Paris, Jan. 9.
Only a few days ago, M. Clemenceau, that candid critic of the Government, was complaining that nothing had been done to let the world know how the German army had treated the civilian population of France. Innumerable outrages, he said, have been perpetrated, but we fail to enlist the public opinion of the world on our side by stating the facts.
One result of this reticence was that Mrs, Herrick, wife of the retiring American Ambassador who returned home a few weeks ago, reported by a Boston paper as ing said that she did not believe in the stories of German atrocities and that she did not} know of a single instance in which any of these reports had been stbstantiated. If it were possible for Mrs. Herrick to entertain—such opinions, M. Clemenerau argued, it is quite probable that_ many presentatives of neutral countries in France are advising their Governments that no credence need be placed in these atrocity stories.
M. Clemenceau was a little hasty in his criticism (not for the first! time). The Government was possession, when his remarks were published, of an official report the exploits of the German army in those parts of France which have been wrested from the invader's grasp, and the Governments reticence was explained by the very wise determination not to' act on insufficient information. and te wait until all available evidence had been taken and sifted.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.