The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1917-10-03

excuse can be offered for such an
action in occupied territory"
Various Belgian officers have told
me of seeing crowds Of men, women
and children driven ahead of ! the
German army to protect the troops
This is so incredible that I must ask
whether it has any foundation OF
truth"
Protected Advance.
at is quite true. 1t is a barbarous
and inhuman system Of protecting
the German advance. When the
Belgian soldiers fired on the enemy
they killed their own people. Again
/ and again innocent civilians of both
sexes were sacrificed to protect the
invading army during attacks. A
terrible slaughter"
There was much more to the in
terview, but this part is the part
that concerns us now.
There is no surmiSe in the king s
statement. 1t is quiet, dignified, rs
restrained as possible, a bare recital
of facts. OF the right of Germany
to invade Belgium there may be diff
fering opinions. On the right Of any
army pretending to civilization to SO
protect it's advance there can be but
one verdict.
The king Of the Belgians has
spoken as a ruler and soldier. A
kings statement and a mans.
Il have never before broken the
silence of my interview with Eliza
beth, queen of the Belgians, that
small, frail and heroic woman, who
has lived for three years under the
roar of the artillery at Dixmude and
Nieuport. But the time has come to
break that silence. Not all can be
told, but because an infamous re-
port has been spread broadcast that
Elizabeth of Belgium sympathizes
with Germany / shall tell some Of
the things she said.
Interviews Queen,
Again 1 quote from my notes Of
that interview:
1T is the women and children!"
she said. 1T is terrible. There must
be killing. That is war. But not
this other thing" 81
She could not understand Ameri-
can skepticism on this point. She
had but just returned from England,
where in one convent twenty-nine
Belgian nuns were enCeinte by Ger
man soldiers. She had visited them.
That to her was the most terrible
thing Of war. That these quiet wom-
en-, living their devout and simple
lives. should have suffered so grossly
bewildered and dazed her. Was
there nothing, then. sacred to these
invaders, not even the church,
"They were terrible, she said,
especially what they have done to
women and children. But more than
any men in the world the Germans
| are cruel to women. I have seen
them myself when they did not know
who I was-on trains sometimes
not since the war. of course. But
the very way they stare at women
| is odious.
Churches Profaned.
She thought that this attitude of
the Germans explained many things.
And she told me in detail revolving
stories Of the PROCLAMATION of
churches under the pretext, totally
unfounded, that the Belgian
churches were store-houses for
arms. She told me. too. of the
especial cruelty they had shown to
priests and nuns; of. locking the
priests in churches and, after in
sulting the altar, OF killing them.
l said 1t was difficult to say what
any army would do in an occupied
country. But she protested.
DO you think the Belgians would
have done such things? Never.
|
possible. But the Germans have
committed thousands of crimes.
have sat in this very room while the
diaries of German soldiers were
read. Even If we have had no other
means of knowing, those diaries
would have told us everything. They
relate unspeakable crimes
We can not impeach that testi-
mony. But we can add to it. At
British headquarters later on an Of
| ficer high on the staff Of Lord
French told me of following the
German retreat at the battle Of the
Marne and verifying with his own
eyes, for his own satisfaction, the
brutalities Of the invaders in oc-
cupied towns.
Let us see, for a moment, what
the Belgians had a right to expect
from the invading army, considering
Belgium not neutral but enemy ter
ritory. Germany had subscribed to
The. Hague convention, that gentle
mans agreement between nations
which was designed. since wars
seemed inevitable. to make for fair
ness and decency.
What Was Expected.
BY Article AS of that convention,
Belgium, as enemy territory, has
this claim:
Family honor and rights, individ-
ual life. and private property, as well
as religious convictions and worship,
must be respected.
Private property may not be con-
fiscated."
Article %:
THE giving over to pillage Of a
town or place, even when taken by
assault, is forbidden.
I'm sieges and bombardments all
/ necessary steps must be taken to
spare, as far as possible, buildings
dedicated to public worship, art. sci
ence, or charitable purposes, historic
monuments, hospitals, and places
where the sick and wounded are coll
lected, provided they are not being
used at the time for military pur-
poses"
That is what Belgium had a right
to expect. What she has had, in
wanton destruction Of cities and Of
historical monuments, we know.
That is what France, too, had right
to expect. and what she got that also
we know.
On every one of these counts Ger
many must plead guilty. Every vio-
lation of them is one reason why we
are at war.
We are at war today not because
the crown prince Of Austria was
killed in Serbia but because the Ger
man army protected it's advance
with Observation-Disclosures, women,
and children.
We are at war today not because
German submarines sunk battleships
but because they have sunk and are
sinking peaceful vessels, little fish
ing boats, when the fishermen were
laboring to get p scant livelihood,
and great unarmed passenger ships
carrying noncombatants - men,
women. and children.
We are at war because of those
citizens of conquered Belgium who