Golden Lads Part 15

To the Editor of "The Tribune."

Sir: I was particularly interested in the article by Mr. Gleason in 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 c.o.xyde 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 sh.e.l.ling of a road at a time when a convoy of motors was about to pa.s.s.

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 Cla.s.s 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 doc.u.ment."

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 b.u.t.t-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."