Part 8 (1/2)
[Footnote 55: _Das Kleine Journal_ (Berlin), August 5th.]
”The official announcement that French and Russian motor-cars had been seen on our country roads has aroused the otherwise leaden, heavy imaginations of the country people to the most incredible delirium. We will limit ourselves to a single instance. One of our cars met a peasant with a hand-waggon near Nerchau. As soon as he perceived the motor he bolted in mad fright into a neighbouring corn-field.
”Our man called in a friendly voice: 'My good fellow, what are you running away for?' Then the hero answered in a trembling voice: 'I thought it was a French motor!'”[56]
[Footnote 56: _Leipziger Volkszeitung_, August 6th.]
On August 6th every important paper in the German Empire contained the following paragraph issued by the ”Army Direction” in Berlin:
”The hunt for alleged hostile motor-cars must stop. It endangers the motor-car communications so necessary to our armies.”
This warning was repeated in stronger terms on the following day, and the roll of murdered victims began to leak out. ”Unfortunately through this hunt several persons have been wrongfully shot. In Leipzig a doctor and his chauffeur have been shot, while between Berlin and Koepenick a company of armed civilians on the look-out for Russian motor-cars tried to stop a car. The chauffeur was compelled to put the brakes on so suddenly that the motor dashed into a tree, with the result that the occupants--several persons connected with the army--were hurled on to the road and received dangerous injuries.
”In Munich a chauffeur was shot dead by a sentinel because he did not stop soon enough. Even children are not spared in this degrading fear of spies.
”Near Buren (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 a.s.sumed 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 pa.s.sed 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.]
Another warning appeared in all the papers of August 12th in a still more imperative form. Yet a section of the public seemed to find a source of humour in this tragic hunt. A correspondent of the _Berliner Tageblatt_ gave an interesting report of his motor-ride (joy-ride?) from Lindau to Munich.
”We were hardly two kilometres out of Lindau when we were stopped by a barricade of hay-wagons. On each side peasants stood with threatening mien, armed with pitchforks, revolvers and ancient carbines at full-c.o.c.k. 'Hands up!' First visitation; we show our papers, everything in order. Off again.
”About every two kilometres this scene was repeated: road jammed with huge, long wagons, the same excitement, the same discussion, but now and then somewhat sharper. In some villages the duty to defend the Fatherland has turned into madness.
”'Here, get out! Where was this paper stamped? Yes, it is possible to forge!' They refuse to believe anything; not even a pa.s.sport from the Chief in Command, nor papers proving me to be a German and my companion a German officer. When I tell them that I am an author and journalist from Berlin, they parry with a 'What the devil is that?'
”These brave peasants defend their Fatherland well. Once we had to wait half an hour till a _gendarme_ came and ended the comedy with a few short words. Then we are allowed to get in again, and as I turn round a peasant shouts a last greeting: 'Really, I took you for a common hussy in disguise!'
”They threaten us from the houses. Now and then the trigger of a gun clicks as it is levelled at us from a window. The roads are lined with peasants armed with all sorts of weapons, iron spikes, dung-forks, clubs, scythes, and old swords from the time of our great-grandfathers.
”Up to the suburbs of Munich they stand at every village by day and by night to see that nothing happens to the Fatherland! And even if we were stopped twenty-eight times in this short distance; even if we did have to put up with hard words and black looks--we suffered all this gladly.
We rejoiced to see with our own eyes how valiantly our peasants defend the frontiers of their Fatherland.”[59]
[Footnote 59: Edmund Edel in the _Berliner Tageblatt_, August 9th.]