Evening star., 1917-03-22
SUPPLIES
USED BY GERMANS
Suffering French in Occupied
Territory Deprived of Much
Food From America.
MANY PATHETIC SCENES

WAR CORRESPONDENTS HEAD
! QUARTERS WITH THE BRITISH
i ARMIES IN FRANCE, Wednesday.
March 81. from a stan correspondent
| of the Associated Press.-"We would
have starved If it had not been for the
| American relief commission" declared
a Frenchwoman in the city hall of
Nesle today to the correspondent,
speaking for herself and her two little
children. their pallid faces and high
| cheek bones giving evidence Of their
privations.
Wherever one went in the territory
| recently evacuated by the Germans the
same story was repeated. There are
many other stories of hardship being
told. although most OF the inhabitants
said the German soldiers had been
well disciplined and kept strictly under
control.
1t was repeatedly asserted. however,
/ that within the past few weeks the Ger
mans had appropriated some OF the
American relief stores to their own use,
even to the extent of three-fourths OF
the supplies. 1t was also said that the
Germans took possession of the White
flour. issuing black -four instead to the
inhabitants.
Joyous at Liberation.
Some OF the peasants encountered IN
the evacuated territory were plainly joy
Gus at their liberation. Others appeared
to have their spirits broken. Their atti-
tude was one of absolute submission to
anything that might happen. Many young
children who had seen nothing but German
soldiers in their lives stared today in al
most stupid wonder at the British Tom
mics clad in khaki and wearing their steel
hats.
One of the greatest ordeals the peo-
pie said they had to endure was to
stand by and see their homes broken
up by the Germans as the soldiers
were leaving. In some instances the
French Inhabitants who had been heid
virtually as prisoners during the Ger
man occupation had been segregated in
certain parts of the village, while the
work of destruction was going on else
where.
Civilians Killed by Shells.
At Rouy, however. it was stated and
reiterated by scores of persons, that
the inhabitants of this village and OF
several other villages had been gath
cred at Rouy-le-Petit in certain
houses and told to remain In them a
certain number of hours while the Ger
mans got away.
While SO herded together. they de-
clared the Germans had sent zoo shells
into the village, killing several per-
sons The funerals which were in
progress in the village today lent color
TO the story. People in other villages
also assert that they distinctly heard
this firing and thought that a battle
was in progress.
Forced to Work in Trenches.
1t was pitiful to motor today through
villages which had been far from
the firing line and untouched by any
shells, and yet were lying in absolute
ruins. Active steps are being taken
by both the British and the French to
relieve the people in the liberated zone.
About the only persons seen are old
men, women and children. Boys who
had attained the age of sixteen years
or more since the German occupation
and men who were considered over the
military age by the French were taken
off by the Germans for work behind
their lines Many Of these French boys
and old men had been compelled to
work in the German trenches. where.
they said they also met many Beigians
and Russians, the latter, OF course
being prisoners of war.
It was asserted that one of the rea-
sons for the wholesale deportation of
Belgians was the necessity Tor ms
labor in constructing the new posi-
tions to which the Germans have fallen
back. A..
soldiers from this work and SO en-
pIoyed these unwilling civilians and
prisoners
Trees Are Sawed Down.