Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-10-01
Incredible Accusations.


On another page today we are pub
fishing an almost incredible statement
from entirely credible sources. 1t is
a letter written by Howard COPELAND,
acting for the U. S. embassy in Lon
don. to Hon. Harold NJ. Sewall Of Bath.
Mr.. COPELAND is a personal friend OF
long standing, of Mr.. Sewall, and has
been engaged in getting Americans
out of the war zone. His report OF
unbelievable atrocities on the part OF
the German invaders was as repeated
to him over and over again by wound
ed men at the brink of death. who
had seen and described the horrors OF
lust depravity and blood thirstiness.
Mr.. COPELAND declared to his friend
in Maine that he had been convinced
of the truth of these statements by
wounded Frenchmen direct from the
field, against his former convictions
and personal desires. He could not
believe IIldl oil lIlcSC ittNA 1900
he talked could have agreed so per-
fectly upon anything but first knowl-
edge facts.
In the history of the battles CT Al
exander and Titus we read OF whole
sale massacre of innocents after STUB
born resistance by a besieged city,
but to admit that Christian nation
engaged in war with an intelligent
people only yesterday their neighbors,
should so far forget their humanity
as to indulge in sickening orgies
of lust at the expense of their
enemy,s innocents, and then mutilate
and torture in fiendish manner and
murder, their helpless victims, is an
awful blow to Christianity.
Can we believe that Mr.. COPELAND
has not been deceived by his many in
formants? We might hope so, but Mr.,
COPELAND is a graduate OF Yale college,
a linguist speaking French as readily
and perfectly as English, a man inti-
mate with French and German peo-
pies. their history. manners and Gus
toms. and of world affairs. He is not
only an authority but entirely reliabie,
we are told, and as witness before
an international court of inquiry, re-
lating the words of wounded men fac
ing death, who told what they had
witnessed, his testimony would have
great weight
Americans do not wish to be led in
their sympathies against any one OF
the powers at war They wish to be
just to all, but they know that some
one of the crowned heads of Europe
and his advisers are to blame for this
know that every ruler of a nation in
yolyed in the war horror denies his
responsibility for the war, and Ameri-
cans know that all of them are
ashamed of it. Americans desire to
be neutral and fair, but they wish to
know the facts, that the blame which
must fall somewhere, shall not fall in
the wrong place.
If all the beer depraved brain cells
of Germany have been forced into the
service. and find vent in animal sham
ing atrocities under the license of
conquest Americans will wish to
know who is responsible for the toll
erance of such acts. If the things told
by Mr.. COPELAND are true the world is
bound to know, and through the ages
the nation convicted must suffer W orld
condemnation. Even an insane en-
peror would not order his soldiery to
outrage and mutilate the wives,
daughters and sweethearts of his
armed foe-would he permit it if he
knew. and must he not know if true2
Dropping bombs from the sky upon
innocents of all nationalities that hap
pen to be in the enemy's territory, is
lnspeakably devilish. but the crime of
which Mr.. COPELAND charges the Ger
man soldiery is ten times worse. Shall
We not continue to hope that these
charges cannot be proven?