New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-13
Treatment of the Civilian
Population.
(a) Killing Non Combatants.

reputation.
(a) Killing Non Combatants.
The killing Of civilians in Belgium
has been already described sufficiently.
OutrageS on the civilian population OF
the invaded districts, the burning OF
villages. the shooting Of innocent in
habitants, and the taking of hostages.
pillage and destruction continued as
the German armies passed into France.
The evidence, however, submitted to
the committee with regard to the con
duct Of the German army IN France
IS not nearly SO full as that with re
gard TO Belgium. There IS no body OF
civilian refugees in England. and the
French witnesses have generally LAID
their evidence before their own govern
ment. The evidence forwarded TO US
consists principally of the statements
Of British officers and soldiers who
took part in the retreat after the bat
tie of Mons and in the subsequent ad-
vance, following the Germans from the
Narne. The area covered is relatively
small, and II is from French reports
that any complete account of what oc-
Cured IN the invaded districts IN
France as a whole must be obtained.
try, with which they were unacquaint-
ed. cannot be expected always to give
accurately the names of villages
through which they passed on their
marches. but this does not prevent
their evidence from being definite as
10 what they actually saw in the farms
and houses where the German troops
had recently been. Many shocking
outragcs are recorded. Three exam
pies here may suffice, others are given
in the appendix. A sergeant who had
been through the retreat from Mons,
and then taken part in the advance
from the Marine. and who had been en-
gagged IN driving out some German
troops from a village. states that his
troop halted outside a bakery just in
side the village. II was a private
house where baking was done. mot
like our bakeries here Two or three
women were standing at the door. The
women motioned them TO come into
the house, a. did also three civilian
Frenchmen who were there. They
took them into a garden az the back
of the house. At the end OF the gar
den was the bakery. They saw two
old men between so and 20 years of
age and one old woman lying close
had the scalps cut right through and
the brains were hanging out. They
were still bleeding. Apparently they
had only just been killed. The three
French civilians belonged to this same
house. One of them spoke a few words
Of English He gave them TO under
stand that these three had been killed
by the Germans because they had re
fused 10 bake bread for them.
Live Man Dragged by Horse.
Another witness states that two
German soldiers took hold of young
civilian named d. and bound his hands
behind his back. and struck him in
the face with their fists. They then
tied his hands in front and fastened
the cord 10 the tail of the horse. The
horse dragged MIN for about fifty
yards and then the Germans looSened
his hands and left him. The whole
Of mis- face was cut and torn, and his
arms and legs were bruised. On the
following day one of his sisters, whose
husband was a soldier, came to their
house with her four chilren. His broth
er, who was also married and who
lived in a village near Nalenciennes,
went to fetch the bread for his sister.
On the way back to their house he met
d patrol of Uhlans who took him 20
the market place at Valenciennes and
shot him. About twelve other civilians
were also shot in the market place.
The Uhlsns then burned nineteen
houses IN the village, and afterward
burned the corpses of the civilians,
including that of his brother. His
father and his uncle afterward went
TO see the dead body of his brother,
but German soldiers refused to allow
them 10 pass.
A lance corporal in the Rifles, who
was on patrol duty with FIVE privates
during the retirement of the Germans
after the Marine, states that they en-
! tered house in 4 small village and
! took ten Uhlans prisoners and then
searched the house and found two
women and two children. One was
dead, but the body was not yet cold.
/ The left arm had been cut of Just
/ below the elbow. The floor was COW
cred with blood. The woman's cloth
ing was disarranged. The other wom-
an was alive, but unconscious. Her
right leg had been cut off above the
( knee. There were two little children,
a boy about four or FIVE and a girl of
about six or seven. The boys left
hand was cut OIL al the wrist and the
girls right hand at the same place.
/ They were both quite dead. The same
witness states that he saw several
women and children lying dead in
various other places, but says he could
not say whether this might not have
! been accidentally caused in legitimate
/ fghtlng
The evidence before us proves that,
in the parts Of France referred 70,
murder of unofendng civilians and
other acts Of cruelty, including aggra-
waited cases of rape, carried out under
threat of death, and sometimes actually
b followed by murder of the victim.
were committed by some of the Ger
man troops
(b) The Treatment of Women
and Children