New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-12-21
OUTSIDE PALE
OF HUMANITY
FrightfuIness Taught by German
Leaders Belongs to Age Of
BarbariSm.
SOLEMN PLEDGE MERE WORDS
kaiser's Statesmen Had No Intention
Of Keeping Faith With Their
Agreement on International Law
Horrors Told by Diaries.

IN 9tbihg 10 me WFrifdH PFoPte
Me knowledge Of German inhuman-
ity in Belgium, says a pamphlet is
sued by the committee on public IN
formation. the cridence Is drdwH
mainly from German and american
sources. The German sources in
clude oficial proclamatlonS amt
other official %utteranceS, letters and
diaries Of German soldiers, and quo-
tations from German newspapers.
The "Rules for Field Serrice' Of the
German army ddriSeS each Sotdicr
to keep such a diary Whilc on ncttre
seruice.
In the wars wagcd in ancient times
1t was taken for granted that con
quered peoples might be either killed,
tortured, or held as slaves; that their
property would be taken and that thcir
lands would be devastated. "Nae vic
It's woe to the conquered" Fol two
centuries or more there has been Il
Stfsity uiNuil'f III III p'lu'liS IVA" w
humanity and especially in combining
the evils of warfare to the coinbatantS.
The ideal seemed TO have become 50
thoroughly established rs Il part of in
ternational law that the powers at The
Hague thought 1t sufficient merely to
state the general principles in Article
XLVI Of the regulations: Family hon
orS and rights, the lives of persons
and private property, as well rs re-
ligious convictions and practice, must
be respected. Private property cannot
be cOnfiscatcd." Germany, in common
with the other powers, solemnly
pledged her faith to keep this article,
but her military leaders had no inten-
ton of doing so. They had been
trained in the ideas voiced by Gen. o
40 years ago: "Terrorism
is seen to be Il relatively gentle pro-
cedure, useful to keep the masses of
The people in n state of obedience"
had been Bismarck's policy, too.
to Moritz Busch, Bismark's
bismarck, eXasperated by
the French resistance, which was still
in January, 1871, said:
'If in the territory which we occupy.
cannot supply everything for our
troops, from time to time we shall send
a flying column into the localities
which are recalcitrant. We shall shoot,
hang and burn. After that has hap
pened n few times, the inhabitants will
finally come to their senses"
Horrors Told in Soldiers Diaries.
The frightfulneSs taught by the Ger
nan leaders held full sway in Belgium.
This Is best seer in the entries in the
liaries of the individual German sol
liers.
During the night of August 1J-1G
Gr- gave the alarm in the
of Wise. Every one was shot or
aiken prisoner, and the houses were
The prisoners We're made to
march and keep up with the troops"
From the diary of noncommiSSioncd
,fiicer lcinhold Kochn Of the Second
battalion Of engineers. Third army
"a horrible bath of blood. The whole
;illage burnt, the French thrown into
he blazing houses, civilians with the
Erom the diary of Private
Iasscmer of the Eighth army CORPSE
I'm the night of August 1919 the vii
age of Saint Maurice was punished
or having fired on German soldiers by
,cing burnt tn the ground by the Ger
nan troops Uwo regiments. the
landwchr and the Seven
The village was surrounded,
men posted about Il yard from one am
'ther. 50 that no one could get out.
the Uhlans set fire to il. house
~ house. Neither man. woman. nor
could escape; only the greater
of the live stock We carried off.
'cnturcd to colno out was shot down.
Nj the inhabitants left in the village
ycre burnt with the houses" FrOm
he diary of Private Karl Schcufclc of
he Third Tavarian regiment and land
Srhr Infantry
at ten o'clock in the evening the
irst battalion Of the one hundred and
marched down the stecp
ncline into the burning village to the
village 10 the north If Dinant.
terrific spectacle Of CHASTITY beauty.
1t the entrance To the village lay about
fly dead civilians. shot for haying
red upon our troops from ambush. In
course of the night many others
rere also shot, 50 that We counted over
Women and children, lamp in
and, were forced to look on at the
orrible scene. We ate our rice later
n the midst of the corpScs, for we had
ad nothing since morning. When we
earched the houses we found plenty
{ wine and spirit, but no eatables.
Hamann "a drunk (This
ist phrase il shorthand.) (From the
larry of Private Philip of the One /
hundred and Seventy-eighth regiment
{ infantry, Twelfth army corps.) ,
Writing from Belgium in 1916 Irwin {
. Cobb said: f,
Briefly what ] saw was this: / saw |