BARBARISM IN WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 July 1915, Page 11 (Supplement)

BARBARISM IN WAR.

GERMAN ATROCITIES,

A RECORD OF INFAMY.

l-.vruAriN num iiki'hut ok t -;>vi. ■MiTTKH ,\i : IDJM'Ka IJV JiKI'L'ISII TAULiAUKXT. Tl'e report of tin- Committee appointed by (ho l;ri„,„ ,Mi„i.u-r of Hreal llrilam t» com-mor the evidence collected ( ~i behalf of the Hovernmcut as alh-rd t„ Miiv.. been committed by (; ( . r . man ini„[.s .lurinjr ti„. present war »-.,-, issued (.ii ,\|-:iy \-l. Tin. members „f ()„. committee, were: Lord Jlrvce ( ( -'"iir "mni Sir Frederick L'ollock.'iiart, KA-.; Sir I'.dward Clarke, K.IV Sir Kc,,.!,,, U'Kby K.C H.C.H.; Sir Alfr,-,l ]|„,,kiii- «'■.. K.C : .Mr. JI. A. J, ami Mr. Harold Cox—all men rt - the highest st.'.-ndini; in tlio field:, of la*, tli],; o Tii;iev and history, and 1 heir iindin-s were unanimous. " J't will 1,0 remembered that in September last, when the ( ,mntry u ,', s shocked by terrible stories of outrage committed in lioljmun. (lie novcrnniont undertook to make enquire into the reports, and .steps were taken to collect evidence from persons who were able to j;ive first-hand iiit'onuation. .■ The committee had also before them a niimlKT of diaries taken from the Herman dead. These are, of course, of ftreat importance, because they cannot possibly be suspected of bias. cnxnucT (;■)-'<ikihiaxs ix kklcipu MR IK. AND LMSTUICT. From the very of the operations the civilian population of the villages on the line of the Herman advance on l.ii-c wore made to experience the extreme horrors of war. A witness from Iferve (near the frontier) said: On August -1, l'.iU. ut llerve 1 saw at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon

near the station, live Uhlans; those were the' !ir,-t Herman troops I had seen. 'They uero followed by a Herman Oliver and some soldiers in » mo-tor-car. The men in the ear called out to a couple of younir fellows who were standing about. The .Young men, l)uin-g afraid, ran oil', and then the Hermans fired upon them -and killed one of tliem.

their hoio.es. '. . . About -HIM people lost their lives iii (his massacre. . . Ki-ht men bohniL'im/ to one family vent murdered. Another mail was placed clo.-e to a machine loiii, which was 'lived ihrnuuii iiim. His wife 'harrow. Tliere Here frcoueiil ouira-es in the country, round Xamur. A soldier at Maivhovc ietta, saw Hermans enter a farm in which (here w.i- a wounded uift-i. They pushed him into a shed and 'put straw inside. T; ' 1 ; (; >;''mens -et lire to the straw and Hie tarn, was soon „„ f ir ,, H f"e smoke b.-an all the Hermans came «""■■ • • '!''"' fanner and his family and Ihe wounded men mu,t have ail been burnt. -\.-\uni Kini-i). -V in-ofe-Mimal man says that Xamur was systematically set on Kre in. six dif'••"ciil places. About Mil houses were -unied altogether. Some days before he Herman entry the Jiekriai, aathorities had. put up notices warnim' the uopulation airain.-t .Loviii.- em pr',.v,,,ati'on to the Hermans, and none' of anv kind was -riven. On the li-illi tile ho-p'ital at Xamur was set on (ire with inflammable pastilles.

At Tamines. on the Mouse, and in uei-hhorin;.' places. „,;,„,. a-ed peoole women and chihlrcn. were deliberately murdered by the soldiers. ,\ woman at I amines saw a bov „f io shot on (lie village frrecn. and a day or two la'.-r i little «irl and lier two brothers, who were looking at (he soldic's. war- killed before, her eyes for no apparent r<.,v„ n On Anirust 2:!. a witness saw (h- public squar.. at Tamines littered ,vith .--oipses and found those of hi s wife and child.

My wife's body had a stab in the head and also one in the breast at the left, side. -My littl- ifirl had a stab in the neck. T also saw the body of the <.ure or the Church of Lcs AJloux. flis ears and one arm were cut and nearly severed from the body.

At 'Monl.iany-siu'-s'aiiilirc incendiaries "'itii a distinctive bn.ljre on their arm's wont <Tnwn tlio. mum street with b a , s from which they throw handful* of cvplosive pa-tillos into the houses. Tn the. mam street 130 houses were burned. At .linnet a wounded irirl who had .hidden in an oven was fired at liv a German soldier: she died next day.' A witness at Charleroi "saw the Hermans putt Hi:: straw into the cellars of houses which had been burnt the dav before but in the cellars of which there were .still Jiving people, and sotting the straw HAPID DEMORALISATION-. I on lire." | A woman tells how—

Villages were burned and pillaged, civilians of lmtli sexes shot indiscriminately, and batches of selected mules executed under an organised system. Tims at Ilerve 30 men escaping from burning houses were seized and shot outside the town; and fit Melon JO men were shot. In one household the father and mother were shot, and a daughter of 22, having heen 'outraged, died because of the violence she. had received.

Enraged by the losses which they had sustained through the resistance of Fort Heron, suspicious of the temper of the civilian 'population, and probably thinking that by exceptional severities at the outset they could crush the spirit of the Belgian nation, the Herman oflieers and men speedily accustomed themselves to the slaughter of civilians. How rapidly the process was effected is illustrated hy an entry in the diary of Kurt Hoffman, who on August 5 was in front of Fort Fleron. ''The position/' he pays, "was dangerous. As suspicious civilians were hanging about, live liouses were cleared, the owners arrested (and idiot the following day)."

At Heure le Romain the, burgomaster's brother and the ipriest were bayoneted. At Ilerve soldiers shot into door*-and windows of burning liouses to prevent the escape of inmates. Vise was completely destroyed.

I saw commissioned oflieers directing and supervising the burning. It was done systematically with the use of benzine spread on the floors and then lighted, hi my own ami another house I saw oflieers before the burning comem with their revolvers in their hands, and hare china, valuable antique furniture and other such things removed. This being done, the houses were by their orders set on fire. On the morn- 1 nig of August 15 two officers inspected my house, and finding there was nothing worth taking, 'they wrote and mgnwl a paper directing the house to j he spared, and pinned it an the door. Then when the valuables had been removed the place was burnt down. I took the paper off the door and preserved it. I The original paper was produced to the committee. • On August 10 (said another witness) the Hermans took me prisoner at my house (at Flemalel Grande). . . . On my way I met Mrs. , a neighbor. 'She told me that some German soldiers bad driven her daughter up info a loft to rape her. She was S'/> nu.uths gone in pregnancy. Two of tin-in raped her, The child was born the following day. DEBAUCHERY AT LIEGE. An entry in a German diary shows that on August 1!) the soldiers" gave themselves ii]i to debauchery at Liege, and next day there was a massacre in the streets. General Koleur said that the troops had been fired at by students. The diary states: "In the night the inhabitants became mutinous. Forty persons were shot, and 15 houses demolished." The Belgian witnesses deny that there was any provocation: they say the affair was planned beforehand: 'm'ises were burned systematically with benzine, and the inmates were prevented by rifle fire from c.-vaping. The next day flu-re were numerous murders and outrages. A soldier describes the rape in open day of 15 or 20 women in the Place de l'Cniversite.

While this was going on about 70 Germans were standing round the women, including five officers. The oflieers started it. . . Many of the women fainted and showed no signs of life.

Similar crimes were general throughout, the district from the very beginning. The writer of one of the German diaries says:

We crossed the Belgian frontier on August l-> in the forenoon, and then went steadily till we got into .Belgium. Hardly were we there when we had a horrible sight. Houses were burnt down, the .inhabitants chased away and some of them shot. Not one of the hundreds of houses were spared. Everything was plundered and burnt. Hardly had we passed through this large, village before the next village was burnt, and so it went on continuously.

At Maichiennos an (Pout on August 7J- « younpr girl of 17 was killed by the Germans in a field behind the house in which she lived. I saw the body two days afterwards. . . The body was .piite naked, and the. breast cut and covered with blood. I was told that the girl, mistaking Hermans for English, cried. ••'Vivo>4ngleterre!" She was dragged from the lions,, mlo this lieM, outraged and killed.

The town ofTluy waa seized on August 12; Xanuir was attacked on the I<Mh. On tlie Mime day t,ICTe " was a massa<,re at Andqnne, which had 'been entered without opposition on the preceding day. The slaughter continued for over two hours, and intermittently throughout the night. Summarising the flTidence of responsible wit»«Bc4 *e report «*ys:—

When Hit' tire .slackuicd, about 7 1 o'clock, in:!i!y „f the townspeople lied ; in the direction of the ipmuTios; others remained \w their lunges. Al this moment the whole in' the district round the .station was on lire and houses were llaminu; over a distance of two kilometres. ' At li o'clock on the following morning, the -21st, the (iennan.s began to diae. the inhabitants from

Tim DIXAXT CRIME

I'."' diary of a ,Saxon ollicer throws considerable light on the proceedings of the Herman army in the. country between Dinant and Uethel. lleiv are some extracts:—

August 2.1.-Twn (1-inch howitzers succeeded in getting into position, and mi *) shots reduced the village of Rouvincs to ruins. . . The sight of the bodies of all the inhabitants who had been .shot was indescribable. Every house in the whole village was destroyed. We dragged the villagers one after another out of the most unlikely corners. The men were shot as well as the women and children who were in the convent, and we burnt it afterwards. The inhabitants might have es.aped the penalty by paying U.WIO francs. August 2fi.—We marched to Xlsmes. • ■ . . I hope there will be no more such horrors. At Leppe apparently -'f«i men were shot. ■September 3.—Still at Bethel. . . The barbarians of the middle a"es themselves could, not have done more damage. This place is a disgrace to our army. . . . The column commanders are responsible for the greater part of the damage. . . The Aerschot, Malines, Vilvorde and Louvaiu Quadrangle passed into the hands of the enemy on August 111. and "became from that date a seem- of chronic outrage," with respect to which the committee received a mass of evidence. The arrival of he Germans was marked by systematic mass-acres and other outrages. AERSCHOT AND DISTRICT. The story of Aerschot is fairly well known, but the committee's conclusions are of interest:— The Gorman army entered Aerschot (on August 111). The bouses were set on fire with special apparatus, while 'people were dragged from their bouses already burning, and some were shot in the streets. ' . . . (in the following day a number of the civilians were shot, under the orders of an ollicer. together with the Burgomaster, his brother, and his son. CROSS OUTRAGES. Immediately after the battle of Malines a long series of murders were committed during the retreat of the army. Many of the inhabitants, who were unarmed, including women and young children, were killed, and the evidence goes to show that the death of these villagers was due to deliberate, purpose. The witness in (Malines saw a German soldier cut a woman's breasts off after he had murdered her, and saw many other dead bodies of women in the streets. A married woman saw a soldier drive his bayonet into the stomach of a child two years old, and carry it away on his bayonet, "he and his comrades still singing." In Tlofstade many corpses were seen, in houses and in the streets. A young man had had his wrists cut. A boy of five or six had had his hands nearly severed. Women and children had been bayoneted. A young woman had had he i' breasts cut off. Other horrible tales were told of Weerde, TCp|ieghem, Elewt, ViWorde, ITercnt, Haccht and Werchter. Here is one incident, described by a workman:— 'At Brabant I sair a priest ill-treat-ed; he ivaa an old man of 7S or 80 Tears of age. He was brought up with the other prisoners, he «ould »ot •walk fast enough; he was drl?ei» •■ vWk blow* itom butt with w nfle*

mid knocked down. . . A soldier thrust his bayonet into hi.; nee'; at shot, hub (he ollher >aid, "Thai/:, 1,,., hind a 1 :■>■ and did n„t return. TYTiCAI, TASKS. When tin; IVI-hut ro.<ched Wcvhter mv ,„.,■«,,.„ ~,.,,. ,■„.,„,, ~,,,,, ill a, house. The peopi,. ihcre sli( | ,j,..; tile family v.a . .-hut f i a -r-.; so cine of Ihe ih-imaas, and the lamily helped her. Aersehoi in September I'oimd the bodies of many murder..,! eiiilian,;; s.mie ;,,.,,,

(heir house-, At llnecht the T.ele-ians found a. child ,<( hvi, nailed tu the'door of a rami by ~s hanh, and feet, and in hi w!m ha,riU."''sia!unl.he'f!,ia'hea'L ™* is a. crime, s:ivs Ihe committee, •'which see;,, . almost incredible, hut. the evidence cf which He feel bound to accept'' At ('apelie-iiii-lloiri two children 'v.'te murdered in a enrt and their corpses ivf'p seen by many witnesses. two was seen pinned to'lhe around with a Ocrman lance, and a. mutilated woman, mud with ruin, was met on the road near Weenie. TUiO S.U'K OF I.urVAIW MASSAC'JJ!-:. Fill!.; AND DKSTKrCTlu\\ The commit;,,, had hefove then, a very vahmbe nuts, ~i evidence from Wiliies.e.; of repute of what occurred in L.ouvnhi.

Oii tiie evening of the vyith firin" eoell lm heard some three kilometres from 1.-ouvani. Ait alarm was sounded in the '■'■ly. 'lheu the, coiais of incemiiaries g»f to work.

<>'> tlu- -ililli. In the cite of l.onvain. inns-acre, .lie and <lfstnifti.ni went on. J iii: I nivcrsiiy. (In- church „f St. Peter a:i<[ many l.oi-sci wore l mn it to the' ground. Citi/,. 1: -. were shot, and others taken prisoner,,. A workman ''saw one woman lying i:i the street who had lieeu c ; ,lt "' two- ... I saw another soldier dragging a woman along the street by tiie innr. l also saw a soldier carrying a man's head on the end of his bayonet/' An educated mniuiii describes tlii- mutilation of a. little girl six years ol,|. .Many of the people hid i„ cellars, hut ti'.e soldier.-, shot down through the gratings.

(In the -Ml, the prisoners were marched along- the _Mnlii-.es road. Of the corpse-; seen oil the'' -.ml some hail their liands tied behind their backs, others Were burnt, some had been killed by bloivs. and m.iiic corpses were those of children who had been shot. A L'AWVI-ATKii POLICY.' The ill-treatment of the prisoners was under the eyes and often by the direction of ollieers. and ollieers themselves took -part in it. ... " It is to be noticed that cases oe.ur in tile depositions in which humane acts by individual ollieers and soldiers are 'mentioned, or in which ollieers are said to have expressed regret at being ohligcd to carry out orders for eruelactions against the civilians. . . . :\Ve are driven to tin- conclusion that '• tile burning of a large part of LouViiin, the massacres there, the marching cut of the prisoners, and the transport to Cologne were due to a calculated policy carried out scientifically and deliberately, not merely with the sanction but under the direction of higher military authorities, and wore not due to any provocation or resistance by the civilian population. I'lie 'Hermans were hi Ternionde from September 4to (i. In the lighting in the town, sins a witness, "the tiwua-ns ''placed thei'r riiles on the siioiihie*. of the civilians and fired at the Belgian soldiers, who returned the lire. Forty of the -civilians were thus killed by their own countrymen.''

The disregard for the lives of civilians is strikingly shown in extracts from German (soldiers' diaries, of which the following are representative examples. Bombadior 'Wetzel, Ist Kurhessiau Field Artillery Ucgimmit, records an incident which happened near Lille on October 11:—"We had no light, but we caught; about id men and siiot them." J!y j this time killing not in a light would I seem to have passed into a habit. A soldier in the First Uegiment of Loot Guards was at Lrmcton on August 24: "We took about HMD prisoners. At least SCO were shot." COXCLI'.SIOXN (Mo THE COMMITTEE. A distinction may be drawn between two classes of outrages. Individual acts of lirutalitv were very widelv committed. In ail wars many shocking and outrageous acts must, lie expected. 'ln the prccnt war (say the committee)—and this, is the gravest charge against the German army—the ev'uie'.'.ce -. 1.0 v... V.::\'„ the killing' of 11011ecinliatnnls was carried to an extent Tor which no previous war between nations claiming lo be civilised fur- . nisl.es any precedent. That this kill, ing was, done as part of a, deliberate plan is clear from the facts hereinbefore, set forth. The killing was done under orders in each place. Jt began at a certain lixed date, and stopfer 1 , at another lixed dale. Some of the

ollicers who carried out the wc,.-k did it reluctantly, and said thev were

olieying directions from their chiefs. The same remarks apply to the destruction of property. House burning was part of the programme; and villages, even large parts of a city, were given to the flames as part of the terrorising policy.

Tin- Gorman Government liave sought to justify their severities on the grounds of military necessity. An invading army may lie entitled to shoot at sight n civilian caught redhanded, or anyone, who, though not caught red-handed, is proved guilty o» eii()uiry. But the practice followed ■by the German troops was: they seized the civilians of the, village indiscriminately and killed them, or snch as they selected from among them. "T am merely executing orders, and T should he, shot if I. did not execute them," said an officer to a witness at Louvain. At .Brussels another officer says: "I liave not done one-hundredth part of what we liavo I>een ordered to do hy the high Herman military authorities." As we liave already observed, it would be unjust to charge upon the German army generally acts of cruelty wliieh. whether due to drunkenness or not. were done hv men of brutal instiscts and unbridled passions. Sttd the soldiers not been set to work to slaughter civilians, there would have ■been fewer of those painful cases in trliiet a depraved and morbid cruelty appears. MOTTOETW OF NIW TTT-B. Two classes of murders i» particular repairs f*p«*iri Wentiw, bewnse dm

■ of |hem is almost new. and the other altogether unprecedented. The former is li:,. ~-i/ere „; peaceful citizens as s,: called iuctnsa :,, Is. i,,p'„ a- a I'l'dgc far II:,. ~,a in-!, of the civil population, or as a menis io secure Mime military advantage. , : , ,„ l(li;i . i l ' l p.c.Mn,,it „f ;; . coal rihii t ion. tiltkost;'.;o., hem- shot if the condition >:■■■■*■■ ! ! '■':■ Ihe arbbraiv will of the invader is , ,',p;.j, .1, ' Nu .;, 1,,,..,,. '■': v - ;,r : '■■! I." ' '•<'.■;. principle of ju;- '■'.'•' '■"■ ■ •'"'■'i'.iuy. T!:e biter kind •;; : : '.'.//;;,/• „f the im,„- '';,..' "' '.' < ' i l '!".'l'" .■ yomeoju in the <,:::llll l>h' r.nd 110 justiT-athm has been '"' r ' iil »•■ pie-tded. . . . Such aci- "'''_'. '';". ly l •' o '■■';'•:'. -.',.r iniHiernee is I' : '' :;,; "■ •', -ye. i c\, 11 in war. Thev , .';; u . ! u ;'!> ;im: lZ eu:,.;,i u ,„| :l i, llosii .; : ' ! '.i'-:v''i:i.;y that tl:,. ~ ,;,(,„ ; : ri ' : ; i! i 1 depositions i,dating |„ >,'Ti'.:hig other towns and \'i!latrc, ' |!l '- ruiiiulat've eifecl, of such a mass of concurrent icsHmoiiv hj,.„, i,.,■,,'. »<'[*"<: r.nd v were 'driven to the -■< >Hi'-sinn lint the things described had really haepcued. The .pmstion <'"•» aro,e how thev couh! have hanpolled . The ~,,,.,, receatlv eonimitteil in [iclgiimi were, moreover too widespread and to,, uniform i,i their character to lie mere ,• air-die outbursts of p;,,,i, in . T |„. ..v,,,.,,,,,. lion seems to he thai, tlle<e excesses were committed, on a system and in pursuance, of a set, purpose. TI-IKAT.MICNT OF CIVIL roiTLATION. KTUdNt; of xon'-comv.atants. Kmmgh has hen said as to the killing 01 civilian-, in Uelgium. .Similar outrayc ; continiieil as the Clcniuni armies ?■■;, '',[.'-■: ] T - ki :-, f »r <'^»- h'y ;' ;h ' ! :; y" v ''" "'■> F:uriish non-coni-

During the retirement o'. (he CVrmans after the 'Man.e about Sontom l)or IK ov 17, I was on patrol duty in

coargo of live privates. . . We were Kenrching a village, for a nalrol of ■{■. nails at :).:!(> ~.,„.; W o found them '» ii li'Jiise: aliout 10 -ot out.-ide, but we did net let them net to their horses ami we killed them all.' ] searched riic house: everylhbig was in disorder. vn the floor in the corner near the 1: '-> V'«<'<' I "•■«■ tv.-.. "omen and two rliildi.-n. One () f the women was dead. I,'or left arm had been cut oil' just l.e'ow the elbow. The floor was covered with blood. . . The other woman was just alive, but quite iiiicomeious. Her rijrht lei' had been cut oil' above the knee. '. . There were two little children, a boy about fom- and a. girl of about six'. The lioy's left had was cut oil' at the wrist and the -ill's ri K ht hand at the same place. '['hey were both <|uito de:ul. I'rom the very first ivmnon were not wife. At Liege a witness gives ;-. story of how women were publicly ra'ped in tile market place of the city'; young (Jernian ollieers assisting. At Aorsrhot men and women were deliberately shot when coming out of buniiug houses. At Liege and f.ouvain women were burned („ .Jeatli because 'tliey were prevented from escaping liy il.'erinan soldiers. A humane Cermaii officer, witnessinjr the niin of Aerseot. exclaims in disgust: "! am a father myself, and 1 cannot boar this. Tt is not war, but butchery."

Tt is right to say that there is evidence tending to show that aggravated whiles against women were sometimes severely punished, but during the German retreat, on (lie Aisnc. manv women and girls were violated and killed. Wo find many well-established cases of the slaughter (often accompanied hy mutilation) of whole families, including not. infreimently that of quite w.nall ehildreu. In two cases jt seems to he clear that proparalions were made to burn a family alive. . . . The authorities mist liav.' known, or ought to -have known, flu.t cruelties of this character were being perpetrated, nor can anyone doubt 'nat they could

have been stopped by action on the part of the heads of the German army. KJLLLYG TUU WOUXDED AXD MUSONKRfi.

Such acts may not in all cases he deliberate and cold-blood violations of the usages of war. There may sometimes be. extenuating circumstances, lint the committee say that— 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 1 as to lie incapable of lighting further wen' wantonly shot or bayoneted. . .

111 eases of firing on hospitals, lied Cress ambulances, or stretcher bearers, there is obvious dilliculty in proving intention, especially in these days of longrange artillery lire. There is abundant testimony as to firing on stretcherbearers.

Cases of the Red Cross being abused are much more definite. There are several accounts of lire being opened, sometimes at very short range, by machineguns which had been disguised in a, German lied Cross ambulance: this was aggravated in one case near Tirlemont by the ficrman soldiers wearing Belgian uniforms. There is also a well-attested case of a. Bed Cross motor-car being used to carry ammiiniton under command of ollicers.' Tnless these statements are wilfully false, which the committee see'.', no reason to believe, these acts must have been deliberate, and it does not seem possible that ii Bed Cross car could, be equipped with a, machine-gun by soldiers acting without orders. There is also one case of firing from a cottage where tile Tied Cross was flying, and this could not be. accidental. Cases of the abuse of the white Hag are, numerous, (Sometimes a whole unit advanced as if to surrender, or let the other side advance to receive the pretended surrender, and (hen opened lire. Under this, bead we find many depositions by British soldiers and several by officers. In some cases the firing wa.i from si machine-gun brought up under cover of the white flag. There, is. in our opinion, suflieient evidence that these, offences have been •frequent, deliberate, and in many cases committed by whole units under orders. All the acts mentioned in this part of tin! report are in contravention of the Hague Convention. G ENKT? AL COXC LOSIOXS. DEEDS TTNPABALLF/LED FOB 300 YEARS. ■ The coiomitteo say that they have some to a definite conclusion upon eack of the heads under ■which the evidence has been classified. It ia proved:—

■ (i) Thai, there were in ninny parts of IVhrium deliberate ami system/:ii.:i:;. organised massicr'os of Ihe livdised population, aiTOin. yanied by nianv \minted murders and other .mtrnnc■-. (b.) That in the conduct, of the. Will' generally iniioeent civilians, liotli men anil women, were shot ir. Inr;,'(! numbers, women wolaled and children murdered. (iii.l That bad in;,' hou.-o-buniinj:, and I he wanton destruction of properly v.vre ~l'dei-ed and coiinli'iiaiKvil !>y tlm .dlieers, of the Herman army, that elahoraie provision ha,! he: n made lor svslcmntie ineemiian,,„ at the verv outbrenl: of tl'.e war. and that tile burning and do-f ruction were frequent where no militarr neee-Mtv could he allcyed heim? indeed part or r. ■ system in ;<eiiei'a! ferrorisatiori. (iv.i That 111.- rule-: end usages of way wrro frequently broken, particularly by (lie usine- of civilians, •':;- cliidin,-- v.-o:iir u and children, as a shield !oi' advaiicitiu; farces cxposed to lire, liy kiilin';.' the wounded mid prisoners, and in the frequent i'l '" th«. Ib-d Cross and the white i!a^'. Sensible as they are of the jrruviiy of these eonelusions. (he eoniniittee conceive that (hey would be iloin" less tlian their duty if lilev failed to record theiras fully established by the evidence. Murder, lust .and milage 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, out we may be .permitted to express our belief (hat these disdosurs will not havebeen made in vain if they touch and rouse, the con>cicu.-e 0 f mankind, and we venture to hoyic that as soon as the present war is over, the nations of the i world in council will consider wlmt .moans <an be provided and sanctions devised to prevent the recurrence of such horrors as our .feneration is now witnessing. i With these words the report closes. I The conclusions will carry all the mo:--' j wcijrlit became of the judicial spirit i shown throughout, and the obviously | open-minded manner in which the com- i mittce,approached their task. Some j people'hare hitherto persuaded them-! selves, that the tale of horrors reported I from "riehriiini must be exaggerated. I There in now overwhelming evidence ' that irhal has happened is worse thai'. ! we had been told. j S