The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-11-02

cupied by the French army. The
accusation has been made quite plain
/ ly, not only in the German press,
certain journals in England and in
France itself. If the stories dis
seminated by these journals are cor
rect. then ii can only he said that
France is being guilty in Germany
today of Il crime which the Ger
mans will find it hard TO forgive. In
plain English. it is charged that
France has le, loose in the Rhine
lands an army of $4,000 native troops,
which is preying on the women of the
proviDce as only such morally unde-
veloped people can. ana that the
authorities of the province are be-
ing compelled to provide for the ami
NAL desires of these troops, by the
military authorities in Paris. Now,
no matter wha. provocation the Ger
mans may have given, and no at
tempt is being made here TO under
estimate that provocation, the action
of the war office in Paris in sending
these troops to the Rhine constl-
tutes revenge so hideous as to
transcend anything which was thought
possible when, in the days of the
war, it used to be said that thf
Germans would have TO pay for the
atrocities they were committing.
1t is frankly impossible to go into
the details which are available to
any journalist, who chooses to in
vestigate the matter. But it is not
impossible TO demand that the civil
lied governments of the world should
turn their attention to the ques'
ton. and should discover if the
charges which are made against the
French war office are trde, or
whether terrible injustice is being
done to the French nation. So far
as Is discoVerable, no attempts have
been made to cause the papers which
have blurted out what they de-
clare to be the truth to withdraw
their words, or cali them to account
for what, if it is untrue, is the most
terrific libel which has ever been
uttered. 1t is no doubt true that il
I is technically impossible to utter a
libel on a people, but it is not i'm
possible for a government so TO deal
with statements of This nature as
to make it plain to the whole world
that they are libels, If libels they
be.
The conscience of the world is be-
ing daily shocked by the way in
during The war are being converted
into the waste paper of peace. The
world has seen courageous little
country like Greece compelled 10 keep
UP a huge army for months in order
not to lose the common rights 10
which she was entitled II has seen
Armenia flung like shuttle-cock
from one political battledore to an
other. 1t has seen China robbed in
the most barefaced manner Of its
holy land" and these are only cases
taken hapha2ard from amongst those
of common notoriety in the world
Now it is told that a crime OF pecu-
liar infamy is being enacted. behind
that screen of secrecy which gov
ernments know so well how to MAIN
tain, in the very face of Europe
What, therefore, civilization has a
right to know is, Are these stories
true, and are the German people
of the Rhinelands being subjected to
nameless horrors which it Is almost
, impossible To print in self-respect-
ing paper? If the stories are untrue,
their untruth should be proclaimed
from the housetops.- If, on the other
hand, they are true, something should
be- done, and done at once, TO bring
the occasion for them to an end
The burden is distinctly on thi
shoulders of the Allied Powers, VIII,
signed the Treaty of Versailles, Il
clear the matter up.-Christian Science
Monitor.