Arizona republican., 1914-09-17

in the fight; nevertheless, the village
was invaded at dusk on August 10
by a strong force of German cav
airy. artillery and machine guns.
In spite of formal assurances Civ
en- by the burgomaster that none OF
the civilians had taken part in the
fight. two farms and six outlying
houses were destroyed by gun fire,
and reduced to ashes. All the male
population was then compelled to
come forward and hand over what
ever arms they possessed. No re :
Gently discharged firearms were
found. Nevertheless the invaders
divided these peasants in two or
three places in the ditch where they
were afterwards found dead, their
skulls fractured by the butts of
rifles.
Numerous wounded and unarmed
soldiers were i'll treated or killed by
the German troops, and in different
places doctors, nurses and ambu-
Ilances We're fired upon.
AT times the Germans went into
battle with the Belgian flag.
while digging trenches the white
flag was hoisted, and Belgian sold
iers set upon by Germans and shot.
"AnOthe- time, near the forts at
Loncin, a group of German infantry
hoisted a white flag, and when Bel
eian soldiers approached them to
take them prisoners, they were fired
upon at close range.
THE massacre of Aerschot:
"Ae-schot, town of 5000 inhabi-
tants, was invested by Germans on
the morning of August 10. No Bel
sian troops remained behind. No
sooner had the Germans entered the
city than they began shooting sew
eral inoffensive civilians. In the
evening claiming that superior Ger
man officer had been shot by son
of the burgomaster, or, according to
another version of their sto-y, that
conspiracy was Matched against the
German commandant by the burgo
master and his family, the Germans
took hold of every man in the city,
carrying them, fifty at time, with
in some distance of the town. There
| they grouped them in lines of four
men, made them run ahead of them
and fired upon them, killing them af-
terwards with their bayonettes. More
than forty men were found thus mas
| sacred.
| "They pillaged the whole town
taking from private residences all
! they could lay their hands on. The
following morning they took one man
out of every three whom they had
arrested the previous evening, and
| leading them outside the city, shot
! them. Among these were the bur
somaster of the town, NJ Trelemans
his 15-year-old son, and his brother.
Then they compelled the remain
ing villagers to dig holes to bury
their victims.
For three whole days they contin-
ued to pillage and set fire to every
thing in their way.
About $50 inhabitants of Aerscho
are supposed to have thus persisted
The largest part of the city wa.
destroyed Five times the German.
tried to set fire to big churches
having sacked the interiors of thei
contents. Town records We're de
stroyed or carried off.
1T must be borne in mind that tn
civil population of Aerschot had beel
repeatedly warned by their burgo
master not to offer any resistanc
or commit any hostile act towar
the invaders The Germans shot upo
the fleeing citizens, set fire to privat
houses and sacked them. They want
ed to make the victimized citizens de
clare that they themselves set fire t
their homes Everywhere along tn
lCAntinued Pa E0llrA