New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-12-14

right to demand of him anything super
human" 1.-THE great good In war |,
that 1t should be ended quickly. II
view of this, every means, except those
which are positively condemnable
must be permitted. l cannot, In any
way, agree with the declaration Of ST
Petersburg when 1t 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-
cially In his speech to his soldiers on
the eve Of their departure for China In
1900. On July p the kaiser went to
bremerhaven to bid farewell to the
German troops. As they were drawn
up, ready to embark for China, he ad-
dressed to them a last official message
from the fatherland. The local news
paper reported his speech in full. In
1t appeared this advice and a%dmOnitlOn
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
mar be so fixed in China by your deeds.
that no Chinese shall ever again dare
even to look at a German askance. .
Open the way for Kultur once for ALL"
Even the imperial councillors seem to
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 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, In November, the speech
was openly discussed. Herr Liebpr 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
have been published as the duti-
ful response of soldiers SO addressed
and encouraged" The leader of the
social democrats, Herr BebeI, spoke
v more pOintedly. Toward the end
Of Il twO-hOur address on the atrocities
by the German soldiers In
China and on the speech of the EN- |
peror, he said:
IF Germany wishes to be the bearer
Df civilization to the world, we will
without contradiction. But the |
and means in which this world |
has been carried on thus far, In
which it has been defined by the EN-
)eror . are not, in our opinion,
he way to preserve the world position
If Germany, to gain for Germany the
aspect of the world"
The consequences of the emperor's
speech Bebel aptly described:
by 1t the signal was given, CARRIED
n the highest authority of the German
which mus have most welghty
consequences, not only for the troops
Who vent to China but also for those
Who stayed at home. An expedition
# revenge so barbarOus as this has
lever occurred in the last hundred
and not often in history; at
east, nothing worse than this has hap
'ened in history, either done by the
Iuns, by the vandals, by Genghis
Khan, by Tamerlane. Or even by lilly
he sacked Magdeburg."
Atrocities In China.
These atrocities in China or Letters
t the Huns" continued to be published
n the VOrwaerts for several years and
ppeared Internationally in the debates
f the %relchstag as late as 1903. At
hat time the socialist, Herr Kunert,
eviewing the procedure in a trial Of
hitch he had been the victim in the
revious summer, stated that he had
to prove that German soldiers
China had engaged in wanton and
ravaging; that plumber. pillage,
robbery. as well as rape and
pxual abuses Of the worst kind, had
on a very large scale and that
erman soldiers had participated in
lem." He had not been given an op-
Ortunity to prove his allegations, but
nd been sentenced to prison for three
Ionths for assailing the honor of the
whole German army" The out
of this sentence was made
ear by the revelations, made in the
shortly afterwards, of SINH
r atrocities committed by German
and soldiers in Africa In the
lmpaign against the Hereros.
These ideas, which have come to
,ntrOl the minds of the military
ass, are best shown in the German
ar Book" ("Kriegsbrauch i'm Land
published in 1902. The tone J
this authoritative book may be I
dyed from the following extracts:
Teachings Of German War Book.
but since the tendency of thought
the last century was dominated es- t
by humanitarian considera- q
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