The Elbert County tribune., 1917-12-21
FrlghtfuIness 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

formation, the evidence is drdwn
mainly from German and American
sources. The German sources in
clude official proclamations and
other official utterances, letters and
diaries of German soldiers. and quo
tations from German newspapers.
The "Rules for Field Service of the
German army advises each soldier
to keep such a diary while on actice
service.
In the wars waged 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 their
lands would be devastated. "Vae vic
tis woe to the conquered ~ For two
centuries or more there has been
steady advance in introducing ideas of
humanity and especially in confining
the evils of warfare to the combatants.
The ideal seemed to have become so
thoroughly established as a part of in
ternational law that the powers at The
Hague thought it sufficient merely to
state the general principles in Article
NLVI of the regulations Family hon
ors and rights, the lives of persons
and private property, as well as re-
ligious convictions and practice, must
be respected. Private property cannot
be confiscated." 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. Won
Hartmann 40 years ago: Terrorism
is seen to be n relatively gentle pro-
cedure, useful to keep the masses of
the people in state of obedience"
This had been Bismarck's policy, too
According to Moritz Busch, BismarlS's
biographer, Bismarck, exasperated by
the French resistance, which was still
continuing in January, 1871, said:
IF in the territory which we occupy.
we 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 a few times, the inhabitants will
finally come to their senses
Horrors Told in Soldiers Diaries.
The frightfulness taught by the Ger
man leaders held full sway in Belgium
This is best seen in the entries in the
diaries of the individual German SOL
diers.
During the night of August 1916
Engineer CIR gave the alarm in the
town of Wise. Every one was shot or
taken prisoner, and the houses were
burnt. The prisoners were made to
march and keep up with the troops"
(From the diary of noncommissioned
officer Reinhold Koehn of the Second
battalion of engineers. Third army
corps)
"a horrible bath of blood. The whole
village burnt. the French thrown into
the blazing houses, civilians with the
rest" (From the diary of Private
Hassemer of the Eighth army corps.)
"In the night of August 1919 the vii
lage of Saint-Maurice was punished
for having fired on German soldiers by
being burnt to the ground by the Ger
man troops (two regiments. the
Twelfth landwehr and the Seven
teenth.) The village was surrounded.
men posted about yard from one an
other, so that no one could get out.
Then the Uhlans set fire to it. house
by house. Neither man. woman. nor
child could escape; only the greater
part of the live stock we carried off
as that could be used. Anyone who
ventured to come out was shot down.
All the inhabitants left in the village
were burnt with the houses Nrom
the diary of Private Karl Scheufele of
the Third Bavarlan regiment and land
wehr infantry.)
"At ten o'clock in the evening tho
first battalion of the One hundred and
Seventy-eighth marched down the steep
Incline into the burning village to the
burning village to the north of DInant.
A terrific spectacle of CHASTITY beauty.
At the entrance to the village lay about
fifty dead civilians, shot for having
fred upon our troops from ambush In
the course of the night many others
were also shot, so that we counted over
200. Women and children, Iamn In
hand, were forced to look on at the
horrible scene. We ate our rice later
In the midst of the corpses. for we had
had nothing since morning. When we
searched the houses we found plenty
Of wine and spirit but no eatables.
Captain Hamann was drunk" (Tbis
last phrase in shorthand) (From the
diary of Private Philip of the One
Hundred and Seventy-eighth regiment
of infantry, Twelfth army corps.)
Writing from Belgium in 1916 Irwin
s. Cobb said:
Briefly what I saw was this: saw