The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-01-21 00:00:00

A PROTEST FROM EACH SIDE!

A protest has been addressed to the foreign Powers
by the French Government against the bombardment
of Paris. The protest states that shells appear to have
been wantonly fired against hospitals, churches, schools
and prisons, thus making numerous victims of innocent
women and children. A besieger, it is added, is bound
to announce beforehand his intention to bombard, in
order to give time to notncombatants to be removed.
The Government of the National Defence protests
against the military action now being taken by the
Germans, as a useless act of barbarism, and shares the
sentiments of the inhabitants, who, so far from being
depressed by this violence, have derived fresh strength
, from it. The doctors of the hospitals in Paris have
signed another protest against the bombardment as a
violation of the Geneva Convention.

Count Bismarck has addressed a note to the North
German representatives abroad, in reply to the charges
made on the part of the French Government by M.
de Chaudordy, asainst the German mode of carrying
on war. Count Bismarck thinks that the despatch in
which those charges were made could only have been
intended for the French public, and that section of the
foreign press which is opposed to Germany. Repre-
sentatives of the European and American press, he
adds, have observed and can testify that the German
soldier kaows how to combine vaLrur with humanity.
Count Bismarck says :
" Even if truth Is most grossly and most perseveringly dis-
torted, the fact cannot be denied that it is the French who
have imparted a exam er to this war which must daily
deepen and widen. Already several mouths ago, after re-
peated cases had convinced us that the French troops wilfully
Ignored the common I.w of nations, as well as the special
conventions In which_ France ha.l participated, alter the
bearers of cur II Las of truce had been repeatedly—in fact,
almost regularly fired upon, and new reratitable and brutal
hostile acts bad been committed against our surgeona and
ambulances, I had requested your Excellency to lodge a pro-
test on the subject with the Government to which you are
accredited. During the time which has since elapsed we have
not only been able to collect the documentary proofs already
available, but to adduce a long list of rrash cases. On
twenty-one different occasions (as shown in Appendix
IV, which preclude the supposition of accident or mis-
take on the part of the French troops, flags of truce have
been tired upon, which were accompanied by a trumpeter
soundbeg his bugle. They were tired tit on by musketry, or
by grape, by single marksmen, and at times by volleys.
Several trumpeters were killed, and the bearers of the flags
of truce wounded on these occasions. The juoicial affidavits
proving these CliZes fire lying before me and will be
printeo. Alter in. battle of ,Vnmembourg we found, s.
your Excellency will recollect from my despatch, dated the
27th of September, that not only the wounded prisoners,
but even French military surgeons of superior rank,
knew nothing of the Geneva Convention, and that several
of the latter, alter having received the necessary informa-
tion from our delegates, themselves manufactured a make-
shift brassard, which could only be recognized with difficulty.
We cannot wonder at this after reading in the official
despatJhes dated July and August of last lear, and published
by the present authorities In Farts, how Imperfectly prepared
France has been for this long intended and wantonly pro-
voked war. The French have gradually made themselves so
Well acquainted with the Geneva Convention that they know
how to derive the greatest advantages from it, but there has
been no commemraate improvement with respect to the ful-
filment of the obligations imposed by the same.
While we are onerously upholding even Impractable stipu-
lations of the Convention at the cost of great inconvenience
and military detriment, while more than a hundred French
military men are moving about here at Head-Quarters with
the greatest freedom as surgeons and attendants, while
French delegates have been allowed access to the prison
del:6(s in Germany, although what happened might have
been foreseen—namely, that this intercourse would be fol-
lowed up by treacherous designs—the French on their part
have up to the present time continued their attacks
on dressing stations and ambulances, the illtreatmeut an
robbing of surgeons, delegates, hoipital servants and
attendants, the murder of the wooded, and when
surgeons have fallen into the hands of the enemy's
troops they have frequently been illtreated and Imprisoned,
or at least robbed of their property and taken by most fati-
guing roads to the Swiss or Italian frontiers. As it has not
been possible, on account of the frequent movement(' of
troops and hospital departments, to take judicial cogni-
zance of all cases which have become known, the examples
quoted in Appendix li, taken from an abundant stock of
nrateriel, may for the present be sufficient. I can, however,
not refrain from at once qUOttha the evidence of the Swiss
Surgeon, Dr. burkhard, dated Iffiistaux, December 10,

1070'•
." The Geneva Convention hut in many instances been
Infringed during the fighting in the forests of Orleans. Oa
the Both of November 1 saw a French military surgeon, of
whom not only the French prisoners asserted, but who Mop
self openly acknowledged, tnat be had killed many Prussian
prisoners with his revolver. Numerous wounded relate that
many Francs-Tireurs when retreating pulled Geneva bras-
surds from their pockets.'
"In the face of such glaring violation of the Geneva
Convention the German Governments will have to consider
In bow far they will in future be bound by it as regards
France.
" Besides the violation of Conventions, of International
law, and the usages of warfare among civilised nations,
alluded to in my despatch of the 27th of September last year,
offences of a different nature have oceurred. At the battle
of Woerth it was remarked that bullets on striking the
ground exploded with a loud detonation and scattered the
earth. Immediately after this had been remarked, Colonel
von Beckedorif was dangerously wounded by an explosive
bullet ; a guitar projectile struck Lieutenant von Oertzen,
of the 2dd Prussian Chian Regltuent, on the 201 h of De-
cember in the engagement near Tours. Among the ammu-
nition captured in Strasburg explosive projectiles for the
so-called fusil-d tabatiLre were found ; the investi-
gation of this matter is not concluded. 1 purpose to bring
this violation of the St. Petersburg Convention specially to
the notice of Rs signers. But it ought to be mentioned at
once that a French Commander accuses the Baden troops,
who are no more in possession of explosive bullets than
the remainder of the German armies, of baying made use
of explosive pri jectiles c•-ntrary to the stlpulatlona of the
Convention, anti that he has officially threatened the popula-
Ii
as of Baden on that account with the fate of the Pala-
tinate : 'Meme Ira
• • •• • •

Closely connected with this mode of warfare Is the fact
that a cartridge has been found In the pockets of French
prisoners, the ball of which Is divided tato 16 edged
segments, and loosely joined again. one of the many
specimens of this sort of projectile, which is tantamount to
chopped lead, has been sent to the Foreign Office at Berlin,
and will there be submitted to the representatives of the
foreign Powers.
" At sea the French have likewise scouted international
law. The French man-or-war De4a,x destroyed by tire and
scuttled on the high seas three German merchantmen
which she had captured, the Ludwig, the Vorwarts, and the
Charlotte, instead of taking them to a French port and
having them adjudicated upon by a Prize Court The Ger-
man men-of-war will consequently be ordered to take repri-
sals against French shins
"it cannot be a matter of surprise that authorities who
I have so littlearespect for laws and Conventions are still less
scrupulous in casting aside the present customs of
stations, sad fall back upon line of action resorted to during
periods of civillestion long past. Nor that they should
sanction actions which at all times, and by all peoples, who
had any notions of honour whatever, were deemed eminently
disgraceful.
"The way the French prisoners, wounded and sick, are
treated, of whom we have an unparalleled number to pro-
vide for In Germany, has been ettested by those who have
come from neutral States In order to attend to the sick and
wounded and who have publicly and apontaneously given
evidence on the subject lu their own names.
" the German prisoner' In France, although not a tithe of
that nuntber, have in many instances been treated with In-
human severity and neglect A convoy of about 300 Bavarian
sick 'captured' in the hospitals of Orleans,and mostly suffer-
ing from typhus, dysentery, or wounds, were penned op In
the gangways and cells of the prisons at Pan. For a bed they
had a bundle of straw, and for six days only bread and water
were given them, until English and German ladies took pity
on them, assisted them from their own moan., and induced
the reluctant authorities to take some care of them, in
other places, especially with the Army of General Fatdherbe,
the prisoners were kept in lofts without tire, without
blankets, without warm or sufficient foot in a cold of 18
degrees, while in Germany all buildings intended for the
reception of prisoners of war were provided with stoves at
the commencement of winter.
"The crews of German merchantmen are now only kept
as prisoners of war, but were at first treated as criminals,
chained together two and two, and thus transported from
one place to another, their food being insufficient in quantity
and Weider in quality. A civilian who had been unjustly
Imprisoned, and complained about some money that MO
been sent for him teing withheld, was officially Informed by
letter that prisoners were riot entitled to consideradon.
Prisoners who are conducted through towns lathe provinces
are even now not protected against tiltreatment by the popu-
lation. It is to be presumed that no case has occurred In
Gerrueny where tho inhabitants have violated even by an
expression that would give pain the respect which Is
vouchsafed by civilised nations to misfortture.
"Notwithstanding the berbarittescommitted by Turcos, not
one of them has been insulted or illtreatent in Germany. The
uncivilized Turco@ and Arabs are less accountable for the
cruelties and mutilating bestialities perpetrated by them
on the persons of our wounded than the European Go-
vernment which, with the fall knowledge of their habits,
brings these African hordes to a European theatre of war.
The Wournsi aes Debati bsi Mind sufficient sense ot