Plate 16.
Now, I ask my reader, no matter of what nationality: can he imagine such an article being printed in his own language, in the town in which he lives, and read by his wife and children? In what country, except Germany is such a thing conceivable? Not in France, at least.
Here is still one further convincing proof of how usual it is for the German army to mutilate the wounded. It is taken (Plates 17 and 18) from the diary of Pte Paul Glöde, of the 9th Battalion of the Pioneers (IX Corps):
“12th August 1914. In Belgium.—It is easy to imagine the state of fury of our soldiers, when you see the villages that have been destroyed. There is not one house left undamaged. All eatables are requisitioned by the soldiers no longer commanded. We have seen heaps of dead men and women who had been executed after trial. But the righteous anger of our soldiers goes hand in hand with sheer vandalism. In some villages which had already been deserted they “set up the red cock” on all the houses (burnt them). The inhabitants sadden me. If they use disloyal weapons, after all they are but defending their country. The atrocities that these civilians have been and are guilty of are avenged in a savage manner. Mutilation of the wounded is the order of the day.”[29]
This was written on the 12th of August, only eight days after innocent Belgium had been invaded, and the wounded who were tortured were only defending, against Germany that land, their native land which Germany had sworn to respect and if necessary to defend. But in many a country, the Pharisees who having read these lines will calmly go to their churches or Chapels, their bank-parlours or their chancelleries murmuring: “In what way do these things concern me? Ja, Ja, it is war”.
Plate 17.