WHO ARE THE HUNS?

Plundering and Destruction of Property. 191
A description of French soldiers as given by a French
•doctor of the 4th Company of the 6th Regiment of Pioneers,
in a diary which was picked up by a German officer and submitted
to a great German daily, confirms this charge. Here
we may read:
"Thus we came to Attigny on the Aisne, where we found
a relay of the Ambulance Corps to which we handed over
our wounded. The look of things in Attigny is revolting. It
is like madness,-—the flight, and then, quite apart from this,
and the most shameful feature of all,—the -plundering!"
The looting and devastation of a number of the houses
in Attigny are confirmed by the statements of officers of a
high German command. The officers reached Attigny by
motors at a time when not a single German soldier had as
yet entered the place. The inhabitants declared that the French
troops had conducted themselves like vandals; they were glad
that order was established with the coming of the Germans.
"The soldiers broke down the doors, drank up all the wine,
all the alcohol that they found, and even sacked the jewellers'
shops. Our captain had a sappeur arrested just as he was in
the act of pocketing a gold chain. The case was clear: courtmartial—shot
dead. These fellows are no longer human beings—
they are mere savage animals."
"An infantry soldier of the XVII Corps, who was in the
habit of running away in the most cowardly manner whenever
it came to a fight, boasted that he had killed a wounded German
soldier by kicking him to death. He wished to take his coat
from him—the wounded man would not let go. As he had
no strength left, he merely gave him a few kicks. It is disgusting."
This is the story of the French military doctor.
The "Augsburger-Munchener Abendzeitung" published the
extremely interesting diary of a French officer, on the 19th
and 20th of October. Its genuineness is made clear by the
dates, the style, and the entire contents. I select two very
characteristic entries :
"August 26th. Towards 8 o'clock we were once more conducted
towards Ch. We discovered with joy that the enemy
had retreated along the whole front last night.