The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1918-01-18
GERMANS EXCUSE
ATROCIOUS ACTS
Murder, PIIIaee and Arson Part
Of Deliberate Scheme of
Warfare.
HIGH OFFICERS GO ON RECORD
NO Possible Evasion Of Responsibility
for 5estial Acts Which for centu.
rles Have Had No Parallel. III
Officially lndersed.

The people of the United State
zre beginning to learn the truth con
rern'ng the conduct Of the Uaf bi
Permong' Proof is offered that Ger
s'"h officials deliberately lied i,
heIr statements concerning otroci
iies committed by the Be1gians ano
sle'es. That their own soldiers teert
7'sguSted BY the cruetties practtcea
Ut The order of high officers of The
falSer Is shown. Extracts taken
from pamphlets issued fozIow:
The Vorwaerts of Berlin. October %
1914, saids
I'VE have already been able to es,
fablish the falseness Of a great number
of assertions which have been made
with great precision and published
everywhere in the press, concerning al,
legged cruelties committed by the popu-
lations of the countries with which
Germany is at war, upon German sol.
dlers and civilians. We are now In DO.
sition to silence two others of these
fantastic stories.
"Ibe war correspondent of the Ber-
liner Tageblatt spoke few weeks
ago of cigars and cigarettes filed with
powder alleged to have been given out
or sold to our soldiers with dlabolical
intent. He even pretended that he had
seen with his own eyes hundreds of
this kind of cigarettes. We learn from
an authentic source that this story of
cigars end cigarettes Is nothing but a
bra1en invention. Stories of soldiers
whose eyes are alleged to have been
torn out by francs-tireurs are circulat-
ed throughout Germany. Not a single
case Of this kind has been officially es-
tabllshed.
"It matters little that reports Of this
nature bear an appearance of positive
certitude, or are even vOuched for by
eye-witnesses. The desire for notOriety,
the absence of criticism, and personal
error play an unfortunate part in the
days in which we are living. Every
nose shot off or simply bound up,
every eye removed is Immediately
transformed into nose or eye torn
away by the frnncs.tireurs. Already the
Volkszeitung Of Cologne has been able,
contrary to the very categorical asser-
tions from -Chapelle, to prove
that there was no soldier with his eyes
torn out in the field ambulance of this
town. 1t was said, also, that people
wounded in this way were under treat |
ment in the neighborhood Of Berlin, |
but whenever inquiries have been made |
In regard to these reports, their absO- |
lutte falsity has been demonstrated. AT |
length these reports were concentrated |
at Gross Lichterfelde. A newspaper |
published at noon and widely circu-
lated In Berlin printed few days ago |
in large type the news that at tho
Lazaretto of Lichterfelde alone there
were ten German soldiers, only slight
ly wounded, whose eyes had been wick
edly torn out But to a request for
information by Comrade Liebknecht
the following written reply was sent
by the chief medical officer of the
aforementioned field hospital, dated
the eighteenth of the month
"'Sir: Happily there is no truth
whatever I'm these stories.
Yours obediently,
PROFESSOR RAUTENBERG,'"
German Soldiers Protested.
Thus the teachings Of the German
War Book and Of the German apostles
80 e,i,b+f,,Iuoaa cy,oDfn;o,, opd ho4,o5 |
had now begun to bear their natural
fruit. But the voice of protest was
not entirely silent. A considerable
number of letters by German soldiers
who were shocked by the German
atrocities were sent to Ambassador
Gerard, because he was the representa-
txe of the United States, the leading
neutral nation. The three letters
which follow, in translation. were re-
ceived by the American ambassador
from German soldiers.
Here is the protest of German sol.
Her, an eyewitness of the slaughter OF
Russian soldiers In the Masurian lakes
md swamps:
"It was frightful, heart-rending, as
hese masses of human beings were
lriven to destruction. Above the ter.
1ble thunder of the cannon could be I
leard the heart-rendlng cries of the
russians: o Prussians o Prussans !!
but there was no mepcy. Our captain Z
lad ordered The whole lot must die;
10 rapid fire. AS have heard, five
nen and one officer on our side went
mad from tfies9 4ieart-rending cries,
,ut most of my comrades and the Off
ers joked as the unarmed and helpless
russians shrieked for mercy while
hey were being suffocated in the +
wamps and shot down. The order
ras: Close up and at it harderP For
lays afterwards those heart-rending
ellis followed me and I dare not think
f them or shall go mad. There is nc
iod, there is no morality and no ethics
ny more. There are no human beings
ny more. but only beasts. Down with
lilitarism.
"If you are a truth-loylng maE 4