Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1917-12-27
MISSOURI VALLEY, IOWA, TnURsDAY pEcEMBER ~, 1917

ism" grhe soldier who enduress sui.
fering, privation and fatigue, who
courts dangers, cannot take only in
proportion to the resources Of the
country He must take all that is nee.
essary to his existence. One has NO
right to demand of him anything super
human" s1rhe great good in war is
that it should be ended quickly. In
view of this every means, except those
which are positively condemnable,
must be permitted. / cannot, in any
way, agree with the declaration Of St
Petersburg when it pretends that the
weakening of the military forces Of the
enemy constitutes the only legitimate
method of procedure in war. No! One
must attack all the resources Of the
enemy government, his finances, his
railroads, his stock Of provisions and
even his prestige. !"
Many other examples might be cited
from the writings of German generals,
The very best illustration of this atti-
tude, however, is to be found in the
emperor's various speeches, and espe.
claiiy in his speech to his soldiers on
the eve of their departure for China in
Z 1900. On July % the kaiser went to
Bremerhayen to bid farewell to the
German troops. As they were drawn
up, ready to embark for China, he ad.
dressed to them last official message
from the fatherland. The local news.
paper reported his speech in full. In
it appeared this advice and admonitiOn
from the emperor, the commander in
chief of the army, the head Of all Ger
many:
Soldiers Told to Be MerciIess.
AS soon as You come to blows with
the enemy he will be beaten. No mercy
will be shown! No prisoners will be
taken! AS the Huns, under King At
tia, made a name for themselves,
which is still mighty in traditions and
legends today, may the name of Ger
man be so fixed in China by your deeds,
that no Chinese shall ever again dare
even TO lock at German askance.
Open the way for Kultur once for ALL"
have been shocked at the emperor's
speech, and efforts were promptly
made to suppress the circulation of his
exact words. The efforts were only
partly successful. A few weeks later,
when the letters from the German sol
diers in China were being published,
in local German papers, the leading
socialist newspaper, Vorwaerts, ex-
cerpted from them reports of atrOci-
ties nndel' the title Letters Of the
INNS Many Of the leaders in the
reichstag felt very keenly the brutality
OF the emperor's speech. The obnox-
ions word "Huns" had excited almost
universal condemnation. When the
reiehstag met, in November, the speech
was openly discussed. Herr Lieber Of
the center Catholic party) after quot
ing rue mo mercy" portion Of the
speech, added, "There are, alas, in Ger
many groups enough who have regard
ed the atrocities told in the letters
which have been published as the duti-
Nful response of soldiers SO addressed
ana encouraged" The leader of the
social democrats, Herr Bebel, spoke
ever more pointedly. Toward the end
Of rwo-hour address on the atrocities
committed by the German soldiers in
China and on the speech of the en-
peror, he said:
"if Germany wishes to be the bearer
of civilization to the world, we will
fellow without contradiction But the
WAYS and means in which this world
policy has been carried on thus far, in
which it has been defined by the en-
pefor are not, in our opinion,
rlle way to preserve the world position
Of Germany, to gain for Germany the
respect of the world"
The consequences of the emperor's
speech Bebel aptly described:
by it the signal was given, garbed
In the highest authority of the German
empire, which must have most weighty
consequences, not only for the troops
who went TO China but also for those
who stayed at home. An expedition
OF revenge so barbarous as this has
never occurred in the last hundred
years and not often in history; at
least. nothing worse than this has hap.
pened in history, either done by the
Huns, by the Vandals, by Genghis
Khan. by Tamerlane, or even by lilly
when he sacked Magdeburg."
Atrocities in China.
These atrocities in China or tLetters
of the Huns" continued to be published
in the Vorwaerts for several years and
appeared intermittently in the debates
of the reichstag as late as 1905. At
that time the socialist, Herr Kunert,
reviewing the procedure in trial of
which he had been the victim in the
previous summer, stated that he had
offered to prove "that German soldiers
in China had engaged in wanton and
brutal ravaging; that plunder, pillage,
extortion, robbery, as well as rape and
sexual abuses of the worst kind, had
occurred on very large scale and that
German soldiers had participated in
them" He had not been given an op.
portunity to prove his allegations, but
had been sentenced to prison for three
months for assailing the honor of the
"whole German army The out;
rageousness Of this sentence was made
clear by the revelations, made in the
reichstag shortly afterwards, of SINH
lar atrocities committed by German
officials and soldiers in Africa in the
campaign against the Hereros. !;
For the guidance Of the officers In