaries, and these hare hern eonis-cated eonis-cated by the raptors. Many hare been published , frequently v ith far-simile far-simile rtproduciiont to guarantee iheir authenticity. The following extracts, villi the testimony of Brand Whitlock, an1 made public bij the committet on public information at Washington: "Aiiu'. -''. . . . Our men eimie back mid mid thai at the point when 1 1 1 -uiiiey jniiii ii the sleuse we could not pet nny farther, s the villagers were '-i ting :ii in from every house. v7e simt the whole lot -16 f thorn. The were drawn up in three rank; the nunc ihol iiiii for three at time. . . . Ttio men bad already shown their brutal Instinct; . . . "The nlnlit of the bodies of nil (ho Inhabitants who had been shot was Indescrltlnble, Every house In the whole villasja wns destroyed. We drafted the villagers one after nn- otht'r out of the most unlikely corners, Tho men were shot us well as tho women and children who were In the convent, since shots hud been Bred from the convent wtndowas and we burnt it afterwards. "The Inhabitants might have escaped es-caped the penalty by banding over the guilty and paying 10,000 franca. "The Inhabitants Brad on our men again. The division took drastic .steps to atop this, the villages being burnt and the bihabltants being shot. The pretty little Village of Cue il'Ossus, however, wns apparently set on tire without ciiuse. A cyclist fell off bis nuiehine and his rifle went off. He Immediately said be had been shot ut. All the Inhabitants were burnt In the houses. 1 hope there will be no more sucb horrors. "Disgrace to Our Army." "At Leppe apparently 200 men were shot. There must have been some Innocent In-nocent men anions them. In future we shall have to hold an inquiry as to their guilt Instead of shooting them. "In the evening we marched to Muiibert -Fontaine. .Ius -is we were having our meal the alarm was sounded sound-ed everyone is very jumpy. "September '.' Still ul tlethel, on guard over prlHimers, . . . The bouses are charming Inxlile, The middle ClttSS In France lias mugnltlccnl furniture. We found stylish pieces everywhere and beautiful silk, but in what B state . . . Good Godl . . . Every bit of furniture broken, mirrors smashed. The Vanduls themselves could not have dune more duiliage. This place is a disgrace to our army. The inhabitant in-habitant who lied could not have ex-pec ex-pec ted, or courxi . that all their good would have 1m en left iiilin t alter SO many troopH had passed. Hut the column col-umn coiniiiiitiders ure resjionslble for the greater part of the damage, as the) could have prevented the looting . and destruction. The damage amounts to millions of murks; even the safes have In in attacked. "In I solicitor's house. In which, as luck A'Otlld have II, all was In excel- lent taste, Including U collection of j old lace ami Bnstern works of art,! ever) i hi nu was Riuushed to hits. "i could not resist taking a little ; memento myself here and there. . . . one bouse was particularly elegant, everything In the best taste. The hall was of light oak; I found a splendid raincoat under lite staircase and a camera for Felix." (From the diary of an officer In the One Hundred Seventy-eighth regiment, Twelfth Saxon Sax-on corps.) 15ui his horror apparently was noi shand by the German commander in chief, as is evident Inun the following: follow-ing: "Order. "To the People of Liege, "The population of Andenne, after making n dlspbi) of peat t ful Intentions Inten-tions i ii rl our troops, uttucked them In the most treacherous manner. With my authorisation, the s q ral commanding com-manding lll'-c troops has reduced the town tu lisbl ami bus hall 110 persons shot "l bring this fuel to the knowledge oi the people of i.ii ge In order thai lie y iiki.v i.iioA vli.;l tale to expect should lli'.v adopt a similar attitude. "Liege, Sd August, 191 I. i;i:m.K1. VON liUKLOW." Brand Whitlock Wntes of Massacres, In his report of September 12, l'.'li, to the secretur) of slate, Minister A Whitlock has much to tell of the poJ- Icy of (rightfulness. The follow ins p. i isagee refer to lb lubject ol m-is- sacres i "Summnrj i leeutlons tool, place (at f Dlnant) without the least semblance of judgment, The names and iiiiialii i a of the rlCtlms are not known, bin the) must be numerous. I have been un able to obtain precise details lu lh respect and the number ol i" i who have tied is unknown, AlUu persons who were shot are: Mr. Di foln. mayor of IMinint; BaSSMfBth, fir-t alderman; Nlmmer, aged seven-ty seven-ty : Ton -ni for the Argentine Republic Victor Poncelet, who was executed In the presence of his wife ami seven children; WiiSfteigP and his two sons; Messrs, Oustave and l n Wli two very old men; Jules Monln and others all shot in the cellar of their brewery; Mr. Camilla I'istte and SOB, lived seventeen; l'hilltppart PledfOTt, iiis wife ami daughter; Miss slarabr-ny. slarabr-ny. During the execution of about forty Inhabitants of Dlnant the Oes minis placed before the condemned their Wives and childieu It Is thus that Madam AlbHl who had Just given birth to a child, three das previously, was brought on u mattress by I ionium soldiers to witness the execution of her husband; her cries and supplications supplica-tions were so preening that her bus-hand's bus-hand's life was spared." "Un the L'tith of AUgUSt (ieiinan soldiers sol-diers entered various streets (of l.ou-vnin) l.ou-vnin) and ordered the Inhabitants of the hou-.es to proceed to tlie Place de la Station, where the bodies of nearly a dozen assassinated persons were ly-ln?. ly-ln?. Women and children were separated sepa-rated from the men anil forced to re- inilii on the Place de la Station during dur-ing the whole day. They had to wit-01 wit-01 N the execution of many of their fellow citlsens, who were for the moat part shot al the side of the square, near the house of Mr. Ilemalde. The women and children, after having remained re-mained on the square for more than 10 hours, were allowed to depurt. The Gardes Clvlques; of Louvaln were also taken prisoners and sent to Germany, to the camp of Minister, where they were held for several weeks. "On Thursday, August 2T, ordi r wan given to the Inhabitants to have Lou vain because the city was to be bombarded, bom-barded, old men, women, children, the sick, pri.'sts, nuns, were driven on the roads like cattle. More than 10,-000 10,-000 of the Inhabitants were driven as far as Tirleniont, nearly 13 miles from Louvaln. Infants Shot in Mothers' Arms. "One of the most sorely tried communities com-munities was that of tin- little village of Tamlnes, down In what is known as the Borinage, the coal fields near Cbarlerot. Tamlnes is a mining village vil-lage In the Satnhre; It Is a collection of small cottages sheltering about 5,-000 5,-000 Inhabitants, mostly all poor laborers. labor-ers. "The little graveyard In which the church Stands bears its mute testimony testi-mony to the horror of the event. There are hundreds of new-made graves, each with lis small wooden cross and Its bit of flowers; the crosses are so closely close-ly huddled that there Is Scarcely room to walk between them. The crosses are alike and all bear the same date, the sinister date of August 22, 181 1." "Hut whether their hands were cut off or not, whether they were Impaled on bayonets or not, children were shot down, by military order. In cold blond. In the awful crime of the ltock of l!ay-ard, l!ay-ard, there overlooking the Mouse below be-low Dlnanti Infanta In their mothers' arms were shut down without mercy. The deed, never surpassed In cruelty by any band of savages, is described by the bishop of rfnmur himself: "'One scene surpasses in horror all others; It Is the fusillade of the Rocher Bayard near Dlnant. it appears ap-pears tO have been ordered b.V Colonel Meister. This fusillade made many victims nmong the nearby parishes, especially those of lies Klvages and NciTe. it caused the death of nearly !Kt persons, without distinction of a'e or sex. Among the victims were babies ba-bies In anas, boys and girls, fathers and mothers of tumilles, even old men. Dead Children in Pile of Bodies. "'It was there that !' children under the age of six perished from the lire of the executioners, six of them as tiny lay in their mothers' arms: "'The child Fievcl.tlil weeks old. "'Maurice Betems, eleven months old. "'Nelly pullet, eleven months did. "'Ulldn (bnini, eighteen mouths old. " lllds Man hot, two years old, "'Clara Suuva.v, two yens and sis 1.1. illl lis. "The pile of bodies comprised also many children from six to fourteen years. Eight large families have n lircly disappeared, lour have Put one survivor. Those m n that escaped (lealli and many of Whom Were i id died wiih bullet were obliged to bury in a summary and hasty fashion their fat In rs, mothers, brothers or sis-ters; sis-ters; then after having been relieved of their money and being pluccd In hntns they were sent tu Cussel (Prussia).' (Prus-sia).' " Mr. IIul'!i Gibson, the secretary of our legation In Belgium, visited Louvaln Lou-valn during. Its systematic destruction by the Germans, In "A Journal From our Legation in Belgium," New York, 1017, puges 104-160, he relates what the (ici man ollli era told him : "li wns n sicii-v of cleariic' out civil ians from a large part of the town, a systematic routing out Of men from (liars and garrets, Wholesale shootings, shoot-ings, the gem inns use of machine guns, and the tree application of the torch the whole story enough to make one see red. And for our gunl-iince gunl-iince it was Impressed on us that this would iiuike people respect Germany and think twice about resisting hor." German pastors and professors far from the excitement of the Bring have defended this policy of frightfulm-s, e. g. : "We are not only compelled to iie-i iie-i ept tin' war that is foned upon us . . . but are even compelled to eaiiv on tin- ai with a cruelly, it nil lile-s- i.ess, an employment of every Imaginable Imagin-able device, unknown lu any previous var, Pa -tor 1. Buumgarb n, la l 4'uischc Ueden u Schweret SSeli German Mieecbes in DInVult Days." |