The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-12
AWFUL REIGN OF CRIME

Continued from Page II
tablishes, but we may be permitted
to express our belief that these dis
closures will not have been made il
vain if they touch and rouse the con-
science of mankind and we venture
to hope that as soon as the present
war is over, the nations of the world
| IN council VIII consider what means
can be provided and sanctions devised
| tc prevent the recurrence of such
horrors as our generation is now wit
Messing"
Examined 10000 Witnesses.
The report makes an official docu-
of $4,000 words accompanied by
maps, showing the various routes OF
the army and the chief scenes of des-
olation. 1t states that 1900 witnesses
nave been examined.
I'VE began the inquiry with doubts
as to whether a positive result would
| be obtained says the report. But
/ the further we went and the more evil
dence we examined so much the more
was our skepticism reduced. The
force of the evidence is cumulative"
Taking up the conditions at Liege,
Belgium, at the outset of the war, the
report gives a narrowing recital of
occurrences at various points in the
devastated territory AT Harve on
August 4, the report says, the muir
der of an innocent fugitive civilian
was a prelude TO the burning ana Pill
lage of the town and of other villages
in the neighborhood; to the indiscrim-
mate shooting of civilians of both
sexes and to the organized military
execution of patches OF selected males.
Thus some fifty men escaping from,
burning houses were seized, taken out
side the town and shot. At Meien, a
hamlet west of Harve, forty men were
shot. In one household alone the
father and mother (names given)
CHI 17e n rI,fa 6Ia off h
ing repeatedly outraged, and the son
was wounded.
Many Civilians Shot.
I'm 5oumagne and MicherouX very
many civilians were summary shot.
The eyewitness Of the massacre saw
on his way home, twenty bodies, one
that of a young girl of Is. Another
witness Saws19 corpSeS in a meadow.
Taking up the valleys of the Meuse
and Sambre, the report gives lengthy
details of terrible conditions de-
scribed by witnesses at Andenne, and
says:
About 400 people lost their lives in
this massacre, some on the banks of
the Mouse, where they were shot ac-
cording to orders given and some in
had taken refuge.
"a hair dresser was murdered in his
kitchen where he was sitting with a
child on each knee. A paralytic was
murdered in his garden. After this
came the general sack of the town.
Similar details are recited at much
length in reference to the districts of
Namur, Charleroi and the town of
D1nant. At the latter pont, the report
says, "unarmed civilians were killed in
masses. About 80 bodies were seen
lying on top of one another in grass
square opposite the convent 1t is
stated that besides the 80 corpses re-
ferred to, so corpses of civilians were
recovered from a hole in the brewery
yard and that As bodies of women
and children were found in a garden.
The town was systematically set on
fire by hand grenades.
scenes of Chronic Outrage.
The committee states it has re-
ceived a great mass of evidence on
scenes of chronic outrage in the
territory bounded by the towns Aer-
1t states that the total number of out
RACES is so great that the committee
cannot refer to them all. The report
says:
in these villages were due not to ac-
cident but to deliberate purpose.
In Malines many bodies were seen.
One witness saw German soldier cut
a womans breast after he had muir
dered her, and saw many other dead
bodies of women in the street.
ION a side road the corpse of a
civilian was seen on his doorstep with
4 bayonet wound in his stomach, and
by his side the dead body of a boy of
five or six with his hand nearly |
severed.
1.-TWO young women were lying in
the backyard Of a house. One had
her breasts cut off. the other had
been stabbed.
"a young man had been hacked
with a bayonet until his entraiIs pro-
-ruded. He also had his hands Joined !
n the attitude of prayer.
Says Girls Were Mistreated.
I'm Sempst the corpse of a man !
with his legs cut off, who was partly |
bound, was seen by witness, who also |
saw a girl of seventeen dressed only |
N chemise and in great distress. She |
alleged that she herself and other girls |
had been dragged into field stripped |
naked and violated. and that some of |
hem had been killed with a bayonet |
''At Elewyt a mans naked body was |
tied up to ring in the wall in the |
back yard of a house. He was dead |
and his corpse was mutilated in a |
too horrible to record. wo- |
mans naked body was also found in |
4 stable abutting on the same back |
yard.
AT Haescht a child of three with it's |
cut open by a bayOnet was |
ying near house. At Werchter the |
corpseS of man and a woman and |
four younger persons were found in |
one house. 1t is said that they had |
been murdered because one of the lat |
ter, girl, would not permit the Ger |
mans to outrage her"
Taking up conditions at Aershot and |
district during September the report |
says:
'At Haecht several children had |
been murdered, one of two or three |
years old was found nailed to the door |
Of a farmhouse by its hands and feet, |
L crime which seems almost incredi- |
bic, but the evidence for which we feel |
bound to accept. In the garden of |