MURDER, LUST, AND PILLAGE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2461, 14 May 1915, Page 5

MURDER, LUST, AND PILLAGE

GERMAN ATROCITIES IN BELGIUM

REPORT OF LORD BRYCE'S

COMMITTEE

CHARGES PROVED

London, May 12. A Blue Book containing the report of the Commission, headed by Viscount Bryco, ivhiclf inquired into the alleged atrocities by Germans in Belgium, has been published. It states that it has proved that there were deliberate, systematic, and organised massacres of the civil population in many parts of Belgium. Women and children had been used as a shield by advancing Germans. Murder, lust, and pillage prevailed oil a scale unparalleled in any war by civilised nations during past three centuries. (Rec. May 13, 8.15 p..m) London, May 13. _ The report is based on 1200 depositions, all taken by men of legal experience, instructed _ not to lead the witnesses, but to_ impress them with the necessity for giving careful and precise evidence. They rejected evidence tainted by excitement and over-strained emotions, and also hearsay statements except when confirmed by direct testimony. Choulish Excesses. The artocities commenced on August4, when fifty men. escaping from # burning house at Herve, were taken outside the town and shot. Evou children were killed.

Forty others were shot at Melen, and wliolesnlo slaughter occurred at Micheroux and Soumamie; These outrages were due to German exasperation at the resistance of Fort Fleron, which was barring tlio main road to Liege. Enraged at their losses, suspicious of the temper of the civilians, and thinking to cow the Uelgian nation, the German officers and men speedily accustomed themselves to the slaughter of civilians.

One German diary shows that tlio soldiors gave themselves up to debauchery in tlio streets of Liege, and raped from fifteen to twenty women, in open day, upon tables, in the Place do l'Universitie. Fart of 3 Qollborato Pl?n, "Thn birder military tiiiM'pi'iUpii sucuuiage iliu circulmiou of clones about

German soldiers' eyes being gouged out, treacherous murders, poisoned food, and these tales were dinned into the ears of tho troops for the sake of justifying the measures taken to terrify the population. Individual acts of brutalitv were very widely committed, but the gravest charge against Germany is that, the killing of civilians was part of a deliberate plan. "If a line be drawn from the Belgian frontier to Liege, and continued to Charleroi, and a second line be drawn from Liege to Malines, along this irregular figure, most of' the systematic outrages were committed. The first series of outrages is connected with the unexpected resistance of the Belgians at Liege. The slaughter from the 19tli to the end of August was due to the later Belgian resistance. Outrages were general, while General von Bulow and von Hausen were attacking Namur or.d Dinant, and an outburst of cruelty followed the Belgian victory at Malines. The Committee was especially impressed by the shocking outrages in the smaller villages, showing that after the troops had been encouraged in their career of terrorism the more savage and brutal natures committed wild excesses in regions not subject to observation by their superior officers. On many of the bodies of dead Women, found at iilalines, were bayonet wounds; in several cases breasts had been cut off; _ girls had been dragged into a field, stripped, and violated—some were bayoneted.

"A child of three was"found nailed to a farmhouse by its hands and feet,

The Holooaust at Louvaln.

"When fifteen hundred people of Aershot were marched to Louvain, some of them fell by the road-side, and an officer on a bicycle shouted; 'Shoot them

"The devastation of Louvnin, and the holocaust of the population, was duo to th© Germans' desire to wreak vengeance after their defeat. There is no evidence that the inhabitants fired on the Germans, though there is proof that Germans fired 011 Germans. Some officers said that they were acting with great unwillingness, and would ,be executed if tlioy did not ohcy. "Diaries show that the First Regiment of Foot-guards took a thousand prisoners on August 2<l last, and shot five hundred of them at tlioir base.

"Children were roped together, and used as a military screen. "Throe soldiors went into action carrying young cliildron as a protection against ilank fire." • Doctrine of Friglitfulncss. The report concludes: "Tito Prussian officers regard war as a sort of sacred mission, ordinary morality being superseded br it iirw ntandnrd Justifying anytbiuj?. ivbicb conduces to euocean, boiv.

ever shocking ond revolting. This doctrine, proclaimed by the heads of the army, permeated the officers'and even affected the privates, leading them to justify the killing of non-combatants, and accustoming them to the slaughtering of women and children. The doctrine is plainly sot out in the German official monograph upon tho usages of war."

THE BRITISH COMMITTEE. The personnel of the British Committee was as follows:— Viscount Bryce (chairman): Sir Frederick Pollock, Sir Edward Clarke, Six Alfred Hopkinson, Professor H. A. L. Fisher, and Mr. Harold Cox.

A LIBEL ON THE ZULUS. London, May 12. Mr. Harcourt (Secretary of Stato for the _ Colonies) informed Mr. Houston. (Unionist) that it was impoEßible to employ Zulus in Flanders.

Mr. Houston: "Have the Zulus ever been guilty of atrocities like those of the Germans?"

Mr. Harcourt: "No, sir; I should never make such a suggestion."