The Kadoka press and Kadoka reporter. [volume] (Kadoka, S.D.) 1910-1923, 1917-12-21

essary 20 his existence one has no
right TO demand ut him anything supcr
human" "Thc great good I'm war is
that it should be ended quickly. In
view of this. every means. except those
which are positively condemnablc
must be permitted. 7 cannot. In any
way. agree with the declaration " s..
Petersburg when it pretcnds 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 uf 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 tins atti-
tude however. is 10 he found Ia the
ompCror'S various speeches. and espe-
CiQlly in his speech to his soldiers on
the eve of their departure for China In
1900, On Judy 27 the kaiser went TO
German troops. As they were drawn
up, ready 10 embark for China, he ad-
dressed to them last official message
from the fntherland. The local news
paper reported his speech in full. In
IL appeared this advice and udmonition
from the emperor, the commander in
chief of the army. the head Of all Ger
many:
Soldiers Told to Be Mereiless.
"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 ,he Huns, under King Al
tia, made name for themselves,
which is still mighty in traditions and
legends today, may the name of Ger
man be 50 fixed in China by your deeds,
that no Chinese shall ever again dare
even to look at a German askancc.
open the way for Kultur once for all
Even the imperial councillors seem to
have been shocked at the cmperor's
speech and efforts were promptly
made to suppress the circulation OF his
thdNl NbliN. Iit tuOi u WIZ oiAg
partly successful 4 few weeks later,
when the letters from the German sol
diers in China were being published,
in local German papers, the leading
socialist newspaper, Norwaerts, ex-
cerpted from them reports or atrOci-
| Ties under the title Letters of the
| Huns" Many Of the leaders in the
reichStag felt very keenly the brutality
| Of the emperor's speech. The obnox-
| ious word "Huns" had excited almost
| universal condemnation. When the
| reichStag met. i'm November, the speech
was openly discussed. Herr licbcr OF
the center Catholic party. after quot
ing the 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
! ful response Of soldiers 50 addressed
/ and encouraged" The leader of the
social democrats. Herr Bebcl, spoke
/ even more pointedly Toward the enc
Of rwo-hour address OF the atrocities
committed by The German soldiers il
China aud on the speech OF the EN-
peror, he said:
If Germany wishes 10 be The bearer
, OF civilization To the world, we vii
| follow without contradiction. But the
| ways and means in which this wOrlC
| policy has been carried on thus far, II
which 1t has been defined by the EN-
| DerOr are not, in our opinion
the way TO preserve the world position
Of Germany 10 gain for Germany tn
respect Of the world"
The consequences Of the emperor
speech Bcbel aptly described:
by II the signal was given, garbet
in the highest authority of the German
| empire, which must have most weight,
consequences, not only for the troop
| who went To China but also for t'loSt
who stayed at home. An expedition
of revenge so barbarous as this ha
never occurred in the last hundred
years and not often in history: a
least, nothing worse than this has hap
pened in history, either done by tn,
Huns, by the VaHdals, by Genghi
Khan, by Tamerlane, or even by Till.
when he sacked Magdeburg."
Atrocities in China.
These atrocities in China or Letter
of the Huns" continued to be published
in the Norwaerts for several years ant
appeared intermittently in the debate
of the reichStag as late as 1905. A
that time the socialist, Herr Kunert
reviewing the procedure in trial o
which he had been the victim in tn,
previous summer, stated that he ha'
offered TO prove that German soldier
in China had engaged in wanton an,
brutal ravaging; that plunder pillage
extOrtiOn. robbery. as well as rape ant
sexual abuses of the worst kind. hat
occurred on a very large scale and tha
German soldiers had participated II
| them" He had not been given an on