Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1914-09-21

n tlfUfln
Hotel KaIserhof. AK Ia ChapeIle
lGermany. Sept. 1.-The solemn truth
~ never nat down 10 write with
greater conviction than | purpose
writing now. ] never sat down 10 write
with more sincere belief that
could say something that ought TO be
known, Today | had my share In the
composition OF a round robin on the
so-cailed German atrocities"
+, That round robin Is, the signcrs Of
| II hope started on lis way TO you by
MarconI wireless, Via the African
coast. and so over the seas Of the Far
East into America.
Germnny's direct cable communlea-
ltion With the Quilted states Ia cut. We
also ehbled eur round robin TO you
out of Holland via London.
The round robin was n bare state
mcnt In which we expressed our earn
est helef-a belief based on days of
personal observations In the theater
OF war--that the reports OF barbarities
alleged TO have been perpctrated by
German troops on an inoffensive Bel
lgian countryside are shocking false
hoods.
We believe this as firmly as We be-
lieve. that We are now safe In the an
Client city Of AK Ia Chapellc utter moro
Than a week OF wandering over that
very counifyslde' sometimes In the
rear Of aud sometimes alongside Ger
man columns.
Travel One Hundred Miles.
We have travelled on foot ON bicy-
clos. by horses and cart, and by train.
more than 100 miles We have passed
through twenty towns and villages. We
have moved from Brussels, on the
north. 10 Beaumont. on the south. and
10 Ak la Chapelle on the east.
We have been within 100 feet OF the
Belgian-French Border on the south,
and we have crossed the Belgian Ger
man border on the east We have
shared the food and wine and the
straw beds of German soldiery. We
have sung songs with them In the
posts of the rear guard at night. and
we have talked with scores of Belgian
peasants and men and women across
whose fields and through whose VII |
ages the German host passed. OF
German soldiers we must have seen at
least 100000 with our eyes.
Know OF No Atrocities"
And amid all we hive heard and |
NJ that we have seen In ten tumultu-
rus wearing days, we have neither
ieard OF a single ''atrocity" that our
Investigations verified nor seen a sim
lie atroclty perpetrated.
The rigors and shocking waste of
var we have seen
We have seen burning villages and
women weeping over their dcsolated
ZONES.
We have seen miles of highway
trcwn with the caps. coats. bloody
hoes. bloody bandages smashed rifles.
mpty knapsacks. band Instruments.
ield glasses and wine bottles of the
French.
We have seen new-made British
raves in the lonely fields over which
he evening mist hung Hike a pale
hroud.
Through Wreck Of War.
We have beheld the wreck and the ,
rime and the squalor Of wars pass
lg, but we have been spared the sight ,
outraged women and tortured chill i,
ren.
Why Is this?
We firmly believe that II Is because
o such atrocities have been commit
d by the German soidiery.
And yet, safe In AK Ia Chapelle, safe !,
rough .still under the surveillance of
erman military authorities who. like :
4 Europe. are spy mad ''---safe and
ell and bathed and shaven al last. f,
e open bundles Of London newspa- :
ers in the quiet offices OF the AmerI- !,
IN consul, Thomson. and we read coll
mn after column OF the most harrow
IA and dreadful accounts of most In
mous harharities inflicted upon the !,
.s'ss'er reasentry by German troops. !
Amazed by Stories. In
We are aghast as we read. We turni
the consul and saw What does this 1,
eang How is il that we have seen II
thing OF this -
lie looks graveIy back at us and
VS.. In
Il have been reading those things n,
T DAYS before you came lte
He is, and from the nature OF his 81
'sitlon must be. officially noncom- u
itlal. To us he only mods his head "
ID says; ri can't understand II.
Stories Distress Germans. Ial
A.. - - Il.
~ civilian. with whom We have Isl
liked IN AK II Charelle they arr In
stressed and shamed by the reports III