French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1917-09-27
A GERMAN ON GERMAN 1N1oUITIEs

80 Il boI
For rather more than three years
the world has waited to hear the truth
about Germany from German lips. 1t
seemed almost impossible that there
should not be n man with the cour-
age to bear witness against unexam-
pied brutality, ruthlessness, and du-
plicity. Such a man., apt for the sal
walton OF the Fatherland with truth
telling, has at last been found in DE-
Harry Stuermer, former co~rrespon-
dent of the KOlnische Zeitung. Inval-
ided from the army, after fighting in
the Masurian Lake region, he was sent
by his newspaper. in 1915, to Turkey,
where he beheld the depths to which
Turkish bestiality. could descend, and
took the measure of German c~owardice
and synicism, which could aid and abet
the Armenian massacres. Deeply
moved. to indignation, he sent reports
which the censor suppressed. and foi
which he was dismissed by his employ
eJts. When he still persisted in out
spoken condemnation of the govern
ment, he was recalled to the colors.
although declared absolutely unfit for
service. How he finally managed TO
get to Switzerland is not known. But
now, at the sacrifice of his whole fu-
ture. without hope of reward in any
direction, lhe publishes his bookk, 1.-TWO
War Years in Constantinople," an in
.dictment of Germany as terrible and
damning as any brought against her by
her enemies.
He begins his testimony with his
service in the Masurian campaign.
when he met many officers who had
come from Belgium and who frankly
told the same stories If German ter
rOrism as thoes which appeared in the
report. Stuermor's immediate
superior was most prolific in this type
of "reminiscences:
When We wanted to make a requisI-
ton or plumber a house, We had a very
simple form of procedures: one OF my
was ordered to slip a Belgian gun
through a cellar window into the
house in question. Then we made a
search for hidden weapons; if we
found only one rifle We were ordered
to confiscate everything without pity,
and bring away the people"
One of the best-known German cor
respondents, Paul SCHNEIDER. who, sa IS
Stuermer, s~ynically tells the truth In
but publishes what the govern
nent prescribes, told him that when he
in Belgium he saw much worse
.hings than this. He assured Stuer-
ner that there had been thousands of
cases of women and young girls of the
best Belgian families" assaulted by
German soldiers who remained unpun-
.ished in most instances.
Stuermer proceeds to tell of the
Kings he himself saw in Constantine
pie, with his own eyes, as we'll as what
ne was told by German eye-witneeses.
He beheld the commencement. in Con-
tantinople, of that terrible via crucIs
which thousands of refined Ar
nenian men, women, and children
we're forced to set out, and which, If
ate were kind, ended in death out on
he desolate plains Of Asia Minor, or
he parched shores of the E~uphrates.
Tor months he was daily witness Of
roops of Armenians driven through :
through the streets Pera for deporta- :
ion to the railway station. Each city |
uarter had to deliver it's quota of vic
ms. The men and boys went on foo -
he women. crowded in street cars )
very evening, down to Galata. His =
fife, passing. the police station, on =,
he main street of the European quar- !
er. one day, heard the grOans of ant !
.remenian who. as the policeman in :
)rmed her, was being tortured. Struer -
Ter himself did not witness what hap :
ened to these unfortunates on their {
-ay to destruction in. the interior; nor
i'd he personally see what was done L
l AnatoIia and Aremenia proper OIL
lie Aremenian peasants. But he was
I'D by individual Germans men of hu c
.ane instincts, who had been Mortified s
IS anders, that nothing written 9hout
Armenian massacres can pOssibiS }
been exaggerated. 1t does not "
the confederation of his fellow
,untrymen. the German missionaries "
l the suot, who have been o%utspoken v
4 this subject, to induce belief in n
,uermer's honesty. His garphic and p
.ssionate account of what he saw and +
of itself compels belief.
Having established Turkish bound
ss~ guilt In this Armenian slaughter, e
q most terrible massacre since F
SH&f AAEEE ~