The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1918-01-18
OUTSIDE PALE
| OF IIljIHANI7t
Frightfu|ness Taught by Gernnar
Leaders Belongs to Age of
Barbarism.
SOLEMN PLEDGE MERE WORDS
'kaiser's Statesmen Had No Intentio.
i of Keeping Faith With Their
Agreement on International Law
! Horrors Told by Diaries.

! In { ying to the american peopl1
the knou7edge Of German anhumasa
ity IN Belgium, says pamphlet IS
sued by the committee on public IA
formation, the evidence is drawi
mainly from German and american
sources The German sources IN
'clude official proczanaations anc
other official utte'unces, letters ana
diaries of German soldiers, and quo
tations from German newspapers
The "Ru!es for Field Service" Of thu
German army advises each soldier
to keep such a diary while on active
service.
In the wars waged in ancient times
1t was taken for granted that con
quered peoples might be either killed
tortured, CT held as slaves; that their
property would be taken and that their
lands would be devastated. ''Vae vic
it's woe to the conquered" For two
centuries or more there has been 8
steady advance in introducing ideas OF
humanity and especially in confining
the evils Of warfare to the cOmbatants.
The ideal seemed to have become SO
thoroughly established as part OF in
ternational law that the powers at The
Hague thought it sufficient merely to
state the general principles in Article
XLVI Of the regulations: "Tamily hon
ors and rights, the lives OF persoiis
and private property, as well as re-
Egious convictions and practice, must
be respected. Private property cannot
be confiscated." Germany, In common
with the other powers, solenlnly
pledged her faith to keep this article.
but her military leaders had no fnten-
ton of doing so. They had been
trained in the ideas voiced by Gen. Won
Hartmann 40 years ago: .'Eerrorisl32
is seen to be a relatively gentle pro
.eedure. useful to keep the masses Of
the people in state of obedience. >
This had been Bis:narck's policy, toe.
According to Moritz Busch, Bismarll 5
6iograpker, Bismarck, eNasperated by
the French resistance, which was Still.
continuing in January, 1871, said:
eff in the territory which we occupy
we cannot supply everything for oui
TROOPS, from time to time We shall sanG
I, flying column into the localities
which are recalcitrant. We shall sheet
hang and burn. After that has hap
pened few times, the inhabitants Wi!
finally cone 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 entries in ths
diaries CT the individual German sol,
diers.
During the night Of August 15-1f
Engineer CIR gave the alarm in The
town of Wise. Every one was shot 0,
taken prisoner, ard the houses Were
burnt. The prisoners We're made to
march and keep up With the troops
FrOm the diary Of reconnaissance
officer Reinhold KOeln of the Second
battalion of engineers, Third arm,
corps.)
ga horrible bath OF blood. The whole
village burnt, the French thrown into
the blazing houses, civilians with tn;
rest" (From the diary Of Private
Uasseiner of the Eighth army CORPSE
''In the night of August 1910 the vii
lage of Saint-Maurice was punished
for having fred on German soldiers h,
being burnt to the ground by the Ger
man troops 1.-TWO regiments, thu
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, hous,
by house. Neither man, woman, no
child could escape; only the create
part Of the live stock we carried off
as that could be used. Anyone VIII,
ventured to come out was shot down
All the inhabitants left in the vi!lag,
were burnt with the houses" (Fron
the diary of Private Karl Scheufele o
the Third Bavarian regiment and land
wehr infantry
''At ten o'clock in the evening tn
first battalion of the One hundred an,
Seventy eighth marched down the stee]
incline into the burning village to tn
burning village to the north of Dinant
A terrific spectacle of CHASTITY beauty
At the entrance to the village lay abou
fifty dead civilians; shot for havin;
fired upon our troops from ambush. L
the course Of the night many other
were also shot, so that we counted owe
200. Women and children, lamp Il
hand, were forced to look on at tn
horrible scene. We ate our rice late
in the midst OF the corpses, for we ha
had nothing since morning. When w
searched the houses we found plent
Of wine and spirit, but no eatables
Captain Hamann was drunk" (Thi
last phrase in shorthand.) (From tn
diary Of Private Philip Of the On
Hundred and Seventy-eighth regimen
of infantry, Twelfth army corps.)
Writing from Belgium in 1916 Irvi