The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1915-05-12

= i1SNS. iSAiHuHuSTa eslu AluSt SAlth
'r it is true, beyond the Y lines, an
III they belong to the month of Septen
ber. Murder, rape, Ison and pi
u lage began from the moment that tn
? German army crossed the frontier
: For the first fortnight of the war th
!, towns and villages near Liege wer
the chief sufferers. From August Il
to the end of the month outrage
spread in the directions of Charlero
and Malines and reach their period o
greatest intensity.
There is a certain significance II
the fact that the outrages IN and
, around Liege coincide with the un-
, expected resistance of the Belgian
: army in that district, and that the
slaughter which reigned from Aug
10 to the end of the month is con-
temporaneous with the period when
the German army's need for qu.-,,
passage through Belgium at all costs
| was deemed imperative.
Here let a distinction be drawn
between two classes of outrages.
Individual acts of brutality-ill
treatment of clvians, rape, plunder
and the like-were very widely COM
mitted These are more numerous
and more shocking than would be ex-
pected in warfare between civilized
powers, but they differ rather in ex
tent than in kind from what had hap
pened in previous, though not rec
ent wars.
''En all wars occur many shocking
and outrageous acts Of men of Grim
inal instincts whose worst passions
were unloosed by the enmity which |
the conditions of warfare afford |
Drunkenness. moreover, may turn ev-
en- a soldier who has no criminal hab-
its into brute who may commit
ontrages at which he himself would
he shocked in his sober moments
and there is evidence that intoxica-
ton was extremely prevalent among
the German army both in Belgium
and in France, for plenty of wine was
to be found in the villages and coun- |
try houses which were pillaged.
Many of the worst outrages appear
to have been perpertrated by men un
der the influence of drink. Unfor-
little seems to have been
done to repress this source of dan
ger
In the present war, however, and
his is the gravest charge against the
German army-.the evidence showsI
hat the killing of nonoomDatan's
vas carried out to an extent fort
which no previous war between ma
ions claiming to be civilized tfor
uch cases as the atrocities perpe-
rated by the Turks on the Bulgarian
,hristians in 1876, and on the Ar
nenian Christians in 1895 and 1896 |
10 not belong to that category |
any precedent That this 7
illng was done as part OF a deliber-
te plan is clear from the facts here
4 before set forth regarding Louvain a
.ershot, Dinant and other towns "
he killing was done under orders | -
4 each place. It began at a certain %
xed date. Some Of the officers who
arried out the work did II reluctant Il
and said they were obeying direc sc
cns from their chiefs. The same =
enarks apply to the destruction OF Sc
roperty. House burning was part Of st
le program; and villages, even large ar
arts of city, we're given to the as
ames as part of the terrorizins til
oliey fe
Citizens Of neutral states who Wis ed
ed Belgium in December and jan us
lry report that the German author in
les do not deny that noneombat- tn
Its were Systematically killed in nc
rye numbers during the first weeks BIZ
the invasion, and this so far as we fal
low has never been officially de-
ed. If II were denied the flight and wa
ntinued testimony Of thousands of sa
slgian refugees would go far to con- ful
idict denial. for there is no his is
rlcal parallel in modern times for Or
e flight Of large part of nation sci
fore an invader en-
The German government have VIII
wever. sought to justify their Sc me
rites on the grounds of military ho'
cessity and have excused them as TA
aliation for cases in which civil OF
is fired on German troops. There vol
~ have been cases in which such Of
Ing occurred, but no proof has ever sta
m given. or to our knowledge at for
npted to be given. of such cases. ty
: Of the stories of shocking out isei
PES perpetrated bs Belgian men hea
women on German soldiers" wol