3. THE MURDER AND ILL-TREATMENT OF CHILDREN.

From the very first women were not safe. At Liège women and children were chased about the street by soldiers. One witness gives a story, very circumstantial in its details, of how women were publicly raped in the market place of the city, five young German officers assisting.

Tamines.—A witness describes how he saw the public square littered with corpses, and after a search found those of his wife and child, a little girl of 7.

Wetteren Hospital.—At this hospital was an old woman of 80 completely transfixed by a bayonet.

Sempst.—Witness saw a girl of 17 dressed only in a chemise and in great distress. She alleged that she herself and other girls had been dragged into a field, stripped naked and violated, and that some of them had then been killed with the bayonet.

Eppeghem.—On August 25th a pregnant woman who had been wounded with a bayonet was discovered in the convent. She was dying.

Louvain.—"In the middle of the night I heard a knock at the outer door of the stable, which led into a little street, and heard a woman's voice crying for help. I opened the door, and just as I was going to let her in, a rifle shot fired from the street by a German soldier rang out and the woman fell dead at my feet."

The wife of a witness ... was separated from him, and she saw other ladies made to walk before the soldiers with their hands above their heads. One, an old lady of 85 (name given) was dragged from her cellar and taken with them to the station.

"I saw the corpses of some women in the street. I fell down, and a woman who had been shot fell on top of me.... One woman whom I saw lying dead in the street was a Miss —— about 35. I also saw the body of —— (a woman). She had been shot. I saw an officer pull her corpse underneath a wagon."

Dinant.—He found his wife lying on the floor in a room. She had bullet wounds in four places, but was alive, and told her husband to return to the children.

Sixty women and children were confined in the cellar of a convent from Sunday morning till the following Friday (August 28th), sleeping on the ground, for there were no beds, with nothing to drink during the whole period, and given no food until the Wednesday, "when somebody threw into the cellar two sticks of macaroni and a carrot for each prisoner."

InMalinesitself many bodies were seen. One witness saw a German soldier cut a woman's breasts after he had murdered her, and saw many other dead bodies of women in the streets.

Gelrode.—A woman was shot by some German soldiers as she was walking home. This was done at a distance of 100 yards, and for no apparent reason.

Hofstade.—The corpse of a woman was seen at the blacksmith's. She had been killed with the bayonet.... Two young women were lying in the backyard of the house. One had her breasts cut off, the other had been stabbed.... In the garden of a house in the main street bodies of two women were observed.

Campenhout[Statement of a valet].—"One of the officers ... putting a revolver to my mistress' temple shot her dead. The officer was obviously drunk. The other officers continued to drink and sing, and they did not pay great attention to the killing of my mistress. The officer who shot my mistress then told my master to dig a grave and bury my mistress. My master and the officer went into the garden, the officer threatening my master with a pistol. My master was then forced to dig the grave, and to bury the body of my mistress in it. I cannot say for what reason they killed my mistress. The officer who did it was singing all the time."

There can be no possible defence for the murder of children.

Whether or no Belgian civilians fired on German soldiers, young children, at any rate, did not fire. The number and character of these murders constitute the most distressing feature connected with the conduct of the war so far as it is revealed in the depositions submitted to the Committee.

It is clearly shown that many offences were committed against infants and quite young children. On one occasion children were even roped together and used as a military screen against the enemy, on another three soldiers went into action carrying small children to protect themselves from flank fire.

AtHaechtseveral children had been murdered; one of two or three years old was found nailed to the door of a farmhouse by its hands and feet, a crime which seems almost incredible, but the evidence for which we feel bound to accept. In the garden of this house was the body of a girl who had been shot in the forehead.

Capelle-au-Bois.—Two children were murdered in a cart, and their corpses were seen by many witnesses at different stages of the cart's journey.

Tamines.—One witness describes how she saw a Belgian boy of fifteen shot on the village green, and a day or two later on the same green a little girl and her two brothers (name given) who were looking at the German soldiers were killed before her eyes for no apparent reason.

Boort Meerbeek.—A German soldier was seen to fire three times at a little girl of five years old. Having failed to hit her, hesubsequently bayoneted her. He was killed with the butt end of a rifle by a Belgian soldier who had seen him commit this murder from a distance.

Weerde.—Two children were killed in a village—apparently Weerde—quite wantonly as they were standing in the road with their mother. They were three or four years old, and were killed with the bayonet.

Eppeghem.—The dead body of a child of two was seen pinned to the ground with a German lance.

Hofstade.—On a side road ... was seen ... the dead body of a boy of five or six with his hands nearly severed.

InHofstadeandSempst, inHaecht,RotselaarandWespelaer, many children were murdered.

Louvain(August 28th).—One woman went mad, some children died, others were born.... (August 29th, outside Louvain): Some corpses were those of children who had been shot.

A small village.—There were two little children—a boy about 4 or 5, and a girl of about 6 or 7. The boy's left hand was cut off at the wrist and the girl's right hand at the same place. They were both quite dead.

Malines.—"One day when the Germans were not actually bombarding the town, I left my house to go to my mother's house in High Street. My husband was with me. I saw eight German soldiers, and they were drunk. They were singing and making a lot of noise and dancing about. As the German soldiers came along the street I saw a small child, whether boy or girl I could not see, come out of a house. The child was about 2 years of age. The child came into the middle of the street so as to be in the way of the soldiers. The soldiers were walking in twos. The first line of two passed the child. One of the second line, the man on the left, stepped aside and drove his bayonet with both hands into the child's stomach, lifting the child into the air on his bayonet and carrying it away on his bayonet, he and his comrades still singing. The child screamed when the soldier struck it with his bayonet, but not afterwards."

AtDenée, on August 28th, a Belgian soldier who had been taken prisoner saw three civilian fellow-prisoners shot. One was a cripple and another an old man of 80, who was paralysed. It was alleged by two German soldiers that these men had shot at them with rifles. Neither of them had rifles, nor had they anything in their pockets. The witness actually saw the Germans search them and nothing was found.

Louvain.—"Subsequently my master—an old gentleman—was bayoneted and shot."... Among other persons whose houses were burnt was an old man of 90, lying dangerously ill, who was taken out on his mattress and left lying in his garden all night. He died shortly after in the hospital.

The journey to Louvain is thus described by a witness: "We were all marched off to Louvain, walking. There were some very old people, amongst others a man 90 years of age. The very old people were drawn in carts and barrows by the younger men. There was an officer with a bicycle, who shouted, as people fell out by the side of the road, 'Shoot them.'"

AtHeure le Romain... some bedridden old men were imprisoned in the church.

Andenne.—A paralytic was murdered in his garden.

Beaumetz.—They saw two old men—between 60 and 70 years of age—and one old woman lying close to each other in the garden. All three had the scalps cut right through.... They were still bleeding.

The Committee had before them a considerable body of evidence with reference to the practice of the Germans of using civilians and sometimes military prisoners as screens from behind which they could fire upon the Belgian troops, in the hope that the Belgians would not return the fire for fear of killing or wounding their own fellow-countrymen.

The use of women and even children as a screen for the protection of the German troops is referred to.... From the number of troops concerned, it must have been commanded or acquiesced in by officers, and in some cases the presence and connivance of officers is proved.

Termonde.—Two hundred civilians were utilised as a screen by the German troops.

Binnenstraat.—The civilians were utilised on Saturday, the 26th September, as a screen.

Mons.—On August 24th men, women and children were actually pushed into the front of the German position outside Mons. The witness speaks of 16 to 20 women, about a dozen children and half a dozen men being there.

AtTournai400 Belgian civilians—men, women and children—were placed in front of the Germans, who then engaged the French.

AtYpresthe Germans drove women in front of them by pricking them with bayonets. The wounds were afterwards seen by the witness.

AtLonderzeel30 or 40 civilians—men, women and children—were placed at the head of a German column.

One witness fromTermondewas made to stand in front of the Germans, together with others, all with their hands above their heads. Those who allowed their hands to drop were at once prodded with the bayonet.

After making all allowances, there remain certain instances in which it is clear that quarter was refused to persons desiring to surrender when it ought to have been given, or that persons already so wounded as to be incapable of fighting further, were wantonly shot or bayoneted.

In one case, given very circumstantially, a witness [a British lance-corporal, whose evidence has been confirmed by a lieutenant and a private] tells how a party of wounded British soldiers were left in a chalk pit, all very badly hurt, and quite unable to make resistance. One of them, an officer, held up his handkerchief as a white flag, and this "attracted the attention of a party of about eight Germans. The Germans came to the edge of the pit. It was getting dusk, but the light was still good, and everything clearly discernible. One of them, who appeared to be carrying no arms, and who, at any rate, had no rifle, came a few feet down the slope into the chalk pit, within eight or ten yards of some of the wounded men." He looked at the men, laughed, and said something in German to the Germans who were waiting on the edge of the pit. Immediately one of them fired at the officer, then three or four of these 10 soldiers were shot, then another officer, and the witness, and the rest of them. "After an interval of some time I sat up and found that I was the only man of the 10 who were living when the Germans came into the pit remaining alive, and that all the rest were dead."

There is an overwhelming mass of evidence of the deliberate destruction of private property by the German soldiers. The destruction, in most cases, was effected by fire, and the German troops had been provided beforehand with appliances for rapidly setting fire to houses. Among the appliances enumerated by witnesses are syringes for squirting petrol, guns for throwingsmall inflammable bombs, and small pellets made of inflammable material. Specimens of the last-mentioned have been shown to members of the Committee. Besides burning houses the Germans frequently smashed furniture and pictures; they also broke in doors and windows. Frequently, too, they defiled houses by relieving the wants of nature upon the floor. They also appear to have perpetrated the same vileness upon piled up heaps of provisions, so as to destroy what they could not themselves consume.

Villages, even large parts of a city, were given to the flames as part of the terrorising policy.

The general conclusion is that the burning and destruction of property which took place was only in a very small minority of cases justified by military necessity.

Louvain.—Then the corps of incendiaries got to work. They had broad belts with the words "Gott mit uns" ("God with us"), and their equipment consisted of a hatchet, a syringe, a small shovel and a revolver. Fires blazed up in the direction of the Law Courts and St. Martin's Barracks.

A witness: "When we got to the Place de la Station ... not a single house in the place was standing."

On the 26th (Wednesday), in the city of Louvain, massacre, fire, and destruction went on. The University, with its Library, the Church of St. Peter, and many houses were set on fire and burnt to the ground.

Tamines.—A witness went there on August 27th and says: "It is absolutely destroyed and a mass of ruins."

Liège.—The Rue des Pitteurs and houses in the Place de l'Université and the Quai des Pêcheurs were systematically fired with benzine.

Aerschot.—The houses were set on fire with special apparatus.

Montigny-sur-Sambre.—Incendiaries, with a distinctive badge on their arm, went down the main street throwing handfuls of inflammatory and explosive pastilles into the houses. These pastilles were carried by them in bags, and in this way about 130 houses were destroyed in the main street.

Namur.—A witness of good standing ... describes how the town was set on fire systematically in six different places.... Not less than 140 houses were burnt. On the 25th the hospital was set on fire with inflammable pastilles, the pretext being that soldiers in the hospital had fired upon the Germans.

Dinant.—The town was systematically set on fire by hand grenades.... The houses and villages were pillaged and property wantonly destroyed.

AtMorlanwelz, about this time, the British Army, together with some French cavalry, were compelled to retire before theGerman troops. The latter took the burgomaster and his manservant prisoner and shot them both in front of the Hotel de Ville at Péronne (Belgium), where the bodies were left in the street for 48 hours. They burnt the Hotel de Ville and 62 houses. The usual accusation of firing by civilians was made. It is strenuously denied by the witness, who declares that three or four days before the arrival of the Germans, circulars had been distributed to every house and placards had been posted in the town ordering the deposit of all firearms at the Hotel de Ville, and that this order had been complied with.

Erpe.—The village was deliberately burnt.

Termonde.—The town was partially burnt. One witness was taken prisoner in the street by some German soldiers, together with several other civilians. At about 12 o'clock on the 5th some of the tallest and strongest men amongst the prisoners were picked out to go round the streets with paraffin. Three or four carts containing paraffin tanks were brought up, and a syringe was used to put paraffin on to the houses, which were then fired. The process of destruction began with the houses of rich people, and afterwards the houses of the poorer classes were treated in the same manner.

Herve.—From the 8th to the 10th over 300 houses were burnt.

Visé.—On or about the 14th and 15th the village was completely destroyed. Officers directed the incendiaries, who worked methodically with benzine.

Diary of Eitel Anders, a German soldier.—"We crossed the Belgian frontier on August 15th, 1914, at 11.50 in the forenoon, and then we went steadily along the main road till we got into Belgium. Hardly were we there when we had a horrible sight. Houses were burnt down.... Not one of the hundreds of houses were spared. Everything was plundered and burnt."

Diary of Matbern, of the 4th Company of Jägers, states that at a village between Birnal and Dinant, on Sunday, August 23rd, "about 220 inhabitants were shot, and the village was burnt.... All villages, chateaux and houses are burnt down during the night. It is a beautiful sight to see the fires all round us in the distance."

Looting.

The German troops, both in Belgium and France, are proved to have been guilty of persistent looting. In the majority of cases the looting took place from houses, but there is also evidence that German soldiers, and even officers, robbed their prisoners, both civil and military, of sums of money and other portable possessions. It was apparently well known throughout the German Army that towns and villages would be burned whenever it appeared that any civilians had fired upon the German troops, and there is reason to suspect that this known intention of the German military authorities in some cases explains the sequence of events which led up to the burning and sacking of a town or village. The soldiers, knowing that they would have an opportunity of plunder if the place was condemned, had a motive for arranging some incident which would provide the necessary excuse for condemnation. More than one witness alleges that shots coming from the window of a house were fired by German soldiers, who had forced their way into the house for the purpose of thus creating an alarm.

Aerschot.—Throughout the day the town was looted by the soldiers.

Visé.—Antiques and china were removed from the houses before their destruction by officers who guarded the plunder, revolver in hand.

A 171

Translated extract from diary of Stephan Luther: "We live like God in France."

A 181

Translated extracts from the field notebook of an officer in the 178th Regiment, XIIth (Saxon) Corps: "August 17th.—In the afternoon I had a look at the little chateau belonging to one of the King's Secretaries (not at home). Our men had behaved like regular vandals. They had looted the cellar first.... Everything was topsy-turvy—magnificent furniture, silk, and even china.... I am sure they must have taken away a heap of useless stuff simply for the pleasure of looting."

A 182

"September 3rd.—Still at Rethel, ... the houses are charming inside. The middle class in France has magnificent furniture.... Every bit of furniture broken, mirrors smashed. The Vandals themselves could not have done more damage. This place is a disgrace to our army."

"I could not resist taking a little memento myself here and there."

Article 47 of the Second International Peace Conference (Convention concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land), held at the Hague in 1907, reads as follows:—Pillage is expressly forbidden.

Article 47 of the Second International Peace Conference (Convention concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land), held at the Hague in 1907, reads as follows:—

Pillage is expressly forbidden.

"The Committee have come to a definite conclusion upon each of the heads under which the evidence has been classified.

"It is proved:—"(i)That there were in many parts of Belgium deliberate and systematically organised 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."Sensible as they are of the gravity of these conclusions, the Committee conceive that they would be doing less than their duty if they failed to record them as fully established by the evidence.Murder, lust, and pillage prevailed over many parts of Belgium on a scale unparalleled in any war between civilised nations during the last three centuries."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."

"It is proved:—

"(i)That there were in many parts of Belgium deliberate and systematically organised 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.

"Sensible as they are of the gravity of these conclusions, the Committee conceive that they would be doing less than their duty if they failed to record them as fully established by the evidence.Murder, lust, and pillage prevailed over many parts of Belgium on a scale unparalleled in any war between civilised nations during the last three centuries.

"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."

Is YOUR conscience roused? Won't YOU take the most effective way of showing it—if you are a man under 40 and fit? The only way to put a stop to these and other crimes is to crush the German Army.YOU can help either by joining the Army or by making munitions. Place YOUR services at the disposal of the military authorities.If YOU are a woman, cannot you help a man to decide?

Is YOUR conscience roused? Won't YOU take the most effective way of showing it—if you are a man under 40 and fit? The only way to put a stop to these and other crimes is to crush the German Army.

YOU can help either by joining the Army or by making munitions. Place YOUR services at the disposal of the military authorities.

If YOU are a woman, cannot you help a man to decide?

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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ALLEGED GERMAN OUTRAGES,38 pages, F'cap. folio, with 2 maps. [Cd. 7894.]Price 6d.APPENDIX TO REPORT,199 pages, F'cap. folio. Depositions, diaries and plates. [Cd. 7895.]Price 1s.9d.The above have been reprinted as Official Publications, insmaller (octavo) size:—Report, 64 pages, with 2 mapsPrice 3d.Report, 48 pages, without maps" 1d.Depositions, 288 pages, with 8 plates" 6d.

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Transcriber's NoteObvious punctuation errors were corrected.Inconsistent hyphenation was made consistent.P. 17: Rotselaer and Wespelaer -> Rotselaar and Wespelaar.

Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.

Inconsistent hyphenation was made consistent.

P. 17: Rotselaer and Wespelaer -> Rotselaar and Wespelaar.

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