The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-02-04
OUTSIDE THE PALE
OF HUMANITY
Frightfulness Taught by the German
Leaders Belongs to an Age
of sBarbarism

Tie k,aowledge of German inLa.mon-
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 proclamdtions and
other official utteranees, letters and
diaries of German soldiers, and quo
fations from German pewSpap ers.
The "Ralles for Field Serrice" of the
German army advises each soldier
% keep such a diary While on actlpe
seruice.
In the wars waged in ancient times
it was taken for granted thar con-
quered peoples might be either killed,
tortured. or held as slaves; that. their
property would be taken and that their
lands would be devastated. "Vae vie
lis woe to the conquered!" For two
.enturies or more there has been a
;teady advance in introducing ideas 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
ternational law that the powers at The
Hague thought 1t sufficient merely to
state the general principles In Article
NLVF of the regulations Family hon
ors and rights. the lives of persons
and private property, as web as re-
lgious convictions and practice, must
be respected. Private property cannot
be confiscated." Germany. in common
with the other powers. solemnly
pledged her faith TO keep this article.
but her military leaders had no inten-
ton of doing so. They had been
trained in the ideas voiced by5Gen. Won
Hartmann 20 years ago: Terrorism
is seen to be relatively gentle pro-
cedure. useful to keep the masses Of
the people in state OF obedience"
This had been Bismarck g policy, too.
According to MOritz Busehs eRismark's
6iographer, Bismarck, exasperated 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 time to time we shall send
flying column Into the localities
which are recalcitrant.aWe shall shoot
hang and burn. After, that has hap
pened few times, the inhabitants win
finally come to their senses
Horrors Told In Soldiers Diaries.
The frightfulness taught by the Ger
man leaders held full sway In Belgium.
This Is best seen In the Antriess IN the
diaries of the, individual Germans SOL,
diers.
During the night OF August. 1918
Engineer Cir gavesthe alarm IL 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 noncommissfoned
officer Reinhold 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
Hassemer Of the Eighth army corps.)
I'm 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 It, house
by house. Neither man.. woman, nor
child could escape: only the greater
part of the live stock we carried on,
as that could be used. Anyone who
ventured to come out was shot Down.
All the inhabitants left in the village
were burnt with the houses" {From
the diary OF Private Kari Scheufele OF
the Third Bavarian regiment and land
wehr infantry.1
AT ten o'clock in the evening the
first battalion Of the One hundred and
Seventy-eighth marched down the steep
incline into the burning village TO the
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. In
the course of the night many others
were also shot. so that we counted over
200. Women and children, lamp In
hand, were forced to look on at the
horrible scene. We ate our rice later
in the midst of the corpses. for we had
had nothing since morning. When we
searched the houses we found plenty
of wine and spirit, but no eatables. !
Captain Hamann was drunk" e(This
last phrase in shorthand.) v(From the
diary of Private Philip Of the One
Hundred and Seventy-eighth regiment
of infantry, Twelfth army CORPSE
Writing from Belgium in 1919 Irwin
S. Cobb said:
Briefly what saw was this: saw