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Morgan, M.A.. -- a Project Gutenberg eBook - </title> - <style type="text/css"> - -a { - text-decoration: none} - -#coverpage { - text-align: center; - max-width: 600px; - margin: 2em auto} - -body { - padding: 4px; - margin: auto 10%} - -p { - text-align: justify} - -.copyright { - font-size: small; - text-align: center} - -.center { - text-align: center} - -.i2 { - padding-left: 1em} - -.i4 { - padding-left: 2em} - -.i6 { - padding-left: 3em} - -.i8 { - padding-left: 4em} - -.small { - font-size: small} - -.medium { - font-size: medium} - -.large { - font-size: large} - -.x-large { - font-size: x-large} - -h1, h2 { - page-break-before: always} - -h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - font-weight: normal; - clear: both; - margin: 2em auto 1em auto} - -h2, h3, h4 { - line-height: 2em;} - -.ph1 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; - font-weight: bold; - font-size: xx-large; - margin: 2em auto 1em auto} - -p.author { - text-align: right; - margin: auto 5%} - -.hang { - text-indent: -2em; - padding-left: 2em} - -hr { - border-top: 4px double #004200;} - -hr.tb { - width: 45%; margin: 2em 27.5%; clear: both} - -/* Tables */ -.table{ - display: table; - margin: 2em auto} - -td.i2 { - text-indent: -3em; - padding-left: 4.5em; - margin-left: 3em; - padding-right: 0.5em} - -td.i4 { - text-indent: -3em; - padding-left: 5.5em; - margin-left: 3em; - padding-right: 0.5em} - -table { - margin: 2em auto} - -.tdr { - vertical-align: bottom; - text-align: right;} -/* End Tables */ - -.smcap { - font-variant: small-caps;} - -/* Images */ -img { - border: none; - max-width: 100%} - -/* Footnotes */ -.footnotes { - margin: 2em auto; - border: 4px double #004200} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: x-small; - font-weight: normal; - line-height: .1em; - text-decoration: none; - white-space: nowrap /* keeps footnote on same line as referenced text */} - -.footnote p:first-child { - text-indent: -2.5em} - -.footnote p { - margin: 1em; - padding-left: 2.5em} - -.label { - width: 2em; - display: inline-block; - text-align: right; - text-decoration: none} - -.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - /* visibility: hidden; */ - color: #004200; - position: absolute; - right: 5px; - font-size: x-small; - font-weight: normal; - text-align: right; -} /* page numbers */ - -/* Transcriber's notes */ -.transnote { - background-color: #E6E6FA; - border: #004200 double 4px; - color: black; - margin: 2em auto; - padding: 1em} - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of German Atrocities, by John Hartman Morgan - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: German Atrocities - An Official Investigation - -Author: John Hartman Morgan - -Release Date: August 1, 2016 [EBook #52679] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERMAN ATROCITIES *** - - - - -Produced by Brian Coe, Wayne Hammond and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div id="coverpage"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">i</span></p> - -<p class="ph1">GERMAN ATROCITIES</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ii">ii</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">iii</span></p> - -<h1>GERMAN ATROCITIES<br /> -<span class="x-large">AN OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION</span><br /> - -<span class="medium">BY</span><br /> - -<span class="large">J. H. MORGAN, M.A.,</span><br /> -<br /> -<span class="small table">OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW,<br /> -PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON;<br /> -LATE HOME OFFICE COMMISSIONER WITH THE BRITISH<br /> -EXPEDITIONARY FORCE</span><br /> - -<span class="medium"><em lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mentem mortalia tangunt</em></span><br /> -<br /> -<img src="images/title_page.jpg" alt="" /> -<br /> -<span class="large">NEW YORK</span><br /> -<span class="x-large">E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY</span><br /> -<span class="large">681 FIFTH AVENUE</span></h1> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">iv</span></p> - -<p class="copyright"> -<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1916,<br /> -BY<br /> -E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY<br /> -<br /> -<br /> -Printed in the U.S.A. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">v</span></p> - -<p id="DEDICATION" class="center"> -TO<br /> -<span class="large">M. ARMAND MOLLARD</span><br /> -MINISTRE PLENIPOTENTIAIRE,<br /> -MEMBER OF “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">LA COMMISSION INSTITUÉE<br /> -EN VUE DE CONSTATER LES ACTES COMMIS<br /> -PAR L’ENNEMI EN VIOLATION DU DROIT DES GENS,</span>”<br /> -THIS WORK IS DEDICATED<br /> -IN RECOGNITION OF HIS COURTESY AND COLLABORATION<br /> -IN THE PURSUIT OF A COMMON TASK.<br /> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">vi</span></p> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">vii</span></p> - -<h2 id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> - -<table> - <tr> - <td colspan="2" class="tdr">PAGE</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i2"><a href="#DEDICATION"><span class="smcap">Dedication</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">v</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i2"><a href="#PREFATORY_NOTE"><span class="smcap">Prefatory Note</span></a></td> - <td class="tdr">ix</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2">CHAPTER</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td><a href="#INTRODUCTORY">I.—<span class="smcap">Introductory</span></a>:</td> - <td></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#THE_BRITISH_ENQUIRY">(1) The British Enquiry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">1</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#THE_GERMAN_CASE_A_CRITICAL_ANALYSIS_OF_THE_GERMAN_WHITE_BOOK">(2) The German Case—a critical Analysis of the German White Book</a></td> - <td class="tdr">6</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#GERMAN_CREDIBILITY_A_REVIEW_OF_THE_EVIDENCE">(3) German Credibility—a Review of the Evidence</a></td> - <td class="tdr">30</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#THE_FUTURE_OF_INTERNATIONAL_LAW_AND_THE_QUESTION_OF_RETRIBUTION">(4) The Future of International Law and the Question of Retribution</a></td> - <td class="tdr">44</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"><a href="#THE_BRITISH_ENQUIRY_IN_FRANCE">II.—<span class="smcap">The British Enquiry in France</span>:</a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#METHODS_OF_ENQUIRY">(1) Methods of Enquiry</a></td> - <td class="tdr">60</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#OUTRAGES_UPON_COMBATANTS_IN_THE_FIELD">(2) Outrages upon Combatants in the Field</a></td> - <td class="tdr">64</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#TREATMENT_OF_CIVIL_POPULATION">(3) Treatment of Civil Population</a></td> - <td class="tdr">76</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#OUTRAGES_UPON_WOMEN_THE_GERMAN_OCCUPATION_OF_BAILLEUL">(4) Outrages upon Women—the German Occupation of Bailleul</a></td> - <td class="tdr">81</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#PRIVATE_PROPERTY">(5) Private Property</a></td> - <td class="tdr">84</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#OBSERVATIONS_ON_A_TOUR_OF_THE_MARNE_AND_THE_AISNE">(6) Observations on a Tour of the Marne and the Aisne</a></td> - <td class="tdr">85</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#BESTIALITY_OF_GERMAN_OFFICERS_AND_MEN">(7) Bestiality of German Officers and Men</a></td> - <td class="tdr">87</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#CONCLUSION">(8) Conclusion</a></td> - <td class="tdr">90</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="2"><a href="#DOCUMENTARY_NEW_EVIDENCE">III.—<span class="smcap">Documentary (New Evidence)</span></a></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#DEPOSITIONS_AND_STATEMENTS_FIFTY_SIX_IN_NUMBER">(1) Depositions and Statements (Fifty-six in number) illustrating breaches of the Laws of War by German Troops, mainly Outrages on British Soldiers</a></td> - <td class="tdr">93 -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">viii</span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#DOCUMENTS_RELATIVE_TO_THE_GERMAN_OCCUPATION_OF_BAILLEUL">(2) Documents relative to the German Occupation of Bailleul</a></td> - <td class="tdr">122</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#EVIDENCE_RELATING_TO_THE_MURDER_OF_ELEVEN_CIVILIANS">(3) Evidence relating to the Murder of Eleven Civilians at Doulieu</a></td> - <td class="tdr">134</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#DEPOSITION_OF_A_SURVIVOR_OF_THE_MASSACRE_OF_TAMINES">(4) Deposition of a Survivor of the Massacre of Tamines</a></td> - <td class="tdr">137</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#FIVE_GERMAN_DIARIES">(5) Five German Diaries</a></td> - <td class="tdr">139</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#DOCUMENTS_FORWARDED_BY_THE_RUSSIAN_GOVERNMENT">(6) Documents forwarded by the Russian Government</a></td> - <td class="tdr">146</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#THE_GERMAN_WHITE_BOOK">(7) The German White Book: The Introductory Memorandum</a></td> - <td class="tdr">158</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#DEPOSITIONS_RELATING_TO_THE_MASSACRE_OF_WOUNDED_AND_CAPTIVE">(8) Depositions relating to the Massacre of Wounded and Captive Highlanders by a German Bombing Party on September 25th, 1915, at Haisnes</a></td> - <td class="tdr">169</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#DEPOSITIONS_AS_TO_THE_USE_OF_INCENDIARY_BULLETS">(9) Depositions as to the use of Incendiary Bullets by the German Troops</a></td> - <td class="tdr">174</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class="i4"><a href="#DEPOSITIONS_AS_TO_THE_EMPLOYMENT_BY_GERMAN_TROOPS">(10) Depositions as to the Employment by German Troops of Russian Prisoners upon Military Works on the Western Front</a></td> - <td class="tdr">177</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">ix</span></p> - -<h2 id="PREFATORY_NOTE">PREFATORY NOTE</h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Professor Morgan</span> desires to express his obligations -to the Russian Embassy, the Foreign Office, the Home -Office, the French Ministry of War, and the General -Headquarters Staff of the British Expeditionary -Force for the assistance which they have given him. -For the opinions expressed in Part IV. of the Introductory -Chapter Professor Morgan is alone responsible. -The whole of the documents given in the -“Documentary Chapter” of this book (except the -Memorandum from the German White Book which -has been published in German, though not, of course, -in English) are now published for the first time. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">x</span> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">1</span></p> - -<p class="ph1">GERMAN ATROCITIES</p> - -<h2 id="Chapter_I"><span class="smcap">Chapter I</span><br /> - -<span id="INTRODUCTORY">INTRODUCTORY</span></h2> - -<h3 id="THE_BRITISH_ENQUIRY">I<br /> - -THE BRITISH ENQUIRY</h3> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> second chapter of this book has already appeared -in the pages of the June issue of the <cite>Nineteenth Century -and After</cite>. At the time of its appearance numerous -suggestions were made—notably by the -<cite>Morning Post</cite> and the <cite>Daily Chronicle</cite>—that it should -be republished in a cheaper and more accessible -form. A similar suggestion has come to us from the -Ministry of War in Paris, reinforced by the intimation -that the review containing the article was not -obtainable owing to its having immediately gone out -of print. Since then an official reprint has been -largely circulated in neutral countries by the British -Government, and an abbreviated reprint of it has -been published by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee -in the form of a pamphlet. The Secretary to -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span> -the Committee informs me that considerably over a -million and a half copies of this pamphlet have been -circulated.</p> - -<p>At the suggestion of Mr. Fisher Unwin, and by the -courtesy of the editor of the <cite>Nineteenth Century</cite>, the -article is now republished as a whole, but with it is -published for the first time a documentary chapter -containing a selection of illustrative documents, none -of which have hitherto appeared in print. For permission -to publish them I am chiefly indebted to the -Home Office and the Foreign Office. Needless to say, -the original article also was submitted to the Home -Office authorities, by whom it was duly read and approved -before publication. These documents by no -means exhaust the unpublished evidence in my possession, -but my object has been not to multiply proofs -but to exemplify them, and, in particular, as is explained -in the following chapter, to supplement the -Bryce Report on matters which, owing to the exigencies -of space and the pre-occupation with the case -of Belgium, occupy a comparatively subordinate -place in that document. This volume may, in fact, -be regarded as a postscript to the Bryce Report—it -does not pretend to be anything more.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">1</a></p> - -<p>There is, however, an extremely important aspect -of the question which has not yet been the subject -of an official report in this country, and that is the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span> -German White Book.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> It has never been published -in England, and is very difficult to obtain. There -is some reason to believe that the German Government -now entertain considerable misgivings about the -expediency of its original publication, and are none -too anxious to circulate it. The reason will, I think, -be tolerably obvious to anyone who will do me the -honour to read the critical analysis which follows.</p> - -<p>I will not attempt to prejudice that analysis at -this stage. I shall have something to say later in -this chapter as to the credibility of the German Government -in these matters. It is a rule of law that, -when a defendant puts his character in issue, or -makes imputations on the prosecutor or his witnesses, -as the Germans have done, his character may legitimately -be the subject of animadversion. To impeach -it at this stage might appear, however, to beg the -question of the value of the White Book, which is -best examined as a matter of internal evidence without -the importation of any reflections on the character -of its authors.</p> - -<p>As regards the value of the evidence on the other -side—the English, Belgian, and French Reports—I -doubt if any careful reader requires persuasion as -to their authenticity. In the case of the Bryce Report, -the studied sobriety of its tone—to say nothing -of the known integrity and judiciousness of its authors—carried -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span> -instant conviction to the minds of all -honest and thoughtful men, and that conviction was -assuredly not disturbed by the vituperative description -of it by the <cite>Kölnische Zeitung</cite> as a “mean collection -of official lies.” No attempt has ever been -made to answer it. As regards the French Reports, -which are not as fully known in this country as they -might be,<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">3</a> I had the honour of working in collaboration -with M. Mollard, a member of the French Commission -of Inquiry, and I was greatly impressed with -their scrupulous regard for truth, and their inflexible -insistence on corroboration. My own methods of -inquiry are sufficiently indicated in the chapter which -follows, but I may add two illustrations of what, I -think, may fairly be described as the scrupulousness -with which the inquiries at General Headquarters -were conducted. The reader may remember that in -May of last year a report as to the crucifixion of two -Canadian soldiers obtained wide currency in this -country. A Staff officer and myself immediately instituted -inquiries by means of a visit to the Canadian -Headquarters, at that time situated in the neighbourhood -of Ypres, and by the cross-examination of -wounded Canadians on the way to the base. We -found that this atrocity was a matter of common belief -among the Canadian soldiers, and at times we -seemed to be on a hot scent, but eventually we failed -to discover any one who had been an actual eye-witness -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span> -of the atrocity in question. It may or may -not have occurred—we have had irrefragable proof -that such things have occurred—and it is conceivable -that those who saw it had perished and their testimony -with them. But it was felt that mere hearsay -evidence, however strong, was not admissible, and, -as a result, no report was ever issued.</p> - -<p>In the other case a man in a Highland regiment, -on discovering himself in hospital in the company of -a wounded Prussian, attempted to assault the latter, -swearing that he had seen him bayoneting a wounded -British soldier as he lay helpless upon the field. He -was positive as to the identification and there could -be no doubt as to the sincerity of his statements. But -as one Prussian Guardsman is very like another—the -facial and cranial uniformity is remarkable—and -there was no corroboration as to identity, no action -was taken. As to the fact of the atrocity having -occurred there could, however, be no doubt.</p> - -<p>I may add that the numerous British officers whom -I interrogated in the earlier stages of the war showed -a marked disinclination—innate, I think, in the British -character—to believe stories reflecting upon the -honour of the foe to whom they were opposed in the -field. But at a later stage I found that this indulgent -scepticism had wholly disappeared. Facts had been -too intractable, experience too harsh, disillusion too -bitter. The lesson has been dearly learnt—many a -brave and chivalrous officer has owed his death to the -treachery of a mean and unscrupulous foe. But it -has been learnt once and for all. And, indeed, judging -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span> -by the information which reaches me from various -sources, the enemy affords our men no chance of -forgetting it.</p> - -<h3 id="THE_GERMAN_CASE_A_CRITICAL_ANALYSIS_OF_THE_GERMAN_WHITE_BOOK">II<br /> - -THE GERMAN CASE—A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE GERMAN -WHITE BOOK</h3> - -<p><span class="smcap">On</span> May 10th—some five days before the publication -of the Bryce Report—the German Government drew -up a voluminous White Book purporting to be a -Report on Offences against International Law in the -conduct of the war by the Belgians. It may be described -as a kind of intelligent anticipation of the -case they might have to meet; the actual case, as presented -in the Bryce Report, they have never attempted -to meet, and to this day that report has -never been answered. The German White Book—of -which no translation is accessible to the public in -this country—has attracted very little attention over -here, and I propose to make a close and reasoned analysis -of it, for no more damning and incriminating -defence has ever been put forth by a nation arraigned -at the bar of public opinion. In doing so I shall rely -on the German Report itself and shall make no attempt -to refute it by drawing upon the evidence of -the English and Belgian Reports, convincing though -that is, because to do so might seem to beg the question -at issue, which is the relative credibility of the -parties. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span></p> - -<h4>German Invocation of The Hague Conventions.</h4> - -<p>The case which the German Government had avowedly -to meet was the wholesale slaughter of Belgian -civilians, and the fact of such slaughter having taken -place they make no attempt to deny. They enter a -plea of justification and, in a word, they attempt to -argue that the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">levée en masse</em> or “People’s War” of -the Belgian nation was not conducted in accordance -with the terms of the Hague regulations relating to -improvised resistance in cases of this kind. I will not -here go over the well-trodden ground of Belgian neutrality; -it is enough that in a now notorious utterance -the Imperial Chancellor has admitted that the German -invasion was a breach of international law.<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">4</a></p> - -<p>The substance of the Hague Convention<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> is that -the civil population of a country at war are entitled -to recognition as lawful belligerents if they conform -to four conditions. They must have a responsible -commander; they must wear a distinctive and recognisable -badge; they must carry their arms openly; -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span> -and they must conduct their operations in accordance -with the laws and customs of war. In the case, however, -of an invasion, where there has been no time -to organise in conformity with this article, the first -and second conditions are expressly dispensed with, -provided there is compliance with the third and -fourth. Now, not only have these rules been subscribed -by the German representatives and, according -to Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, their principal -spokesman at the Hague Conference, such subscription -was absolute and unconditional;<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> but the principle -which they embody has been accepted by all -the leading German jurists. “There exists no ground -for denying to the masses of a country the natural -right to defend their Fatherland ...; it is only -by such levies that the smaller and less powerful -States can defend themselves.”<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> The same authority -argues that no State is bound to limit itself to -its regular army; it could, he adds, call up civil -guards or even women and children, who in such case -would be entitled to the rights of lawful belligerents.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">8</a></p> - -<p>What then is the German justification for the massacre -of the Belgian civilians? Its main contention -is that the Belgian Government “had <em>sufficient time</em> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span> -for an <em>organisation</em> of the People’s War as required -by international law”;<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> in other words that a spontaneous -and unorganised resistance in Belgium could -not claim the immunities of Article 2 of the Hague -Regulations. The effrontery of this contention is truly -amazing. The Belgian Government had, at the most, -two days—two days in which to organise a whole nation -for defence. The German ultimatum to Belgium -was issued on August 2nd; the violation of Belgian -territory took place on August 4th. How could a -little nation with a small standing army organise its -whole population on a military basis within two days -against the most powerful and mobile army in Europe, -equipped with all the modern engines of war? -The German Government do, indeed, attempt to support -their contention by urging further that “the -preparation of mobilisation began, as can be proved, -at least a week before the invasion of the German -Army.”<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> Now, granting—and it is granting a great -deal—that a week would be sufficient to organise untrained -civilians for defence, it would still remain to -be proved that the Belgian Government <em>did</em> begin -to mobilise a week beforehand. The German White -Book does not prove it; the Belgian Grey Book disproves -it. The Belgian Government, relying on the -plighted faith of Germany, had not even begun to -mobilise on July 29th—six days before the invasion.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span> -Indeed, it was only on July 24th that they were sufficiently -alarmed to address interrogatories to the -Great Powers, Germany among them, for assurances -as to the immunity of Belgium from attack.<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> As late -as July 31st the German Government effectually concealed -its intentions.<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> It is, in fact, a matter of common -notoriety that the German move against Belgium -was as sudden in execution as it was premeditated -in design. She entered like a thief in the night.</p> - -<h4>Charges against the Belgian Government.</h4> - -<p>The main contention of the German Government -therefore falls to the ground. What remains? It is -here that the German answer betrays itself by its -disingenuousness. There is an old rule of pleading, -familiar to lawyers, which says a traverse must be -neither too large nor too narrow. This is just the -error into which the German contention falls. The -apologies are too anxious to prove everything in turn -as the occasion suits, forgetting that one of their contentions -often refutes the other. In the introductory -memorandum they argue that Belgium had time to -organise and did not. In their excuse for the massacre -at Dinant, and their zeal to prove that the military -exigencies were overwhelming, they say that -“the organisation”—of civilian resistance—“was -remarkable for its careful preparation and wide extent”; -“that the guns were only partly sporting -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span> -guns and revolvers but partly also machine guns and -Belgian military weapons proves that the organisation -had the support of the Belgian Government.”<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> -In other words, in one part of the White Book they -insist that the resistance was ruthlessly punished -because it was not organised; in another that because -it was organised it had to be ruthlessly repressed. In -another place,<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">15</a> having to justify their peculiar principle -of vicarious responsibility by which the innocent -have to answer for the guilty, they say that the -Belgian Government and the municipal hostages -whom the Germans executed ought to have stopped -“this guerilla warfare,” and did not do so. Now it -is well known, and the German Government admits -it, that the public authorities issued proclamations ordering -the people to abstain from hostilities and to -surrender their arms. How does the German Government -meet this? The only evidence they can produce -in the whole of their pompous dossier is (1) -the deposition of a German Jew, resident in Brussels, -to the effect that, seeing the proclamation, he sent -his servant to the Belgian authorities to deliver up a -revolver, and that the servant came back and said -that the Commissioner of Police had told him not to -trouble as “one need not believe everything that is -in the papers”;<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> (2) the deposition of a German -lieutenant that an officer (not named) once showed -him a document (not produced), which, “according -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span> -to his own account” he had found in the town hall -of a neighbouring village (not indicated), containing -an invitation on the part of the Belgian Government, -addressed to the population, to render armed resistance -in return for payment.<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> On such flimsy hearsay -evidence, tendered by two Germans, rests the -whole of the German case against the Belgian Government.</p> - -<h4>Belgian “Atrocities.”</h4> - -<p>Like a defendant who has no case, the German -Government attempt to plead generally in default -of being able to plead specifically. They therefore -put forward a sweeping generalisation to the effect -that, quite apart from the question whether the Belgians -did or did not comply with the formal requirements -of the Hague Convention, they violated all the -usages of war by “unheard of” atrocities. “Finally -it is proved beyond all doubt that German -wounded were robbed and killed by the Belgian population, -and indeed were subjected to horrible mutilation, -and that even women and young girls took -part in these shameful actions. In this way the eyes -of German wounded were torn out, their ears, nose, -fingers and sexual organs cut off, or their body cut -open.”<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> Let us consider the depositions with which -this accusation is supported.</p> - -<p>(1) Hugo Lagershausen, of the 1st Ersatz Company -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span> -of the Reserve, his attention having been drawn -to the significance of the oath, declares:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“I lost the other men of the patrol. About noon on August -6th, I came to a dressing station, which was set up on a farm -near the village of Chenée. In the house I found about fifteen -severely wounded German soldiers, of whom four or five had -been horribly mutilated; both their eyes had been gouged out, -and some had had several fingers cut off. Their wounds were -relatively fresh although the blood was already somewhat coagulated. -The men were still living and were groaning. It -was not possible for me to help them, as I had already ascertained -by questioning other wounded men lying in that house, -there was no doctor in the place. I also found in the house -six or seven Belgian civilians, four of whom were women; -these gave drinks to the wounded; the men were entirely passive. -I saw no weapons on them, and I cannot say whether -they had blood on their hands, because they put them in their -pockets.”<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">19</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>It is highly probably, is it not? Musketeer Lagershausen -falls among ghouls who hastily put their incriminating -hands in their pockets and allow him -who was “entirely alone” and powerless to walk -off and inform against them. Truly they must have -been some of the mildest-mannered men who ever -cut a throat.</p> - -<p>(2) Musketeer Paul Blankenberg, of Infantry -Regiment No. 165, declares:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“We were on the march in closed column and passing -through a Belgian village west of Herve. In the village some -German wounded were lying and I recognised some Jäger of -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span> -the Jäger Battalion, No. 4. Suddenly the column marching -through was fired upon from the houses, and accordingly the -order was given that all civilians should be removed from the -houses and driven together to one point. <em>While this was being -done</em> I noticed that girls of eight to ten years old, armed with -sharp instruments, busied themselves with the German wounded. -Later, I ascertained that the ear lobes and upper parts of the -ears of the most seriously injured of the wounded had been -cut off.”<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">20</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>That is to say, a whole column of German troops -is on the march in close formation, they round up the -civilians and <em>while they are doing this</em> some little -girls continue, in presence of this overwhelming force, -to “busy themselves” by cutting up their comrades -with the contents of their mothers’ work-box.</p> - -<p>(3) Landwehrman Alwin Chaton, of the 5th Company -of the Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 78, declared:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“In the course of the street fighting in Charleroi, as we -fought our way through the High Street and had reached a side -street leading off the High Street, I saw, when I had reached -the crossing and shot into the side street, a German dragoon -lying in the street about fifty or sixty paces in front of me. -Three civilians were near him, of whom one was bending over -the soldier, who still kicked with his legs. I shot among them -and hit the last of the civilians; the others fled. When I approached -I saw that the shot civilian had a long knife, covered -with blood, in his hand. The right eye of the German dragoon -was gouged out.”<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">21</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>The witness adds that “much smoke was rising -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span> -from the body of the dragoon,” This is to say that a -general engagement, one of the hardest fought during -the war, is going on in the middle of a town and -three civilians are discovered within fifty or sixty -paces, leisurely carving up a German dragoon! Is -it credible?</p> - -<p>(4) My fourth example is too long to quote, but in -substance it is this. Reservist G. Gustav Voigt deposes -that on August 6th he and seven comrades suddenly -saw five Belgian soldiers, fully armed, holding -up their arms to surrender. When they went up to -them they discovered that the Belgians had a German -hussar strung up and freshly mutilated, and that -they had two other hussars upon whom they were -about to perform similar operations.<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">22</a> Without firing -a shot, these men, caught red-handed under circumstances -which made their own death inevitable, surrender -immediately.</p> - -<p>Now I ask any unbiased reader whether these depositions, -in each case uncorroborated, are such as to -carry conviction to any reasonable man? Yet the -whole of the “proofs” adduced as to Belgian atrocities -are of this character.</p> - -<h4>The Massacres—Andenne.</h4> - -<p>When we come to the justification alleged for the -wholesale massacres of communities the evidence is -even more suspicious. In order to prove the Belgians -unspeakable knaves the German Government have to -present them as incredible fools. At Andenne, “a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span> -small town of a population of about 8,000 people,” -there were affrays in which “about 200 inhabitants -lost their lives.”<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> According to the German document, -“two infantry regiments and a Jäger battalion” -were marching through this place when they -were set upon by the inhabitants. Two regiments -and a battalion would constitute the greater part of -a brigade; they must have amounted to at least 7,000 -men.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> We are asked to believe that this small unprotected -community (one of the German witnesses -expressly says, “I did not see one single French or -Belgian soldier in the entire town or the environs”)<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> -made an unprovoked attack on this overwhelming -force, and that the women assisted with -pots of scalding water. Two hundred of the civilians -were, by the German admission, shot. The German -losses were, it is added, “singularly small.” So singularly -small were they that the German Report omits -even to enumerate them.</p> - -<h4>Jamoigne and Tintigny.</h4> - -<p>In another case—the village of Jamoigne—an ammunition -column halted for water. The attitude of -the population “was friendly; water, coffee, and tobacco -were offered to some non-commissioned officers -and men.” Suddenly, while part of the population -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span> -are standing outside their doors fully exposed, “a -general shooting” is opened upon the crowd in the -streets from the roofs and windows of the houses.<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> -Is it intrinsically probable that Belgian civilians -would be so careless of the lives of their fellow-citizens? -Or take the case of Tintigny. An artillery -ammunition column is welcomed, “apparently with -the best goodwill,” assisted to water its horses, and -then (but not before) “when the horses had been -again harnessed” and the opportunity for a surprise -attack had passed, the inhabitants opened fire on the -whole column.<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> Statements like these carry their -own refutation with them.</p> - -<h4>The Tragedy of Dinant.</h4> - -<p>I turn to the case of Dinant, one of the most appalling -massacres that have ever been perpetrated,<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> -even by the hordes of Kultur. No attempt is made -to deny the wholesale slaughter; it is freely admitted, -and with sanguinary iteration we are told again and -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> -again “a fairly large number of persons were shot, -“all the male hostages assembled against the garden -wall were shot.” Such <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">battues</em> occur on page after -page.<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">29</a> What is the German excuse? It is that the -civilian population offered a desperate resistance. To -prove how desperate it was, and consequently to establish -the “military necessity,” it has to be conceded -that they were organised. But this is proving -too much, for “organised” civilian combatants are -entitled to the privileges of lawful belligerents. -Therefore it is argued that they were “without military -badges”: this phrase occurs with a curious lack -of variation in the words of each witness. It is added -that women and “children (including girls) of ten -or twelve years” were armed with revolvers! “Elderly -women,” “a white-haired old man,” fired with -insensate fury. None the less—says one ingenuous -German witness—“the people had all got a very high -opinion of Germany.” At intervals during the engagement -not only were groups of civilians, alleged -to have arms in their hands, shot in groups, but -unarmed civilians were shot—“all the male hostages.” -In other words the whole of the German -defence that the German troops were punishing illicit -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">francs-tireurs</em> is suddenly abandoned. Tiring apparently -of these laboured inventions, the German staff, -in a grim and sombre sentence, suddenly throws off -the mask:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“In judging the attitude which the troops of the 12th Corps -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span> -took against such a population, our starting point must be that -the <em>tactical object</em> of the 12th Corps was to cross the Meuse -<em>with speed</em>, and to drive the enemy from the left bank of the -Meuse; speedily to overcome the opposition of the inhabitants -who were working in direct opposition to this <em>was to be striven -for in every way</em>.... Hostages were shot at various places -and this procedure is amply justified.”<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">30</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>It has been estimated that about eight hundred -civilians perished in this massacre. The German -White Book freely concedes that the number was -large; indeed by a simple process of induction from -the German evidence it is clear that it was very large. -It appears that a whole Army Corps (the 1st Royal -Saxon) was engaged and that the armed troops of -the Allies were encountered in force. The German -troops received a check and it seems fairly obvious -that they simply wreaked their vengeance, as they -have so often done, on an unoffending population, -presumably in order to intimidate the enemy in the -field. Not for the first time they attempted to do -by terror what they could not do by force of arms.</p> - -<h4>“We gave them coffee.”</h4> - -<p>It is characteristic of the whole <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">apologia</em> that having -admitted to an indiscriminate butchery the Germans -attempt to gain credit for preserving throughout -its course the most tender sentiments. In fact -they are surprised at their own sensibility. “I -have subsequently often wondered,” says a Major -Schlick, “that our men should have remained so -calm in the face of such beasts.”<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> Major Bauer -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span> -says, that he and his “manifested a most notable -kindness to women, old men and children”; so notable -that he suggests that “it is worthy of recognition -in the special circumstances.” Major Bauer evidently -thinks it a case for the Iron Cross. And in -proof of this humanity he points out that the widows -and orphans of the murdered husbands and fathers -“all received coffee”<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> from the field kitchen the -next morning. Perhaps Major Bauer bethinks himself -of a certain cup of cold water.</p> - -<h4>The Children were “quite happy.”</h4> - -<p>More than this, the children seem rather to have -enjoyed the novel experience. A German staff-surgeon -whose gruesome task it was to search a heap of -forty corpses, “women and young lads,” who had -been put up against a garden wall for execution, -says:<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">33</a></p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“Under the heap I discovered a girl of about five years of -age, and without any injuries. I took her out and brought her -down to the house where the women were. <em>She took chocolate, -was quite happy, and was clearly unaware of the seriousness of -the situation.</em>”</p></blockquote> - -<p>And with that amazing statement we may fitly -leave this amazing narrative.</p> - -<h4>Aerschot.</h4> - -<p>The case of Dinant may be taken as typical. The -evidence as to Louvain and Aerschot is not less incredible. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span> -We are asked to believe that at Aerschot<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">34</a> -the population of a small town suddenly rose in arms -against a whole brigade, although the population was -quite unprotected—“we ascertained that there was -no enemy in the neighbourhood.”<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> To explain this -surprising and suicidal impulse the Germans produce—it -is their only evidence—the statement of a Captain -Karge, that he had “heard rumours from various -German officers” that the Belgian Government, -“in particular the King of the Belgians,” had decreed -that every male Belgian was to do the German Army -“as much harm as possible.” “It <em>is said</em> that such -an order was found on a captured Belgian soldier.” -Strangely enough, the order is not produced—not a -word of it. Also, “an officer <em>told</em> me that he himself -had <em>read</em> on a church door of a place near Aerschot -that the Belgians were not allowed to hold captured -German officers on parole, but were bound to shoot -them.” He adds that he “cannot repeat the words -of this officer exactly.”<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span></p> - -<h4>Louvain.</h4> - -<p>Let us now turn to Louvain. “The <em>insurrection</em> -of the town of Louvain,” say the authors of the -White Book with some naïveté, “against the German -garrison and the punishment which was meted out -to the town have found a long-drawn-out echo in the -whole world.” Some twenty-eight thousand words -are therefore devoted to establishing the thesis that -the German troops in occupation of the town were -the victims of a carefully organised, long premeditated, -and diabolically executed attack on the part of -the inhabitants assisted by the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Garde Civique</em>. Thus:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“We are evidently dealing with a carefully planned assault -which was carried on for several days with the greatest obstinacy. -The long duration of the insurrection against the German -military power in itself disposes of any planless action -committed by individuals in excitement. The leadership of the -treacherous revolt must have lain in the hands of a higher -authority.”—Summarising Report.</p></blockquote> - -<p>Great emphasis is laid on the formidable nature -of the attack and the heavy odds against which the -Germans had to contend. The fire of the Belgians -was “murderous” (D 11, D 13), “fearful” -(D 9), “violent” (D 36), “furious” (D 41); it -was supported by machine-guns (D 28, 29, 37, 38, -40) and hand-grenades (D 46), and was materially -assisted by Belgian soldiers in disguise (Appendix -D 1, 19, 38), and by the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Garde Civique</em> (D 45, 46), -who occupied houses with the most “elaborate preparations.” -In spite of this careful preparation the -German troops, who had been in the town six days -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span> -and had there established the Head-quarters of a -whole Army Corps (the 9th Reserve Corps), were -so impressed by the “extraordinarily good” behaviour -of the inhabitants that on the evening of August -25th, about 7.30 or 8 p.m., they were taken completely -by surprise. “It was impossible to foresee,” says -Lieutenant von Sandt (D 8), “that the inhabitants -were planning an assault.” Other witnesses say, -however, that “a remarkable number of young -men” were observed congregating in the streets some -hours beforehand. None the less the German authorities -exhibited an ingenuous trustfulness and, -what is even more remarkable, a complete disregard -of the most ordinary police precautions, which will -come as a surprise to anyone who has studied the -German Proclamations and the drastic measures usually -taken by them immediately upon their occupation -of a town.</p> - -<h4>A “murderous” attack; German casualties—five.</h4> - -<p>Such was the situation when at seven o’clock on -a summer evening (August 25th) of notorious memory, -the deep-laid plans of the Belgian authorities -suddenly and murderously revealed themselves. A -German company of Landsturm<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">37</a> was marching -through the town; the main body of the German -troops quartered there were engaged several miles -away, and only a few details remained in the city. -This small body of unsuspecting soldiers—a company -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span> -numbers not more than two or three hundred men—were -suddenly set upon, at a signal given by rockets, -by trained marksmen of the Belgian Army and the -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Garde Civique</em>, disguised as civilians, acting with the -aid of machine-guns and hand-grenades and actively -assisted by the greater part of a large civilian population. -The fire, as various soldiers of the Landsturm -testify, was not only carefully controlled and directed, -but was “murderous” in the extreme. Yet, -after carefully searching through their depositions, -we find that only “<em>five men of the company were -wounded</em>” (D 8)! Lieutenant Sandt and Dr. Berghausen -feel constrained to explain these remarkably -light casualties. They can only account for them by -saying that in spite of the “carefully planned” and -disciplined attack the Belgians, shooting from carefully -chosen positions, shot “too high” (D 8), “at -night” (D 8, D 9) although the light at eight o’clock -on an August evening is usually remarkably good, -and one of the witnesses (D 26) says that at 8 p.m. -it was “fairly light.” The company appear to have -disarmed the infuriated Belgians with remarkable -ease, going into the houses two or three at a time -(D 9), and finding the occupants apparently as docile -as sheep, so that although found with arms in their -hands they allowed themselves to be led out in “a -crowd” and “immediately shot” (D 44). In one -case, on entering an inn, the Germans found “behind -the bar, a waiter,” who had apparently taken up -this strong strategical position alone with “a case -for shot placed by his side with the corresponding -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span> -ammunition.” He also allowed himself to be led -forth like a lamb to the slaughter (D 37).</p> - -<h4>Contradictory witnesses.</h4> - -<p>It is extraordinary also that although this murderous -and carefully planned attack began at 7.30 -“I had just finished my soup,” says Major von -Manteuffel, who sat down to dinner at 7.30—(Appendix -D 3), or at 8 p.m. (D 6), yet at 9 p.m., says -Corporal Hohne, who entered the town with his regiment -at that hour (D 36), “the conduct of the civilians -was quiet and not unfriendly,” and his regiment -was allowed to march right into the town—“up -till then nothing noteworthy had occurred.” A -N.C.O. of the same battalion says that “between 9 -and 10 p.m.” the Belgians were standing about the -streets; all was “quiet,” and they were “not unfriendly” -(D 36). Another witness heard nothing -till “9 or 9.30” (D 25). Another says (D 45) the -signal was given at “9 o’clock.” To the same effect -another soldier (D 18). What is even more remarkable -is the statement of Major von Klewitz that at -4 a.m. the next morning, after the Landsturm had -cleared the houses, the infatuated inhabitants opened -fire on an Army Corps which appears to have arrived -in the interval and was then “moving out to battle” -(D 2); and the presence of a whole brigade of Landwehr -(D 1) does not seem to have exercised any restraining -influence on these insane civilians. Like -flies to wanton boys was a whole Army Corps to the -burgesses of Louvain, who killed it for their sport. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span> -The German authorities contend that, with intermittent -executions, they tolerated this kind of thing for -two whole days. They appear, however, to have -borne a charmed life—the chief casualties among -them were horses. Battalion Surgeon Georg Berghausen, -in particular, who records as a remarkable -fact that he once paid a hotelkeeper (“to please him -and his employees”) for meals he had ordered, was -“repeatedly shot at” the whole length of a street -but never so much as hit. He thinks this was due -to its being so dark, though whenever the witnesses -are concerned to testify that the firing was undoubtedly -by civilians, or by soldiers disguised as such, -they can see “quite plainly.”</p> - -<h4>The Priests.</h4> - -<p>Never since the Day of Pentecost was there such a -confusion of tongues. One witness labours to prove -that no executions took place without a most decorous -court-martial in the station square, the same soldier -combining apparently the office of prosecutor and -judge (D 38); another says that of “a crowd” of -persons taken out of a house, the males were “immediately -shot” (D 44); yet a third says that a body -of hostages were placed in front of a machine-gun -with an intimation that they would be shot as a matter -of course if there were any more disturbance -(D 37). It is admitted that a hundred civilians were -shot, “including ten or fifteen priests” (D 38). -One German witness says it is all the fault of the -priests (D 38); another says it’s the fault of the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span> -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Garde Civique</em> (D 45)—both being apparently at -some pains to exculpate the unhappy civilians. The -quality of the evidence against the priests (and the -civil population) may be gathered from the following -deposition (D 42) of Captain Hermansen. He interviewed -a priest who, he says, had behaved well on -one occasion:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“I rejoined that if his clerical brethren had acted in that -[the same] manner, the Belgians and we would have been -spared many unpleasant experiences. <em>He did not contradict -me.</em>”—(D 42.)</p></blockquote> - -<p>In witness whereof Captain von Vethacke comes -forward and says:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“In so far as priests were shot they too had been found -guilty by the court. I came to know the priest mentioned by -Captain Hermansen at the end of his declaration. He made -an excellent impression on me also; and <em>he did not contradict -me either</em>, when I expressed to him my opinion that certain of -the clergy had stirred up the people and taken part in the attack.”—(D -43.)</p></blockquote> - -<p>Truly, a remarkable example of the <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">argumentum -ab silentio</em>! Perhaps the unfortunate priest remembered -what happened to Faithful when he contradicted -Chief Justice Hategood.</p> - -<p>All the evidence adduced, where it is not that of -the German soldiers, is of this character. It is all -hearsay, the Belgian witnesses quoted are invariably -anonymous, and there are only five of them at that -(D 30, 34, 37, 38, 42). At Bueken “the clergymen” -are accused of having incited the population to attack -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span> -the German troops. The proof adduced is that the -priest “left the church” when the firing began!</p> - -<h4>What is the true explanation?</h4> - -<p>One thing emerges quite clearly from these disorderly -depositions and that is a great confusion of -mind. The evidence from Belgian sources, very carefully -sifted by a Committee<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">38</a> (presided over by Sir -Mackenzie Chalmers) of the Belgian Commission -and, independently, by the Bryce Committee,<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">39</a> is to -the effect that two detachments of German troops -fired on one another and then threw the blame on the -innocent inhabitants. This explanation certainly -receives some countenance from the German depositions, -which, as I have said, exhibit a kind of turbulent -confusion. The N.C.O.‘s of two battalions which -entered the town at 9 p.m. say “the noise and confusion -was very great,” and “to what extent our fire -was returned I cannot say”; “we shot the street -lamps to pieces”; “our opponents were not to be -seen since it was already dark,” and “we only saw -the flash of the discharges and <em>supposed</em> that they -came from the houses” (D 36, 37); and here again, -as in the case of the company of Landsturm previously -referred to, only “five men” were known -to be hit. During the greater part of the day (August -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span> -25th) there was only<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">40</a> one company of Landsturm -and sixty men of a railway detachment in the -town (D 8). It is surely rather remarkable that -“a well-prepared and elaborately designed attack -on the part of the civil population” (D 41) should -have halted all day and then begun either at or a -short time before (the German evidence is, as we -have seen, very conflicting) German reinforcements -were entering the town, and then tarried again until -the whole or the greater part of a German Army -Corps had arrived: the only thing that the German -evidence proves is the sinister fact that the arrival of -each detachment of German forces coincided with -renewed massacres of the civilian population. Such -is the ugly story that emerges from these ill-nourished -and contradictory testimonies.</p> - -<p>Such is the German White Book. I think it is -not too much to say that it bears the stamp of the -forger’s hand upon it, the same hand that forged the -Ems telegram and garbled the Belgian documents -captured in Brussels. It was conceived in iniquity -and brought forth in falsehood. It confesses, but -does not avoid. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span></p> - -<h3 id="GERMAN_CREDIBILITY_A_REVIEW_OF_THE_EVIDENCE">III<br /> - -GERMAN CREDIBILITY—A REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE</h3> - -<h4>The German Diaries.</h4> - -<p>I have allowed the German White Book to speak -for itself. It is a well-known rule of law that a -party is “estopped” from denying his own admissions, -and the incriminating character of these admissions -is, as we have seen, conclusive against the -German Government. Had I desired, I could have -reinforced it by other evidence, also emanating from -German sources, in the shape of Proclamations and -diaries (of which I have seen some hundreds at the -Ministry of War in Paris), which amply corroborate -the conclusions already arrived at. The German -pretence of a judicial inquiry into the guilt or innocence -of the victims of their sanguinary fury is -refuted by the simple fact that their own Proclamations -frankly intimate that the principle of decimation -and of vicarious punishment will be adopted, -in the case of infractions, whether real or assumed, -of what they choose to call their commands. A -hostage may fail to turn up as a substitute, an inhabitant -may be found with a litre of benzol unaccounted -for, another may dig potatoes in the field, -yet another may fail to salute or to hold his hands -up with sufficient promptitude—and the penalty -decreed is invariably the same: he, or a substitute, -will be shot—“the innocent will suffer with the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span> -guilty.”<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">41</a> Not only so, but as a rule no attempt -was made to discover whether any offence had been -committed or not. In the diary of a German officer -which came into my possession an entry recording -the undiscriminating butchery of some two hundred -civilians concluded with the otiose remark: “In -future there ought to be an inquiry into their guilt -instead of shooting them.” An unpublished Proclamation -in my possession, which was handed to me -by the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">maire</em> of a town now in our occupation, declared -that the civils, “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">ou peutêtre les militaires en -civil,</span>” had fired on the troops; the parenthesis -damns its authors beyond redemption. And when -all other tests fail, when every international convention -has been repudiated, there still remains the -elementary rule, which not only jurists but soldiers -have always emphasized, that in reprisals and retribution -there should always be some <em>proportion</em> between -the offence and its punishment. What then -is to be thought of the admission of a German soldier -that sixty villagers, including women in travail, -were shot “because,” he adds laconically, “they had -telephoned to the enemy”? The critic who carefully -collates the diaries, published and unpublished, will -find overwhelming evidence of indiscriminate and -lawless butchery—“<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Befehl ergangen sämtliche männliche -Personen zu erschiessen.... Ein schrecklicher -Sonntag</span>” (Order passed to shoot all the male inhabitants.... -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span> -A frightful Sunday); “<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Ein schreckliches -Blutbad</span>” (A frightful blood-bath); “<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Sämtliche -Rechtsnormen sind aufgelöst</span>” (All the rules -of law are cast to the winds). And nothing is more -instructive than to observe how each lays the blame -for the worst outrages upon the other, while incidentally -admitting those of his own unit. One says, -“It’s the infantry who are to blame”; another says, -“The pioneers are the worst and those brigands of -artillerymen”; a third writes, “It’s all the fault of -the transport.” The cumulative effect of these recriminations -is to inculpate the whole.<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">42</a></p> - -<h4>German Credibility.</h4> - -<p>Quite apart from this inductive evidence there is -the fact that the German Government is so tainted -with the infamy of indisputable mendacity that no -sober and impartial man can credit a single word of -what it says. It has deliberately forged Belgian -documents which have come into its possession in -order to make out a case against the Belgian Government;<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">43</a> -it has repeatedly broken faith with the -British Government and the Vatican;<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">44</a> it has abused -the Geneva Convention in order to make use of a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span> -hospital ship as an instrument of war.<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">45</a> Berlin itself -is one great factory of lies, and its official Press service, -to quote the words of our Ambassador, “a vast -system of international blackmail.”<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> As is the -Government, so are the people. Its merchants forge -manifests and falsify bills of lading in order to -secure the immunity of their property from capture -at sea.<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">47</a> A journal under German control<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">48</a> has -admitted that the stories of mutilation so industriously -circulated by the German Government and its agents -are entirely the product of hysterical “suggestion.” -Often its pretexts are a shameless afterthought. In -co-operation with the French authorities I was instrumental -in tracking down a now notorious order -issued by a German Brigadier-General to butcher -all the wounded who fell into German hands. At -first its authenticity was denied by the German Government, -but, when it was established beyond doubt, -they published a statement that a similar order had -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span> -been issued by one of our own Generals some twelve -months ago. The excuse was as belated as it was -mendacious, and to this day not the slightest proof -has been adduced in support of it.</p> - -<p>The German authorities seem to suffer from a malady -which can only be described as moral perversion. -It is a kind of moral insanity. In defending -the sinking of the <em>Lusitania</em> with its freight of innocent -women and children the German Government -wrote:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“The case of the <em>Lusitania</em> shows <em>with horrible clearness</em> to -what jeopardising of human lives the manner of war conducted -by our adversaries leads.”<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">49</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>This affectation of horror at the consequences of -its own crimes and the imputation of the guilt of -them to others is surely one of the most remarkable -revelations of the moral obliquity of the German -mind. Yet it by no means stands alone. The Proclamations, -issued in Belgium, threaten the inhabitants -with fire and sword, the scaffold and the firing-party, -for the least infraction of the most trivial -regulations, and then conclude with the aspersion -that by such infraction they will commit “the horrible -crime” of compromising the existence of a -whole community and placing it “outside the pale -of international law.”<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">50</a> The man who omits to put -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span> -his hands up with acrobatic promptitude will “make -himself guilty” of the penalty of death. All through -the German utterances there runs an infatuated obsession -that the Germans enjoy a kind of moral prerogative -in virtue of which they are entitled to violate -all the laws which they rigidly prescribe for -others.<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">51</a> We have lately had an example of this -which is of supreme horror. The Power which has -broken all laws, human and divine, sought to dignify -its condemnation of Edith Cavell with all the pomp -and circumstance of a tribunal of justice. While -thousands of ravishers and spoilers go free, one -woman, who had spent her life in ministries to such -as were sick and afflicted, was handed over to the -executioner. Truly, there has been no such trial in -history since Barabbas was released and Christ led -forth to the hill of Calvary.</p> - -<h4>The Guilt of the German People.</h4> - -<p>It is the fondest of delusions to imagine that all -this blood-guiltiness is confined to the German Government -and the General Staff. The whole people -is stained with it. The innumerable diaries of common -soldiers in the ranks which I have read betray -a common sentiment of hate, rapine, and ferocious -credulity.<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">52</a> Again and again English soldiers have -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span> -told me how their German captors delighted to offer -them food in their famished state and then to snatch -it away again. The progress of French, British, and -Russian prisoners, civil as well as military, through -Germany has been a veritable Calvary.<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">53</a> The helplessness -which in others would excite forbearance if -not pity has in the German populace provoked only -derision and insult.<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">54</a> The “old gentleman with a -grey beard and gold spectacles” who broke his umbrella -over the back of a Russian lady (the wife of -a diplomatist), the loafers who boarded a train and -under the eyes of the indulgent sentries poked their -fingers in the blind eye of a wounded Irishman who -had had half his face shot away, the men and women -who spat upon helpless prisoners and threatened -them with death, the guards who prodded them with -bayonets, worried them with dogs, and dispatched -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span> -those who could not keep up—these were not a Prussian -caste, but the German people. What is to be -thought of a people, one of whose leading journals -publishes<a id="FNanchor_55" href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">55</a> with approval the letter of a German -officer describing “the brilliant idea” (ein guter -Gedanke) which inspired him to place civilians on -chairs in the middle of the street of a town attacked -by the French and use them as a screen for his men, -in spite of their “prayers of anguish.”</p> - -<h4>New Russian Evidence.</h4> - -<p>This question of the culpability of the German -people, civilians and soldiers in the ranks, as distinct -from the German Government, is one of supreme -importance, and I would like to draw the reader’s -attention to the mass of unpublished evidence (from -which some selections are given in Part VI. of the -Documentary Chapter of this book) placed at my disposal -by the Russian Embassy. In addition to the -documents I have printed in that chapter—I refer -the reader to No. 7 in particular—I will here quote -the following unpublished deposition as to the conduct -of the German guards in a prison camp. These -barbarities, it should be remembered, were not done -in the heat of action, but represent the leisurely -amusement of guards whose only provocation was the -helplessness of the famished men in their charge.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“In their leisure moments the German soldiers amused themselves -with practical joking at the expense of the prisoners. -They announced that an extra portion of food would be given -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span> -out, and when the Russians hurried to the kitchen, a whole pack -of dogs were let loose on them. The animals flew at the prisoners -and dispersed them in all directions, while the Germans -looked on and roared with laughter. Sometimes the prisoners -were offered an extra ladle of soup, or piece of bread if they -would expose their backs to a certain number of blows with a -whip. Our hungry and tormented soldiers often bought an -extra piece of bread at this price, and it was thrown to them -as if they had been dogs.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>The Germans appear in the case of the Russian, as -in that of the British, Belgian, and French prisoners, -to have taken a malignant and bestial delight in outraging -their feelings of self-respect, and men were -herded together day and night in cattle-trucks deep -in manure, and forced to perform their natural functions -where they stood, packed together so close that -they could not sit and dared not lie down. At each -station they were exhibited like a travelling menagerie -to the curiosity and insult of the populace. The -quality of mercy was not shown even where one might -most expect to find it, namely, at the hands of the -German surgeons and nurses who wore the Red Cross. -Here is the deposition of Vasili Tretiakov:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“Having received no food for two days, the Russian prisoners, -who fully expected to get some bread at this station, were -gazing with hungry and longing looks into the distance, when -they saw women dressed as Sisters of Mercy distributing bread -and sausages to the German soldiers. One of these Sisters went -up to the truck in which I was standing, and a Russian soldier -at the door stretched out his hand for something to eat, but the -woman simply struck it and smeared the soldier’s face with -a piece of sausage. She then called all the prisoners ‘Russian -swine’ and went away from the side of the train.”</p></blockquote> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span></p> - -<p>Well may the Russian Government say in their -covering communication that “the forms of punishment”—if -we can speak of punishment when no offence -had been committed—“remind one of the tortures -of the Middle Ages.” Other documents in my -possession recite how the prisoners were harnessed to -ploughs and carts, like cattle, and lashed with long -leather whips; how a man who fainted from exhaustion -was immediately bayoneted, while another who -fell out of the ranks to pick up a rotten turnip shared -a like fate; how wounded men were forced to stand -naked for hours in the frost until gangrene set in, -tied up for hours to posts with their toes just touching -the ground until, the blood rising to the head, -copious hæmorrhage took place from the nose, mouth, -and ears; how yet others who, exhausted with hunger -and fatigue, could not keep up on the march were -bayoneted or clubbed where they lay. As for the -conduct of the German populace let the following -speak for itself:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“The peaceful inhabitants along the routes traversed in -Germany showed the greatest hostility towards the prisoners, -whom they reviled as ‘Russian swine and dogs.’ Women and -even children threw stones and sand at them, and spat right -in their faces.... Even the wounded men were not spared by -these demented Germans who struck them, pulled their moustaches, -and spat in their faces.”</p></blockquote> - -<h4>The German Ideal—Europe in Chains.</h4> - -<p>The conception of the educated classes of Germany -as to the future of Europe we have on record: it is to -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span> -be a tributary Europe, vast satrapies of subject populations -more rightless than the mediæval villein, their -language proscribed, their liberties disfranchised, -their commerce prohibited, their lands expropriated, -hewers of wood and drawers of water for the conqueror. -The ill-disguised slavery under which Belgium<a id="FNanchor_56" href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">56</a> -and the occupied French Departments<a id="FNanchor_57" href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">57</a> -groan to-day is to be perpetuated. The small nations -of Europe are to exchange the protection of Europe -for the suzerainty of Germany and to live under the -German “shield.” Their territories are to be to -Germany what the provinces were to Rome at her -worst—great praedial estates, the peasantry of which -are either to be “cleared” or to remain as the menials -of the conqueror. The German dream is the dream -of the Latin historian who sighed for more provinces -to conquer in order that liberty might be “banished -from the sight”<a id="FNanchor_58" href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> of those already under his heel. -What Germany cannot annex she will ruin, so that -borne down by heavy indemnities France shall never -be able to lift her head again. Such are the “terms -of peace” proclaimed by the German Professors, a -body of men who, it should be remembered, in Germany -hold their chairs at the pleasure of the State -and are, in fact, a branch of the Civil Service. They -therefore speak as men having authority.<a id="FNanchor_59" href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span></p> - -<h4>A Moral Distemper.</h4> - -<p>I have been told that there are still some individuals -in England who cherish the idea that this vast -orgy of blood, lust, rapine, hate, and pride is in some -peculiar way merely the <em>Bacchanalia</em> of troops unused -to the heady bouquet of the wines of Champagne -or, stranger still, that it is the mental aberration -of a people seduced by idle tales into these -courses by its rulers. It is no part of my task to -find explanations. But if the reader is astonished, -as well he may be, at the disgusting repetition of -stories of rape and sodomy let him study the statistics -of crime in Germany during the first decade of -this century, issued by the Imperial Government; he -will find in them much to confirm the impression that -the whole people is infected with some kind of moral -distemper.<a id="FNanchor_60" href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> The seduction of a people by its rulers -is impossible; such hypnotic susceptibility to the influences -of “suggestion” would, of itself, be a symptom -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span> -of mental degeneration in the people itself. It -is impossible to believe that the most highly educated -nation in Europe is either so ignorant or so credulous -as such an explanation would suggest. It is not in -their ignorance but in their turpitude that the clue -to these barbarities is to be found. This is a sombre -fact which has to be faced or these appalling records -will have been sifted and published in vain. The -problem of explanation is ultimately one for the anthropologist -rather than the lawyer, and there may be -force in the contention of those who believe that the -Prussian is not a member of the Teutonic family at -all, but a “throw-back” to some Tartar stock. Certain -it is that he exhibits an insensibility to the feelings -of others which is only equalled by his extreme -sensitiveness as to his own.<a id="FNanchor_61" href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">61</a> This morbid insensibility -is, of course, the secret of German “Terrorism,” -and of the immense influence which it has exerted -on the theory and practice of war among the German -nation. It explains their singular ingenuity in finding -means to an end, and between the German trooper -who dips a baby’s head into scalding water in order -to get more coffee from its mother<a id="FNanchor_62" href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">62</a> to the commandant -who at the point of the bayonet thrusts a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span> -living screen of priests, old men, and women with -babes at the breast<a id="FNanchor_63" href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> between his own troops and -those of the enemy there is a difference of degree -rather than of kind. Similarly the dark passage in -the German War Book which hints that there may be -occasions on which it will be profitable to massacre -prisoners of war reveals the same quality of mind as -the order to shoot helpless sailors who are struggling -for their lives in the sea.<a id="FNanchor_64" href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> All things are lawful -which are expedient, and if your enemy has ties of -affection, the better he lends himself to your belligerent -exploitation. <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mentem mortalia tangunt</em>—human -things touch the heart—acquires for the German Staff -a new and sinister significance. Every tender feeling -that their enemy has becomes a hostage for his tractability, -because it can be violated if he is contumacious. -His churches can be profaned, his priests murdered, -his boys driven into exile, his women-folk -handed over to the lust of a licentious soldiery, and -his home destroyed. If his troops defeat one in the -field, the civilian population can be made to pay for -it with their lives,<a id="FNanchor_65" href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> so that eventually he may be disarmed -not by defeat but by horror. His own humanity -will be his undoing. Not fear but anguish will -bring him to his knees.</p> - -<p>This is the German doctrine, secreted in the pages -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span> -of many a German manual,<a id="FNanchor_66" href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> and now published to -the world in the German Proclamations and the evil -deeds which they both excuse and provoke. This it -is which has made the German nation, in the words -of Lord Rosebery, “the enemy of the human race,” -and has caused the very name of this bestial and -servile people to stink in the nostrils of mankind.</p> - -<h3 id="THE_FUTURE_OF_INTERNATIONAL_LAW_AND_THE_QUESTION_OF_RETRIBUTION">IV<br /> - -THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE QUESTION -OF RETRIBUTION</h3> - -<h4>The Dissolution of Europe.</h4> - -<p>Many years ago the most distinguished of the modern -school of French historians wrote a remarkable -essay on the subject of “Diplomacy and Progress.”<a id="FNanchor_67" href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">67</a> -He knew Europe as few had known it; he had spent -his life in its chancelleries and its archives, and his -wisdom was only equalled by his knowledge, for he -had studied not only books but men. In that essay -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span> -he speculated as to the effect of the progress of mechanical -invention in the arts of war upon the prospects -of European peace, and he confessed to a -mournful depression. But the source of his apprehension -was not Europe but Asia. He foresaw the -possibility of some potent Oriental nation awaking -from its secular meditations and applying itself in a -single generation to an apprenticeship in those mechanical -arts which are no longer the peculiar mystery -and the prerogative of the Western world. A -nation thus acquiring the destructive resources of -the West, while retaining the peculiar morality of the -East—its ruthlessness, its contempt for human life, -its sombre fatalism, its indifference to personal liberty, -its chicanery, its love of espionage—might, he -apprehended, fall upon Europe in a catastrophic -assault as unforeseen as it would be unprovoked, and -threaten her with destruction.</p> - -<p>The catastrophe has fallen, but the foes of Europe -have been those of her own household, and we have -discovered with a shock of dismay that the comity of -European nations has harboured a Power which is -European in nothing but in name, and is more completely -alien to Western ideals than the tribes of Afghanistan. -A hybrid nation of this type which is intellectual -without being refined, which can discipline -its mind but cannot control its appetites, which can -acquire the idiom of Europe and yet retain the instincts -of Asia or rather of some pre-Asiatic horde, -presents the greatest problem that has ever perplexed -the civilisation of man. It is like an intellectual -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span> -savage who has learnt the language and studied the -dress and deportment of polite society, but all the -while nurtures dark atavisms and murderous impulses -in the centres of his brain. The subtle danger -of the presence of such a nation in the European -comity is that it uses the language of that international -society, and yet all the while means something -different, and that with every appearance of solemn -subscription to its forms and treaties it is making -mental reservations and “economies” which strike -at the very root of them.</p> - -<h4>The Casuistry of the Intellectual Savage.</h4> - -<p>In the hands of such a nation an international convention -is not merely idle and impotent; the convention -itself becomes positively dangerous, simply because -it can be perverted. It can be used to invest -the most barbarous acts with a specious plausibility, -and can be turned against the very people whom it -was designed to protect. Any one who takes the -trouble to study the official proclamations of the -German military authorities, or the introductory -memorandum to the German White Book, cannot fail -to be struck by this. A civilian who fires on the enemy -forfeits under international law the privileges -of a non-combatant. The rule means as much as it -says, and no more; it does not impose on a civil community -the obligation to prove that it is a non-combatant. -But in nine out of ten German proclamations -the rule is invoked as an excuse for involving -a whole community in responsibility with their lives -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span> -for the acts or omissions, real or alleged, of single individuals—“the -innocent will suffer with the -guilty”<a id="FNanchor_68" href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">68</a>—and the “law of nations” is invoked to -put a whole population “outside the pale” of it.<a id="FNanchor_69" href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">69</a> -At one stroke we are carried back to the days of the -blood-feud and of vicarious punishment, and the law -of nations is perverted from an instrument of progress -to an organon of bloody sophistries. So, too, -the Hague Convention which requires that requisitions -of supplies should not be made without giving -receipts is observed in the letter and violated in the -spirit; receipts are given, but they are forged. The -obligation of a treaty guaranteeing the neutrality of -Belgium is admitted, but a false charge and a falsified -document is advanced to justify its breach. A brigade -order to kill all prisoners is first denied, and -then when denial becomes futile, a fictitious order of -a prior date is alleged against us in order to dignify -the real order with the sanction of “reprisals.” Defenceless -merchantmen are attacked and sunk at -first sight, and then when they carry guns for their -protection their precautions for defence are used as -a retrospective pretext for attack. The same curious -casuistry is invoked to excuse the attacks on Scarborough -and London, and the Hague Convention is -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span> -interpreted, in defiance of its authors, to support the -plea that whatever barbarity is not expressly prohibited -is thereby condoned.</p> - -<h4>Germany as a Moral Pervert.</h4> - -<p>It is this terrible perversion, this prostitution of -words until, to quote a classical expression of Thucydides, -they have lost their meaning in relation to -things, that seems to me the most intractable problem -that we have to face. To my mind it is this pathological -aspect of the German temperament which presents -a far more serious obstacle to a restoration of -the European comity based on the readmission of -Germany to membership than the German dogma of -war. You may, perhaps, extirpate a dogma but you -cannot alter a temperament. To regard Germany -as the misguided pupil of a military caste which alone -stands in the way of her reformation seems to me to -ignore the volume of evidence as to the complicity of -officers and men in those orgies of outrage. I cannot -avoid the conclusion that the whole people is infected -with a kind of moral distemper.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“Look, Madame,” said a German soldier to a French woman -who witnessed the execution of three poor travellers who with -their hands tied behind their backs with napkins were led into -a field close to her house and shot by six soldiers under the command -of a German officer, “Look! isn’t it fine! See them -shoot some French civilians. A fine feat that! All the others -ought to be killed in the same way.”<a id="FNanchor_70" href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">70</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>The sentiment is typical; German diaries are full -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span> -of such things. Nor is it reasonable to suppose that -the kind of teaching which has made Clausewitz and -Treitschke and Bernhardi the gospel of the German -people, and has found authoritative expression in the -German War Book, could have commanded the prestige -which it does command in Germany if it had not -found a people apt and eager by temperament to receive -it. Germany stands alone among modern nations -in extending its official conception, and even its -academic analysis<a id="FNanchor_71" href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">71</a> of war, to include the deliberate -“terrorization” of non-combatants. She alone has -taught, both by precept and example, that there are -no limitations to what is justifiable by the exigencies -of war. “<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">C’est la guerre</em>” is the common answer of -German officers when implored by the victims to stop -the lust and rapine of their men.<a id="FNanchor_72" href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">72</a> It follows from -all this that war as taught and practised by the Germans -exceeds in savagery even the practices of the -ancient world, in which it was thought the mark of -barbarism to poison wells, desecrate temples and murder -priests—practices which the Germans have not -hesitated to pursue. Incitement to assassination, -which was thought a mean and dishonourable thing -by the Roman mind,<a id="FNanchor_73" href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> is specifically recommended in -the German War Book. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span></p> - -<p>In the ancient world the vanquished were regarded -as rightless, and whole populations were sold into -slavery after they had been decimated by the slaughter -of their leading citizens. The German practice -is not intrinsically different; municipal magistrates, -parish priests, and one in three of the civil population -have been butchered, many civilians carried off to -Germany to work in the fields, and those who are left -behind forced to dig trenches for their captors while -their wives and daughters are handed over to the lust -of the soldiery, and their movable property transported. -It is difficult to see how this differs in anything -but name from the tragic fate of those unhappy -communities who in the laconic phrase of the ancient -world passed <em lang="es" xml:lang="es">sub corona</em> and were sold by auction. -All this differs from the practices of the ancient -world in nothing except a certain affectation, the one -concession to modern sentiment being a studious defamation -by the Germans of the people whom they -ravish and despoil. It seems to me that bad as the -German crimes are the German justification for them -is even worse. For it betrays a real corruption of -mind. The ancients were often brutal but they were -never hypocritical.</p> - -<h4>The Bankruptcy of The Hague Conventions.</h4> - -<p>What hope then can there be of a restoration of the -comity of European nations, and the re-establishment -of the Hague Conventions? I confess I can see none. -The German Empire was conceived in duplicity and -brought forth in war, and three times within living -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span> -memory, as Sir Edward Grey has reminded us, she -has wantonly provoked war in Europe in pursuance -of her predatory designs. I can see no way out of -the present travail except an armed peace, with the -elimination as its basis for a long time to come of -Germany from the councils of Europe. What hope -of understanding can there be with a nation which -does not observe the ordinary rules of diplomatic -intercourse, that <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">jus fetiale</em> which even the ancient -world regarded as sacred? The world has seen with -stupefaction—there has, I think, been no such case -for hundreds of years—the Ambassador of the Austrian -Government taking advantage of his immunities -and sovereign character to suborn seditious conspiracy -in the State to which he was accredited?<a id="FNanchor_74" href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> It -is difficult to believe that this case now stands alone. -Conventions with such a Power are both a delusion -and a snare. They delude us with an appearance of -agreement where none exists. In unscrupulous -hands, the more precise and technical they are, the -more do they lend themselves to casuistry, adding, -as some one has said, the terrors of law to the horrors -of war. I am afraid that such conventions are now -hopelessly discredited. I doubt if we shall hear very -much in future of the distinction between combatants -and non-combatants, or of the sanctity of the -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">levée en masse</em> as a medium of lawful transition -from the one to the other; he who studies the German -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span> -White Book on hostilities in Belgium will see how -easily a belligerent, if he be so minded, can dispose -with a quibble of the obligations to respect an improvised -force which has “no time” to organise. A -belligerent contemplating a sudden attack and a belligerent -having to meet it will entertain very different -conceptions as to what is meant by “no time.” War -has, indeed, come to be, as von der Goltz prophesied -it would be, a war not between armies but between -peoples, and we are further than ever from the oft-quoted -maxim of Rousseau that “War is not a relation -of Man to Man but of States to States,” in which -particular individuals are enemies only by the accident -of a uniform. That was the voice of Individualism; -but States grow more and more collectivist, -and never so collectivist as in war. If, as an eminent -writer has remarked, “out of the inner life of a nation -comes its foreign policy,” so, we may add, out -of its municipal law, its military usages, and its economic -necessities will come its construction of international -law.</p> - -<h4>The Effect on International Law.</h4> - -<p>It surely cannot be too clearly recognised that -Germany’s successive violations of the laws of war -have brought the whole fabric down like a house of -cards. When the Germans began to sink neutral -merchantmen by way of vindicating what they were -pleased to call the freedom of the seas, England was -forced to jettison much of that famous Declaration -of London, which seemed at one time to be as complete -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span> -an expression of a consensus of international -opinion as the world of jurists had yet attained. We -have gone further, as we were bound to do, and have -so extended the theory of blockade as to qualify very -considerably the Declaration of Paris. The Foreign -Office has supported these departures by the logic of -reprisals—in my humble opinion very properly—but -“reprisals” are, juridically speaking, a kind of counsel -of despair. In books on international law they -receive a kind of shame-faced recognition; their place -is always at the end and the chapter devoted to them -is often brief and generally apologetic. For the jurist -knows that they partake of the character of law about -as much as trial by battle. The voice of America is a -voice crying in the wilderness; both groups of belligerents -deny the American contention that peace, -and with it the commerce of neutrals, should govern -the construction of the rules of war. How can it be -otherwise in a struggle for existence? I very much -doubt whether, for a long time to come, international -lawyers can afford to assume, as they have been in the -habit of doing, that peace, not war, is the normal conditions -of nations. A nation which like Germany will -not admit your major premises will certainly reject -your conclusions when it suits her convenience. The -dilemma therefore is inexorable: we can readmit Germany -to international society and lower our standard -of International Law to her level, or we can exclude -her and raise it. There is no third course.</p> - -<p>These are the hard facts to which any one who attempts -to take stock of the present situation and -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span> -immediate prospects of International Law must -address himself. International Law rests on a reciprocity -of obligation; if one belligerent fails to -observe it the other is, as a mere matter of self-preservation, -released from its observance towards -him, and is bound not by law but by morality, by his -own conception of what he owes to his own self-respect. -It is well that our own conception has -been rather in advance of International Law -than behind it, and long may it so remain. -But in proportion as our conception is high -and the German conception is low, it seems to me -incumbent on us to place our hopes for the future -in the strength of our right arm and in that alone. -And if, in Burke’s noble phrase, we are to consider -ourselves for the future “embodied with Europe” so -that, sympathetic with the adversity or the happiness -of mankind, we feel that nothing human is alien to -us, then we must be prepared to support our treaty -guarantees of the independence of the small nations -with an adequate armed force; otherwise they will regard -our friendship as an equivocal and compromising -thing. If we are to offer them the protection of -Europe in place of the suzerainty of Germany, we -must be in a position to honour our promissory notes -or they will indeed be but a scrap of paper—a cruel -and otiose encouragement to the weak to defy the -strong.</p> - -<h4>The German as Outlaw.</h4> - -<p>As for Germany, I can see little hope except in a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span> -sentence of outlawry. Mere black-listing of the -names of responsible German commanders, although -worth doing (and I have reason to believe that at the -French War Office it is being done) with a view to -retribution, is not going to change the German character. -We shall have to revise our notions of both -municipal and international law as regards her. The -tendency of English law has long been, as an acute -jurist has pointed out,<a id="FNanchor_75" href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">75</a> to lay more emphasis on -domicile than on nationality, the disabilities of the -alien have been diminished almost to vanishing-point, -and British citizenship itself could be had almost for -the asking. Not of it need the alien knocking at our -hospitable doors say, in the words of the chief captain, -“With a great sum obtained I this freedom.” -It has been made disastrously cheap. All that is -likely to be changed. It is not a little significant that -already the courts have begun to take judicial notice -of the peculiar morality of the German and have -expressly made it the basis of a decision extending the -conception of what constitutes a prisoner of war.<a id="FNanchor_76" href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> -And alone among the emergency legislation the drastic -Aliens Act is not limited in its preamble, as are -the other Acts, to the duration of the war. These -things are portents. It is impossible to believe that -a revolution more catastrophic than anything through -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span> -which Europe has passed, a revolution beside which -the French Revolution assumes the proportions of a -storm in a tea-cup, can leave our conceptions of law, -whether municipal or international, unchanged.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<h4>Conclusion.</h4> - -<p>I make no apology, and I trust that none is needed, -for these speculations. Reports of atrocities can -serve no useful purpose unless they move men to reflect -no less resolutely than deeply upon what is to -be done to deliver Europe from the scourge of their -repetition. It may well be that my own reflections -will seem cynical to one, depressing to another, arbitrary -to a third. They are not the idols of the theatre, -and in academic circles they may not be fashionable. -But the catastrophe that has disturbed the -dreams of the idealogues must teach jurists and statesmen -to beware of the opiate of words and sacramental -phrases. That, however, is a task which belongs to -the future. The immediate enterprise is not for lawyers -but for our gallant men in the field. They, and -they alone, can lay the foundations of an enduring -peace by an unremitting and inexorable war. They -are the true ministers of justice. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span></p> - -<h2 id="THE_BRITISH_ENQUIRY_IN_FRANCE"><span class="smcap">Chapter II</span><br /> - -THE BRITISH ENQUIRY IN FRANCE</h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">In</span> November of last year I was commissioned by the -Secretary of State for Home Affairs to undertake the -investigation in France into the alleged breaches of -the laws of war by the German troops, the inquiries -in England being separately conducted by others. -The results of my investigation were communicated -to the Home Office, in the form of confidential reports -and of depositions, diaries, proclamations, and other -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pièces justificatives</em>, and were in turn submitted to -the Committee appointed by the Prime Minister and -presided over by Lord Bryce. The Committee made -liberal use of this material, but, owing to the exigencies -of space and the necessity of selection, some -of it remains unpublished, and I now propose to place -it and the conclusions I draw from it before the public. -Some part of it, and that part the most important—namely, -that which establishes proofs of a deliberate -policy of atrocity by responsible German officers—came -into my hands too late for use by the Committee. -Moreover, the Committee felt that their first -duty was to Belgium, and consequently the portion -of the inquiry which related to France, and in particular -to outrages upon British soldiers in France, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span> -occupies a comparatively small place in their publications. -In this article I therefore confine myself to -the latter branch of the inquiry, and the reader will -understand that, except where otherwise stated, the -documents here set out are now published for the -first time.<a id="FNanchor_77" href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">77</a></p> - -<p>My investigations extended over a period of four -or five months. The first six weeks were spent in -visiting the base hospitals and convalescent camps -at Boulogne and Rouen, and the hospitals at Paris; -during the remaining three months I was attached to -the General Headquarters Staff of the British Expeditionary -Force. In the course of my inquiries in the -hospitals and camps I orally interrogated some two -or three thousand officers and soldiers,<a id="FNanchor_78" href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">78</a> representing -almost every regiment in the British armies and all -of whom had recently been engaged on active service -in the field. The whole of these inquiries were conducted -by me personally, but my inquiries at headquarters -were of a much more systematic character. -There, owing to the courtesy of Lieutenant-General -Sir Archibald Murray, the late Chief of the General -Staff, I had the assistance of the various services—in -particular the Adjutant-General, the Provost-Marshal, -the Director of Military Intelligence, the Director -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span> -of Medical Services and their respective staffs—and -also of the civil authorities, within the area at -present occupied by the British armies, such as the -sous-prefets, the procureurs de la République, the -commissaries de police, and the maires of the communes. -In this way I was enabled not only to obtain -corroboration of the statements taken down in the -base hospitals in the earlier stages of my inquiry, but -also to make a close local study of the behaviour of -the German troops towards the civil population during -their occupation of the districts recently evacuated -by them.<a id="FNanchor_79" href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">79</a> In pursuance of this latter inquiry -I visited every town and commune of any importance -now in our occupation and lately occupied by the -Germans, including places within a few hundred -yards of the German lines. As regards the conduct -of the German troops in the earlier stages of the campaign -and in other parts of France, I confined my -inquiries to incidents which actually came under the -observation of our own troops during or after the -battles of Mons, the Marne, and the Aisne, and did -not extend them to include the testimony of the -French civil authorities, as I did not consider it part -of my duty to attempt to do what was already being -done by the Commission of Inquiry instituted by the -President of the Council. But I freely availed myself -of opportunities of corroboration of English evidence -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span> -from French sources where such sources were -readily accessible, and, by the courtesy of the French -Ministry of War, who placed a Staff officer and a military -car at my disposal, I was enabled to go over the -ground to the north-east of Paris covered by our troops -in their advance to the Aisne and to obtain confirmation -of many incidents already related to me by -British officers and soldiers. It was also my privilege -frequently to meet M. Mollard, of the French Commission, -and to examine for myself the depositions -on oath and <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">pièces justificatives</em> on which the first -Reports of the Commission are based, and which are -as yet unpublished. In these different ways I have -been enabled to obtain an extensive view of the whole -field of inquiry and to arrive at certain general conclusions -which may be of some value.</p> - -<h3 id="METHODS_OF_ENQUIRY">Methods of Enquiry.</h3> - -<p>My method of inquiry was twofold—I availed myself -of both oral evidence and written evidence. As -regards the former, the evidence taken at the base -hospitals was wholly of this character. The method -which I adopted in taking it was as follows:</p> - -<p>I made it a rule to explain to the soldier or officer -at the outset that the inquiry was an official one, and -that he must be prepared to put his name to any testimony -he might elect to give.</p> - -<p>I allowed the soldier to tell his story in his own -way and in his own words, but after, or in the course -of, the recital, I always cross-examined him as to -details, inquiring in particular (1) whether he directly -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span> -witnessed the event himself; (2) what was the -date and place of the occurrence—to establish these -I have frequently gone over the operations with the -witness with the aid of a military map and a diary -of the campaign; (3) whether, in the case of hearsay -evidence, he heard the story direct from the subject -of it, and, in particular, whether he was versed in -the language employed; (4) whether he could give -me the name of any person or persons with him, particularly -officers, who also witnessed the event or -heard the story.</p> - -<p>After such cross-examination I then took down the -narrative, if satisfied that it possessed any value, read -it over to the soldier, and then obtained his signature. -This, however, was often only the first stage, as I -have not infrequently been able to obtain confirmation -of the evidence so obtained by subsequent inquiries -at General or Divisional Headquarters, either -among members of the staff or from company officers -or from the civil authorities. For example, hearsay -evidence of rape (and I always regarded such evidence -as inconclusive of itself) tendered to me by -soldiers at the base hospitals received very striking -confirmation in the depositions of the victims on oath -which had been taken by the civil authorities at Bailleul, -Metteren, and elsewhere, and which were subsequently -placed at my disposal. Personal inquiries -made by me among the maires and curés of the communes -where particular incidents were alleged to -have occurred resulted in similar confirmation. So, -too, the Indian witnesses whom I examined at the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span> -base hospital were at my request subsequently re-examined, -when they had rejoined their units, by the -Intelligence Officers attached to the Indian Corps, -and with much the same results. Corroborative evidence -as to a policy of discrimination practised by -the German officers in favour of Indians was also obtained -from the record of statements volunteered by -a German prisoner of the 112th Regiment and placed -at my disposal by our Intelligence Officers.</p> - -<p>The general impression left in my mind by these -subsequent inquiries at head-quarters as to the value -of the statements made to me earlier by soldiers in -hospital is that those statements were true. There -is a tendency in some quarters to depreciate the value -of the testimony of the British soldier, but the degree -of its value depends a good deal on the capacity in -which, and the person to whom, the soldier is addressing -himself. In writing letters home or in talking to -solicitous visitors the soldier is one person; in giving -evidence in an official inquiry he is quite another. I -have had opportunities when attending field courts-martial -of seeing something of the way in which soldiers -give evidence, and I see no reason to suppose -that the soldier is any less reliable than the average -civilian witness in a court of common law. Indeed, -the moment I made it clear to the soldiers that my inquiry -was an official one they became very cautious -and deliberate in their statements, often correcting -themselves or referring to their diaries (of which they -usually take great care), or qualifying the narration -with the statement “I did not see it myself.” It -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span> -need hardly be said that these observations as to the -credibility of the soldiers apply no less to that of the -officers. And it is worthy of remark that, apart from -individual cases of corroboration of a soldier’s evidence -by that of an officer, the burden of the evidence -in the case of each class is the same. Where -officers do not testify to the same thing as the soldiers, -they testify to similar things. The cumulative effect -produced on my mind is that of uniform experience.</p> - -<p>I have often found the statements so made subsequently -corroborated; I have rarely, if ever, found -them contradicted. I ascribe this result to my having -applied rigid rules as to the reception of evidence in -the first instance. I have always taken into account -the peculiar receptivity of minds fatigued and overwrought -by the strain of battle to the influences of -“suggestion,” whether in the form of newspapers or -of oral gossip. It sometimes, but not often, happened -that one could recognise the same story in a different -investiture, although appearing at first sight to be a -different occurrence. Or, again, it may happen that -a story undergoes elaboration in the process of transmission -until it looks worse than it originally was. -So, too, a case of apparent outrage may admit of -several explanations; it may happen, for example, in -the case of a suspicious use of the white flag that the -act of one party of Germans in raising it and of another -party in taking advantage of it were conceivably -independent of one another. Cases of the shelling -of “undefended” places, of churches, and of hospitals, -I have always disregarded if our men or guns -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span> -were or lately had been in the vicinity; and it may -easily happen that a case of firing on stretcher-bearers -or ambulance waggons is due to the impossibility of -discrimination in the midst of a general engagement. -Wherever any of these features appeared to be present -I rejected the evidence—not always nor necessarily -because I doubted its veracity, but because I -had misgivings as to its value.</p> - -<h3 id="OUTRAGES_UPON_COMBATANTS_IN_THE_FIELD">Outrages upon Combatants in the Field.</h3> - -<p>Lord Bryce’s Committee, with that scrupulous fairness -which so honourably distinguishes their Report, -have stated that:</p> - -<p>“We have no evidence to show whether and in -what cases orders proceeded from the officer in command -to give no quarter, but there are some instances -in which persons obviously desiring to surrender were -nevertheless killed.”</p> - -<p>This is putting the case with extreme moderation, -as the evidence at the disposal of the Committee, -showing, as it did, that such barbarities were frequently -committed when the German troops were -present in force, raised a considerable presumption -that they were authorised by company and platoon -commanders at least, if not in pursuance of brigade -orders. But after the Committee had concluded its -labours, and, unfortunately, too late for its consideration, -I succeeded, as the result of a long and patient -investigation, in obtaining evidence which establishes -beyond reasonable doubt that the outrages upon combatants -in the field were committed by the express -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span> -orders of responsible officers such as brigade and company -commanders. The nature of that evidence -(which is here published for the first time) I will -disclose in a moment. But before doing so I will present -the conclusions I had previously arrived at by a -process of induction from individual cases. It will -then be seen how the deductive method of proof from -the evidence of general orders confirms the presumption -raised by the evidence of particular instances.</p> - -<p>A German military writer of great authority<a id="FNanchor_80" href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> predicted -some years ago that the next war would be -one of inconceivable violence. The prophecy appears -only too true as regards the conduct of German -troops in the field; it has rarely been distinguished -by that chivalry which is supposed to characterise -the freemasonry of arms. One of our most distinguished -Staff officers remarked to me that the Germans -have no sense of honour in the field, and the -almost uniform testimony of our officers and men induces -me to believe that the remark is only too true. -Abuse of the white flag has been very frequent, especially -in the earlier stages of the campaign on the -Aisne, when our officers, not having been disillusioned -by bitter experience, acted on the assumption that -they had to deal with an honourable opponent. -Again and again the white flag was put up, and when -a company of ours advanced unsuspectingly and without -supports to take prisoners, the Germans who had -exhibited the token of surrender parted their ranks -to make room for a murderous fire from machine-guns -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span> -concealed behind them. Or, again, the flag was -exhibited in order to give time for supports to come -up. It not infrequently happened that our company -officers, advancing unarmed to confer with the German -company commander in such cases, were shot -down as they approached. The Camerons, the West -Yorks, the Coldstreams, the East Lancs, the Wiltshires, -the South Wales Borderers, in particular, suffered -heavily in these ways. In all these cases they -were the victims of organised German units, <em>i.e.</em> companies -or battalions, acting under the orders of responsible -officers.</p> - -<p>There can, moreover, be no doubt that the respect -of the German troops for the Geneva Convention is -but intermittent.<a id="FNanchor_81" href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">81</a> Cases of deliberate firing on -stretcher-bearers are, according to the universal testimony -of our officers and men, of frequent occurrence. -It is almost certain death to attempt to convey -wounded men from the trenches over open ground -except under cover of night. A much more serious -offence, however, is the deliberate killing of the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> -wounded as they lie helpless and defenceless on the -field of battle. This is so grave a charge that were it -not substantiated by the considered statements of -officers, non-commissioned officers, and men, one -would hesitate to believe it. But even after rejecting, -as one is bound to do, cases which may be explained -by accident, mistake, or the excitement of action, -there remains a large residuum of cases which can -only be explained by deliberate malice. No other -explanation is possible when, as has not infrequently -happened, men who have been wounded by rifle fire -in an advance, and have had to be left during a retirement -for reinforcements, are discovered, in our -subsequent advance, with nine or ten bayonet wounds -or with their heads beaten in by the butt-ends of -rifles. Such cases could not have occurred, the enemy -being present in force, without the knowledge of superior -officers. Indeed, I have before me evidence -which goes to show that German officers have themselves -acted in similar fashion. Some of the cases -reveal a leisurely barbarity which proves great deliberation; -cases such as the discovery of bodies of -despatch-riders burnt with petrol or “pegged out” -with lances, or of soldiers with their faces stamped -upon by the heel of a boot, or of a guardsman found -with numerous bayonet wounds evidently inflicted as -he was in the act of applying a field dressing to a -bullet wound. There also seems no reason to doubt -the independent statements of men of the Loyal -North Lancs, whom I interrogated on different occasions, -that the men of one of their companies were -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span> -killed on December 20th after they had surrendered -and laid down their arms.<a id="FNanchor_82" href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">82</a> To what extent prisoners -have been treated in this manner it is impossible to -say; dead men tell no tales, but an exceptionally able -Intelligence Officer at the head-quarters of the Cavalry -Corps informed me that it is believed that when -British prisoners are taken in small parties they are -put to death in cold blood. Certain it is that our men -when captured are kicked, robbed of all they possess, -threatened with death if they will not give information, -and in some cases forced to dig trenches. The -evidence I have taken from soldiers at the base hospitals -on these points is borne out by evidence taken -at the Front immediately after such occurrences by -the Deputy Judge-Advocate General, an Assistant -Provost-Marshal, and a captain in the Sherwood Foresters, -and in the opinion of these officers the evidence -which they took, and which they subsequently placed -at my disposal, is reliable.<a id="FNanchor_83" href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">83</a></p> - -<h4>The Proofs of Policy.</h4> - -<p>The question as to how far these outrages are attributable -to policy and superior orders becomes imperative. -It was at first difficult to answer. For a -long time I did not find, nor did I expect to find, -any documentary orders to that effect. Such orders, -if given at all, were much more likely to be verbal, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span> -for it is extremely improbable that the German authorities -would be so unwise as to commit them to -writing. But the outrages upon combatants were so -numerous and so collective in character that I began -to suspect policy at a very early stage in my investigations. -My suspicions were heightened by the -significant fact that exhaustive inquiries which I -made among Indian native officers and men in the -hospital ships in port at Boulogne, and at the base -hospitals, seemed to indicate that experiences of outrage -were as rare among the Indian troops as they -were common among the British. The explanation -was fairly obvious, inasmuch as many of these Indian -witnesses who had fallen into German hands testified -to me that the German officers<a id="FNanchor_84" href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">84</a> seized the occasion -to assure them that Germany was animated by the -most friendly feelings towards them, and more than -once dismissed them with an injunction not to fight -against German troops and to bring over their comrades -to the German side. For example, a sepoy in -the 9th Bhopals testified to me as follows:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“I and three others were found wounded by the Germans. -They bound up our wounds and invited us to join them, offering -us money and land. I answered, ‘I, who have eaten the King’s -salt, cannot do this thing and thus bring sorrow and shame -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span> -upon my people.’ The Germans took our chupattis, and offered -us of their bread in return. I said, ‘I am a Brahmin and cannot -touch it.’ They then left us, saying that if we were captured -again they would kill us.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>There was other evidence to the same effect. -Eventually I obtained proofs confirming my suspicions, -and I will now proceed to set them out.</p> - -<p>On May 3rd I visited the Ministry of War in -Paris at the invitation of the French military authorities, -and was received by M. le Capitaine René Petit, -Chef de Service du Contentieux, who conducted me -to the department where the diaries of German prisoners -were kept. I made a brief preliminary examination -of them, and discovered the following passage -(which I had photographed) in the diary of a German -N.C.O., Göttsche, of the 85th Infantry Regiment -(the IXth Corps), fourth company detached for -service, under date “Okt. 6, 1914, bei Antwerpen”:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Der Herr Hauptmann rief uns um sich und sagte: ‘In dem -Fort, das zu nehmen ist, sind aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach -Engländer. Ich wünsche aber keinen gefangenen Engländer bei -der Komp. zu sehen.’ Ein allgemeiner Bravo der Zustimmung -war die Antwort.”</p> - -<p>(“The Captain called us to him and said: ‘In the fortress -[<em>i.e.</em>, Antwerp] which we have to take there are in all probability -Englishmen. But I do not want to see any Englishmen -prisoners in the hands of this company.’ A general ‘Bravo’ of -assent was the answer.”)</p></blockquote> - -<p>This malignant frenzy against British troops, so -carefully instilled, is borne out by a passage in another -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span> -diary, now in the possession of the French -Ministry of War, which was found on April 22nd on -the body of Richard Gerhold, of the 71st Regiment -of Infantry of the Reserve, Fourth Army Corps, who -was killed in September at Nouvron:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Auch hier kommen ja Sachen vor, was auch nicht sein darf, -kommt aber doch vor. Grosse Greultaten kommen natürlich an -Engländern und Belgiern vor. Nun da wird eben jeder ohne -Gnaden niedergeknallt, aber wehe dem armen Deutschen der -in ihre Hände kommt....”</p> - -<p>(“Here also things occur which should not be. Great atrocities -are of course committed upon Englishmen and Belgians; -every one of them is now knocked on the head without mercy. -But woe to the poor German who falls into their hands.”)</p></blockquote> - -<p>As regards the last sentence in this diary, which is -one long chapter of horrors and betrays a ferocious -credulity, it is worthy of remark that I have seen at -the French Ministry of War the diary<a id="FNanchor_85" href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">85</a> of a German -N.C.O., named Schulze, who, judging by internal evidence, -was a man of exceptional intelligence, in which -the writer refers to tales of French and Belgian -atrocities circulated among the men by his superior -officers. He shrewdly adds that he believes the officers -invented these stories in order to prevent him -and his comrades from surrendering.</p> - -<p>A less conclusive passage, but a none the less suspicious -one, is to be found in a diary now in my possession. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span> -It is the diary of an Unter-offizier, named -Ragge, of the 158th Regiment, and contains (under -date October 21st) the following:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Wir verfolgten den Gegner soweit wir ihn sahen. Da haben -wir machen Engländer abgeknallt. Die Engländer lagen wie -gesäht am Boden. Die noch lebenden Engländer im Schützengraben -wurden erstochen oder erschossen. Unsere Komp. -machte 61 Gefangene.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>Which may be translated:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“We pursued the enemy as far as we saw him. We ‘knocked -out’ many English. The English lay on the ground as if sown -there. Those of the Englishmen who were still alive in the -trenches were stuck or shot. Our company made 61 prisoners.”<a id="FNanchor_86" href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">86</a></p></blockquote> - -<p>So far I have only dealt with the acts of small -German units—<em>i.e.</em> companies of infantry. I now -come to the most damning proofs of a policy of coldblooded -murder of wounded and prisoners, initiated -and carried out by a whole brigade under the orders -of a Brigadier-General. This particular investigation -took me a long time, but the results are, I think conclusive. -It may be remembered that some months -ago the French military authorities published in the -French newspapers what purported to be the text -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span> -of an order issued by a German Brigadier-General, -named Stenger, commanding the 58th Brigade, in -which he ordered his troops to take no prisoners and -to put to death without mercy every one who fell into -their hands, whether wounded and defenceless or not. -The German Government immediately denounced the -alleged order as a forgery. I determined to see -whether I could establish its authenticity, and in February -last I obtained a copy of the original from M. -Mollard, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is -a member of the Commission appointed by the French -Government to inquire into the alleged German -atrocities. The text of that order was as follows:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Befehl (Armee-befehl) vom 26. Aug. 1914, gegen 4 Uhr -nachm. wie er von Führer der 7 Komp. Reg. 112 (Infant.) bei -Thionville, am Eingang des Waldes von Saint-Barbe, seinen -Truppen als Brigade-oder Armee-befehl gegeben wurde:</p> - -<p lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Von heute ab werden keine Gefangene mehr gemacht Sämtliche -Gefangene werden niedergemacht. Verwundete ob mit -Waffen oder wehrlos niedergemacht. Gefangene auch in grösseren -geschlossenen Formationen werden niedergemacht. Es -bleibt kein Mann lebend hinter uns.”</p> - -<p>(“Army Order of 26 Aug., 1914, about 4 p.m., such as was -given to his troops as a Brigade or Army Order by the leader -of the 7th Company of the 112th Regiment of Infantry at -Thionville, at the entrance of the wood of Saint Barbe.</p> - -<p>“To date from this day no prisoners will be made any longer. -All the prisoners will be executed. The wounded, whether -armed or defenceless, will be executed. Prisoners, even in large -and compact formations, will be executed. Not a man will be -left alive behind us.”)</p></blockquote> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span></p> - -<p>Taking this alleged order as my starting-point, I -began to make inquiries at British Head-quarters as -to the existence of any information about the doings -of the 112th Regiment. I soon found that there was -good reason to suspect it. Our Intelligence Department -placed in my hands the records of the examination -of two men of this regiment who had been captured -by us. One of them volunteered a statement to -one of our Intelligence Officers on November 23rd to -the effect that his regiment had orders to treat Indians -well, but were allowed to treat British prisoners -as they pleased. This man’s testimony appeared -to be reliable, as statements he made on other points, -<em>i.e.</em>, as to the German formations, were subsequently -found to be true, and his information as to discrimination -in the treatment of Indians entirely bore out -the conclusions I had already arrived at on that particular -point. The German witness in question further -stated that 65 out of 150 British prisoners were -killed in cold blood by their escort on or about October -23rd on the road to Lille, and that the escort -were praised for their conduct. Other German prisoners -have, I may add, also made statements that they -had orders to kill all the English who fell into their -hands.</p> - -<p>The evidence of this man of the 112th Regiment -was as explicit and assured as it could be. But the -matter did not stop there. At a later date an officer -of the same regiment fell into our hands, in whose -field note-book we found the memorandum “<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Keine -Gefangene</span>” (“No prisoners”). He was immediately -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span> -cross-examined as to the meaning of this passage, but -he had a plausible explanation ready. It was to the -effect that his men were not to make the capture of -prisoners a pretext for retiring with them to the -rear; but, having disarmed them, were to leave them -to be taken back by the supports.</p> - -<p>But at the end of April—too late, unfortunately, -for use by Lord Bryce’s Committee—one of our Intelligence -Officers placed before me the following -entry in the field note-book of a German prisoner, -Reinhart Brenneisen,<a id="FNanchor_87" href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">87</a> reservist, belonging to the 4th -Company, 112th Regiment, and dated in August (the -same month as appears on the face of the order in -question):</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p lang="de" xml:lang="de">“Auch kam Brigadebefehl sämtliche Franzosen ob verwundet -oder nicht, die uns in die Hände fielen, sollten erschossen -werden. Es dürfte keine Gefangenen gemacht werden.”</p> - -<p>(“Then came a brigade order that all French, whether -wounded or not, who fell into our hands, were to be shot. No -prisoners were to be made.”)</p></blockquote> - -<p>This, I think, may be said to put the reality of the -brigade order in question beyond doubt.</p> - -<p>The cumulative effect of this evidence, coupled with -the statements of so many of our men who claim to -have been eye-witnesses of wholesale bayoneting of -the wounded, certainly confirms suspicions of the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span> -gravest kind as to such acts having been done by -authority. Neither the temperament of the German -soldier nor the character of German discipline -(<em lang="de" xml:lang="de">furchtbar streng</em>—“frightfully strict”—as a German -prisoner put it to me) makes it probable that -the German soldiers acted on their own initiative. -It would, in any case, be incredible that so many cases -of outrage could be sufficiently explained by any law -of averages, or by the idiosyncrasies of the “bad -characters” present in every large congregation of -men.</p> - -<h3 id="TREATMENT_OF_CIVIL_POPULATION">Treatment of Civil Population.</h3> - -<p>The subject-matter of the inquiry may be classified -according as it relates to: (1) ill-treatment of the -civil population, and (2) breaches of the laws of war -in the field. As regards the first it is not too much -to say that the Germans pay little respect to life and -none to property. I say nothing of the monstrous -policy of vicarious responsibility laid down by them -in the Proclamations as to the treatment of hostages -which I forwarded to the Committee and which I left -to the Committee to examine; I confine myself to the -practices which have come under my observation.<a id="FNanchor_88" href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">88</a> -Here it is clear that the treatment of civilians is regulated -by no more rational or humane policy than -that of intimidation or, even worse, of sullen vindictiveness. -As the German troops passed through the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span> -communes and towns of the arrondissements of -Ypres, Hazebrouck, Bethune, and Lille, they shot indiscriminately -at the innocent spectators of their -march; the peasant tilling his fields, the refugee -tramping the roads, and the workman returning to -his home. To be seen was often dangerous, to attempt -to escape being seen was invariably fatal. Old men -and boys and even women and young girls were shot -like rabbits. The slightest failure to comply with the -peremptory demands of the invader has been punished -with instant death. The curé of Pradelle, having -failed to find the key of the church tower, was -put against the wall and shot; a shepherd at a lonely -farmhouse near Rebais who failed to produce bread -for the German troops had his head blown off by -a rifle; a baker at Moorslede who attempted to escape -was suffocated by German soldiers with his own scarf; -a young mother at Bailleul who was unable to produce -sufficient coffee to satisfy the demands of -twenty-three German soldiers had her baby seized -by one of the latter and its head dipped in scalding -water; an old man of seventy-seven years of age at -La Ferté Gaucher who attempted to protect two -women in his house from outrage was killed with a -rifle shot.</p> - -<p>I select these instances from my notes at random—they -could be multiplied many times—as indications -of the temper of the German troops. They might, -perhaps, be dismissed as the unauthorised acts of -small patrols were it not that there is only too much -evidence to show that the soldiers are taught by their -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span> -superiors to set no value upon human life, and things -have been done which could not have been done without -superior orders. For example, at Bailleul,<a id="FNanchor_89" href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">89</a> La -Gorgue, and Doulieu, where no resistance of any kind -was offered to the German troops, and where the latter -were present in force under the command of commissioned -officers, civilians were taken in groups, and -after being forced to dig their own graves were shot -by firing parties in the presence of an officer. At -Doulieu,<a id="FNanchor_90" href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">90</a> which is a small village, eleven civilians -were shot in this way; they were strangers to the -place, and it was only by subsequent examination of -the papers found on their bodies that some of them -were identified as inhabitants of neighbouring villages. -If these men had been guilty of any -act of hostility it is not clear why they were -not shot at once in their own villages, and -inquiries at some of the villages from which -they were taken have revealed no knowledge -of any act of the kind. It is, however, a common -practice for the German troops to seize the male inhabitants -(especially those of military age) of the -places they occupy and take them away on their -retreat. Twenty-five were so taken from Bailleul and -nothing has been heard of them since. There is only -too much reason to suppose that the same fate has -overtaken them as that which befell the unhappy men -executed at Doulieu. I believe the explanation of -these sinister proceedings to be that the men were -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span> -compelled to dig trenches for the enemy, to give information -as to the movement of their own troops, -and to act as guides (all clearly practices which are a -breach of the laws of war and of the Hague Regulations), -and then, their presence being inconvenient -and their knowledge of the enemy’s positions and -movements compromising, they were put to death. -This is not a mere surmise. The male inhabitants of -Warneton were forced to dig trenches for the enemy, -and an inhabitant of Merris was compelled to go with -the German troops and act as a guide; it is notorious -that the official manual of the German General Staff, -<cite>Kriegsbrauch in Landskriege</cite>, condones, and indeed -indoctrinates, such breaches of the laws of war. British -soldiers who were taken prisoners by the Germans -and subsequently escaped were compelled by their -captors to dig trenches, and in a field note-book found -on a soldier of the 100th Saxon Body Grenadiers -(XIIth Corps) occurs the following significant passage:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>“My two prisoners worked hard at digging trenches. At midday -I got the order to rejoin at village with my prisoners. I -was very glad, as I had been ordered to shoot them both as -the French attacked. Thank God it was not necessary.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>In this connexion it is important to observe that -the German policy of holding a whole town or village -responsible for the acts of isolated individuals, -whether by the killing of hostages or by decimation -or by a wholesale <em>battue</em> of the inhabitants, has undoubtedly -resulted in the grossest and most irrelevant -cruelties. A single shot fired in or near a place occupied -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span> -by the Germans—it may be a shot from a French -patrol or a German rifle let off by accident or mistake -or in a drunken affray—at once places the whole -community in peril, and it seems to be at once assumed -that the civil inhabitants are guilty unless they -can prove themselves innocent. This was clearly the -case at Armentières. Frequently, as the field note-book -of a Saxon officer testifies, they are not allowed -the opportunity. Indeed there seems some reason to -suppose that the German troops hold the civil inhabitants -responsible even for the acts of lawful belligerents, -and, as my inquiries at Merris and Messines go -to show, a French patrol cannot operate in the vicinity -of a French or Belgian village without exposing -the inhabitants to sanguinary punishment or predatory -fines. There is not the slightest evidence to show -that French civilians have fired upon German troops, -and in spite of the difficulty of proving a negative -there is a good deal of reason to reject such a supposition. -Throughout the communes of the region of -Northern France which I have investigated notices -were posted up at the mairie requiring all the inhabitants -to deposit any arms in their possession with -the civil authorities, and the orders appear to have -been complied with, as they were very strictly enforced.</p> - -<p>In this matter of holding the civil population responsible -with their lives for anything that may -prove “inconvenient” (<em lang="de" xml:lang="de">gênant</em>), to quote a German -Proclamation, to the German troops, the German commanders -seem to have no sense of cause and effect. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span> -At Coulommiers, so the Mayor informed me, they -threatened to shoot him because the gas supply gave -out. In a town which I visited close to the German -lines (and the name of which I suppress by request -of the civil authorities for fear of a vindictive bombardment), -the Mayor, who was under arrest in the -guardroom, was threatened with death because a signal-bell -rang at the railway station, and was in imminent -peril until it was proved that the act was due -to the clumsiness of a German soldier; and an exchange -of shots between two drunken soldiers, resulting -in the death of one of them, was made the ground -of an accusation that the inhabitants had fired on the -troops, the Mayor’s life being again in peril. Where -the life of the civilian is held so cheap, it is not surprising -that the German soldier, himself the subject of -a fearful discipline, is under a strong temptation to -escape punishment for the consequences of his own -careless or riotous or drunken behaviour by attributing -those consequences to the civil population, for the -latter is invariably suspected.</p> - -<h3 id="OUTRAGES_UPON_WOMEN_THE_GERMAN_OCCUPATION_OF_BAILLEUL">Outrages upon Women—The German Occupation -of Bailleul.</h3> - -<p>When life is held so cheap, it is not surprising that -honour and property are not held more dear. Outrages -upon the honour of women by German soldiers -have been so frequent that it is impossible to escape -the conviction that they have been condoned and indeed -encouraged by German officers. As regards this -matter I have made a most minute study of the German -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span> -occupation of Bailleul. This place was occupied -by a regiment of German Hussars in October for a -period of eight days. During the whole of that period -the town was delivered over to the excesses of a -licentious soldiery and was left in a state of indescribable -filth. There were at least thirty cases of outrages -on girls and young married women, authenticated -by sworn statements of witnesses and generally -by medical certificates of injury. It is extremely -probable that, owing to the natural reluctance of -women to give evidence in cases of this kind, the -actual number of outrages largely exceeds this. Indeed, -the leading physician of the town, Dr. Bels, -puts the number as high as sixty. At least five officers -were guilty of such offences, and where the officers -set the example the men followed. The circumstances -were often of a peculiarly revolting character; -daughters were outraged in the presence of their -mothers, and mothers in the presence or the hearing -of their little children. In one case, the facts of -which are proved by evidence which would satisfy -any court of law, a young girl of nineteen was violated -by one officer while the other held her mother -by the throat and pointed a revolver, after which the -two officers exchanged their respective rôles.<a id="FNanchor_91" href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">91</a> The -officers and soldiers usually hunted in couples, either -entering the houses under pretence of seeking billets, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span> -or forcing the doors by open violence. Frequently -the victims were beaten and kicked, and invariably -threatened with a loaded revolver if they resisted. -The husband or father of the women and girls was -usually absent on military service; if one was present -he was first ordered away under some pretext; and -disobedience of civilians to German orders, however -improper, is always punished with instant death. In -several cases little children heard the cries and struggles -of their mother in the adjoining room to which -she had been carried by a brutal exercise of force. -No attempt was made to keep discipline, and the officers, -when appealed to for protection, simply -shrugged their shoulders. Horses were stabled in -saloons; shops and private houses were looted (there -are nine hundred authenticated cases of pillage). -Some civilians were shot and many others carried off -into captivity. Of the fate of the latter nothing is -known, but the worst may be suspected.</p> - -<p>The German troops were often drunk and always -insolent. But significantly enough, the bonds of -discipline thus relaxed were tightened at will and -hardly a single straggler was left behind.</p> - -<p>Inquiries in other places, in the villages of Meteren, -Oultersteen, and Nieppe, for example, establish the occurrence -of similar outrages upon defenceless women, -accompanied by every circumstance of disgusting barbarity. -No civilian dare attempt to protect his wife -or daughter from outrage. To be in possession of -weapons of defence is to be condemned to instant -execution, and even a village constable found in possession -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span> -of a revolver (which he was required to carry -in virtue of his office) was instantly shot at Westoutre. -Roving patrols burnt farm-houses and turned the -women and children out into the wintry and sodden -fields with capricious cruelty and in pursuance of -no intelligible military purpose.</p> - -<h3 id="PRIVATE_PROPERTY">Private Property.</h3> - -<p>As regards private property, respect for it among -the German troops simply does not exist. By the universal -testimony of every British officer and soldier -whom I have interrogated the progress of German -troops is like a plague of locusts over the land. What -they cannot carry off they destroy. Furniture is -thrown into the street, pictures are riddled with bullets -or pierced by sword cuts, municipal registers -burnt, the contents of shops scattered over the floor, -drawers rifled, live stock slaughtered and the carcases -left to rot in the fields. This was the spectacle which -frequently confronted our troops on the advance to -the Aisne and on their clearance of the German -troops out of Northern France. Cases of petty -larceny by German soldiers appear to be innumerable; -they take whatever seizes their fancy, and leave -the towns they evacuate laden like pedlars. Empty -ammunition waggons were drawn up in front of -private houses and filled with their contents for -despatch to Germany.</p> - -<p>I have had the reports of the local commissaires -of police placed before me, and they show that in -smaller villages like those of Caestre and Merris, with -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span> -a population of about 1,500 souls or less, pillaging to -the extent of £4,000 and £6,000 was committed by the -German troops. I speak here of robbery which does -not affect to be anything else. But it is no uncommon -thing to find extortion officially practised by the commanding -officers under various more or less flimsy -pretexts. One of these consists of holding a town -or village up to ransom under pretence that shots -have been fired at the German troops. Thus at the -village of Merris a sum of £2,000 was exacted as a -fine from the Mayor at the point of a revolver under -this pretence, this village of 1,159 inhabitants having -already been pillaged to the extent of some -£6,000 worth of goods. At La Gorgue, another small -village, £2,000 was extorted under a threat that if it -were not forthcoming the village would be burnt. At -Warneton, a small village, a fine of £400 was levied. -These fines were, it must be remembered, quite independent -of the requisitions of supplies. As regards -the latter, one of our Intelligence officers, whose duty -it has been to examine the forms of receipt given by -German officers and men for such requisitions, informs -me that, while the receipts for small sums of -100 francs or less bore a genuine signature, those for -large sums were invariably signed “<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Herr Hauptmann -von Koepenick,</span>” the simple peasants upon whom this -fraud was practised being quite unaware that the -signature has a classical fictitiousness in Germany.</p> - -<h3 id="OBSERVATIONS_ON_A_TOUR_OF_THE_MARNE_AND_THE_AISNE">Observations on a Tour of the Marne and the Aisne.</h3> - -<p>My investigations, in the company of a French -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span> -Staff Officer, in the towns and villages of our line -of march in that part of France which lies north-east -of Paris revealed a similar spirit of pillage and -wantonness. Coulommiers, a small town, was so -thoroughly pillaged that the damage, so I was informed -by the Maire, has been assessed at 400,000 -francs, a statement which bore out the evidence -previously given me by our own men as to the -spectacle of wholesale looting which they encountered -when they entered that town. At Barcy, an insignificant -village of no military importance, I was -informed by the Maire that a German officer, accompanied -by a soldier, entered the communal archives -and deliberately burnt the municipal registers of -births and deaths—obviously an exercise of pure -spite. At Choisy-au-Bac, a little village pleasantly -situated on the banks of the Aisne, which I visited -in company with a French Staff Officer, I found that -almost every house had been burnt out. This was -one of the worst examples of deliberate incendiarism -that I have come across. There had been no engagement, -and there was not a trace of shell-fire or of -bullet-marks upon the walls. Inquiries among the -local gendarmerie, and such few of the homeless inhabitants -as were left, pointed to the place having -been set on fire by German soldiers in a spirit of pure -wantonness. The German troops arrived one day in -the late afternoon, and an officer, after inquiring of -an inhabitant, who told me the story, the name of -the village, noted it down, with the remark “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Bien, -nous le rôtirons ce soir.</span>” At nine o’clock of the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span> -same evening they proceeded to “roast” it by breaking -the windows of the houses and throwing into the -interiors burning “pastilles,” apparently carried for -the purpose, which immediately set everything alight. -The local gendarme informed us that they also -sprayed (<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">arrosé</em>) some of the houses with petrol to -make them burn better. The humbler houses shared -the fate of the more opulent, and cottage and mansion -were involved in a common ruin. It seems quite -clear that there was not the slightest pretext for -this wanton behaviour, nor did the Germans allege -one. They did not accuse the inhabitants of any -hostile behaviour; the best proof of this is that they -did not shoot any of them, except one who appears -to have been shot by accident.</p> - -<p>A visit to Senlis in the course of the same tour -fully confirmed all that the French Commission has -already reported as to the cruel devastation wrought -by the Germans in that unhappy town. The main -street was one silent quarry of ruined houses burnt -by the hands of the German soldiers, and hardly a -soul was to be seen. Even cottages and concierges’ -lodges had been set on fire. I have seen few sights -more pitiful and none more desolate. Towns further -east, such as Sermaizes, Nomeny, Gerbevillers, were -razed to the ground with fire and sword and are as -the Cities of the Plain.</p> - -<h3 id="BESTIALITY_OF_GERMAN_OFFICERS_AND_MEN">Bestiality of German Officers and Men.</h3> - -<p>Before I leave the subject of the treatment of private -property by the German troops, I should like -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span> -to draw the attention of the reader to some unpleasant -facts which throw a baneful light on the temper of -German officers and men. If one thing is more clearly -established than another by my inquiries among the -officers of our Staff and divisional commands, it is -that châteaux or private houses used as the head-quarters -of German officers were frequently found to -have been left in a state of bestial pollution, which -can only be explained by gross drunkenness or filthy -malice. Whichever be the explanation, the fact remains -that, while to use the beds and the upholstery -of private houses as a latrine is not an atrocity, it -indicates a state of mind sufficiently depraved to commit -one. Many of these incidents, related to me by -our own officers from their own observations, are so -disgusting that they are unfit for publication. They -point to deliberate defilement.</p> - -<p>The public has been shocked by the evidence, accepted -by the Committee as genuine, which tells of -such mutilations of women and children as only the -Kurds of Asia Minor had been thought capable of -perpetrating. But the Committee were fully justified -in accepting it—they could not do otherwise—and -they have by no means published the whole. -Pathologists can best supply the explanation of these -crimes. I have been told by such that it is not at -all uncommon in cases of rape or sexual excess to find -that the criminal, when satiated by lust, attempts to -murder or mutilate his victim. This is presumably -the explanation—if one can talk of explanation—of -outrages which would otherwise be incredible. The -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span> -Committee hint darkly at perverted sexual instinct. -Cases of sodomy and of the rape of little children did -undoubtedly occur on a very large scale. Some of -the worst things have never been published. This -is not the time for mincing one’s words, but for plain -speech. Disgusting though it is, I therefore do not -hesitate to place on record an incident at Rebais related -to me by the Mayor of Coulommiers in the presence -of several of his fellow-townsmen with corroborative -detail. A respectable woman in that town was -seized by some Uhlans who intended to ravish her, -but her condition made rape impossible. What followed -is better described in French:</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Mme. H——, cafetière à Rebais, mise nue par une patrouille -allemande, obligée de parcourir ainsi toute sa maison, chassée -dans la rue et obligée de regarder les cadavres de soldats -anglais. Les allemands lui barbouillent la figure avec le sang -de ses regles.”</p></blockquote> - -<p>It is almost needless to say that the woman went -mad. There is very strong reason to suspect that -young girls were carried off to the trenches by licentious -German soldiery, and there abused by hordes of -savages and licentious men. People in hiding in the -cellars of houses have heard the voices of women in -the hands of German soldiers crying all night long -until death or stupor ended their agonies. One of our -officers, a subaltern in the sappers, heard a woman’s -shrieks in the night coming from behind the German -trenches near Richebourg l’Avoué; when we advanced -in the morning and drove the Germans out, a girl was -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span> -found lying naked on the ground “pegged out” in -the form of a crucifix. I need not go on with this -chapter of horrors. To the end of time it will be -remembered, and from one generation to another, in -the plains of Flanders, in the valleys of the Vosges, -and on the rolling fields of the Marne, the oral tradition -of men will perpetuate this story of infamy and -wrong.</p> - -<h3 id="CONCLUSION">Conclusion.</h3> - -<p>I should say that in the above summary I have confined -myself to the result of the inquiries I made at -General Head-quarters and in the area of our occupation, -and have not attempted to summarise the evidence -I had previously taken from the British officers -and soldiers at the base, as the latter may be left to -speak for itself in the depositions already published -by the Committee. The object of the summary is to -show how far independent inquiries on the spot go -to confirm it. The testimony of our soldiers as to the -reign of terror which they found prevailing on their -arrival in all the places from which they drove the -enemy out was amply confirmed by these subsequent -and local investigations.</p> - -<p>It will, of course, be understood that these inquiries -of mine were limited in scope and can by no means -claim to be exhaustive. For one thing, I was the only -representative of the Home Office sent to France for -this purpose; for another, I did not become attached -to General Head-quarters until the beginning of February, -and before that time little or nothing had been -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span> -done in the way of systematic inquiry by the Staff, -whose officers had other and more pressing duties to -perform. By that time the testimony to many grave -incidents, especially in the field, had perished with -those who witnessed them and they remained but a -sombre memory. The hearsay evidence of these -things which was sometimes all that was left made -an impression on my mind as deep as it was painful, -but it would have been contrary to the rules of evidence, -to which I have striven to conform, for me to -take notice of it.</p> - -<p>Two things clearly emerge from this observation. -One is that had there been from the beginning of the -campaign a regular system of inquiry at General -Head-quarters into these things, <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">pari passu</em> with their -occurrence, the volume of evidence, great though it -is, would have been infinitely greater; the other, that, -as there is only too much reason to suppose that with -the growing vindictiveness of the enemy things will -be worse before they are better, the case for the establishment -of such a system throughout the continuance -of the War is one that calls for serious consideration.</p> - -<p>Although I have some claims to write as a jurist -I have here made no attempt to pray in aid the Hague -Regulations in order to frame the counts of an indictment. -The Germans have broken all laws, human -and divine, and not even the ancient freemasonry of -arms, whose honourable traditions are almost as old -as war itself, has restrained them in their brutal and -licentious fury. It is useless to attempt to discriminate -between the people and their rulers; an abundance -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span> -of diaries of soldiers in the ranks shows that -all are infected with a common spirit. That spirit -is pride, not the pride of high and pure endeavour, -but that pride for which the Greeks found a name -in the word ὕβρις, the insolence which knows no -pity and feels no love. Long ago Renan warned -Strauss of this canker which was eating into the German -character. Pedants indoctrinated it, Generals -instilled it, the Emperor preached it. The whole people -were taught that war was a normal state of -civilisation, that the lust of conquest and the arrogance -of race were the most precious of the virtues. -On this Dead Sea fruit the German people have -been fed for a generation until they are rotten to -the core. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span></p> - -<h2 id="DOCUMENTARY_NEW_EVIDENCE"><span class="smcap">Chapter III</span><br /> - -DOCUMENTARY<br /> - -<span id="DEPOSITIONS_AND_STATEMENTS_FIFTY_SIX_IN_NUMBER">I</span></h2> - -<p class="hang">DEPOSITIONS AND STATEMENTS (FIFTY-SIX IN NUMBER) -ILLUSTRATING BREACHES OF THE LAWS OF WAR BY -THE GERMAN TROOPS, MAINLY OUTRAGES ON BRITISH -SOLDIERS</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p><em>Note.</em>—These documents are here made public for the first -time. They have not been published either in the Bryce Report -or in the <cite>Nineteenth Century and After</cite>. I have selected the -cases of Bailleul and Doulieu as typical of all the rest. Many -other communes, <em>e.g.</em>, Meteren, Steenwerck, La Gorgue, Vieux-Berquin, -suffered a similar fate. As regards Bailleul itself I -have given only one out of some twenty documents in my possession -relating to the rapes committed there; the others are -in no way inferior in authenticity, nor are they any less horrible. -My object is not to multiply proofs, but to exemplify -them. It will be observed that the evidence of British soldiers -here given is that of eye-witnesses, except, of course, in cases -of rape. As regards the latter, the hearsay evidence is fully -corroborated by the French depositions of the victims.—J. H. M.</p></blockquote> - -<h4>(1)</h4> - -<p><span class="smcap">Private</span> R. R——, 1st Royal Scots:—At Ypres, on -November 11th (the day I was wounded), the Germans -had made an attack on the trenches in front of -us—we were back in the dug-outs. We went up to -support and drove them back. In the trench were -about a dozen Germans, our men having retired towards -us. The Germans were kneeling with one hand -up to let us see that they had surrendered; so we -thought it was all right, and we turned our attention -to firing at those who were retiring. One of the -officers of our regiment, but not of my company, was -at the side of the trench and had picked up a rifle -to fire at the retreating Germans. I saw one of the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span> -Germans who had surrendered—I think he was an -officer—raise his revolver (we had had no time to disarm -them) and shoot at our officer, who dropped. Another -man and I then shot the German.</p> - -<h4>(2)</h4> - -<p>Private W. M——, 1st Wilts, — Company:—(1) -On the Aisne, between September 14th and 22nd, I -was in B Company and going to A Company for a -wounded man. I am a bandsman and have acted as -stretcher-bearer. The Germans came out of a wood -with a white flag. The captain (Captain R——) of -— Company gave the order to cease fire—the Company -was in the trenches. Captain R—— went forward -alone towards the Germans, and the German -officer then shot Captain R—— with his revolver -and the rest of the Germans opened a heavy fire. -Number — Company replied and drove the Germans -back.</p> - -<p>(2) At La Bassée, between October 12th and 27th, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span> -the Germans had shelled our trenches and driven us -out, their infantry advancing in close formation. By -that time only eleven out of B Company, including -myself, were left. The Germans were within fifty -yards of us and so we retired through a brewery -down to a farm-house. We went upstairs—a mixed -lot from various regiments (West Kents, Royal Irish -Rifles, etc.), and began firing from the windows. -From the upstairs we saw the Germans bayoneting -those of our wounded who had been left in the -trenches or placed under cover by us eleven, behind -them, or had crawled along.</p> - -<p>(3) At La Coutérie,<a id="FNanchor_92" href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">92</a> about 3 kilometres from La -Bassée, it must have been before October 12th, because -that was the day we got to La Bassée, we took -possession of a farm-house for a dressing station. -The farmer’s wife frequently took food and clothes -down to the cellar, she said it was for her daughter; -the daughter would not come up. The mother, who -was crying as she told us, made out to us that the -“Allemands” had outraged her daughter—she held -up five fingers.</p> - -<h4>(3)</h4> - -<p>Private J. S——, Rifle Brigade, 1st Battalion:—On -a Sunday at end of October or beginning of November, -just outside Bailleul, near Nieppe, we rested -for three hours, having just come out of billets. The -Germans had only just left—the chalk-marks of the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span> -different regiments were still on the doors. There -were a lot of refugees outside an <em>estaminet</em>, among -them a mother and two daughters. One daughter -looked scared to death, her eyes staring out of her -head. She was a girl of about twenty-three, who -looked rather delicate. The girl said nothing, stood -there and stared like a lunatic. The mother told a -group of us in broken English and partly in French—I -know some French. She said, “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Allemands -couchent avec ma fille</span>”—that the Germans—she made -it appear about eight—had outraged her daughter. -We did not go into the <em>estaminet</em>—it was forbidden.</p> - -<h4>(4)</h4> - -<p>Captain C—— W——, Bedfords, 2nd Battalion:—At -Bailleul, I saw a great deal of evidence of wanton -destruction—mirrors broken and furniture -smashed. A German cavalry regiment had done it. -I was in three different billets there, and in all three -the same thing had happened.</p> - -<h4>(5)</h4> - -<p>Private S——, K. O. Scottish Borderers:—At -Ypres, about a month ago, I was in the trenches and -one of our men went out of the trenches to get a -drink of water (from a spring about seven yards -away). He was wounded in the leg, and an officer -(Lieutenant S——, of B Company) sent over for -the stretcher-bearers, who were at head-quarters -about 300 yards from the support trenches. They -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span> -were carrying this fellow away when one of the -stretcher-bearers was “sniped” from about 300 -yards. There was no firing at the time. Another -man came of B Company, named G——, volunteered -and took the wounded stretcher-bearer’s place, and -then he was wounded too. G—— was put on a -stretcher and was again wounded by a sniper. Cases -of this kind were very common.</p> - -<h4>(6)</h4> - -<p>Private J. C——, Scottish Fusiliers, 1st Battalion:—At -Locre, near Bailleul, I was billeted in the -church there at the beginning of December. The -church had not been shelled, but had been looted -and the crucifixes had been smashed, and all the -images and things of value appeared to have been -torn away.</p> - -<h4>(7)</h4> - -<p>Corporal J. D. B—— (at that time Bombardier in -the 49th Battery R.F.A.) now of the 40th Brigade -Ammunition Column R.F.A.:—On August 23rd at -Mons, we got the order to advance up a hill with -our battery. We got a section of guns in action -in a ploughed field, and then we had a sergeant -hit with a gunshot wound in the back (it was Sergeant -T——, of the 49th Battery R.F.A.). Sergeant -R——, of the 49th, asked me to take Sergeant -T—— to an ambulance. I took him through a wood, -and on the outside of the wood I saw a girl quite -naked, running for all she was worth. She appeared -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span> -to me to be about nineteen years of age. -Her body was covered with blood and there was -blood all over her breasts. She ran into some -trenches on my right. I do not know what regiment -occupied them, but I heard afterwards that -an officer of the Gordons got hold of her. I went -straight on with the sergeant down into Mons, and -took him to the field hospital.</p> - -<h4>(8)</h4> - -<p>Private S——, C Company, 1st King’s R.R.:—It -was on September 11th, I can never forget that -date, it was after we left the Marne, and a day or -two before the Aisne, we were engaged with the -enemy at a distance of about 1,200 yards. They -put up a white flag in their centre and waved it -from side to side. We stopped firing, whereupon -they fired heavily from their right flank. A second -time they put up the white flag, this time on the -right flank; but we took no notice of this and kept -on firing.</p> - -<h4>(9)</h4> - -<p>R. McK——, 2nd Royal Irish, — Co.:—About the -end of November, near Neuve Chapelle, there was a -heavy attack, and we retired to get reinforcements, -and left Sergeant G—— wounded in the leg in the -trenches; when I last saw him he was binding up -his wound. About 300 yards back we got reinforcements, -and as we were advancing we saw three Germans -bayoneting Sergeant G——. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span></p> - -<h4>(10)</h4> - -<p>R. McK——, 2nd Royal Irish, at Mt. Kemmel:—On -Monday I was sent to get water from a pump -in the yard of a house about 50 yards behind the -line, a farm-house, and in the kitchen I saw seven -men and three women, a poor class of people, lying -on the ground bayoneted. The house had been -looted and everything smashed.</p> - -<h4>(11)</h4> - -<p>W. F——, Sapper, 17th R.E.:—About September -7th, near Lagny, we arrived at the village; stopped -there for four hours while our artillery were in action. -We had a house pointed out to us by the villagers; -there was a broken motor bicycle outside, -and in the room against the wall we found one of -our despatch riders with an officer’s sword sticking -through him. Our sergeant and our section officer -told us that the villagers said that he came one night, -having lost his way, and knocked at the door of -the house, which was occupied by German officers; -they let him in and then killed him. The house was -in a terrible state, everything pulled to pieces. Sapper -W—— of our company was the first to find the -house.</p> - -<h4>(12)</h4> - -<p>Private M——, 1st Gordons, — Co.:—On October -24th, at La Bassée, the Germans broke through our -lines, and as we retreated I was hit in the hip with -a shell. The Germans crossed over our trenches and -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span> -charged till they met our reserves and were driven -back. I saw Private E—— (of Portsmouth) of my -Company lying wounded in the hip. As they passed, -some stepped on top of me, some jumped over me, -while others as they passed E—— kicked him and -stamped on his face. When he was brought into -the dressing-station his face was absolutely black. I -never heard anything more of him.</p> - -<h4>(13)</h4> - -<p>J. G——, Lance-Corporal, King’s Own, 1st Batt.:—At -the end of November, the second day after we -arrived at Nieppe, two of us entered an estaminet -and found the landlady crying; she told us that about -thirteen Germans violated her daughter and shot her -husband against a wall in front of her eyes. She -said there were a lot of other cases in Nieppe.</p> - -<h4>(14)</h4> - -<p>J. A——, Private, 1st Camerons:—It was about -October 23rd, at St. Jean (Ypres). We retired, owing -to shortage of ammunition, and left two wounded -in the trench. When we came back one of them -was lying about 20 yards behind the trenches stripped -stark naked. We had left him behind covered with -a waterproof cloak.</p> - -<p>When darkness set in, on retiring, I waited behind -to carry in one of the wounded. I lost the -road and walked into the German lines with my comrade -on my back. I was seized and my hands tied -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span> -in front; I was then kicked by several German soldiers -and thrown into a cellar. They kept pointing -a bayonet at my heart. They took away all my food, -tobacco, private letters, everything, and ate my food -in front of me. After about twenty hours the East -Surreys came up and released us.</p> - -<h4>(15)</h4> - -<p>J. W. D——, Private, 1st Batt. Cheshires:—On -November 14th, at Ypres, the Germans broke in our -trenches and as we tried to get out most of us were -shot. As they retreated, after being driven back -from the communication trenches, at about 4.45 on -the Saturday (November 14th), I was lying -wounded in the leg at the bottom of the trench -unable to rise and a German officer stooped down -and shot me in the thigh. I saw the same thing -done by other Germans to other men of my company.</p> - -<h4>(16)</h4> - -<p>C. R. A——, Private, 10th King’s Liverpool Scottish:—At -Kemmel (I think), a place between Ypres -and Armentières, not far from Locre—Kemmel is -just close to the trenches, and about the size of Appleby—I, -with two or three others, was out looking -for vegetables for the officers (I was sent for because -I speak French), and we were looking to see -if any one remained in the house. While doing this -I came across the R.F.A., who took us to their head-quarters -and supplied us with vegetables, etc. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span> -Further up the valley we came upon a man in -civilian clothes who was standing in a doorway. The -house had not been damaged by shell fire, as practically -all the rest were. We began to talk. He -told me in French that he was too old for the army, -but had a son-in-law in the Belgian Army. When -the Germans came they ransacked all the houses. Of -those who came to his house some held him off with -arms pointed at him, whilst others outraged his -daughter-in-law who was about to give birth to a -child. When I was there this poor woman had been -sent away.</p> - -<h4>(17)</h4> - -<p>Private C——, York L. I., 2nd Batt.:—</p> - -<p>(1) About November 17th or 20th, near Ypres, I -was with the machine gun which was put out of action; -I then went into my own company’s trenches. -As it was getting dark, the advance was made and -we were up to the wire entanglements; we were -driven back by superior numbers. Having gained -our own trench, the roll was called and about seventeen -were missing out of our Co., Corpl. R—— being -amongst them. Under cover of darkness our -reinforcements came up and we advanced again. We -could only find seven wounded of the men missing -and no German wounded at all. At the back of -their trenches was a wood where we lost the Germans. -So we dropped back to their trench. About -three days afterwards they attacked in large numbers, -but were repulsed and were driven back further -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span> -than they had advanced. In our advance we came -to a farm and a barn half full of potatoes where -we found three of our wounded and two dead. Some -of our men carried them out, and while we carried -them one of the others died. Corporal R—— (who -was among the five) was the worst wounded—he had -been shot through the shoulder, and was insensible -with both his eyes gouged out and his right arm -hacked off. Our O.C. told us on a parade that it was -done with a bayonet. He was sent home I heard to -a hospital.</p> - -<p>(2) At a village about 3 miles S.E. of Ypres, about -three weeks next Monday, forty-five of us advanced -to rush a house; only seven of us returned. As we -were advancing they opened fire on us with a machine -gun. We were only about fifteen strong when -we got there. We had to break an entrance through -the window. We heard shouts and a disturbance -inside; it was the Germans making for the cellars. -Captain A—— went upstairs after leaving some men -on the cellar steps; I followed him. In the back -room upstairs was a maxim gun. In one of the other -rooms was a girl about fifteen—she had nothing on -except a man’s overcoat. When we broke into the -room we thought she was absolutely mad. She cried -out something, but we could not understand what -it was. She rushed out of the room into the front -bedroom which was locked. We smashed it in with -our rifle butts and there found a woman, her mother, -with her right breast all bleeding, and her clothes -torn—her breast had been cut as if with a sword, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span> -not a bayonet. We used our field bandages and -made her as comfortable as we could and sent a volunteer -back for stretcher-bearers.</p> - -<p>[This soldier was at times in great pain when he -spoke, but his mind was clear. I am convinced he -spoke the truth.—J. H. M.]</p> - -<h4>(18)</h4> - -<p>Corporal D——, Loyal North Lancs., 1st Batt.:—At -Ypres, end of November, I was in the trenches, -and I saw two of our men, who had been sent out -as snipers, hit, and the Germans motioned to them -to come into their trenches (which were about 80 -yards from ours); they began to crawl in, and as -they got on the parapet of the trench the Germans -shot them.</p> - -<h4>(19)</h4> - -<p>J. A——, Private, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, -2nd Batt.:—About the beginning of December -we were billeted in the outskirts of Armentières, -and were allowed out between twelve and three. We -passed a man standing at his door, and he asked us -if we had any bully beef—we said no, but we offered -him a packet of cigarettes. We stood at the door -talking and his wife and children came to the door. -The woman looked bad—very delicate looking. He -then told us that nine Germans had stopped in the -house, and some of them had outraged his wife while -he was in the house. He spoke very fair English. -Private McM—— and S—— were with me. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span></p> - -<h4>(20)</h4> - -<p>Private K——, 1st Loyal North Lancs.:—On Monday -night we attacked them and took two trenches. -Everything was quiet till the next morning except -for sniping. At about 8.30 they advanced upon us, -and the officer of —— Company, seeing the men were -overpowered, put up the white flag, and the men put -their hands up to surrender. The Germans advanced, -and when they got up to the trenches, they shot them -each in their trenches as they stood. <em>I saw this. I -was on the left flank.</em></p> - -<h4>(21)</h4> - -<p>Sergeant C——, 1st Glosters:—Last Wednesday -morning, near La Bassée, I was in the trench, and -I saw a wounded man of No. A Co. (who had had -to retire from their trenches on our right, having -been enfiladed during the night) crawling on all fours -to get back. When the Germans saw him they turned -a machine gun on him and killed him.</p> - -<p>About end of November, near Ypres, a Belgian -farmer (a kind of peasant), who spoke a little English -(I can speak some French; I have a French conversation -book with me), told me that a German -officer threatened him with a revolver because he -tried to protect his daughter, and the officer forced -the girl to sleep with him for four nights. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span></p> - -<h4>(22)</h4> - -<p>Sergeant G——, 2nd Devons:—</p> - -<p>(1) At Estaires, about five weeks ago (latter part -of November), we were billeted there, and I and -another sergeant went into a café. The proprietor, -who spoke quite good English, said that his daughter -had been outraged by a party of Germans while -they were occupying. They forced the daughter out -into a linhey (an outhouse) at the back and there -outraged her.</p> - -<p>(2) At Laventie, about a week later, we halted; -and I was speaking to a Frenchwoman who spoke -English. She told me that the Germans had looted -everything, and showed me a jeweller’s shop which -had been stripped of nearly everything. She pointed -out two girls (I think about seventeen or eighteen) -who, she said, had been outraged.</p> - -<h4>(23)</h4> - -<p>Private C——, A.S.C., 7th Div., Supply Column:—At -Westoutre, near Poperinghe, we were billeted -about two months ago at a priest’s house. He spoke -English, and told me that his father was shot by -the Germans against the church-yard railings because -he refused to give up the stores of which he -had charge for the Belgian refugees. He told us -that the Germans had practised a lot of outrages on -the women. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span></p> - -<h4>(24)</h4> - -<p>Lance-Corporal L——, R.E., 55th Co.:—Near -Ypres, about October 22nd or 23rd, our section was -ordered to assist the Highland Light Infantry, -Queen’s and Worcesters in a drive through a wood. -We passed a cottage on our right where fighting was -going on. As we returned I saw two of our soldiers -in a doorway carrying a wounded man. When they -got out of the doorway one of the two soldiers was -shot in the back by a German at a distance of about -80 yards. All firing had ceased—it was a deliberate -aim. On the same day I saw two stretcher-bearers, -who were tending a man on the ground, fired at at -a distance of about 40 yards—a regular fusillade. -There was no fighting going on—our other troops -were about 300 or 400 yards ahead, and these snipers -had been left behind by the Germans for the express -purpose of picking off our wounded.</p> - -<h4>(25)</h4> - -<p>Private S——, 1st Northampton:—On the day -after General F—— was killed (he was an artillery -general), on the Monday, we advanced 14 miles, -about, and bivouacked in a field. From our bivouac, -about one mile distant, there was a little farm. We -went to the farm to fill our water bottles, and a -woman told us that her two daughters (whom we -also saw) had been outraged the previous night by -twelve or fourteen Germans. The woman spoke English -quite well—at least, well enough for me to understand—very -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span> -distinctly. The woman was not excited, -but greatly distressed, and the two girls (one -child sixteen, the other about nineteen—in fact, I -think the woman said that the one was not sixteen) -were still more distressed; they were in a pitiful -plight. Listening to the story with me were Company -Sergeant-Major M—— of D. Co., also Sergeant -S——, also D. Co., and Corporal C——, likewise of -D. Co.</p> - -<h4>(26)</h4> - -<p>Captain F——, 2nd Batt. Coldstreams:—</p> - -<p>(1) On the Rentel ridge, near Ypres, and south of -Sonnen, I have seen repeated cases of deliberate firing -on stretcher-bearers which admitted of no doubt.</p> - -<p>(2) On the Aisne, on a Monday (either September -13th or 14th) at Soupir, there was a bad case of -trickery with the white flag. The Germans advanced -from a farm-house with white flags at the end of their -rifles, and on our men rushing forward, despite the -warning of their officers, to take prisoners, they were -shot down. We lost a whole company of the 3rd -Batt. Coldstreams in this way.</p> - -<h4>(27)</h4> - -<p>Private L——, in the 1st Cornwall L.I.:—On September -9th (Wednesday) at Montreuil, I was -wounded and being carried by two of ours, when -about a quarter-mile from the firing-line I and other -wounded were being brought down an exposed slope; -the moment we appeared a machine-gun about 400 -yards distant opened fire on us—several wounded hit. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span></p> - -<h4>(28)</h4> - -<p>Private W——, in the 1st Camerons:—On the -Aisne, September 14th, I was told by Sergeant Major -C—— of Camerons that Captain H—— (commanding -our Company) was lying in a field having his -wounds dressed by one of our own bandsmen acting -as stretcher-bearer. Captain H—— and stretcher-bearer -were shot by a German officer. The Sergeant-Major -(who had been taken prisoner by the Germans) -saw this happen.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>[<span class="smcap">Note.</span>—This story was fully corroborated, -without variation, by several other Camerons -whom I met in other wards, and also by the -Colonel of the Camerons, with whom I discussed -the matter at General Hospital No. 4 (Paris) at -Versailles.—J. H. M.]</p></blockquote> - -<h4>(29)</h4> - -<p>Private W—— (the same):—We were advancing, -Black Watch on our right, Scots Guards on our left. -Germans put up white flag and we advanced to take -prisoners. At thirty yards they opened their ranks, -and machine-guns concealed behind fired upon us, -the Germans in front also firing their rifles.</p> - -<h4>(30)</h4> - -<p>Private S——, 1st Batt. Glosters:—On August -26th, first day of retreat from Fevrel, we were leaving -the trenches, B. Co. covering us on the left. It -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span> -was just where Captain S—— was shot. Private -L——, who had been shot twice, was bayoneted when -lying on the ground by two Germans. I and the -whole Company saw it.</p> - -<h4>(31)</h4> - -<p>Private B——, West Yorks:—On September 20th, -300 Germans ran up with a German officer and white -flag, surrendering. About a thousand Germans followed -and captured our Company of about 220. They -bayoneted Sergeant-Major A—— after surrender of -the Company, and shot majority of the Company. -I was only three yards from Sergeant-Major when -it happened. I fell over a hedge into a stone quarry -and escaped. Here it was that Major I—— was -killed. Later the Durhams came up and we got off.</p> - -<h4>(32)</h4> - -<p>Private (Lance-Corporal) C——, 1st East Lancs:—About -September 6th, Château de Perense, near -Jouasse, Seine et Marne, about 700 Germans, coming -out of a wood, dropped their rifles and held up -their hands; whistle sounded “cease fire.” Two Companies -sent up to accept surrender, and when within -about ten yards the Germans ran back to the wood -and their troops in wood opened fire on the two companies -(<em>i.e.</em> on about 450 men).</p> - -<h4>(33)</h4> - -<p>Private C—— (the same):—Passed through a village -recently occupied by drunken Germans. Women -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span> -raving. Saw two women with bruised faces and black -eyes. Lieut. M—— said they had attempted to resist -outrage by Germans.</p> - -<h4>(34)</h4> - -<p>Private M——, Notts and Derby:—On September -20th (Sunday) in trenches on Aisne, seventy Germans -came up with white flag; we let them come up -and then went out to take them. They then opened -fire just as their reinforcements came up, and killed -many men of the West Yorks, Notts and Derby, and -Durhams.</p> - -<h4>(35)</h4> - -<p>The same:—On the Monday morning we went out -to find our wounded and discovered an English soldier -with ten or fourteen bayonet wounds—there had been -no bayonet fighting with the Germans.</p> - -<h4>(36)</h4> - -<p>Private H——, 2nd Batt. Duke of Wellington’s:—On -September 8th and 9th, at Nogent-sur-le-Marne, -advancing through the Forest of Crecy, heard on all -sides stories of women outraged. I was told by Mme. -S—— (Veuve) an elderly lady, who was the widow -of an Englishman and spoke English, that an officer -had outraged her servant in the house. The -servant stood by crying as Mme. S—— told the story. -Mme. S—— gave me her address—here it is in my -pocket-book:—4 rue de Lafaulette, Nogent-sur-le-Marne. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span></p> - -<h4>(37)</h4> - -<p>J. B——, Despatch Rider, Signal Co. 1st Div. -R.E.:—About September 16th, near Paissy. At a -distance of about 300 yards we saw through our -glasses one of our despatch-riders (A—— of Signal -Co., R.E.), shot while riding his motor-cycle; he fell -off, and while lying on ground was speared by three -Uhlans, one after the other. Uhlans attempted to -burn him with his own petrol, but made off when -they saw us coming. We found his body half-burned -when we reached it.</p> - -<h4>(38)</h4> - -<p>Sergeant D——, 1st Cornwalls:—About September -9th, near 6 p.m., Battle of the Aisne, I was with -a platoon with orders to remain behind and delay -German advance. We couldn’t see any Germans, and -we therefore had done no firing for quite an hour. -Our ambulance was out picking up wounded. My -platoon was marching back to rejoin our Company; -we were carrying our rifles. R.A.M.C. were picking -up Lieut. E—— when they were fired on from the -woods at a distance of about 300 yards, a regular -fusillade. Lieut. E—— badly hit. Ambulance had -to gallop off out of range, and we made off. Ambulance -was broadside on to the enemy, and must -therefore have been unmistakable. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span></p> - -<h4>(39, 40 and 41)</h4> - -<p>Statements taken down, after cross-examination by -a Staff Officer at General Headquarters, as to incidents -in the neighbourhood at Ypres:</p> - -<p>(1) Private B. S——, 1st Black Watch, says that -he saw Germans bayonet our wounded as they lay -on the ground. He was wounded in the leg himself, -but, seeing this, he managed to get away.</p> - -<p>Afterwards he was with German wounded, who -told him that they had been ordered to kill all English -prisoners.</p> - -<p>(2) Private W. W——, 1st Black Watch, says that -he was in a reserve trench and saw the Germans -bayoneting our wounded 40 or 50 yards in front of -him. He was wounded in the arm and taken prisoner, -but was sent for water for wounded Germans -and escaped.</p> - -<p>Says the wounded Germans in our charge told him -that they had been told to kill all English and take -no prisoners.</p> - -<p>(3) Statement of Private M——, Cameron Highlanders -attached.</p> - -<p>I saw this man, and consider him thoroughly reliable -as to the facts of the case.</p> - -<p>He says that he saw one German place the butt -of his rifle on the wounded man’s chest and hold him -while the other one shot him. Our reinforcements -were heard coming up immediately afterwards, and -the Germans ran away. The men were Prussian -Guard. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span></p> - -<p>“I was shot while retiring, and took shelter behind -a hedge which I had fallen through. A -wounded man of the Black Watch was lying close -beside me groaning. The Germans came up behind -the hedge and fired through it. Two came through -and I saw one deliberately place his rifle to the -wounded Highlander’s head and shoot him. The -features of the wounded German who came into -hospital with me in the same convoy are identically -those of the man I saw commit the action.”</p> - -<h4>(42 and 43)</h4> - -<p>Summary of Statements taken by a Captain in the -Sherwood Foresters:</p> - -<p>(1) The undermentioned privates state that on October -20th, 1914, they saw German soldiers killing -our wounded, and can swear to the same. [There -follow three names of privates in the 2nd Sherwood -Foresters.]</p> - -<p>(2) The men mentioned below make the following -statement: that on November 1st, 1914, two German -soldiers were seen both delivering blows on our -wounded with rifle-butts, and shooting them. [There -follow names of four privates in the Lincolnshire -Regiment, and one in the Argyll and Sutherland -Highlanders.]</p> - -<h4>(44)</h4> - -<p>Statement made by a private in the Loyal North -Lancs.:</p> - -<p>On or about December 21st, I think near Neuve -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span> -Chapelle, we were ordered up to the trenches occupied -by the Gurkhas. We got over them and lined -a ditch—some of ours wounded there. We charged, -and they started with hand bombs. On our right -was Captain Smart, shot in the head. We had to -retire; an hour and a half later we advanced again, -and here I found one of our wounded with his throat -cut (he had been shot previously). I heard of others -with their throats cut. I lay down close to him. -Dawn was just breaking. We had to retire again, -and the bodies were left there.</p> - -<h4>(45)</h4> - -<p>A Brigadier-General of the British Cavalry Corps:</p> - -<p>On September 6th, the day before we got to Rebais, -we passed a lonely farm where we found a shepherd -with the top of his head blown off by a rifle-shot. -He had been asked by the Germans for bread, and, -on failing to produce any, had been shot.</p> - -<h4>(46)</h4> - -<p>Statement by Major ——, O.C. of a Cavalry Field -Ambulance:—On October 17th, at Moorslede, north-east -of Ypres, the Germans were reported as having -strangled a young baker in this place. The inhabitants -stated that he had been taken by the Germans -to bake for them, and that he attempted to escape. -The enemy caught him and stuffed a woollen scarf -he was wearing down his throat, causing suffocation. -One of my officers, Lieut. P——, viewed the body in -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span> -the convent next day, and found the scarf stuffed -in the man’s throat.</p> - -<h4>(47)</h4> - -<p>Private R. McK——, 2nd Royal Irish:—On the advance -from the Marne to the Aisne in September, -we passed through a village and saw a baby propped -up at the window like a doll. About six of us went -into the house, with a sergeant, and found the child -dead—bayoneted. We found a tottering kind of old -man, a middle-aged woman, and a youth, all bayoneted. -In another village our interpreter pointed -out to us two girls who were crying; he told us they -had been ravished.</p> - -<h4>(48)</h4> - -<p>Driver B——, R.F.A.:—Somewhere between Chantilly -and Villers-Cotterets, about the end of August, -just after we started advancing, we were marching -through a village, and the villagers called us into -a house and showed us the body of a middle-aged -man, with both arms cut off by a sword, pointed to -him and said “Allemands.” They told our R.A.M.C. -men in French that he had been killed when trying -to protect his daughter.</p> - -<p>In the next village, before we got to the Aisne, -the villagers showed us the dead body of a woman, -naked, on the ground, badly mutilated, her breasts -cut off, and her body ripped up. They said -“Allemands.” -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span></p> - -<h4>(49)</h4> - -<p>Private F. W. M——, Leicesters:—I think it was -in October, after we had left the Aisne and were -on the march. About a week before we got to Armentières, -we went through a small village, halted, -and I and a man named C——, of my company, were -searching a hedge for wood, and came across a baby -with a single vest on it, as if it had been taken -straight from bed, and nearly cut in half, as if by a -sabre.</p> - -<h4>(50)</h4> - -<p>Private G. R——, Bedfords:—Somewhere between -October 14th and 17th, at a village about fifteen -miles from Ypres, a boy was brought in from a -farm-house, the people having sent in for surgical -assistance for a boy who was wounded. I saw him -brought in by some of our men to an estaminet—he -had five sabre-cuts. His sister told us that the -Uhlans had chased him round the farm because he -had cried out something to them. He looked as if -he would not live. One of our R.A.M.C. bound up -his wounds.</p> - -<h4>(51)</h4> - -<p>Private W. D——, Hampshires:—About seven -weeks ago, when the Germans tried hard to break -through, we were about two hours from a place -which we call the Château, where the Germans -pitched shells every day, especially at a big tower -place which is there. Our platoons were in the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span> -trenches in the order left to right of 5, 6, 7, 8, and -then came C Company in their trenches. The -wounded left with the dead in the C trench were -half buried by its having been blown in. The Germans -enfiladed the wounded, shot them, bayoneted -them, jumped on them.</p> - -<h4>(52)</h4> - -<p>Private B——, Royal West Kents:—Early in September, -in the advance from Coulommiers, I saw two -British cavalrymen lying dead on the ground, their -arms stretched out like a cross and their hands -pinned by Uhlan lances.</p> - -<h4>(53)</h4> - -<p>Private J. C——, Scots Guards:—Last Monday -night, the other side the canal bank at a place I -think they call “Karuchi,” the Manchesters were -surrounded. We were in support and advanced to -their help.... We re-took the trenches. In the second -trench, when we got there, we found many Manchesters -who had been shot first and then bayoneted, -as they lay wounded, by the Germans when capturing -the trench.</p> - -<h4>(54)</h4> - -<p>Private P——, Cornwalls:—In the early part of -September in our advance, in all the villages the Germans -had smashed everything for mere sport—the -place stank with the dead bodies of pigs and chickens -which they had killed and left in the road. We found -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span> -scent-bottles thrown all over the road—mirrors -smashed and furniture—lovely furniture—thrown -into the street, and pictures cut.</p> - -<h4>(55)</h4> - -<p>Private W. T——, Welsh Regiment:—On the retreat -from Mons in August we came upon a woman -tied to a tree. She was quite dead. Her throat was -cut. I believe she had been outraged.... The time -was about 5 p.m. It was quite light. I should say -the woman’s age was between eighteen and twenty-two. -The men cut her down. I saw them do it. I -do not know what became of the body as we had to -go on. I expect it was Uhlans who had done this.</p> - -<h4>(56)</h4> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Corps Expéditionnaire anglais, 5ᵉ Division d’Infanterie, -7ᵉ Groupe de Gendarmerie. Objet: Actes -repréhensibles commis par des soldats allemands.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr" class="hang"><span class="smcap">Rapport du Capitaine Pigeanne, Commandant le -détachement de Gendarmerie attaché à la 5ᵉ -Division d’Infanterie anglaise, sur des actes -repréhensibles commis par des soldats de -l’armée allemande.</span></p> - -<p class="author"> -Serches, le 14 septembre, 1914.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le 10 septembre courant, en parcourant avec quelques -gendarmes de mon détachement, en exécution -de l’Art. 109 du Service de la Gendarmerie en campagne -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span> -(31 juillet, 1911), un terrain sur lequel avait -eu lieu la veille, un engagement, j’ai fait, au lieu -dit “Laroche,” commune de Montreuil-aux-Lions -(Seine-et-Marne) les constatations suivantes:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Un soldat d’infanterie anglaise avait été tué sur -la lisière d’un petit-bois bordant la route de Mery à -Montreuil-aux-Lions.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Il avait été atteint par des balles de fusil, au cou -et à la poitrine.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Il était tombé et était resté étendu sur le dos.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Son cadavre fut mutilé la face avait été complètement -aplatie et écraseé, très probablement par des -coups donnés avec la crosse d’un fusil ou même avec -le talon de la chaussure.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Cet acte fut certainement commis par des soldats -allemands du 48 regiment d’Infanterie, car six cadavres -d’Allemands de ce même régiment furent trouvés -à 100 mètres au plus de cet endroit.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Une femme se trouvait sur la route tout près de -là. Des qu’elle me vit elle s’approcha de moi et -encore sous le coup d’une vive indignation elle me fit -le récit suivant:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Hier, 9 septembre, dans l’après-midi, pendant -le combat un soldat fut blessé. Il avait été atteint -à une jambe. Malgré sa blessure, il parvint à se -traîner jusque chez moi, à la maison que vous voyez -sur la colline, au lieu dit Pisseloup.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Il me parla, je ne le compris pas.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Je lui fis un premier pansement dès qu’il en eût -montré sa blessure et le fis étendre sur mon lit.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Quelques instants après plusieurs soldats allemands -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span> -traversèrent la route et vinrent également -jusqu’à ma demeure.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Dès qu’ils virent le soldat anglais qui était blessé, -ils le frappèrent, le jetèrent dehors de la maison, où -ils le battirent encore avec leurs fusils.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Je ne sais ce qu’est devenu ce malheureux anglais, -mais je pense qu’il a dû être recueilli ou enterré, s’il -est mort, par ses compatriotes qui sont passés ici ce -matin, out soigne des blessés et enterré quelques-uns -des leurs tirés dans le combat de hier.”</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Enfin, j’ajoute le fait suivant:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">A Vanfleurs, le 8 septembre près de Poccunente, -j’ai encore vu sur la colline au N.O. de Poccunente, -et à 1 Kilo, environ, le cadavre d’un Anglais dont -le crâne avait été mutilé à un tel point que la matière -cervicale apparaissait en plusieurs points.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ce soldat anglais était un simple éclaireur, tué d’un -coup de fusil à la lisière d’un bois.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Allemands s’étaient acharnés après lui, peut-être -même après sa mort.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ces actes constituent peut-être une exception et -sont l’œuvre de brutes, mais ils sont tellement odieux -que j’estime de mon devoir d’en rendre compte à -l’autorité militaire supérieure.</p> - -<p class="author"> -(Signed) <span class="smcap">C. N. Pigeanne.</span> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span></p> - -<h3 id="DOCUMENTS_RELATIVE_TO_THE_GERMAN_OCCUPATION_OF_BAILLEUL">II<br /> - -DOCUMENTS RELATIVE TO THE GERMAN OCCUPATION OF -BAILLEUL<a id="FNanchor_93" href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">93</a><br /> - -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr" class="smcap">République Française</span><br /> - -<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">VILLE DE BAILLEUL, COMMISSARIAT DE POLICE</span></h3> - -<h4>(1)<br /> - -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Procès-Verbal No. 2. Meurtre de trois civils non -combattants par des soldats allemands</em></h4> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L’an 1914, le 16 octobre à 16 heures Nous Thévenin.... -Informé par les agents de notre service -que les soldats allemands auraient tué trois individus -non combattants au lieu dit Nouveau Monde, commune -de Bailleul, nous avons ouvert une enquête et -entendons:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Marie H——, 37 ans, épouse C——, demeurant à -V—— Rue, Commune de Bailleul, entendue, déclare:—Le -jeudi matin, 8 courant, vers 7 heures je me -trouvais au passage à niveau du Nouveau Monde, -quand j’ai vu passer trois civils accompagnés par six -soldats allemands, baïonnette au canon et qui leur -avaient attaché les mains avec des serviettes. Je les -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span> -ai suivi du regard et quelques minutes après j’ai vu -les mêmes soldats accompagnant les mêmes hommes -parler à un officier allemand qui leur a fait signe -d’aller plus loin dans une pâture. Les soldats s’y -sont dirigés conduisant toujours les civils prisonniers; -ils leur ont fait sauter un fossé, puis ils les -ont mis debout sur une même ligne dans la prairie. -À ce moment un soldat allemand me fit rentrer dans -une maison. Environ une demi heure après, j’ai su -que les Allemands avaient tué les civils que j’avais -vu passer avec eux et qu’ils les avaient enterrés dans -le jardin de Monsieur Pierre Béhaghel.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">V——, Gabrielle, épouse D——, âgée de 26 ans, -ménagère, demeurant au N—— M——, commune -de Bailleul, interpellée, déclare:—J’ai vu le jeudi, 8 -courant, vers 7 heures et demie du matin six soldats -allemands amenant avec eux, les mains liées, trois -civils portant de petits paquets et paraissant avoir -de 18 à 25 ans. Ils les ont mis dans la prairie en -face de chez moi sur l’ordre que venait de leur donner -un de leurs officiers auxquels ils venaient de -s’adresser. J’avais chez moi un soldat allemand qui -faisait la cuisine et cet homme voyant venir les -prisonniers m’a dit, en français: “<em>Regardez, -Madame, comme c’est beau: voir fusilier des civils -français, regardez c’est du beau travail, on devrait -tous les tuer comme cela!</em>” J’ai répondu que je ne -pouvais pas le voir car c’était un crime. Malgré ma -réponse j’ai regardé lorsque j’ai entendu tirer le coup -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span> -de feu et j’ai vu que ces pauvres civils tombaient. -J’ai également vu les soldats allemands creuser trois -trous dans lesquels ils les ont ensevelis. Je ne sais -rien d’autre sur cette affaire.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">3º. H——, Hélène, femme B——, 44 ans, ménagère, -demeurant à Bailleul au lieu dit “N—— -M——,” nous fait la déclaration suivante: J’ai vu le -8 courant six soldats allemands présenter à leur officier -qui logeait chez moi trois jeunes gens civils qui -portaient des paquets. L’officier a dit en français -aux soldats “Allez vite dans la prairie les fusiller”; -les soldats sont partis aussitôt. Je n’ai plus rien vu -ni entendu concernant cette affaire, mais j’ai su que -l’ordre avait été mis à exécution.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">4º. S——, Désiré, 74 ans, tisserant, demeurant à -Bailleul, N—— M——, déclare:—J’ai vu, comme -les femmes H——, V—— et B——, passer les trois -civils encadrés par les soldats allemands. Je sais -que ceux-ci, sur l’ordre d’un de leurs officiers, les ont -fusillés. Je les ai vus enterrer à cinquante mètres -de chez moi dans le jardin de Monsieur Béhaghel -Pierre. Les soldats allemands sont venus chez moi -prendre des pioches et des pelles pour creuser leurs -tombes. Je ne sais rien de plus.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">La femme H—— nous remet sur notre demande -un laisser-passer délivré par la Commune de Zonnebèke -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span> -à un sieur Herreman qui est un de ceux qui ont -été fusillés par les Allemands. Nous le joignons au -présent ainsi que la photographie y annexée.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Nous y joignons également une adresse trouvée -écrite au crayon près de l’endroit où ont été enterrés -les trois corps des civils fusillés. Nous donnons -l’ordre au garde champêtre du quartier Deicke de se -transporter au N—— M—— et de constater la -présence des trois cadavres enterrés, cela accompagné -de deux témoins.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">De retour de sa mission l’agent nous fait le rapport -suivant:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Je me nomme Deicke Juste, garde champêtre à -Bailleul. Conformément à vos instructions je me suis -mis en rapport avec les nommés Coulier Achille, 30 -ans, maréchal ferrant; Sonneville Désire, 74 ans, tisserand; -Lassus Henri, 51 ans, journalier; Behaghel -Julien, 19 ans, cordonnier, que j’ai priés de m’accompagner -pour constater que trois corps de civils -avaient bien été enterrés dans le jardin du sieur Behaghel. -Là nous avons vu, les trois corps de jeunes -gens vêtus d’habits civils et recouverts d’une couche -de terre d’environ 30 centimètres.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Dans les effets nous avons trouvé un extrait du -registre d’immatriculation de la commune de Beuvry -(Pas-de-Calais) au nom de Békaert (Cyrille Jérome), -né à Zonnebèke, le 29 août, 1891. Je vous ai apporté -cet extrait. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span></p> - -<h4>(2)<br /> - -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Procès-Verbal No. 1. Meurtre du jeune B——, -Albert, par soldats allemands</em></h4> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L’an mille neuf cent quatorze, le 15 octobre à 2 -heures du soir. Nous Thévenin, Pierre, Commissaire -de la Ville de Bailleul, auxiliaire de Monsieur le Procureur -de la République. Informé par les agents de -notre service qu’un meurtre aurait été commis, il y -a plusieurs jours, par un soldat de l’armée allemande -au hameau de Stient de notre commune, ouvrons une -enquête et entendons:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">1º. B——, Victor, 48 ans, cultivateur, demeurant -à Bailleul, Rue —— —— ——, lequel nous dit:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le jeudi, 8 octobre courant, vers midi, mon fils -Albert, 19 ans, venait d’apprendre que des patrouilles -allemandes circulaient dans le voisinage de notre -ferme. Il m’en fit part et me dit qu’il allait aussitôt -se cacher dans un fosse. Il est parti de suite suivi -de son frère Maurice, âgé de 17 ans. Le même jour, -vers 8 heures du soir, celui-ci revint à la maison, il -me dit que son frère l’avait quitté pour aller à la -ferme occupée par les époux Charlet, nos voisins. -Je suis allé aussitôt voir mon voisin, C—— D——, -que je savais avoir passé la journée chez Charlet et -celui-ci me dit que mon fils avait été tué dans la -ferme Charlet à coup de lance par un soldat allemand. -Je ne sais pas autre chose sinon que j’ai vu -le cadavre de mon fils dans la cour de cette ferme à -moitié carbonisé par l’incendie que venait de détruire -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span> -les immeubles et qui avait été allumé par les soldats -allemands.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p class="author"> -<span class="smcap">B——, Victor.</span> <span class="smcap">Thévenin</span>, Cre. de Police.<br /> -</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">2º. C—— D——, 57 ans, cultivateur, demeurant -à Bailleul, Rue de Lille, entendu, déclare:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le 8 octobre, vers 3 heures du soir, je me trouvais -à la ferme Charlet avec différentes personnes dont le -nommé B——, Albert. Les Allemands au nombre -d’une dizaine, sont entrés dans la maison absolument -furieux et se sont rués sur nous hommes et femmes -sans distinction, nous ont appréhendés au corps pour -nous jeter dans la cour de la ferme, où ils allaient -nous fusilier, disaient-ils. Le jeune B—— fut jeté -le premier. Un soldat qui était à l’entrée le perça -d’un coup de lance qui le tua. B—— tomba raide -mort à terre. Dans la cour, j’ai vu que les bâtiments -de la ferme flambaient. Les Allemands nous ont dit -qu’ils venaient d’allumer cet incendie, car ils croyaient -qu’un coup de feu avait été tiré de là sur eux. -Tous, nous avons supplié les Allemands de ne pas -nous faire du mal. Un d’entr’eux qui causait français -a fait part aux autres de ce que nous voulions. -Alors, on nous a jeté la tête après les murs, on nous a -bousculés tant qu’ils ont pu et on nous a mis dehors de -la ferme. Je ne sais pas autre chose sur cette affaire.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p class="author"> -<span class="smcap">D——, Clovis.</span> <span class="smcap">Thévenin.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">3º. Joseph D——, 14 ans, ouvrier agricole, demeurant -à Bailleul, rue — ——, entendu, nous fait une -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span> -déclaration corroborant de tous points à celle de son -frère qui procède et signe avec nous, ajoutant qu’aucun -coup de feu n’avait été tiré de cette ferme sur -les Allemands ou sur aucune autre personne et qu’à -sa connaissance il n’y avait dans cette ferme aucune -arme à feu.</p> - -<p class="author"> -<span class="smcap">D——, Joseph.</span> <span class="smcap">Thévenin.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">4º. C——, Eugénie, née B——, 55 ans, fermière, -demeurant à Bailleul, Rue — ——, nous dit:—J’ai -reçu à ma ferme le jeudi, 8 courant, vers midi et demi -plusieurs voisins, parmi lesquels le nommé B——, -Albert. Je l’ai vu tué vers trois heures par un soldat -allemand d’un coup de lance dans la poitrine alors -qu’il venait d’être jeté dehors de ma maison par -d’autres soldats allemands. Les soldats allemands -nous ont tous maltraités en nous flanquant la tête -contre les murs. Ils nous ont en outre menacés de -mort. Ils ont dit que l’incendie qui a détruit ma -ferme avait été allumé par eux, car ils avaient cru -entendre un coup de feu parti de là. J’affirme que -chez moi il n’y a aucune arme à feu et qu’aucun coup -n’a été tiré. Je ne sais pas autre chose sur cette -affaire.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture.</p> - -<p class="author"> -C—— B——. <span class="smcap">Thévenin.</span><br /> -</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">5º. B——, Juliette, 36 ans, servante à Estaires, -P—— P——, interpellée, déclare:—J’ai vu comme -ma tante, époux C—— et les autres témoins, tuer le -jeune B——, Albert. J’ai été comme eux tous, maltraitée -et menacée de mort par les mêmes militaires. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span> -Je ne puis pas en dire davantage, mais je confirme -en tous points les déclarations qui précèdent.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture.</p> - -<p class="author"> -<span class="smcap">Juliette B——.</span> <span class="smcap">Thévenin.</span><br /> -</p> - -<h4><em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Procès-Verbal, No. 3.—Meurtre des nommés Itsweire -Donat, et Torrez Edouard, par une -patrouille allemande</em></h4> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L’an 1914, le 16 octobre, à 5 heures et demi du -soir nous Thévenin.... Informé par les agents de -notre service que deux hommes habitant le village -d’Oultersteen, commune de Bailleul, avaient été tués -volontairement par des soldats allemands quoiqu’étant -en civils et non combattants, ouvrons une enquête -et entendons:—</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">F——, Charles, 55 ans, journalier, demeurant à -Merris, lequel nous dit:—Le mercredi, 7 courant, vers -4 heures et demie du soir, j’ai vu arriver près du -passage à niveau d’Oultersteen une patrouille de dragons -allemands appartenant au 5º régiment et commandée -par un sous-officier. La patrouille a tiré des -coups de carabine sur les civils qui se trouvaient dans -la rue. Quelques soldats sont allés tuer un homme, le -nommé Isteweire Donat, 75 ans environ, qui s’était -réfugié sous un pont. Je l’ai vu tirer sur cet homme -et celui-ci ayant cessé de vivre. J’ai appris depuis -qu’ils avaient tué un sieur Torrez Edouard, 40 ans, -cabaretier, demeurant à Oultersteen et cela de la -même manière. J’ai su aussi qu’un autre homme -avait été par eux blessé à la joue.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span></p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">2º. B——, Alfred, 37 ans, employé au chemin de -fer, A—— ——, à Lille, entendu, déclare:—Le -mercredi, 7 courant, vers 4 heures et demie du soir, -je revenais de voyage en passant par Oultersteen. -A la barrière du passage à niveau de la route allant -à Vieux-Berquin j’ai vu devant moi des dragons allemands, -5º régiment, qui nous ont ajustés de leur -carabines et ont tiré trentaine de coups de feu. Pour -ma part j’ai reçu une balle à la joue gauche. Une -autre a percé ma casquette, qui a été lancée à plusieurs -mètres. A ce moment les nommés Torrez -Edouard, et Isteweire Donat, étaient à côté de moi. -Nous avons fui chacun de notre côté, seul j’ai pu -échapper. Itsweire a été tué sous un pont, Torrez -à côté d’une haie de chemin de halage. J’ai vu que -cette patrouille de dragons a tiré une vingtaine de -coups de révolver dans la maison de la garde barrière -du passage à niveau de Vieux-Berquin, où se trouvaient -trois femmes et trois enfants. L’arrivée d’une -patrouille du 13º régiment de Chasseurs à cheval, -qui a chargé la patrouille allemande, a sauvé la vie -à ces six personnes qui n’auraient manqué d’être tués -par ces bandits. Je ne sais pas autre chose.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">3º. L——, Jules, 13 ans, sans profession, demeurant -à Oultersteen, interpellé, dit:—Je n’ai vu Itsweire -et Torrez que lorsqu’ils étaient droits, tués par -la patrouille allemande à coups de fusils. J’ai vu -cette même patrouille tirer des coups de révolver chez -moi. Les trois femmes et les deux autres enfants qui -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span> -se trouvaient dans la maison auraient certainement -été tués par eux ainsi que moi-même, si une patrouille -française ne lui avait donné la chasse. Je ne sais pas -autre chose concernant ces deux meurtres.</p> - -<h4><em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Procès-Verbal No. 4. Viol de la demoiselle D——, -Marie Thérèse, par deux officiers allemands</em><br /> - -(4)</h4> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L’an 1914, le 17 octobre, à 9 heures, 1/4, nous -Thévenin, informé par notre service qu’un viol aurait -été commis par des soldats ou des officiers allemands, -Rue des Coulons, au domicile des époux D——, nous -ouvrons une enquête et en entendons.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">1º. R—— C——, épouse D——, âgée de 48 ans, -boulangère, demeurant à Bailleul, Rue ——, laquelle -dit:—Dans la nuit du 9 au 10 courant vers 2 heures -du matin je me trouvais chez moi avec ma fille Marie -Thérèse et la femme M——, quand j’ai entendu frapper -à la porte de la rue. Je suis allée ouvrir, une -lampe à la main, et aussitôt deux hommes sont entrés, -m’ont poussé du bras violemment, ont éteint ma -lampe et sont allés directement vers l’endroit où se -trouvait ma fille. Dans ces deux hommes j’ai reconnu -deux officiers de l’armée allemande. Ils m’ont saisie -à la gorge pour m’empêcher de crier et se sont opposés -violemment à ce que j’allume ma lampe. Ils avaient -à la main une lampe électrique dont ils se sont servis -pour voir ma fille. J’ai vu que l’un d’eux, le blond, -a pris ma fille en premier lieu et l’a jetée par terre -dans la cuisine, puis il s’est couché dessus, lui a -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span> -relevé les jupons et l’a violée. Ma fille se débattait -autant qu’elle pouvait, criait de toutes ses forces, -mais ce bandit lui appuyant son visage sur le sein, -il cherchait à étouffer ses cris. Il est bien resté sur -ma fille pendant un quart d’heure environ tandis que -l’autre me tenait à la gorge et avait son révolver a -côté de sa lampe. Quand celui-ci eut fini l’autre -reprit ma fille à son tour et la renversa par terre -dans le corridor, où il lui fit subir les mêmes outrages -pendant un quart d’heure environ, en même temps, -le blond était venu près de moi, son révolver en main, -et me maintenant brutalement dans l’impossibilité -de protéger mon enfant. Quand ils eurent fini ils -ont pris ma fille par un bras chacun, l’ont traînée -dehors et je ne sais plus ce qu’ils lui ont fait là. J’ai -mené ma fille chez Monsieur Bells, docteur en médecine, -qui l’a examinée et qui a constaté que le viol -avait été consommé et que la défloration était complète.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">2º. D—— (Marie Thérèse) 19 ans, sans profession, -demeurant chez parents, boulangers, à Bailleul, Rue -----, nous fait la déclaration suivante:—Ainsi -que vient de le dire maman, deux officiers allemands -sont entrés chez nous dans la nuit du 9 au 10 courant -vers 2 heures du matin. J’étais seule avec ma mère -Madame M——. De suite l’un d’eux, un grand -blond, a couru sur moi, m’a renversée par terre.... -Il m’a fait bien mal; j’ai souffert beaucoup et j’ai -dû l’endurer sur moi pendant un quart d’heure environ. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span> -Quand il a eu assouvi sa passion, il me fait -relever et me traîna vers son camarade, un grand -brun, qui, à son tour, me renversa dans le corridor et -me fit subir les mêmes outrages pendant un quart -d’heure environ. Je dois dire qu’après que chacun -d’eux, j’étais toute ... et que chacun m’a fait énormément -souffrir.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Je ressens à l’heure actuelle de très violents maux -de rein et mon bas ventre me fait excessivement mal. -Quand le deuxième eut fini, tous deux me saisirent -par un bras et me traînèrent sur la rue en me demandant -mon âge. J’ai répondu que j’avais dix-neuf -ans. Alors tous deux ont dit, en français le -plus pur, “<em>Vous devez connaître d’autres jeunes filles -dans le voisinage; il faut nous dire où elles sont pour -que nous puissions en faire autant qu’à vous-même.</em>” -J’ai répondu que je n’en connaissais pas, que je -n’avais pas de camarades dans le voisinage. Ils -m’ont alors embrassée tous les deux et serrée très -fortement, puis ils m’ont laissé partir. Je suis rentrée -chez moi. J’oubliais de vous dire qu’avant de -me lâcher, tous les deux m’ont dit, “Si vous dites ce -que l’on vous a fait et que nous revenions chez vous, -on vous tuera.”</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">En rentrant chez moi je n’ai plus revu maman? -Je l’ai appelée de tous côtés et finalement je l’ai -retrouvée dans le jardin. Avec elle et la femme -M—— nous rentrions chez nous, quand nous avons -entendu les mêmes officiers qui frappaient à la porte -pour rentrer de nouveau. Nous avons eu peur et -nous sommes parties dans le jardin. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span></p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">3º. D——, Gabrielle, femme Maerten, 72 ans, ménagère, -demeurant à Bailleul, Rue——, entendue, -nous fait une déclaration corroborant de tous points -celles qui précèdent et signe avec nous.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Personne n’a été témoin de cette scène mais j’ai -souffert beaucoup tant au physique qu’au moral de -l’exploit de ces deux bandits.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecture faite.</p> - -<h3 id="EVIDENCE_RELATING_TO_THE_MURDER_OF_ELEVEN_CIVILIANS">III<br /> - -EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE MURDER OF ELEVEN -CIVILIANS AT DOULIEU<br /> - -<cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Gendarmerie Nationale</cite></h3> - -<p class="author"> -Cejourd’hui, 29 Novembre 1914.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Déclarations de Monsieur Rohart Jules, âgé de 65 -ans, Maire de la commune de Doulieu qui a déclaré:—Lors -de l’invasion de la commune de Doulieu par -l’ennemi, je suis toujours resté sur les lieux. J’ai -connaissance et j’ai constaté tout ce qui a été commis -sur mon territoire par les Allemands. J’ai d’abord -appris que 11 individus civils français avaient été -fusillés dans un champ à proximité de la rue du -Calvaire au lieu dit “l’Espérance.” Ces hommes, -qui n’avaient pas été enterrés assez profondément, -ont été déterrés le samedi, 17 octobre, pour les transporter -au cimetière, où j’avais fait préparer une -fosse commune et à la profondeur réglementaire. Je -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span> -ne connais aucun de ces hommes, mais d’aprés les -diverses pièces que j’ai pu retrouver sur eux, j’ai pu -établir l’identité de sept. Les quatre derniers -n’avaient aucun papier ni quoi que ce soit pouvant -établir leur identité.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">J’ai fait prévenir les maires des différentes localités -où résidaient ces hommes dont les noms suivent:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">1º. Léger Alfred Désiré Louis, né le 1ᵉʳ décembre -1885 à Amiens, fils de Alfred et de Clarisse Lourdel.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">2º. Dequeker Henri Léon Joseph, né le 25 avril -1875 à Sailly sur la Lys, fils de Charles Auguste -Joseph et de Hortense Adéline Hay.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">3º. Vienne Louis Amand, né le 10 avril 1875 à -Tourcoing, fils de Louis Eugène et de Elisa Marie -Vienne.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">4º. Hallewaere Cyrille, né le 4 décembre 1889, à -Vlamertinghe (Belgique), fils de Alphonse et de -Gouwy Clémence.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">5º. Dequesnes Jules, né 1ᵉʳ septembre 1884 à -Roubaix, fils de Henri Joseph et de Charlotte -Desmettre.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">6º. Ermnoult, ——, né à ——, demeurant à -Steenwerck, hameau de la Croix du Bac, reconnu par -son beau-frère nommé, demeurant à la Croix du Bac.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">7º. Les quatre autres n’ont pu être identifiés. Ils -paraissaient âgés approximativement de 30 à 40 ans.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">J’ai appris également la mort de Bail Désiré -retrouvé à proximité de la ferme de Monsieur Leroy -au lieu dit “La Bleu tour.” Je ne connais pas la -cause de cette mort....</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Madame Masquelier Mathilde, femme Decherf -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span> -Henri, âgé de 62 ans, ménagère demeurant à Doulieu, -Rue du Calvaire, qui a déclaré:—Le Dimanche, 11 -octobre, 1914, vers 16 heures, deux soldats allemands -sont venus me demander deux bêches que je leur ai -remises. Peu après, j’ai remarqué dans un champ -situé à 40 mètres environ de mon habitation, onze -individus civils occupés à creuser une tranchée. Un -peu plus loin se trouvait un groupe de soldats -ennemis. J’ai regardé ces hommes travailler, puis -au bout d’un quart d’heure ils se sont décoiffés, puis -se sont mis à genoux. Comme ils se relevaient, j’ai -entendu une fusillade et au même moment, ils -tombaient tous dans le trou qu’ils venaient de creuser. -Deux soldats français prisonniers, appartenant l’un -à l’infanterie, l’autre aux chasseurs à pied, sont alors -venus et ont recouvert les corps de ces hommes.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Fievet Charles, âge de 60 ans, boulanger épicier, -demeurant au Doulieu, hameau de la Bleu Tour, -déclare:—Le mardi, 13 octobre, 1914, vers 5 heures -30 du matin, les Allemands qui occupaient notre pays -déjà depuis plusieurs jours sont venus chez moi. Ils -ont cassé les persiennes, puis les carreaux de vitres -des deux fenêtres qui se trouvent sur la rue. M’étant -alors levé, ils m’ont dit que je devais partir et qu’ils -allaient brûler ma maison. Les rideaux de ces deux -fenêtres ont en effet été brûlés. En sortant de mon -habitation, j’ai reçu un coup de poing sur la figure, -puis aussitôt un coup de crosse sur le côté de l’œil, -puis un droit sur la tête. Devant ces brutalités, je -me suis sauvé à la ferme de mon voisin Ridez, située -à environ 30 mètres en face de ma demeure. Au -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span> -moment où j’entrais dans la cour de cette ferme, -j’ai entendu une détonation et immédiatement j’ai -remarqué que mon bras droit tombait naturellement. -Je ne ressentais aucun mal. Ce n’est qu’à mon -entrée dans cette ferme que j’ai constaté que j’avais -le bras droit cassé. J’ignore quel était le but de ces -violences, puisque je n’avais rien fait ni rien dit. -C’est Monsieur le Docteur Potié de Vieux-Berquin -qui me donne des soins. En ce qui concerne le vol -et le pillage tant chez moi que chez mes voisins, je -certifie que ce sont les Allemands qui ont tout pris. -Une liste détaillée a été addressée à M. le Maire du -Doulieu.</p> - -<h3 id="DEPOSITION_OF_A_SURVIVOR_OF_THE_MASSACRE_OF_TAMINES">IV<br /> - -DEPOSITION OF A SURVIVOR OF THE MASSACRE OF TAMINES<br /> - -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Traduction de la déclaration faite en flamand par -V—— A—— F——, mineur à Tamines</em><br /> - -<em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Parquet du Tribunal de 1re Instance d’Ypres</em><br /> - -<span lang="la" xml:lang="la" class="smcap">Pro Justicia</span></h3> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L’an 1914, le 1 octobre, devant nous, Alphonse -Verschaeve, procureur du Roi à Ypres, a comparu, -dans notre cabinet, sur invitation de notre part, le -nommé V—— A—— F——, 28 ans, mineur domicilié -à Tamines, actuellement réfugié à Reninghe, lequel -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span> -nous a fait sous la foi du serment en langue flamande -la déclaration suivante:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le samedi, 22 août, dans le courant de l’après-midi, -les Allemands, au nombre de 200, me semble-t-il, -sont entrés dans la commune de Tamines. Immédiatement -ils obligèrent tous les habitants (les femmes -et les enfants aussi bien que les hommes) à sortir -de leurs maisons et à se rendre à l’église. Pendant -que nous sortions par la porte de devant, les Allemands -pénétraient dans nos demeures par la porte -de derrière et y mettaient le feu. Aussi en très peu -de temps toute la commune ne formait plus qu’un -vaste brasier. Lorsque toute la population se -trouvait réunie dans l’église, les femmes et les enfants -furent expediés vers le couvent des religieuses, -tandis que les hommes (au nombre de 400), furent -obligés de se diriger par rangs de quatre vers la -plaine, et entre une double haie de soldats allemands. -Pendant cette marche les soldats allemands ne cessèrent -de tirer sur nous et de cette façon massacrèrent -impitoyablement un nombre considérable de mes -concitoyens.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Voyant que nombre de mes camarades tombaient, -abattus par les coups de feu, je me suis laissé tomber -à terre, quoique je n’étais pas blessé, et je suis resté -là, immobile, couché sous les cadavres jusque vers -le milieu de la nuit suivante; c’est ainsi que j’ai -sauvé ma vie. Le lendemain matin, lorsque je me -suis relevé, j’ai constaté que nous étions à peine trente -habitants qui avions échappé au massacre, mais la -plupart des autres échappés étaient blessés; cinq -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span> -seulement d’entre nous en étaient sortis complètement -indemnes. Plus tard dans la journée nous -avons été forcés d’inhumer les cadavres de nos 350 -concitoyens, puis amenés à une distance de 5 kilomètres; -là on nous remit en liberté mais avec défense -formelle de remettre encore le pied dans notre -commune.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Après lecture il persiste dans sa déclaration et -signe avec nous.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr" class="author"> -(Signed) <span class="smcap">Alphonse Verchaeve.</span></p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">(Signed) V—— A—— F——.<br /> -<span class="i2">Pour traduction conforme,</span><br /> -<span class="i4">le Procureur du Roi,</span><br /> -<span class="i6">(Signed) <span class="smcap">A. Verchaeve.</span></span></p> - -<h3 id="FIVE_GERMAN_DIARIES">V<br /> - -FIVE GERMAN DIARIES</h3> - -<p class="hang large">(<em>a</em>) Extract from the Diary of a German Soldier -forwarded by the Extraordinary Commission -of Enquiry instituted by the Russian Government.</p> - -<p>“When the offensive becomes difficult we gather -together the Russian prisoners and hunt them before -us towards their compatriots, while we attack -the latter at the same time. In this way our losses -are sensibly diminished. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span></p> - -<p>“We cannot but make prisoners. Each Russian - -soldier when made prisoner will now be sent in front -of our lines in order to be shot by his fellows.”</p> - -<p class="hang large">(<em>b</em>) Extract from a Diary of a German Soldier of -the 13th Regiment, 13th Division, VIIth -Corps captured by the Fifth (French) Army -and reproduced in the First (British) Army -Summary No. 95.</p> - -<p><em>December 19th, 1914.</em>—“The sight of the trenches -and the fury, not to say bestiality, of our men in -beating to death the wounded English affected me so -much that, for the rest of the day, I was fit for -nothing.”</p> - -<p class="hang large">(<em>c</em>) Contents of a Letter found on a Prisoner of -the 86th Regiment, but written by Johann -Wenger (10th Company Body Regiment, 1st -Brigade, 1st Division I.A.C. Bav.) dated 16th -March, 1915, Peronne, and addressed to a -German Girl.</p> - -<p>(After promising to send a ring made out of a -shell.) “It will be a nice souvenir for you from a -German warrior who has been through everything -from the start and has shot and bayoneted so many -Frenchmen, and I have bayoneted many women. -During the fight at Batonville [?Badonviller] I bayoneted -seven (7) women and four (4) young girls in -five (5) minutes. We fought from house to house -and these women fired on us with revolvers; they -also fired on the captain too, then he told me to shoot -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span> -them all—but I bayoneted them and did not shoot -them, this herd of sows, they are worse than the -men.”</p> - -<p class="hang large">(<em>d</em>) Extracts from the Diary of Musketeer Rehbein, -II., 55th Reserve Infantry Regiment (2nd -Company), 26th Reserve Infantry Brigade, -2nd Guard Reserve Division, X. Reserve -Corps.</p> - -<p>(<em>This diary was captured during the recent operations -at Loos, and forwarded to Professor Morgan -by the Head-quarters Staff.</em><a id="FNanchor_94" href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">94</a>)</p> - -<p><em>August 16th</em> (1914). On the march towards Louvain.—“Several -citizens and the curé have been shot -under martial law, some not yet buried—still lying -where they were executed, for every one to see. Pervading -stench of dead bodies. The curé is said to -have incited the inhabitants to ambush and kill the -Germans.”</p> - -<p lang="de" xml:lang="de">1914. 16/8. Marsch nach Louveigne.—Mehrere -Bürger u. der Pfarrer standrechtlich erschossen, zum -Teil noch nicht beerdigt. Am Vollziehungsplatz noch -für jedermann sichtbar. Leichengeruch Uberall. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span>“ -Pfarrer soll die Bewohner Angefeuert haben die -Deutschen aus dem Hinterhalt zu töten.”</p> - -<p class="hang large">(<em>e</em>) Extracts from the Diary of a German Soldier, -Richard Gerhold (Official Translation by -French Head-quarters Staff).</p> - -<h4 lang="fr" xml:lang="fr" class="smcap">Extrait du Bulletin de Renseignements de la -VIº Armée du 30 avril, 1915</h4> - -<p class="hang large"><em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Extraits du carnet de route trouvé le 22 avril sur le -cadavre du réserviste Richard Gerhold, du 71º -R.R. (IVº C.R.) tué en Septembre à Nouvron</em></p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">... Le 19 août, nous avançons et peu à peu on -apprend à connaître les horreurs de la guerre: du -bétail crevé, des automobiles détruites, villages et -hameaux consumés; c’est tout d’abord un spectacle -à faire frissonner, mais ici on cesse être un homme, -on devient flegmatique et on n’a plus que l’idée de -sa sécurité personnelle. Plus nous avançons, plus -le spectacle est désolé: partout des décombres, fumants -et des hommes fusillés et carbonisés. Et cela -continue ainsi....</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">... Nous franchissons la frontière le 17 août; je -me souviens, et je vois sans cesse ce moment là: tout -le village en flammes, portes et fenêtres brisées, tout -gît épars dans la rue; seule une maisonnette subsiste -et à la porte de cette maison une pauvre femme, les -mains hautes, avec six enfants implore pour qu’on -l’épargne elle et ses petits; il en va ainsi tous les -jours. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span></p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Dans le village voisin la compagnie se fait remettre -les armes naturellement avec la plus grande prudence. -A peine nous sommes-nous mis en marche que des -maisons on tire sur nos troupes; on fait demi-tour -et en quelques instants tout est en flammes; il n’y -a pas de place pour la pitié, il arrive fréquemment -que cette sale engeance de curés prenne part à la -fusillade; <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">c’est pour moi une folle joie quand on -peut se venger de cette canaille de curés</em>;<a id="FNanchor_95" href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">95</a> ici -naturellement tout est foncièrement catholique. -Quelle vie agréable la population pourrait avoir ici -si elle ne se laissait pas conduire sur une mauvaise -voie par cette hypocrite canaille de pretres; ... la -population ne serait pas inquiétée le moins du monde -de la part des Allemands; mais puisqu’il en est ainsi -par ici, il n’y a pas de notre côté à garder le moindre -ménagement....</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">... Le 18, nous atteignons Tongres: ici aussi c’est -un tableau de destruction complète, c’est quelque -chose d’unique en son genre pour notre profession -(c’est un verrier qui parle)....</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">... Le 25 août, nous prenons un cantonnement -d’alerte à Grinde (Sucrerie); ici aussi tout est brûlé -et détruit. De Grinde nous continuous notre route -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span> -sur Louvain; ici c’est partout un tableau d’horreur; -des cadavres de nos gens de nos chevaux; des autos -tout en flammes, l’eau empoisonnée; à peine avons-nous -atteint l’extrémité de la ville que la fusillade -reprend de plus belle; naturellement on fait demi-tour -et on nettoie; puis la ville est mitraillée par -nous complètement.</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Chemin faisant passent devant nous des cortèges -de prisonniers, homines femmes et enfants poussant -des cris....</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">... Le 1º septembre, nous sommes embarqués -dans Bruxelles-Paris; sur cette ligne le même tableau -se renouvelle: villages consumés, fossées énormes, -etc....</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">... Aujourd’hui, 7 septembre, c’est le jour le -plus pénible que jusqu’à présent nous ayons vécu; -l’endroit s’appelle Attichy; nous atteignons cet endroit -en faisant de longs détours, car on a fait sauter -beaucoup de ponts. A 5 h. du matin, on repart, et -cela au pas accéléré parce que beaucoup de cochonneries -y ont été commises....</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">... Le 9 septembre, après un bon cantonnement, -mais qui dure trop peu, nous partons la nuit à 1 h. -1/2 après avoir mis des chemises fraîches et nous -avançons vers l’ennemi vers 6 h. du matin et livrons -un combat après lequel nous sommes complètement -désorganisés. Notre régiment actuellement se compose -d’un bataillon du 71º, d’une compagnie du 2º -bataillon, de compagnies cyclistes des 14º, 46º et -27º et de nombreux autres éléments encore. Vers -11 h. du matin nous tombons sous une grêle de shrapnells, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span> -nous n’avons pas d’artillerie, ni d’autre couverture; -l’après-midi nous sommes engagés dans une -chaude lutte.... Ici c’est Ormoy. Nous nous -joignons au 9º Corps et nous portons vers la position -occupée hier par l’ennemi.... Nous faisons -au feu d’artillerie très vif, mais nous ne pouvons -rien faire jusqu’à ce que notre artillerie ait nettoyé -la place. Nous bivouaquons en forêt après que l’ennemi -s’est retiré et nous nous avançons pour chercher -de l’eau; la nuit vers 3 h. nous rentrons à la compagnie. -A 4 h. nous repartons: ainsi en 3 jours -8 heures de sommeil et avec cela, nourris comme cela -arrive parfois à la guerre et la marche continue de -plus belle avec des efforts physiques les plus grands -pour envelopper l’ennemi vers Compiegne. Nous -nous heurtons au 94º qui a été repoussé avec de -fortes pertes; plusieurs compagnies de ce régiment -sont fondues et réduites à 40 hommes; nous cantonnons -ici; mais quelque chose de bien! Dieu! -quelles délices!... Nous faisons un brin de toilette, -mangeons et buvons à cœur joie et songeons en rêve -à vous là-bas!</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Le 11 septembre, mouvement tournant vers Chaulny.... -Nous arrivons en cantonnement d’alerte à -Chaulny vieux repaire de brigands. Après quelques -heures de sommeil, nouveau départ à 3 h. du matin. -Le 12 septembre nous nous fortifions à 10 Klm de -Chaulny dans des tranchées: il ne s’y passe pas -longtemps que nous y sommes vivement bombardés -par l’artillerie; à ce moment s’engage un violent -combat d’artillerie. Vers 5 h. du soir, nous entrons -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span> -dans l’action, mais nous ne pouvons avancer que -jusqu’à une pente abrupte où nous restons couchés -sous des torrents d’eau jusque dans la nuit....</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">... Malheureusement nous sommes encore trop -faibles dans cette position; le rapport vient à l’instant -que notre 2º Corps arrivera ou doit arriver dans -l’après-midi: de ces sortes de promesses, on nous en -fait toujours, mais? Celui qui va croire ou se laisser -conter que les Français fuient devant quelques fusils -ou canons allemands se trompe joliment et ne sait -rien. Jusqu’à présent nous sommes obligés de dire -que les Français sont un adversaire honorable que -nous ne devons pas juger au-dessous de sa valeur. -<em>Ici, aussi, il se passe des choses qui ne devraient pas -être; oui, des atrocités sont commises ici aussi, mais -naturellement sur les Anglais et les Belges, tous sont -abattus sans pardon à coups de fusil....</em></p> - -<h3 id="DOCUMENTS_FORWARDED_BY_THE_RUSSIAN_GOVERNMENT">VI</h3> - -<p class="hang">DOCUMENTS SELECTED FROM THE REPORTS OF THE EXTRAORDINARY -COMMISSION OF INQUIRY APPOINTED -BY HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA</p> - -<h4>I. Violation of a Sister of Mercy.</h4> - -<p>A Sister of Mercy, wearing the sign of the Red -Cross, was seized by German and Austrian troops -on April 20th, 1915, at the station of Radzivilishki -and shut up in a cart-shed.</p> - -<p>“On the fourth day several officers visited her in -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span> -the cart-shed and demanded information from her -as to the positions of the Russian troops. They then -beat her with swords and pricked her body with -needles. On the same day she was taken to the third -line of German entrenchments and lodged in a ‘dug-out’ -occupied by German officers. Here she was -violated, and during a week and a half several German -officers frequently committed violent acts of -copulation with her, and kept her in the ‘dug-out’ -without clothes under a special guard. At last she -succeeded in escaping from the trenches. With the -help of a Lithuanian peasant she made her way to -the Russian positions, where she arrived in an almost -unconscious state. First medical aid was at -once administered, as it was found she was suffering -from inflammation of the peritoneum and cellular -membrane surrounding the matrix. On examining -her for marks of violence, bruises were visible in the -region of the shoulder and on the thighs and legs.”</p> - -<h4>II. Violation of a Girl.</h4> - -<p>At the beginning of the war, when the Germans -entered the town of Kalish, a girl named X—— was -arrested and led out to the public place, or square, -for execution. Here the Germans tied her to a tree -and told her that she would be shot. Others of the -inhabitants, also condemned to be shot, were drawn -up on the same open space. Among these victims -was an acquaintance of the girl X——, a student -named N. Davuidov. The German soldiers proceeded -to stab this Davuidov with their bayonets before the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span> -very eyes of the girl X——, and then they tore out -hair from his head and finally shot him dead. This -scene of murder gave the girl such a shock that she -fainted. On coming to her senses she found herself -in an apartment occupied by German officers. No -sooner did she revive, than one of these officers committed -a rape upon her and destroyed her virginity. -During the following days she remained a captive -in the same apartment, where she was forced to yield -to the brutal lust of the officer who first violated her, -and to the solicitations of two of his comrades, who -threatened to cut her to pieces with their swords if -she offered any resistance. These officers then told -her “that the Germans had invented a new method -of making war on the Russians, which would exterminate -them by means of poisonous gas without the -waste of any more bullets.”</p> - -<p>The girl was subsequently rescued by the Russian -troops.</p> - -<p>A combined judicial and medical examination of -the girl X—— on June 4th, established the fact that -she had been deprived of her maidenhood and an -inflammatory condition of the sexual organs was still -plainly visible.</p> - -<h4>III. Murder of Wounded Soldiers.</h4> - -<p>On April 25th, 1915, when an infantry regiment -retreated from the station of Krosno in Galicia, the -unarmed wounded soldiers, who were unable to follow, -and many of whom were crawling away on their -hands and knees, were overtaken and stabbed to -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span> -death, or despatched by blows with the butt end -of rifles by the Austro-Hungarian troops.</p> - -<p>The foregoing facts have been confirmed by the -evidence of junior subaltern B—— of the regiment, -Serge Yakovlev Sudarikov, aged thirty, who was -interrogated as a witness by the Examining Magistrate -of the 1st ward of Kharkov.</p> - -<h4>IV. Murder of Wounded Soldiers.</h4> - -<p>On May 12th, 1915, near the village of Bobrovka, -forty versts from Yaroslav in Galicia, after the withdrawal -of the “platoon sotnias” of dismounted cossacks -from their trenches, the latter were occupied -by German guardsmen, who drove out the Russian -wounded at the point of the bayonet.</p> - -<p>Private Nikita Davidenko, who was one hundred -paces from the trenches taken by the Germans, saw -how they used their bayonets to thrust out four or -five of his wounded comrades, whose groans were -distinctly audible.</p> - -<p>When the Russian troops advanced on May 15th, -Davidenko saw the bodies of many cossacks, who had -been bayoneted or sabred to death in the trenches -abandoned on May 12th.</p> - -<p>The above facts have been confirmed by the evidence -of Davidenko, who was interrogated as a witness -by the Examining Magistrate of the second ward -of Kharkov.</p> - -<h4>V. Murder of Wounded Soldiers.</h4> - -<p>On the retirement of the Russians, after the battle -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span> -near Gumbinnen, in Eastern Prussia, August 7th, -1914, a junior subaltern, named Alexander Lappo, -aged twenty-six, who had been wounded in the back -by a piece of an exploded shrapnel, was left behind, -lying on the field.</p> - -<p>He soon perceived a group of about fifteen Germans, -headed by an officer and a colour sergeant, -following up their detachments, and shooting all the -wounded Russians within reach as they marched -along. There was no consideration for the fact that -these Russians had been struck down at a considerable -distance from the actual fighting, without having -fired a shot. One of the Germans in this squad -caught sight of Lappo and fired at him with his rifle. -Lappo received the bullet in his left elbow. A second -shot, fired by the same German soldier, hit a -wounded Russian private Tartar, lying next to Lappo. -The Tartar made one or two convulsive movements -and expired. The pain from the wound in his elbow -made Lappo moan rather loudly, and this attracted -the attention of the German officer, who at once -levelled his revolver and shot him in the neck. This -second wound rendered Lappo unconscious and he -only recovered his senses towards evening, when he -was picked up by Russian Red Cross men. Lappo -then noticed that his leather wrist band with a black -watch, worth ten roubles, had been stolen, evidently -by the Germans.</p> - -<p>It is not certain to what troops of the enemy’s -forces this German officer and the men under his -command belonged, but the German soldiers killed -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span> -in the battle near Stalupenen, on August 4th, 1914, -in which Lappo took part, had the figures “41” on -their shoulder straps.</p> - -<p>The above described facts have been verified and -established by a combined judicial and medical examination, -and by the evidence of Lappo, given under -oath before the Examining Magistrate of the -Circuit Court of Vitebsk, district of Gorodok.</p> - -<h4>VI. Burning the Russian Wounded.</h4> - -<h5><em>Evidence of the Private Nicholas Semenov Dorozhka</em></h5> - -<p>In the latter half of June the regiment in which -this witness was one of the rank and file took part -in a battle near Ivangorod. When the fighting was -over, the regiment settled down to rest. Some of -the men, however, went to help the sanitary attendants -to bring in the wounded and place them in a -wooden cart-house or shed, roofed with straw, at -one end of the village. According to statements made -by the Red Cross bearers, from sixty-six to sixty-eight -men were lodged in this building. At eleven -o’clock at night there was a sudden and violent rattle -of rifle fire. The village had been surrounded -by the Germans. The witness seized his rifle and -started to leave with three comrades, but in the darkness -they stumbled into a German trench, and were -taken prisoners. Their weapons were taken from -them, and all four Russians were led to the same -cart-shed, to which the witness Dorozhka had assisted -to carry the Russian wounded. A German officer -on the spot gave an order to his German soldiers -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span> -and then he gathered up an armful of the straw, -littered over the floor of the shed, placed it against -one of the corners of the building, and set fire to it -with a match. The witness declares, that he almost -fainted when he saw this officer setting fire to the -shed. The straw blazed up at once, the flames began -to envelop the wooden walls, and when it reached -the roof, piercing shrieks came from the wounded inmates, -calling for help. At this moment the officer -who fired the shed approached the prisoners, who -were standing near, and without uttering a word, -he discharged his revolver point blank at one of the -comrades of the witness, who instantly fell to the -ground dead. Then this officer struck witness’s other -comrade with something in the lower part of the -body, and by the light of the conflagration witness -noticed that the man’s intestines were protruding. -Dorozhka rushed to one side and managed to break -away from a group of German soldiers and escaped -unhurt, although three shots were fired after him. -The witness, after tramping all night, fell in with -one of the Russian pickets.</p> - -<p>The foregoing was deposed to by the witness -Dorozhka on examination by the Examining Magistrate -of the 1st Dnieprovsky District.</p> - -<h4>VII. Ill-Treatment of Prisoners of War.</h4> - -<p>In June, 1915, three Russian officers, Captain -Kosmachevsky, Lieutenant Griaznov, and Sub-lieutenant -Yarotsky, escaped from German captivity and -reached Russia in safety. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span></p> - -<p>They were made prisoners in East Prussia in August, -1914. Together with other captured officers, -they were driven on foot to the town of Neidenburg, -and at one place on the way were made to serve -as cover for a German battery, which was in danger -of attack from Russian artillery fire.</p> - -<p>For this purpose the prisoners were put into two-wheeled -carts and ordered to wave white flags and -flags with the Red Cross, and these carts were placed -in front of the battery. At the same time the prisoners -were warned, that if only a single projectile -fell into this German battery, they would all be shot -for it.</p> - -<p>Four days these prisoners were on the march. At -night they were compelled to sleep in the open in -roadside ditches, although there were villages near -by, and all that time they received no food, but only -coffee, without sugar, milk or bread, served up in -pails. Along the road the inhabitants and troops -whom they met cursed and insulted them, tore off -their shoulder straps, threatened them with their fists, -spat at them and shouted “To Berlin!”</p> - -<p>Before the prisoners were put into the train they -were searched, and in this way many of them lost -their gold watches and money. The Cossack officers -especially were subjected to very strict search, in -the course of which they were stripped naked. These -Cossack officers were separated from the others and -sent off with the private soldier prisoners.</p> - -<p>In the first instance the officer prisoners were interned -in the fortress of Neisse in Silesia, and were -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span> -subsequently removed to Kreisfeld, beyond the Rhine.</p> - -<p>The prisoners, according to their own account, were -kept in horrible conditions. They were lodged in -dirty barracks where the windows were shut fast -and the glass of the panes covered with oil paint. -It was forbidden to approach these windows under -pain of being fired at by the sentries. This threat -was once carried out, when an officer wished to make -a drawing at one of the windows. Fortunately nobody -was hurt. The imprisoned officers had to sleep -in dirty beds full of bugs, lice, and other vermin. -Their meagre fare was served up on dirty tables, -littered with straw, whilst alongside were other tables, -covered with clean tablecloths and decently furnished -even to the extent of glasses for beer, and on -these tables dinner was served for the sentries, German -subalterns, who looked on at the prisoners and -their wretched accommodation in the most insolent -manner.</p> - -<p>All the imprisoned officers were formed into companies, -commanded by rough and rude sergeant-majors, -who treated them like common soldiers.</p> - -<p>In November, 1914, two of the officer prisoners attempted -to escape by bribing the shopman at the -stores of the officers’ canteen. This shopman, however, -turned out to be a German officer in disguise, -and the attempt failed, but it cost the officers concerned -very dear. They were put in irons and kept -in prison six months in a far worse state than in the -barracks.</p> - -<p>The above is attested by the evidence of Captain -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span> -Kosmachevsky, Lieutenant Griaznov, and Sub-lieutenant -Yarotsky, given to Major-General Semashko, -a member of the Extraordinary Commission of Inquiry, -and the deponents were admonished that they -would be required to swear to the truth of their -statements.</p> - -<h4>VIII.</h4> - -<p>Peter Shimchak, a peasant from the province of -Warsaw, who fled from German captivity, being examined -on oath, deposed to the following:—In August -I was made prisoner while serving as a sailor -on board a vessel under the British flag, going from -Denmark to England.</p> - -<p>As a Russian subject I was not set free, but was -placed in solitary confinement for seven days in -a prison at Hamburg, and then sent to a camp for -prisoners of war near Berlin, at Zel, where there -were already many English, French, and Belgian -prisoners. In that camp there was a small yard -where offending prisoners were generally punished. -On one occasion four Cossacks were brought into -the camp. I recognised them by the yellow stripes -down the sides of their trousers. They were taken -out into the yard and placed about ten feet from -the wall of the barrack, and through the crevices -I was able to watch the proceedings. They took the -first Cossack and placed his left hand on a small -wooden post or block, and with a sword bayonet one -of the German soldiers chopped off successively half -of the Cossack’s thumb, half of his middle finger and -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span> -half of his little finger. I could plainly see how -these finger pieces flew off at each stroke of the -sword-bayonet and fell to the ground. The Germans -picked them up and put them into the pocket of the -Cossack’s overcoat and then took him into a barrack, -where there was a reservoir of running water. -The second Cossack was brought up and had holes -drilled through his ears, the point of the sword-bayonet -being turned in the cut several times in -order, evidently, to make the hole as large as possible. -This Cossack was then led away to the barrack -where the first one had been taken. When -the third Cossack was brought to the place of torture -his nose was chopped off by a downward stroke -of a sword bayonet, but as the severed piece of nose -was still hanging by a bit of skin, the Cossack made -signs that they should cut it off completely. The Germans -then gave him a pocket knife, and with this -the Cossack cut off the hanging piece of his nose. -Finally, the fourth Cossack was brought forward. -What they intended to do with him it was impossible -to say, but this Cossack with a rapid movement -drew out the bayonet of the nearest soldier and -dealt a blow with it at one of the Germans. There -were about fifteen German soldiers present, and they -all set upon this Cossack and bayoneted him to death, -after which they dragged the body outside the camp. -What was the fate of the remaining three Cossacks -I do not know, but I think, says the witness Shimchak, -in concluding his account of the case, they must have -been also killed, for I never saw them again. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span></p> - -<h4>IX.</h4> - -<p>Evidence of the senior surgeon of the 73rd Artillery -Brigade, Gregory Dimitrovich Onisimov, who -was captured by the enemy on August 30th, 1914, -near “Malvishek” in East Prussia, but has since been -released. The most striking and characteristic part -of this ex-prisoner’s testimony is a description of the -insulting treatment received by Russian prisoners -from the soldiers of their German escort on the road -to Insterburg. “The peaceful temper of our German -convoy did not last long. We soon began to -meet detachments of German troops, who swore and -shook their fists and levelled their rifles and revolvers -at us, shouting, ‘Why lead these men about when -they can be settled here on the spot?’ This kind -of remark was shouted at us in German, Polish, and -broken Russian. The peaceful inhabitants also reviled -us, and called upon the soldiers to despatch -us there and then. They shouted ‘nach Berlin—to -Berlin with them! ... to Welhau! ... Russischer -schweinhund—Russian swine,’ and so forth. The -soldiers of the escort were taken into houses on the -road and made drunk, so that they also began to -amuse themselves at our expense. The German soldier -walking on my right took his rifle from his shoulder, -as if tired, and held it in such a way that the -muzzle touched my right temple, and then he played -carelessly with the lock of it, as though unaware of -what he was doing. When I moved out of the way, -he said: ‘Ah! you’re afraid of losing your head, -there’s no danger.’ As soon as the guard on one -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span> -side had had his little joke, his comrade on the other -side began. Another soldier on a cart came along -purposely handling his rifle so as to stick the muzzle -into my chest, and when I warded it off he roared -with laughter and seemed highly delighted. When -going down a steep part of the road the driver of -a cart behind intentionally drove into us and struck -me on the legs with the shafts. I shouted to him -to stop and not break my legs. He simply replied: -‘Bad to have no legs.’ This kind of thing went on -throughout the march. Sometimes we were driven -forward like horses, and the wounded men in the -carts were so shaken about that they groaned with -pain. The guards did not allow us to turn round -to speak with them, and no attention was paid to -our entreaties to drive them slowly.”</p> - -<p class="author"> -<span class="smcap">Alexis Krivtsov</span>, Senator,<br /> -President of the Extraordinary<br /> -Commission of Inquiry.</p> - -<h3 id="THE_GERMAN_WHITE_BOOK">VII<br /> - -THE GERMAN WHITE BOOK</h3> - -<h4>The Introductory Memorandum.</h4> - -<p>Immediately after the outbreak of the present war -there arose in Belgium a violent struggle by the people -against the German troops which forms a flagrant -violation of international law and has had the most -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span> -serious consequences to the Belgian country and -people.</p> - -<p>This struggle of a population which was under -the dominion of the wildest passions continued to -rage throughout the whole of the advance of the -German army through Belgium. As the Belgian -army fell back before the German troops after obstinately -contested engagements, the Belgian civil -population attempted by every means to impede the -German advance in those parts of the country which -were not yet occupied; but they did not scruple to -injure and weaken the German forces by cowardly -and treacherous attacks, also in places which had -long been occupied by the German troops. The extent -of this armed popular resistance can be seen -from the attached general plan (Appendix 1) on -which were marked the lines of the German advance, -and the Belgian places in which the popular struggle -chiefly raged. We have an overwhelming amount -of material resting on official sources, especially on -evidence given under oath and official reports, that -on these routes and in these places the Belgian civil -population of every rank, age, and sex took part -in the struggle against the German troops with the -greatest bitterness and fury. In the Appendices is -given a selection from this material which, however, -embraces only the more important events and -can at any time be increased by further documents.</p> - -<p>According to the attached material the Belgian -civil population fought against the German troops -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span> -in numerous places in the provinces of Liège (Appendices -2-10), Luxembourg (Appendices 11-30), -Namur (Appendices 12, 17, 31-42), Henegau (Appendices -3, 7, 10, 40, 43-46, 49), Brabant (Appendices -47-49), East and West Flanders (Appendices -49, 50). The conflicts in Aerschot, Andenne, Dinant, -Louvain assumed a particularly frightful character, -and special reports have been provided on them by -the Bureau which has been appointed in the Ministry -of War for investigation of offences against -the laws of war (Appendices A, B, C, D). Men of -the most different positions, workmen, manufacturers, -doctors, teachers, even clergy, and even women -and children were seized with weapons in their hands -(Appendices 18, 20, 25, 27, 43, 47; A 5; C 18, 26, 29, -31, 41, 42-44, 56, 62; D 1, 19, 34, 37, 38, 41, 45, 48). -In districts from which the Belgian regular troops -had long retired, the German troops were fired on -from houses and gardens, from roofs and cellars, -from fields and woods. Methods were used in the -struggle which certainly would not have been employed -by regular troops, and large numbers of sporting -weapons and sporting ammunition and some old-fashioned -revolvers and pistols were discovered (Appendices -6, 11, 13, 26, 36, 37, 44, 48, 49; A 2, C 52, -81; D 1, 2, 6, 20, 37). Corresponding with this were -numerous cases of wounds by shot and also by burns -from hot tar and boiling water (Appendices 3, 10; -B 2; C 5, 11, 28, 57; D 25, 29). According to all this -evidence there can be no doubt that in Belgium the -People’s War (<em lang="de" xml:lang="de">Volkskrieg</em>) was carried on not only -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span> -by individual civilians, but by great masses of the -population.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The conduct of the war by the Belgian civil population -was completely irreconcilable with the generally -recognised rules of international law as they -have found expression in Articles 1 and 2 of The -Hague Convention: The Laws and Customs of War -on Land, which had been accepted by Belgium. -These regulations distinguished between organised -and unorganised People’s War. In an organised -People’s War (Article 1), in order that they may -be recognised as belligerents, the militia and volunteer -corps must satisfy each of the following conditions: -They must have responsible leaders at their -head; they must bear a definite badge which is recognisable -at a distance; they must bear their weapons -openly; and they must obey the laws and usages -of war. The unorganised People’s War (Article 2) -can dispense with the first two conditions, that is, -responsible leaders and military badges. It is, however, -bound instead by two other conditions; it can -only be carried on in that part of the territory which -has not yet been occupied by the enemy, and there -must have been no time for the organisation of the -People’s War.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The two special conditions required for the organised -People’s War were certainly not present in -the case of the Belgian <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">francs-tireurs</em>. For, according -to the reports of the German military commands, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span> -which agree with one another, the civil persons who -were found taking part in the struggle had no responsible -leaders at their head, and also wore no -kind of military badge (Appendices 6, 49; C 4-7, 14, -15, 22, 24, 25, 31; D). The Belgian <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">francs-tireurs</em> -can therefore not be regarded as organised militia -or volunteers according to the laws of war. It makes -no difference in this, that apparently Belgian military -and members of the Belgian “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Garde Civique</span>” -also took part in their enterprises; for as these individuals -also did not wear any military badge but -mingled among the fighting citizens in civilian dress -(Appendices 6; A 3; C 25; D 1, 30, 45, 46), the -rights of belligerents can just as little be conceded -to them.</p> - -<p>The whole of the Belgian People’s War must -therefore be judged from the point of view of an -unorganised armed resistance of the civil population. -As such resistance is only allowed in unoccupied -territory, it was for this reason alone, without -any doubt, contrary to international law in all -those places which were already in occupation of -German troops, and particularly at Aerschot, Andenne, -and Louvain. But the unorganised People’s -War was also impermissible in those places which -had not yet been occupied by German troops, and -particularly in Dinant and the neighbourhood, as -the Belgian Government had sufficient time for an -organisation of the People’s War as required by international -law. For years the Belgian Government -has had under consideration that at the outbreak -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span> -of a Franco-German war it would be involved in the -operations; the preparation of mobilisation began, as -can be proved, at least a week before the invasion of -the German army. The Government was therefore -completely in a position to provide the civil population -with military badges and appoint responsible -leaders, so far as they wished to use their services -in any fighting which might take place. If the Belgian -Government in a communication which has been -communicated to the German Government through -a neutral Power, maintain that they took suitable -measures, this only proves that they could have satisfied -the conditions which had been laid down; in -any case, however, such steps were not taken in those -districts through which the German troops passed.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The requirements of international law for an unorganised -People’s War were then not complied with -in Belgium; moreover, this war was carried on in -a manner which alone would have been sufficient to -have put those who took part in it outside the laws -of war. For the Belgian <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">francs-tireurs</em> regularly carried -their weapons not openly, and throughout failed -to observe the laws and usages of war.</p> - -<p>It has been shown by unanswerable evidence that -in a whole series of cases the German troops were -on their arrival received by the Belgian civil population -in an apparently friendly manner, and then, -when darkness came on or some other opportunity -presented itself, were attacked with arms; such cases -occurred especially in Blegny, Esneux, Grand Rosère, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span> -Bièvre, Gouvy, Villers devant Orval, Sainte Marie, -Les Bulles, Yschippe, Acoz, Aerschot, Andenne, and -Louvain (Appendices 3, 8, 11-13, 18, 22, 28, 31, 43; -A, B, D). All these attacks obviously offended -against the precept of international law that arms -should be borne openly.</p> - -<p>What, however, is the chief accusation against the -Belgian population is the unheard-of violation of the -usages of war. In different places, for instance, at -Liége, Herve, Brussels, at Aerschot, Dinant, and -Louvain, German soldiers were treacherously murdered -(Appendices 18, 55, 61, 65, 66; A 1; C 56, 59, -61, 67, 73-78), which is contrary to the prohibition -“to kill or treacherously wound individuals belonging -to the hostile nation or army.” (Article 23, -Section 1 (<em>b</em>) of The Hague Convention: The Laws -and Customs of War on Land.) Further, the Belgian -population did not respect the sign of the Red -Cross, and thereby violated Article 9 of the Convention -of Geneva of July 6th, 1906. In particular, they -did not scruple to fire on German troops under the -cover of this sign, and also to attack hospitals in -which there were wounded, as well as members of -the Ambulance Corps, while they were occupied in -carrying out their duties (Appendices 3, 4, 12, 19, -23, 28, 29, 41, 49; C 9, 16-18, 32, 56, 66-70; D 9, 21, -25-29, 38, 47). Finally, it is proved beyond all doubt -that German wounded were robbed and killed by the -Belgian population, and indeed were subjected to -horrible mutilation, and that even women and young -girls took part in these shameful actions. In this -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span> -way the eyes of German wounded were torn out, -their ears, nose, fingers, and sexual organs were cut -off, or their body cut open (Appendices 54-66; C 73, -78; D 35, 37). In other cases German soldiers were -poisoned, hung on trees, deluged with burning liquid, -or burnt in other ways, so that they suffered a specially -painful death (Appendices 50, 55, 63; C 56, -59, 61, 67, 74-78). This bestial behaviour of the population -is not only in open contravention of the express -obligation for “respecting and taking care of” -the sick and wounded of the hostile army (Article -1, Section 1, of the Convention of Geneva), but also -of the first principles of the laws of war and humanity.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Under these circumstances, the Belgian civil population -who took part in the struggle could of course -make no claim to the treatment to which belligerents -have a right. On the contrary, it was absolutely -necessary, in the interests of the self-preservation of -the German Army, to have recourse to the sharpest -measures against these <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">francs-tireurs</em>. Individuals -who opposed the German troops by fighting had, -therefore, to be cut down; prisoners could not be -treated as prisoners of war according to the laws -of war, but according to the usage of war as murderers. -All the same, the forms of judicial procedure -were maintained so far as the necessities of -war did not stand in the way; the prisoners were, -so far as the circumstances permitted, not shot till -after a hearing in accordance with regulations, or -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span> -after sentence by a military court. (Appendices -48, D 19, 20, 37, 40, 41, 43, 44, 48.) Old men, women -and children were spared to the widest extent, even -when there were urgent grounds of suspicion (Appendices -49; C 5, 6, 25, 26, 28, 31, 35, 41, 47, 79); -indeed, the German soldiers often looked after such -persons so far as was in any way possible in the most -self-sacrificing manner by taking helpless people who -were in danger under their protection, sharing their -bread with them and taking charge of the weak and -sick, although their patience had been subjected -to an extraordinary difficult test by the treacherous -attacks (Appendices C 45, 47, 51-53, 55, 58, -80-86).</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>There can be no doubt that the Belgian Government -was essentially to blame for the illegal attitude -of their population towards the German Army. -For apart from the fact that a Government has, -under all circumstances, to bear the responsibility -for deeds of this kind which give a general expression -of the popular will, the serious charge must at -least be made against them that they did not stop -this guerilla war, although they could have done -so (Appendices 33, 51-53; D 42, 43, 48). It would -certainly have been easy for them to provide their -officials, such as the Burgomasters, the soldiers, members -of the “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Guarde Civique,</span>” with the necessary -instructions to check the violent excitement of the -people which had been artificially aroused. Full responsibility, -therefore, for the terrible blood-guiltiness -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span> -which rests upon Belgian attachés to the Belgian -Government.</p> - -<p>The Belgian Government has made an attempt to -free itself from this responsibility by attributing the -blame for the events to the rage of destruction of -the German troops, who are said to have taken to -deeds of violence without any reason. They have -appointed a Commission for investigating the outrages -attributed to the German troops, and have -made the findings of this Commission the subject of -Diplomatic complaint. This attempt to pervert the -facts into their opposite has completely failed. The -German Army is accustomed to make war only -against hostile armies, and not against peaceful inhabitants. -The incontrovertible fact that from the -beginning a defensive struggle in the interests of -self-protection was forced upon the German troops -in Belgium by the population of the country cannot -be done away with by the inquiry of any commission.</p> - -<p>The narratives of fugitives which have been put -together by the Belgian Commission, and which are -characterised as the result of careful and impartial -investigation, bear the stamp of untrustworthiness, -if not of malicious invention. In consequence of the -conditions of things, the Commission was not in a -position to test the reports which were conveyed to -it as to their correctness or to grasp the connection -of events. Their accusations against the German -Army are, therefore, nothing but low calumniations, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span> -which are simply deprived of all their weight by -the documentary evidence which is before us.</p> - -<p>The struggle of the German troops with the Belgian -civil population at Aerschot did not, as is suggested -on the Belgian side, arise through the German -officers violating the honour of the Burgomaster’s -family, but because the population ventured -on a well-considered attack on the Commanding Officer, -and murdered him treacherously (Appendix A). -At Dinant it was not harmless, peaceful citizens who -fell as a sacrifice to the German arms, but murderers -who treacherously attacked German soldiers, -and thereby involved the troops in a struggle which -destroyed the city (Appendix C). In Louvain the -struggle of the civil population did not arise through -fleeing German troops being by mistake involved in -a hand-to-hand contest with their comrades who were -entering the town, but because the population, blinded -as they were and unable to understand what was -going on, thought they could destroy the returning -German troops without danger (Appendix D). -Moreover, in Louvain, as in other towns, the conflagration -was only started by the German troops -when bitter necessity required it. The plan of the -destruction of Louvain (Appendix D 50) shows -clearly how the troops confined themselves to destroying -only those parts of the city in which the -inhabitants opposed them in a treacherous and murderous -manner. It was indeed German troops who, -so far as was possible, tried to save the artistic treasures, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span> -not only of Louvain, but also of other towns. -On the German side, a Special Commission has shown -to what a high degree works of art in Belgium were -protected by the German troops.</p> - -<p>The Imperial German Government believes that -by the publication of the material contained in this -work, they have shown that the action of the German -troops against the Belgian civil population was -provoked by the illegal guerilla war, and was required -by the necessity of war. For their part, -they expressly and solemnly protest against a population -which has, with the most despicable means, -waged a dishonourable war against the German soldiers, -and still more against the Government which, -in complete perversion of their duties, has given rein -to the senseless passions of the population, and even -now does not scruple to free itself from its own -heavy guilt by mendacious libels against the German -Army.</p> - -<p>Berlin, <em>May 10th, 1915</em>.</p> - -<h3 id="DEPOSITIONS_RELATING_TO_THE_MASSACRE_OF_WOUNDED_AND_CAPTIVE">VIII<br /> - -MASSACRE OF BRITISH PRISONERS BY GERMAN SOLDIERS -AT HAISNES ON SEPTEMBER 25TH, 1915</h3> - -<p>I, Captain J. E. A——, 8th Batt. —— Highlanders, -make oath and say as follows:—</p> - -<p>(1) I command C Co. of the 8th Batt. —— Highlanders. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span> -My company took part in the attack on -September 25th, 1915. Between 5 and 6 p.m. on that -day we were attacked and compelled to retire from -an advanced position about Haisnes. We moved into -Pekin Trench, and later to Fosse Alley. The battalion -commenced to reorganise there.</p> - -<p>(2) Just before 8 p.m. 2nd Lieut. G. T. G——, -of my battalion, reported to me that Sergeant D. -M——, who had been attached to my company for -the day, had just returned in an exhausted condition, -and that he reported that the Germans had -collected our wounded and prisoners and bombed -them.</p> - -<p>Instructed Lieut. G—— to bring Sergeant M—— -to me at once. This was done. 2nd Lieut. G. T. -G—— has since died of wounds.</p> - -<p>(3) Sergeant M—— reported to me that he and -a party of men had been collected in a traverse by -the Germans and bombed from both sides, that he -and a Highlander had jumped out of the traverse, -and that he had escaped into a shell hole, whilst the -Highlander had been shot.</p> - -<p>The Sergeant, D. M——, was very exhausted and -covered with mud and water up to the neck. He -was not in an excited condition.</p> - -<p>He carried on with his duties reorganising the -company.</p> - -<p>(4) The story as told to me by Sergeant M—— -at that time has been adhered to by him ever since -without any material alteration. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span></p> - -<p>This Sergeant is a most reliable man in every way.</p> - -<p class="author"> -(Signature of Deponent) J. E. A——,<br /> -Captain.</p> - -<p class="hang">Sworn at Poperinghe in Belgium on active service -this first day of October, 1915.</p> - -<p class="i2"> -<span class="i2">Before me,</span><br /> -<span class="i4">A. M. H. S——, Captain,</span><br /> -<span class="i6">D.A.A.G., 1st Army,</span><br /> -<span class="i8">Commissioner for Oaths.</span></p> - -<p>I, No. 6546, Sergeant D. M——, of D Co., 8th ----- Highlanders, make oath and say as follows:</p> - -<p>(1) On September 25th, 1915, I was attached to -C Co., 8th —— Highanders. I took part in the -attack on Haisnes on that day.</p> - -<p>About 5 p.m. the part of this company commanded -by Lieut. A—— with which I was in trenches just -west of Haisnes, and was going to retire.</p> - -<p>Lieut. A—— ordered me to collect stragglers from -Pekin Trench.</p> - -<p>(2) I went 400-500 yards along Pekin Trench and -found about twenty wounded men of various regiments, -all Scottish, whose names I did not know.</p> - -<p>I left these men sitting down and went about 100 -yards further on and found about twenty men of -the —— Highlanders, about ten of whom were -wounded.</p> - -<p>(3) It was now 5.15 p.m., and I could see that -the Germans had cut me and all these men off from -our own troops. I took the men of the —— Highlanders -back to where the others were. I now had -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span> -about forty men with me. For the sake of the -wounded men we decided to surrender.</p> - -<p>(4) We all took off our rifles and equipment and -put them on top of the parapet.</p> - -<p>I stood on top of the parapet and held up my -hands.</p> - -<p>A large party of Germans then advanced both in -the open and by the trenches towards us.</p> - -<p>When they drew near I said, “We surrender.” -One German, speaking English, said, “All right. -Come along this way, every one.” We all followed -him up Pekin Trench towards the north, helping the -wounded along, and leaving our rifles and equipment -behind. It now began to pour in torrents of rain.</p> - -<p>(5) The German who spoke English was dressed -in dark khaki and wearing a cape down to his thighs. -He had khaki trousers with a thin red stripe and -long black boots. He wore a helmet with a dark -khaki cover on it. He had no badges showing. His -cape blew open and I saw a figure 6 in red on his -shoulder and, I think but am not sure, a figure 2 in -part of it, making 26.</p> - -<p>All these Germans were big men and were dressed -alike, quite clean and fresh as though they had only -just come into the trenches. I did not notice anyone -in command of them.</p> - -<p>Their manner was not threatening.</p> - -<p>(6) About thirty of these Germans led us into a -circular traverse in Pekin Trench, and the English-speaking -German said, “Pack in there and stay.” -All the Germans then went out of sight. The -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span> -wounded men sat on the fire-step and the unwounded -remained standing. It was now about 5.30 p.m.</p> - -<p>(7) After we had been there about two minutes a -bomb was thrown into the traverse where we were, -one bomb from one side and one from the other.</p> - -<p>I shouted to the men to clear out if possible. Only -one man and myself jumped over the parapet. I -seized an English rifle lying on the parapet and fired -down the trench. I then jumped into a shell hole -about 15 yards from the traverse. It was almost full -of water, in which I stood up to my neck. The other -man was shot.</p> - -<p>I heard the Germans bombing this circular traverse -continuously for about fifteen minutes. At first the -men I left were crying out, but after about ten minutes -this ceased.</p> - -<p>(8) I was over an hour in the shell hole, and left -it after dark.</p> - -<p>2nd Lieut. G. T. G——, of D Co., 8th —— Highlanders, -was the first person to whom I told my experiences. -This was at about 7.45 p.m.</p> - -<p>(9) The second person to whom I told them was -Capt. J. E. A——, also of the 8th ——, whom I saw -at about 8 p.m. the same evening.</p> - -<p class="author"> -(Signature of deponent) D. M——, Sergeant.<br /> -</p> - -<p class="hang">Sworn at Poperinghe in Belgium on active service -this first day of October, 1915.</p> - -<p> -<span class="i2">Before me,</span><br /> -<span class="i4">G. M. H. S——, Captain,</span><br /> -<span class="i6">D.A.A.G., 1st Army,</span><br /> -<span class="i8">Commissioner for Oaths.</span><br /> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span></p> - -<h3 id="DEPOSITIONS_AS_TO_THE_USE_OF_INCENDIARY_BULLETS">IX<br /> - -REPORTS RELATIVE TO THE USE OF INCENDIARY BULLETS -BY GERMAN TROOPS<a id="FNanchor_96" href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">96</a></h3> - -<p> -To:<br /> -<span class="i2">The Commanding Officer,</span><br /> -<span class="i4">2nd Batt. The —— Regiment.</span><br /> -From:<br /> -<span class="i2">2nd Lieut. L. E. S——,</span><br /> -<span class="i4">B Co., 2nd —— Regiment.</span></p> - -<p class="author">18/6/1915.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Use of Incendiary Bullets by the Enemy</span></h4> - -<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I have the honour to report as follows:</p> - -<p>During the action on 15th to 16th instant my platoon -occupied the right of the old German trench -running from —— to —— between 7.30 p.m. and -10.30 p.m., 15th instant. Seventy-five yards to my -front I saw six or seven men lying down in the grass. -One of them attracted my attention immediately as -he appeared to be smoking or to have lit a small -fire. I observed him carefully and saw that his -clothes were smouldering. Later on they were entirely -charred black: he did not move and was apparently -dead. The enemy were sniping at these -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span> -men, unquestionably using incendiary bullets, as I -saw three or four of these strike the ground and set -the grass around on fire. The flames could be seen -distinctly.</p> - -<p>About 9 p.m. one of these bullets struck the bottom -of the parapet of the trench, and burned with -a brilliant white flare for about fifteen seconds, at -the same time giving off heavy phosphorus fumes and -burning the sand-bags which it had struck.</p> - -<p class="author"> -I have the honour to be,<br /> -Sir,<br /> -Your obedient servant,<br /> -(Signed) L. E. S——,<br /> -2nd Lieut.</p> - -<p>The following statements were made by N.C.O.’s -of the 2nd Batt. —— Regiment and 2nd Batt. —— -Regiment (7th Division), relative to the alleged use -by the enemy on June 15th, 1915, of incendiary -bullets:</p> - -<p>C.S.M. G. M——, C Co., 2nd Batt. —— Regiment, -states:</p> - -<p>On the night of the 15th and 16th I saw German -rifle bullets cause a flash as they struck the ground. -The flash seemed to rise about 2 feet from the ground. -My attention was called to this by an Officer of the -3rd Co. (?) Grenadier Guards. The Guards were -on my left and I was near ——. It was some time -between 11 p.m. and 12 midnight.</p> - -<p class="author"> -(Signed) G. M——,<br /> -C.S.M.,<br /> -C Co., 2nd ——. -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span></p> - -<p>Sergeant N——, B Co., 2nd —— Regiment, states:</p> - -<p>Just before dusk on the evening of the 15th I was -in the disused German trench ——, and saw a man -fall in front of the trench hit by a bullet. As he -lay on the ground he seemed to be on fire in the -right shoulder and breast, and was clawing the -ground in agony. (The grass, which was green, was -set on fire round him.) He was not more than 100 -yards from me—hardly that. I could not do anything -for him as the Germans had been following me -and were almost on top of me, and I was nearly alone -at the time.</p> - -<p>Very shortly afterwards I saw another man (a -Lance-Corpl. in the —— I think), run out apparently -to fetch in the first man. He slewed off, and -must have seen the Germans, who were then crawling -through the grass. He fell, seemingly hit in -the stomach, and whilst rolling about on his back, his -right knee and his puttees down to his boot caught -fire. I think he must have been hit in the knee. He -too seemed to be in agony, and the grass caught -fire round him also. I could not swear that his second -wound was not caused by a bomb, though I -did not see any bomb burst there.</p> - -<p class="author"> -(Signed) E. H. M. N——,<br /> -Sergeant.</p> - -<p>Corporal D——, B Co., 2nd Batt. —— Regiment, -states:</p> - -<p>Shortly after the bombardment on the evening of -the 15th instant, I was just on the left of the crater -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span> -(near ——)—about 30 yards from the crater—and -saw a man on fire in the grass in front of and below -me. Another man ran out of a disused trench -towards the first man, when he appeared to be hit -in the chest. He fell forward on his chest, and -as he did so flames spurted out of his chest. As he -lay on the ground he was burning all over, and the -cartridges in his bandolier went off. He burned -for about an hour and the grass was set on fire. -Both men were rather less than 100 yards from me. -I called the attention of my Officer Mr. L. J—— -(subsequently wounded) to the second man. I am -quite sure the second man was hit by a bullet, not -a bomb.</p> - -<p class="author"> -(Signed) J. W. D——,<br /> -Corporal.</p> - -<h3 id="DEPOSITIONS_AS_TO_THE_EMPLOYMENT_BY_GERMAN_TROOPS">X</h3> - -<p class="hang">DEPOSITIONS RELATIVE TO THE EMPLOYMENT BY THE -GERMAN TROOPS OF RUSSIAN PRISONERS ON THE -WESTERN FRONT<a id="FNanchor_97" href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">97</a></p> - -<p class="hang large">(<em>a</em>) Statement of a German Prisoner (Translation) -Captured in Northern France.</p> - -<p>I, the undersigned Stephan Grzegoroski, a recruit -in the 6th Co. (5th Section) 2nd Batt. No. 143 Infantry -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span> -Regiment, XV. German Army Corps, hereby -declare on oath that in the course of the month of -October, I have frequently seen Russian prisoners -of war in Russian uniform employed upon the construction -of the third line trenches of my regiment.</p> - -<p>There were some 150 to 200 Russians altogether -so employed. During the course of their work they -occasionally came under fire. Two were killed and -four wounded. Seven Russians tried to escape—two -succeeded: one was shot dead, and four were retaken.</p> - -<p>The men were guarded by soldiers of my regiment.</p> - -<p>I spoke personally with some of the Russian prisoners, -and they complained that they had much work -to do, but only very little to eat.</p> - -<p class="hang large">(<em>b</em>) Statement of Two Russian Soldiers (Translation) -taken down in November, 1915, at British -Headquarters in France.</p> - -<p>Michael Klokoff, Russian soldier, private in the -Novo Skolsky Regiment; taken prisoner by the Germans -on the Bzura on December 26th, 1914 / January -8th, 1915; and Andrei Slizkin, Russian soldier, private -in the 41st Siberian Regiment, taken prisoner -by the Germans near Prasnysz on January 29th/February -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span> -11th, 1915, <em>declare that</em>: we were interned as -prisoners of war at Strzalkowo until October -7th/20th, 1915. We then came with 2,000 other -Russian prisoners to Belgium. Some of the prisoners -were taken to build railways; others, among them -ourselves, were employed to dig trenches. During -our work we came under shell fire and sustained -casualties.</p> - -<p>We escaped on October 31st, and reached the British -lines on November 2nd. We were promised pay, -but did not receive any.</p> - -<p class="hang large">(<em>c</em>) Statement of Two Russian Soldiers (Translation) -taken down in December 1915, at British -Headquarters in Northern France.</p> - -<p>Anastasius Nietzvetznie, 231 Dragoon (Infantry) -Regiment, and Nicholas Nevaskov, 210 Infantry Regiment, -<em>declare</em>: When we were prisoners with the Germans -we worked at digging trenches. Each day we -were under English artillery fire. We received 30 -pfennigs per day, and we worked against our will. -When we refused to work, we got twenty-five strokes -with an iron rod, and were tied up with our hands -behind our backs in a cold room with windows open -and nothing to eat.</p> - -<p> -<span class="i2">(Signed) <span class="smcap">Anastasius Nietzvetznie</span>,<a href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">98</a></span><br /> -<span class="i8">231 Dragoon Regiment.</span><br /> -<span class="i2">(Signed) <span class="smcap">Nicholas Mikhailovitch Nevaskov</span>,<a id="FNanchor_98" href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">98</a></span><br /> -<span class="i8">210 Infantry Regiment.</span><br /> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span></p> - -<p class="ph1" id="A_REVIEW_OF"><span class="x-large">A REVIEW OF</span><br /> - -GERMAN ATROCITIES<br /> - -<span class="medium">BY</span><br /> - -<span class="large">THE RT. HON. VISCOUNT BRYCE</span><br /> - -<span class="copyright">Published in <cite>The Westminster Gazette</cite>, London,<br /> -March 20, 1916</span> -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span></p> - -<h3>A FRESH EXAMINATION OF GERMAN WAR -METHODS<a id="FNanchor_99" href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">99</a></h3> - -<p>Professor Morgan, whose bright little book, called -“Sketches From the Front,” has given to us some -of the most fresh and vivid pictures of the actualities -of warfare in France, presents in the present volume -the evidence he has been busy in collecting regarding -the behaviour of the German troops in the -western theatre of war. Some of this has already been -made known to the public by what he published in the -<cite>Nineteenth Century and After</cite> in June, 1915, and also -by the depositions which he obtained under the instructions -of the Home Office and submitted to the -British Committee on Alleged German Outrages. -(Many of these were published in the Appendix to -their Report last May.) Since that time he has spent -four or five months in collecting further important -data and still more months in collating the results of -the facts he has collected, having been granted by the -British Headquarters Staff in France those facilities -for moving to and fro along the front and getting -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span> -into touch with eye-witnesses which were essential for -arriving directly at the facts. The evidence thus obtained -is supplemented by several diaries of German -soldiers never before published in England, and by -some extracts from documents issued by the Russian -Government describing cruelties committed by the -Germans in the fighting on the Eastern front. As -respects the data he has himself collected, Professor -Morgan explains, in his introduction, the methods he -has followed in taking evidence and testing its value, -showing himself sensible, as a lawyer ought to be, of -the need for care and caution in such a matter. The -large experience which his months of work at the front -have given him adds weight to his assurance that -what he submits is worthy of all credence as well as -to the conclusions at which he has arrived. But before -adverting to these conclusions a preliminary question -deserves to be considered.</p> - -<p>It has been asked—and it is natural that it should -he asked—“What is the use of multiplying tales of -horror?” “Why do anything that can aggravate the -bitterness of feeling, already lamentably acute, between -the belligerent nations? All war is horrible; -why add fresh items to the list of offences which are -making us think worse of human nature than we -supposed two years ago we ever could think?”</p> - -<p>These questions need an answer. Such a painful -record as the present book contains, such a record as -can be found in the reports already officially published -by the Belgian, French, and British Governments, -might, perhaps, have been better left unpublished -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span> -if it did not serve some definite tangible aim, -looking to some permanent good for mankind.</p> - -<p>Now such a definite, tangible, practical aim does -exist, and seems to justify, and, indeed, to require, the -publication of the facts contained in this book and -also in the reports which have been published by the -Belgian, French, and British Governments. It is an -aim which can be stated quite shortly; and the need -for pursuing it is shown by what has happened during -the last twenty months.</p> - -<p>In most parts of the ancient world, and among the -semi-civilised peoples of Asia till very recent times, -wars were waged against combatants and non-combatants -alike. Even in the European Middle Ages -indiscriminate slaughter of combatants and non-combatants -alike sometimes occurred, especially where, as -in the case of the Albigenses, religious passion intensified -hatred. As late as the sixteenth and seventeenth -centuries there were campaigns in which frightful -license was allowed to soldiery, private property was -pillaged or ruthlessly destroyed, and women were -habitually outraged.</p> - -<p>A reaction of sentiment caused by the horror of the -Thirty Years’ War, coupled with a general softening -of manners, brought about a change. During the last -two centuries, though every war was marked by shocking -incidents, there was a growing feeling that non-combatants -should be protected, and a serious purpose -to restrain the excesses of troops invading a hostile -country. The wars of the eighteenth century were -less cruel and destructive than those of the seventeenth, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span> -and the wars of the nineteenth showed some -improvement on those of the eighteenth. The war of -1870-71, if those of us in Britain who remember it -can trust our recollection, seemed better in both the -above-named respects than had been the Revolutionary -and Napoleonic wars between 1793 and 1814. -Till the outbreak of the present conflict men who -sought for signs of the progress of mankind were -cheered by the hope that war would hereafter be -waged only between regular disciplined forces on -each side; that these forces would abstain from needless -cruelty, that women would be protected from -lust, and that the lives of non-combatants would not -be endangered. There was even a prospect that private -property would not be destroyed except in so far -as a definite military aim made its destruction unavoidable, -as when a hostile force had to be shelled -out of its shelter in a village. The Hague Convention -had passed rules which ameliorated the practices -of war as regards the combatant forces and had -solemnly proclaimed the duty of respecting the lives -and property of non-combatant civilians.</p> - -<p>The present war has, however, brought a rude awakening. -The proofs are now overwhelming that in Belgium -and Northern France—as to other regions the -evidence is not fully before us—non-combatants have -been slaughtered without mercy by the orders of the -German military authorities, while the mitigations of -war usages as regards combatants have been openly -and constantly disregarded. Private property has -been constantly destroyed where no specific military -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span> -reason existed, but only for the sake of terrorising the -civil population, or perhaps out of sheer malice. A -license has been practised by, and in many cases obviously -permitted to, the soldiers which has led to acts -of wanton cruelty. Outrages upon women have been -far more numerous than in any war between civilised -nations during the last hundred years. One crime -deserves special condemnation, because it is done deliberately -and is justified by its perpetrators. This -is the practice of seizing innocent non-combatants, -usually the leading inhabitants of a town or village, -calling them hostages and executing them in cold -blood if the population of the town or village whom -“the hostages” cannot control, fail to obey the commands -of the invaders. Civilians who fire upon invading -troops without observing the requirements -which the Hague Convention prescribes may, no doubt, -be shot according to the customs of war; but there -must be some proof that these particular civilians -have done so. To put to death a quarter or more of -the adult male inhabitants of a village because some -shots have been fired, or are supposed by an excited -soldiery to have been fired, out of its houses, is mere -murder. All the paragraphs in the Manual of War -issued by the German Staff cannot make it anything -else.</p> - -<p>Though we may hope, and indeed must hope, that -the horror caused by this war may lead to measures -which will diminish the risks of war in the future, -he must be indeed a sanguine man who can think -that war, the oldest of the curses that have afflicted -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span> -mankind, is likely to be eradicated within this century. -It is therefore an urgent duty to do all that -can be done for a regulation of the methods of war -and a mitigation of the sufferings that it causes.</p> - -<p>Now the cruelties that have been perpetrated on -land, no less than the ruthless murder of innocent -passengers on unarmed vessels at sea, are an aggravation -of those sufferings. They are a reversion to the -ancient methods of savagery, a challenge to civilised -mankind, to neutral nations as well as to the now -belligerent States. Neutral nations ought to be fully -informed of the facts of these methods, for they are -themselves concerned. The same methods may be -used against them if they are attacked by Germany -or by some other nation which sees that Germany -has used them with impunity. If the public opinion -of the world does not condemn these methods, war will -become an even greater curse than it has been heretofore. -Unless an effort is made as soon as ever the -present conflict ends to regulate the conduct of hostilities -between combatant forces, and, which is of -even greater importance, to provide more effective -safeguards for non-combatants, there may be a terrible -relapse towards barbarism everywhere.</p> - -<p>The Allied belligerent nations who are now fighting -in the cause of humanity are called upon to take -up this matter and deal with it effectively. So are -neutral nations. It is a pity that they did not protest -long ago. But a word may be said regarding the German -people also. Professor Morgan thinks that they -share in all the guilt of their Government, but the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span> -reasons he gives for this belief do not warrant so -melancholy a conclusion. The behaviour of the mobs -that were wont to insult and ill-treat the prisoners of -war led through the streets of German towns, and -the ferocious language of creatures like Von Reventlow -and some other writers in the German Press, -shocking as they are, cannot be taken as evidence of -the sentiments of a whole people. Neither can we -suppose that the declarations of professors, victims -of a doctrine and a practice which compels them to -approve every act of the State are more to be accepted -as expressing what may be felt by the less vocal Germans. -We must remember how severe is the German -censorship, how accustomed the Germans are to -believe what their Government tells them, how habitually -mendacious the military authorities have been in -the accounts they supply of the conduct of the Allied -Powers and their troops. The German mind has had -little but falsehood to feed upon ever since the outbreak -of the war, and it now believes, absurd as the -belief is, that it is the innocent victim of an unprovoked -aggression. When any voice is raised in Germany -to proclaim even a part of the truth and to -plead for humanity and good feeling, that voice is -instantly silenced. Silence will doubtless be enforced -as long as the war lasts. But we may well venture -to hope that when, after the war, the facts hitherto -concealed from the people have become known and -can be reflected on with calmness, there will be a -condemnation of the practices I have described, and -that in Germany and Austria, as well as in all neutral -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span> -countries, there will be a wish to join in the efforts -which both the Allies and the leading neutral Powers -are sure to make to regulate and mitigate the conduct -of war. In order to call forth these efforts by -showing how great is the need for strengthening the -existing rules of war, and providing more effective -means of securing their observance, it is essential that -the facts should be made known and studied, and -that the world should see how the present rules, imperfect -as they are, have been trampled under foot -by the German authorities. This is what makes it -right and necessary to publish the data contained in -the Reports already referred to, and those data also -which have been gathered by Professor Morgan with -such earnest labour.</p> - -<p>So much for the justification—an ample justification—which -exists for publishing the horrible record -which this book contains. I need not here analyse -it or quote from it or comment upon it. The facts -speak for themselves. Professor Morgan’s general -conclusions as to the behaviour of the German troops -in France seem to be borne out by the facts which he -adduces. They are further supported by the facts -set forth in the Belgian, French, and British Reports. -This accumulation of testimony is convincing, and it -becomes even abundantly more convincing when one -remembers that the German Government has scarcely -attempted to deny the contents of those reports. To -the French report, strengthened as it is by numerous -extracts from the diaries of German soldiers (translated -by M. Joseph Bédier), in which they describe, -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span> -sometimes with shame, sometimes with satisfaction, -the conduct of their comrades, no answer seems to -have been made, although a few trivial objections were -raised to the translations. Neither has the German -Government ventured to meet the British report, except -by a vaguely worded general contradiction in a -semi-official newspaper. As regards the Belgian reports, -no more to them than to the others has any -examination and specific contradiction been vouchsafed. -But a White Book has been published which -tries to turn the tables by accusing Belgian civilians -generally of firing on German troops and committing -outrages upon them. Professor Morgan, in one of -the most illuminative parts of his book, subjects -this White Book to a critical analysis, exposes its -hollowness, and shows conclusively that while it does -not prove the German case against the civilian population -and the Government of Belgium, it virtually -admits, in its attempts to justify, the shocking cruelties -perpetrated by the German Army upon that population. -As the lawyers say, <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">habemus confitentem -reum</em>.</p> - -<p>Let me add that he who wishes to understand German -military ideas and military methods, ought to -read along with this book (and the reports already -referred to) another book, the German “Manual of -the Usages of War on Land,” of which Professor -Morgan has published a translation, under the title of -“The German War Book.” Each of these is a complement -to the other. The “War Book” sets forth -the principles: this book and the Reports display the -<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span> -practices. The practice shocks us more, because concrete -cases of cruelty rouse a livelier indignation; but -the principles are a more melancholy proof of the extent -to which minds of able men may be so perverted -by false ideals and national vanity as to lose the common -human sense of right and wrong.</p> - -<div class="footnotes"> - -<h2 id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES:</h2> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">1</a> -The writer’s chief contributions to the Bryce Report will -be found on pages 190, etc., of the Committee’s Appendix [<em>cd.</em> -7895.]</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">2</a> -Published by the German Foreign Office under the title of -“<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Die völkerrechtswidrige Führung des belgischen Volkskriegs.</span>” -The abbreviation “G. W. B.” will be used in the notes to -this chapter.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">3</a> -The Reports have been translated, but not the evidence. I -am indebted to M. Mollard for providing me with copies of the -latter, to which reference is made below.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">4</a> -Speech in the Reichstag, August 4th, 1914. But, so far as -I know, no one in this country has noticed that the absolute -inviolability of Belgium, under all circumstances and without -exception, has been laid down in the leading German text-book -on International Law, which declares that such treaties are -the great “landmarks of progress” in the formation of a -European polity, and that the guarantors must step in, whether -invited or uninvited, to vindicate them. “Nothing,” it is -added, “could make the situation of Europe more insecure than -an egotistical repudiation by the great States of these duties -of international fellowship.”—Holtzendorff <cite lang="de" xml:lang="de">Handbuch des -Völkerrechts</cite> III. (Part 16), pp. 93, 108, 109.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">5</a> -Regulations, Arts. 1 and 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">6</a> -<em>cf.</em> Von Bieberstein at the Hague Conference of 1907, “The -international law which we wish to create should contain only -those clauses the execution of which is possible from a military -point of view.” (<cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Actes et Documents I.</cite>, page 282.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">7</a> -Holtzendorff, IV., 385.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">8</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, IV., 374. This is an important admission in view of -what the Germans allege to have happened in Belgium.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">9</a> -German White Book: Introductory Memorandum.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">10</a> -German White Book: Introductory Memorandum.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">11</a> -Belgian Grey Book (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Correspondance Diplomatique relative à -la Guerre de 1914</span>), No. 8 (dated July 29th, 1914).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">12</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, No. 2 (July 24th, 1914).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">13</a> -British Blue Book (Great Britain and the European Crisis), -Nos. 85 and 122.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">14</a> -G. W. B. (Appendix C), General Report on Dinant.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">15</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, Introductory Memorandum.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">16</a> -G. W. B., Appendix 51.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">17</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, Appendix 53.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">18</a> -G. W. B., Memorandum.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">19</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, Appendix 59.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">20</a> -G. W. B., Appendix 56.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">21</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, Appendix 63.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">22</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, Appendix 56.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">23</a> -G. W. B., Appendix B.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">24</a> -This is the normal figure of such German units according -to the basis of calculation arrived at, after careful inquiry, by -our own Headquarters Staff.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">25</a> -G. W. B., Appendix B 1.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">26</a> -G. W. B., Appendix 29.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">27</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, No. 22.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">28</a> -<em>See</em> the Appendix to the Bryce Report, pages 25-29. Any -one who reads the depositions of the Belgian witnesses there set -out, and compares them with the depositions of the German -soldiers in the White Book cannot fail to be struck by certain -notable differences in quality. The Belgian witnesses never -generalise, they betray no malice, and they mention instances of -German forbearance. The exact converse is true of the German -evidence. Lord Bryce’s Committee came to the conclusion that -they “have no reason to believe that the civilian population of -Dinant gave any provocation.” (Report, page 20.) <em>See also</em> -the Eleventh Belgian Report (<cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Rapports officiels</cite>, page 137).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">29</a> -G. W. B., Appendix C. Summary and also C 5, 7, 10, 31, -35, 40, 44 for references in the text.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">30</a> -G. W. B., Appendix C.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">31</a> -C 44.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">32</a> -C (Summary Report).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">33</a> -C 51.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">34</a> -The story of Aerschot is peculiarly horrible. It was here -that the priest was placed against the wall with his arms -raised above his head; when he let them fall through weariness, -the German soldiers brought the butt-ends of their rifles -down upon his feet. He was kept there for hours, and as -German soldiers passed they used him as a lavatory and a -latrine until he was covered with filth. Eventually they shot -him. This is but one of many such horrors (<em>see</em> the Bryce -Report, Appendix, pages 29, 46. <em>See also</em> the fourth and fifth -Belgian Reports). The German White Book admits (Appendix -A 2) that “every third man was shot.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">35</a> -Appendix A 5.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">36</a> -Appendix A 3.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">37</a> -The 1st Company of the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the -Neuss Mobile Landsturm.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">38</a> -Belgian Collected Reports, Tenth Report, page 127.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">39</a> -Bryce Report (popular edition), pages 29-36. And see -the diary, No. 14 of Appendix to Bryce Report recording the -shooting of German troops by other German troops; to the -same effect another diary quoted on page 41 of Bryce Report.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">40</a> -“No other troops were stationed at Louvain on that day.”—(D -8.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">41</a> -<em>See</em> the Sixth Belgian Report and, in particular, the Proclamations -issued at Hasselt, Namur, Wavre, Grivegnée, and -Brussels.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">42</a> -<em>See</em>, in particular, <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Violations des lois de la Guerre par -l’Allemagne</cite>, issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, -pages 77, 92, 99, 100, 101, 119.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">43</a> -Press Bureau (<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Belgian communiqué</span>), March 18th. The -German authorities substituted the word “convention” for -“conversation,” in order to convict Belgium of a secret treaty -with England.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">44</a> -Foreign Office communiqués of May 20th and July 5th.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">45</a> -The case of the <em>Ophelia</em>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">46</a> -P. P. Cd. 7595.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">47</a> -The case of the <em>Iberia</em> (<cite>Times</cite> Law Report, November 11th, -1915). It is not the only one.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">48</a> -<cite>The International Review</cite>, published in Zurich, and controlled -by a Committee consisting almost entirely of German -Professors. Its title is obviously fraudulent. The June issue -(page 14) contains an article of ingratiating impudence by a -German psychologist discrediting all reports of atrocities, and, -in order to prove their unreliability and justify the policy of -the <cite>Review</cite> in excluding them when they emanate from British, -French, or Belgian sources, it attempts to disprove them all. -On page 32 the writer refutes circumstantially the stories that -German soldiers had had their eyes gouged out.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">49</a> -Note transmitted on July 8th to the American Minister by -Herr von Jagow.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">50</a> -Proclamations issued at Namur and Wavre.—(Sixth Belgian -Report.)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">51</a> -<em>Ibid</em> Proclamation issued at Grivegnée. <em>See also</em> <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Avis, -Proclamations, et Nouvelles de la Guerre allemandes affichés a -Bruxelles</em>, for a copy of which I am indebted to my friend -Colonel E. D. Swinton, D.S.O. (“Eye-witness.”)</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">52</a> -The reader should also study the diaries given in the Bryce -Appendix, in the French official volume <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Violations</cite>, and in -Professor Bedier’s <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Crimes Allemands</cite>: expressions of pity -are as rare as exultations that “We live like God” are frequent.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">53</a> -The full story will never be known, but the Russian Report, -the Second French Report, the Belgian Reports (especially the -Tenth), and the narrative of Major Vandeleur, published by -the Foreign Office as a White Paper, together with the Report -of the American Minister published on November 20th, 1915, -may be referred to.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">54</a> -The instances which follow are taken from official reports. -I may add another illustration here published for the first time. -A German soldier, recording the story of how the <em lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">maire</em> of a -French town was torn from his home and carried off by the -troops, writes: “In spite of his protests we put him into our -company and made him march with us. He called us names -and shouted and protested, <em>and kept us all in good spirits</em>.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_55" href="#FNanchor_55" class="label">55</a> -The <em lang="de" xml:lang="de">Munchner Neueste Nachrichten</em>, October 7th, 1914.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_56" href="#FNanchor_56" class="label">56</a> -Press Bureau (Belgian communiqués), August 5th.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_57" href="#FNanchor_57" class="label">57</a> -French official communiqués, October 12th, August 1st.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_58" href="#FNanchor_58" class="label">58</a> -<em lang="la" xml:lang="la">Velut e conspectu libertas tolleretur</em> (Tacitus, <cite>Agricola</cite>, -Chapter 24).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_59" href="#FNanchor_59" class="label">59</a> -What I have here written is, without exaggeration, the -substance of the Manifesto issued by the German Professors in -August last. For the text, <em>see</em> the <cite>Morning Post</cite>, August 13th -and 14th. And to the same effect is the speech of the Imperial -Chancellor in the Reichstag a few days later (for report, <em>see</em> -<cite>The Times</cite>, August 21st).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_60" href="#FNanchor_60" class="label">60</a> -Long ago—in 1870—Fustel de Coulanges pointed out that -the crime which, to use the words of our law, “is not to be -named among Christians,” flourished in Berlin as it flourished -nowhere else, and the immorality of latter-day Germany was the -subject of a mournful lamentation by Treitschke in his old age. -An acute student of modern Germany, Dr. Arthur Shadwell, -also remarks on the low commercial morality of German merchants -(<em>see</em> the <cite>Nineteenth Century and After</cite> for August, -1915).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_61" href="#FNanchor_61" class="label">61</a> -It is a curious fact, attested by the evidence of a large -number of British and French soldiers who have been in action, -that the German soldier often exhibits the most abject fear -when confronted individually with the bayonet, going down on -his knees, and whining “<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Kamerad,</span>” “Mercy,” and such like -lachrymose appeals.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_62" href="#FNanchor_62" class="label">62</a> -Bryce Appendix, “Depositions taken by Professor Morgan,” -page 195.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_63" href="#FNanchor_63" class="label">63</a> -Belgian Reports (Tenth Report), page 119. To the same -effect the British and French Reports, <em lang="la" xml:lang="la">passim</em>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_64" href="#FNanchor_64" class="label">64</a> -Admiralty Memorandum, August 21st. Commander’s report -on the stranding of <em>E</em>13.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_65" href="#FNanchor_65" class="label">65</a> -<em>See</em> Belgian Reports and Bryce Report.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_66" href="#FNanchor_66" class="label">66</a> -The writer has brought together a number of such passages -in his preface to the <cite>German War Book</cite>. For others <em>see</em> -<cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Usages de la Guerre et la doctrine de l’Etat-Major Allemand</cite>, -by Professor Charles Andler (Paris, 1915). <em>Also</em> Chapter -I. of “<cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Cruautés Allemandes, Requisitoire d’un neutre</cite>,” -by Léon Maccas (Paris, 1915). And more especially the extremely -valuable book published, at the moment of going to -press, by an eminent French scholar, the Marquis de Dampierre, -<cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">L’Allemagne et le Droit des Gens</cite>, a copy of which has just -reached me.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_67" href="#FNanchor_67" class="label">67</a> -Sorel, <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Essais d’histoire et de critique</cite>, p. 271.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_68" href="#FNanchor_68" class="label">68</a> -German Proclamation of August 27th, 1914, at Wavre (Belgian -Reports, No. 6, page 82). In the Proclamation at Namur -of August 25th, 1914, the German commandant, von Bulow, -warns the inhabitants against “the horrible crime” of compromising -by their conduct the existence of the town and its -inhabitants!</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_69" href="#FNanchor_69" class="label">69</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, page 81.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_70" href="#FNanchor_70" class="label">70</a> -<em>See</em> p. 123.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_71" href="#FNanchor_71" class="label">71</a> -Holtzendorff, IV., 378.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_72" href="#FNanchor_72" class="label">72</a> -French Reports, <cite lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Rapports et Proces-verbaux</cite>, p. 40.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_73" href="#FNanchor_73" class="label">73</a> -<em>cf.</em> the reply of the Roman Senate to the offer of a German -chief to poison Arminius, “<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Responsum esse non fraude -neque occultis, sed palam et armatum populum Romanum hostes -suos ulcisci.</span>” Tacit., <em>Ann.</em>, II., p. 88.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_74" href="#FNanchor_74" class="label">74</a> -<em>See</em> the British White Paper of September 21st, 1915; -“Austrian and German papers found in possession of James -F. J. Archibald, Falmouth, August 30th, 1915.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_75" href="#FNanchor_75" class="label">75</a> -Professor Salmond in the <cite>Law Quarterly Review</cite>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_76" href="#FNanchor_76" class="label">76</a> -Mr. Justice Bailhache in the <cite>King</cite> v. <cite>the Superintendent of -Vine Street Police Station</cite>. “The courts are entitled to take -judicial notice of certain notorious facts. Spying has become -the hall-mark of German Kultur.” September 7th, 1915.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_77" href="#FNanchor_77" class="label">77</a> -It is, however, impossible to include within the limits of -this book the whole of the unpublished material at my disposal.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_78" href="#FNanchor_78" class="label">78</a> -The term “soldier” is used throughout this article in the -sense adopted in the Army Annual Act, <em>i.e.</em>, as meaning -N.C.O.s and privates.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_79" href="#FNanchor_79" class="label">79</a> -The outrages committed in the districts now in the occupation -of the British armies have not been reported upon by -the French Commission, and the ground so traversed in this -article is therefore new.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_80" href="#FNanchor_80" class="label">80</a> -Von der Goltz.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_81" href="#FNanchor_81" class="label">81</a> -One might go further and say that the Geneva Convention, -which has hitherto been universally regarded as a law of perfect -obligation and which even the German Staff in the German -War Book affects to treat as sacred, is perverted to an -instrument of treachery. The emblem of the Red Cross was -used to protect waggons in which machine-guns were concealed. -And since this article was written a German hospital ship, the -<em>Ophelia</em>, has been condemned, on irrefutable evidence, by our -Prize Court as having been used for belligerent purposes. Such -things throw a very lurid light on the German conception of -honour.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_82" href="#FNanchor_82" class="label">82</a> -Similar evidence has been supplied to me by a French officer -attached to the Fifth Division of the British Expeditionary -Force. <em>See</em> Chap. III., Part I., No. 56.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_83" href="#FNanchor_83" class="label">83</a> -See Chapter III., Part I., and, in particular, Nos. 39 to 43.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_84" href="#FNanchor_84" class="label">84</a> -The German officers spoke Hindustani. Doubtless they knew, -as I have found they often know, the identity of the British -regiments opposite their positions and were attached there for -the express purpose of dealing with Indians. But in no case, -so far as I know, were their attempts to seduce our Indian -troops successful.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_85" href="#FNanchor_85" class="label">85</a> -This diary is now in the possession of my friend the Marquis -de Dampierre, who is about to publish it and numerous -others, together with fac-similes of the originals.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_86" href="#FNanchor_86" class="label">86</a> -The passage suggests that our wounded were killed, but it -is not conclusive. “<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">Noch lebenden</span>,” <em>i.e.</em>, “still living,” would -appear to mean the wounded found in our trenches and unable -to escape with the others. The fact of some prisoners being -taken does not dispose of the suspiciousness of the passage.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_87" href="#FNanchor_87" class="label">87</a> -Brenneisen is now a prisoner in England. The diary was a -most carefully kept one. Since I first published it, it has been -republished by the French authorities.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_88" href="#FNanchor_88" class="label">88</a> -What follows refers principally to the portion of Northern -France now occupied by the British troops. The case of Belgium -has been sufficiently dealt with by the Committee.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_89" href="#FNanchor_89" class="label">89</a> -<em>See</em> Chap. III., Section 2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_90" href="#FNanchor_90" class="label">90</a> -<em>Ibid.</em>, Section 3.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_91" href="#FNanchor_91" class="label">91</a> -After the outrage they dragged the girl outside and asked -if she knew of any other young girls (“<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">jeunes filles</span>”) in the -neighbourhood, adding that they wanted to do to them what -they had done to her. <em>See</em> Chap. III. (2) No. 4.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_92" href="#FNanchor_92" class="label">92</a> -Presumably La Couture.—J. H. M.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_93" href="#FNanchor_93" class="label">93</a> -I have suppressed the names of the witnesses for fear of -their relatives, if any, in German hands being subjected to vindictive -measures. Also in the case (selected from some twenty -similar cases equally authenticated) of rape I have omitted -certain details which seem to me too disgusting for publication.—J. -H. M.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_94" href="#FNanchor_94" class="label">94</a> -<span class="smcap">Note.</span>—This diary is a laconic example of a hundred such -village tragedies. According to the Eleventh Belgian Report -(page 133), twenty-six priests and monks were shot in Namur -alone. And see the pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier (<em>ibid.</em>, -page 165) on what he calls “this sinister necrology.” In his -own diocese alone (that of Malines) he records thirteen priests -as having been killed. According to a German soldier the guilt -of priests was established by the fact that church-bells often -rang!—(Bryce Appendix, page 163).</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_95" href="#FNanchor_95" class="label">95</a> -This savage credulity found its sequel in the murder of -many unoffending priests not only in Belgium but in France. -I quote one case from the depositions in my possession:</p> - -<p lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">“Marie B——, sœur du curé de Pradelles, a déclaré ‘Les -Allemands rodant dans le village out enlevé la personne de mon -frère M. l’Abbé Héléodore Bogaert, curé de cette paroisse, et -l’ont fusillé au cimetière de Strazeele sans aucun motif le 9 -octobre vers 1 heure et demie du matin.’”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_96" href="#FNanchor_96" class="label">96</a> -These documents have been placed in my hands by the -General Headquarters Staff. In accordance with the procedure -adopted in the Bryce Report, and for military reasons, I have -suppressed the names of the British regiments referred to and -of their officers and men.—J. H. M.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_97" href="#FNanchor_97" class="label">97</a> -This and the two following depositions are selected from a -number of statements, mostly by Russian prisoners in German -hands, who succeeded in escaping to the British lines. The -statements (<em>b</em>) and (<em>c</em>) by these Russian soldiers are confirmed -by the statement (<em>a</em>) which was volunteered by a German soldier, -Stephan Grzegoroski, taken prisoner by the British troops. -It is hardly necessary to point out that the employment of -prisoners of war upon military works and their exposure to -fire constitute a flagrant breach, not only of the Hague Regulations, -but of the unwritten laws and usages of war.—J. H. M.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_98" href="#FNanchor_98" class="label">98</a> -These two men escaped on December 8th, 1915, and reached -the British Lines.—J. H. M.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_99" href="#FNanchor_99" class="label">99</a> -“German Atrocities: An Official Investigation.” By J. -H. Morgan, M.A., late Home Office Commissioner, with the -British Expeditionary Force, Barrister-at-Law of the Inner -Temple, and Professor of Constitutional Law in the University -of London. (T. Fisher Unwin.)</p></div> - -</div> - -<div class="transnote"> - -<h4>Transcriber’s Note:</h4> - -<p>Corrected the first two entries in the TOC to reflect the actual page -numbers.</p> - -<p>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.</p> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's German Atrocities, by John Hartman Morgan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERMAN ATROCITIES *** - -***** This file should be named 52679-h.htm or 52679-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/6/7/52679/ - -Produced by Brian Coe, Wayne Hammond and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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