New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-10
u. S. Engineers
Letter Confirms
German Atrocities
Captain Never Believed the
Stories Until He Got
to France

81 never before believed the stories
we got in America Of the bochc out
RACES. have to believe them now, and
they are many times worse than the
stories that | heard at home
This EXCERPT from a letter from cap
tain in the American regiment OF cngi-
hccrs which participated with the Brit
ish in the Battle o. Cambria was re-
coivcd with emotion yesterday after
noon when read before eight hundred
relatives and friends Of the regiment at
meeting Mt the Engineers Building,
20 West Thirty-ninth Street. The asso-
citation Of parents ard friends Of the
men in the regiment gathered to per
nit its members to pool the news they
had received about the men "over
there" through letters and to plan well
fare work for them. A plan to issue a
bulletin weekly to keen the members
informed about the affairs OF the men
ir the regiment was announced.
After describing conditions in France
which led him to understand the nature
Of German atrocities, the captain
whose letter was read ended:
81 cannot understand what the men
tel processes or operations OF the Hun
can be. It must be the wrathful spite
of a disappointed, degenerate mind.
Roches Cruelty Prisoners
Canadian and Scottish battalions
take no prisoners" the captain said.
They give and ask no quarter. The
reason is that the boches have several
times crucifed Canadian and Scottish
prisoners and held them above the
trenches in view Of the battalion. In
one such case a Canadian battalion
went right over the top 70 the boche
trenches without orders. Very few OF
them returned.
"The thing that makes our blood boil
is the absolutely unnecessary and wan
ton destruction wrought by the retir-
ing Hun. His usual wonderful, sys-
tematic methods have been applied to
this destruction. Whole towns that
have hardly been touched by she'll fire
have been destroyed by dynamiting
So much of it has absolutely no mill
tary value. Isolated homes. beautiful
chateaus. garden walls, little summer
houses are all blown up. Shade trees
flower trees are cut down or the BARK
cut so the trees will die. Cemeteries
have been ransacked."
Twenty Other Letters Read
Tb;s 1etter was Syritten 70 Robert
Ridgway, a member of the executive
committee Of the association. Twenty
other letters were read. They described
the reaction of the engineers to their
work in camp and their experiences
when off duty in French towns.
F. L. Cox, third vice-president or the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
and treasurer of the association, an
nouneed Mt the end Of the meeting that
more than 500 had been collected from
those present, and that 81 300 had al
ready been spent for welfare work and
Christmas gifts for the men in the
regiment
F. L. Crawford. engineer, president
Of the society, presided. Mrs. f. },
MacIsaac, the president; Mrs. ii
!. Stehli, the secretary, and DR.. ID. IL
Brown, chaplain at Camp Upton, also
sat on The platform.
OF the eight hundred present only
seven persons knew where the regi-
ment was stationed in France before
the reports that it participated in the
Cambrai fighting were printed. 1t was
learned by a rising poll. Relatives OF
the soldiers asked how they could
learn the extent of the American
casualties and they were told that the
War Department would notify rela'