The Julesburg grit-advocate., 1918-01-03

Democrats, Herr Bebel spoke even
more pointedly. Towards the end of
a two-hour address on the atrocities
committed by the German soldiers in
China and on the speech of the en-
peror, he said:
"lf Germany wishes to be the bear
eI 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 en-
peror are not, in our opin-
ion, the way to preserve the world po-
sition of Germany, to gain for Ger
many the respect of the world"
The consequence of the emperor's
sneech Bebel aptly described:
by it signal was given, garbed in
the highest authority of the German
Empire, which must have most weigh
ty consequences, not only for the
troops who went to China, but also
for those who stayed at home"
IAN expedition of revenge SO bar
barous as this has never occurred in
the last hundred years and not often
in history; at least, nothing worse
than this has happened in history,
either done by the Huns, by the Van
dals, by Genghis Khan, by Tamerlane,
or even by Tilly when he sacked
Madgeburg"
Atrocities in China
These stories of atrocities in China
or Letters of the Huns" continued
to be published in the Vorwarts for
several years and appeared intermit-
tenly in the debates of the Reichstag
as late as 1906. At that time the So
cialist, Herr Kunert, reviewing the
procedure in trial of which he had
been the victim in the previous sum-
mer, stated that he had offered to
prove that German soldiers in China
had engaged in wanton and brutal
ravaeing; that plunder, pillage, ex-
tortion, robbery as we'll as rape and
sexual abuses of the worst kind, had
occurred on very large scale and
that German soldiers had participated
in them" He had not been given an
opportunity to prove his allegations,
but had been sentenced to prison for
three months for assailing the honor
of the whole German army" The
outrageousness of this sentence was
made clear by the revelations, made
in the Reichstag shortly afterwards,
of similar atrocities committed by
German officials and soldiers in At
rica in the campaign against the
Hereros.
The teachings of Treitschke and
Nietzsche and their evil influence up
on the present generation in Ger
many are well known. The minds of |
the responsible officials were filled
with ideas wholly different from
those to which Germany had agreed |
at the Hague. The cult of might,
and of war as it's expression, found
many disciples who flooded the press
with pamphlets and panegyrics on
war and its place in the natural and
political development of a nation.
Before the war the average number of
'olumeS concerning war published
each year in Germany was 700, and
he vast majority of those written by
he German army officers advocated
he ruthless policy of Won Clause
vitz, Won Hartmann, and Won Moltke.
These ideas, which have come to
ontrol of the minds of the military
lass, are best known in the German
Var Book (Kriegsbrauch i'm Land
sriege), published in 1902. The tone
f this authoritative book may be judged
rom the following extracts:
of the German War Book
"But since the tendency Of thought
n the last country was dominated
essentially by humanitarian consid-
,rations which not infrequently de-
generated into sentimentality and
labby emotion (Sentimentalitat und
,a;ch1;chor Cofuhlc cbu,o nm aroil