Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-22
Foes SaUdgery
Is Told by France
Continued from Page One

Sohthueu from rage One
cerned, could be given II an officially
stamped document were necessary.
The commission consisted of the following
gentlemen: Georges Payele president of
the Cour des Complies: Armand Mollard,
Minister Plenipotentlary, attached TO the
Ministry Of Foreign Affairs; Georges
Maringer, State Counselor, and Edmond 4
Paillot, counselor at the Cour de Cessation.
The legal and judicial standing of these
four men Is as high as any in France.
They spent weeks in the devastated dis
tricts. personally examined that which is
left of towns, villages, hamlets and country
side; interviewed under oath hundreds of
people who testified only as to that which
they had either seen or experienced These
six extracts serve in themselves to record
blacker record against any nation, civil
lied or barbarian, than exists anywhere else
In the annals of the world.
In Douilly a young wife who had given
birth TO a still-born child three hours be-
fore was dragged from her bed and sent
off to slavery. She fell three times, and
in each instance was beaten and kicked
until she arose. with the fourth time
death came 1t was upon the high road out
stde/Nesle, two kilometers from her home.
Her name was Camille Depuy, her age
twenty-sX, and her husband, a cripple
through an accident in early life, gave
this testimony, having witnessed the OUT
rage with his own eyes He had been shot
through the shoulder by a Boche lieu
tenant as he leaned over his dead wife,
whom he had not been permitted TO aid in
her last Journey
In Chauney a woman whose flfteen-year-
old daughter had been carried away went
in an agony of frenzy to Major Berg
schmidt, who represented the German COM
| mander. She was accompanied by the
! Mayor Of the town. AS the mother, tear
ing her hair, fell at the feet of the officer,
the latter looked at the Mayor and said.
Have her taken away or l will have
her whipped. And know the words pity
and humanity do not exist in my die
tonary"
The woman's name was Marguerite Dos
sier. Her daughters name was Louise.
| They lived in the Rue Drone, In Chaulney.
Every human being in Holnon, Atsne,
| that lived in the village while it was in the
| possession of the Germans, was kept at
| work in the fields save during the dead of
| winter. Their hours were from in the
morning to in the evening, with an hour at
| noon, and two flfteen-minute intervals in
| the morning and the afternoon. Their total
| was 164, in age from children Of nine to old
| folks as aged as eighty-one Sixteen died
| in the fields from exhaustion. guard OF
! soldiers with stout sticks stood over them
| and beat any who ceased even from fatigue
| The testimony comes from nineteen of the
| survivors, too aged to be carried away al
! evacuation Portion of an official poster
covering the German decree as to the work
| required from these poor people read as
| follows:
Lazy women will be exiled from the
town to Germany. First. they will be
beaten, and imprisoned upon bread and
water for six days.
Lazy children will receive ten lashes
from a cat-o-nine-tails.
| Lazy men will be given twenty lashes,
and no food for thirty-six hours.
Severe punishment will be meted out
to whomsoever destroys this poster. or
| even defaces it.
(Signed) GLOSS,
/ Colonel Commanding.
Leon Oudard, sixty.six years old, Mayo
| of Floignes, a little village in the Somm,
| region, was accused of harboring French
! spies. Nothing was proved against him
But the official poster pasted on the wall
of the Mayors house tells what happened
| to him
Leon Oudard, farmer and Mayor of
Floignes, has maintained relations with
the enemy. He was shot against the wall
of his house at this morning and his
body thrown into quicklime. Others,
| take warning.
Elise Beyerd, a woman of Nesle, fifty
seven years old, was found to have con
| cealed food in her cellar. She was tieC
up against the door OF her house, her bacl
barred, and she was given thirty lashe
with a stout stick by soldier of Germany
| while a guard under the charge of 3
| lieutenant, looked on. The woman is only
now recovering in a Paris hospital Sht
will be a cripple for life, her shoulder hav
ing been broken while being beaten ant
medical attention refused 1t is impossible
| properly to set 1t now.
When the village of Rouy-le-Petit was
evacuated, the houses were set on fire II