Norwich bulletin., 1919-06-10
WASHINGTON AFFAIRS
Especial to The Bulletin.)'

pdooeu ONeT DS the men or the ZbIn Division and the battlefields on which | they fought MT. Glynn made much of the trip in automobiles and the party of ten congressman with whom | he travelled were not sightseeing in the | accepted sense of the word but were viewing the situation from a military 1 standpoint, as far as possible. MT l Glynn visited Brest and said that all | though it had the reputation of being the muddiest camp in Europe he 1 found Company M of the 102nd Con- necticut regiment in another camp that entirely "beat it out.'' The boys of the 26th were then waiting em barkation and were standing knee deep in mud, but did not utter a word of complaint. But" said he. those boys had seen 209 days service in the trenches and perhaps nothing that could come to them after that expert ence would be worth complaining about" Referring to the scenes of devastation MT. Glynn said Ypres was by far the worst place he saw All along the line of battlefields are great holes where shells have shot the pletely riddled by them. although in other places the trenches are filled in and fields of waving grain grown round and about them.
 He saw many of our soldiers, most ly colored, working on the roads of France, repairing the damage done by heavy army trucks. With them were many German prisoners looking sleek and hearty and was told the men in charge had but little trouble in handling them. When asked if the little children in Belgium seemed to be suffering from hunger or lack of clothing, Mir. Glynn replied. "So far as I could ascertain the children are healthy and have sufficient clothes and food. There were very few rag ged ones among them and I also mo- | ticed that the Belgian women were very anxious to appeal to the sympa- thy of our party of Americans and be given an opportunity to tell their story, but seldom would accept mon | ey. Apparently they did not need any money or food. but just wanted to | talk about the war. They of course could speak no English and we no l French, but by signs and interpreters we got to a pretty good understanding 1 of the situation One of the things which greatly impressed me occurred at Diant. which is called the martyr | city of Belgium. Here the Germans
 made terrible havoc in the first weeks | of the war, and out of a population of i 7500 no less than 400 men were back 1 ed up against a wall and shot as an
 example of what would happen to the
 neighboring cities if they refused to
 let the Germans pass through.
 | While our party was listening to the
 excited talk of some women who said
 they were widows of some of those
 men, four men with badly scared faces stepped out of group nearby i cold fn of 4 Lo
 men who were executed that day and
 this is how they did it." Whereupon
 the four men backed up against wall that was riddled with bullet holes while another man took the place of the soldiers and went through an
 imitation of executing the men. It turned out that the four men had been among the number to be executed, but although shot were not killed and af- ter the Germans had passed on they were resusitated But about the most
 grewsone sight I ever witnessed were those four men going through it agair
 for exhibition purposes. while the
 widows of other men who died tha-
 day looked on, all the time chatter
 ing loudly and with many wild ges.
 ticulations." MT. Glynn stated witt much positiveness that in all Belgium he could find no confirmation of stor- ies of alleged German atrocities prac
 ticed on children sucn as cutting of
 hands and similar outrages.
 Returning $ngressmen all confirn the statements that while the atroci ties of Germans on grown-ups il , these first few weeks or the war wer ; , of a most shocking nature. it is evi dent they did not commit then 1 against children. And in that connec ? tion I recall statements made to con gross to that effect by Coneressme
 Timberlake of Colorado and Congress man Miller of Washington, who wer among the first men to visit Europea
 battlefields, and who stated that tn king of Belgium was their authorit Q for the statement, Congressma . Glynn spoke of the immense America t 1 war houses and sunplg depots whic are located at Gievres. and where 0 the day the arinlstice was signed wer < AGO freight cars loaded with came | soup. In addition to the cars loade
 with other American supplies. "Ou work in furnishing supplies was sin e ply wonderful" said Mr. Glynn, "an
 if the American warehouses
 Grievres were put end to end the
 would form line 50 feet wide an
 20 miles long," From purely personal viewpoir t the visit made to Ireland by MT. Glyn
 was one of the most interesting. Her
 he visited the old home Of his me = ther near Mullingar in Westmeatf o county. When asked how Irelar | looks at this time MT. Glynn replie
 Ireland is one of the most beautif1
 countries in the world. My mother
 old home is near Mullingar, but sf t came to America when child. 1 lool c ed around for the little old time nu
 cabins that we hear so much abo,
 but could not find one. In their place s have now been built neat little whi IF cottages. One thing is very notice = able in Ireland, the people want 1T
 dependence and are willing to pay
 heavy price for it. The averas
 Irishman does not want home rule :, he wants independence. If he cannt Il have full independence he would rs IS ther go on under existing condition
 until it can be secured and the tin
 comes when Ireland can be complete j. ly separated from England" MT. Glyr h made no comment as to his attituG e on the so called Irish question. F
 expressed no opinion but merely state
 the condition as he personally four
 it.
 G Bills for the donation of Germa ~ cannon to cities and towns continue pur in in congress. There are thol n sands upon thousands of such bil ot already on file. It seems as if ever
 city and town in the country wan
 such a souvenir of the war. and sci W ators and congressman are "puttir i,. them in the basket" which does n Il mean the waste basket, but refers 1T the big flat basket placed on the co IS ner of the speakers desk, for the pu r. pose of receiving bills filed. Over
 the senate a verbal announcement
 usually made by a senator when