FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[6]The Germans do not like one to quote these words of Herr Bethmann-Hollweg. A series of pamphlets,Histoire de la guerre de 1914, which has appeared in Brussels during the occupation, reports the last conversation of the Chancellor with the British Ambassador on the 4th of August, 1914 (p. 206), but the "scrap of paper" does not figure therein: the censorship suppressed this too compromising passage.[7]See, for example, Bernhardi'sHow Germany makes War, pp. 190, 191, 192. On the 4th of March, 1882, theNord. Allg. Zeit.declared: "Germany has no political motive for violating Belgian neutrality, but the military advantage which might result forces her thereto." Emile Bauning,La Belgique au point de vue Militaire et International, Brussels, 1906, p. 58.[8]Apparently such unusual honesty cannot long survive in the mind of a German diplomatist. The phrase is in its proper place in the French text, but it is lacking in the Flemish text, which is printed facing it.[9]K.Z., 2nd December, 1st edition, morning, published the same revelations. This article is more complete than that printed in Brussels. We hasten to correct a numerical error which renders the opening of the second paragraph incomprehensible: it states that five years had elapsed between 1905 and 1914. According to theK.Z.one should read 1909 instead of 1905.[10]The same lie figures inLüttich, p. 5.[11]The French text here quoted is that which was posted up. The German text, also posted, states that Belgium had long ago carefully armed the civil population (see p.208).[12]An article on "Flemings and Walloons" inK.Z.for 13th March (noon edition), declares that Belgium knew nothing of chauvinism, nor even, adds the writer, of nationalism.[13]These lies die hard. Herren Koester and Noske, in the introduction of their book,Kreigsfahrten durch Belgiën und Nordfrankreich, literally state: "The German troops entered Belgium on the 6th of August; on the following day the fortress of Liége had been taken by assault."

[6]The Germans do not like one to quote these words of Herr Bethmann-Hollweg. A series of pamphlets,Histoire de la guerre de 1914, which has appeared in Brussels during the occupation, reports the last conversation of the Chancellor with the British Ambassador on the 4th of August, 1914 (p. 206), but the "scrap of paper" does not figure therein: the censorship suppressed this too compromising passage.

[7]See, for example, Bernhardi'sHow Germany makes War, pp. 190, 191, 192. On the 4th of March, 1882, theNord. Allg. Zeit.declared: "Germany has no political motive for violating Belgian neutrality, but the military advantage which might result forces her thereto." Emile Bauning,La Belgique au point de vue Militaire et International, Brussels, 1906, p. 58.

[8]Apparently such unusual honesty cannot long survive in the mind of a German diplomatist. The phrase is in its proper place in the French text, but it is lacking in the Flemish text, which is printed facing it.

[9]K.Z., 2nd December, 1st edition, morning, published the same revelations. This article is more complete than that printed in Brussels. We hasten to correct a numerical error which renders the opening of the second paragraph incomprehensible: it states that five years had elapsed between 1905 and 1914. According to theK.Z.one should read 1909 instead of 1905.

[10]The same lie figures inLüttich, p. 5.

[11]The French text here quoted is that which was posted up. The German text, also posted, states that Belgium had long ago carefully armed the civil population (see p.208).

[12]An article on "Flemings and Walloons" inK.Z.for 13th March (noon edition), declares that Belgium knew nothing of chauvinism, nor even, adds the writer, of nationalism.

[13]These lies die hard. Herren Koester and Noske, in the introduction of their book,Kreigsfahrten durch Belgiën und Nordfrankreich, literally state: "The German troops entered Belgium on the 6th of August; on the following day the fortress of Liége had been taken by assault."

Under the pretext that France was making ready to attack her, Germany hastened to invade Belgium and Luxemburg. But France was not preparing to invade the Rhine provinces of Prussia, and this pretended threat of aggression was merely a trick, intended to frighten Parliament, and to obtain a vote approving the actions of the Ministry and giving itcarte blanche. The manœuvre completely succeeded; the Government received a unanimous vote, in spite of the Chancellor's admission: "We are committing an injustice, and we are violating the law of nations; but when one is driven into a corner as we are, all means are good."

We discovered immediately, alas! what these words meant. Hardly had the German soldiers crossed the frontier, when they began to burn and massacre.

Murders committed by the Germans from the outset.

On the very day of the invasion—the 4th August—a motor-car carrying four German officers arrived at Herve, and then pulled up. One of the officers demanded information of a youth of sixteen, one Dechêne; the latter did not understand, or perhapsrefused to reply (which was his right, and even his duty towards his country); we do not know, but in any case the officer shot him with his revolver.

On the 4th of August, too, the Germans shot peaceful citizens at Visé, when the 2nd battalion of the 12th regiment of the line, under Major Collyns, had the audacity to resist them. Of course they pretended that the civilians took part in the fighting. A few days later they burned the church and the greater part of the town.

One sees plainly from these, and too many other examples, what was the object of our enemies: (a) They wished to terrorize the population, in order to make them more amenable to requisitions and demands of all kinds; (b) they wished to make their own troops believe that in fighting the Belgians—which they at first did with great unwillingness—they were merely defending themselves against treacherous attacks; (c) they wished to multiply opportunities of pillage; (d) finally, perhaps, they reckoned that by displaying to the Belgian Government the horrors to which its first refusal had exposed the country, they would induce it to reconsider its position and could obtain from it a free passage.

Were there any "Francs-tireurs"?

It would be impossible at this moment to state that the Belgians never, at any point of the frontier, fired upon the invaders. Let us remark, moreover, that if they did they would have been, from the purely human point of view, perfectly excusable.[14]What! here is Germany, who, pretending to be in a state of legitimate defence, falls unawares upon an inoffensive third party! And this third party had no right to oppose force to violence! In all logic, was it not Belgium that was in a state of legitimate defence; was it not for Belgium that all means were good? And notice, please, that it was not against an imagined and imaginary menace that we were defending ourselves: the Germans had most undeniably invaded Belgium. Would it have been astonishing if the Belgians, exasperated by this unspeakable aggression, had seized their rifles? In sane justice, one could not regard such action as a grievance; on the contrary. Does this mean that we believe in the story of civilians attacking the German army? Most certainly not; because we know from reliable sources that ineverycase where it has been possible to hold an inquiry, this inquiry has shown that the "francs-tireurs" were merely the pretext; the real motive for all the devastation and massacre was the desire to terrorize the population. It is, therefore, in a fashion entirely theoretical, and with the most express reserves, that we admit, in default of opportunity to investigate, in each case, the affirmations of our enemies, that in some cases, certainly extremely rare, isolated civilians, or small groups of civilians, may have been taken with arms in their hands. But our enemies will please admit also that the attitude of these civilians would have been amply excused by the more than brutal fashion in which the Germans behaved from the very first moments of the war. Let us add that when one erects terror into a system, as the Germans do, one should understand the defensive reflexes of the victims.

What were the rights of our enemies in these exceptional cases? They could, as they themselves proclaim, have shot the individual offenders, and, for once in a way, have burned their houses. But nothing in the world could justify the executionsen masseand the wholesale burnings to which the Germans surrendered themselves.

The Obsession of the "Franc-tireur" in the German Army.

One point at first remained obscure to us in the German "reprisals": how did the German officers induce their men to commit this horrible carnage? Very simply: their minds were worked upon beforehand; they were crammed with legends offrancs-tireursdating from the war of 1870-71, and were made to believe that the Belgian population was revoltingly brutal. So as soon as they set foot on our territory they expected to be attacked by civilians, and, very naturally, prepared to sell their lives dearly.

Nothing is more typical in this respect than the collection of soldiers' letters published for the edification of the German nation inDer Deutsche Krieg in Feldpostbriefen.—I. Lüttich, Namur, Antwerpen.In more than half is there mention of "francs-tireurs"; but scarcely ever does the writer speak of having himself seen them. Read, for example, the first letter (that is No. 2 in the volume, for Letter No. 1 is not a soldier's letter). The writer, an officer, asserts that during the attack on the fortsof Liége, on the night of the 6th of August, the night was so dark that it was impossible to distinguish friends from enemies, and that the Germans were firing on one another. Nevertheless, as they were fired on, and as they saw three men running, they immediately shot them as "francs-tireurs." During this same night their baggage-column having been surprised (he does not say by whom), a village was burned and the inhabitants were shot.

The whole mentality of the German soldier in respect of civilians is reflected in this letter; it is so dark that the Germans fire on one another, but that does not prevent them from recognizing that those attacking them are "francs-tireurs," even though their men are "fallingen masse," which excludes all idea offrancs-tireurs.

Francs-tireurs! From the very first days of the war it is a fixed idea, an obsession, engendered by previous reading and conversation, and carefully nourished by the leaders.

The Obsession of the "Franc-tireur" in the Literature of the War.

Francs-tireurs! This idea invades the whole of their contemporary literature. All the books on the campaign in Belgium and France swarm with tales of this kind. Let us add that the authors do not assert that they themselves have seen the attacks of the "francs-tireurs." But they have been told of them, and they hasten to repeat the story without the slightest means of verification.

Thus, inKriegsfahrten, by Herren Koester and Noske, there is mention of "francs-tireurs" on pages 10, 12, 13, 20, and 22; and they return to the subject in the last chapter (p. 113).

Herr Fedor von Zobeltitz, inKriegsfahrten eines Johanniters, also constantly heard mention of attacks by Belgian civilians: at Tirlemont (p. 39), at Louvain (pp. 39, 53, 54, 91), at Malines (p. 49), at Eppeghem (p. 86), and in Antwerp (p. 154).

The volume entitledDie Eroberung Belgiënsis full of stories of the same sort. Thus, of thirty-eight illustrations, which are neither maps nor portraits, ten are devoted to the attacks of Belgian civilians.

It is interesting to compare the tales of people who have not been present in the battles fought in Belgium, and who speak only from hearsay, with the narrative of Herr Otto von Gottberg,Als Adjutant durch Frankreich und Belgiën. He took part in September in the battles which accompanied the siege of Antwerp. Nowhere did he seefrancs-tireurs. Yet he by no means loves the Belgian civilians, and he certainly would have been tremendously pleased to shoot down a few. Read, for example, what he says of the provocative attitude of the people of Brussels, and above all of the women of Brussels (p. 55), and of passing through the streets of Lebbeke (near Termonde), where his soldiers proposed to fall upon the inhabitants who scowled at them (p. 65). However, he says, he did not burn a single house (p. 67). We may remark that Herr Gottberg's companions showed themselves less amiable, or at least equitable, than he, for the "reprisals" against Lebbeke were particularly atrocious (see9th Report). It is, however, highly improbable that the inhabitants would have deprived themselves of the pleasure of firing on the little patrol led by Herr Gottberg, afterwards to take up arms against troops which were much more numerous. However it may be, the legend of the "francs-tireurs" of Lebbeke waswillingly accepted by Herren Koester and Noske (Kriegsfahrten).

The Obsession of the "Franc-tireur" in Literature and Art.

The obsession of the "franc-tireur" is also found outside the limits of military literature properly so-called. Herr Bredt has just published a book onLe caractère du peuple belge révélé par l'art belge. The illegal attacks of the Belgian population upon the regular German troops, he says, were not in the least surprising to those who were acquainted with the productions of Belgian art.

It would be difficult to surpass, in this respect, an article which appeared in the January number ofKunst und Künstler. It gives the reproduction of an engraving by Callot: a camp in which musketeers are putting to death condemned men bound to stakes. "Execution offrancs-tireurs," says the legend in German. That there should be a question of "francs-tireurs" in the time of Callot, who died in 1635, may in itself seem somewhat strange. But the engraver has taken care to inscribe, under his work, some lines describing the scene which it represents, which may be translated as follows:—

"Those who to give their evil nature sway,Failing in duty, take the tyrant's way,Infringing right, delighting but in ill,Whose acts are full of treason and self-will,Cause in the camp full many a bloody brawl,So die this death, the end of traitors all."

It is enough to read this legend to realize that they are traitors who are being punished; but the German mind of to-day is so steeped in the idea of "francs-tireurs" that the artists no longer understandwhat their predecessors wrote, and, like the soldiers, they seefrancs-tireurseverywhere.

Responsibility of the Leaders.

But it is above all the great massacres of Andenne, Tamines, Dinant, Termonde, Aerschot, Louvain, and Luxemburg, which are for ever inexcusable, and will remain, an eternal disgrace, as a stain upon the German flag. Their appetite whetted by the atrocities committed during the first days of the invasion, the soldiers themselves invented or simulated attacks of "francs-tireurs," in order to have the pleasure of afterwards repressing them, killing, pillaging, and burning entire cities. Let us say, to be just, that not the soldiers but their leaders will bear, before the bar of history, the responsibility of this revival of the monstrosities of barbarism. Is it not obvious that in an army as highly disciplined as the German, an army in which the officers drive their men into battle under the threat of their revolvers, and in which the soldiers obey such injunctions, such deliberately prepared tragedies as that of Louvain are possible only with the complicity of the officers, or rather by their orders? How else can we conceive that soldiers would post themselves in a garden and thence fire their rifles into the streets? (N.R.C., 10th September, 1914, evening edition). And it is not the subaltern officers that we have to call to account for these butcheries, but the generals, such as Baron von Bissing, since become Governor-General of Belgium, who counsels the soldiery to show themselves pitiless, and not to allow themselves to be swayed by any humanitarian consideration, for compassion would be an act of treason (comparep.336). The soldiers are advisedthat it is permissible for them "to make the innocent suffer with the guilty" (p.84); that they may hang, without further ceremony, those who have committed the crime of being found present, for whatever reason, in a house where munitions or arms have been found (p.335); and also those who have attempted to escape while they were being held as hostages (p.151). The previous Governor-General of Belgium announced that soldiers need not be sure whether suspects are accessories or not, but that "if any hostility is displayed towards them they may raze a city to the ground." Such is the fate that General von Bülow promised the city of Brussels. The same general thought it incumbent upon him officially to inform the people of Brussels, Liége, and Namur that it was with his consent that the town of Andenne was burned, and about one hundred persons shot (6th Report, IV).

By these proclamations and others equally sanguinary the military authorities wished to influence both the Germans and the Belgians. The former were absolved beforehand of the horrors they committed, and were assured of impunity for all the "reprisals" they might be pleased to undertake. Moreover, they were kept in perpetual horror of "francs-tireurs." Are they assailed unexpectedly by soldiers of the enemy's army? They fall back without assuring themselves of what has really happened, and return with the main body of the army to expend their rage against the "francs-tireurs." This is what took place at Tamines where more than four hundred citizens were shot down by rifle or machine-gun fire, and also in a dozen villages of Bas-Luxembourg, which were razed to the ground, and in which a thousand inhabitants were shot.

Animosity toward the Clergy.

The military chiefs bear an especial grudge against the clergy. In the manifestoes against "francs-tireurs" the priests are specially mentioned, which amounts to recommending them quite specially to the savagery of the troops. The latter are convinced that the priests incite their flocks from the pulpit, and that they place machine-guns in the belfries. So, in the sack of a village, the worst treatment is always reserved for the priests and the churches.

The pastoral letter of His Excellency Cardinal Mercier gives a list of forty-three priests shot or executed.[15]

There is no ignominy the troops have not inflicted on the priests. A few examples among hundreds will suffice.

They forced members of the Louvain clergy to lie naked in the dung of a pig-sty.

The curé of Pont-Brûlé was beaten, by order of the German soldiery, by his own parishioners.

The January number ofKunst und Künstlergives a drawing representing a curé hanging from a tree.

At Cortemarck it was the priests who were punished because an inhabitant was in communication with the enemy (read, "the Belgians").

On the 30th August, 1914, the Germans arrested the dean and vicar of a village in Brabant, under the pretext that they had made luminous signals from the church tower. Now the priests had been prisoners since 2.0 o'clock of the afternoon; how then could they have ascended the tower at 5.30 p.m.? Despite their protestations they were taken to Louvain, whence a so-called Council of War sent them to Germany. Arriving in a prisoners' camp, they were accommodated in the latrines, which consisted of a trench and a plank perforated with holes. Each time a German soldier had to satisfy his need, he took the opportunity of insulting the priests in the most filthy manner. A German major sent for them and informed them that they were about to be shot. The vicar asked that he might confess. "No," he was told, "hell is good enough for you." They were led away to die ... but were sent to a seminary, where they remained prisoners until January 1915.

Animosity toward Churches.

Against the churches their rage was unloosed with even greater fury. In the part of Brabant that lies north of Vilvorde there is hardly a belfry left erect: Beyghem, Capelle-au-Bois, Haecht, Humbeek, Pont-Brûlé, Sempst, Eppeghem, Houtem, Weerde, Hofstade, Elewijt, Werchter, Boortmeerbeek, etc., are all burned.

At Termonde all the churches have been either burned or profaned. But in the midst of this city, where twelve hundred houses were burned out of fourteen hundred, the Béguinage remained intact, an oasis of calm isolated amid the calcined ruins. On the grassy plain that surrounds the bright little houses of the béguines stood the chapel. This did not find favour with the Germans, and its blackened walls attest thatKulturhas passed that way. Were the béguines perhaps "francs-tireurs"?

We have already stated that the peculiar irritation of the Germans against the clergy and their sanctuaries was due to the fact that they regarded thecurés as the leaders of the "francs-tireurs." The falsity of this allegation was recognized by Dr. Julius Bachem, the editor of theKölnische Volkszeitung, one of the most prominent Catholic newspapers in Germany. Dr. Bachem published, in the issue for April 1915 of theSüddeutsche Monatshefte, which was principally devoted to Belgium, an article on the religious problem in Belgium. He based his proofs on the authority of Baron von Bissing, Commandant of the 7th Army Corps, at present Governor-General in Belgium, and also on the special inquiry undertaken by the Union of the Catholic Priests of the Rhine,Pax. This inquiry, mostly conducted with the aid of the present military authorities in Belgium, proved that the clergy was absolutely innocent, and that all the accusations brought against it were purely imaginary.[16]

The Emperor did not wait for the confirmation of the crimes attributed to the priests before making violent accusations against them in his telegram to the President of the United States. He has not retracted these.

Intentional Insufficiency of Preliminary Inquiries.

Never was there the least justification for reprisals. Read the Reports of the Commission of Inquiry, and the narratives of ocular witnesses, and you will find that the most horrible things are continually done without any pains being taken to verify the facts. Soldiers greedy for pillage say, without justification,Die Civilisten haben geschossen; and that is enough. The order is given to kill the men and reduce the neighbourhood to ashes. Or shots have really been fired on the Germans; the civilians are suddenly accused, and without listening to the unhappy prisoners, who offer to prove that the shots were fired by Belgian or Allied soldiers, the Germans proceed to execution.

A very typical case is that of Charleroi. We knew that French troops were still occupying the town when the Germans entered. But these last immediately accused the civilians, since, they said, shots were fired from the interior of the houses, as though their adversaries had not the right, quite as much as they, to take cover in the buildings. Moreover, when they later were confronted with the proof that the French were there, they merely remarked that the latter's mission was to organize and to discipline the civic guards and "francs-tireurs"[17](seeHeymel's article, p. 196). Could one imagine a finer example of preconceived opinion?

M. Waxwieler insists emphatically on the unspeakable frivolity with which the Germans carry out "reprisals." He cites notably the case of Linsmeau (p. 256) and that of Francorchamps (p. 270). As this is an essential point, I may perhaps be permitted to relate a few more cases.

On entering Wépion on the 23rd August the Germans pretended that the citizens had fired on them, and they shot, then and there, six of them, among whom were the two younger Bouchats. Now those who had fired were Belgian soldiers armed with machine-guns, who were covering the retreat of the Belgian troops. A moment's reflection would have enabled the Germans to realize their error, since civilians obviously had no machine-guns at their disposal. While they were being led to their death, one of the Bouchats begged a glass of water of their mother. But the Germans refused to allow it to be given him: "It's not worth the trouble now," they said.

In August 1914 a French patrol and a German patrol came into collision at Sibret (Belgian Luxembourg) and exchanged shots; they then retired, leaving a wounded German on the ground. Two inhabitants of Sibret carried the wounded man toward an ambulance; the clerk to theJustice de Paixof Bouillon, M. Rozier, accompanied them. He was carrying the rifle slung over his shoulder and the soldier's knapsack in his hand. A German patrol came up and questioned M. Rozier, telling him, no doubt, to raise his hands or throw down his rifle. As neither M. Rozier nor any of his companions understood German, and were unable to comply with the order, the Germans fired on M. Rozier, killing him.

Every time it has been possible to obtain any kind of inquiry from the Germans it has resulted in their confusion; at Huy the bullets found in the bodies of Germans were German bullets; the General was forced to stop the burning of the village; he even admitted that a mistake had been made.

An example of another kind, also taken from theN.R.C., is equally characteristic. During the night a German soldier fired a rifle-shot, no one knew why, in a village of Western Flanders. Great alarm immediately. "The village is going to be burned!" But before they had time to get to work an importantpiece of evidence, the empty cartridge-case, proved that it was really a German soldier who fired. However, if by chance this blessed cartridge-case had not come to hand the village would have burned. Too often, alas! the German army does not trouble to postpone the reprisals awhile ... and the houses are in ashes before the falsity of the accusations has been proved. It is to be remarked, indeed, that it is never the Germans who prove the truth of their allegations, but the Belgians who have to prove the Germans in error. It is justice reversed.

It is easy to understand that anon-lieudoes not please the German authorities. In fact, their object is not to render justice but to terrorize the population; and if it were necessary to examine thebona-fidesof their accusations they would not be able to exercise "reprisals," which would not suit them at all!

If the accusations had really been justified by the attacks of "francs-tireurs" the Germans would have taken care to establish their existence irrefutably. For we must not forget that according to Article 3 of the Hague Convention they ought to indemnify us for all the burnings and massacres commanded by them.

A "Show" Inquiry.

They know, however, how contrary these summary executions are to the spirit of justice, and they sometimes attempt to lay a false trail. Read, for example, the chapter devoted by Dr. Sven Hedin to the "francs-tireurs." The great Swedish geographer, of whose wonderful Asiatic journeys every one has heard, made a tour along the Western front. He therefore visited the occupied portion of Franceand Belgium, and wrote an enthusiastic book on the German Army,Ein Volk in Waffen. In the course of this work, he describes the manner in which an inquiry is held into the circumstances of an attack by "francs-tireurs." Everything is done as regularly as possible, and the affair ends in an acquittal. Was the tribunal authentic, or was it merely a parody?[18]It matters little; the essential thing for us is that it was desired to prove to Dr. Hedin that the Germans are not barbarians, and that they observe the forms of justice even while on campaign.

Mentality of an Officer charged with the Repression of "Francs-tireurs."

Let us now compare with the account of Dr. Hedin that of a German officer entrusted with the repression of "francs-tireurs." Captain Paul Oskar Höcker gives a few curious details in his interesting book,An der Spitze meiner Kompagnie. He had to clear of "francs-tireurs" a portion of the territory comprised between the German frontier and the Meuse. His mission consisted in this: to present himself at houses, to ask if there were arms, and in case of a reply in the negative, to search the house; if arms were discovered the householder was shot on the spot; in case of resistance the house was burned (p. 83). The first farm he visits is Jungbush, near Moresnet; the inhabitants assure him they have no arms. They are told that if they are hiding one rifle they will be punished with death; they repeat that they have none. And now the soldiers bring up a boy of fifteen who was hiding under the straw with a Belgian rifle and five cartridges. He is shot without further inquiry (p. 26). It is permissible to ask whether it would not have been juster and more humane to have looked into the matter a little more closely. The remainder of the book instructs us as to the psychology of Captain Höcker. At the house of the vicar of Thimister, where he passed the first night in Belgium, his bedroom door did not lock, and this was enough to make him shake with fear (p. 29). On the following morning he had a pigeon shot, which he suspected of being a carrier of despatches to "francs-tireurs"; "and in truth," he says, "the pigeon bore a stamp on the left wing" (p. 30). This proof is perhaps somewhat slender in a country where all pigeons which take part in matches have a mark of this kind. He confiscates all the small-arms and parts of arms in the establishments of the innumerable armourers of the district, and smashes everything in their workshops. On one such occasion he burns a house whose owner does not consent with good grace to the destruction of his plant (p. 30). On the same day he finds that all the houses from which shots were fired have been burned; in his satisfaction he does not even ask himself whether those who fired were soldiers or civilians (p. 31). Neither has he a word of reprobation for the fury which the Germans display against Belgium: Belgium, forced to take the side of the Allies when her territory was violated by Germany. He reaches Visé at the moment of its burning; he accepts immediately the legend according to which the bridge has been destroyed by "francs-tireurs"(p. 34). According to him, the Belgians of good society do not become soldiers; he is convinced that substitution is still in force with us, and that for 1,600 francs (£64) one can escape from one's military obligations (p. 39). To him, therefore, all civilians appear cowards, and he is not surprised to see them become "sneakingfrancs-tireurs." When he passes through the streets of Louvain he listens to the story that Germans have that very day been fired upon (p. 47). Further on he admits without hesitation that the German soldiers taken prisoners before Liége must have expected to be shot by the Belgians (p. 71).

We do not question the sincerity of Captain Höcker. But why was so credulous and so suggestible a person selected to search out and punish "francs-tireurs"? Assuredly because it was desired that "reprisals" should be carried out without previous discussion, and by some one whose conscience should, nevertheless, be at rest.

Drunkenness in the German Army.

We have just seen that massacres very frequently took place without any pretext having been brought forward to excuse them. In nearly all cases alcoholism was the cause of these, for the German soldiers, and above all the officers, are scandalously addicted to drink.

The first thing requisitioned by the officers is always wine, by hundreds of bottles at a time.

Turn over a collection of German illustrated papers: every time a meeting of officers is photographed there are bottles and glasses on the table. At the ambulance installed in the Palais de Justice of Brussels the military surgeons have not beenashamed to steal the wine of the wounded men, wine offered by the citizens of Brussels. The general and his staff who installed themselves on the 21st August, 1914, in the Palais Royal of Laeken levied such vast contributions on the cellars of the Palais that on the following morning an officer was found, in the costume of Adam, dead-drunk in front of a bath which he had not had the strength to enter. When they left the Palais they took with them many hampers of wine, and a few days later they had a search made for further hampers of the vintages which were their preference. The cellars were soon empty.

They were drunken soldiers who provoked the burning of Huy, the assassinations at Canne (N.R.C., 23rd August, 1914, morning edition), and in part at least the massacres of Louvain. When they occupied Gand the police had to collect them, dead-drunk, on the very first morning; they had already begun to fire revolver-shots.

It was after a tavern brawl between drunken soldiers that the burning of a portion of Tongres was decreed (N.R.C., 22nd August, 1914, morning edition). In Brussels, on the 28th September, 1914, some drunken soldiers in a German cabaret situated in the Rue de la Grande Ile, were firing rifle-shots to amuse themselves; bullets lodged in the house-fronts opposite. The officer whom some one went to fetch that he might witness this misbehaviour believed that an attack was being delivered by "francs-tireurs," and, trembling like a leaf, refused to go thither. TheN.R.C., 28th January, 1915 (morning edition) states that a young girl of Eelen was arrested as a "franc-tireur" because rifle-shots had been fired by drunken soldiers.

Let us add that drunkenness might have had harmless consequences if the authorities had not exerted themselves to make the troops believe that every unexpected shot is necessarily fired by a "franc-tireur," and that so black a crime can only be paid for by a general massacre accompanied by the burning of the village concerned.

There is only one fashion of explaining the horrors committed by the Germans: it is to admit that they are modelled beforehand according to a carefully devised system of intimidation: the systematic inhumanity of their treatment of the enemy population being intended to facilitate other military operations.

Cruelties necessary according to German Theories.

Compare, for example, the laws of war according to the German Great General Staff[19]with the stipulations of the Hague Convention. As the last is based on humanitarian considerations and seeks to lighten the scourge of war for non-combatants, so the Germans systematically refuse to make war less cruel; on the contrary, they start with the principle that the more terrible the war the more swiftly and surely will its object be attained. Read the chapter, "The Object of War," and you will be edified. Even jurists like Baer, blinded by warlike passions, dare to maintain that all must yield to military necessities, including—what blasphemy!—the law of nations. The characteristic theory that war should be "absolute" and barbarous is the idea underlying the manifesto of von Bissing which has already been cited (p. 70). In fewer words Hindenburg says the same thing[20](p. 206). So that Belgium might realize the fate that awaited her the German authorities made haste to advertise their opinion. It is true that they have since then posted up reassuring phrases as to the humanitarian sentiments of the German Army for the moment. Had our butchers renounced their attempts at terrorization?

Terrorization: "Reprisals" as a "Preventive."

According to this hypothesis, that the great "reprisals" undertaken at the outset of the war would serve as examples, the Germans wished to instil terror into the very marrow of our bones, so that they might then be able to rule us with a small garrison of Landsturm. Reflect, for example, that Brussels, an agglomeration of 700,000 souls, has never had a garrison of more than 5,000 men, and has often had only 1,000.

Such a calculation is so abominable, so fundamentally inhuman, that we shrank from the harshness of this supposition, and accepted it with all manner of reservations.[21]Well, our hesitation was futile. In an article whose frankness is calculated to make one's hair stand on end, Captain Walter Blöm, adjutant to the Governor-General, published in the officially-inspiredKölnische Zeitungof the 10th February, 1915, the confirmation of that which we hardly dared to imagine. Here are his exact words:—

"The principle according to which the whole community must be punished for the fault of a single individual is justified by thetheory of terrorization. The innocent must suffer with the guilty; if the latter are unknown the innocent must even be punished in their place; and note that the punishment is applied notbecausea misdeed has been committed, butin order thatno more shall be committed. To burn a neighbourhood, shoot hostages, decimate a population which has taken up arms against the army—all this is far less a reprisal than the sounding of anote of warningfor the territory not yet occupied. Do not doubt it: it was as a note of warning that Battice, Herve, Louvain, and Dinant were burned. The burnings and bloodshed of the opening of the war showed the great cities of Belgium how perilous it was for them to attack the small garrisons which we were able to leave there. No one will believe that Brussels, where we are to-day as though in our own home, would have allowed us to do as we liked if the inhabitants had not trembled before our vengeance, and if they did not continue to tremble. War is not a social diversion."

Any commentary would weaken the force of these declarations.

Incendiary Material.

We are not in the confidence of the German Staff, and we can only form hypotheses as to its mentality.But here are two facts, easy to verify and interpret, which show that the atrocities were committed with premeditation.

Firstly, the existence of various incendiary materials. When a town is condemned to be burned the execution of the command is confided to a special company of the engineers. (Thecarnetof an officer of an "incendiary company" was picked up in a commune of Hainaut.) Generally a first squad breaks the windows and shutters; a second pours naphtha into the houses by means of special pumps, "incendiary pumps"; then comes the third squad, which throws the "incendiary bombs." These last are of many different kinds. Those most commonly employed in Brabant and Hainaut include discs of gelatinous nitro-cellulose, which jump in all directions. Thanks to the inflammable vapours which fill the houses, the latter catch fire on all their floors simultaneously. It took only half an hour to set fire to the Boulevard Audent at Charleroi.

No one can suppose that so perfect an organization was improvised during the campaign. Moreover, where and how could the discs of fulminating cotton have been procured?

At Termonde the Germans probably employed cylinders of naphtha. At all events one can still see, in houses which did not catch fire, holes made in the ceilings and floors, into which holes long strips of linen are introduced to serve as wicks. The Germans sprinkled them with naphtha, and it was enough to put a match to such a wick in order to set fire to the joists of the floor overhead. At Termonde 1,200 houses were burned in a single day.

The Two Great Periods of Massacre.

We discover, then, that the great destructive operations were conducted according to a general plan. Let us place in chronological order the most important of the massacres and the conflagrations, that is, those which could not have been carried out except by order of the officers, omitting, therefore, the killings in detail and the burning of farms and isolated houses, attributable, no doubt, to soldiers acting on their own initiative, or to small bands greedy for pillage. What do we see? That apart from the atrocities which marked the outset of the campaign, the majority of the great killings and burnings, in France as well as in Belgium, were ordered during two periods: one from the 19th to the 27th August, and one from the 2nd to the 12th September, 1914. Now it is quite certain that in a country already occupied, and deprived of means of communication, the "francs-tireurs" could not possibly have agreed among themselves as to the moment of their attacks. The only people who could transmit an order were the Germans; and the legitimate conclusion which one forms from this lamentable list is that the pretended attacks offrancs-tireurswere elaborated in Berlin, whence they were ordered by telegraph to break out on a given date.

Another interesting fact revealed by a chronological list is that the so-called attacks of "francs-tireurs" very often do not coincide with the entrance of the Germans into a given locality, but break out a few days later. One might at a pinch understand that poachers, or impulsive individuals, might fire a rifle at a patrol; but it is wholly improbable that theywould make their attempt at a moment when they were already impressed by the formidable warlike equipment of our enemies. This is so contrary to common sense that the Germans try to get out of it by lying. Let us cite a case. They assert that on Tuesday the 25th August, 1914, there was in Louvain only a weak garrison of Landsturm, and that the civil population profited by this circumstance to attempt an attack, which could only be repressed by incendiarism and massacre. Now the people of Louvain had been warned that very morning that 10,000 men were to arrive during the day, and that many houses which had not yet billeted soldiers would do so the following night. And, indeed, that afternoon several fresh regiments were seen to enter, notably the 53rd, 72nd, and 7th Hussars.

When, by exception, the Germans assert that the "francs-tireurs" have attacked a column on the march, one almost always remarks the three following points: (1) the attack takes place while a village is being traversed; (2) it happens when a great part of the column has already passed, so that the "francs-tireurs" are caught between two fires; (3) the "francs-tireurs" are concealed in the houses. A moment's reflection suffices to show that these are precisely the most unfavourable circumstances which civilians could choose for their attack.

Protective Inscriptions.

All this shows that we have not to deal with acts of indiscipline, which are, God knows, the inevitable accompaniment of any war, yet which are almost excusable. We have here a maturely considered system, prepared at the Great General Headquarters, and then frigidly applied. In other words, the"reprisals againstfrancs-tireurs" form part of the plan of campaign of the German army. If additional proof were needed that they are disciplined cruelties, as the Minister of State, M. Emile Vandervelde, remarks, it would be found in the inscriptions and placards placed upon property which is to be respected.

Besides the inscription which says simply that the house must not be burned save with the authorization of theKommandantur(at Louvain, after the great fires of the 25th and 27th August, nearly all the houses which were spared received one of these placards), there are others giving the reasons for the protection accorded to the building. Here are some of these reasons: the inhabitants are respectable (gute) people; they have German sympathies; they have already given the troops all they possessed; they are protected by the Legation; an officer knows them personally. The fact that with very few exceptions these houses escaped disaster well demonstrates the strength of German discipline. It is by no means astonishing, therefore, that in the localities which are still intact the inhabitants should have taken precautions; thus, there have been houses in Brussels which were provided with a protective inscription. Other buildings have been marked on a plan (N.R.C., 14th September, 1914, evening edition). This reminds one of the tenth plague of Egypt and the sign which the Jews had to place upon the lintel of their dwelling, that the Lord might recognize it. When the Lord passed, He spared the marked houses (Exodus xii. 7, 22). In the German plague which has settled upon our poor country, the Destroying Angel has the aspect of an officer with a single eye-glass.

Accusations against the Belgian Government.

What makes the German accusations against the "francs-tireurs" particularly serious is, firstly, the terrifying, infernal nature of the punishments which follow these accusations; and secondly, the fact that they involve our constituted authorities.[22]"The Belgian Government has openly[23]encouraged the civil population to take part in this war," says one whose word has weight in Germany, for he is none other than the Emperor in person. And he did not content himself with telegraphing this to America; he spread this impudent assertion over the walls of our cities (p.208). Had he at least the excuse of believing what he said? Most certainly not; for years he had been informed by his spies of the details of our military organization; he knew, then, perfectly, what Belgium was or was not doing.

At the time the first accusations of this kind were made the Belgian authorities had informed Germany that, conformably with the laws of war, they were fighting only with their regular troops (2ndGrey Book, Nos. 68, 69, 71). And they posted everywhere proclamations recommending the people to keep calm, forbidding civilians to take part in the fighting, and counselling the citizens to deliver their arms to the communal administrations (2ndGrey Book, No. 71). At the same time the principal daily papers repeated, day by day, on the first page and in large type, the text of these placards.

These appeals were heard, and our compatriots, if they owned rifles, immediately took their arms to themaisons communales. Would you believe it, this measure of precaution was exploited against us! For later, when the Germans occupied ourhôtels de ville, and discovered the presence of rifles, each ticketed with its owner's name, they pretended to have brought to light a proof of premeditation (N.R.C., 4th September, 1914, evening edition): "Look!—say the officers—with what care the Belgian authorities have prepared for the guerilla war! Each citizen has his rifle ready to hand at thehôtel de ville!" The soldiers must indeed have been ridden by the "fixed idea" of the "franc-tireur," or they must have realized the poltroonery of such suggestions!

But the Germans made assertions much more extravagant than this. In Belgium repairs to buildings are effected with the assistance of scaffoldings suspended against the outer walls; and at the time of building the house openings are left immediately under the cornice, in which the cross-beams supporting the scaffolding are fixed when required. These openings are closed outwardly by some sort of decorative motive. Now, a German captain gives a detailed description of these arrangements, and arrives at the conclusion that these areloopholes forfrancs-tireurs!

What a mentality for an officer! So fantastic an explanation evidently will not bear a moment's reflection;but that matters nothing; it is none the less reprinted by the workDie Wahrheit über den Krieg, to be served to the Germans remaining in the country. The authors of the statement know that their compatriots have lost the critical sense and that they are ready to accept, their eyes closed, and their minds also, anything that is told them.

This example shows that while inciting the soldiers in order to bring them to the required pitch of irritation, the rulers of Germany are equally concerned to create a violent current of hatred in their own country. It was necessary, in fact, since there was nothing with which the Belgian nation could be reproached, and since nevertheless they were making war upon it, to invent a few serious motives of animosity.

In a preceding chapter we examined the wretched diplomatic accusations which the Germans have forged in an attempt to compromise our political circles. We shall presently deal with the abominable accusations of cruelty brought against the Belgians. Here we will content ourselves with citing yet one more fact relating to the "francs-tireurs."

When the civil population of a locality was accused—or convicted, as the butchers said—of having borne arms against the German troops, the procedure was generally as follows: The houses were fired, and the inhabitants driven towards a public square, or into the church. They were divided into two groups: one of men, the others of women, children, and old folk. Then a certain number of men were shot; often, too, a few of the women, children, and old people. After the execution, which took place in the presence of the whole village, the women, children, and old people were set free to wander amid thesmoking ruins. The officers used to make it their duty to be present at these operations, as much to encourage and, at need, to assist the executioners, as to enjoy the spectacle. At Tamines they sat at table in the open, drinking champagne, while the victims were being buried. The Germans themselves realized what disgust such behaviour excited; they tried to deny the facts, but these were proved.

Treatment of Civil Prisoners.

What was done with the men not killed? They were sent into Germany in order to show the "francs-tireurs" to the people. One can easily imagine what the journey was like: in cattle-trucks, where they remained packed together for several days, without even having room to sit down; tortured by hunger and thirst to the point of losing their reason—which meant being shot there and then. The stoppages in the railway stations, when the population came to insult them, making gestures of cutting their throats ... one can picture it all. Then the life in camp, where they are even less well treated than the soldiers, for at least these latter are regarded as prisoners of war, and, in that quality, as being protected, up to a certain point, by the Hague Convention; while the "francs-tireurs" are criminals in common law, who are given, for food, scarcely anything but soup made of beet, fish-heads, and slaughter-house offal.

It is extremely difficult to obtain information as to their sojourn in Germany from those who have returned. Before leaving, it seems, they were forced to make a promise to reveal nothing, under penalty of being sent back to Germany. We know, however, that certain of these prisoners, coming from an agriculturaldistrict, were forced to go down the coal-pits of Essen (N.R.C., 10th October, 1914, evening edition), while others were made to gather in the harvest in Westphalia. When they refused to go to work they were beaten with sticks; a young man on the outskirts of Brussels still bears the marks of such treatment.

This is a revival of the deeds of antiquity. The ancients also reduced the able-bodied inhabitants to slavery, employing them in agriculture or the mines. It only remains for the Germans to sell us at auction, as Julius Cæsar did in the case of the 53,000 Belgians captured at Atuatuca (De Bello Gallico, ii. 33).

They sent not only "francs-tireurs" into Germany. They made prisoners also in localities where nothing had happened. Thus they took all the inhabitants of the non-active civic guard of Tervueren. The list bore 135 names; as many of the men had left the commune, the Germans completed the number by taking the first civilians who came to hand; for they had to have 135 prisoners from Tervueren to exhibit in Germany.

On several occasions it happened, during the period of the great massacres, from the 20th to the 27th August, that bands of prisoners taken into Germany were not accepted and were sent back to Belgium. Such was the case with numerous prisoners from Louvain, who were taken back to Brussels, then taken to near Malines, and there left in the open country; the same was done with several hundreds of men, women, children, and old folk from Rotselaer, Wesemael, and Gelrode. Here, in a few words, is their Odyssey. To begin with, they were expelled from their houses, that these might be burned, on the 25th and 26th August. Then they were drivenby the troops as far as Louvain, and there crammed by force into cattle-trucks, which in two days conveyed them to Germany. There they were witnesses of a violent dispute of which they were the object, and finally, after they had been given a little food in the railway station, they were put back into their trucks. They reached Brussels on the 31st August, where they were restored to liberty; that is, they were told: "Get out of here, and be off with you." And there were these unhappy folk, turned out of the railway station, dejected, bewildered, their glances vacant, almost dead with drowsiness and fatigue, the men supporting the old people, the women carrying the children. The people of Brussels who saw this lamentable procession go by will never as long as they live forget the impression of misery which they received. Assistance was organized immediately, and our poor compatriots were given shelter in the various public establishments of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode. They remained there several weeks before daring to return "home."

How many civil prisoners were there in the various camps of Germany: Celle, Gutersloh, Magdeburg, Münster, Salzwedel, Cassel, Senne, Soltau, etc.? The lists which have been published inLe Bruxelloisare very incomplete. On the other hand, persons who were believed to be prisoners in Germany have in reality been shot. Thus, in the little garden facing the railway station of Louvain a trench was opened on the 14th and 15th January, 1915, in which were found a Belgian soldier of the 6th line regiment and twenty-six civilians of Louvain, who were believed for the most part to be in Germany; among them were two women and the curé of Herent.

Many of the people of Tintigny, Rossignol, andother localities, who had been taken away as civil prisoners, were shot by the roadside. Those of Musson escaped only because the order had come from Germany not to kill any more prisoners: by July 1915 they were not as yet repatriated.

The Return of Civil Prisoners.

In November and December there returned to their "homes" (we mean to their native towns, not to their houses, which were burned) about 450 inhabitants of Dinant, more than 400 of Aerschot, and several hundred people of Louvain, of the 1,200 which had been taken away.

Many of them bore, painted in white oil paint on the back of their waistcoats the words:Kriegsgefangene-Münsterlager. Until March 1915 those living at Dinant had to present themselves regularly before the military authorities.

On the occasion of their return the communal administration of Dinant was compelled publicly to thank the Germans.

City of Dinant.On the occasion of the return of a portion of our civil prisoners, I believe it my duty to invite the whole population to observe the most absolute calm. Any demonstration might be severely repressed.The return of a portion of our fellow-citizens, held in captivity for nearly three months, constitutes an act of benevolence, an act of generous humanity on the part of the military authorities, to whom we offer the thanks of the administration and those of the people of Dinant. By its tranquillity the latter will endeavour to manifest its gratitude.I also beg the returning prisoners immediately to resume their labours. This measure is necessary, as much in the interest of their families as in the interest of society.For the Burgomaster, absent,E. Taziaux,Communal Councillor.Dinant,the 18th November, 1914.

City of Dinant.

On the occasion of the return of a portion of our civil prisoners, I believe it my duty to invite the whole population to observe the most absolute calm. Any demonstration might be severely repressed.

The return of a portion of our fellow-citizens, held in captivity for nearly three months, constitutes an act of benevolence, an act of generous humanity on the part of the military authorities, to whom we offer the thanks of the administration and those of the people of Dinant. By its tranquillity the latter will endeavour to manifest its gratitude.

I also beg the returning prisoners immediately to resume their labours. This measure is necessary, as much in the interest of their families as in the interest of society.

For the Burgomaster, absent,E. Taziaux,Communal Councillor.Dinant,the 18th November, 1914.

At the end of January 1915 about 2,500 inhabitants of Brabant were sent back in a body. They had left the camps on Sunday, the 24th January, and they reached Louvain on Friday the 29th, and Brussels and Vilvorde on Saturday the 30th. During this five days' journey they had not been allowed to leave the trucks into which they were crammed; for all nourishment they received some black bread and water, and on occasion a turnip or a beet. The Louvain prisoners had the greatest trouble in the world to walk as far as the ruins of their houses. Those from beyond Assche were set down at the Gare du Nord in Brussels; they had to be carried as far as the tram for Berchem; their swollen feet refused all service. These unhappy people were still wearing the light clothes which they were wearing in August, when they were dragged from their villages, and since then they had never had a fire. Those from Tervueren were taken from the trucks at Schaerbeek; they were driven home in carts.

German Admission of the Innocence of the Civil Prisoners.

What crime had these unhappy folk committed to be treated in so terrible a fashion? None. The Germans themselves admit it; none (2ndGrey Book, No. 87). The German authorities communicated the following note to the Belgian newspapers—we copy it from theÉcho de la presse internationaleof the 30th January, 1915:—

The Commander-in-Chief of the German Army has authorized the return to Belgium of the Belgian civilian prisoners: (1) against whom no inquiry of any military tribunal is in progress; (2) who have not to undergo any penalty of any kind. Consequently all the women (17) and 2,577 men will be able to re-enter the country.

The Commander-in-Chief of the German Army is the Emperor. It was he, then, who recognized the innocence of the civil prisoners.

No charge, therefore, could be brought against them; these prisoners were recognized as being completely innocent; the authorities admitted that it was without any motive that they were kept five months in Germany, without care, without fire, almost without food, herded together like beasts, in perpetual fear of being shot, knowing nothing of their families—for they were unable for many weeks either to write or receive news. Some of them succumbed under their privations; others were shot; many have become insane; all were so aged and enfeebled by ill-treatment, methodically applied, that their neighbours hesitated to recognize them. Will they ever recover from such an experience?

No doubt the German authorities knew long ago that the deportation of these civilians was a judicial error; or rather that they were sent into Germany to give the people there the occasion to torment and insult the "francs-tireurscaptured alive." And yet they were not repatriated until the moment when the fear of famine forced Germany to organize the seizure of foodstuffs and to ration her population. It was not at all because of a spirit of justice that the civil prisoners from Belgium were sent home (and also part of those from France); it was only a measure of economy; the authorities merely wished to prevent their eating German bread, which had become too precious; they preferred to place them in the care of the American charities.

And when they were at last sent home, how were they treated? Did the Germans at least show the consideration which the slave-dealers used to showfor their black cargo? No; for the slave-dealers had a pecuniary interest in preserving the market value of their flock, while for German militarism the Belgian civilians do not count:Es ist Krieg.

The Pretended Cruelty of Belgian Civilians toward the German Army.

In order to organize the massacres by means of which it expected to terrorize our country, the Great General Staff had to have at its disposal troops on which it could count without reserve, which would not shrink before the bloodiest task, and to which no repressive measures would seem excessive. The Staff had to be certain it would be obeyed without hesitation when it ordered, as at Dinant, the death of seven hundred men, women, and children. To obtain soldiers who would undertake such barbarous operations, and operations so contrary to the military spirit, the obsession of the "franc-tireur" would perhaps be insufficient; for there are soldiers even among such troops who are brave and who do not tremble at bogy-stories; there might be honest men among them to whom theft would be repugnant by whatever name one adorned it, and who would not be tempted by the bait of pillage; all were not so imbued with Kultur as that officer who proposed not to kill the "francs-tireurs" outright, but to wound them mortally, afterwards to leave them to die slowly, in agony, untended (p.342).

But these soldiers, even the more gentle, would regard it as a sacred duty to avenge crimes committed against innocent persons. Let them be led to believe that the Belgians have tortured peaceabletradesmen, or have mutilated wounded soldiers incapable of defending themselves, or that they employ dum-dum bullets, producing frightful wounds from which recovery is almost impossible ... and immediately these soldiers will have only one thought: to make the first Belgian encountered expiate the crime of which his fellow-countrymen have been guilty. Before their thirst for vengeance all distinctions disappear: children, old people, men and women, all equally deserve to be punished. From that moment it will be needless to order reprisals, for the army will be only too ready to show itself pitiless, and to call for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, in order to make all the Belgians indifferently pay for the offences committed upon inoffensive Germans.

Some Accusations.

It is precisely this psychology which the rulers of Germany have exploited. Immediately after the opening of the campaign their newspapers began to publish articles describing the horrors committed by the Belgians; articles which make one's flesh creep. Belgian women pour petrol over the wounded and set fire to it; they throw out of the windows the wounded confided to their care in the hospitals; they pour boiling oil over the troops, and thereby put two thousand out of action; they handle the rifle and revolver as well as the men; they cut the throats of soldiers and stone them; they cut off their ears and gouge out their eyes; they offer them cigarettes containing powder, whose explosion blinds them. Even the little girls ten years of age indulge in these horrors. The men are no better; to begin with, they are all "francs-tireurs," even when theyassume the appearance of respectable schoolmasters; besides which they crawl under motor-cars to kill the chauffeurs; they kill peaceable drinkers with a stab in the belly; they foully shoot an officer who is reading them a proclamation; they saw off the legs of soldiers; they finish off the wounded on the field of battle; they cut off their fingers to steal their rings; they fill letters with narcotics in order to poison those who open them; they set traps for soldiers in order to torture them at leisure; even the humanitarian symbol of the Red Cross does not stay their homicidal hands; they fire on doctors, on ambulance men, on motor-cars removing the wounded.

That the soldiers leaving for Belgium were made to believe that their adversaries were horrible barbarians, and that the troops were inspired with an ardent desire to avenge the innocent victims of the Belgians, is amply proved by all the tales dating from the beginning of the war. See, for instance, in the story ofLa journée de Charleroi(p. 195) the impatience with which the author awaits the moment of entering Belgium to take part in the reprisals, and his delight when he at last sees houses burned to ashes and a curé hung from a tree.

Let us note in passing that the Austrians also, desirous of declaring war upon us, resorted to the invention of "Belgian atrocities." In its reply to the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war, our Government protested against this defamation (1stGrey Book, Nos. 77, 78).

All these stories appeared, in the first place, in the newspapers. We must not be surprised if in time ofwar, when men's minds are over-excited, the journalists willingly publish articles containing statements of the kind we have cited, without troubling to verify their authenticity. But it is unpardonable that they should have been reprinted in cold blood, when their falsity had become so obvious that it must have struck even the most prejudiced. We know of two pamphlets devoted entirely to atrocities committed by the Belgians:Die Belgischen GreueltatenandBelgische Kriegsgreuel. The work already cited,Die Wahrheit über den Krieg, also deals at length with these atrocities. Finally, there is no lack of information concerning them in the pamphletsLüttichandDie Eroberung Belgiëns.

One remark occurs to us immediately. The narratives are based on details given by witnesses "worthy of credence." Now all verification is impossible, for we are never given a hint as to the date; moreover, the locality is very rarely mentioned; inDie Wahrheitthere are only three place-names: Gemmenich, Tavigny, and Demenis.

Demenis does not exist, and we have in vain sought to discover what locality is meant. And what did really happen in the other two communes mentioned? At Tavigny the Germans never had occasion to commit any reprisals; not a man was killed, not a house burned; the troops merely proceeded systematically to loot the place. Nor did anything more happen in any neighbouring commune which the narrator might have confused with Tavigny. Nor was there any confusion of names with Tintigny; in the latter village the Germans behaved in the most atrocious fashion, but the mode of operation was quite different. As for Gemmenich, we have no information as to what passed there,But we can assert that not a single house was burned there. Now it is very certain that if the Belgians had committed the atrocities of which the Germans tell, the latter would have set fire to the village; it is therefore highly probable that nothing happened there. In short, of the only three place-names given all three are incorrect.

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