New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-25

orks. coventry.
On Sunday, September 27, | was present at
The battle of Alost, where peasants came run
ming into our lines from the German side OF
the canal. In spite of shell, shrapnel, rihe
and machine fire peasants crossed TO US, car
rving their children. The reason they mad
for running into fire was that the Germans
were torturing their neighbors with the bay
onet.
| On Tuesday, September 20, l visited Wet
.eran Hospital | went in company with the
Prince L. de Croy, the Due D'Ursel, sena-
tor; the Count de Briey, Intendant de la Liste
Cvilc du Roy, and the Count Retz la Barre
all of the Garde du General de Wette' Dlvl-
sions de Cavalerie). One or two of these gen.
temen are as we'll and as favorably known IN
this country as in their own. With me. also'
/ took a young linguist, who was KIND enough
to act as secretary for me. In the hospl'sI
| found eleven peasants with bayonet WOUNDS
upon them men, women and child-who mad
| been marched in front Of the Germans at
Alost as a cover for the troops, and cut with
bayonets when they tried to dodge the firing.
A priest was ministering to them, bed by bed.
Sisters were in attendance. The priest led US
morning September 81, the peasant, Leopold
Dc Man. Of No. 90. Hovenier-Straat Alost was
hiding in the house of his sister, in the cellar.
The Germans made fire of the table and
chairs in the upper room. Then, catching
sight of Leopold, they struck him with the
butts of their guns and forced him to pass
through the fire. Then, taking him outside,
they struck him TO the ground and gave MIN
blow over the head with gunstock and
cot of the bayonet which pierced his thigh
all the way through.
an spite of my wound" said he, they
made me pass between their lines, giving me
still more blows of the gun-butt in the back
in order to make me march There were
seventeen or eighteen persons with me. Ihey
placed US In front Of their lines and menaced
US with their revolvers, crying out that they
will make us pay for the losses they have
suffered at Alost. So we march in front OF
the troops
when the battle began we threw ourselves
on our faces to the ground, but they forced
us to rise again. At certain moment, when
the Germans were obliged to retire, we sue
cecded in escaping down side streets"
ant whose cheeks had the spot of fever He
was Frans Meulebroeck, of No. 81, Dire Sleu-
telstraat, Aost Sometimes in loud bursts
of terror, and then falling back into mono
tone, he talked with US.
"Tbey broke open the door of my home,
he said, "they seized me and knocked me
down. In front of my door the corpse Of
German lay stretched out The Germans
said to me: You are going to pay for that
to US A few moments later they gave me
bayonet cut in my leg. They sprinkled naph-
ths in my house and set 1t afire My son was
struck down in the street and l was marched
in front of the German troops do not
know even yet the fate of my son."
Gradually as the peasant talked the time OF
his suffering came on him. His eyes began
to see it again in front Of him. They be-
came fixed and wild, the white Of them WIS.,
ible. His voice was shrill and broken with
sobs
"9Iy boy" he said, 81 haven't seen him"
His body shook with sobbing
At my request the young man with me
took down the statements of these two peas
ants. turning them into French from the
Flemish, with the aid of the priest. In the
presence of the priest and one of the Sisters
the two peasants signed, each man, his state
ment, making his mark.
Our group passed into the next room,
where the wounded women were gathered.
Sister led US TO the bedside of a very old
woman, perhaps eighty years old. She had
thin white hair, that struggled across the pill
low. There was no motion to the body, ex-
cept for faint breathing. She was cut through
the thigh with bayonet.
/ went across the room and found little
girl, twelve years old. She was propped up
in bed and half bent over, as if she had been
broken at the breast bone. Her body whistled
with each breath. One Of our ambulance
corps went out next day to the hospital
Dr. Donald Renton. He writes me:
IL went out with Davidson, the American
sculptor. and Yates, the cinema man, and
there had been brought into the hospital the
previous day the little girl you speak Of.
I She had gaping wound on, think, the right
side of her back, and died the next day"
DR.. Renton's address is 10 Hill Street.
Garnet Hill, Glasgow.
The contents of the notebook, containing
recorded, were turned in to Lord Bryce, and
these cases, which witnessed, appear in the
Bryce Report, under the heading of "Alost."
OF such is the Bryce Report made First
lhend witness by men like myself, who know
what they know, who are ready for any test
70 be applied, who made careful notes, who
had witnesses.
"Why do the Germans do these things? 1t
is not war. II Is cruel and wrong" that is a
remark heard from noblemen and common
soldiers alike. Such acts are beyond the un-
lderstanding Of the Belgian people. Their SOL
ders are kindly, good-humored, fearless.
Alien women and children would be safe in
their hands. They do not see why the Ger
mans bring suffering to the innocent
A few understand They know that it is a
scientific panic which the German army was
NLaN