Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-09-22
Older Men First Attacked.

The attack was at first against a
landwehr battalion, composed of older
men of quiet disposition and them
selves mostly fathers of families; also
against sections of the general staff,
that had remained in the city, and upon
moving columns of troops. The Ger
mans had many wounded and Killed
They won the upper hand, however,
owing to the arrival OF fresh troops by
rail- who were fred upon already at the
station. The truth of the foregoing
statements is established beyond all
cavil. The city hall was saved, but
further attempts to eXtingulsh the hre
were unsuccessful
According to the semi-official Nord-
deutsche Allgemeine Zeltung the dlpio-
r,atic representatives of Germany IN
peu.ral countries have been supplied
with material for rebutting the
charges made abroad against Ger
riany's manner of conducting the war.
The German government also instruct
cd its minister to The Hague to ask
the Dutch government in the interests
of humanity to impress urgently upon
the Belgian government the necessity
of restraining the civil population of
Belgium from it's absolutely useless
resistance: and the Dutch minister of
foreign affairs complied with this
request
Letter From Officer.
man officer who was in Louvain dur
ing the uprising of the civilian in
habitants, has been printed. 1t is as
follows:
'Iouvain. August 81.
Dear Parents:
"On the 25th we came by train
from Liege to Louvain, arrivino
here at pm. Before the train stopped
bullets were pattering against its sides
icfI tn
air thick and fast when we got out.
We had no idea what was going on.
The station lies in depression and
we stood there as if caught in a trap
with the English in the vicinity of
Louvain and we thought that they
had probably broken through our
lines and were firing upon US.
Put we We're soon to learn other
wise. The citizens of Louvain. who
had hitherto kept very quiet and
shown themselves friendly to us, sud
denly began firing upon our soldiers
and conveys Of provisions and am
munition. The shooting began in the
whole city, rs if by word of command.
Machine Gun in House.
I'm the rain street a machine gun
wac rrnunted in the window of a pro-
letting house. which was barricaded
u was dangerous situation for our
"'1H-tH~ed in the city. In view OF the
+--'~" 49, attjtrde of the inhabitants the
f-.~~'~"n of the city had been reduced
800 r(sT-'i o. wan to hold the railway
ION The staff officers and the sta
~" ~uard would simply have been
r-"~"H~efi and the station would have
boz Niow1 IN: hut. thank Cod there
w. IN error in this calculation of the
cit'~cus
80" course they did not anticipate
1T two battalions had arrived Just
i the station. At first We quickly
fr"d several salvos into the houses.
and then all became quiet L was the
FIRST TO be ordered to take my platoon,
aocut eightv-hve men, and search two
houses. TO bring out all the men and
seize all the arms found in them.
Executed Thirty One Night.
This went off all right and other
searching parties We're ordered out We
set fire at once to houses in which arms
and ammunition and suspicious indi-
viduals Were found; and these rascaIs
were shot Thursday night about thirty
such executions occurred Afterward
we were again fired upon suddenly, and
we had several dead and wounded
Thereupon ve set fire to this entire
quarter of the city. A horrible sight,
But these people willed it thus.
Yesterday. Wednesday, we had only
to protect the railway station, and
there we were fired upon again. More
houses were then fired and some fifty
or sixty men shot, including some Bel
gian soldiers in civilian clothes
then searched a number of streets with
my platoon for arms and ammunition
in doing which some heartrending
scenes occurred We were compelled to
he severe. Last night we were let
alone. but our troops were fred upon
In another quarter of the city. For this
reason the whole civilian population
had today been herded together and
this afternoon our heavy artillery is
going to level the whole city with the
earth
Matters did not. however, go to that
extent, as Dr. Karl HeIfferich Il di-
rector of the Deutsche Bank reports
He has just returned to Berlin from a
visit to Louvain. and says that the CITY
was by no means wholly destroyed The
entire southern half and part of the
western section were hardly injured at
all Even while the German soldiers
were doing volunteer fremens work in
saving the beautiful city hall, he re-
ports, they We're fired upon by civil
i2ns-