New-York tribune., 1916-07-09

Here quote from German diary OF "hicn
have seen the original. 1t ia written by n
sub-ofncer of the Landwehr, Of the 46th re
serve Regiment, the 9th Company, recruited
from the province of Posen. lie and ms
men are on the march, and the date Is
August 21 He writes:
we are informed Of things to make u.s.
shudder concerning the wickedness Of the
French, as. for instance, that our wounded
living on the ground. have their eyes put OUT
their ears and noses cut. We are told nat
we ought to behave without any limits.
have the impression that all this is told US
for the sole purpose that no one shall stay
behind or take the French side; our men
also are Of tho same opinion"
II On August % he writes:
81 learn from different quarters that the
French maltreat our prisoners; woman has
put out the eyes Of Uhlan."
BY August q all this begins to have its
effect on the imperfectly developed natures
of his comrades, and he writes;
81 find among our troops a great excita-
bility against the French"
The Machinery of Hate.
There we can see the machinery Of hate
in full operation. The officers state the lies
10 the soldiers. They travel fast by rumor'
The primitive. emotional men respond with
ever-increasing excitement till they readily
carry out murder.
Let Ms see how all this is working bach
home in the Fatherand have seen the Pho
,orraphic reproduction Of letter written by
German woman to her husband from
rsrhf G
tells him not 10 spare the French dogs
i"Hunden0. neither the soldiers nor the
women. She goes on 70 give her reason. Inc
French. She says, men and women, are cruel
70 German prisoners. The story had reacnee
her.
The German Chancellor in September, 1914
stated i'm an interview for the United States;
.Your fellow countrymen are told that Ger
man troops have burned Belgian villages and
towns. but you are not told that young Bel
oian girls have put out the eyes OF the de-
fenceless wounded on the field OF battle.
Belgian women have cut the throats OF our
soldiers az they slept men to whom they had
given hospitality.'
The final conservation Of the rumor was
Given by the Kaiser himself. on September
=.
SON. in which he repeated these allegations
against the Belgian people and clergy. OF
course. he knew better just as his Chancellor
and General staff and his officers knew bet
ter it was all part of the play to charge the
enemy with things akin to what the Ger
mans themselves were doing. That makes i
an open question. with much 10 be said on
both sides" That creates neutrality on the
part Of non-inves ,igating nations. like the
United States.
Retraction Necessary.
But what he and his military clique failed
20 see was that they had discharged a boom
c,anc. The comeback was swift. The Ger
man protestants began 10 "agitate" against
the German Roman Catholics. The old re-
ngious hates revived a new religious war
was on. Now. this was the last thing de-
sired by the military power An internal
b strife would weaken war-making power
abroad. Here was Germany filled with lies
told by the military clique. Those lies were
creating internal dissension. So the same
military CLIQUE had 20 90 TO work and deny
the vcry lies they had manufactured. They
aid not deny them out of any large love for
the Belgian and French people. Tney denied
them because Of the anti-Catholic feeling
inside Germany which the lies had stirred
up. German official inquiries have estab-
lished the falsity Of the atrocity charges
levelled against the Belgians.
German priest, r. p. Bernhard Duhr,
S. J.. published pamphlet-book, Der Lii
cengest i'm Nolkekrieg. kregsmarchen
qesammelt Won Bernhard Duhr, S. J.,' Min
chen Regen sburg, Ncrlagsanstat, Worm. q. j..
Manz, Buch und Kuustdruckei, 1919. It's
title means The spirit Of falsehood in &
peoples war Legends that spring up in
wartime" His book was written as a de-
fence of Roman Catholic interests and for
the sake Of the internal peace of his own
country This book | have seen. 1t is
small pamphlet of y pages, with a red cover.
The widest circulation through the German
Empire was given 20 this proof of the falsty
of the charges laid to the Allies. Powerful
newspapers published the denials and ceased
TO publish the sIanders. Generals issued or
ders that persons propagatng the calumnies
whether orally, by picture or in writing,
would be followed up without pity. So died
the legend Of atrocities by Belgians. Tha
mighty power of the Roman Catholic Church
bad stretched out its arm and touched the
Kaiser and his war lords to silence.
Sources of the Calumnies.
The charges are treachery. incitement 20
murder and battle. traitorous attacks, the
hiding of machine guns in church towers, the
murder, poisoning and mptiation Of the
wounded. The story ran that the civil pop
ulation, melted by the clergy, entered ac-
lively into hostilities, attacking troops, sig
mailing to the Allies the positions occupied
! by the Germans. The favorite and most
popular allegation was that women, old peo-
pie and children committed atrocities on
wounded Germans. putting out their eyes,
cutting of their fingers, ears and noses; and
,hat priests urged them on to do these
things and played active part in per-
petrating the crimes. Putting out the eyes
became the prize story Of all the collection
The German priest, Duhr, runs down each
lie 20 its source, and then prints the official
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