Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-11
GERMANS LEAVE
REGIONS BARREN
Boast of Customary Care
in Devastating Areas
as They Flee
DELIBERATE VANDALISM
By G.. II. PERRIS
pecial Gable TO Epening Public Ledger


CopVri0ht. 1918. BY the Nec York Times Co.
With the French Armies. Sept. II.
French patrols have reached Ira
vecy on the Disc north OF La Fere.
Over the whole front on both sides
| of 81. Quentin the armies OF Generals
Debeny and Humbert are approach
| ing or already have reached the AL
lied trenches of the middle of March.
A very heavy downpour OF rain sug-
gested the fall of theatre curtain
upon a completed act.
We are, however, not vet back
everywhere upon the positions of six
months ago. for the enemy is holding
obstinately to the eastern corner of
the hills between the NeSe and the
Aisne. and except on the west. about
LaffauX. General Ma ngin Is not yet
near the Chemin -des- DANES.
The troops were very grateful for
the Frightening Of the weather in the
afternoon. for the field of the French
advance toward st. Quentin and ST.
| Gobain is now wilderness in which
there is not the least shelter and
scarcely any fuel Is to be found
notice that authorized writer's in the
German press glory in this fact.
"A decisive struggle" says Colo
mel Gaedke. will be made more diff
ficult for the enemy by the devasta-
ton of the regions that now form a
buckler before the German armies and
will contribute to their successful de-
fense" An official Wolff message Of
September 1 says the Allies will find
for winter ground completely bare and
devastated, and on the following day
the same agency remarked: "rhe
abandonment of this sector north of
the Oisel was prepared with our GUS
tomary care, and we have been able
without being interrupted to take
away from this region everything that
would be of any use to the adversary"
'The customary care" of the Ger
man army from the highest to the
/ lowest commands in the execution Of
| acts of wholesale destruction and OF
theft is characteristic to which since
| the beginning of the war, I have had
| often to testify. at first with reluct-
| anCe, afterward with a deepening and
now a long-conf1rmed disgust The
popular term of Hun misrepresents
the facts; these are not acts Of saw
agery. but cold -blooded and highly
scientific rapine. They are not ac-
cidental but fundamental parts of the
! German campaign. Cities like Noyon
and scores Of villages sometimes. it
is true, were much damaged by bonn
bardment, but have afterward been
completely razed by fire and explo-
~ives. However, every useful arti-
. Gle had been first removed.
One of nv companions brought
away from Noyon on Sunday one of
the German notice boards directing
the soldiery to the "korps beautesam-
melstelle." or loot store, which Is con-
veniently fixed near the station. De-
tailed instructions lie before me for
| the seizure, throughout the occupied
country of the wool filling of mat
| tresses and cushions, of which 1t is
stated 10000 tons already had been
obtained on July 3. and from whicn
millions of uniforms had been made.
Instances like this could be multi
| piled indefinitely. 1t is western
replica of the indemnity of six mil
liards which the same men are squeez-
ing out of Russia through the Bolshe-
vik preachers of the formula, mo an
nexations, no indemnities."
Horrible Marks Of War
September s. The tide of war that
! has here flowes and ebbed thrice has
! left peculiarly horrible marks in the
| triangle between the Oise, the Aisne
and the Ailette. The countryside IT.
| self. outside of the old front from
Noyon to Scissors, is not disfgured
| as badly as the battlefields OF the
/ Somme or Nerdun, but the villages
and small towns farms and large