this morning's "Tribune" because, having spent several months in
this region in ambulance work, I am able to support several of his
statements from personal observation.
The house he mentions on the beach near Coxyde Bains was beyond
doubt intended for the purpose he describes. I visited it several
times before it was completely destroyed, and have now in my
possession photographs which show the nature of the building,
besides a tile from the flooring.
Two instances in which spies were detected came to my knowledge; in
one case the person in question was the mayor of the town, in the
other a peasant woman. One other time I know of information was
given undetected which resulted in the shelling of a road at a time
when a convoy of motors was about to pass.
The high esteem in which the Red Cross flag is held by German
gunners (as a target) is only too forcibly impressed upon one in
that service.
MALCOLM T. ROBERTSON.
Mr. Robertson is a member of the Junior Class in Princeton University.
[B] When this record was first made public the "New York Tribune" stated
editorially:--
"The writer of the foregoing communication was for several years a
member of 'The Tribune' staff. For the utter trustworthiness of any
statement made by Mr. Gleason, this newspaper is willing to vouch. Mr.
Gleason was at the front caring for the Belgian wounded. He speaks with
full knowledge and complete authority and 'The Tribune' is glad to be
able to submit to its readers a first-hand, eye-witness account of
atrocities written by an American. It calls attention again to the fact,
cited by Mr. Gleason, that his testimony is included in the Bryce
Report, which should give Americans new insight into the value of this
document."
When Theodore Roosevelt read this record of German atrocity, he made the
following public statement:
"Remember, there is not the slightest room for honest question either as
to the dreadful, the unspeakably hideous, outrages committed on the
Belgians, or as to the fact that these outrages were methodically
committed by the express command of the German Government in order to
terrorize both the Belgians and among neutrals those men who are as cold
and timid and selfish as our governmental leaders have shown themselves
to be. Let any man who doubts read the statement of an American
eye-witness of these fearful atrocities, Mr. Arthur H. Gleason, in the
'New York Tribune' of November 25, 1915."
From the Bryce Report, English edition, Page 167.
_British subject_:--
"The girl was at the point of death. Mr. G---- was with me and can
corroborate me as to this and also as to the other facts mentioned
below. On the same day at the same place I saw one L. de M----. I took
this statement from him.... He signed his statement in my pocket book,
and I hold my pocket book at the disposal of the Belgian and English
authorities.
"I also saw at the hospital an old woman of eighty who was run clean
through by a bayonet thrust.
"I next went up to another wounded Belgian in the same ward. His name
was F. M----. I wrote his statement in my pocket book and he signed it
after having read it."
The full statement in the Bryce Report of the atrocities which I
witnessed covers a page. The above sentences are extracts. Mr. Niemira
had neglected to make a note of the exact date in his pocket book, and
calls it "about the 15th of September." It was September 29.
[C] If any one wants a history of them, and the world ought to want it,
the book of their acts, is it not written in singing prose in Le
Goffic's "Dixmude, un Chapitre de l'histoire des Fusiliers Marins"? Le
Goffic is a Breton and his own son is with the fighting sailors. He
deals with their autumn exploits in Dixmude on the Yser, that butt-end
of wreck. Legends will spring out of them and the soil they have
reddened. We have heard little of the French in this war--and almost
nothing at all from them. And yet it is the French that have held the
decisive battle line. Unprepared and peace-loving, they have stood the
shock of a perfectly equipped and war-loving army.
Monsieur Le Goffic is the official historian of the Fusiliers Marins.
His book has gone through forty-nine editions. He is a poet, novelist
and critic. That American sympathy is appreciated is proved by this
sentence from a letter of Le Goffic to an American who had expressed
admiration for the Breton sailors:--"Merci, Monsieur, au nom de mon
pays, merci pour nos marins, et merci pour moi meme."