Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-26
5NDREDS OF NONCOMBATANTc H7r1
N9s VICTIMS OF HINDENBURC RETpEAr
ROld Men, Women and Children Succumb 70 px......
Starvation and Mistreatment in Territory Abandoned
by Germans-Teuton Soldiers Themselves
Shrink From Vile Dutv
By HENRY WOOD

WITH THE FRENCH ARMIES IN THE
"pATHwAY OF THE GERMAN RE-
TREAT, March 20
More than 500 women. children and aged
.,en are known to have succumbed to the
sardship the exposure. the brutality and
.Ss starvation which the Germans imposed
nnon the French civil population imme-
Sstely preceding and during the retreat.
In Chauny alone ! learned officially today
40 victi,ns number $50 They were buried
coffinless---in corner of the village
n.otbs are stll occurring daily among the
"srgees now under French care.
'AIong the roads leading from Ham
r,,iscard Chauny, Tergner and La Ferc to
S.o,,on. where on Tuesday ] personally met
sn,v refugees fleeing afoot from the Ger
w., hombardment encountered today auto
,h,,s convoys. After taking munitions and
.,rn,ies to front points, where fighting is
.sa,, on these automobiles were returning
go ,;ith refugees too sick or too cX-
h,usted to proceed afoot'
TbI =, were mostly the aged, Many were
s,.ing from hardship, exposure and starva-
A. bu,--as they acknowledging happily.
..or,iug their villages were redeemed and
.,s,.Iying loved ones freed from German
don,nation.
tr,.ar,. one of the refugees with whom |
.,,od declared the greatest mortality re-
sn,ed from a barbarouS system OF inspec-
.o, which the Germans employed immedi-
stnly preceding the retreat. The civil pop
u,otion of the entire district to be evacuated
us concentrated in great camps. All were
.dared to present themselves at fixed
Sa,o Cor final census of identification
slthough the temperature ranged from
..ro ~ o degrees below in the various con-
.ortration centers, every one was forced to
.,her in an open square. The sick were
sss.ried on stretchers the exhausted and
ssnIess we're borne by their less helpless
friends. , ~
-, Cor the inspection--these ill-clad i'll
rourished refugees were forced to wait in
thie freezing cold, without shelter, without
tood for five or six hours before the Ger
mans arrived.
Az Chauny where 5000 women, children
and aged men underwent such ordeal
,hree died in the open street before the
inspection was concluded. Thirty died in
the following night from pneumonia, lung
congestion and pleurisy.
On succeeding days the resulting deaths
yeached 15O Others were still dying today
from similar affections.
This was true not only of Chauny, but
sf other concentration centers as well--the
number of deaths depending on the degree
Of cold and the length of exposure.
In the larger towns in the path of the
German retreat. like Ham. Chauny and
Tergnier. refugees said today. the destruc-
tion of houses and property continued for
three weeks before the retreat was ac-
tualIy begun. Meantime the population was
massed in the poorest districts of the cities.
often twenty or thirty persons were forced
10 occupy a single room, without heat and
almost without food.
Regular crews of destroyerS systematic.
cally burned and dynamited houses in other
PARTS of the city. Moving vans carried
off to Germany furniture and valuables,
Some officers, from General Won tteck
down carried off furniture from rooms
which they usually occupied, burning what
remained Some officers apologlzed to the
population, declaring they were forced to
carry out the Kaser's orders.
Ham, like Roye, was blown up during the
night The explosions and shocks terri
fed the French civilians. They did not
know the wholesale destruction was planned
and they had not been permitted to see
the preparations. When the detonations
shook the city they were huddled together
IN a panic They had been strictly for
bldden to leave the houses in which they
were packed before morning Then, when
dawn came and they did emerge, they found
the Germans gone.
The mining of Roye, Ham and other
towns was begun three weeks before the
fuses were finally touched off. German
miners worked at night only, in order to
avoid observation of Allied aviators.
The vandalism of the troops reached
such disgusting degrees that an occasional
German soldier, even an occasional officer.
confessed, | am told, in guarded pleas to
the French inhabitants that they were
sckened by them. but obliged to carry out
Won Hindenburg's orders.