Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1915-05-13

master, were shot according to mar
tai law The diary ii a member o
the fourth company OF Jagers says
Under date of August 23; About 22l
Inhabitants and the village were
burned Artillery is continuousl,
shooting. Just now, the crossing o
the Meuse begins near pinant. Al
villages. chateaux and houses ar,
burned down during the night 1t L
a beautiful sight to see the fires al
around us in the distance" Another
diary by a member OF the secont
mounted battery. first Kurhessiar
field artillery regiment No. IL, re-
cords an incident which happened IL
French territory near Lille ON Octo.
Der IL;
we had no fight. but we caught
about twenty men and shot them
The committee says Of this last
i diary: BY this time killing not in q
fight would seem to have passed into
a habit"
The report adds that the most i'm.
portant entry is contained In diary
No. 10. This contains no name and
address, but names referred to in the
diary indicate that the entries were
maze by an officer OF the first regi-
ment of footguards. The entry made
at Bermeton on August "a says: eve
took about LOCO prisoners; ut least
/ 500 were shot The village was burned
because inhabitants had also shot
Two civilians were shot at once"
The conclusions of the committee
as TO the various detailed recitals
are as follows;
we may now sum up and endea-
vor TO explain the character and sig
nificance of the wrongful acts done
by the German army in Belgium. IL a
line is drawn on map from the
Belgian frontier to Liege and con-
tinued TO Charleroi, and second
line drawn from Liege TO Malines, a
sort OF figure resembling an irregu-
lar will be formed. II is along this
that most of the systematic Gas
opposed to isolated) outrages We're
committed. II the period from Au-
gust to August so is taken il will
be found to cover most of these or
ganlzed 0utrages. Termonder and
Alost extend, II is true, beyond the
lines, and they belong TO the
month Of September. Murder, rape,
arson and pillage began from the mo-
ment when the German army
crossed the frontier. For the first
fortnight Of the war the towns and
villages near Liege were the chief
sufferers. From August / 8 TO the end
OF the month outrages spread in the
direction Of Charleroi and Malines
and reach their period of greatest
intensity. There is a certain signifl-
canoe in the fact that the outrages
around Liege coincide with the I'M
expected resistance of the Belgian
army in that district. and that the
slaughter which reigned from August
10 to the end of the month is con
temporaneous with the period when
the German armys need for a quick
passage through Belgium at all costs
Was deemed imperative
Here let distinction be drawn
between two classes of outrages. In
dividual acts OF brutality-ill-tr treat
ment of civilians, rape, plumber and
the like--were very widely committed
then 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
happened in previous though not
recent wars.
In all wars occur many shocking
and outrageous acts of men of GRIM
inal instincts whose worst passions
were unloosed by the Immunity
which the conditions of warfare af-
ford. Drunkenness, moreover, may
turn even a soldier who has no Grim
inal habits into a brute, who may
commit outrages at which he would
be shocked in his sober mo- |
ments. and there is evidence that in
toxicatlon was extremely prevalent
among the German army, both in |
Belgium and France, for plenty of
wine was to be found in the villages
and country houses which were pill |
LACED Many of the worst outrages
appear TO have been perpetrated by
men under the influence of drink. 1
Unfortunately little seems to have
been done to repress the source of |
danger.
I'm the present war. howeyer-and
this is the grayest charge against the 1
German army-the evidence showsl
that the killing of non comb atants
was carried out to an extent for
which no previous war between ma
tons claiming to be civilized (for
such cases as the atrocities perpetra-
led by the Turks on the Bulgarian
Christians in 1876 and on the Ar
nenian Christians in 1896 and 1896,
10 not belong to that category fur
lishes any precedent. That the killing
was done as part of a deliberate plan
$ clear from the facts herein before
yet forth regarding Louvain, Aer-
ichot, Dinant and other towns. The
kiiilng was done under orders; in
zach place 1t begins at certain fixed
late. Some of the officers who carried
lut the work did ii reluctantly. and
aid they were obeying directions
rom their chiefs The same remarks
'pply to the destruction of property.
House burning was part OF the pro-
sram, and villages, even parts Of
arge cities, were given to the flamesl
Is part Of the terrorizng policy.
"Cltlzens of neutral states who vis.
ted Belgium in December and JaT1u-
Try report that the German authorl-
les do not deny that non-combat-
Ints We're Systematically killed in I
arge numbers during the first weeks I
# the invasion. and this, so far as we
Snow, has never been officially de-
lied. If it We're denied the flight and
continued voluntary exile of thou
ands Of Belgian refugees would so
ar to contradict a denial for there
S no historical parallel in modern {
ines for the Hight of a large part of
/ nation before an invader.
The German government have,
However, sought to justify their Sc
critics on the grounds of military
ecessity and have excused them as
for cases in which civilians
fred on German troops. There may