Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1918-01-11
OUTSIDE PALE
OF HUMANITY
frightfuIness Taught by German
Leaders Belongs to Age Of
Barbarism.
SOLEMN PLEDGE MERE WORDS
kalsers Statesmen Had No Intention
Of Keeping Faith With Their
Agreement on international Law
Horrors Told by Diaries.

he knowledge Of German tnhuman-
ity in Belgium says a pamphlet IS
sued By the committee on public IN
formation. the eridence is drawn
mainly from German and american
sources The German sources IN
clude official proclamations and
other official utteranceS, letters and
diaries of German soldiers, and quo
tations from German newspapers.
The Rides for Field Serrice" Of the
German army adriseS each soldier
to keep such diary uhile on dctire
serrice
In the wars waged In ancient times
II was taken for granted that CON
quered peoples might be either killed
tortured, or held us slaves that their
property would be taken and that their
lands would be devastated. "Nae vic
lis woe to the conquered" For two
centuries or more there has been Il
stcudy advance in introducing ldens OF
humanity and especially in combining
the evils OF warfare to the combatants.
The ideal seemed TO have become so
thoroughly established as a part OF In.
1ornational law that the powers nj The
Hague thought II sufficient merely TO
state the general principles In Article
XLVI Of the regulations: Family hon
ors and rights. the lives of persons
and private property, as well as re-
liglous convictions and practice, must
be respected. Private property cannot
be confScated." Germany, in common
with the other powers, solemnly
pledged her faith to keep this article.
hut her military leaders had no inten-
ton of doing SO. They had been
trained in the ideas voiced by Gen Won
Hartmann 40 years ago: Terrorism
is seen to be relatively gentle pro
ccdure. useful to keep the masses OF
the people in state Of obedience.
This had been Bismarck's policy, too.
According to Moritz Busch, BlSmark' :
flographer Bismarck, eXaspernted By
the French resistance. which was still
continuing in January. 1871, said:
"If in the territory which we occupy,
we cannot supply everything for our
troops from tine to time We shall send
Il living column into the localities
which are recalcitrant. We shall shoot.
hang and burn. After that has hap
pened few times, the inhabitants will
finally come to their senses
Horrors Told In Soldiers Diaries.
The frightfuness taught by the Ger
man leaders held full sway in Belgium
This Is best seen in the entries in the
diaries of the individual German sol
diers.
During the night Of August 1910
Engineer CIR gave the alarm In the
town of Wise. Every one was shot or
taken prisoner. and the houses were
burnt The prisoners were made to
march and keep up with the troops.
(From the diary of noncommissioned
officer Relnhold Koehn Of the Second
battalion Of engineers, Third army
corps.)
"A horrible bath Of blood. The whole
village burnt. the French thrown into
the blazing houses, civilians with The
rest" From the diary Of Private
IIaSsemer of the Eighth army corps)
'In the night Of August 1919 the VII
lage Of Saint-Maurice was punished
for having fired on German soldiers by
being burnt to the ground by the Ger
man troops 1.-TWO regiments the
Twelfth landwehr and the Seven
teenth) The village was surrounded
men posted about yard from one an
other so that no one could get out
Then the Uhlans set fire to 1t, houSt
by house Neither man, woman, MOI
child could escape; only the greater
part Of the live stock we carried OF
as that could be used. Anyone who
ventured to come out was shot down
All the inhabitants left in the village
we're burnt with the houses (FroW
the diary of Private Karl Scheufele OF
the Third Bavarian regiment and land
wehr Infantry
"At ten o'clock in the evening the
first battalion of the One hundred anc
Seventy eighth marched down the steel
incline into the burning village to thu
burning village to the north of Dinant
A terrific spectacle of CHASTITY beauty
At the entrance to the village lay about
fifty dead civilians, shot for having
fired upon our troops from ambush. Ii
the course Of the night many other:
were also shot, so that we counted ovel
200. Women and children, lamp II
hand, were forced to look on at thu
horrible scene We ate our rice latel
in the midst of the corpses, for we hat
had nothing since morning. When VI
searched the houses we found plent!
Of wine and spirit, but no eatables
Captain Hamann was drunk" (Thi'
last phrase in shOrthand.) (From thu
diary OF Private Philip of the on
Hundred and Seventy-elghth regimen
Of infantry, Twelfth army CORPSE
Whiting from Belgium In 1916 IrviI
8. Cobb said:
Briefly what / saw was this: saw