Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1915 — WAR SPATS CAUSE DIVORCE [ARTICLE]

WAR SPATS CAUSE DIVORCE

Use of French Language Classified as Offense—Suspects Tried by Court Martial. Basel, Switzerland. —German martial law is described by Alsatians in Basel as "weighing heavily” upon their countrymen at home. They declare that the speaking of French is classified as an offense under the orders issued by the commanding generals of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Twenty-first German Army corps, who cite the imperial laws of 1878 and 1882 to support their contention. The testimony of the children and servants is taken as proof before court-martial of guilt of talking French. Personal feeling between pro-French and pfo-German Alsatians is running high, visiting Alsatians declare. The local courts have granted divorces recently to husbands and wives unable to live harmoniously because of their opposing national sympathies.