The Wrangell sentinel., 1918-02-14

Bremerhaven to bid farewell to the German troops. As they were drawn up, ready to embark for China. he ad dressed to them last official message from the fatherand. The local news paper reported his speech in full. In it appeared this advice and admontion from the emperor, the commander in chief of the army the head of all Ger many:
 Soldiers Told to Be MerciIess.
 "As soon as you come to blows with the enemy he will he beaten. No mercy will be shown. No prisoners will be taken As the Huns. under King At tfla, made Il name for themselves, which is still mighty in traditions and legends today, may the name of Ger man be so fixed in China by your deeds, that no Chinese shall ever again dare even to look at a German aSkance. Open the way for Kultur once for all."
 Even the imperial councillors seem to have been shocked at the emperor's speech, and efforts were promptly made to suppress the circulation of his exact words. The efforts were only partly successful. A few weeks later when the letters from thr German sol. dierS in China were being published. in local German papers, the leading socialist newspaper Vorwnerts, eX- cerpted from them reports of atroci- ties under the title Letters of the Huns." Many of the leaders in the reichStag felt very keenly the brutality of the emperor's speech. The obnoX- ious word Huns" had excited almost universal condemnation When the reichstag met. in November. the speech was openly discussed. Herr Lieber of the center Catholic party), after quot ing the mo mercy" portion of the speech. added. 'There are alas. in Ger many groups enough who have regard ed the atrocities told in the letters which have been published as the duti- full response of soldiers so addressed and encouraged" The leader of the social democrats, Herr Bebe. spoke even more pointedly. Toward the end of a two-hour address on the atrocities committed by the German soldiers in China and on the speech of the em peror, he said:
 "If Germany wishes to be the bearer of civilization to the world, we will follow without contradiction. But the ways and means in which this world policy has been carried on thus far, in which it has been defined by the em- persr .. are not in our opinion, the way to preserve the world position of Germany, to gain for Germany the respect of the world"
 The consequences of the emperor's speech Bebel aptly described:
 "By it the signal was given, garbed in the highest authority of the German empire. which must have most weighty consequences, not only for the troops who went to China but also for those who stayed at home. An expedition of revenge so barbarouS as this has never occurred in the last hundred years and not often In history; at least. nothing worse than this has hap pened in history, either done by the Huns, by the Vandals, by Genghis Khan, by Tamerlane or even by lilly when he sacked Magdeburg."
 Atrocities in China.
 These atrocities in China or Letters of the Huns' continued to be published in the Vorwaerts for several years and appeared intermittently in the debates of the reichstag as late as 1906. At that time the socialist, Herr Kunert reviewing the procedure in q trial of which he had been the victim in the previous summer, stated that he had offered to prove that German soldiers in China had engaged in wanton and brutal ravaging; that plunder pillage extortion robbery, as well as rape and sexual abuses of the worst kind, had occurred on q very large scale and that German soldiers had participated in them." He had not been given an op. portunity to prove his allegations. but had been sentenced to prison for three months for assailing the honor of the "whole German army" The out nervousness of this sentence was made clear by the revelations, made in the reichstag shortly afterwards, of simi lar atrocities committed by German officials and soldiers in Africa in the | campaign against the Herer0S.
 For the guidance of the officers i'll case the inhabitants of conquered ter ritory should take up arms against the German army, the German War Book" quotes with approval the letter Napoleon sent to his brother Joseph 'The security of your dominion de bends on how you behave in the con quered province. Burn down a dozen places which are not willing to sub init themselves. of course, not until you have first footed them; my sol ; diers must not be allowed to go away with their hands empty. Have three to six persons hanged in every villag. 5 which has joined the revolt; pay nC respect to the coSsack" (that is, tC members of the clerBy).