The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1918-04-12

The last and most important entry
is that contained in Diary No. 10.
This is blue book interleaved with
blotting paper, and contains no name
and address; there is, however, one
circumstance which makes it possible
to speak with certainty as to the
regiment of the writer. He gives
the names of First Lieutenant Won
Open, Count Eulenburg, Captain
Won Roeder, First Lieutenant Won
Book and Polach, Second Lieutenant
Count Hardenberg, and. Lieutenant
Engelbrecht. A persual of the Prus-
sian Army list of June, 1914, shows
that all these officers, with the ex-
ception of Lieutenant Engelbrecht,
belonged to the First Regiment of
Foot Guards. On Aug. "a, 1914,
the writer was in Ermeton. The
exact translation of the extract, grim
in it's brevity, is as follows:
"24.8.14. We took about 1000
prisoners: at least 500 were, shot.
The village was burned because in
habitants had also shot. Two civil
ians were shot at once
We may now sum up and endeavor
to explain the character and sig
niflcance of the wrongful acts done
by the German Army in Belgium.
If line is drawn on a map from
the Belgian frontier to Liege and
continued to Charleroi, and second
line drawn from Liege to Malines,
a sort of figure resembling an ir-
regular Y will be formed. 1t is
along this Y that most of the sys
tematic Gas opposed to isolated) out
RACES were committed. If the period
from Aug. to Aug. 80 is taken it
will be found to cover most of these
organized outrages. Termonde and
Alost extend, it is true, beyond the
Y lines, and they belong to the
month Of September Murder, rape,
arson, and pillage began from the
moment when the German Army
crossed the frontier. For the first
fortnight of the war the towns and
villages near Liege were the chief
sufferers From Aug. 10 to the end
of the month, .outrages spread in the
directions of Charleroi and Malines
and reach their period of greatest
intensity. There is a certain sig
nifcance in the fact that the out
RACES around Liege coincide with the
unexpected resistance of the Belgian
Army in the district, and that the
slaughter which reigned from Aug.
19 to the end of the month is con-
temporaneous with the period when
the German Army's need for quick
passage thru Belgium at all costs
was deemed imperative.
Here let distinction be drawn
between two classes of outrages.
Individual acts of brutality-ill-
treatment of civilians, rape, plunder,
and the like-were very widely COM
mitted. These are more numerous
and more shocking than would be
expected in warfare between civil
lied powers, but they differ rather
in extent than in kind from what
has happened in previous tho not
recent wars.
In all wars many shocking and
outrageous acts must be expected,
for in every large army there must
be a proportion of men of criminal
instincts whose worst passions are
unloosed by the immunity which the
conditions of warfare afford. Drunk
enness, moreover, may turn even a
soldier who has no criminal habits
into a brute, who may commit out
RACES at which he would himself be
shocked in his sober moments, and
there is evidence that intoxication
was extremely prevalent among the
German Army, both in Belgium and
in France, for plenty of wine was to
be found in the villages and country
houses which were pillaged. Many
of the worst outrages appear to have
been perpetrated by men under the
influence of drink. Unfortunately,
little seems to have been done to
repress this source of danger.
In the present war, however-and
this is the gravest charge against
the German Army-the evidence
shows that the killing of rioncom-
batants was carried out to an extent
for which no previous war between
nations claiming to be civilized, (for
such cases as the atrocities perpe
trated by the Turks on the Bulga-
rian Christians in 1875, and on the
Armenian Christians in 1895 and in
1895, do not belong to that cate
CORY, furnishes any precedent. That
this killing was done as part of
deliberate plan is clear from the
facts hereinbefore set forth regard
ing Louvain, Aerschot, Dinant, and
nf har foxuo Tho killing moc dona