Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1917-11-06
lAPfc BLTFF TUESDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER

the hands of the town authorities. 1t is unlikely that any organized attack by civilians could have been made. However, if in individual cases shots were fired at the German soldiers, this may always be condoned in a country suffering invasion. During an Occupa- ton 1t would be different, naturally. No excuse can be offered for such an action in occupied territory.
 "Various Belgian officers have told me of seeing crowds of men, women and children driven ahead of the Ger man army to protect the troops. This 1. is so incredible that I must ask whether it has any foundation of truth ?"
 'It is squite true. It is barbarous and inhuman system of protecting the German advance. When the Belgian soldiers fired on the enemy they killed their own people. Again and again innocent civilians of both sexes were sacrificed to protect the invading army during attacks. A terrible slaughter '"
 There was much more to the inter- view, but this part is the part that concerns us now.
 There is no surmise in the kings statement. It is quiet, dignifed, as restrained as possible, bare recital of fact. On the right of Germany to in- wade Belgium there may be differing opinions. On the right of any army pretending to civilization to so protect its advance there can be but one ver- dict.
 The king of the Belgians had spoken as a ruler and soldier. He had himself fought with his army those terrible rear-guard engagements which could have but one end. He himself had seen this thing, so shock ing that 1t is small wonder that America heard 1t with incredulous ears.
 A kings statement and a mans. How about woman who herself had been among the last to leave Brussels. and before whom, in the intimacy of that small villa at La Panne, came soldiers and refugee nobles with their stories of murder and debauch by the invaders?
 have never before broken the si- lence of my interview with Elizabeth, queen of the Belgians, that small, frail and heroic woman who has lived for three years under the roar of the artillery at Dixmude and Nieup0rt. But the time has come to break that silence. Not all can be told, but be- cause an infamous report has been spread broadcast that Elizabeth of Belgium 'sympathizes with Germany, I shall tell some of the things she said. QUEEN TELLS OF HORRORS.
 Again I quote from my notes of that interview:
 Tt is the women and children!" she said. '1t is terrible. There must he killing. That is war. But not this other thing"
 She could not understand American skepticism on this point. She had but just returned from England, where in one convent % Belgian nuns were enceinte by German soldiers. She had visited them. s9 sh4sj
 That to her was the most terrible thing of war. That these quiet women, living their devout and simple lives, should have suffered so grossly bewil- dered and dazed her. Was there noth- ing, then, sacred to these invaders, not even the church?
 sI am Bavarian," she said. T have always from my childhood heard this talk that Germany must grow, must get to the.sea. I thought it was just talk-a pleasantly. And the lies they have told about us! The em- peror has always pretended to be so friendly, and all the time"
 She held out her hands expressively.
 Anyone who knows the king knows that he cannot do wrong thing. It Is not possible for him. He cannot go any way but straight"
 Then she recurred to the invasion and the terrible cruelties of the Ger man army.
 'They were terrible" she said, "especially what they have done to women and children. But more than any men in the world the Germans are cruel to women. I'have seen them my self when they did not know who was-on trains sometimes since the war, of course. But the very way they stare at women is odious."
 She thought that this attitude Of the Germans explained many things. And she told me in detail revolting stories of the proclamation of churches under the pretext, totally unfounded, that the Belgian churches were store houses for arms. She told me, too, of the especial cruelty they had shown to priests and nuns; of locking the priests in churches and, after insulting the altar, of killing them. .S t,e
 said it was difficult to say what any army would be in an occupied country. But she protested. OWN DIARIES CONVICT.
 "Do you think the Belgians would have done such things? Never.i Never.