The Ordway new era., 1917-12-21
CRUELTY CALLED
'EMANAT|0N OF
HIGH KULTUR"
General Won Bissing's Defense of
German War Practices Is
Significant.
INNOCENT NOT TO Be Spared
Governor General Of Belgium Declared
They Must Suffer With the Guilty
Irwin Cobb Tells Of Respon-
sibility of kaiser's Hiqh
Command.

Command.
The Committee on Public Informal
ton, appointed by the president, and
consisting Of the secretary Of state,
secretary Of war, secretary Of the
navy, and George Creel, official CENSOR
has made public a mass Of evidence
dealing with German war practices
which shows the kaseTs leaders in the
field and in command Of captured
points to be directly responsible for
the beastiiness which has character
lied the operations Of the "Huns," in
the present conflict. Quotations from
the pamphlet follow:
This interview was reproduced in
the Berlner Tngeblatt of November
20. 1914.
Mr.. +. G. WnlcOtt of the Belgium re-
lief commission tells in the Geograph-
ical Magazine for May. 1917. of meet
Ing Gen Won Bernhardi:
"As l walked out, Gen. Won Bern
hardi came into the room, an expert
nrtilleryman, Il professor in one of
their war colleges. | met him the
next morning. and he asked me II |
had read his book, Germany in the
Next War
81 said | had He said: DO you
know, my friends nearly ran me out
Of the country for that? They said,
You have let the cat out of the bag.
| said, NO, | have not. because nobody
will believe It, What did you think
OF it,
81 said. General. | did not believe
word OF it when | read it. but l now
feel that you did not tell the whole
TRUTH and the old general looked
actually pleased"
Speaking on August 90, 1914, at
which the Germans felt obliged to take
against the civil population of Bel
GUM, Gen. Won Bissing said:
THE innocent must suffer with the
puilty In the repression of
infamy, human lives cannot be spared.
and If isolated houses, flourishing vii
Iapes. and even entire towns are nnni-
hilated that Is assuredly regrettaDle'
but 1t must not excite ill-timed sent-
mentality. All this must not in our
eyes weigh as much as the Ire OF
single one of our brave soldiers-the
rigorous accomplishment of duty is the
emanation of high kultur, and IN
that, the population of the enemy
countries can learn n lesson from our
army"
Officers Encouraged Atrocities.
Gen. Won Bisslng, after his appoint
ment as governor general OF Belgium
repeated in substance the above opih-
ion to a Dutch journalist. The inter-
view is published in the Dusseldorfer
Anzeiger of December 8. 1914.
Irwin s. Cobb states his conclusions
on the responsibility Of the higher Ger
man command for the atrocities:
but 1 was an eyewitness to crimes
which. measured by the standards OF
humanity and civilization, impressed
me as worse than any indivldual eN-
cess any individual outrage, couid
over have been or can ever be; be-
cause these CTllles ihuuo''
;nstipated on a wholesale basis by Or
der of officers of rank, and must nave
heep carried out under their personal
suneryision, direction, and approval.
Briefly, what l saw was this: l sa"
wide areas of Belgium and France IN
which not n penny's worth OF wantoh
dostruct;on had been permitted to oc-
cur in which the ripe pears hung uh-
touched upon the garden walls; ana
COW other wide areas where scarceiS
ona stone had been left to stand upon
ono+bar. where the fields were raw
ooed. where the male villagers had
heen shot in squads; where the nlser-
oble survivors had been left to deh Ill
holes, like wild beasts
"Taking the physical evidence oner-
oa before our own eyes, and buttress-
,n. If with the statements made to u.s.
moi only by natives, but German soi,
.,;ars and German officers, we couid
each but one conclusion, which was
,hat here, in such and such place.
those in command had said 10 the
troons: Spare this town and these
.,onn,e And there they had said:
.Waste % thjs town and shoot these peo-
No, And here the troops had discrlm-
inately spared, and there they had IN
d,scriminately wasted, In exact ac-
aordonce with the word OF their supe-