The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-24

lowing article, Concerning German Atrocities" by Will Irwin.
 Few men are as well qualified as Mir Irwin to write on this subject.
 He gives the truth as he has found it as an expert observer, scotching the myth of such tales as the cut ting off hands from Belgian chill dren and placing the blame for wars actual brutalities where it falls. He analyses some of the most discussed in ridents of the World war, showing how much of them was due to the tactics adopted by the German staff, how much to such accidents as per sonal spite, and how much to the callousness of the professional mill- tariStic caste.
 MT. Irwin's article was indirectly suggested by Admiral Sims recent comment on stories of submarine atrocities. Admiral Sims said, as a seaman speaking of seamen, that in nearly all cases the U-boat com manders acted as humanely as was possible and some times at their own jeopardy radioed for help for their victims
 Mir. Irwin's article ranks with Sir Philip Gibbs Now It Can Be Told" in performing the service of setting before the American public facts of the war as distinct from the rumors and suspicious and hatreds which ieaped this way and that every day during the period of combat
 Will Irwin got his data for this article in the field. He was war cor respondent for various American publications and the London Daily Mail in 1914 and 1915, being at tached to the German. Belgian and British armies. In the same period he was member of the executive committee of the commission for re- lief in Belgium. From 1916 to 1918 he was war correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post with the French, Italian British and Ameri- can armies, and in 1918 he was chief of the foreign department of the committee on public information.
 He was decorated by two govern ments. receiving the decoration of a chevalier of the Legion of Honor from France and from Belgium the King Albert Medal, first class, and Metallic de la Reconnaissance.
 In addition to pamphlets. 'The Babes of Belgium" and "The splen- did Story of Ypres,' his writings on war subjects include the following books: Men, Women and War" Latin at War" "A Reporter at Ar mageddon," and "The Next War" The last named was published in 1921.
 With the fine gallantry of an old time naval man, Admiral Sims has had his say about German behavior at sea III tHe ldle WdF, ndS puHCluIeu ilaH y of the hate blown tales of atrocity. Knowing little about naval operations, l am in no position tt' cEtieise or to approve him. But he has broken the ice; and now, nearly five years after the armistice, the time has come when one may review without danger of being called either pro-German or war-mad, German behavior on land. Of that, l do know a great deal was in Belgium-for time as prisoner to the Germans-during the first month of the war. For two years, I worked with the Hoover commission. Though I did not enter the beleaguered little kingdom again until after the armistice, talked re- peatedly with our young agents, who administered the distribution of food in Belgian towns and had heard first hand the stories of the inhabitans. Finally in 1916 I made several trips through that part of northern France which the Germans invaded in the first rush and abandoned after the Battle of the Marne. Everywhere I talked with the peasants and townspeople on their experiences. I believe, therefore, that l qualify as a witness.
 Hand Story A Propaganda Lie.
 Let me begin by refuting a few st\ck falsehoods which have NdSlly oDStul tu tnO issut. Nhttl among these was the story, at first whispered and then roared by the populace, finally spoken and printed by propagandists who lied and knew they were lying, to the effect that the Germans cut off the hands of my attention in 1914, when Hoover was sitting in the Savoy hotel rout- ing the American tourists out of London. Enter a half-hysterical
 11 l,1 ing tale. She had been caught within the German lines, had es- capped through the edges of a battle. And in railroad station she had seen a hundred Belgian Boy Scouts with both hands cut off by the Ger mans. She asked Prussian officer why his men did that. 50 that they may never grow up to fight against us." replied the German. At that period, we were in state to believe anything against the unpopular Ger man army Perhaps l personally first began to doubt when physi- elan told me that unless the job were done by an expert surgeon, a child with his hands cut off could not possibly survive. He would bleed to death.
 Investigated Tale Four Years.
 For four years thereafter, I tried to run down an authentic case of this popular atrl city. It was like mercury; put your finger near it, and it rolled away. People would give you names, dates and places-almost. The story came always on the au- thority Cf a brother a sister in Jaw q Wife's second cousin. For example, one day in the Savoy bar, London. an Englishman roared at me that two Belgian refugee children with their hands cut off lived next door to his sister in St. Johns Wood. l got the address, tC which I pro- ceeded by taxicab. I found indeed two Belgian children-making mud cakes with four very active hands. An associate of mine, jealous on the same quest, did find the trail grow very hot at one time. He was directed to the address of Belgian girl of IA with hand missing. It was true, he found-her hand was gone. But upon being cross-ques- tiCned, she admitted that she lost it in a knittingm mill.
 When our American Red Cross ar rived in England, they encountered 2 variant of this story. A British Red Cross nurse captured early in the war had been returned to Eng land with the cords tf her wrist severed so that she might never again work for the British army A Red Cross captain, furnished with her name, chased her from hospital to hospital-and found that she had burned her wrist in the explosion of an alcohol lamp.
 O c Q
 Roy Posed As Victim.
 Only two pieces Of proof-or what looked like proof-ever came to light One was print offered for sale by a photographer with the gift of imagination. It showed pile of Belgian dead near Antwerp. On top of the heap lay Belgian boy xuitb bic rioht hand missing I'm