What Germany Thinks; Or, The War as Germans see itSmith, Thomas F. A.
History
What Germany Thinks; Or, The War as Germans see it
Smith, Thomas F. A.
World War, 1914-1918
"Near Büren (Westphalia) the twelve-year-old daughter of Town Councillor
Buddeberg in Bielefeld was returning with her mother from Marburg in a
motor. Somebody must have telephoned that the car was suspect, for the
Landwehr Society placed armed sentinels at various points on the road.
They cried 'Halt!' to the chauffeur; just as the car was stopping, shots
were fired, and the girl sank dead in the arms of her mother.
"Even the nationalist journals have expressed their astonishment that a
civilian society is permitted to hold the public highways with armed
guards. At Coblence a teacher and organist named Ritter was shot by a
sentinel."[57]
[Footnote 57: _Leifziger Volkszeitung_, Supplement I., August 7th. Here
we have proof that Germany allowed armed civilians to murder supposed
Frenchmen, a fact to be remembered when weighing Germany's accusations
against Belgian civilians. The German Government has published a White
Book (328 quarto pages) during the summer, 1915, indicting Belgian
civilians with all kinds of atrocities. Waiving the point that if
Germany first laid aside international law she had no right to expect
Belgium to respect its dictates, it may be safely assumed that the
evidence cited by the Germans is of little or no value. The oath which
German soldiers are compelled to take precludes the possibility that
they would or could give evidence which reflected on the conduct of the
German army either in peace or war, even if the evidence is absolutely
true. "In the interests of military discipline" the truth must be
suppressed. The same oath is, however, proof that the German soldier
must be prepared to lay down either his life _or his honour_ in defence
of the army, and in a later chapter irrefutable evidence from German
sources will be adduced to show that the White Book in question contains
"sworn lies" emanating from members of the German army.]
In its issue for August 11th the same newspaper gave the names of four
more victims who had been shot in Westphalia. Among them was a poor
woman of weak intellect; she was near a bridge, and failing to comply
with a sentry's challenge, was shot. The bullet passed through her leg
and killed a little girl who was working near her.
Wolff's Bureau in Berlin reports: "In spite of the most urgent appeals
which the Army Direction has issued during the last few days, begging
the public not to place hindrances in the way of motor-cars, blundering
mistakes are still being made every hour in all parts of Germany,
accompanied by the most serious consequences.
"The morning papers again contain reports of gold-motors having been
captured. There are neither gold-motors nor foreign motors in Germany.
Anyone who interferes with motor traffic is committing a sin against the
army."[58]
[Footnote 58: _Leipziger Volkszeitung_, August 10th.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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