XIII.

“The efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only be termed foolish, but absolutely immoral, and must be described as unworthy of the human race.”—Gen. Von Bernhardi.

Village Ruthlessly Bombarded.

Refugees from Lorraine had a pathetic story to tell. The village of Pontsurseille was burned on August 21st by the Germans. Like several others in the neighbourhood, it was close to the border-line, and courteous relations continued between its inhabitants and the enemy, even after the first days of the war. But on August 14th a body of Uhlans suddenly appeared and commandeered a number of things. They were supplied at once with 200 chickens, a quantity of oats, and some other provisions. The Guard Champêtre himself delivered the objects commandeered, and took them across the border into the German camp. He was not allowed to return immediately, and was detained for two days. On Monday, August 17th, when the Guard Champêtre had returned, a shell suddenly burst over the village. It exploded a few yards from a place where a couple of women were engaged in milking the cows. Other shells followed. They came from a battery erected on the other side of the border.

No French soldier had been seen at the village for three days. They had made their appearance only for a short time, and had fallen back. The firing stoppedafter a while, but was resumed during the night and continued for several nights following. All the able-bodied men had left for the garrisons, and only the women, the children, and some aged men remained. The Guard Champêtre was the only person with any authority that remained, and he took over the administration of the commune. Meanwhile he was compelled every day to go back and forwards between the village and the German camp and supply the provisions that were commandeered.

A young seminarist acted as secretary at the Mairie, and the wife of the Guard Champêtre took charge of the fire-engine and tried to put out the fire caused by the shells with the help of some other women.

On the night of August 20th it became evident that the Germans intended to lay the village in ruins. The bombardment was continued all night and the following day. The inhabitants took refuge in the cellars, which protected them against the shells. About forty of them found shelter in a big cellar belonging to a rich farmer, M. François Michel.

Helpless Children.

There were small children of three, six, and nine years, and infants only a few months old. The Guard Champêtre, assisted by his wife, directed everything. He had the openings protected by mattresses, which prevented the Germans from discharging their rifles into the cellar.

By making a hole in one of the walls he secured a retreat into an adjoining cellar. Suddenly an officer came, had the door opened, and ordered everybody to come out at once. M. François Michel was the first to step out, and he was instantly shot down by a group of soldiers standing by. Next a boy of six, a nice little lad, stepped out. He was also shot down. Everybody in the cellar then rushed back, amid cries of horror raised by the wife of M. Michel and his children.

The Germans shouted, “Come out, or we shall burn you alive,” and fired a volley down the steps of the cellar. The soldiers poured petroleum down the cellar and on the mattresses, and set fire to it. The people inside took refuge in the adjoining cellar, and the Guard Champêtre and his wife were the last to leave. From this cellar they finally escaped and fled across the field. The soldiers meanwhile had seized the young seminarist, and another young man, aged twenty, and shot them, declaring that they were of age for military service.

[Image unavailable: THE CHURCH AT TERMONDE IN RUINS. Photo, Sport and General. Face p. 101THE CHURCH AT TERMONDE IN RUINS.Photo, Sport and General.Face p. 101

The Desecration of Churches.

Other refugees from Lorraine had harrowing stories to tell of German brutalities, and many made statements which were officially registered. Whole villages, they said, had been put to fire and sword. One man told an official of the Catholic Society that he had, with his own eyes, seen two German soldiers chop off the arms of a child which clung to its mother’s skirts. Other narratives show once more that the Germans entered closed houses and shot or bayoneted the inmates on the pretence that they had been fired upon by them. Miners had in many places been wilfully entombed, and other miners had been forced to dig trenches for the enemy under the threat of being shot. Germans had stabled their horses in churches, which they desecrated, and even covered their animals with priests’ vestments.

Under their usual plea the Germans burned the town of Burzweiler, in Alsace-Lorraine, blowing up its factories.

An eye-witness, M. Gaudefroy-Demonhynes, who was attempting to return to France from Baden, made a sworn statement to a Paris magistrate, explaining how he had found himself on August 1st detained with other Frenchmen and some Russians at the railway station of Lorrach, in Baden, a few miles from the French frontier. The party were arrested by soldiers and taken to the policestation, where they and their luggage were searched. They were then led under guard through the town amid hostile demonstrations by the inhabitants to the square in front of the railway station, where they found another party of about thirty Frenchmen and twenty Russians.

One of this party, a French commercial traveller, a stout man aged about forty, suddenly shouted “Vive la France!” Instantly the two soldiers guarding him took him before an officer or a non-commissioned officer, standing a few paces away from a group of officers. People standing between M. Demonhynes and the scene prevented him from hearing what was said, but a few seconds later a shot—only one shot—rang out.

“I don’t know who fired,” the witness says, “but I know that just before the report the Frenchman was standing before my eyes against the wall of a restaurant facing the station, held fast by his two guards in the position of one who is about to be executed.

“Hardly had the shot rang out than protests arose from our little band. Among those who protested most vigorously were three young Frenchmen from eighteen to twenty years old. They looked to me like students leaving Germany, like myself. I did not speak to them and do not know their names. Just as the soldiers seized him and his comrades one of the young Frenchmen tried to speak to an officer who was wearing a large, light grey cloak. This officer did not listen to him. Some order must have been given, I don’t know by whom.

“One of the three Frenchmen, who must have been told of the fate awaiting him, cried out in German ‘Don’t hold us. We aren’t afraid; we are Frenchmen!’

“This time the officer replied coarsely, half turning round, ‘Shut up.’ The three Frenchmen of their own accord placed themselves against the wall of the same restaurant. Two lines of soldiers were drawn up on either side of them at right angles to the wall. Other soldiers—how many I did not count—took up their position in front of them about eight yards away. A volley rang out. The three Frenchmen fell.

“Fresh cries arose from our party. Horror-stricken women began to weep. I did not see the bodies removed, but I saw them fall to the ground.

“At this moment a great uproar broke out. Another Frenchman, a big man with a great black beard, whose age and appearance I forget and whom I did not know, began to shout, ‘Cowards! Murderers!’ Soldiers surrounded him. He struggled with them. They speedily overcame him, and, without taking the trouble to stand him up against the wall, without the intervention of any officer, one of the soldiers thrust the barrel of his rifle against his body and shot him down point blank before my eyes.

“I saw these same soldiers dragging his body along the ground. The man was struggling still. I had not the strength to look any more. I heard other shots. I don’t know if there were any other victims.”

The German troops allowed no considerations of religion or respect for antiquity to interfere with their scheme of devastation. Great works of art and architecture and ancient churches were destroyed by fire or shell, and in more than one instance it is stated that cathedrals were used for stabling horses. To-day many are the ruined churches in Belgium. Of the beautiful cathedral of Louvain only the walls stand, for the interior is reported to have been ruthlessly shelled, pillaged, and finally set on fire. Other churches in the ill-fated city similarly suffered, while at Malines, too, bare walls and loose masonry are all that remain of what were until recently sacred edifices of exceptional interest to visitors by reason of their ancient treasures.

“We believe that some of the generals and some of the officers have encouraged these crimes, which would be impossible without such countenance. Yet we trust that there are still German officers whose characters can be respected.”—From theMorning Post.

—From theMorning Post.

“It is not a fair fight. Germany is fighting foully; she is defying not only the rules of war, but the rules of humanity.”—Mr. Richard Harding Davis, the great American author.

Treatment of English Travellers.

The treatment meted out to English travellers and residents in Germany at the time of the outbreak of the war was equally in keeping with the modern culture of the nation. British subjects arriving in England were loud in their protest of the manner in which they were treated, and even British, French, and Russian Consuls were treated like criminals. In regard to the latter, a mock formality of presenting the Consuls with passports was gone through before their departure, but, provided with these so-called guarantees of safe conduct, they were subjected to the grossest insults on the way, the women being the chief object of the mob’s fury. Insulting inscriptions were scribbled on the walls of their compartments, and they were the objects of very hostile demonstrations. At every station brave soldiers of the Kaiser presented their revolvers at the heads of the travellers, came up to the carriage windows, jeered at the occupants, and often threw rubbish into the compartments.

Mr. Drummond Hay, the British Consul at Dantzig, the French Consul, M. Michel, and the Russian Consul were, with their families, turned out from their consulates at an hour’s notice. They were told that they would be taken to the Russian frontier, but in reality they were conveyed to Bentheim, near the Dutch frontier,viaStettin, a journey which occupied three days. During the journey they were not given nor allowed to buy any food, and when the train reached Bentheim the travellers were curtly told to get out, and the Consuls were immediately separated from their families. The women and children were housed in a mean tavern under strict military guard, and the men, together with Mr. Drummond Hay’s sixteen-year-old son, were taken to the local prison. They were all put into one small cell, which they found already tenanted by M. Vassel, an attaché of the French Consulate at Bentheim, who had been imprisoned some days previously. M. Vassel had been arrested when looking after the luggage of the French Consul at Bentheim, who had just left for Holland.

In prison the Consuls were treated as though they belonged to the worst class of criminals. They were obliged to sleep on the floor, without covering of any kind, and with only a few wisps of straw between them and the cold stones, and their only food was the black bread which is served out to the ordinary convicts.

Having fallen ill on the journey, M. Michel asked to be allowed to see a doctor, but, in lieu of medical advice,he was given a very strong dose of castor oil, which made him very much worse. The conditions under which these four men and a boy lived cannot be described. The gaolers would not allow them nor anyone else to clean out the cell. Night and day the unfortunate prisoners were herded together. Their only recreation, a daily walk of half an hour’s duration, was taken in company with the convicts.

Ten days after leaving Dantzig Mr. Drummond Hay was set free, but the others were detained amid the awful surroundings which have been described.

It was ascertained that there were forty-eight other foreigners—among them fifteen Frenchmen—who are being kept in the town of Bentheim under the strictest military observation.

The state of affairs in Dantzig when the Consuls left was terrible; many people were being shot daily, often upon the very scantiest suspicion.

If the Germans treated responsible Government officials in the manner described above, how much worse was the case of unfortunate girls and women stranded alone in Germany. In many cases English governesses in German families were cast adrift, to starve and endure the insults of the savage enemy. Hundreds of English men and women, many of them tourists, were thrown into prison without any trial, and suffered the same indignities as did our Consul at Dantzig.

Englishwoman’s Experience.

A well-authenticated story was related by the headmistress of a London elementary school, who was in Switzerland when the war broke out and who returned to England prostrate with shock at the horror of scenes she witnessed while passing through Germany. The train, she said, was packed; all windows were closed, and the blinds drawn, and the passengers were forbidden on peril of their lives to raise them. Glimpses of troop trains were caught at intervals, and to allow these to pass frequent stops were made. The pace was slow, and the crowded, unventilated carriages became unendurably close. In the same compartment as the lady in question were two English women, whom she learned to be teachers in the provinces. One of these became ill, and at last, when the train came to a stop at a countryside place between stations—there was no means of locating it—her friend helped the sick girl to alight in order to breathe some fresh air. Instantly bullets hailed upon them, and both were shot dead. Their travelling companions dared make no attempt to recover the bodies, and when the train passed on they were left beside the line.

Two teachers of another London girls’ school state that a woman travelling with them through Germany was shot for failing to show her passport, and her body thrown out upon the line. Other ladies in the same train stated that they had been stripped by German officers on the pretence of searching them.

[Image unavailable: A MALINES RED-CROSS WARD WHICH WAS SHELLED BY THE GERMANS. Photo, Sport and General. Face p. 109.A MALINES RED-CROSS WARD WHICH WAS SHELLED BY THE GERMANS.Photo, Sport and General.Face p. 109.

“France must be so completely crushed that she can never again come across our path.”—Gen. Von Bernhardi.(This statement was made long before war was declared.)

What Our Soldiers Say.

By innumerable acts of treachery and appalling savagery on the battlefield the German soldiers have forfeited for ever the right to the courtesies usually extended to an honourable foe. The opening phases of the war have shown them in the light of cold-blooded barbarians, rather than honourable soldiers. The well-attested stories of their shocking brutality have no parallel in the history of the world. And in practically every case these incredible acts of cruelty have been committed with the knowledge and approval of their officers. They are carrying out to the letter the advice of the Kaiser to act like the Huns of Attila.

British soldiers who have returned wounded from the front are emphatic in their assertions that the German gunners deliberately fired on the hospitals and Red Cross men. One man remarked, “They seemed to take a delight in aiming at hospitals, which had the Red Cross over them. In fact, anything with the Red Cross actedas a target. A church was being used as a hospital, and one of our officers, who had a flesh wound, was taken inside for medical attention. Whilst he was there a shell blew away the roof of the church, and injured him a second time. Fifty men went out under the Red Cross to pick up wounded. They were fired on, and only two of them came back.”

A member of the Red Cross organisation stated that the Germans have treated with actual brutality the British wounded who fell into their hands. Twenty-seven British soldiers who were being removed from the field in an ambulance were dragged away and made to march to the Town Hall of Mons, two falling unconscious in the streets on their way.

A resident of Ostend, in a letter to this country, put into words the prevailing opinion in Belgium. “These Germans are not true soldiers,” he writes, “they are murderers in uniform. They kill the wounded and shoot the women and children. At one of the charges at Liége the Colonel of the 9th Regiment of the Line was shot through the head, and when his body was recovered later in the day it was found that these German cowards had inflicted at least twenty bayonet stabs on the already dead body.”

Helpless Soldiers Maimed.

These terrible allegations are borne out by information which has been received by a British officer from his son at the front, who states that the enemy, on comingacross wounded British soldiers, proceed to stab them through the right hand with a bayonet, with a view to rendering the hand useless for holding a rifle again.

A horrible story is told by a wounded British sergeant. Struck down by a bullet, he lay on his back on the battlefield of Mons, unable to move, around him many wounded men. The German soldiers advanced over their bodies, stabbing at them with their bayonets. Realising that his only chance of saving his life was to feign death, the wounded “Tommy” closed his eyes and kept perfectly still. As the Germans passed one struck him on the body a heavy blow with the butt of a rifle, with the result that one of his ribs was smashed. Clenching his teeth to prevent crying out he lay rigid, hoping against hope that the barbarous enemy would not see that he still lived. Then to his relief they passed on, but not before one of them had plunged his bayonet into his shoulder.

Such stories as these make one’s blood boil, but they are by no means isolated instances. Many wounded soldiers who have returned have declared that after the battle of Mons the Germans, especially officers and non-commissioned officers, passed over the ground and thrust their swords at the wounded men. One man escaped by hiding for twenty-four hours under sheaves of corn.

Yet another story is told by a wounded soldier who was also in the fighting near Mons. He said, “We had had to retire a short distance, leaving some killed and wounded behind. We saw the Germans come along.They carried away some of our men who were lying on the ground we had left. They placed them—and I am positively sure there were wounded as well as killed among them—on a hayrick. Then the rick was set on fire. It made us desperately wild, and we long to get at those Germans. If we only could have charged! As it was, we had to stay where we were, but I think we got in a good few shots of vengeance which found their billet.”

A lieutenant of an infantry regiment stated that the Germans captured a party of his men outside Liége, and in order to prevent their escape crushed their feet with the butts of their rifles. They then took one man and held him against a tree while their comrades beat him about the back with rifle butts. An infantryman named Legrande, who was in the trenches beside his brother at a point where the fighting was furious, and who is now in hospital at Brussels, told the following story. His brother was mortally wounded by a German bullet, and died in his arms. He himself was shot in the thigh, and almost at the same moment some German Uhlans rode over him, leaving him unconscious. When he recovered his senses he made an endeavour to crawl back to his own lines, which in the meantime had been drawn in. He was discovered by some German infantrymen, who stripped him, taking his water-bottle and everything. Legrande had to wait in a state of utter nudity until the middle of the night, and then strip the dead bodies of his comrades in order to clothe himself. Eventually heregained the ranks of his comrades in an almost dying condition.

Again the Germans, having despoiled dead Belgian soldiers of their uniforms, clothed some of their men in them and placed them at the head of their troops when an attack was made upon the Belgian troops.

The Khaki Uniform Trick.

The treacherous use by the Germans of British uniforms is instanced by one of the wounded men at present in England. “What made matters worse for us was the treachery of the enemy,” he stated, in the course of an account of the fight in which he had sustained his hurt. “We were compelled to fall back at one point, and left behind us our haversacks and greatcoats, which we had taken off to allow us to fight the better. Some time afterwards a body of men came towards us wearing the familiar khaki-coloured coats, and naturally we took them for friends. But they were Germans who had seized our coats and put them on in order to disguise themselves, and no sooner were they near us than they sent a murderous fire into our ranks. Later, when there was a lull in the fighting, we found a large number of Germans killed wearing the clothes of British soldiers, showing that they must either have stripped our dead or the British prisoners they had captured and used their clothes.”

A number of Belgian soldiers arriving in Folkestone have also described the behaviour of the enemy as toobrutal for any civilised nation, and most of them had seen Belgian villagers drawn in front of the Germans to act as a screen for them. A favourite trick of the Germans was to terrify Belgian villagers by driving them along immediately in front of their heavy guns, where, owing to the elevation of the guns, they were really quite safe. Their experience had been that the Germans had no respect for the Red Cross, and that in fact they waited until the wounded had been picked up and would then fire. They confirmed the stories which had been told about the manner in which the Germans had killed wounded men.

In another case a French soldier, after the engagement at Spincourt, related that while he was on the ground with a bullet in his foot the Germans, seeing he was not dead, fired at him with a rifle, twice, point-blank, hitting him in the hip and shoulder, whereupon he became unconscious. The Germans, thinking he was dead, left him.

Many of the British wounded affirm that the Germans pay no respect to the Red Cross flag, but continually fire upon it and upon Red Cross men. The enemy have also frequently violated the rules of the white flag. These statements are supported by the Ostend correspondent of the Central News, who was the eye-witness of the disgraceful incident which he described in the following message:—“When I was in the neighbourhood of Malines the forts were under bombardment. From the Willebroek fort the Belgians were placing shells intoa wood four miles distant, with the object of forcing out a detachment of Uhlans. Presently a party of Uhlans, exhibiting a white flag, came forward towards the Belgian trenches with a request for a cessation of fire for the purpose of collecting wounded. The temporary truce was agreed to. A Red Cross wagon came forward to collect wounded, and a party from the Belgian trenches went out for a similar purpose.

“Suddenly the German Red Cross van opened, and from out of it a mitrailleuse poured its deadly fire with such effect that some ninety of the Belgians fell dead. The retribution was swift and complete. The Belgian artillery again opened fire, and with well-directed shells laid low at least 200 of the treacherous Germans.

“Another incident of like character came beneath my immediate notice. A party of German cyclists, entering the village of Willebroek, shot down a child of seven years of age. The Belgian infantry opened fire upon the cyclists, and an armoured motor-car, carrying a captain and four men, pursued the marauders. It is with satisfaction that I can record that eight of the Germans will fight no more.”

France Makes a Formal Protest.

An officialcommuniquéissued by the War Office of Paris contains the following references to these outrages. It draws to the attention of the Powers signatory of The Hague Convention the following facts, constituting on the part of the German military authoritiesa violation of the Conventions signed on October 10th, 1907, by the Imperial German Government:—

“According to a report dated August 10th, 1914, sent by the General Commanding the Army in the East,” it continues, “the German troops have finished off a large number of wounded men by shots fired into their faces at close quarters, as has been demonstrated by the dimensions of the wounds. Other wounded men were deliberately trampled upon.

“On the 10th August the Bavarian infantry systematically set fire to the villages which they went through in Barbas, Montigny, Montreux, and Paruse districts, at a time also when no artillery fire on either side could have provoked such action. In the same district they compelled the inhabitants to go in front of their scouts.”

Another report, dated August 11th, 1914, says: “The German troops are burning villages, massacring inhabitants, and making the women and children march in front of them when they come out of the villages on to the battlefields. This was done notably at Billy, in the fighting on the 10th. They are finishing off the wounded and killing prisoners.

“The Government of the Republic, in view of such proceedings, which must be repudiated by the universal conscience of mankind, leaves it to the civilised Powers to make complete appreciation of these criminal acts, which are eternally dishonouring for a belligerent.”

“The wrong—I speak openly—that we are committing I will endeavour to make good as soon as our military goal is achieved.”From a speech byThe German Chancellor.

“The wrong—I speak openly—that we are committing I will endeavour to make good as soon as our military goal is achieved.”

From a speech byThe German Chancellor.

The Antwerp Outrage.

Next to the tragic and infamous destruction of Louvain, and the attendant atrocities committed in that beautiful old town, nothing has called forth more passionate denunciation than the cowardly attempt made by Zeppelin airships to drop bombs at Antwerp in the dead of night on its sleeping inhabitants. For the first time in history a death-dealing airship has attacked a city in this way. As a weapon the Zeppelin dropping bombs may be as destructive as great shells fired from siege howitzers. The horror of aircraft is, however, more terrorizing than that of any siege gun, because bombs can be thrown down from the sky on defenceless and sleeping cities. The civilized world has greeted with execration this inhuman method of prosecuting war.

Before even a fortified town can be bombarded, the rules of war provide for twenty-four hours’ notice before the commencement of actual bombardment. Here we have a great airship sailing high over a sleeping city.Without warning her crew drop death-dealing bombs from the sky in the dead of night. Surely the killing of unsuspecting men, innocent women, and sleeping children in this way is the most ruthless outrage ever attempted in war.

Piloted by a German who knew the city well—one of the many to whom the city opened wide its doors in the days before the war—the huge airship had for its objective the Palais du Roi, where the Queen of Belgium, the little Princes, and Princess Marie-José lay sleeping. Aided by the darkness, the crew of the Zeppelin felt confident of their ability to carry out their murderous programme. They had mapped out a career of terrifying destruction. In a track of devastation they meant to leave in ruins the Palais du Roi (which would also have involved the death of the Royal Family), the Bourse, the Palais de Justice, the Banque, and the Minerva Motor Works. But in no case was the treacherous aim attained. The cowardly raid proved a complete and utter failure, the only consolation provided the Kaiser being the slaughter of seven innocent persons and the wounding of some twenty others.

Girls Horribly Mutilated.

The bombs which were to have killed the Queen and her family and to have shattered the Bourse fell into an adjoining street, wrecked a house, and injured two women. That destined for the destruction of the Banque struck the attic of a house near by, killed a servant asshe slept, and injured two others. Of the other bombs one fell into a shrubbery, dug a deep, funnel-shaped hole, uprooted shrubs, and plucked from their frames windows of the St. Elizabeth Hospital, where the wounded lay. Another—and the most successful bomb—struck a private house inhabited by poor people, murdered a woman, and horribly mutilated three girls, killed two Civic Guards, and seriously injured another. It was at a private house just off the Place de Meir that a bomb wrought much destruction to life and property. It tore off the top storey and split up the front.

Screams of Dying Women.

“As I arrived on the scene,” says aDaily Telegraphcorrespondent, “a woman tottered out covered with lime dust, crying out, ‘Docteur, docteur!’ Beneath the ruins of the house two Civic Guards were dead. Within the house pitiful screams came from three girls who had been roused from sleep by receiving dreadful wounds on the face and body. One girl had half her face blown away; the two others were seriously wounded on the face. Evidently their bodies had been somewhat protected by the bed-clothes.”

The Zeppelin at the time of this appalling incident was almost stationary in the sky, some seven hundred feet from the ground. Needless to say, a panic at once ensued, and thousands of people took refuge in their cellars, while others dashed out into the streets in their night attire. Time after time the earth trembled as theterrible bombs fell, causing devastation everywhere, the spots being signalled, it is said, from the roofs of houses occupied by prominent Germans, of whom there was a large colony in Antwerp. Truly it was a night of terror, for the populace through the hours of tension did not know from one moment to another that they might not be blown to atoms. Ten bombs struck ten different streets. One which fell in the Rue des Navets made a hole six feet six inches in diameter and twenty-two inches deep. It was probably filled with shot, for all the houses in the vicinity were riddled by bullets, and presented the appearance of having been fired upon, all the doors and windows being broken and the ceilings having fallen in.

“The best protection of undefended cities against German Zeppelins is that a repetition of the Antwerp occurrence will be greeted with execration by the whole civilized world.”—Times.

Enormous Damage to Property.

It was calculated that about nine hundred houses were more or less damaged and about sixty houses destroyed. In a single house four persons were found dead. Indeed, in one room two people had been blown to atoms. Three men were walking in the Rue de la Corne, when one of the bombs fell. One was killed and the other two mortally wounded, while another passer-by had his leg blown off. All the bombs, which created a terrific explosion,were found to have been in a steel cover one and a half inches thick and about a foot in diameter. The Zeppelin was, of course, fired upon from the forts with guns and rifles, but having launched its deadly missiles it moved off into the darkness.

A subsequent examination of the projectiles thrown showed that they had a double covering, the two covers being joined together by mushroom-shaped rivets, which act the part of bullets, and must cause horrible injuries, as the two covers or envelopes are torn to fragments by the explosive.

“If Germany had fought fairly we should have retained the respect for her which we had in the past; but her barbarous method of conducting war by sea and land has made all the nations of the Old World and the New regard her as the enemy of the human race.”—Military CorrespondentofThe Times.

—Military CorrespondentofThe Times.

A Miraculous Escape.

The story of that terrible night would not, however, be complete without a reference to the miraculous escape of M. Vamberg, a cigarette-maker. Had he slept in the bed he usually occupied, he would now be a dead man. But for some reason he chose another bed in another room, his wife being absent in the country, and so saved his life. The bed which Mme. Vamberg occupies when at home was crushed by the falling roof. More than that,having been aroused by the sound of the cannon, and having jumped out of bed and rushed down to the first floor, M. Vamberg found himself suddenly hanging from the window, the house having fallen about his ears. He was rescued from this position by the firemen.

More Cowardly Raids.

But, as though not satisfied with the success of the first attempt, the Germans determined upon another dastardly raid. A few nights after the first outrage a Zeppelin again appeared over the city in the dead of night. Ten bombs were discharged, and damaged a number of houses. No lives were lost, however. A boy of fifteen had his right arm injured by a flying splinter, while his father and sister and one or two others were slightly injured. A graphic description of the raid is given by theDaily Telegraphcorrespondent. “I was awakened,” he relates, “by the rattle of rifle-fire from neighbouring roofs and the hideous crash of exploding bombs. Hurriedly descending into the Place Verte, I was just in time to see an airship disappearing southward. She was at a tremendous height, but could be clearly seen in the rays of the searchlight. There was an incessant rattle of shots from rifles and machine guns from the darkened town, and shrapnel could be seen exploding like meteorites in the trail of the flying marauder. All round the Place Verte from the roadway, and from points of vantage on the high buildings, spurts of flame indicated the efforts of the firers to bring down the hatedship. Immediately the searchlights fixed upon her the Zeppelin made off at great speed.”

Worse than the Boxers.

Surgeon-Major Seaman, of the United States Army Reserve Corps, who helped to tend the wounded, was so indignant with these cowardly tactics on the part of the Germans that he communicated with his Government, asking it to join at once in exacting reparation from Germany for such infamies. He declared that in all his eight campaigns, of which one was against the Boxers in China, he had never seen an act of war so ruthless, so horrible, as the sight of three young girls mutilated and defaced, and of the dead young mother, all attacked in their beds at night. And with him the civilized world will agree.

Other airship and aeroplane raids were made on Antwerp and also upon Paris, but fortunately none has been attended with either great loss of life or destruction of property. But that such should be the case affords no excuse for crimes which rank among the greatest committed by the ruthless German army.

“At this moment the words ‘German culture’ are synonymous for rapine, murder, and hideous cruelty. This is a state of things which ought to be grasped by the people of Germany.”—From theMorning Post.

“At this moment the words ‘German culture’ are synonymous for rapine, murder, and hideous cruelty. This is a state of things which ought to be grasped by the people of Germany.”

—From theMorning Post.

“Against ordinary though severe reprisals upon civilians who have fired upon the German troops we have not a word to utter; but outrage, mutilation, burning alive, and so forth are not reprisals; they are atrocities which make the name of Germany stink in the nostrils of mankind. It is hard to believe that a civilized nation should have so reverted to savagery, but unfortunately the facts admit of no dispute.”—From theGlobe.

“The Hussar-like Stroke.”

The laying of mines in neutral waters in contravention of the rules by which civilized warfare was to be conducted was in itself a most dastardly act. To place contact mines in the open sea and then to skulk behind them was declared by the Kaiser’s wireless press bureau to be a “Hussar-like stroke.” The Kaiser himself referred with satisfaction to the fact that his navy had sown the North Sea with death. The laying of mines is only admissible for the purpose of guarding estuaries and harbours, and by The Hague Convention it was specifically laid down that neutral waters must not be mined. In consequence of this cruel action of the enemy many crews of British and Danish trawlers, the hard toilers of the sea, were sent to their deaths, while the Wilson linerRuno, on avoyage to Archangel, and His Majesty’s shipsAmphionandSpeedywere sent to the bottom with great loss of life. In addition, several trawlers, while engaged in mine-sweeping operations, were also destroyed. All craft and cunning in naval warfare was, of course, admissible, including the alteration and extinguishing of lights, the removal of landmarks and buoys, and the disguising of warships as merchantmen; but to scatter death indiscriminately along a neutral waterway was a stab-in-the-back method worthy, indeed, of the pinchbeck Napoleon.

Such is the case against the German Soldier—the terrible and overwhelming record which makes the very heart sick with horror, and the blood run chill. One of our great poets called upon the human race to “move upward, working out the beast, and let the ape and tiger die.” Apes and tigers are noble creatures beside the living apostle of German “culture.” He has built himself a monument upon the heights of infamy, a monument from which, through all the ages yet to come, every honest man will turn away in loathing and disgust.

JOHN RUSKIN’S words:—“For blessing is only for the meek and merciful, and a German cannot be either; he does not understand even the meaning of the words ... but a German, selfish in the purest states of virtue and morality ... but no quantity of learning ever makes a German modest....“Accordingly, when the Germans get command of Lombardy, they bombard Venice, steal her pictures (which they can’t understand a single touch of), and entirely ruin the country, morally and physically, leaving behind them misery, vice, and intense hatred of themselves, wherever their accursed feet have trodden. They do precisely the same thing by France—crush her, rob her, leave her in misery of rage and shame, and return home, smacking their lips, and singing Te Deums.”—Fors Clavigera.

JOHN RUSKIN’S words:—

“For blessing is only for the meek and merciful, and a German cannot be either; he does not understand even the meaning of the words ... but a German, selfish in the purest states of virtue and morality ... but no quantity of learning ever makes a German modest....

“Accordingly, when the Germans get command of Lombardy, they bombard Venice, steal her pictures (which they can’t understand a single touch of), and entirely ruin the country, morally and physically, leaving behind them misery, vice, and intense hatred of themselves, wherever their accursed feet have trodden. They do precisely the same thing by France—crush her, rob her, leave her in misery of rage and shame, and return home, smacking their lips, and singing Te Deums.”—Fors Clavigera.

By THE “BATH RAILWAY POET”

[This very striking poem, which we reproduce below by kind permission of theDaily Express, is published in leaflet form at a halfpenny, for the benefit of the National Relief Fund. The author is Mr. Henry Chappell, a railway porter at Bath. Mr. Chappell is known to his comrades as the “Bath Railway Poet.” TheExpressacclaims the author of “The Day” as a national poet—an opinion which is very largely shared by the general Press.]

YOU boasted the Day, and you toasted the Day,And now the Day has come.Blasphemer, braggart, and coward all,Little you reck of the numbing ball,The blasting shell, or the “white arm’s” fall,As they speed poor humans home.You spied for the Day, you lied for the Day,And woke the Day’s red spleen.Monster, who asked God’s aid Divine,Then strewed His seas with the ghastly mine;Not all the waters of the RhineCan wash thy foul hands clean.You dreamed for the Day, you schemed for the Day;Watch how the Day will go.Slayer of age and youth and primes(Defenceless slain for never a crime),Thou art steeped in blood as a hog in slime,False friend and cowardly foe.You have sown for the Day, you have grown for the Day;Yours is the harvest red.Can you hear the groans and the awful cries?Can you see the heap of slain that lies,And sightless turned to the flame-split skies,The glassy eyes of the dead?You have wronged for the Day, you have longed for the DayThat lit the awful flame.’Tis nothing to you that hill and plainYield sheaves of dead men amid the grain;That widows mourn for their loved ones slain,And mothers curse thy name.But after the Day there’s a price to payFor the sleepers under the sod,And He you have mocked for many a day—Listen and hear what He has to say:“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”What can you say to God?

You spied for the Day, you lied for the Day,And woke the Day’s red spleen.Monster, who asked God’s aid Divine,Then strewed His seas with the ghastly mine;Not all the waters of the RhineCan wash thy foul hands clean.

You dreamed for the Day, you schemed for the Day;Watch how the Day will go.Slayer of age and youth and primes(Defenceless slain for never a crime),Thou art steeped in blood as a hog in slime,False friend and cowardly foe.

You have sown for the Day, you have grown for the Day;Yours is the harvest red.Can you hear the groans and the awful cries?Can you see the heap of slain that lies,And sightless turned to the flame-split skies,The glassy eyes of the dead?

You have wronged for the Day, you have longed for the DayThat lit the awful flame.’Tis nothing to you that hill and plainYield sheaves of dead men amid the grain;That widows mourn for their loved ones slain,And mothers curse thy name.

But after the Day there’s a price to payFor the sleepers under the sod,And He you have mocked for many a day—Listen and hear what He has to say:“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”What can you say to God?

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