The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1917-08-09
care There Atrocities?"

At the meeting OF the state council
of defense Tuesday Chairman Coker
recited a number of reported atroci-
ties committed by the Germans in
Belgium and France and Flanders. .
These awful statements that come
from the war zone are so terrible that
it is difficult to believe them. Yet
some Of them are true.
When the Rev. DR.. Kellman, chap
lain of regiment Of Scotch High
landers, was in this country recently,
he was asked the direct question by
the editor of the Record: May we
believe the statements of atrocities
that have been committed by the Ger
man soldiers? DR.. Kellman replied
that he did not know what had been
reported in this country, except cas-
ually, yet no statement could have
been exaggeration. He spoke of Ger
man soldiers cutting off the hands Of
Belgian children, and this is known
to be a fact, because some OF the
children are in the United States now.
He told of the standing of Belgian
childHn against a wall with arms and
fingers outstretched so that German
marksmen could try to shoot between
their fingers usually with pain
full results.
There was one statement made in
public by DR.. kellman that showed
why the British are so much in earn
est in this war At first there was
apathy in Britain, much as there is
in this country today, and for the
same mistaken motives. Why should
Britain be taking up Russia's and
Frances cause? That is the way many
Britons felt.
One day in German trench few
yards in front of the trench of some
Scots, the screaming of women was
heard. The Highlanders became fran
tic, made a charge at the cost OF
much life and took the trenches. They
found there the naked bodies of Bel
gian women whose breasts had been
cut off while they were yet alive.
That is the thing that has put Great
Britain into the war with her whole
heart.
The British have such high re-
gard for women that this incident
made them furious with hate. They
knew that the coldblooded German
officers had taken this means of t.
ing to frighten the allies into subm.---
sion. eff, we keep up the war, our
own women will suffer the same kind
of fate,'' is the psychological idea that
the Germans sought to cause the
British to get.
But, instead of intimidating the
Britons, it has maddened them, and
they will not cease fighting until this
war has come to the stage when It
can be said that there will be no
more atrocities of war. And that Is
why the United States must go into
this war with full vigor.
We are just three years late in GET
ting started. The despoliation OF
Belgium was enough to have taken
us into the war; the sinking OF the.
Lusitania should have been followed
up more rapidly, except for the fact.
that the great-hearted man in the
presidents chair was willing to sacri-
flee somewhat of national dignity In
order to preserve peace as long as
possible the hope of obtaining
an effectuaI peace.
And now that war has been forced
upon us-not once, not in an incident
which might have been forgiven, but
because of an attitude and an 1n1-
nervousness which carried a grim
threat and grave foreboding- g-there
are cravens in this country who KNOW
better and yet are trying to persuade
the people that the United States has
no right to be in this war. Such -er-
sons should be interned along with
the other Germans in the federal
prisons of this country-Columbia
Record.