ATROCITIES IN BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2261, 22 September 1914, Page 5

ATROCITIES IN BELGIUM

MORE EVIDENCE COLLECTED COMMISSION'S REPORT London, September 20. The Belgium Commission's third report states that between 6000 and 8000 inhabitants of Louvain were confined for a whole night in a riding school. The space was- so small that all had to stand. Several women lost their reason, and.a number of children died in. tlieir mother's arms. The Germans completely burned a religious establishment at Vise, and shot several citizens. The evidence emphasises the improbability of a rising- by a- disarmed population. Other witnesses declared that the first shots were fired by intoxicated Germans at their own officers. It is notorious that at the same period the Germans killed one another at the camp at Tesch. • Witnesses vouched that a Uhlan, officer ehot a man of eighty because ho shook his fist at intruding Germans who took his wife, aged seventy-eight, slit her forearms and fixed her by two bayonets thrust in a wall in order to compel her to disclose where her money was. The report continues:— / "A number of places situated in the triangle of Vilvordo, MaJines, and Louvain were plundered, partially destroyed, and the inhabitants shot without trial. Women, unable to escape, were exposed to the brutal instincts of the Germans. Allowing isolated cases of hostility, nothing justified the shooting, burning, and pillaging in nearjy the whole of Belgium. No provocation was proved in the'cases of Vise, Maisade, Louvain, Wavre, and Tecmonde. "Tlio Germans alleged that the Belgian Government had distributed arms to the inhabitants, that the Catholic clergy had preached a sort of holy war, and that "the women had been as ferocious as the men, but this was a tissue of falsehoods. Burgomasters had everywhere warned the inhabitants against acts of violence; -The true motive of the atrocities was to terrorise and demoralise the people, in accordance with the inhuman/theories of German military writers." The report adds that the Commission is only using facts, supported by trustworthy evidence.