14 APRIL 1917, Page 2

What has filled the hearts of Frenchmen with bitterness and

rage has been the meticulous brutality, the sublimated dirtiness, the vagaries, as of some type of .nauseous ape, which have dia- graced the German retreat. Here are the instructions in fright-

fulness contained in documents found on prisoners lately taken on the Somme front, and pilloried in the Times by Mr. Ian Malcolm. who has most usefully specialized in exposing what we may term placarded blackguardism. No. 1, dated March 9th, gives instruc- tions for the procedure preliminary to the so-called German " with- drawal " on the British front, and runs as follows :—

" 1. Pioneer --- and 1 infantryman will throw dung into the wells. 2. Pioneer — and 2 infantrymen will cgt down the trees. 3. Pioneer — and 2 infantrymen will carry out special tasks. 4. Pioneer — and 2 infantrymen will stack wood in houses."