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6 THE FATHERLAND
Tales of War’s Barbarity
Are the Germans Justified in Punishing Antwerp? Read the other Side Below.
HE one-sided presentation of the war news in the
leading American papers in New York-like the
Herald and Telegram, which are owned by an expa-
triated American whose home is in Paris; the Tribune
owned by the estate of the late ambassador to England;
the American and Journal, owned by Mr. Hearst, who
publishes several important publications in London, and
other papers closely allied to the London financial
groups with headquarters in New York-is well illus-
trated by the prominence given to reports of German
cruelty and barbarism, and the complete suppression
of news giving facts on the other side, notably the
cowardly attacks on helpless women and children in
Antwerp, where the stevedores in one case snatched
an infant from the arms of a fugitive German woman
and drowned it before her eyes. No particulars are
given of the outrages committed upon the German
troops by non-combatant civilians after a place had
been evacuated. Every report is colored with the per-
sonal animus of the British correspondents who are run-
ning amuck in the American press, and it is made to
appear that what the Germans are doing in retaliation
for inexpressible crimes upon their own people stand as
exceptional examples of cruelty in the annals of war.
That “snipers” are summarily dealt with by every
army is evidenced by the following telegram which re-
lates in incomplete form an incident connected with the
taking of Vera Cruz by our own forces as printed in
the Evening Sun under the double headlinesz. “Trying
Woman Sniper. She is Charged with Killing Eight
Bluejackets”:
Vera Cruz, May 5.-A woman “sniper" was ordered be-
fore a military court martial today to be tried on a charge
of murdering eight American bluejackets or marines during
the first of the fighting, having picked them off one after‘
the other in the streets.
The woman was betrayed by a Mexican, who led troops
to her house last night. The building was searched, and as
a quantity of arms and ammunition was found, she was
arrested.
That the woman was dealt with as the Germans are
dealing with the same class of non-combatants, if proven
guilty, is evident from the fact that she was tried by
court martial, which is governed by but one law in
such cases.
Stories of cruelty against helpless Gemians are com-
ing in by every ship which reaches port and by letters
from army surgeons writing to friends in this country.
We have all read with a feeling of intense sympathy
of the “brave Belgians” and the “poor, innocent non-
combatants” who fell victims to the German Zeppelins
recently. And yet, though we cannot deny our sym-
pathy to the unhappy victims of war’s fury, news from
the besieged city of Antwerp tends rather to justify the
hard fate that has befallen it. It has taken hardly
three weeks for retribution to visit a city which has
probably gone farther than any other in its persecution
of defenseless Germans. ’
That is the story of Mrs. Edmund Kandler, the young
wife of the otticer of the Belgian steamer, “Vaderland."
Only a month ago they were married and established
their little home in Antwerp, the harbor of her hus-
band's ship. Today the stately young oliicer is out of
employment, and his little blonde wife could only leave
Antwerp at the risk of her life. All that she was al-
lowed to take was a small hand satchel. The pre“)'
little home with all its pretty things which they had
established had to be abandoned. She is thankful that
she is in New York, able toibegin life over again It
the side of her devoted husband.
The "brave Belgians" and the “poor sufferers Of .
Antwerp!" How strange, how different, how ugly the)’
seem as described by Mrs. Kandler, who saw and heard:
and herself experienced the savage brutality of these
civilized Belgians against helpless Germans.
‘‘I don't know how I should have escaped from Am-
werp with my life," declared Mrs. Kandler, who lived
for many years in Antwerp, “but for the aid of a def“
friend. Howling mobs passed through the streets In
‘he early part of the month and attacked the Germ?!“
residents, robbing and murdering them. Any one at?-
Peafing in the streets withbaggage was torn from 1115
conveyance and robbed of his satchels and trunks:
while the police looked complacently upon the SPeC““"e
of men and women being deliberately tortured and out-
raged.
“My friend tried to send me across the border bl’
train before the expiration of the time limit for 3“
Germans to leave the city. He went to the station to
learn when the next train would leave, but 500“ re’
turned pale and trembling. i .
“ ‘I witnessed some awful scenes of barbarism during
the Boer war,’ he said, ‘but such excesses 35 those
committed by my countrymen surpass everything i" my
experience.’ '
“That night my friend took me aboard the FiI113“d'
where I remained in hiding for ‘three days until We
set sail for America. But oh, the stories told me by
other refugees aboard the Finland! . Any one who looked
German or had a German name, or was suspected Of
entertaining German sympathies, was a shining mark
for the mob. No one was spared! Even citizens 0
forty-five years residence in Antwerp, and universal”
respected were driven out like criminals. The murder
of Mr. von Malinkrot cries to heaven for veI18e3"Ce'
He was one of Antwerp’s benefactors.- He was Shot
dead as a German spy. And a man who had been em‘