ACTS OF A MILITARY NATURE.
Acts committed in the violation of the laws of war and affecting combatants, murder of wounded or prisoners, stratagems forbidden by international conventions, attacks on doctors and stretcher bearers, have been innumerable in all the places in which there has been fighting. We have not been able to verify the majority of them because the witnesses are for the most part soldiers, who are obliged to move from place to place continually. Besides, these acts have been set forth in reports addressed by corps leaders to the military authorities, who may add them to the documents of our inquiry if they think fit to do so. Many are also attested by evidence collected by magistrates in hospitals, and we are engaged at this moment in analyzing them with a view to drawing up a supplementary report. A certain number, however, have been laid before us in the course of our investigation.
At Bar-le-Duc M. Ferry, the head surgeon, gave us a report of depositions made to him in the course of his duties. Sergt. Lemerre of the —th Infantry Regiment told him that on the 6th of September, when he was wounded in the leg at Rembercourt by a fragment of a shell, he had been left on the battlefield eight days by the German Red Cross people although they knew quite well that he was there. On the fourth day this non-commissioned officer received a further wound by a soldier, who fired at him on the order of an officer who was going over the scene of action with his revolver in his hand. Moreover, he repeatedly saw near him German stretcher bearers firing on our wounded.
The soldier Dreyfus of the —th Infantry Regiment related the following story to Dr. Ferry:
"On the 10th of September at Somaine, as he was leaving the battlefield, wounded, he met three Germans. He told them in German that he had just been wounded, but these men answered that this was no reason why he should not receive another bullet, and they thereupon shot him point blank in the eye."
At Vaubecourt an infantry sergeant and two soldiers were shot by the enemy. They alleged that one of the latter was found on the church tower in the village, from which he would have been able to exchange signals with our troops.
On the 22d of August a detachment of Germans arrived in the vicinity of Bouvillers in the Department of Meurthe-et-Moselle at the farm of La Petite Rochelle, where the owner, M. Houillon, had lodged some French wounded soldiers. The officer in command ordered four of his men to go and finish off nine wounded who were lying in the barn. Each one was shot in the ear. Mme. Houillon begged mercy for them, and the officer, placing the barrel of his revolver to her breast, told her to be silent.
On the 25th of August the Abbé Denis, curé of Réméréville, tended in the evening Lieut. Toussaint, who last July headed the list of candidates who left the School of Forestry. As he fell wounded on the battlefield this young officer was struck with bayonets by all the Germans who passed near him. His body was covered with wounds from head to foot.
At the hospital at Nancy we saw the soldier Voyer of the —th Infantry Regiment, who still bore traces of German barbarity, having been badly wounded in the backbone outside the Forest of Champenoux on the 24th of August, and paralyzed in both legs as the result of his wound. He was lying on his face when a German soldier turned him over brutally with his gun and hit him three times on the head with the butt of his rifle. Other soldiers passing by kicked him and hit him also with the butts of their guns. Finally one of them with a single blow caused a wound of about three or four centimeters under each eye with what Dr. Weiss, head doctor and Professor of Faculty at Nancy, thinks must have been a pair of scissors.
A hussar who was treated by the same doctor relates that, having fractured his leg falling off his horse, and being unable to extricate himself, he was assaulted by Uhlans, who stole his watch and chain after having taken his carbine and shot him in the eye with it.
Seven French soldiers, also treated by Dr. Weiss, told him that they had seen the enemy finish off the wounded on the battlefield. As they had feigned death to escape massacre, the Germans belabored them with the butts of their guns to see if they were still alive.
In the same hospital a German soldier wounded in the stomach told Dr. Rohmer that his wound had been caused by a revolver shot fired by his own officer because he had refused to finish off a French wounded soldier. Again, another German, wounded in the back, the result of a shot fired point-blank, told Dr. Weiss that a soldier had fired at him by order of an officer to punish him for having carried into a village near the battlefield several French wounded soldiers.
On the 25th of August, at Einvaux, the Germans fired at a distance of 300 yards at Dr. Millet, army doctor, belonging to the —th Colonial Regiment, just as, together with two stretcher bearers, he was attending to a man lying on a stretcher. As his left side was turned toward them, the enemy could perfectly see his brassard. And, furthermore, they could not mistake the nature of the work upon which these three men were engaged.
On the same day Capt. Perraud of the same regiment, having noticed that the soldiers of a section of men upon whom his mitrailleuses were firing were wearing red trousers, ordered the firing to cease. Immediately this section fired on him and on his men. They were Germans in disguise.
Believe us, &c.,
G. PAYELLE, President.
ARMAND MOLLARD.
G. MARINGER.
PAILLOT, Rapporteur.
Paris, Dec. 17, 1914.
A FRENCH MAYOR’S PUNISHMENT.
[By The Associated Press.]
NANCY, (via Paris,) Jan. 30.—The Mayor of a large township in the vicinity of Nancy has been suspended from office for a fortnight for shooting at a German aeroplane as it was flying over his town.
In taking this measure the authorities of Nancy held that a civilian had no right to act as a combatant, as by so doing he only brought upon the heads of the civilian population severe reprisals.
We Will Fight to the End
By Premier Viviani of France.
Premier Viviani recently delivered to Parliament an address upon the war which attracted worldwide attention. Viviani served notice on Germany and Austria that France will not lay down her arms until she and her allies have won such a victory that they can dictate terms. Premier Viviani's speech was delivered by himself in the Chamber of Deputies on Dec. 22, while on the same day the speech was read in the Senate by M. Briand, Minister of Justice. It is as follows:
GENTLEMEN: This is not the usual communication in which a Government presenting itself for the first time before Parliament sets forth its policy. Just now there is only one policy—a relentless fight until we attain definite freedom for Europe by gaining a victory which shall guarantee peace.
Gentlemen, that was the cry uttered by all when, in the sitting of Aug. 4, a sacred union arose, as the President of the Republic has so well said, which will throughout history remain an honor to the country. It is the cry which all Frenchmen will repeat after having put an end to the disagreements that have so often embittered our hearts and which a blind enemy took for irremediable division. It is the cry that rises from the glorious trenches into which France has thrown all her youth, all her manhood.
Before this unexpected uprising of national feeling, Germany has been troubled in the intoxication of her dream of victory. On the first day of the conflict she denied right, appealed to force, flouted history, and, in order to violate the neutrality of Belgium and to invade France, invoked the law of self-interest alone.
Since then her Government, learning that it had to reckon with the opinion of the world, has recently attempted to put her conduct in a better light by trying to throw the responsibility for the war upon the Allies. But through all the gross falsehoods, which fail to deceive even the most credulous, the truth has become apparent.
All the documents published by the nations interested, and the remarkable speech made the other day at Rome by one of the most illustrious representatives of the noble Italian Nation, demonstrate that for a long time our enemy has intended a coup de force. If it were necessary, a single one of these documents would suffice to enlighten the world.
When, on July 31, 1914, at the suggestion of the English Government all the nations concerned were asked to suspend their military preparations and enter into negotiations in London, France and Russia adhered to this proposal. But Germany precipitated matters. She declared war on Russia on Aug. 1, and made an appeal to arms inevitable. And if Germany by her diplomacy killed the germ of peace it is because for more than forty years she had untiringly pursued her aim, which was to crush France in order to achieve the enslavement of the world.
All the revelations are brought before the tribunal of history, where corruption has no place, and as France and her allies, despite their attachment to peace, have been obliged to endure war they will pursue it to the uttermost.
Faithful to the signature which she attached to the treaty of Sept. 4, 1914, and by which she engaged her honor, that is to say, her life, France, in accord with her allies, will not lay down her arms until she has avenged outraged right and regained forever the provinces which were torn from her by force, restored heroic Belgium to the fullness of her material prosperity and political independence, and broken Prussian militarism so that the Allies may eventually reconstruct a regenerated Europe founded upon justice and right.
We are not inspired, gentlemen, in this plan of war and of peace by any presumptuous hope, for we have the certainty of success. We owe this certitude to our army of all ranks and to our sailors, who, joined to the British Navy, secure for us the control of the seas, and to the troops who have repulsed in Morocco incessant aggressions.
We owe it also to the soldiers who defend our flag in those far-off French colonies, who from the very first outbreak of the war hastened back with their tender solicitude for the mother country.
We owe it to our army, whose heroism has been guided by incomparable leaders throughout the victory of the Marne, the victory of Flanders, and in many fights, and we owe it to the nation, which has equaled this heroism by a corresponding demonstration of silence and serenity during the critical hours through which the country has passed.
Thus we have shown to the world that an organized democracy can serve by its vigorous action the ideal of liberty and equality which constitute its greatness. Thus we have shown to the world, to use the words of our Commander in Chief, who is both a great soldier and a noble citizen, that "the republic may well be proud of the army that she has prepared." And thus, this impious war has brought out all the virtues of our race, both those with which we were credited—of initiative, élan, bravery, and fearlessness—and those which we were not supposed to possess—endurance, patience, and stoicism.
Let us do honor to all these heroes. Glory to those who have fallen before the victory, and to those also who through it will avenge them tomorrow! A nation which can arouse such enthusiasm can never perish.
Sheltered by this heroism the nation has lived and labored, accepting all the consequences of the war, and domestic tranquillity has never been troubled.
The Minister of Finance has laid before you in a masterly statement the financial situation and has explained the resources that we have obtained from the issue of Treasury bonds and advances from the Bank of France, which have enabled us to bear the expenditure imposed by the war, so that we have not had any need to resort to a loan. The Bank of France is in a position, thanks to its excellent condition, to furnish resources to the Treasury and to aid in the resumption of the economic life of the country.
Everything serves to demonstrate the vitality of France, the security of her credit, the confidence which she inspires in all, despite the war which is shaking and impoverishing the world. The state of her finances is such that she can continue the war until the day when the necessary reparation has been obtained.
Gentlemen, it is not sufficient for us to salute the victims who have fallen on the field of battle. We must uncover also before the civil non-combatants and innocent victims who up to now have been protected by the laws of war, but whom, in order to terrify a nation which is and will ever remain unshaken, the enemy either captured or massacred. The Government has done its duty toward their families, but the debt of the country is not yet discharged.
Under the force of invasion, departments have been occupied and the ruins in them have accumulated. The Government solemnly undertakes before you—it has already partly carried it out, and has asked for a first credit of $70,000,000—that France will rebuild again those ruins, and the carrying out of this work will certainly be borne in mind in the indemnities which we shall exact.
The day of a definite victory has not yet come. Our task until then will be heavy, and it may be long. Let us bring all our strength to bear in the carrying out of this task. Our allies know that we will do so, as well as the neutral nations, and it is in vain that a wild campaign of false news has been set on foot. If Germany at the outset pretended to have any doubt as to the attitude of France, she no longer doubts.
Let Germany bear witness now that when the French Parliament reopened after over four months of war, it has renewed before the world the spectacle it offered on the day when, in the name of the nation, it took up the challenge.
To conquer, heroism at the frontier will not suffice. It is necessary also to have internal union. Let us continue to preserve this sacred union from any blemish today, as in the past, and in the future. Let us keep before our minds the one cry of victory, the vision of our motherland, and the ideal of right.
That is what we are fighting for and what Belgium is still fighting for, Belgium, who is giving to this ideal all the blood in her veins, and what also unshakable England is fighting for, as also faithful Russia, intrepid Servia, and the audacious Japanese Navy.
Nothing more sublime has ever presented itself before the eyes of men than this struggle against barbarism and despotism, against a system of provocation and continual threats, which Germany called peace, against a system of murders and collective pillage, which Germany called war, against the insolent hegemony of a military caste. France with her allies has let loose the scourge of war against all these. France the emancipator and avenger has sprung up at one bound.
That is the issue at stake. It goes beyond the life of the present generation. Let us continue to have but one soul and one mind, and tomorrow, when peace is restored and when our opinions, now voluntarily enthralled, are again given their liberty, we will recall with pride these tragic days, for they have tended to make us more valiant and better men.
NUITS BLANCHES
By H.S. HASKINS.
The diminishing of lights in Paris houses as a precaution against a raid by the enemy's aeroplanes is the new rule.—Cable Dispatch.
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The gaslights cast a saffron glow, The ghostly tapers sputter low, The lampwicks smolder, dimly red. (Beware the gray shapes overhead!) Lock tight the windows, bar the door! Have done with laughter, sing no more, For fear lays hand upon the throat. (Beneath the stars the airmen float.) Hush, hush, my babe, lest fiends that fly Shall come to still your hunger cry. Let grief not speak its tale aloud! (Black death is racing with a cloud.) Through heav'n's eternal window panes, Far, far above the swift air lanes, God's starlight shines forever more. (How restless glide the ships of war!) |