The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-09-17
One Of Five Writers Who
Sent Round Robin Tells
Experiences.
SAYS L0UVAIN WAS
DESTROYED FOR CAUSE
Talked With Peasants and
Soldiers i'm Long Trip
Through Belgium.

ny JAMES O'DONNELL BENNETT.
Mr.. Bcrret, uds QUO Of the due Amcri-
ccrt correspondents uho ccrr placed arder
surveillance By tho Germdrs and taken
bu them through a part Of Boip1un. He
tcdS also one Of the fre men ioho signed
a round robin" denying reports Of German
atrocities Uhich ,nnS sent TO thiS country
too icesks ago.
hIx-LA-CHAPELLE, Germany, Sept. g.
The solemn truth. ! never sat down to
write with greater conviction than 7
purpose writing now. never "a. down
To write with more sincere belief tina,
could say something that ought 10 he
known. To-day had my share In the
composition of "A round robin on the 30
called German atrocities"
That round robin has been. the signers
OF Il hope, started on its way to you
by Marconi wireless. via the African
coast and so over the seas of the Far
East into America. There Is no other
way by which We can be sure our COM
munication will reach you.
tpTH6Ty tabit
ton with the United States Is cut. We
also cabled our round robin 10 you out
OF Hoi,a nd. via London. but whether the
English censors will let that communi-
cation pass We grayely doubt. II such
n thing az the Wanted English sense
OF fair play" still survives Ia panic
stricken London. the censor will allow
our despatch to so through.
The Marconi via Africa ls likewise
uncertain, but for different reasons.
! In trusting ourselves to the Marcon'
We are contending with the battling eor
and How OF mysterious currents in the
ether: in trusting ourselves TO the Eng
lish military censorship we are at the
mercy OF radical hatreds that seem n'
times TO mount to dementia.
Would Tell the Truth.
But the mails out OF Holland tc
America we believe We can trust anc
we have some solemn truth 10 tell II
detail now.
The round robin was bare state
ment In which we expressed our earn
est uelisf-a belief based on days o
personal observations in the theatre o
war-that the reports OF barbarities al
legged TO have been perpetratod by Ger
man troops on an inoffensive Belgian
countryside arc shocking falsehoods.
We believe this as firmly AS we he
lieve that we are now safe In the ancien
city OF Aix-la- Chepellc after more thai
week Of wandering over that YER.
countryside. sometimes IN the rear o
, and sometimes alongside German col
umns.
We have travelled on foot. on bicycles
by horse and cart and by train more thai
, 100 miles. We have passed througI
! twenty towns and villages We hav
, moved from Brussels on tho north I
beaumont on tn. south and to Aix-la
Chapellc on the east.
We have been within 100 feet OF N
Relg.an- French border on the south an
we nave crossed the belgian German Dor
der on the east We have shared the foo
and wine and tho straw beds of Gcrma
soldlery We have sung songs with thes
in the post of the rear guard at night an
6 We have talked with scores o? Belgia
peasants, men and women, across who's
fields and through whose Villages the Ger
man host has passed. OF German soldier
We must have seen at least 500, 900 wit
our own eyes.
And amid all we have heard and all tins
we have seen In ten tumutuous weary
: ing days. we have neither heard OF cir
, gle "atrocity' that our Investigation
verified, nor seen a single atrociU pc,
petrated,
4 The Waste of War.
: The rlgors and the shocking waste
t war we have seen. We have seen burnir
Il villages and women weeping over the
highway strewn with the caps, Goa;
bloody shoes, bloody bandages, smash,
- rifles, empty knapsaaks, band instrument
T. field glasses and wine bottles OF the r
IT treating French.
IS We have seen new made English grav
2 In the lonely liclds over which the ev
!. ming mist hung like u pale shroud,
:. We have behcld the wreck and the grin
> and the squalor OF wars passing, but Y
le have been spared the sight of outrag'
IS women and tortured children.
,e Why Is this?
l. We firmly believe that II Is because
such atrocities have been committed
the German soldiery.
And yet. safe In Aix-la-Chapelle, ga