The accusations that the Germans have used civilians as a
protective screen in some of their advances bear so familiar a resemblance to accusations which could not be proved in other wars that we confess we were disinclined to believe them: The Manchester Guardian, however, published last Saturday some extracts from the .3fiinehnor Newel. Nachrichten which are very damning. This German news. paper published a letter from a Lieutenant Eberlein, describing the occupation of St. Die, in the course of which the writer says:— "We had arrested three civilians, and a good idea occurred to me. They were put on chairs and told to go and sit in the middle of the street. Little by little one becomes terribly hard. Well, there they sat in the street. How many prayer. of anguish they uttered I do not know, but their hands were clasped as though with cramp. I am sorry for them, but the method was immediately efficacious. The fire from the houses on our flanks weakens immedi- ately, and we are able to occupy the opposite house, and so are masters of the principal street"
Then he relates bow another German regiment at St. Did had compelled four civilians to sit in front of them, and how those four were killed by Frenob bullets, and adds; "I myself saw them lying in the middle of the street." Imagine a British officer writing home in these terms
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