The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-01-04

courts dangers, cannot take only in +
proportion to the resources of the
country He must take all that is nee
esSary to his existence. One has no I
right to demand of him anything super
human" THE great good in war Is
that it should be ended quickly. In
view of this, every means, except those
which are positively condemnable
must be permitted. | cannot, in any
way, agree with the declaration Of St.
Petersburg when it pretends that the
weakening of the military forces of the
enemy constitutes the only legitimate
method Of procedure in war. No, One
must attack all the resources of the
enemy government, his finances. his
railroads, his stock Of provisions and /
even his prestige. ;"
Many other examples might be cited |
from the writings of German generals. |
The very best Illustration of this atti-
| tude, however, is to be found in the |
emperOr's various speeches, and eSpc- /
cially in his speech to his soldiers on !
the eve of their departure for China in |
| 1900. On July 81 the kaiser went to
! Bremerhayen to bid farewell to the
| German troops. As they were drawn
| UP, ready TO embark for China, he i'd
| dressed to them last official message
| from the fathcrland. The local news
| paper reported his speech in full. In
it appeared this advice and admonition
from the emperor, the commander in
chief Of the army, the head of all Ger
many:
Soldiers Told to Be Merciless.
AS soon as YOU come to blows with
the enemy he will be beaten. No mercy
viii be shown! No prisoners will be
taken. As the Huns, under King At
tia. made 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 10 look at German askance. =.
Open the way for Kultur once for oil"
Even tho 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. \ few weeks later.
when the letters from the German sol
dicrs in China were being published
in local German papers, the leading
socialist newspaper, Norwaerts, ox-
cerptcd from them reports of atroci-
ties under the title Letters Of the
| Huns" Many Of the leaders in the
reichstag felt very kecnly the brutality
~ ~ hn nh
ious word "IIuns" had excited almost
universal condemnation. When the
reichstaC 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. "ThCrc are. alas. In Ger
many groups enough who have regard
Cd 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 Bebel. spoke
, even more pointedly. Toward the enc
If a two-hour address on the atrocities
-, committed by the German soldiers il
China and on the speech of the EN-
- peror, he said:
"A III Germany wishes to be the bearer
>, Of civilization to the world, we vii
follow without contradiction. But th'
i ways and means in which this worlt
h. policy has been carried on thus far, il
20 which 1t has been defined Ivy the en-
per0c are not, in our opinion
the way to preserve the world position
Of Germany, to gain for Germany tn
respect Of the world"
- The consequences Of the emperor
= speech Bcbel aptly described;
49, by it the signal was given. garbe
in the highest authority of the Germa
empire. which must have most weight
n consequences, not only for the troop
IL who went TO China but also for thos
= who stayed at home. An expeditio
- Of revenge SO harbarous as this ha
49, never occurred in the last hundre
" years and not often in history; :
-. least. nothing worse than this has hal
do pened in history. either done by til
- Huns, by the Vandals, by Gengh
y. Khan, by Tamerlane. or even by Till
Ds when he sacked Magdeburg.'
m. Atrocities in China.
be These atrocities in China or Letter
us of the Huns" continued to be publishe
ro- in the Norwaerts for several years III
"a appeared Internationally in the debate
he of the rcichstag as late rs 1906.
rX- that time the socialist, Herr Kuncl
CO. reviewing the procedure in Il trial
VS. which he had been the victim in Il
tn previous summer, stated that he Ii;
hin offered to prove that German soldie
not in China had engaged in wanton 81
brutal ravaging; that plumber, pllae
los extorton, robbery. rs well as rape 81
ity sexual abuses of the worst kind. h;
mn occurred on very large scale and III
an German soldiers had participated
them" He had not been given an G
rod portunity to prove his allegations, b
ar. had been sentenced TO prison for thr
a.. months for assailing the honor Of t
II :, "whole German army" The OF
tlr ragcousness of this sentence was ma