The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-10-25
DANISH NEWSPAPER
TELLS Of ATROCITIES
Convinced That Allied Press Has
Been Moderate In Reports of
German Crimes,
TELLS ABOUT ToURCOiNG.
Systematic, Iooting Of Industries. Star
walton Of Inha bitants, Mistreatmcnt
of Young Girls Arc Described,

:. London. Oct. GA correspondent
ken, telegra phing 10 that paper from
Tourcoing. says: ----------.---.-
Il have always believed that stories
OF the allied press from time to time
telling of the sulferings of the popu-
lation In invaded countries were
greatly exaggerated Now / have
spoken with hundreds oT omen and
women in Lille and Tourcoing. I have
lions, receipts for fines, destroyed ma
chinery and other absolute proofs,
and I have been convinced that the Ill
treatment has been worse than 1t
those things that have been told to
me by several trustworthy witnesses
and proved by German documents.
This country. with the three cities
Lille, ToureoinE and Roubaix--
that almost grow together as one big
industrial town with nearly half a
million inhabitants. is one of the
richest and most denseiy populated in
France. The population lives almost
exclusively from the wool, cotton and
| iron industries.
The German plan was to strike a
vital point and deprive them all of
the means of making living. Fac
tories that had continued to work
despite mobilization were forced to
close by the requisition of all copper
brass. rubber and leather in the ma
! chimes Machines worth ten to thirty
| thousand francs were taken to pieces
and made useless in order to recover
I a kilo of copper Others were
brutaly knocked TO pieces. still
! others were reduisitioned complete
and sent to Germany,
| The whole industry was COM
/ pietely immobiiized and workmen and
their families began to starve. Then
the Germans asked for volunteers for
work and offered fairly good pay
/ A few, driven by hunger, accepted
and were used for different kinds Of
work directly or indirectly for the
/ German army, but the great majority
would rather starve than work
they had been summoned several
times and still refused, they were
taken by force and formed into dis
ciplined companies.
| They got the worst kind OF food
and were guarded by 9entries with
bayonets and loaded rifles. They were
kicked ana beaten with rifle bucts
and forced to work on roads under
! British fire and even to dig saps ur
10 the first-lne trenches. They had
TO choose between this work and alb
soiute starvation.
"A few heroically refused TO work
for the German army and were
starved TO death. Others were killed
by shells. | have been told that Of
500 forced laborers that left Tourco
ing only 200 came back. Many of tht
men escaped this only by hidint
themselves. / have met one who wa
hidden in a cellar for two years, an
other who had lived these four years
dressed as a woman and a third who
hid in space three feet wide an(
ten feet long between two walls, The
details of their stories sound like
Alexander Dumas, but here they are
every day facts"
1. The $xao3it4a~n rtcapg eslsefiaeft tsacf
gives details of the deportation of {
great number of young women to tht
Ardennes in April, 1916, for agricul
tural work.
THE order was carried out will
extraordinary brutality" he writes
IAN inhabitants were called at
O'Clock in the morning and lined III
outside their houses with their chill
dren and luggage ready to GO OF
ficers went along the line and picked
out those who were to go and the,
were Immediately removed
Il have been told by many people,
here that "a number of girls were sen
to the villages where German troops
were resting The fact is that every
where here the girls who were de
ported to Ardennes still are consider
ed as dishonored.