PEACE REIGNS AT DINANTIn short, the town of Dinant is destroyed. Of 1,400 houses only 200 remained standing. The factories where the laboring population got their bread and butter were wrecked systematically. Many inhabitants were sent to Germany, where they are still kept as prisoners. The majority of the others are scattered all over Belgium. Those who stayed in the towns were starved.The Belgian Committee has a list of victims. It contains 700 names, and is not complete. Among those killed are seventy-three women, thirty-nine children between six months and fifteen years old.Dinant has 7,600 inhabitants, of whom ten per cent. were put to death; not a family exists which has not to mourn the death of some victims; many families have been exterminated completely.“The German Fury in Belgium,”ByL. Mokveld.LES BEAUTÉS DE LA GUERREFolk who do not understand themIt is only in war that we find the action of true heroism, the realization of which on earth is the care of militarism. That is why war appears to us, who are filled with militarism, as in itself a holy thing, as the holiest thing on earth.Prof. Werner Sombart.During the three months of invasion, more than 21,000 houses had been burnt down in five alone of the nine provinces of Belgium, and a far greater number pillaged—more than 16,000, for instance, in the single Province of Brabant. Of the civilian population, between 5,000 and 6,000 men, women, and children had been massacred, some singly and some in batches, some by clean killing and some after lingering tortures, some in frenzy and some in cold blood, but all with the object of terrorization and with that result. Fleeing before the terror, many hundreds of thousands of Belgians, especially of the middle and upper classes, had taken refuge in Holland and the British Isles.Times History of the War.DINANT: “I SEE FATHER”An hour later the women and children were separated and the prisoners were brought back to Dinant, passing the prison on their way. Just outside the prison the witness saw three lines of bodies which he recognized as being those of neighbors. They were nearly all dead, but he noticed movement in some of them. There were about 120 bodies. The prisoners were then taken up to the top of the hill outside Dinant and compelled to stay there till eight o’clock in the morning. On the following day they were put into cattle trucks and taken thence to Coblenz. For three months they remained prisoners in Germany.Unarmed civilians were killed in masses at other places near the prison. About ninety bodies were seen lying on the top of one another in a grass square opposite the convent.British Government Committee’s Report.MATER DOLOROSAThe inhabitants fled through the village (near Blamont). It was horrible. The walls of houses are bespattered with blood and the faces of the dead are hideous to look upon. They were buried at once, some sixty of them. Among them many old women, old men, and one woman pregnant—the whole a dreadful sight. Three children huddled together—all dead. Altar and arches of the church shattered. Telephone communication with the enemy was found there. This morning, Sept. 2, all the survivors were driven out; I saw four little boys carrying on two poles a cradle with a child some five or six months old. The whole makes a fearful sight. Blow upon blow! Thunderbolt on thunderbolt! Everything given over to plunder. I saw a mother with her two little ones—one of them had a great wound in the head and an eye put out.From the Diary ofGefreiter Paul Spellman,Capt. First Brigade of Infantry Guard(Prussian Guards).IS IT YOU, MOTHER?A corporal named Houston narrated that while he lay wounded on the ground, after the battle of Soissons, he saw a young English soldier lying near him, delirious. A German soldier gave the poor lad water from his flask. The young Englishman, his mind wandering, said, “Is it you, mother?” The German comprehended, and to maintain the illusion, caressed his face with a mother’s soft touch. The poor boy died shortly afterwards and the German soldier, on getting to his feet, was seen to be crying.MEN TO THE RIGHT, WOMENTO THE LEFTOn Sunday, August 23rd, at half past six in the morning, the soldiers of the 108th regiment of the line drove worshippers of the Premonstratensian Church, separated the men from the women, and shot about fifty of the former through the head. Between seven and nine o’clock there was house to house looting and burning by soldiers who chased the inhabitants into the street. Those who tried to escape were shot off-hand.At about nine o’clock the soldiers drove all who had been found in the houses in front of them by means of blows from their rifle-butts. They crowded them together in Place d’Armes, where they kept them until six o’clock in the evening. Their guards amused themselves by telling the men repeatedly that they would soon be shot.At six o’clock a captain separated the men from the women and children. The women were placed behind a line of infantry. The men had to stand alongside a wall; those in the first row were told to sit on their haunches, the others to remain standing behind them. A platoon took a stand right opposite the group. The women prayed in vain for the mercy of their husbands, their sons, and their brothers; the officer gave the order to fire. He had not made the slightest investigation, pronounced no sentence of any sort.Belgian Gov. Committee’s Report.A PITIFUL EXODUSIn many groups were to be seen old, old people, grandfathers and grandmothers of a family, and these in their shaking frailty and terror, which they could not withstand, were the more pitiable objects in the great gathering of stricken townsfolk. This pathetic clinging together of the family was one of the most affecting sights I witnessed, and I have not the slightest doubt that in the mad rush for refuge beyond the borders of their native land many family groups of this sort completely perished.All day and throughout the night these pitiful scenes continued, and when I went down to the quayside early Thursday, when the dawn was throwing a wan light over this part of the world, I found again a great host of citizens awaiting their chance of flight.London Daily Chronicle onThe Fall of Antwerp.October 11, 1914.SYMPATHY“If I find you again looking so sad, I’ll send you to Germany after your father”WE WAGE WAR ON DIVINEPRINCIPLESThe names of the priests and monks of the diocese of Malines, who, to my knowledge, were put to death by the German troops, are as follows: Dupierreux, of the Company of Jesus; Brother Sebastien Allard, of the Society of St. Joseph; Brother Candide, of the Society of the Brothers of Our Lady of Pity; Father Vincent, Conventual Carette, a professor; Lombaerts, Goris de Clerck; Dergent, Wouters, Van Bladel,curés.At Christmas time I was not perfectly certain what had been the fate of theCuréof Hérent. Since then his dead body has been discovered at Louvain and identified.From a letter fromCardinal Mercier,to The Kreischef of District of Malines.December, 1914.The Cathedral of Rheims has many companions in distress. The German army, when it invaded the north of France, destroyed, totally or partially, by bombardment or incendiarism, churches and chapels at Albert, Serres, Vieille-Capelle, Etavigny, Soissons, Hébuterne, Ribécourt, Suippes, Montceau, Barcy, Revigny, Souain, Maurupt, Berry-au-Bac, Mandray, Heiltz-le-Maurupt, Sermaize-les-Bains, Doncières, etc.From “Is War Civilization?”ByProf. Christophe Nyrop,University of Copenhagen.PROSPERITY REIGNS INFLANDERSFour hundred and eighty millions offrancs have been imposed as a war taxbut soup is given gratisPROCLAMATIONA War Contribution, amounting to 480,000,000 francs, to be paid in monthly installments over the course of a year, is imposed on the population of Belgium.The payment of these sums devolves upon the Nine Provinces, which are held collectively responsible for the discharge of it.The two first installments are to be paid up, at latest, on January 15, 1915, and the following installments on the 10th, at latest, of each following month, to the Field Army Treasury of the Imperial Governor-Generalship at Brussels.In case the Provinces have to resort to the issue of bonds in order to obtain the funds necessary, the form and terms of these bonds will be settled by the Imperial Commissary-General for the Banks in Belgium.Baron von Bissing,Governor-General in Belgium.Brussels, December 10, 1914.A FACTThis brutalism by Major Tille of the German Army on a small boy of Maastricht was vouched for by an eye-witness.TO YOUR HEALTH,CIVILIZATION!CONCLUSIONSIt is proved—(i.) That there were in many parts of Belgium deliberate and systematically organized massacres of the civil population, accompanied by many isolated murders and other outrages.(ii.) That in the conduct of the war generally innocent civilians, both men and women, were murdered in large numbers, women violated, and children murdered.(iii.) That looting, house burning, and the wanton destruction of property were ordered and countenanced by the officers of the German Army, that elaborate provision had been made for systematic incendiarism at the very outbreak of the war, and that the burnings and destruction were frequent where no military necessity could be alleged, being indeed part of a system of general terrorization.(iv.) That the rules and usages of war were frequently broken, particularly by the using of civilians, including women and children, as a shield for advancing forces exposed to fire, to a less degree by killing the wounded and prisoners, and in the frequent abuse of the Red Cross and the white flag.British Government Committee’s Report.A CONFLICT OF TESTIMONY“Sire, it’s quite easy; for every witness who swears we’ve murdered innocent people we will produce two who will swear they did not see it”All that I care to say about the Belgian charges is that I have officially informed the State Department in Washington that there is not one word of truth in the statements made to the President yesterday by the Belgian Commission.Count von Bernstorff,German Ambassador,at Washington, September 17.THE MOTHERS OF BELGIUMChristian mothers, be proud of your sons. Of all griefs, of all our human sorrows, yours is perhaps the most worthy of veneration. I think I behold you in your affliction. Suffer us to offer you not only our condolence, but our congratulation. Not all our heroes obtain temporal honors, but for all we expect the immortal crown of the elect. For this is the virtue of a single act of perfect charity—it cancels a whole lifetime of sins. It transforms a sinful man into a saint.Cardinal Mercier,Archbishop of Malines.KREUZLAND, KREUZLANDÜBER ALLES“Where are our fathers?” Belgium, 1914THE WIDOWS OF BELGIUMFAMINE IN BELGIUMIn Belgium I saw this:Homeless men, women, and children by thousands and hundreds of thousands. Many of them had been prosperous, a few had been wealthy, practically all had been comfortable. Now, with scarcely an exception, they stood all upon one common plane of misery. They had lost their homes, their farms, their workshops, their livings, and their means of making livings.I saw them tramping aimlessly along windswept, rain-washed roads, fleeing from burning and devastated villages. I saw them sleeping in open fields upon the miry earth, with no cover and no shelter. I saw them herded together in the towns and cities to which many of them ultimately fled, existing God alone knows how. I saw them—ragged, furtive scarecrows—prowling in the shattered ruins of their homes, seeking salvage where there was no salvage to be found. I saw them living like the beasts of the field, upon such things as the beasts of the field would reject.Irvin S. Cobb.New York Times.December 2, 1914.BLUEBEARD’S CHAMBEROur function is ended when we have stated what the evidence establishes, but we may be permitted to express our belief that these disclosures will not have been made in vain if they touch and rouse the conscience of mankind, and we venture to hope that as soon as the present war is over the nations of the world in council will consider what means can be provided and sanctions devised to prevent the recurrence of such horrors as our generation is now witnessing.Bryce,F. Pollock,Edward Clarke,Kenelm E. Digby,Alfred Hopkinson,H. A. L. Fisher,Harold Cox,Concluding words of the Report of the Committee appointed bythe British Government to investigate alleged German atrocitiesin Belgium.THE PRISONERSIn the first days of the war it was undoubtedly and unfortunately true that prisoners of war taken by the Germans, both at the time of their capture and in transit to the prison camps, were often badly treated by the soldiers, guards or the civil population.The instances were too numerous, the evidence too overwhelming, to be denied.... From him (U.S. Consul at Kiel) I learned that some unfortunate prisoners passing through the town (in a part of Germany inhabited by Scandinavians) had made signs that they were suffering from hunger and thirst, that some of the kind-hearted people among the Scandinavian population had given them something to eat and drink and for this they were condemned to fines, to prison and to have their names held up to the contempt of Germans for all time.I do not know of any one thing that can give a better idea of the official hate for the nations with which Germany was at war than this.James W. Gerardin “My Four Years in Germany.”THE EX-CONVICT:“I was a ‘lifer’; but they found I had so many abilities for teaching civilisation amongst our neighbours, that I am now a soldier”Crimes against women and young girls have been of appalling frequency. We have proved a great number of them, but they only represent an infinitesimal proportion of those which we could have taken up. Owing to a sense of decency, which is deserving of every respect, the victims of these hateful acts usually refuse to disclose them. Doubtless fewer would have been committed if the leaders of an army whose discipline is most rigorous had taken any trouble to prevent them; yet, strictly speaking, they can only be considered as the individual and spontaneous acts of uncaged beasts.French Government’s Official Report,September, 1914.WAR LOAN MUSIC“Was blazen die Trompeten Moneten heraus?”Early in September, 1914, the Government made the first War Loan issue. It took the form of £50,000,000 of 5 per cent. Treasury Bonds with a five years’ currency, and a 5 per cent. Loan of undefined amount, irredeemable until 1924. The price of both the Treasury Bills and the Loan was 97½. During the ten days in which the lists remained open, a tremendous propaganda was carried on in the Press—this quotation is typical:“The victories which our glorious Army has already won in the west and east justify the hopes that now, as in 1870, the expenses and burdens of the war will fall ultimately upon those who have disturbed the peace of the German Empire. But first we must help ourselves. Great interests are at stake.“German capitalists, show that you are inspired by the same spirit as our heroes, who shed their hearts’ blood in the fight. Germans who have saved money, show that you have saved, not only for yourselves, but also for the Fatherland. German corporations, companies, savings banks, and all institutions which have blossomed and grown up under the powerful protection of the Empire, repay the Empire with your gratitude in this hour of fate. German banks and bankers, show what your brilliant organization and your influence on your customers are able to produce.”Times History of the War.LIBERTÉ! LIBERTÉ CHÈRIE!Soldiers,—Upon the memorable fields of Montmirail, of Vauchamps, of Champaubert, which a century ago witnessed the victories of our ancestors over Blücher’s Prussians, your vigorous offensive has triumphed over the resistance of the Germans. Held on his flanks, his centre broken, the enemy is now retreating towards east and north by forced marches. The most renowned army corps of Old Prussia, the contingents of Westphalia, of Hanover, of Brandenburg, have retired in haste before you.This first success is no more than a prelude. The enemy is shaken, but not yet decisively beaten.You have still to undergo severe hardships, to make long marches, to fight hard battles.May the image of your country, soiled by barbarians, always remain before your eyes. Never was it more necessary to sacrifice all for her.Saluting the heroes who have fallen in the fighting of the last few days, my thoughts turn towards you—the victors in the next battle.Forward, soldiers, for France.Franchet d’Esperey,General Commanding the Vth Army.Montmirail, September 9, 1914.THE JUNKER“What I have most admired in you, Bethmann, is that you have made Socialists our best supporters”England is playing a perfectly shameful rôle in this war. Even though France were allied to Russia by an unfortunate treaty, England was not so allied! But England, who has ever been jealous of the industrial development of our country, used the violation of our treaty of neutrality with Belgium, which was incurred only in dire need and which was yielded openly and honestly in the Reichstag by the Chancellor, as a pretext to declare war against us.Philipp Scheidemann,Socialist ex-Vice-Presidentof the Reichstag.THE HIGHER POLITICSThe Kaiser: “We will propose peace terms; if they accept them, we are the gainers; if they refuse them, the responsibility will rest with them”Germany has suggested informally that the United States should undertake to elicit from Great Britain, France, and Russia a statement of the terms under which the Allies would make peace.The suggestion was made by the Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, to Ambassador Gerard at Berlin as a result of an inquiry sent by the American Government to learn whether Emperor William was desirous of discussing peace, as recently had been reported.The Associated Press.Washington, September 17, 1914.LUTHER-LIEBKNECHT IN THE REICHSTAG“It is a War of Rapine! On that I take my stand. I cannot do otherwise”I understand that several members of the Socialist Party have written all sorts of things to the press with regard to the deliberations of the Socialist Party in the Reichstag on August 3 and 4.According to these reports there were no serious differences of opinion in our party in regard to the political situation, and our own position and decision to assent to war credits are alleged to have been arrived at unanimously.In order to prevent the dissemination of an inadmissible legend I feel it to be my duty to put on record the fact that the issues involved gave rise to diametrically opposite views within our parliamentary party, and these opposing views found expression with a violence hitherto unknown in our deliberations.It is also entirely untrue to say that assent to the war credits was given unanimously.Dr. Carl Liebknecht,Member of the Reichstag.September 18, 1914.THE LAND MINETHE VERY STONES CRY OUT,“Thou art the man”The German Government states officially in contradiction of the report made by the Havas Agency that German artillery purposely destroyed important buildings at Rheims, that, on the contrary, orders were given to spare the Cathedral by all means.Count von Bernstorff.Washington, September, 1914.On Sept. 19 the cathedral was fairly riddled by bombs during the entire day, and at about 3:45 the scaffolding surrounding the north tower caught fire. This fire lasted about one hour, and during that time two further bombs struck the roof, setting it also on fire.The monument, about which no troops were massed, towers above the rest of the town; to avoid it, in view of the uselessness of destroying it and because it was serving as a hospital, would have been an easy matter.It would seem that the only explanation which can be offered was blind rage upon the part of the besieging army.Mr. Whitney Warren’sOfficial Report to the French Government.September, 1914.THE BRAGGART“It was I who opened fire on Rheims Cathedral”My dear Sir, how is it possible to fight these people? They seem to have no mercy, no decency. It really seems impossible to know how to meet them.General Castelnau toMr. Whitney Warren.The bells sound no more in the cathedral with two towers. Finished is the benediction!... With lead, O Rheims, we have shut your house of idolatry!M. Rudolf Herzogin Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger. Jan., 1915.RHEIMS—WAR AND CHRISTThe commonest, ugliest stone put to mark the burial-place of a German grenadier is a more glorious and venerable monument than all the cathedrals of Europe put together.Gen. von DisfurthIn Hamburger Nachrichten.Reduce to ashes the basilica of Rheims where Klodovig was anointed, where that Empire of Franks was born—the false brothers of the noble Teutons; burn that cathedral!Written in the year 1814 byJean-Joseph Goerresin the “Rheinische Merkin.”LIQUID FIREIn October, 1914, the headquarters of the second German army at St. Quentin had issued an Order regulating the use of fire-squirts ejecting inflammable liquid. A special Corps of Pioneers, attachable to any unit which might need them, had been organized to handle this novel weapon. The Order explained that the instrument could squirt a flame which would cause mortal injury and which, owing to the heat generated, would drive the enemy to a considerable distance. It was recommended particularly for street fighting.Times History of the War.
In short, the town of Dinant is destroyed. Of 1,400 houses only 200 remained standing. The factories where the laboring population got their bread and butter were wrecked systematically. Many inhabitants were sent to Germany, where they are still kept as prisoners. The majority of the others are scattered all over Belgium. Those who stayed in the towns were starved.
The Belgian Committee has a list of victims. It contains 700 names, and is not complete. Among those killed are seventy-three women, thirty-nine children between six months and fifteen years old.
Dinant has 7,600 inhabitants, of whom ten per cent. were put to death; not a family exists which has not to mourn the death of some victims; many families have been exterminated completely.
“The German Fury in Belgium,”ByL. Mokveld.
Folk who do not understand them
It is only in war that we find the action of true heroism, the realization of which on earth is the care of militarism. That is why war appears to us, who are filled with militarism, as in itself a holy thing, as the holiest thing on earth.
Prof. Werner Sombart.
During the three months of invasion, more than 21,000 houses had been burnt down in five alone of the nine provinces of Belgium, and a far greater number pillaged—more than 16,000, for instance, in the single Province of Brabant. Of the civilian population, between 5,000 and 6,000 men, women, and children had been massacred, some singly and some in batches, some by clean killing and some after lingering tortures, some in frenzy and some in cold blood, but all with the object of terrorization and with that result. Fleeing before the terror, many hundreds of thousands of Belgians, especially of the middle and upper classes, had taken refuge in Holland and the British Isles.
Times History of the War.
An hour later the women and children were separated and the prisoners were brought back to Dinant, passing the prison on their way. Just outside the prison the witness saw three lines of bodies which he recognized as being those of neighbors. They were nearly all dead, but he noticed movement in some of them. There were about 120 bodies. The prisoners were then taken up to the top of the hill outside Dinant and compelled to stay there till eight o’clock in the morning. On the following day they were put into cattle trucks and taken thence to Coblenz. For three months they remained prisoners in Germany.
Unarmed civilians were killed in masses at other places near the prison. About ninety bodies were seen lying on the top of one another in a grass square opposite the convent.
British Government Committee’s Report.
The inhabitants fled through the village (near Blamont). It was horrible. The walls of houses are bespattered with blood and the faces of the dead are hideous to look upon. They were buried at once, some sixty of them. Among them many old women, old men, and one woman pregnant—the whole a dreadful sight. Three children huddled together—all dead. Altar and arches of the church shattered. Telephone communication with the enemy was found there. This morning, Sept. 2, all the survivors were driven out; I saw four little boys carrying on two poles a cradle with a child some five or six months old. The whole makes a fearful sight. Blow upon blow! Thunderbolt on thunderbolt! Everything given over to plunder. I saw a mother with her two little ones—one of them had a great wound in the head and an eye put out.
From the Diary ofGefreiter Paul Spellman,Capt. First Brigade of Infantry Guard(Prussian Guards).
A corporal named Houston narrated that while he lay wounded on the ground, after the battle of Soissons, he saw a young English soldier lying near him, delirious. A German soldier gave the poor lad water from his flask. The young Englishman, his mind wandering, said, “Is it you, mother?” The German comprehended, and to maintain the illusion, caressed his face with a mother’s soft touch. The poor boy died shortly afterwards and the German soldier, on getting to his feet, was seen to be crying.
On Sunday, August 23rd, at half past six in the morning, the soldiers of the 108th regiment of the line drove worshippers of the Premonstratensian Church, separated the men from the women, and shot about fifty of the former through the head. Between seven and nine o’clock there was house to house looting and burning by soldiers who chased the inhabitants into the street. Those who tried to escape were shot off-hand.
At about nine o’clock the soldiers drove all who had been found in the houses in front of them by means of blows from their rifle-butts. They crowded them together in Place d’Armes, where they kept them until six o’clock in the evening. Their guards amused themselves by telling the men repeatedly that they would soon be shot.
At six o’clock a captain separated the men from the women and children. The women were placed behind a line of infantry. The men had to stand alongside a wall; those in the first row were told to sit on their haunches, the others to remain standing behind them. A platoon took a stand right opposite the group. The women prayed in vain for the mercy of their husbands, their sons, and their brothers; the officer gave the order to fire. He had not made the slightest investigation, pronounced no sentence of any sort.
Belgian Gov. Committee’s Report.
In many groups were to be seen old, old people, grandfathers and grandmothers of a family, and these in their shaking frailty and terror, which they could not withstand, were the more pitiable objects in the great gathering of stricken townsfolk. This pathetic clinging together of the family was one of the most affecting sights I witnessed, and I have not the slightest doubt that in the mad rush for refuge beyond the borders of their native land many family groups of this sort completely perished.
All day and throughout the night these pitiful scenes continued, and when I went down to the quayside early Thursday, when the dawn was throwing a wan light over this part of the world, I found again a great host of citizens awaiting their chance of flight.
London Daily Chronicle onThe Fall of Antwerp.October 11, 1914.
“If I find you again looking so sad, I’ll send you to Germany after your father”
The names of the priests and monks of the diocese of Malines, who, to my knowledge, were put to death by the German troops, are as follows: Dupierreux, of the Company of Jesus; Brother Sebastien Allard, of the Society of St. Joseph; Brother Candide, of the Society of the Brothers of Our Lady of Pity; Father Vincent, Conventual Carette, a professor; Lombaerts, Goris de Clerck; Dergent, Wouters, Van Bladel,curés.
At Christmas time I was not perfectly certain what had been the fate of theCuréof Hérent. Since then his dead body has been discovered at Louvain and identified.
From a letter fromCardinal Mercier,to The Kreischef of District of Malines.December, 1914.
The Cathedral of Rheims has many companions in distress. The German army, when it invaded the north of France, destroyed, totally or partially, by bombardment or incendiarism, churches and chapels at Albert, Serres, Vieille-Capelle, Etavigny, Soissons, Hébuterne, Ribécourt, Suippes, Montceau, Barcy, Revigny, Souain, Maurupt, Berry-au-Bac, Mandray, Heiltz-le-Maurupt, Sermaize-les-Bains, Doncières, etc.
From “Is War Civilization?”ByProf. Christophe Nyrop,University of Copenhagen.
Four hundred and eighty millions offrancs have been imposed as a war taxbut soup is given gratis
PROCLAMATION
A War Contribution, amounting to 480,000,000 francs, to be paid in monthly installments over the course of a year, is imposed on the population of Belgium.
The payment of these sums devolves upon the Nine Provinces, which are held collectively responsible for the discharge of it.
The two first installments are to be paid up, at latest, on January 15, 1915, and the following installments on the 10th, at latest, of each following month, to the Field Army Treasury of the Imperial Governor-Generalship at Brussels.
In case the Provinces have to resort to the issue of bonds in order to obtain the funds necessary, the form and terms of these bonds will be settled by the Imperial Commissary-General for the Banks in Belgium.
Baron von Bissing,Governor-General in Belgium.Brussels, December 10, 1914.
This brutalism by Major Tille of the German Army on a small boy of Maastricht was vouched for by an eye-witness.
CONCLUSIONS
It is proved—
(i.) That there were in many parts of Belgium deliberate and systematically organized massacres of the civil population, accompanied by many isolated murders and other outrages.
(ii.) That in the conduct of the war generally innocent civilians, both men and women, were murdered in large numbers, women violated, and children murdered.
(iii.) That looting, house burning, and the wanton destruction of property were ordered and countenanced by the officers of the German Army, that elaborate provision had been made for systematic incendiarism at the very outbreak of the war, and that the burnings and destruction were frequent where no military necessity could be alleged, being indeed part of a system of general terrorization.
(iv.) That the rules and usages of war were frequently broken, particularly by the using of civilians, including women and children, as a shield for advancing forces exposed to fire, to a less degree by killing the wounded and prisoners, and in the frequent abuse of the Red Cross and the white flag.
British Government Committee’s Report.
“Sire, it’s quite easy; for every witness who swears we’ve murdered innocent people we will produce two who will swear they did not see it”
All that I care to say about the Belgian charges is that I have officially informed the State Department in Washington that there is not one word of truth in the statements made to the President yesterday by the Belgian Commission.
Count von Bernstorff,German Ambassador,at Washington, September 17.
Christian mothers, be proud of your sons. Of all griefs, of all our human sorrows, yours is perhaps the most worthy of veneration. I think I behold you in your affliction. Suffer us to offer you not only our condolence, but our congratulation. Not all our heroes obtain temporal honors, but for all we expect the immortal crown of the elect. For this is the virtue of a single act of perfect charity—it cancels a whole lifetime of sins. It transforms a sinful man into a saint.
Cardinal Mercier,Archbishop of Malines.
“Where are our fathers?” Belgium, 1914
In Belgium I saw this:
Homeless men, women, and children by thousands and hundreds of thousands. Many of them had been prosperous, a few had been wealthy, practically all had been comfortable. Now, with scarcely an exception, they stood all upon one common plane of misery. They had lost their homes, their farms, their workshops, their livings, and their means of making livings.
I saw them tramping aimlessly along windswept, rain-washed roads, fleeing from burning and devastated villages. I saw them sleeping in open fields upon the miry earth, with no cover and no shelter. I saw them herded together in the towns and cities to which many of them ultimately fled, existing God alone knows how. I saw them—ragged, furtive scarecrows—prowling in the shattered ruins of their homes, seeking salvage where there was no salvage to be found. I saw them living like the beasts of the field, upon such things as the beasts of the field would reject.
Irvin S. Cobb.New York Times.December 2, 1914.
Our function is ended when we have stated what the evidence establishes, but we may be permitted to express our belief that these disclosures will not have been made in vain if they touch and rouse the conscience of mankind, and we venture to hope that as soon as the present war is over the nations of the world in council will consider what means can be provided and sanctions devised to prevent the recurrence of such horrors as our generation is now witnessing.
Bryce,F. Pollock,Edward Clarke,Kenelm E. Digby,Alfred Hopkinson,H. A. L. Fisher,Harold Cox,Concluding words of the Report of the Committee appointed bythe British Government to investigate alleged German atrocitiesin Belgium.
In the first days of the war it was undoubtedly and unfortunately true that prisoners of war taken by the Germans, both at the time of their capture and in transit to the prison camps, were often badly treated by the soldiers, guards or the civil population.
The instances were too numerous, the evidence too overwhelming, to be denied.... From him (U.S. Consul at Kiel) I learned that some unfortunate prisoners passing through the town (in a part of Germany inhabited by Scandinavians) had made signs that they were suffering from hunger and thirst, that some of the kind-hearted people among the Scandinavian population had given them something to eat and drink and for this they were condemned to fines, to prison and to have their names held up to the contempt of Germans for all time.
I do not know of any one thing that can give a better idea of the official hate for the nations with which Germany was at war than this.
James W. Gerardin “My Four Years in Germany.”
“I was a ‘lifer’; but they found I had so many abilities for teaching civilisation amongst our neighbours, that I am now a soldier”
Crimes against women and young girls have been of appalling frequency. We have proved a great number of them, but they only represent an infinitesimal proportion of those which we could have taken up. Owing to a sense of decency, which is deserving of every respect, the victims of these hateful acts usually refuse to disclose them. Doubtless fewer would have been committed if the leaders of an army whose discipline is most rigorous had taken any trouble to prevent them; yet, strictly speaking, they can only be considered as the individual and spontaneous acts of uncaged beasts.
French Government’s Official Report,September, 1914.
“Was blazen die Trompeten Moneten heraus?”
Early in September, 1914, the Government made the first War Loan issue. It took the form of £50,000,000 of 5 per cent. Treasury Bonds with a five years’ currency, and a 5 per cent. Loan of undefined amount, irredeemable until 1924. The price of both the Treasury Bills and the Loan was 97½. During the ten days in which the lists remained open, a tremendous propaganda was carried on in the Press—this quotation is typical:
“The victories which our glorious Army has already won in the west and east justify the hopes that now, as in 1870, the expenses and burdens of the war will fall ultimately upon those who have disturbed the peace of the German Empire. But first we must help ourselves. Great interests are at stake.
“German capitalists, show that you are inspired by the same spirit as our heroes, who shed their hearts’ blood in the fight. Germans who have saved money, show that you have saved, not only for yourselves, but also for the Fatherland. German corporations, companies, savings banks, and all institutions which have blossomed and grown up under the powerful protection of the Empire, repay the Empire with your gratitude in this hour of fate. German banks and bankers, show what your brilliant organization and your influence on your customers are able to produce.”
Times History of the War.
Soldiers,—Upon the memorable fields of Montmirail, of Vauchamps, of Champaubert, which a century ago witnessed the victories of our ancestors over Blücher’s Prussians, your vigorous offensive has triumphed over the resistance of the Germans. Held on his flanks, his centre broken, the enemy is now retreating towards east and north by forced marches. The most renowned army corps of Old Prussia, the contingents of Westphalia, of Hanover, of Brandenburg, have retired in haste before you.
This first success is no more than a prelude. The enemy is shaken, but not yet decisively beaten.
You have still to undergo severe hardships, to make long marches, to fight hard battles.
May the image of your country, soiled by barbarians, always remain before your eyes. Never was it more necessary to sacrifice all for her.
Saluting the heroes who have fallen in the fighting of the last few days, my thoughts turn towards you—the victors in the next battle.
Forward, soldiers, for France.
Franchet d’Esperey,General Commanding the Vth Army.Montmirail, September 9, 1914.
“What I have most admired in you, Bethmann, is that you have made Socialists our best supporters”
England is playing a perfectly shameful rôle in this war. Even though France were allied to Russia by an unfortunate treaty, England was not so allied! But England, who has ever been jealous of the industrial development of our country, used the violation of our treaty of neutrality with Belgium, which was incurred only in dire need and which was yielded openly and honestly in the Reichstag by the Chancellor, as a pretext to declare war against us.
Philipp Scheidemann,Socialist ex-Vice-Presidentof the Reichstag.
The Kaiser: “We will propose peace terms; if they accept them, we are the gainers; if they refuse them, the responsibility will rest with them”
Germany has suggested informally that the United States should undertake to elicit from Great Britain, France, and Russia a statement of the terms under which the Allies would make peace.
The suggestion was made by the Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, to Ambassador Gerard at Berlin as a result of an inquiry sent by the American Government to learn whether Emperor William was desirous of discussing peace, as recently had been reported.
The Associated Press.Washington, September 17, 1914.
“It is a War of Rapine! On that I take my stand. I cannot do otherwise”
I understand that several members of the Socialist Party have written all sorts of things to the press with regard to the deliberations of the Socialist Party in the Reichstag on August 3 and 4.
According to these reports there were no serious differences of opinion in our party in regard to the political situation, and our own position and decision to assent to war credits are alleged to have been arrived at unanimously.
In order to prevent the dissemination of an inadmissible legend I feel it to be my duty to put on record the fact that the issues involved gave rise to diametrically opposite views within our parliamentary party, and these opposing views found expression with a violence hitherto unknown in our deliberations.
It is also entirely untrue to say that assent to the war credits was given unanimously.
Dr. Carl Liebknecht,Member of the Reichstag.September 18, 1914.
“Thou art the man”
The German Government states officially in contradiction of the report made by the Havas Agency that German artillery purposely destroyed important buildings at Rheims, that, on the contrary, orders were given to spare the Cathedral by all means.
Count von Bernstorff.Washington, September, 1914.
On Sept. 19 the cathedral was fairly riddled by bombs during the entire day, and at about 3:45 the scaffolding surrounding the north tower caught fire. This fire lasted about one hour, and during that time two further bombs struck the roof, setting it also on fire.
The monument, about which no troops were massed, towers above the rest of the town; to avoid it, in view of the uselessness of destroying it and because it was serving as a hospital, would have been an easy matter.
It would seem that the only explanation which can be offered was blind rage upon the part of the besieging army.
Mr. Whitney Warren’sOfficial Report to the French Government.September, 1914.
“It was I who opened fire on Rheims Cathedral”
My dear Sir, how is it possible to fight these people? They seem to have no mercy, no decency. It really seems impossible to know how to meet them.
General Castelnau toMr. Whitney Warren.
The bells sound no more in the cathedral with two towers. Finished is the benediction!... With lead, O Rheims, we have shut your house of idolatry!
M. Rudolf Herzogin Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger. Jan., 1915.
The commonest, ugliest stone put to mark the burial-place of a German grenadier is a more glorious and venerable monument than all the cathedrals of Europe put together.
Gen. von DisfurthIn Hamburger Nachrichten.
Reduce to ashes the basilica of Rheims where Klodovig was anointed, where that Empire of Franks was born—the false brothers of the noble Teutons; burn that cathedral!
Written in the year 1814 byJean-Joseph Goerresin the “Rheinische Merkin.”
In October, 1914, the headquarters of the second German army at St. Quentin had issued an Order regulating the use of fire-squirts ejecting inflammable liquid. A special Corps of Pioneers, attachable to any unit which might need them, had been organized to handle this novel weapon. The Order explained that the instrument could squirt a flame which would cause mortal injury and which, owing to the heat generated, would drive the enemy to a considerable distance. It was recommended particularly for street fighting.
Times History of the War.