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diff --git a/old/52679-0.txt b/old/52679-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 3dd2966..0000000 --- a/old/52679-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5757 +0,0 @@ -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 - - - - - - - - - -GERMAN ATROCITIES - - - - - GERMAN ATROCITIES - AN OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION - - BY - - J. H. MORGAN, M.A., - - OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, - PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON; - LATE HOME OFFICE COMMISSIONER WITH THE BRITISH - EXPEDITIONARY FORCE - - _Mentem mortalia tangunt_ - - [Illustration] - - NEW YORK - E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY - 681 FIFTH AVENUE - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1916, - BY - E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY - - - Printed in the U.S.A. - - - - - TO - - M. ARMAND MOLLARD - - MINISTRE PLENIPOTENTIAIRE, - - MEMBER OF “LA COMMISSION INSTITUÉE - EN VUE DE CONSTATER LES ACTES COMMIS - PAR L’ENNEMI EN VIOLATION DU DROIT DES GENS,” - THIS WORK IS DEDICATED - IN RECOGNITION OF HIS COURTESY AND COLLABORATION - IN THE PURSUIT OF A COMMON TASK. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - - DEDICATION v - - PREFATORY NOTE ix - - CHAPTER - - I.--INTRODUCTORY: - (1) The British Enquiry 1 - (2) The German Case--a critical Analysis of - the German White Book 6 - (3) German Credibility--a Review of the Evidence 30 - (4) The Future of International Law and the - Question of Retribution 44 - - II.--THE BRITISH ENQUIRY IN FRANCE: - (1) Methods of Enquiry 60 - (2) Outrages upon Combatants in the Field 64 - (3) Treatment of Civil Population 76 - (4) Outrages upon Women--the German Occupation - of Bailleul 81 - (5) Private Property 84 - (6) Observations on a Tour of the Marne and - the Aisne 85 - (7) Bestiality of German Officers and Men 87 - (8) Conclusion 90 - - III.--DOCUMENTARY (NEW EVIDENCE): - (1) Depositions and Statements (Fifty-six in - number) illustrating breaches of the Laws - of War by German Troops, mainly Outrages - on British Soldiers 93 - - (2) Documents relative to the German Occupation - of Bailleul 122 - - (3) Evidence relating to the Murder of Eleven - Civilians at Doulieu 134 - - (4) Deposition of a Survivor of the Massacre of - Tamines 137 - - (5) Five German Diaries 139 - - (6) Documents forwarded by the Russian Government 146 - - (7) The German White Book: The Introductory - Memorandum 158 - - (8) Depositions relating to the Massacre of - Wounded and Captive Highlanders by a - German Bombing Party on September - 25th, 1915, at Haisnes 169 - - (9) Depositions as to the use of Incendiary Bullets - by the German Troops 174 - - (10) Depositions as to the Employment by German - Troops of Russian Prisoners upon - Military Works on the Western Front 177 - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE - - -Professor Morgan 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. - - - - -GERMAN ATROCITIES - - - - -CHAPTER I - -INTRODUCTORY - - -I - -THE BRITISH ENQUIRY - -The second chapter of this book has already appeared in the pages of -the June issue of the _Nineteenth Century and After_. At the time of -its appearance numerous suggestions were made--notably by the _Morning -Post_ and the _Daily Chronicle_--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 the Committee informs me that considerably over a million -and a half copies of this pamphlet have been circulated. - -At the suggestion of Mr. Fisher Unwin, and by the courtesy of the -editor of the _Nineteenth Century_, 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.[1] - -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 German White Book.[2] 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. - -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. - -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 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 -_Kölnische Zeitung_ 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,[3] 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 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. - -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. - -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 by the information which reaches me from various -sources, the enemy affords our men no chance of forgetting it. - - -II - -THE GERMAN CASE--A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE GERMAN WHITE BOOK - -On 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. - - -German Invocation of The Hague Conventions. - -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 _levée en masse_ 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.[4] - -The substance of the Hague Convention[5] 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; 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;[6] 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.”[7] 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.[8] - -What then is the German justification for the massacre of the Belgian -civilians? Its main contention is that the Belgian Government “had -_sufficient time_ for an _organisation_ of the People’s War as -required by international law”;[9] 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.”[10] -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 _did_ 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.[11] 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.[12] As late as July 31st the German Government -effectually concealed its intentions.[13] 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. - - -Charges against the Belgian Government. - -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 guns and revolvers -but partly also machine guns and Belgian military weapons proves that -the organisation had the support of the Belgian Government.”[14] -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,[15] 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”;[16] -(2) the deposition of a German lieutenant that an officer (not named) -once showed him a document (not produced), which, “according 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.[17] On such flimsy hearsay evidence, tendered by -two Germans, rests the whole of the German case against the Belgian -Government. - - -Belgian “Atrocities.” - -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.”[18] Let us consider the depositions with which this accusation -is supported. - -(1) Hugo Lagershausen, of the 1st Ersatz Company of the Reserve, his -attention having been drawn to the significance of the oath, declares: - - “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.”[19] - -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. - -(2) Musketeer Paul Blankenberg, of Infantry Regiment No. 165, declares: - - “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 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. _While this was being done_ 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.”[20] - -That is to say, a whole column of German troops is on the march in -close formation, they round up the civilians and _while they are doing -this_ 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. - -(3) Landwehrman Alwin Chaton, of the 5th Company of the Reserve -Infantry Regiment No. 78, declared: - - “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.”[21] - -The witness adds that “much smoke was rising 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? - -(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.[22] Without firing a shot, these men, caught -red-handed under circumstances which made their own death inevitable, -surrender immediately. - -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. - - -The Massacres--Andenne. - -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 small town of a population of -about 8,000 people,” there were affrays in which “about 200 inhabitants -lost their lives.”[23] 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.[24] 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”)[25] 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. - - -Jamoigne and Tintigny. - -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 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.[26] 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.[27] Statements like these carry their own refutation with them. - - -The Tragedy of Dinant. - -I turn to the case of Dinant, one of the most appalling massacres -that have ever been perpetrated,[28] 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 again “a fairly -large number of persons were shot, “all the male hostages assembled -against the garden wall were shot.” Such _battues_ occur on page -after page.[29] 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 _francs-tireurs_ is suddenly -abandoned. Tiring apparently of these laboured inventions, the German -staff, in a grim and sombre sentence, suddenly throws off the mask: - - “In judging the attitude which the troops of the 12th Corps - took against such a population, our starting point must be that - the _tactical object_ of the 12th Corps was to cross the Meuse - _with speed_, 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 _was to be - striven for in every way_.... Hostages were shot at various - places and this procedure is amply justified.”[30] - -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. - - -“We gave them coffee.” - -It is characteristic of the whole _apologia_ 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.”[31] Major Bauer 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”[32] from the field kitchen the next morning. -Perhaps Major Bauer bethinks himself of a certain cup of cold water. - - -The Children were “quite happy.” - -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:[33] - - “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. _She took chocolate, was - quite happy, and was clearly unaware of the seriousness of the - situation._” - -And with that amazing statement we may fitly leave this amazing -narrative. - - -Aerschot. - -The case of Dinant may be taken as typical. The evidence as to -Louvain and Aerschot is not less incredible. We are asked to -believe that at Aerschot[34] 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.”[35] 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 _is said_ 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 _told_ me that he himself had _read_ -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.”[36] - - -Louvain. - -Let us now turn to Louvain. “The _insurrection_ 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 _Garde Civique_. -Thus: - - “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. - -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 _Garde -Civique_ (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 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. - - -A “murderous” attack; German casualties--five. - -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[37] 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 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 _Garde Civique_, 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 “_five men of the company were wounded_” (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 -ammunition.” He also allowed himself to be led forth like a lamb to the -slaughter (D 37). - - -Contradictory witnesses. - -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. 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.” - - -The Priests. - -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 _Garde -Civique_ (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: - - “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. _He did not contradict me._”--(D - 42.) - -In witness whereof Captain von Vethacke comes forward and says: - - “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 _he did not contradict me either_, - 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.) - -Truly, a remarkable example of the _argumentum ab silentio_! Perhaps -the unfortunate priest remembered what happened to Faithful when he -contradicted Chief Justice Hategood. - -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 the German troops. The proof adduced -is that the priest “left the church” when the firing began! - - -What is the true explanation? - -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[38] (presided over by -Sir Mackenzie Chalmers) of the Belgian Commission and, independently, -by the Bryce Committee,[39] 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 _supposed_ 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 25th) there was only[40] 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. - -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. - - - - -III - -GERMAN CREDIBILITY--A REVIEW OF THE EVIDENCE - - -The German Diaries. - -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 guilty.”[41] 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 _maire_ of -a town now in our occupation, declared that the civils, “ou peutêtre -les militaires en civil,” 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 _proportion_ 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--“Befehl -ergangen sämtliche männliche Personen zu erschiessen.... Ein -schrecklicher Sonntag” (Order passed to shoot all the male -inhabitants.... A frightful Sunday); “Ein schreckliches Blutbad” (A -frightful blood-bath); “Sämtliche Rechtsnormen sind aufgelöst” (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.[42] - - -German Credibility. - -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;[43] it has repeatedly broken faith with the British -Government and the Vatican;[44] it has abused the Geneva Convention -in order to make use of a hospital ship as an instrument of war.[45] -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.”[46] 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.[47] A -journal under German control[48] 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 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. - -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 _Lusitania_ with its freight of innocent -women and children the German Government wrote: - - “The case of the _Lusitania_ shows _with horrible clearness_ to - what jeopardising of human lives the manner of war conducted by - our adversaries leads.”[49] - -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.”[50] -The man who omits to put 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.[51] 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. - - -The Guilt of the German People. - -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.[52] Again and again -English soldiers have 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.[53] -The helplessness which in others would excite forbearance if not pity -has in the German populace provoked only derision and insult.[54] 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 -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[55] 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.” - - -New Russian Evidence. - -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. - - “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 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.” - -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: - - “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.” - -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: - - “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.” - - -The German Ideal--Europe in Chains. - -The conception of the educated classes of Germany as to the future -of Europe we have on record: it is to 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[56] and the occupied French Departments[57] 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”[58] 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.[59] - - -A Moral Distemper. - -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 _Bacchanalia_ 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.[60] The seduction of a people by its -rulers is impossible; such hypnotic susceptibility to the influences -of “suggestion” would, of itself, be a symptom 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.[61] 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[62] -to the commandant who at the point of the bayonet thrusts a living -screen of priests, old men, and women with babes at the breast[63] -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.[64] All things are lawful which are expedient, -and if your enemy has ties of affection, the better he lends himself to -your belligerent exploitation. _Mentem mortalia tangunt_--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,[65] 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. - -This is the German doctrine, secreted in the pages of many a German -manual,[66] 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. - - -IV - -THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE QUESTION OF RETRIBUTION - - -The Dissolution of Europe. - -Many years ago the most distinguished of the modern school of French -historians wrote a remarkable essay on the subject of “Diplomacy and -Progress.”[67] 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 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. - -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 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. - - -The Casuistry of the Intellectual Savage. - -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 for the acts or omissions, real or alleged, of single -individuals--“the innocent will suffer with the guilty”[68]--and the -“law of nations” is invoked to put a whole population “outside the -pale” of it.[69] 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 interpreted, in defiance of its authors, to support the -plea that whatever barbarity is not expressly prohibited is thereby -condoned. - - -Germany as a Moral Pervert. - -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. - - “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.”[70] - -The sentiment is typical; German diaries are full 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[71] 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. “_C’est la guerre_” is the -common answer of German officers when implored by the victims to -stop the lust and rapine of their men.[72] 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,[73] is specifically recommended in the German -War Book. - -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 _sub -corona_ 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. - - -The Bankruptcy of The Hague Conventions. - -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 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 _jus fetiale_ 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?[74] 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 _levée en -masse_ as a medium of lawful transition from the one to the other; -he who studies the German 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. - - -The Effect on International Law. - -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 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. - -These are the hard facts to which any one who attempts to take stock -of the present situation and 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. - - -The German as Outlaw. - -As for Germany, I can see little hope except in a 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,[75] 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.[76] 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 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. - - * * * * * - - -Conclusion. - -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. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE BRITISH ENQUIRY IN FRANCE - - -In 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 _pièces justificatives_, 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, 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.[77] - -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,[78] 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 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.[79] 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 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 _pièces justificatives_ 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. - - -Methods of Inquiry. - -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: - -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. - -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 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. - -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 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. - -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 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. - -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 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. - - -Outrages upon Combatants in the Field. - -Lord Bryce’s Committee, with that scrupulous fairness which so -honourably distinguishes their Report, have stated that: - -“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.” - -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 -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. - -A German military writer of great authority[80] 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 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, _i.e._ companies -or battalions, acting under the orders of responsible officers. - -There can, moreover, be no doubt that the respect of the German -troops for the Geneva Convention is but intermittent.[81] 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 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 -killed on December 20th after they had surrendered and laid down their -arms.[82] 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.[83] - - -The Proofs of Policy. - -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, 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[84] 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: - - “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 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.” - -There was other evidence to the same effect. Eventually I obtained -proofs confirming my suspicions, and I will now proceed to set them out. - -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”: - - “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.” - - (“The Captain called us to him and said: ‘In the fortress - [_i.e._, 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.”) - -This malignant frenzy against British troops, so carefully instilled, -is borne out by a passage in another 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: - - “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....” - - (“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.”) - -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[85] 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. - -A less conclusive passage, but a none the less suspicious one, is -to be found in a diary now in my possession. It is the diary of an -Unter-offizier, named Ragge, of the 158th Regiment, and contains (under -date October 21st) the following: - - “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.” - -Which may be translated: - - “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.”[86] - -So far I have only dealt with the acts of small German units--_i.e._ -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 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: - - “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: - - “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.” - - (“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. - - “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.”) - -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, _i.e._, 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. - -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 “Keine Gefangene” (“No -prisoners”). He was immediately 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. - -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,[87] 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): - - “Auch kam Brigadebefehl sämtliche Franzosen ob verwundet oder - nicht, die uns in die Hände fielen, sollten erschossen werden. - Es dürfte keine Gefangenen gemacht werden.” - - (“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.”) - -This, I think, may be said to put the reality of the brigade order in -question beyond doubt. - -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 -gravest kind as to such acts having been done by authority. Neither -the temperament of the German soldier nor the character of German -discipline (_furchtbar streng_--“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. - - -Treatment of Civil Population. - -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.[88] 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 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. - -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 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,[89] 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,[90] 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 -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, _Kriegsbrauch in Landskriege_, 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: - - “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.” - -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 _battue_ of the inhabitants, has undoubtedly resulted in -the grossest and most irrelevant cruelties. A single shot fired in or -near a place occupied 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. - -In this matter of holding the civil population responsible with their -lives for anything that may prove “inconvenient” (_gênant_), to quote -a German Proclamation, to the German troops, the German commanders -seem to have no sense of cause and effect. 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. - - -Outrages upon Women--The German Occupation of Bailleul. - -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 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.[91] The -officers and soldiers usually hunted in couples, either entering the -houses under pretence of seeking billets, 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. - -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. - -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 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. - - -Private Property. - -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. - -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 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 “Herr -Hauptmann von Koepenick,” the simple peasants upon whom this fraud -was practised being quite unaware that the signature has a classical -fictitiousness in Germany. - - -Observations on a Tour of the Marne and the Aisne. - -My investigations, in the company of a French 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 “Bien, -nous le rôtirons ce soir.” At nine o’clock of the 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 (_arrosé_) 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. - -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. - - -Bestiality of German Officers and Men. - -Before I leave the subject of the treatment of private property by -the German troops, I should like 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. - -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 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: - - “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.” - -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 -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. - - -Conclusion. - -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. - -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 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. - -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, _pari passu_ 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. - -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 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. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -DOCUMENTARY - - - - -I - - DEPOSITIONS AND STATEMENTS (FIFTY-SIX IN NUMBER) ILLUSTRATING - BREACHES OF THE LAWS OF WAR BY THE GERMAN TROOPS, MAINLY - OUTRAGES ON BRITISH SOLDIERS - - _Note._--These documents are here made public for the first - time. They have not been published either in the Bryce Report - or in the _Nineteenth Century and After_. I have selected the - cases of Bailleul and Doulieu as typical of all the rest. - Many other communes, _e.g._, 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. - - -(1) - -Private 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 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. - - -(2) - -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. - -(2) At La Bassée, between October 12th and 27th, 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. - -(3) At La Coutérie,[92] 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. - - -(3) - -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 different regiments -were still on the doors. There were a lot of refugees outside an -_estaminet_, 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, -“Les Allemands couchent avec ma fille”--that the Germans--she made it -appear about eight--had outraged her daughter. We did not go into the -_estaminet_--it was forbidden. - - -(4) - -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. - - -(5) - -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 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. - - -(6) - -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. - - -(7) - -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 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. - - -(8) - -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. - - -(9) - -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----. - - -(10) - -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. - - -(11) - -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. - - -(12) - -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 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. - - -(13) - -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. - - -(14) - -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. - -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 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. - - -(15) - -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. - - -(16) - -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. 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. - - -(17) - -Private C----, York L. I., 2nd Batt.:-- - -(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 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. - -(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, not a bayonet. We used our field bandages -and made her as comfortable as we could and sent a volunteer back for -stretcher-bearers. - -[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.] - - -(18) - -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. - - -(19) - -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. - - -(20) - -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. _I saw this. I was on the left flank._ - - -(21) - -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. - -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. - - -(22) - -Sergeant G----, 2nd Devons:-- - -(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. - -(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. - - -(23) - -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. - - -(24) - -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. - - -(25) - -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 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. - - -(26) - -Captain F----, 2nd Batt. Coldstreams:-- - -(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. - -(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. - - -(27) - -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. - - -(28) - -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. - - [NOTE.--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.] - - -(29) - -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. - - -(30) - -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 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. - - -(31) - -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. - - -(32) - -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 (_i.e._ -on about 450 men). - - -(33) - -Private C---- (the same):--Passed through a village recently occupied -by drunken Germans. Women raving. Saw two women with bruised faces and -black eyes. Lieut. M---- said they had attempted to resist outrage by -Germans. - - -(34) - -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. - - -(35) - -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. - - -(36) - -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. - - -(37) - -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. - - -(38) - -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. - - -(39, 40 and 41) - -Statements taken down, after cross-examination by a Staff Officer at -General Headquarters, as to incidents in the neighbourhood at Ypres: - -(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. - -Afterwards he was with German wounded, who told him that they had been -ordered to kill all English prisoners. - -(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. - -Says the wounded Germans in our charge told him that they had been told -to kill all English and take no prisoners. - -(3) Statement of Private M----, Cameron Highlanders attached. - -I saw this man, and consider him thoroughly reliable as to the facts of -the case. - -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. - -“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.” - - -(42 and 43) - -Summary of Statements taken by a Captain in the Sherwood Foresters: - -(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.] - -(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.] - - -(44) - -Statement made by a private in the Loyal North Lancs.: - -On or about December 21st, I think near Neuve 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. - - -(45) - -A Brigadier-General of the British Cavalry Corps: - -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. - - -(46) - -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 the convent next day, and -found the scarf stuffed in the man’s throat. - - -(47) - -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. - - -(48) - -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. - -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.” - - -(49) - -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. - - -(50) - -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. - - -(51) - -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 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. - - -(52) - -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. - - -(53) - -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. - - -(54) - -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 scent-bottles -thrown all over the road--mirrors smashed and furniture--lovely -furniture--thrown into the street, and pictures cut. - - -(55) - -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. - - -(56) - -Corps Expéditionnaire anglais, 5ᵉ Division d’Infanterie, 7ᵉ Groupe -de Gendarmerie. Objet: Actes repréhensibles commis par des soldats -allemands. - - - 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. - - Serches, le 14 septembre, 1914. - -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 (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: - -Un soldat d’infanterie anglaise avait été tué sur la lisière d’un -petit-bois bordant la route de Mery à Montreuil-aux-Lions. - -Il avait été atteint par des balles de fusil, au cou et à la poitrine. - -Il était tombé et était resté étendu sur le dos. - -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. - -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. - -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: - -“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. - -“Il me parla, je ne le compris pas. - -“Je lui fis un premier pansement dès qu’il en eût montré sa blessure et -le fis étendre sur mon lit. - -“Quelques instants après plusieurs soldats allemands traversèrent la -route et vinrent également jusqu’à ma demeure. - -“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. - -“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.” - -Enfin, j’ajoute le fait suivant: - -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. - -Ce soldat anglais était un simple éclaireur, tué d’un coup de fusil à -la lisière d’un bois. - -Les Allemands s’étaient acharnés après lui, peut-être même après sa -mort. - -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. - - (Signed) C. N. PIGEANNE. - - -II - -DOCUMENTS RELATIVE TO THE GERMAN OCCUPATION OF BAILLEUL[93] - -RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE - -VILLE DE BAILLEUL, COMMISSARIAT DE POLICE - - -(1) - -_Procès-Verbal No. 2. Meurtre de trois civils non combattants par des -soldats allemands_ - -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: - -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 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. - -Lecture faite. - - -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: “_Regardez, Madame, comme c’est beau: -voir fusilier des civils français, regardez c’est du beau travail, on -devrait tous les tuer comme cela!_” 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 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. - -Lecture faite. - - -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. - -Lecture faite. - - -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. - -Lecture faite. - - -La femme H---- nous remet sur notre demande un laisser-passer délivré -par la Commune de Zonnebèke 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. - -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. - -De retour de sa mission l’agent nous fait le rapport suivant: - -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. - -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. - - -(2) - -_Procès-Verbal No. 1. Meurtre du jeune B----, Albert, par soldats -allemands_ - -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: - -1º. B----, Victor, 48 ans, cultivateur, demeurant à Bailleul, Rue ---- ----- ----, lequel nous dit: - -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 les immeubles et qui avait été allumé par les soldats -allemands. - -Lecture faite. - - - B----, VICTOR. THÉVENIN, Cre. de Police. - -2º. C---- D----, 57 ans, cultivateur, demeurant à Bailleul, Rue de -Lille, entendu, déclare: - -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. - -Lecture faite. - - - D----, CLOVIS. THÉVENIN. - -3º. Joseph D----, 14 ans, ouvrier agricole, demeurant à Bailleul, rue --- ----, entendu, nous fait une 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. - - - D----, JOSEPH. THÉVENIN. - -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. - -Lecture. - - - C---- B----. THÉVENIN. - -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. Je ne puis pas -en dire davantage, mais je confirme en tous points les déclarations qui -précèdent. - -Lecture. - - - JULIETTE B----. THÉVENIN. - -_Procès-Verbal, No. 3.--Meurtre des nommés Itsweire Donat, et Torrez -Edouard, par une patrouille allemande_ - -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:-- - -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. - -Lecture faite. - - -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. - -Lecture faite. - - -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 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. - - -_Procès-Verbal No. 4. Viol de la demoiselle D----, Marie Thérèse, par -deux officiers allemands_ - - -(4) - -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. - -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 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. - -Lecture faite. - - -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. 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. - -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, “_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._” 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.” - -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. - -Lecture faite. - - -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. - -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. - -Lecture faite. - - -III - -EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE MURDER OF ELEVEN CIVILIANS AT DOULIEU - -_Gendarmerie Nationale_ - - Cejourd’hui, 29 Novembre 1914. - -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 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. - -J’ai fait prévenir les maires des différentes localités où résidaient -ces hommes dont les noms suivent: - -1º. Léger Alfred Désiré Louis, né le 1ᵉʳ décembre 1885 à Amiens, fils -de Alfred et de Clarisse Lourdel. - -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. - -3º. Vienne Louis Amand, né le 10 avril 1875 à Tourcoing, fils de Louis -Eugène et de Elisa Marie Vienne. - -4º. Hallewaere Cyrille, né le 4 décembre 1889, à Vlamertinghe -(Belgique), fils de Alphonse et de Gouwy Clémence. - -5º. Dequesnes Jules, né 1ᵉʳ septembre 1884 à Roubaix, fils de Henri -Joseph et de Charlotte Desmettre. - -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. - -7º. Les quatre autres n’ont pu être identifiés. Ils paraissaient âgés -approximativement de 30 à 40 ans. - -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.... - -Madame Masquelier Mathilde, femme Decherf 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. - -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 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. - - -IV - -DEPOSITION OF A SURVIVOR OF THE MASSACRE OF TAMINES - -_Traduction de la déclaration faite en flamand par V---- A---- F----, -mineur à Tamines_ - -_Parquet du Tribunal de 1re Instance d’Ypres_ - -PRO JUSTICIA - -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 nous a fait sous la foi du -serment en langue flamande la déclaration suivante: - -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. - -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 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. - -Après lecture il persiste dans sa déclaration et signe avec nous. - - (Signed) ALPHONSE VERCHAEVE. - (Signed) V---- A---- F----. - Pour traduction conforme, - le Procureur du Roi, - (Signed) A. VERCHAEVE. - - -V - -FIVE GERMAN DIARIES - - (_a_) Extract from the Diary of a German Soldier forwarded - by the Extraordinary Commission of Enquiry instituted by the - Russian Government. - -“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. - -“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.” - - - (_b_) 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. - -_December 19th, 1914._--“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.” - - - (_c_) 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. - -(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 them all--but I bayoneted them and did not shoot them, -this herd of sows, they are worse than the men.” - - - (_d_) 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. - -(_This diary was captured during the recent operations at Loos, and -forwarded to Professor Morgan by the Head-quarters Staff._[94]) - -_August 16th_ (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.” - -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. -Pfarrer soll die Bewohner Angefeuert haben die Deutschen aus dem -Hinterhalt zu töten.” - - - (_e_) Extracts from the Diary of a German Soldier, Richard - Gerhold (Official Translation by French Head-quarters Staff). - - -EXTRAIT DU BULLETIN DE RENSEIGNEMENTS DE LA VIº ARMÉE DU 30 AVRIL, 1915 - - _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_ - -... 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.... - -... 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. - -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; _c’est pour moi une folle joie quand -on peut se venger de cette canaille de curés_;[95] 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.... - -... 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).... - -... 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 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. - -Chemin faisant passent devant nous des cortèges de prisonniers, homines -femmes et enfants poussant des cris.... - -... Le 1º septembre, nous sommes embarqués dans Bruxelles-Paris; sur -cette ligne le même tableau se renouvelle: villages consumés, fossées -énormes, etc.... - -... 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.... - -... 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, 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! - -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 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.... - -... 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. _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...._ - - -VI - - DOCUMENTS SELECTED FROM THE REPORTS OF THE EXTRAORDINARY - COMMISSION OF INQUIRY APPOINTED BY HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF - RUSSIA - - -I. Violation of a Sister of Mercy. - -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. - -“On the fourth day several officers visited her in 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.” - - -II. Violation of a Girl. - -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 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.” - -The girl was subsequently rescued by the Russian troops. - -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. - - -III. Murder of Wounded Soldiers. - -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 death, or despatched by blows -with the butt end of rifles by the Austro-Hungarian troops. - -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. - - -IV. Murder of Wounded Soldiers. - -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. - -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. - -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. - -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. - - -V. Murder of Wounded Soldiers. - -On the retirement of the Russians, after the battle 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. - -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. - -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 in the battle near Stalupenen, on August 4th, 1914, in which -Lappo took part, had the figures “41” on their shoulder straps. - -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. - - -VI. Burning the Russian Wounded. - -_Evidence of the Private Nicholas Semenov Dorozhka_ - -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 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. - -The foregoing was deposed to by the witness Dorozhka on examination by -the Examining Magistrate of the 1st Dnieprovsky District. - - -VII. Ill-Treatment of Prisoners of War. - -In June, 1915, three Russian officers, Captain Kosmachevsky, Lieutenant -Griaznov, and Sub-lieutenant Yarotsky, escaped from German captivity -and reached Russia in safety. - -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. - -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. - -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!” - -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. - -In the first instance the officer prisoners were interned in the -fortress of Neisse in Silesia, and were subsequently removed to -Kreisfeld, beyond the Rhine. - -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. - -All the imprisoned officers were formed into companies, commanded by -rough and rude sergeant-majors, who treated them like common soldiers. - -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. - -The above is attested by the evidence of Captain 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. - - -VIII. - -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. - -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 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. - - -IX. - -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 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.” - - ALEXIS KRIVTSOV, Senator, - President of the Extraordinary - Commission of Inquiry. - - -VII - -THE GERMAN WHITE BOOK - - -The Introductory Memorandum. - -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 serious consequences to the Belgian country and people. - -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. - -According to the attached material the Belgian civil population fought -against the German troops 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 (_Volkskrieg_) was carried -on not only by individual civilians, but by great masses of the -population. - - * * * * * - -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. - - * * * * * - -The two special conditions required for the organised People’s War were -certainly not present in the case of the Belgian _francs-tireurs_. For, -according to the reports of the German military commands, 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 _francs-tireurs_ 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 “Garde Civique” 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. - -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 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. - - * * * * * - -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 -_francs-tireurs_ regularly carried their weapons not openly, and -throughout failed to observe the laws and usages of war. - -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, 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. - -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 (_b_) 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 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. - - * * * * * - -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 _francs-tireurs_. 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 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). - - * * * * * - -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 -“Guarde Civique,” 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 which -rests upon Belgian attachés to the Belgian Government. - -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. - -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, which are simply deprived of all their -weight by the documentary evidence which is before us. - -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, 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. - -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. - -Berlin, _May 10th, 1915_. - - -VIII - -MASSACRE OF BRITISH PRISONERS BY GERMAN SOLDIERS AT HAISNES ON -SEPTEMBER 25TH, 1915 - -I, Captain J. E. A----, 8th Batt. ---- Highlanders, make oath and say -as follows:-- - -(1) I command C Co. of the 8th Batt. ---- Highlanders. 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. - -(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. - -Instructed Lieut. G---- to bring Sergeant M---- to me at once. This was -done. 2nd Lieut. G. T. G---- has since died of wounds. - -(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. - -The Sergeant, D. M----, was very exhausted and covered with mud and -water up to the neck. He was not in an excited condition. - -He carried on with his duties reorganising the company. - -(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. - -This Sergeant is a most reliable man in every way. - - (Signature of Deponent) J. E. A----, - Captain. - - Sworn at Poperinghe in Belgium on active service this first day - of October, 1915. - - Before me, - A. M. H. S----, Captain, - D.A.A.G., 1st Army, - Commissioner for Oaths. - -I, No. 6546, Sergeant D. M----, of D Co., 8th ---- Highlanders, make -oath and say as follows: - -(1) On September 25th, 1915, I was attached to C Co., 8th ---- -Highlanders. I took part in the attack on Haisnes on that day. - -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. - -Lieut. A---- ordered me to collect stragglers from Pekin Trench. - -(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. - -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. - -(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 about forty men -with me. For the sake of the wounded men we decided to surrender. - -(4) We all took off our rifles and equipment and put them on top of the -parapet. - -I stood on top of the parapet and held up my hands. - -A large party of Germans then advanced both in the open and by the -trenches towards us. - -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. - -(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. - -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. - -Their manner was not threatening. - -(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 wounded men sat on -the fire-step and the unwounded remained standing. It was now about -5.30 p.m. - -(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. - -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. - -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. - -(8) I was over an hour in the shell hole, and left it after dark. - -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. - -(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. - - (Signature of deponent) D. M----, Sergeant. - - Sworn at Poperinghe in Belgium on active service this first day - of October, 1915. - - Before me, - G. M. H. S----, Captain, - D.A.A.G., 1st Army, - Commissioner for Oaths. - - -IX - -REPORTS RELATIVE TO THE USE OF INCENDIARY BULLETS BY GERMAN TROOPS[96] - - To: - - The Commanding Officer, - 2nd Batt. The ---- Regiment. - - From: - - 2nd Lieut. L. E. S----, - B Co., 2nd ---- Regiment. - - 18/6/1915. - -USE OF INCENDIARY BULLETS BY THE ENEMY - -SIR,--I have the honour to report as follows: - -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 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. - -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. - - I have the honour to be, - Sir, - Your obedient servant, - (Signed) L. E. S----, - 2nd Lieut. - -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: - -C.S.M. G. M----, C Co., 2nd Batt. ---- Regiment, states: - -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. - - (Signed) G. M----, - C.S.M., - C Co., 2nd ----. - -Sergeant N----, B Co., 2nd ---- Regiment, states: - -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. - -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. - - (Signed) E. H. M. N----, - Sergeant. - -Corporal D----, B Co., 2nd Batt. ---- Regiment, states: - -Shortly after the bombardment on the evening of the 15th instant, I was -just on the left of the crater (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. - - (Signed) J. W. D----, - Corporal. - - -X - - DEPOSITIONS RELATIVE TO THE EMPLOYMENT BY THE GERMAN TROOPS OF - RUSSIAN PRISONERS ON THE WESTERN FRONT[97] - - - (_a_) Statement of a German Prisoner (Translation) Captured in - Northern France. - -I, the undersigned Stephan Grzegoroski, a recruit in the 6th Co. (5th -Section) 2nd Batt. No. 143 Infantry 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. - -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. - -The men were guarded by soldiers of my regiment. - -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. - - - (_b_) Statement of Two Russian Soldiers (Translation) taken - down in November, 1915, at British Headquarters in France. - -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 11th, 1915, _declare that_: 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. - -We escaped on October 31st, and reached the British lines on November -2nd. We were promised pay, but did not receive any. - - - (_c_) Statement of Two Russian Soldiers (Translation) taken - down in December 1915, at British Headquarters in Northern - France. - -Anastasius Nietzvetznie, 231 Dragoon (Infantry) Regiment, and Nicholas -Nevaskov, 210 Infantry Regiment, _declare_: 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. - - (Signed) ANASTASIUS NIETZVETZNIE,[98] - 231 Dragoon Regiment. - - (Signed) NICHOLAS MIKHAILOVITCH NEVASKOV,[98] - 210 Infantry Regiment. - - - - -A REVIEW OF - -GERMAN ATROCITIES - -BY - -THE RT. HON. VISCOUNT BRYCE - -Published in _The Westminster Gazette_, London, March 20, 1916 - - -A FRESH EXAMINATION OF GERMAN WAR METHODS[99] - -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 _Nineteenth Century and After_ 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 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. - -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?” - -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 if it did not serve -some definite tangible aim, looking to some permanent good for mankind. - -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. - -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. - -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, 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. - -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 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. - -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 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. - -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. - -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 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 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. - -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, 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, _habemus confitentem reum_. - -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 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. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] The writer’s chief contributions to the Bryce Report will be found -on pages 190, etc., of the Committee’s Appendix [_cd._ 7895.] - -[2] Published by the German Foreign Office under the title of -“Die völkerrechtswidrige Führung des belgischen Volkskriegs.” The -abbreviation “G. W. B.” will be used in the notes to this chapter. - -[3] 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. - -[4] 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 _Handbuch des Völkerrechts_ -III. (Part 16), pp. 93, 108, 109. - -[5] Regulations, Arts. 1 and 2. - -[6] _cf._ 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.” (_Actes et Documents I._, page 282.) - -[7] Holtzendorff, IV., 385. - -[8] _Ibid._, IV., 374. This is an important admission in view of what -the Germans allege to have happened in Belgium. - -[9] German White Book: Introductory Memorandum. - -[10] German White Book: Introductory Memorandum. - -[11] Belgian Grey Book (Correspondance Diplomatique relative à la -Guerre de 1914), No. 8 (dated July 29th, 1914). - -[12] _Ibid._, No. 2 (July 24th, 1914). - -[13] British Blue Book (Great Britain and the European Crisis), Nos. 85 -and 122. - -[14] G. W. B. (Appendix C), General Report on Dinant. - -[15] _Ibid._, Introductory Memorandum. - -[16] G. W. B., Appendix 51. - -[17] _Ibid._, Appendix 53. - -[18] G. W. B., Memorandum. - -[19] _Ibid._, Appendix 59. - -[20] G. W. B., Appendix 56. - -[21] _Ibid._, Appendix 63. - -[22] _Ibid._, Appendix 56. - -[23] G. W. B., Appendix B. - -[24] 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. - -[25] G. W. B., Appendix B 1. - -[26] G. W. B., Appendix 29. - -[27] _Ibid._, No. 22. - -[28] _See_ 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.) _See -also_ the Eleventh Belgian Report (_Rapports officiels_, page 137). - -[29] G. W. B., Appendix C. Summary and also C 5, 7, 10, 31, 35, 40, 44 -for references in the text. - -[30] G. W. B., Appendix C. - -[31] C 44. - -[32] C (Summary Report). - -[33] C 51. - -[34] 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 (_see_ the Bryce Report, Appendix, -pages 29, 46. _See also_ the fourth and fifth Belgian Reports). The -German White Book admits (Appendix A 2) that “every third man was shot.” - -[35] Appendix A 5. - -[36] Appendix A 3. - -[37] The 1st Company of the 2nd Infantry Battalion of the Neuss Mobile -Landsturm. - -[38] Belgian Collected Reports, Tenth Report, page 127. - -[39] 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. - -[40] “No other troops were stationed at Louvain on that day.”--(D 8.) - -[41] _See_ the Sixth Belgian Report and, in particular, the -Proclamations issued at Hasselt, Namur, Wavre, Grivegnée, and Brussels. - -[42] _See_, in particular, _Les Violations des lois de la Guerre par -l’Allemagne_, issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pages -77, 92, 99, 100, 101, 119. - -[43] Press Bureau (Belgian communiqué), March 18th. The German -authorities substituted the word “convention” for “conversation,” in -order to convict Belgium of a secret treaty with England. - -[44] Foreign Office communiqués of May 20th and July 5th. - -[45] The case of the _Ophelia_. - -[46] P. P. Cd. 7595. - -[47] The case of the _Iberia_ (_Times_ Law Report, November 11th, -1915). It is not the only one. - -[48] _The International Review_, 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 _Review_ 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. - -[49] Note transmitted on July 8th to the American Minister by Herr von -Jagow. - -[50] Proclamations issued at Namur and Wavre.--(Sixth Belgian Report.) - -[51] _Ibid_ Proclamation issued at Grivegnée. _See also Les Avis, -Proclamations, et Nouvelles de la Guerre allemandes affichés a -Bruxelles_, for a copy of which I am indebted to my friend Colonel E. -D. Swinton, D.S.O. (“Eye-witness.”) - -[52] The reader should also study the diaries given in the Bryce -Appendix, in the French official volume _Les Violations_, and in -Professor Bedier’s _Les Crimes Allemands_: expressions of pity are as -rare as exultations that “We live like God” are frequent. - -[53] 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. - -[54] 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 _maire_ 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, _and kept us all in good -spirits_.” - -[55] The _Munchner Neueste Nachrichten_, October 7th, 1914. - -[56] Press Bureau (Belgian communiqués), August 5th. - -[57] French official communiqués, October 12th, August 1st. - -[58] _Velut e conspectu libertas tolleretur_ (Tacitus, _Agricola_, -Chapter 24). - -[59] What I have here written is, without exaggeration, the substance -of the Manifesto issued by the German Professors in August last. For -the text, _see_ the _Morning Post_, 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, _see The Times_, August 21st). - -[60] 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 (_see_ the _Nineteenth Century and After_ -for August, 1915). - -[61] 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 -“Kamerad,” “Mercy,” and such like lachrymose appeals. - -[62] Bryce Appendix, “Depositions taken by Professor Morgan,” page 195. - -[63] Belgian Reports (Tenth Report), page 119. To the same effect the -British and French Reports, _passim_. - -[64] Admiralty Memorandum, August 21st. Commander’s report on the -stranding of _E_13. - -[65] _See_ Belgian Reports and Bryce Report. - -[66] The writer has brought together a number of such passages in his -preface to the _German War Book_. For others _see Les Usages de la -Guerre et la doctrine de l’Etat-Major Allemand_, by Professor Charles -Andler (Paris, 1915). _Also_ Chapter I. of “_Les Cruautés Allemandes, -Requisitoire d’un neutre_,” 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, -_L’Allemagne et le Droit des Gens_, a copy of which has just reached me. - -[67] Sorel, _Essais d’histoire et de critique_, p. 271. - -[68] 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! - -[69] _Ibid._, page 81. - -[70] _See_ p. 123. - -[71] Holtzendorff, IV., 378. - -[72] French Reports, _Rapports et Proces-verbaux_, p. 40. - -[73] _cf._ the reply of the Roman Senate to the offer of a German chief -to poison Arminius, “Responsum esse non fraude neque occultis, sed -palam et armatum populum Romanum hostes suos ulcisci.” Tacit., _Ann._, -II., p. 88. - -[74] _See_ the British White Paper of September 21st, 1915; “Austrian -and German papers found in possession of James F. J. Archibald, -Falmouth, August 30th, 1915.” - -[75] Professor Salmond in the _Law Quarterly Review_. - -[76] Mr. Justice Bailhache in the _King_ v. _the Superintendent of -Vine Street Police Station_. “The courts are entitled to take judicial -notice of certain notorious facts. Spying has become the hall-mark of -German Kultur.” September 7th, 1915. - -[77] It is, however, impossible to include within the limits of this -book the whole of the unpublished material at my disposal. - -[78] The term “soldier” is used throughout this article in the sense -adopted in the Army Annual Act, _i.e._, as meaning N.C.O.s and privates. - -[79] 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. - -[80] Von der Goltz. - -[81] 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 _Ophelia_, 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. - -[82] Similar evidence has been supplied to me by a French officer -attached to the Fifth Division of the British Expeditionary Force. -_See_ Chap. III., Part I., No. 56. - -[83] See Chapter III., Part I., and, in particular, Nos. 39 to 43. - -[84] 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. - -[85] 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. - -[86] The passage suggests that our wounded were killed, but it is not -conclusive. “Noch lebenden,” _i.e._, “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. - -[87] 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. - -[88] 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. - -[89] _See_ Chap. III., Section 2. - -[90] _Ibid._, Section 3. - -[91] After the outrage they dragged the girl outside and asked if she -knew of any other young girls (“jeunes filles”) in the neighbourhood, -adding that they wanted to do to them what they had done to her. _See_ -Chap. III. (2) No. 4. - -[92] Presumably La Couture.--J. H. M. - -[93] 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. - -[94] NOTE.--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 (_ibid._, 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). - -[95] 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: - -“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.’” - -[96] 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. - -[97] 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 (_b_) and -(_c_) by these Russian soldiers are confirmed by the statement (_a_) -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. - -[98] These two men escaped on December 8th, 1915, and reached the -British Lines.--J. H. M. - -[99] “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.) - - -[Transcriber’s Note: - -Corrected the first two entries in the TOC to reflect the actual page -numbers. - -Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.] - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's German Atrocities, by John Hartman Morgan - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GERMAN ATROCITIES *** - -***** This file should be named 52679-0.txt or 52679-0.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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