The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1917-11-01

| were hIeu Ut lne GeTlilun soldiers, this
may always be cOndoned in a country
suffering Invasion. During an Occupa-
ton 1t would be different, naturally.
No 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 Ger
man army to protect the troops. This
is so incredible that must ask
whether 1t has any foundation of
truth?"
at is quite true. It Is n 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 inter.
view, but this part is the part that
concerns us now.
There is no surmise In the kings
statement. 1t is quiet, dignifed, as
restrained as possible, bare recital of
fact. On the right of Germany to in.
wade Belgium there may be differing
opinions. On the right of any army
pretending to civilization to so protect
its advance there can be but one YER
dict.
The king of the Belgians had
spoken as a ruler and a soldier. He
had himself fought with his army
those terrible rear-guard engagements
which could have but one end. He
himself had seen this thing, so shock
ing that it Is small wonder that
America heard it with incredulous
ears.
A kings statement and a mans.
How about a woman who herself had
been among the last to leave Brussels,
and before whom, in the intimacy of
that small villa at La Panne, came
soldiers and refugee mobiles with their
stories Of murder and debauch by the
invaders?
have never before broken the 81
lence Of my interview with Elizabeth,
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 be-
cause an infamous report has been
spread broadcast that Elizabeth of
Belgium sympathizes with Germany,
shall tell some Of the things she said
QUEEN TELLS OF HORRORS.
Again 1 quote from my notes Of
that interview:
''It is the women and children !"
she said "It is terrible. There must
be killing That is war. But not
this other thing"
She could not understand American
skepticism on this point. She had
but just returned from England,
where in one convent 20 Belgian nuns
were enceinte by German soldiers. She
had visited them.
That to her was the most terrible
thing of war. That these quiet women,
living their devout and simple lives,
should have suffered so grossly bewil
dered and dazed her. Was there moth
ing, then, sacred to these invaders, not
even the church?
II am a Bavarian," she said. "I
have always from my childhood heard
this talk that Germany must grow,
must get to the sea. thought it was
just talk-a pleasantly. And the lies
they have told about us! The en-
peror has always pretended to be so
friendly, and all the time"
She held out her hands expressively.
"Anyone who knows the king knows
that he cannot do wrong thing. 1t
is not possible for him. He cannot go
any way but straight"
Then she required to the invasion
and the terrible cruelties Of the Ger
man army.
"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. have seen them my
self when they did not know who l
was-on trains sometimes-not since
the war, of course. But the very way
they stare at women is odiOus."
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 insulting the
altar, Of killing them.
I said 1t was difficult to say what
any army would be in an occupied
country. But she protested.
OWN DIARIES CONVICT.
''Do you think the Belgians would
have done such things? Never. Never.
Isolated instances might be possible. |
But the Germans have committed |
of crimes. I have sat in |
this very room while the diaries of |
German soldiers were read. Even If |
we had had no other means of know
ing, those diaries would have told US
everything, They relate unspeakAble |
We cannot impeach that testimony. |
But we can add to it. At British head
quarters later on an officer high on the
staff of Lord French told me of follow
ing 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 occupied
towns.