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Show I Sacking of Homes and PubKc Buildings Is Thoroughly Carried Out. GERMAN ORDER FOUND Army Surgeon Who Looted French Hospital is Identified. WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE, Sept. 19. (By the Associated Associat-ed Press) Efforts to organize pillaging pillag-ing by the German army and the transportation of loot appears, from i official documents and verified inci dents, to have been very much more effective than tho work of carrying out the removal of legitimato war . booty during this summer's operations. The sacking of private houses and public buildings throughout the regions re-gions from which the Germans have been driven lias been done with customary cus-tomary German thoroughness by specially spe-cially detailed squads. Advancing French armies, however, have found intact on the plateau in this region of i Soissons and elsewhere on this front important dumps of ammunition which j the French had been obliged to aban- j don in their retreat last spring. German Order Found An order signed by General von Marwitz and dated May 2S was found In the pocket of a prisoner. After condemning in severe terms disorganized looting operations by soldiers sol-diers for their personal account, this document calls attention to the rule established for organized pillago and J says that the men of tho "loot dc- I tachment" bearing white arm badges and special identification cards, have I tho same powers as military police. H It adds "the chief" of these staffs will confiscate eatables and drinkables as I well as objpets of current use that arc H collected and keep guard over them I under tho arrival of the exploiting I groups. Quartermaster groups are authorized by this document to apply -to the uso of their units a proportionate quantity quan-tity of booty suitable for. immediate consumption and to send the rest to tho rear. Private letters written- by prisoners give additional evidence of the extreme limits to which looting is practiced. A striking example of this work is found at Vaubuiu hospital, near Soissons. Beforo the building was demolished by German shells, it was completely sacked by German officers, the prin-1 cipal offender being an army surgeon whoso name is known and has been placed on file for futuro reference. Although supposedly under the protection pro-tection of the Red Cross this hospital was robbed of everything It contained, including fifty thousand francs in money. All the finer objects were shipped to Germany and tho ordinary hospital beds went to the dugouts of German artillery officers around Soissons. Sois-sons. Two hundred of theso have been recovered since the region has been re-occupied. nn . |