WHO ARE THE HUNS?

190 Plundering and Destruction of Property.
A request for the despatch of supplies of food which had
been sent by 14 French communes of the départements of Aisne
.and the Ardennes to Switzerland on the 28th of November,
•contains the following passage:
"For months the communities have been exploited by the
troops in the most disquieting manner. Of late French troops
have been reprovisioning themselves on an extensive scale in
our communities. They even went so far as to pour away
the wine which they could not carry off. Only the absolutely
indispensible things were left to the inhabitants. Yes, even
the abandoned houses were looted."
A large number of letters from combatants, French, Belgian
and German, testify to the fact that in all those places in which
no cruelties had been perpetrated against German troops, the
behavior of our soldiers was exemplary 1 and that in comparison
the French and Belgian soldiery plundered, burned and
robbed, precisely in the manner of those under Napoleon 1st
and Napoleon 3rd.
1 The spirit of brutalization which prevails in the French and Belgian
armies through the slanderous incitements of the press of the Triple Entente,
is shown by a number of drastic letters which were found on dead or wounded
French soldiers. A few particularly characteristic specimens have been published
by a German author, Herr Georg Queri, in the "Miinchener Neueste Nachrichten."
The originals were discovered in the knapsack of a'French soldier.
They were written on August 20th, and addressed to the man's uncle and
brothers. The following exact translation gives only a few passages from
the letters, but these are typical of the spirit that inspires these men:
"Oh, how I long to march into Germany ! I have made up my mind that
I would look up the nearest jewellers in the first German city I reached and
pick out a few pretty presents for myself. And before I leave the shop, I'll
send a couple of blue beans through the skull of the jeweller — good French
coin for which he need give no change."
The second epistle is couched in a similar vein and is addressed to the
brother and sister of the writer:
"We are close to the frontier and a few more steps will see us in Alsace-
Lorraine. Then quickly into Germany, so that I may purchase a few pretty
-souvenirs for you. For if I am lucky enough to be able to march thither, I
must certainly get some pretty present — and instead of payment, I'll see
that the shopkeeper gets a couple of solid balls in his brains. One must not
have any pity with these monsters. ..."
Such displays of the spirit of "la grande nation" evoke only smiles
•of pity and disdain on the part of the "monsters."