Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-09-25
FRANCE PROTESTS
. AGAINST PRACTICES
IN GERMAN WARFARE
Embassy Statement to United
States Declares Violations
of Hague Convention c
Were Premeditated.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25-Ten official
reports, showing German barbarities in
French territory during the present war
have been committed Systematically and
upon instructions from officers, rather
than by the chance excesses of the SOL
to the Powers signatory to The Hague
convention, according TO statement is
sued by the French Embassy here today.
The United States Government has been
given one of the series of reports.
The statement from the Embassy reads:
by order of the Government of the
French republic series of official re-
ports, supplying incontroveltible testimony
as to the way in which the present war
is being carried on in French territory
by German troops, has been commune
Gated to the Powers who signed The
ing one of them.
"Thcse documents, ten in number show
that the destruction and assassiuations
which have taken place have been sys-
tematic, and performed in accordance
with orders from the officers, and not as
a result of an accidental lack of disci-
pline
The facts quoted are given only as
samples and not as complete enumera-
tions; they cover, moreover, only the first
three weeks after the beginning of hos
tlites 1.-TWO weeks of actual warfare,
since,
such as they are, they show. among
other things, that wounded soldiers have
been finished in large numbers, by shots
fired right against the faces of tho
wounded, that Pont-a-Mousson, an Oman
and undefended town, was bombarded
the hospital which is an historical buiId.
i,hs' having especially suffered; a num-
Der or villages. among which Pauix and
Anleville have been methodicallv de-
stroycd. house by house, soldiers beino
as II seems. provided with impIements
enabling them 10 perform that kind of
work with minimum of trouble: nurses
bearing conspicuously the badge or tba
Red Cross have been assassinated. nun
eious inhabitants have been put to death
without pretext or provocation. snoopg
whom at Badenvilier, the wife or tbe
Mayor; in some cases. notably at BiIIv
on August 10, the German troops. when
they marched out of the place to charge
the French troops, made the women and
children walk In front Of them.
Attention is called as regards sucb
deeds to two texts: Article of Cor
vention of the Hague, which was pro-
posed by the German delegates Them
selves states that the belllgerent who
might cause such destruction as that
mentioned above would be bound 10 in
demnify the injured parties and would
be responsible for any acts committed bv
members of his army
I'm the second place even If civilians
had taken arms upon the invasion of
French territory by the Germans. which
was nowhere the case, they would have
been within their rights, and the killing
OF them wholesale would have been un-
defendable, foe Article of the same con-
vention reserved to the population OF a
non-occupied territory the right upon the
approach of the enemy spontaneously 10
take arms and repel the invading troops
Appended to this convention. besides
the signature of the United States France
and many other countries. is TO be found
that of Germany"