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Title: German Atrocities
       A Record of Shameless Deeds

Author: William le Queux

Release Date: May 16, 2016 [EBook #52082]

Language: English

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{2} 

England Invaded

The Invasion

GEORGE NEWNES, LTD.,

8-11, Southampton Street, Strand,
London, W.C.

England Triumphant

{3}

THE MEN RESPONSIBLE.

THE KAISER. Photo, Stanley and Co.
CHANCELLOR VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG. Photo, Stanley and Co.		GENERAL VON MOLTKE. Photo, Record Press.
		Face title-page.

GERMAN
ATROCITIES

A   R E C O R D   OF
SHAMELESS   DEEDS

BY
WILLIAM   LE   QUEUX



GEORGE NEWNES, LIMITED
LONDON

{5}

PREFACE

THIS fearful and disgraceful record of a Nation’s shame and of an Emperor’s complicity in atrocious crimes against God and man is no work of fiction, but a plain unvarnished statement of the grim and terrible work of the Kaiser’s Huns of Attila which I have considered it a duty to lay before the British public.

Modern Germany, frothing with military Nietzschism, seems to have returned to a primitive barbarism. Belgium, a peaceful modern nation, has been swept by fire and sword, and its honest, pious inhabitants tortured and massacred, not because the German soldiery desired to wreak such vengeance upon a people with whom they could have no quarrel, but because they had been encouraged “to act with unrelenting severity, to create examples which by their frightfulness would be a warning to the whole country.”

The wild orgies of blood and debauchery, the atrocious outrages, murders, and mutilations, the ruthless violation and killing of defenceless women, girls, and children of tender age, have been, it is now admitted by the Germans themselves, carried out with their full knowledge, and even as part of the actual plan of campaign of their War-Lords.

Germany, though boasting of her culture, her refinement, her honest home-life, and the peaceful efforts of her Emperor, has for ever lost her place among civilized nations. It now stands revealed that when her diplomatic methods of base chicanery and lying fail then she does not hesitate to resort to acts so dastardly and inhuman as to have no parallel. Not only has she broken her most solemn treaties and moral engagements, but all the rules of civilized warfare to which she was a signatory at The Hague she has also violated, merely regarding them as “a scrap of paper.”

Not content with resorting to every act of savagery and every refinement of cruelty which degenerated minds, filled with the{6} blood-lust of war, could conceive, her troops, by order of her generals, have made a practice all along the line of placing before them innocent women and children to act as a living screen, in the hope that the Allies would not, from motives of humanity, fire upon them.

One cannot read a single page of this awful record—the German Black Book—without being thrilled with horror at unspeakable acts of civilized troops, who, at the behest of their Kaiser, and the exposed yet still ruling camarilla at Berlin, have become simply as the Huns of Attila.

The contents of this book are no hearsay stories, but hard facts officially recorded in dossiers in the French and Belgian Ministries of War, most of them, indeed, sworn statements taken before burgomasters, mayors, prefects, and magistrates. Even our brave fellows wounded in the Kaiser’s savage attack upon Europe have brought back from the front similar narratives of the most appalling crimes. Evidence of German trickery and savagery we have, too, in our midst, for trains, sentries, and policemen have been shot at under cover of darkness by men who mean to emulate the methods of their compatriots.

The frightful deeds which have been done over the face of Belgium and in France are, no doubt, intended to be repeated in Great Britain, and, if it were possible, the Red Hand of Destruction would certainly be laid very heavy upon us—more heavily, perhaps, because we, by our honesty of purpose, have incurred the hatred of Kaiserdom.

I would bid all sufferers in Belgium and France to remember that when Attila of old came to Chalons, full of ostentation as the great War-Lord, he came to his own undoing, and his dominion at once disappeared to the winds. There is One with Whom vengeance lies for wrongs, and most assuredly will He mete out the same dread Fate of death and obscurity to the unblushing War-Lord of Germany, who, daily, with his blasphemous impiety, lifts his bloodstained hands and thanks his Maker for his shameful “successes.”

WILLIAM LE QUEUX.

{7} 

CONTENTS

{8}

{9}

FOREWORD

WHO WERE
THE HUNS OF ATTILA?

AUTHOR’S NOTE

In addition to the sworn facts and statements supplied officially to me by the Belgian Government, I have here included some others which have been recounted by wounded men who have returned from the front, by doctors who have attended them, and by the special correspondents of Reuter’s, the Central News, and other news agencies, and of the London and provincial newspapers.{11}

German Atrocities.

INTRODUCTION.

IT was a little over a month after the declaration of war that reports of great events began to crowd in upon us. Much had happened in that short space of time. The enormous forces of the Kaiser had forced back the line of the Allies well into France. We admired the huge machine at work. From a military point of view the rapidity of the advance of such an enormous body of men was something unique in warfare. It was not this wonderful achievement of the German army, however, it was not the equally wonderful resistance made by the Allies against overwhelming numbers, it was not the glorious record of Belgian,{12} French, and British heroism—which resulted in practically nothing being gained by their adversary—it was none of these things that aroused and amazed the nations of the civilized world. It was something very different which arrested their horrified wonder, something which, in the words of the Times, “will turn the hand of every civilized nation in the world against them” (the German nation).

The atrocious acts committed by the troops of the Kaiser have staggered the civilized world, and it must now be plain to the meanest intelligence that these atrocities and acts of inhuman barbarity were not the doings of soldiers intoxicated with the excitement of success in battle, or maddened to the point of avenging defeat, or to be ascribed to an unbridled license of irresponsible troops out of hand. There is no longer any doubt, even in minds slow to believe them, that deeds which bring the blush of shame to the cheek as we read of them have been perpetrated; there is as little doubt where the responsibility for them rests. It is with the Kaiser and the men around him.

Plain Speaking.

“Until now we have maintained an attitude of deliberate reserve upon the innumerable stories of German atrocities which have reached us,” says the Times. “We published without comment the unanswerable list of shocking excesses committed by the German troops, which was sent to England by the Belgian authorities.{13} When a German Zeppelin cast bombs upon ill-fated women asleep in their beds at Antwerp, we did no more than explain the bearings of international law upon conduct which has met with universal reprobation in Europe and America. But now the real object of German savagery is self-revealed, not only by the effacement of Louvain, but by the shameful admissions sent forth from the wireless station at Berlin. On Thursday night the following official notification regarding Belgium came vibrating through the air:—

What the Kaiser Said.

It was the Kaiser (addressing his troops in June, 1900, on their setting out for Peking) who said:—

And Who Was Attila?

It is worth while to recall the methods of this savage, for he was nothing better. In one expedition across Greece and in another across Italy he reduced seventy of the finest cities to smoking ruins and to shambles. The inhabitants were either slaughtered on the spot or marched away in chains to end their lives as slaves. Men, women, children, babies—all{15} came alike to this black demon of outrage and destruction. Briefly, the Monarch of the Huns may be best described as the worthy leader of one vast gang of Jack the Rippers.

And this is the blood-guilty ruffian whom the Kaiser now holds up as his exemplar! Judging by Louvain, he is no unworthy follower of his Master.

It was also the Kaiser who said, addressing his soldiers, “You must only have one will, and it is mine; there is only one law, and it is mine.”

And then again, I repeat, it was a Berlin wireless that flashed the official message:—

Need we seek further to fix the responsibility?

War Rights.

What are the rights of nations in a state of war? There are first of all the unwritten laws of nations and humanity which need, or should need, no defining amongst civilized peoples. There are also the definite and specific Acts laid down at The Hague Convention,{16} which it was declared by the signatories would not be legitimate in war between civilized nations. Germany was a signatory to The Hague Convention. At this Convention the Powers limited the rights of belligerents in the means to be adopted of injuring the enemy. Here are some of them:—

The law of civilized warfare was further made plain as follows:—

In other further Articles it was laid down that a belligerent is forbidden to force the inhabitants of territory occupied by him to furnish information about the army of the other belligerent, or about its means of defence. It was forbidden to confiscate private property, and also laid down that family honour and rights, the lives of persons, and private property, as well as religious convictions and practice, must be respected. Pillage was forbidden, and prisoners must be humanely treated.

Uncivilized Warfare.

Stories of German brutality and ruthless disregard of these rules of civilized warfare as set out above were, from the opening of the war, continually reaching England. At first the public were sceptical about such{18} tales of horror. Unfortunately, however, it was too clearly seen that the Germans made war in a manner which was very far from being civilized. Atrocities were being committed with a definite object—an object which was self-revealed, not only by the effacement of Louvain, “a shameless holocaust of irreparable treasures lit up by blind barbarian vengeance,” but by the disgraceful admissions sent forth from the German wireless station which I have already quoted.

The character of the warfare of these modern Huns was to terrorize the inhabitants of a hostile country, so that the invader might proceed on his way without fear of molestation. Therefore, the unspeakable crimes of the Kaiser’s forces have not even the excuse of being outbursts of national savagery. The shameful record contained in these pages are the cold and calculated brutalities of a nation who boasted of its “culture,” whose prayerful Emperor held up his hands to his Maker invoking success for his horde of ruthless barbarians, but who has shown that in war he respects no law of God, and regards the solemn treaties of nations as “scraps of paper.”

{19}

I.

Article XXIII. of The Hague Convention forbids:—“To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army.”

From almost the first day of the war this undertaking, given by Germany along with the other Great Powers, has been treated by her as a “scrap of paper.”

The fearful deeds of horror which have besmirched the name of Germany form a terrible page of history. They have been proved by captured Germans themselves to have been deliberate, and to have been actually ordered by officers as high in rank as colonels and majors, and to be part of the Kaiser’s preconceived plan. The murder of unarmed, inoffensive citizens, the hussar-like stroke of sowing neutral waters with death, the destruction of unfortified towns and the massacre of their inhabitants, the violation of women and young girls, the forcing of men, women, and children to march as shields in front of their troops, the murder of the wounded, the wholesale slaughter of non-combatants, the tortures, the mutilations, and the vile outrages are surely sins against humanity, and are bound to meet with an awful and just retribution. The blood of those martyred innocents cries aloud to God for vengeance, and such vengeance must surely come upon the Kaiser and the inhuman monsters surrounding him who have so deliberately urged on their wild assassins{20} to commit the unspeakable crimes reported during the first month of the war.

It must be remembered, in reading of these terrible atrocities, that while they were being committed on the defenceless on every hand, yet the Kaiser sent a telegram to the King of Würtemberg actually thanking the Almighty for the success of his marauders in their murderous campaign against women and children. The text of the Kaiser’s message was: “With God’s gracious assistance, Duke Albrecht and his splendid army have gained a glorious victory. You will join me in thanking the Almighty. I have bestowed on Albrecht the Iron Cross of the First and Second Class.—Wilhelm.” God’s gracious assistance!

The ruthless and utterly inexcusable barbarities committed by the German army were surely without parallel in the whole history of the world. The spectacle of racial degeneration which Germany displayed staggered civilization, and this awful story of murder, cruelty, and debauchery will surely remain for all time as a record of infamies which have eternally disgraced the German nation. About the apportionment of blame there must be no mistake. The Kaiser could have prevented it by a single word. But, condemned by his own speech, he and his people are alike responsible for the acts of the troops, and no differentiation can be made by right-thinking people.{21}

THE BELGIAN COMMISSION. Photo, Barratt.
Face p. 21.

II.

My Interview with Belgian Ministers of State.

In order that the civilized world should be acquainted with the terrible atrocities committed in Belgium, the King of the Belgians, who had served in the trenches with his men, disguised as a private soldier, appointed a Mission to proceed to the President of the United States and lay the case before him. The members of the Mission were:—

All these men are Belgian Ministers of State, and were accompanied by Count de Lichtervelde, who acted as Secretary to the Mission.

The members of this Mission first came to London to present an Address to the King. On the evening of the day these gentlemen were received by His Majesty, and later by Sir Edward Grey, I had the privilege of a private interview with them.

I had a long talk with M. Carton de Wiart, during which he unfolded to me many frightful details, and{22}

explained the reason for the appointment of a committee of inquiry. He described to me scenes he himself had witnessed. He laid stress upon the bombardment and destruction of open towns—that is, towns unprotected and undefended by any military works—such as Malines and Louvain; while Antwerp, being a fortified place, ought to have had twenty-four hours’ notice given to its inhabitants before it was attacked with bombs, yet no such notice was given. On the contrary, attacks by Zeppelins had been made without warning in the dead of night. He also described to me the atrocities committed by the Germans in the bombardment and setting fire to small villages without any military reason or necessity whatever. He related harrowing details of the massacre of perfectly innocent people, non-combatants, men, women, and children.

He showed me a letter from a person of repute in Belgium who had motored from Brussels to Louvain by the Tervueren road, in which I read: “After I got to a village named Veerde St. George I saw only burning villages; peasants beside themselves with terror threw up their arms in sign of submission on my approach.{23} When I got to Louvain I found the whole town in ruins, and soldiers were still piling straw against buildings which had escaped the flames and igniting them.”

Authenticated Documents.

The mass of documents which the Mission were carrying to America, he informed me, were all signed statements of persons who had been eye-witnesses of the atrocities, as well as those of many who had suffered.

In a chat I also had with M. Emile Van der Velde, another member of the Delegation and the leader of the Belgian Socialists, he said: “I went to Malines after the fighting, in order to investigate the state of affairs. I found only eight Belgian people in the town, but even then the Germans were bombarding the deserted houses, apparently with the sole object of destroying them. The whole object of the Germans,” he added, “had been to create such a reign of terror that the whole population of Belgium should flee into Antwerp, and so render it impossible for the people congregated there to be fed. I myself examined the bodies of a peasant and his son which had been cut to pieces by bayonet thrusts.”

Another member of the Delegation told me that he had learned from several wounded persons how a druggist living near Tirlemont, on refusing to act as guide to the Uhlans, was shot three times and then bayoneted; and further, in the same hospital, wounded soldiers had told him how that while lying upon the battlefield many had been bayoneted or shot.{24}

The Delegation had, earlier in the day on which I had this interview with them, presented an Address to His Majesty at Buckingham Palace, the text of which has been published. It ran:—

The King, in reply, said that he would support Belgium, and expressed his horror at the shocking report of German brutality.

The Belgian Minister’s Statements.

The delegation was subsequently received by Sir Edward Grey at the Foreign Office, where they outlined some of the violations of international law and of humanity committed by Germany, viz.:—

{26}

III.

Our own Press Bureau issued on the 25th August the following statement to the English Press:—

“The Belgian Minister has made the following statement:—

“In spite of solemn assurances of good will and long-standing treaty obligations, Germany has made a sudden savage and utterly unwarranted attack on Belgium.

“However sorely pressed she may be, Belgium will never fight unfairly and never stoop to infringe the laws and customs of legitimate warfare. She is putting up a brave fight against overwhelming odds; she may be beaten, she may be crushed, but, to quote our noble King’s words, ‘She will never be enslaved.’

“When German troops invaded our country, the Belgian Government issued public statements, which were placarded in every town, village, and hamlet, warning all civilians to abstain scrupulously from hostile acts against the enemy’s troops. The Belgian Press daily published similar notices broadcast through the land. Nevertheless, the German authorities have issued lately statements containing grave imputations against the attitude of the Belgian civilian population, threatening us at the same time with dire reprisals. These imputations{27} are contrary to the real facts of the case, and as to threats of further vengeance, no menace of odious reprisals on the part of the German troops will deter the Belgian Government from protesting before the civilized world against the fearful and atrocious crimes committed wilfully and deliberately by the invading hosts against helpless non-combatants, old men, women, and children.

“Long is the list of outrages committed by the German troops and appalling the details of atrocities, as vouched for by the Committee of Inquiry recently formed by the Belgian Minister of Justice and presided over by him. This committee comprises the highest judicial and University authorities of Belgium, such as Chief Justice Van Iseghem, Judge Nys, Professors Cottier, Wodon, etc.

“The following instances and particulars have been established by careful investigations, based in each case on the evidence of reliable eye-witnesses:—

“German cavalry occupying the village of Linsmeau were attacked by some Belgian infantry and two gendarmes. A German officer was killed by our troops during the fight and subsequently buried at the request of the Belgian officer in command. No one of the civilian population took part in the fighting at Linsmeau. Nevertheless, the village was invaded at dusk on August 10th by a strong force of German cavalry, artillery, and machine guns.{28}

“In spite of the formal assurances given by the Burgomaster of Linsmeau that none of the peasants had taken part in the previous fight, two farms and six outlying houses were destroyed by gun fire and burnt. All the male inhabitants were then compelled to come forward and hand over whatever arms they possessed. No recently discharged firearms were found.

“Farmer Jef Dierick, of Neerhespen, bears witness to the following acts of cruelty committed by German{29} cavalry at Orsmael and Neerhespen on August 10th, 11th, and 12th:—

“On Wednesday, August 12th, after an engagement at Haelen, Commandant Van Damme, so severely wounded that he was lying prone on his back, was finally murdered by German infantrymen firing their revolvers into his mouth.

“On Monday, August 10th, at Orsmael, the Germans picked up Commandant Knapen, very seriously wounded, propped him up against a tree, and shot him. Finally they hacked his corpse with swords.

“In different places, notably at Hollogue sur Geer, Barchon, Pontisse, Haelen, and Zelck, German troops have fired on doctors, ambulance bearers, ambulances, and ambulance wagons carrying the Red Cross.

“At Boncelles a body of German troops marched into battle carrying a Belgian flag.{30}

“On Thursday, August 6th, before a fort at Liége, German soldiers continued to fire on a party of Belgian soldiers (who were unarmed, and had been surrounded while digging a trench) after these had hoisted the white flag.

“On the same day, at Vottem, near the fort of Loncin, a group of German infantry hoisted the white flag. When Belgian soldiers approached to take them prisoners the Germans suddenly opened fire on them at close range.

“Harrowing reports of German savagery at Aerschot have reached the Belgian Government at Antwerp from official local sources. Thus on Tuesday, August 18th, the Belgian troops occupying a position in front of Aerschot received orders to retire without engaging the enemy. A small force was left behind to cover the retreat. This force resisted valiantly against overwhelming{31} German forces, and inflicted serious losses on them. Meanwhile, practically the whole civilian population of Aerschot, terrorized by the atrocities committed by the Germans in the neighbouring villages, had fled from the town.

“Next day, Wednesday, August 19th, German troops entered Aerschot, without a shot having been fired from the town and without any resistance whatever having been made. The few inhabitants that remained had closed their doors and windows in compliance with the general orders issued by the Belgian Government. Nevertheless, the Germans broke into the houses and told the inhabitants to quit.

“The German troops then retired for the day, only to return in greater numbers on the next day, Thursday, August 20th.

“They then compelled the inhabitants to leave their houses and marched them to a place two hundred yards from the town. There, without more ado, they shot M. Thielemans, the Burgomaster, his fifteen-year-old son, the clerk of the local judicial board, and ten prominent citizens. They then set fire to the town and destroyed it.

“The following statement was made by Commandant{32} Georges Gilson, of the 9th Infantry of the Line, now lying in hospital at Antwerp:—

“I was told to cover the retreat of our troops in front of Aerschot. During the action fought there on Wednesday, August 19th, between six and eight o’clock in the morning, suddenly I saw on the high road, between the German and Belgian forces, which were fighting at close range, a group of four women, with babies in their arms, and two little girls clinging to their skirts. Our men stopped firing till the women got through our lines, but the German machine guns went on firing all the time, and one of the women was wounded in the arm.

“This statement was made and duly certified in the Antwerp hospital on August 22nd by Commandant Gilson in the presence of the Chevalier Ernst N. Bunswyck, Chief Secretary to the Belgian Minister of Justice, and M. de Cartier de Marchienne, Belgian Minister to China.{33}

“Further German atrocities were continuously being brought to notice and made the subject of official and expert inquiry by the proper authorities.

“In publishing the above statements the only comment the Press Bureau can offer is, that these atrocities appear to be committed in villages and throughout the countryside with the deliberate intention of terrorizing the people, and so making it unnecessary to leave troops in occupation of small places, or to protect lines of communication. In larger places, like Brussels, where the diplomatic representatives of neutral Powers are eye-witnesses, there appear to have been no excesses.”

Such was the document issued by the Press Bureau. I have quoted it word for word (emphasizing only in italics or in heavy type certain passages).

{34}

IV.

The following is the second report issued by the Belgian Commission of Inquiry, and which was published by the British Official Press Bureau on September 15th, 1914.

Second Report of the Belgian Committee of Inquiry.

To M. Carton de Wiart, Minister of Justice, Antwerp.

Sir,—The Commission of Inquiry has the honour to make the following report on acts of which the town of Louvain, the neighbourhood, and the district of Malines have been the scene.

The German Army entered Louvain on Wednesday, August 19th, after having burned down the villages through which it had passed.

As soon as they had entered the town of Louvain the Germans requisitioned food and lodging for their troops. They went to all the banks of the town and took possession of the cash in hand. German soldiers burst open the doors of houses which had been abandoned by their inhabitants, pillaged them, and committed other excesses.

The German authorities took as hostages the mayor of the city, Senator Van der Kelen, the Vice-Rector of the Catholic University, and the senior priest of the city,{35} besides certain magistrates and aldermen. All the weapons possessed by the inhabitants, even fencing swords, had already been given up to the municipal authorities and placed by them in the Church of St. Pierre.

In a neighbouring village, Corbeek Loo, on Wednesday, August 19th, a young woman, aged twenty-two, whose husband was with the Army, and some of her relations, were surprised by a band of German soldiers. The persons who were with her were locked up in a deserted house, while she herself was dragged into another cottage, where she was assaulted by five soldiers.

Fate of 16-year-old Girl.

In the same village on Thursday, August 20, German soldiers fetched from their house a young girl, about sixteen years old, and her parents. They conducted them to a small deserted country house, and while some of them held back the father and mother, others entered the house, and, finding the cellar open, forced the girl to drink. They then brought her on to the lawn in front of the house and assaulted her. Finally they stabbed her in the breast with their bayonets.

When this young girl had been abandoned by them after these abominable deeds, she was brought back to her parents’ house, and the following day, in view of the gravity of her condition, she received extreme unction{36} from the parish priest and was taken to the hospital of Louvain, as her life was despaired of.

On August 24 and 25 Belgian troops made a sortie from the entrenched camp of Antwerp and attacked the German army before Malines. The Germans were thrown back on Louvain and Vilvorde.

On entering the villages which had been occupied by the enemy the Belgian army found them devastated. The Germans, as they retired, had pillaged and burnt the villages, taking with them the male inhabitants, whom they forced to march in front of them.

Belgian soldiers entering Hofstade on August 25 found the body of an old woman who had been killed by bayonet thrusts. She still held in her hand the needle with which she was sewing when she was killed. A woman and her fifteen or sixteen year old son lay on the ground, pierced by bayonets. A man had been hanged.

At Sempst, a neighbouring village, were found the bodies of two men partially carbonised. One of them had his legs cut off at the knees; the other had the arms and legs cut off. A workman, whose burnt body has been seen by several witnesses, had been struck several times with bayonets, and then, while still alive, the Germans had poured petroleum over him and thrown him into a house to which they set fire. A woman who came out of her house was killed in the same way.

A witness, whose evidence has been taken by a reliable{37} British subject, declares that he saw, on August 26, not far from Malines, during the last Belgian attack, an old man tied by the arms to one of the rafters in the ceiling of his farm. The body was completely carbonised, but the head, arms, and feet were unburnt. Further on, a child of about fifteen was tied up, the hands behind the back, and the body was completely torn open with bayonet wounds. Numerous corpses of peasants lay on the ground in positions of supplication, their arms lifted and their hands clasped.

Facts about Louvain.

At nightfall on August 26 the German troops, repulsed by our soldiers, entered Louvain panic-stricken. Several witnesses affirm that the German garrison which occupied Louvain was erroneously informed that the enemy were entering the town. Men of the garrison immediately marched to the station, shooting haphazard the while, and there met the German troops who had been repulsed by the Belgians, the latter having just ceased the pursuit.

Everything tends to prove that the German regiments fired on one another. At once the Germans began bombarding the town, pretending that civilians had fired on the troops, a suggestion which is contradicted by all the witnesses, and could scarcely have been possible, because the inhabitants of Louvain had had to give up their arms to the municipal authorities several days before.{38}

The bombardment lasted till about ten o’clock at night. The Germans then set fire to the town. Wherever the fire had not spread, the German soldiers entered the houses and threw fire grenades, with which some of them seemed to be provided. The greater part of the town of Louvain was thus a prey to the flames, particularly the quarters of the upper town, comprising the modern buildings, the ancient Cathedral of St. Pierre, the university buildings, together with the university library, its manuscripts and collections, and the municipal theatre.

The Commission considers it its duty to insist, in the midst of all these horrors, on the crime committed against civilisation by the deliberate destruction of an academic library which was one of the treasures of Europe.

The corpses of many civilians encumbered the streets and squares. On the road from Tirlemont to Louvain alone a witness counted more than fifty. On the doorsteps of houses could be seen carbonised bodies of inhabitants, who, hiding in their cellars, were driven out by the fire, tried to escape, and fell into the flames. The suburbs of Louvain suffered the same fate.

We can affirm that the houses in all the districts between Louvain and Malines, and most of the suburbs of Louvain itself, have practically been destroyed.

Thousands Sent to Germany.

On Wednesday morning, August 26th, the Germans brought to the station squares of Louvain a group of{39} more than seventy-five persons, including several prominent citizens of the town, among whom were Father Coloboet and another Spanish priest, and also an American priest.

The men were brutally separated from their wives and children, and after having been subjected to the most abominable treatment by the Germans, who several times threatened to shoot them, they were forced to march to the village of Campenhout in front of the German troops. They were shut up in the village church, where they passed the night.

About four o’clock the next morning a German officer told them they had better go to confession, as they would be shot half an hour later. About half-past four they were liberated. Shortly afterwards they were again arrested by a German brigade, which forced them to march before them in the direction of Malines. In reply to a question of one of the prisoners, a German officer said they were going to give them a taste of the Belgian quickfirers before Antwerp. They were at last released on the Thursday afternoon at the gates of Malines.

It appears from other witnesses that several thousand male inhabitants of Louvain, who had escaped the shooting and the fire, were sent to Germany for a purpose which is still unknown to us.

Eye-Witness’s Account.

The fire at Louvain burnt for several days. An eye-witness who left Louvain on August 30th gave the{40} following description of the town at that time:—“Leaving Weert St. George’s, I only saw burnt-down villages and half-crazy peasants, who on meeting anyone held up their hands as a sign of submission. Before every house, even those burnt down, hung a white flag, and the burnt rags of them could be seen among the ruins.

“At Weert St. George’s I questioned the inhabitants on the causes of the German reprisals, and they affirmed most positively that no inhabitant had fired a shot, that in any case the arms had been previously collected, but that the Germans had taken vengeance on the population because a Belgian soldier belonging to the gendarmerie had killed an Uhlan.

“The population still remaining in Louvain have taken refuge in the suburb of Héverlé, where they are extremely crowded. They have been cleared out of the town by the troops and the fire.

“The fire started a little beyond the American College, and the town is entirely destroyed, except for the town hall and the station. Furthermore, the fire was still burning to-day, and the Germans, far from taking any steps to stop it, seemed to feed it with straw, an instance of which I observed in the street adjoining the town hall.

“The cathedral and the theatre are destroyed and have fallen in, as also the library; in short, the town has{41} the appearance of an ancient ruined city, in the midst of which only a few drunken soldiers move about, carrying bottles of wine and liqueurs, while the officers themselves, seated in arm-chairs round the tables, drink like their men.”

The Commission has not yet been able to obtain information about the fate of the Mayor of Louvain and of the other notables who were taken as hostages.

The Commission is able to draw the following conclusions from the facts which have so far been brought to its notice:—

In this war, the occupation of any place is systematically accompanied and followed, sometimes even preceded, by acts of violence towards the civil population, which acts are contrary both to the usages of war and to the most elementary principles of humanity.

Brutality Everywhere.

The German procedure is everywhere the same. They advance along a road, shooting inoffensive passers-by—particularly bicyclists—as well as peasants working in the fields.

In the towns or villages where they stop they begin by requisitioning food and drink, which they consume till intoxicated.

Sometimes from the interior of deserted houses they let off their rifles at random and declare that it was the inhabitants who fired. Then the scenes of fire, murder,{42} and especially pillage begin, accompanied by acts of deliberate cruelty, without respect to sex or age. Even where they pretend to know the actual person guilty of the acts they allege, they do not content themselves with executing him summarily, but they seize the opportunity to decimate the population, pillage the houses, and then set them on fire.

After a preliminary attack and massacre they shut up the men in the church, and then order the women to return to their houses and to leave their doors open all night.

From several places the male population has been sent to Germany, there to be forced, it appears, to work at the harvest, as in the old days of slavery. There are many cases of the inhabitants being forced to act as guides and to dig trenches and entrenchments for the Germans. Numerous witnesses assert that during their marches, and even when attacking, the Germans place civilians, men and women, in their front ranks, in order to prevent our soldiers firing.

The evidence of Belgian officers and soldiers shows that German detachments do not hesitate to display either the white flag or the Red Cross flag in order to approach our troops with impunity. On the other hand, they fire on our ambulances and maltreat the ambulance men. They maltreat and even kill the wounded. The clergy seem to be particularly chosen as subjects for their brutality.{43}

Finally, we have in our possession expanding bullets which had been abandoned by the enemy at Werchter, and we possess doctors’ certificates showing that wounds must have been inflicted by bullets of this kind.

The documents and evidence on which these conclusions rest will be published in due course.

{44}

V.

Can These Things Be True?

Can these cold-blooded deeds of atrocity be true? Is it a fact that they have been proved to the satisfaction of the most exacting critics? Is this “welter of fire, blood, and destruction” to be written finally on the pages of history?

I can only say this:

1. These stories came to us first from responsible correspondents of all our leading newspapers, who took them down for the most part at first hand from eye-witnesses and from the poor victims themselves.

2. A committee of eminent lawyers, assisted by the Belgian Minister of Justice, made a searching inquiry, sifting vague reports from actual facts.

3. The evidence of the atrocities thus collected was formulated in an Official Report to be presented to the President of the United States by the Belgian Delegation of Ministers of State, now on their way to America.

4. The British Official Press Bureau issued, on the 25th August, a statement of the representations made to them, which I have already quoted.

5. The Report of the Belgian Government was confirmed by the French protest against German atrocities{45} which was addressed on September 2nd to the Powers by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

6. Mr. Richard Harding Davis, an eminent American author and correspondent in Belgium of the New York Tribune, has entirely confirmed, in cables sent to this leading American journal, things he has seen with his own eyes.

7. I have narrated the information given to me verbally by M. Van der Velde himself. “I myself examined the bodies of a peasant and his son which have been cut to pieces by bayonet thrusts.”

8. While at first the reports of these atrocities were received in this country with some reserve, the accumulated and overwhelming evidence, aggravated from day to day since the very commencement of the war, has provoked the public men of England, and every responsible newspaper in the country, as well as all our leading weeklies like the Spectator, the Saturday Review, the Nation, the British Weekly, and others, into a passionate protest against the inhuman and barbarous methods of warfare that have stained the name of Germany for ever.

9. Germany herself has admitted her wanton deeds, and sought to excuse them in a way that makes her guilt all the more deplorable. We are told that these barbarian atrocities against the civil population and unoffending peasants, the sacking, looting, and burning of towns and villages, are part of the general plan of attack, and that they are accomplished in cold blood for{46} purely strategical considerations. Unfortunately they are not merely the riotous and isolated outbursts of marauding and buccaneering soldiers.

“The only means of preventing surprise attacks from the civil population has been to interfere with unrelenting severity and to create examples which by their frightfulness would be a warning to the whole country.” To prevent “surprise attacks” tortures were inflicted on helpless old men, women, and children, peaceful villagers were hanged, innocent children were savagely sabred by German officers, wounded soldiers and officers shot and mutilated. There was the burning of Visé and the terrible massacre at Seraing, the sacking and plundering of many another harmless village, the bombardment of Malines, and the crowning sacrilege of all, the burning and sacking of Louvain, the torture and massacre of its defenceless people. Abler pens than mine have told the story of these blood-guilty ruffians, and abler historians will yet chronicle for future generations the record of the modern Huns of Attila. “For every vile deed wrought under the impious benedictions of the monarch who is ravaging Europe ample reparation will be exacted.... The memory of them will burn in the heart and mind of every Englishman.” So said the Times. I affirm this is the feeling of every true Britisher.{47}

VI.

It is specially forbidden “To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion. To make improper use of a flag of truce, of the national flag, or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy.”—Hague Convention, Article XXIII.

Wanton Brutality.

I have made it plain from the official documents I have quoted that the German troops violated every item of this article. But in addition to cases of brutality already cited in the official document, the Belgian Mission, while in London, gave me the following:—

On August 19th Aerschot, in North Brabant, with about five thousand inhabitants, was, as already reported, destroyed. It appears that during the three days the German soldiery massacred and pillaged the town, which had not resisted, although there was no military force there whatever.

In the neighbouring village of Diest many of the inhabitants were put to the sword. The wife of Francis Luyckx, aged forty-five, and her daughter, twelve years of age, had, in their terror, taken refuge in a sewer. They were discovered, dragged out, and shot.

The little daughter of Jean Oyyen, a pretty child of nine, was shot, and a man named Andre Willem, aged{48} twenty-three, the village sexton, was bound to a tree and burned alive.

In the village of Schaffen, near Diest, two men, named Lodts and Marken, both aged forty, were captured and entombed. When exhumed, it was found that they had been buried alive, head downwards. These occurrences—which are only a few of a very long list—had been fully inquired into, and confirmed by the committee of investigation, which was composed of the highest magistrates of Belgium and the chief professors of the Universities.

Statements were made that aged villagers in many places on the Franco-German frontier were hanged to trees; others, after being killed, had their eyes gouged out. In one place fifteen bodies were found mutilated in a heap, and along the whole frontier from Luxemburg to Basle outrages were committed on women, girls, and children.

Mlle. Marie Malet, the daughter of a judicial official in Brussels, who had been sent to London with a party of Belgian girls for safety, stated that she had seen a little girl, a friend of hers, aged ten, savagely sabred by a German officer, merely because she made a remark that the Germans were bullies. The child died an hour afterwards. Mlle. Malet stated that she had been sent from near Brussels with her sister, owing to the insults to which Belgian girls were subjected by German soldiers. Her mother had been wounded and her home looted of food and valuables.{49}

BELGIAN PEASANTS WATCHING THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOMES BY THE RUTHLESS INVADER.
Photo, Daily Mirror.

The record of German atrocities in Belgium, indeed, rivals that of Alva in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century. The worst Balkan methods were being pursued by the army of the pious Kaiser. At Pontillac, between Liége and Namur, the Burgomaster officially reported that the men of the 17th Hussars from Mecklenburg entered the place, met with no resistance, and demanded food, which the inhabitants at once gave them. After eating and drinking to their full, to the surprise of everyone they rode wildly through the streets emptying their carbines at the windows of the houses. Two Belgian soldiers who were secreted in the village returned their fire. A hot fusillade ensued, and then the Germans deliberately shot down all the villagers they could find. They also seized a M. Lahaye, a member of the Communal Council, and dragged him through the streets with a rope round his neck.

Drunken German Soldiers.

Further details regarding the wild savagery at Aerschot reached the Belgian Government after the issuing of the official report printed in the foregoing pages. It seems that the population of the Belgian provinces overrun by the Germans suffered, not only from the outrages of the troops acting under the orders of their officers, but also from atrocities due to drunken soldiers.

In one town some of them fired their rifles openly into the air and afterwards declared that the inhabitants had{50} fired on them. On this pretext the people were dragged from their houses, which were then set on fire, and in many cases women and girls were outraged and the men shot. At Aerschot the troops—upon whom the Kaiser and the Austrian Emperor were beseeching God’s blessing—stabled their horses in the church, one of the most beautiful in Belgium, while the troops were set to work to destroy the pictures and fittings in the noble edifice. The Germans accused the son of the Burgomaster of killing the son of a German colonel. This was denied by the Burgomaster’s son, who only fired to defend his mother and sister from gross insults by the soldiery.

The Germans, however, surrounded the town. The inhabitants were then dragged from their homes and the women separated from the men. The latter were divided into batches and forced to run towards the river, the troops laughing at them and firing at them as they ran. One man who escaped by feigning death afterwards returned and counted forty-one bodies of his friends. Many of them had been stabbed by bayonets after being wounded. About one hundred and fifty of the male inhabitants of this place were compelled to watch the German troops shoot the Burgomaster, his son, and the Burgomaster’s brother.{51}

Women Mutilated.

Mr. Adolph Coussmaekrs, a well-known resident of Antwerp, wrote giving nine cases of atrocities committed by the Germans in the districts of Orsmael and Barchon.

I do not reproduce here the nine cases instanced by this gentleman. The wanton mutilation on women and children is revolting and seems incredible.

In addition, there were criminal assaults on women which I cannot dwell upon in these pages; they have been narrated by unimpeachable persons. Mothers had their daughters dragged away from them by shameless officers to a fate that must have driven them to despair. Women and young children were injured by bayonet-thrusts and revolver-shots, and were still suffering from their wounds.

{52}

VII.

300 Men Shot in Cold Blood.

A terrible story of the holocaust at Liége was told to the correspondent of the Daily Mail by a wealthy Dutch cigarette manufacturer who had lived for a long time in Belgium, and was married to a Belgium woman. He stated that on the day of their entry the Germans posted an order on the streets that all arms in possession of private persons must be immediately delivered, under the threat of being shot. The inhabitants complied with the order. Among others, collections of old arms were brought, valued sometimes at hundreds of pounds. The new vandals destroyed all these pitilessly.

“During the first days the Germans paid for everything they took. But later on soldiers produced valueless pieces of paper, on which something had been scribbled which could hardly be read. On Sunday, August 23rd, at midnight, the inhabitants were suddenly awakened by soldiers knocking at the doors. ‘We need immediately two hundred and fifty mattresses, two hundred pounds of coffee, two hundred and fifty loaves of bread, and five hundred eggs,’ they said. ‘If these are not delivered in an hour’s time your hostages will be shot.’ Everybody rushed to the market-place, many people in their night clothes. There stood the mayor, half-dressed.

“After the inhabitants had brought in everything which was demanded they were informed that the whole was a mistake and that they could go to bed. The old{53} mayor, however, was detained the whole night in the street.

“One day when the soldiers sat down to dinner, an alarm was suddenly beaten in the streets. Soldiers from all the houses were summoned to their regiments. Immediately after, the bombardment of the houses began. The informant took refuge with his wife and children in a cellar, which was constantly filled with smoke from the neighbouring houses, which had caught fire. On Wednesday morning the bombardment ceased and they ventured to the station.

“Here, notwithstanding his protests, and proposals to produce papers, showing that he was a Dutch subject, the cigarette manufacturer was separated from his family, of whom he has since lost sight. He was surrounded by soldiers, who bound his hands behind his back, and with other refugees he was kept at the station many hours. During this time he saw a party of three hundred Belgian civilians, among whom were old men and lads of fourteen or fifteen, driven at the point of the bayonet to a remote spot near the station, where they were all shot before his eyes.

“After a terrible night, he and his group of seventy-six men were set free. They had had nothing to eat or drink for thirty-six hours. All streets and roads in and round Liége were strewn, according to the witness, with bodies of men, women, and children. Among those shot were the mayor, two aldermen, the rector of the University, two deans, and many police inspectors.”{54}

VIII.

The Inferno at Visé.

A correspondent of the Handelsblad was an eye-witness of the scenes in Visé, near Liége, when it was burned, and told a tale of German barbarity, and of the murder and torture of its helpless inhabitants, of a nature to make one’s blood run cold. As summarized in the Daily News the story is as follows:—

“It was an awful sight. Every house was a mass of flames, through which the streets were hardly visible.

“At the entrance of the Grand Hotel were three disarmed soldiers bound hand and foot. Entering the hotel, I found the floor covered with dead bodies. In that hall of the dead several soldiers stood guard. From this awful, nauseating scene I hurried back to the blinding glare and suffocating heat of the burning villages.

“The correspondent describes how a colleague supported an aged lady found lying near her blazing house. She pleaded, ‘Let me die.’ Poor, unhappy creature, bereft of home and even of adequate clothing, the aged{55}

SHOWING THE DESTRUCTION IN THE CHURCH AT VISÉ.
Photo, Sport and General.

and defenceless victim of the Kaiser’s gallant army! He adds: ‘We fled from the scene that must for ever blur the scutcheon of the Kaiser, and I pray as long as I live it will never be my task to see such an inferno again.’

“Absolutely incredible was the picture of incidents connected with the burning of Visé by the Germans and the shooting given in private letters which arrived from Eysden, on the Dutch frontier, and seen by the Telegraaf. According to these letters, the Germans alleged that the citizens had fired on the troops. All the inhabitants were then hunted out of their houses to spend the night in the square watching the burning. Men were taken prisoners, and possibly shot, and the rest were driven out of the town, which was given to the flames. Eysden is filled with refugees—one hundred and fifty in one canteen and two hundred and fifty in the Protestant Church, while four hundred have been sent to Maastricht.

“Two trainloads of refugees came into Brussels from the Tirlemont district. The scenes I have witnessed,” telegraphs a Press Association correspondent, “and the stories told by these poor people would melt a heart of stone. Removal from the face of the earth—a phrase of the German papers themselves—continues to be the invader’s idea of how best to deal with unarmed, unoffending villages, the only crime of whose people is that they have fallen in his path.

“The Germans entered Tirlemont, in the vicinity of{56} which they have been for some days. They were in strong force, mostly cavalry and artillery. The big guns shelled the place, and the cavalry played at war by attacking the flying and panic-stricken populace, shooting and stabbing them at random.

“Never have I seen such a picture of woe as a peasant woman and five children who stood bewildered in the Place de la Gare here, all crying as if their hearts would break. It was a terrible story the woman had to tell. ‘They shot my husband before my eyes,’ she said, ‘and trampled two of my children to death.’

“A German knocked at the door of the house of the Burgomaster at Venne, near the Dutch frontier, and when the Burgomaster’s wife opened the door she was knocked down and killed with the butt end of a rifle.

“A solicitor, who was a member of the Belgian Chamber, and who was staying in the house, rushed to the front door, and he also was instantly knocked down and killed with a bayonet thrust. On hearing of these atrocities the population fled in terror.”

Lancer’s Fiendish Act.

M. Isadore Felix Cruls, a Belgian refugee who arrived in London, had a tragic story to tell. He carried on a prosperous printing business at Saint Jossé, a suburb of Brussels. When hostilities broke out he was called up for service in the Civil Guard, and stationed on the Chaussée de Louvain, the road between Louvain and{57} Brussels. As reported in the Daily Telegraph, he stated:—

“At midnight on August 19th-20th I was on duty on the Chaussée de Louvain watching the refugees come in from the various towns and villages. The road was blocked when I got near. I saw that a party of German Lancers were at the rear of the procession of refugees. I saw one of the Lancers prodding a woman, who had four or five children walking by her side.

“There was an old woman, evidently the mother of the young woman, walking with them. One of the Lancers was amusing himself by pricking this old woman with his lance in order to make her walk along more quickly. The young woman turned round and shouted something at the Lancer, either by way of remonstrance or insult. I was not near enough to hear what she said. The Lancer took up his lance and ran it through one of the little girls who was walking along, clutching the hand of her mother. She was a fair-haired girl of about seven or eight years of age. When the crowd saw this they became infuriated, and a panic ensued. The Lancers bore down upon the people, scattering them in all directions. What became of these people I do not know.”{58}

IX.

The Maiden Tribute.

Another story M. Cruls related was told to him by the mother herself. At a village called Leau a squadron of about five hundred Uhlans was marching through the town when they declared that someone had fired at them. On going round to all the houses, searching for firearms, they came to one where the family circle consisted of a grandfather, the father, mother, and a girl of seventeen or eighteen, and a young boy, who, upon seeing the approach of the German soldiers, fled and hid himself. The soldiers came in, and without any questioning fired at and killed the father. They were going to shoot the grandfather when the mother and daughter fell on their knees and begged the soldiers to spare the life of the old man. The officer, or under-officer, of the party then said, “Yes, we won’t trouble about the old people,” and touching the cheek of the young girl with his fingers, he added, with a significant laugh, “Pretty youth is better.” The sequel need not be written here, although the mother of the girl has told it.

A Governess Hanged.

A well-known family in Brussels were staying at their villa at Genck, about six kilometres from the capital. On arrival of the Germans there they entered the villa,{59} smashed everything they could, and stole whatever was of value, “even taking away the wedding-ring that the husband wore on his finger.” They took away the men first, and nobody knows what has become of them. A member of the family and two servants fled from the house in terror, but returned when they saw the German soldiers going.

This is what they saw: “The body of an old lady of seventy years of age lying on the floor with her throat cut. A governess, about thirty years of age—I cannot tell you her nationality—was found hanging from a tree, stark naked and mutilated.”

Although this happened within six kilometres of Brussels, yet no atrocities were known to have been committed in the capital, the Kaiser’s unrestrained savages being there under the eyes of the representatives of the Powers.

A Dutch gentleman named Couzy, of Amsterdam, was staying at Mont, a village in the hills above Comblain au Pont, when war broke out. Having missed the last train which the Belgians ran to Dinant, he was obliged to return to Mont, where he witnessed the arrival of thousands of Uhlans and many batteries of German artillery. Mr. Couzy declared that the treatment of the Belgians by the enemy was merciless. He was witness of many horrible scenes. He was present when, after the discovery of the bodies of two German officers in a horse-dealer’s yard at Comblain au Pont, seventy villagers were brought before the commanding officer. Without question,{60} the officer selected thirty, who were shot without any form of trial whatever. Several of these men were known to Mr. Couzy as honest and trustworthy citizens.

On another occasion a number of villagers were searched for weapons. A young Dutchman, also known to Mr. Couzy, had upon him a razor which he used daily. Immediately he was placed against a wall and shot.

A refugee arriving at Maastricht from Bassenge stated that ten thousand Germans came from the direction of Louvain, and began to burn everything that had been left standing and shoot everyone opposed to them. Two hundred of the villagers were driven out by the Germans and ordered to hold their hands above their heads. Anyone who dropped his hands for an instant was shot, and anyone who looked at or showed sympathy with the victims shared the same fate. They were marched for two hours, and during that time many shots whistled over their heads. The Germans then stopped and threatened that the first who looked back would be shot.

A Senator’s Story.

“M. Leon Hiard, senator of Hainaut, one of the largest manufacturers in Belgium, lived at Haine Saint Pierre, where before the battle of Mons the Germans requisitioned everything. He states that, revolver in hand, threatening death for unpunctuality or disobedience, the German officers spread terror into the hearts of the inhabitants. At Peronne the mayor, M. Gravis, had very imprudently caused all the arms of the inhabitants to be{61} deposited at his house instead of the town-hall. He also carried a revolver, and some of his carts had been used to bar a road.” The Daily Express correspondent continues—

“He was taken before the German general at the town-hall with his secretary. The séance was short. ‘Vous fusillé,’ said the general, and the unfortunate man was led out blindfolded and shot. As the secretary was following him a more kindly officer said in his ear, ‘Mais filez-donc, imbécile,’ and pushed him on one side.

“The body of M. Gravis was propped up against a wall for forty-eight hours as an example to the town. Men were billeted in all the houses, and although in the better houses the officers behaved with some restraint, in the peasants’ cottages unbridled licence was the rule.

“Women were treated infamously, indescribable scenes of debauchery taking place, while all the possessions of the unfortunates were wilfully wasted and destroyed. The fiery-tempered people were being driven to reprisals, so that an excuse for further cruelty might be found.”

What General von Boehn said.

I take the following extract from a long dispatch in the Daily Chronicle, from Mr. E. Alexander Powell, the Special Correspondent of the New York World:—

“Three weeks ago the Government of Belgium requested me to place before the American people, through the medium of the New York World, a list of specific{62} and authenticated atrocities committed by German armies upon Belgian non-combatants.

“To-day General von Boehn, commanding the Ninth Imperial Field Army, and acting as mouthpiece of the German General Staff, has asked me to place before the American people the German version of the incidents in question....

“General von Boehn began by asserting that the accounts of the atrocities perpetrated on Belgian non-combatants were a tissue of lies.

“ ‘Look at these officers about you,’ he said; ‘they are gentlemen like yourselves. Look at the soldiers marching past in the road out there. They are most of them the fathers of families. Surely you do not believe that they would do the things they have been accused of.’

“ ‘Three days ago, General,’ I said, ‘I was in Aerschot. The whole town is now but a ghastly, blackened, bloodstained ruin!’

“ ‘When we entered Aerschot,’ he replied, ‘the son of the Burgomaster came into the room, drew a revolver, and assassinated my Chief of Staff. What followed was only retribution. The townspeople only got what they deserved!’

“ ‘But why wreak your vengeance on women and children?’

“ ‘None have been killed,’ the General asserted positively.{63}

“ ‘I’m sorry to contradict you, General,’ I asserted, with equal positiveness, ‘but I have myself seen their mutilated bodies. So has Mr. Gibson, Secretary of the American Legation at Brussels, who was present during the destruction of Louvain.’

“It is War!”

“ ‘Of course, there is always danger of women and children being killed during street fighting,’ said the General, ‘if they insist on coming into the street. It is unfortunate, but it is war.’

“ ‘But how about the woman whose body I saw with the hands and feet cut off? How about the white-haired man and his son whom I helped to bury outside of Sempst, and who had been killed merely because the retreating Belgians had shot a German soldier outside their house? There were 22 bayonet wounds in the old man’s face. I counted them. How about the little girl, two years old, shot while in her mother’s arms by a Uhlan, and whose funeral I attended at Heyst-op-den-Berg? How about the old man that was hung from the rafters of his house by the hands and roasted to death by a bonfire being built under him?’

“The General seemed somewhat taken aback by the amount and exactness of my data. ‘Such things are horrible if they are true,’ he said. ‘Of course, our soldiers, like soldiers in all armies, sometimes get out of hand, and do things which we would never tolerate if we knew it. At Louvain, for example, I sentenced two{64} soldiers to 12 years’ penal servitude apiece for assaulting a woman.’

“ ‘Apropos of Louvain,’ I remarked, ‘why did you destroy the library? It was one of the literary store-houses of the world.’

“ ‘We regretted that as much as anyone else,’ answered the General. ‘It caught fire from the burning houses, and we could not save it.’

“ ‘But why did you burn Louvain at all?’ I asked.

“ ‘Because the townspeople fired on our troops. We actually found machine-guns in some of the houses; and,’ smashing his fist down upon the table, ‘whenever civilians fire upon our troops we will teach them a lasting lesson. If the women and children insist on getting in the way of bullets, so much the worse for women and children.’

“ ‘How do you explain the bombardment of Antwerp by Zeppelins?’ I queried.

“ ‘The Zeppelins have orders to drop their bombs only on fortifications and soldiers,’ he answered.

“ ‘As a matter of fact,’ I remarked, ‘they destroyed only private houses and innocent civilians, several of them women. If one of those bombs had dropped 200 yards nearer my hotel I wouldn’t be smoking one of your excellent cigars to-day.’

“ ‘That is a calamity which, thank God, didn’t happen,’ he replied.

“ ‘If you feel for my safety as deeply as that, General,’{65} I said earnestly, ‘you can make quite sure of my coming to no harm by sending no more Zeppelins.’

“ ‘Well, Herr Powell,’ said he, laughing, ‘we will think about it, and,’ he continued gravely, ‘I trust that you will tell the American people through your great paper what I have told you to-day. Let them hear our side of this atrocity business. It is only justice that they should be made familiar with both sides of the question.’

“I have quoted my conversation with General von Boehn as nearly verbatim as I can remember it. I have no comments to make.

“I will leave it to the readers of the World to decide for themselves just how convincing are the answers of the German General to the Belgian accusations.”

{66}

X.

Atrocities Around Liége.

Belgian officials reported from Liége devilish atrocities committed in the town and suburbs. In the Place de l’Université, the Rue des Pitteurs, and the Quai des Pecheurs most of the houses were burned. The occupants, who had been awakened by the acrid smoke, fled in terror, and fifteen persons, men, women, and children, were killed as they ran, while in one instance a family were called together, and father and son were killed and then mutilated in front of them. Apparently many of the soldiers breaking into cafés were drunk, and after firing accused the inhabitants of it, taking vengeance by burning and murders without restraint. This indeed appeared to be part of the German campaign, for not only in Belgium, but also in France, the same inhuman and dastardly excuses were resorted to in order to attempt to justify the awful crimes which these “cultured” barbarians committed.

Road Strewn with Dead.

Georges Just, a restaurant-keeper at Chenee, province of Liége, said: “When we heard of the German approach my wife and I fled across the river into Liége. It seems now like a dream. Just before they entered the town the Germans committed all kinds of outrages. Never shall I forget the terrible sights along the roadside.{67} Mutilated corpses of people I knew, and many wounded and dying, lay strewn in our path. In some places we saw the dead piled in heaps fifteen feet high.”

A letter written by a niece of Mr. John Redmond, M.P., who was living in a Belgian town occupied by the Germans, contained the following:—

“They are absolute barbarians, and treat the women like dogs. For the least thing the inhabitants are shot, and they all live in fear of their lives. The town’s most prominent men, in relays of three, guarded by soldiers, guarantee with their lives the good behaviour of the people. My husband is one of the guarantors. On Wednesday night he spent his hours of vigil in the town hall. Imagine my feelings.

“The Germans take everything. No matter how well they are treated and received, they behave filthily and brutally, officers and men alike. Empty houses they smash from top to bottom.”

What an Eye-Witness Saw.

Another eye-witness was Mr. Henry Frenkel, a Russian living in Antwerp, who volunteered in the

{68}

6th regiment of the line to serve with his Belgian friends. While the Germans were in Liége he was sent there upon an important mission. This is how he tells his story:—

“I got into Liége by Holland. I went first to Rosendael, then to Maastricht, last to Eysden, and then openly passed the frontier. I will not describe Visé, Mouland, Berneau, and other places, all burned, sacked, and devastated in the most horrible fashion. Although all I have seen has hardened my nerve, I still shiver when I think of it. One cannot grasp the idea of all that has really taken place there. The Germans, mad with rage on account of the resistance which we opposed to them, have acted like wild beasts, to give it a mild name. I have seen men, women, and children hanged or horribly mutilated. I have seen heaps of corpses, of which no trace will be left in a few hours, as the inhabitants round Liége have been commandeered to bury them in lots. Ah! the Prussians will have to render us a terrible account. I witnessed an incident on the Place Lambert, in Liége. A Belgian chauffeur was arguing with a German officer. Visibly, the Belgian chauffeur could not understand what was wanted of him. The crowd gathered, and I could not follow the rest of the scene; but I heard a revolver shot. Then German soldiers rushed out of the palace to stop the crowds, and I saw the chauffeur, with blood-covered face, carried into a house by two soldiers. Not a sign of revolt from the crowd. The rifles are loaded, ready to go off. At my side a{69} German said, laughingly: ‘Ach, das ist nichts! Eine kleinigkeit.’ (‘Oh! that’s nothing. Only a small thing.’)”

Dinant Destroyed.

It was at Dinant, one of the most famous beauty spots of Belgium, and which is so well known to English tourists, who flock to it in great numbers every year, that some particularly atrocious outrages took place. According to the message of Reuter’s correspondent at Ostend, the women were confined in convents whilst hundreds of men were shot. A hundred prominent citizens were shot in the Place d’Armes. M. Hummers, manager of a large weaving factory employing two thousand men, and M. Poncelet, son of a former Senator, were both shot, the latter in the presence of his six children. The Germans appeared at the branch of the National Bank, where they demanded all the cash in the safe. When the manager refused to give them the money they tried to blow the safe open. Not succeeding in this they demanded the combination for the lock. The manager refused. On this the Germans shot him immediately, together with his two sons. Dinant was afterwards destroyed by shell-fire and incendiarism.

{70}

The wanton destruction of this ancient and beautiful town is a crime second only to that committed at Louvain.

Children Outraged.

A Belgian soldier who fought at Dinant was eye-witness of a terrible scene. Several German infantrymen had entered a house in a small village on the Meuse, and he, with four other Belgians, lay in wait for them. The Germans emerged with a young woman, whom they subjected to brutal ill-usage. The Belgians feared that if they fired they might hit the woman, but presently one of the Kaiser’s savages drew his bayonet and plunged it into the poor girl’s breast, whereupon she sank down uttering a piteous cry.

At Harseet the Uhlans suddenly descended upon the village, shot the first men they came across, numbering seven; this was followed by outrages on women, and twenty-two men were carried off as prisoners. Two Uhlans demanded a fowl from a peasant, who replied that he had none. They found one, and promptly shot him.

Because two Jesuit professors at Louvain University were found with newspapers upon them, telling of German atrocities, one was shot, while thirty of the Jesuits were taken away in carts to an unknown fate.

In La Préville a number of Uhlans who broke open a café and satiated themselves with drink saw a little boy of seven playing with a toy gun. Because he pointed it at a German soldier he was shot.{71}

Base Act of Ingratitude.

Many Belgian refugees, after weary wanderings, found themselves in Paris, and some of them were given shelter in the vast Cirque de Paris, where straw was laid upon the floor upon which those made homeless and destitute by the Kaiser’s savage barbarians made their bed.

One old grey-haired man, bent and travel-stained, was found by a correspondent seated alone and silently weeping. A kindly Red Cross nurse inquired the reason of his despondency. He said: “My name is Jean Beauzon. I kept a little coffee-house just across the river from Liége, in the town of Grivegnee. When the army was mobilized my two sons, both strapping fine fellows, went off to join the regiment. I have two daughters, one left with my old father and the other here”; so saying he pointed to a bright-eyed girl of sixteen, whose face and head were swathed in bandages.

“You see,” he went on, “that poor dear face. Well, a German did that. They burst into my place and demanded wine, which I gave them. What happened then I cannot exactly remember. It all seems like a horrible nightmare. We subsequently left our home and wandered away in the opposite direction from the terrible cannonading that was going on.

“After walking in the dark for two hours my other daughter became too tired to go any farther and sat down in despair by the roadside.

“This girl here and I then went on to try to find some{72} means of conveyance for her. A little way down the road we came upon a riderless horse, which we managed with great difficulty to catch and mount. We then went back to find my other daughter. We had not left her for more than half an hour, but she was no longer there. We spent the rest of the night looking for her, but found no sign or trace of her, and in the end were obliged to give up the search.

“Finally we got into a train, which brought us here. I was cared for by the Red Cross. I don’t know where they found me or anything else except that I have prayed all the time to the Blessed Virgin to return my cherished lamb to me undefiled.”

{73}

HOW THE GERMAN VANDALS DEALT WITH THE WORLD-FAMED LIBRARY OF LOUVAIN.
Photo, Central News.
Face p. 73.

XI.

The Crime of Louvain.

No words can adequately describe the wave of disgust which swept over the whole of the civilized communities of the world when it became known that the Germans had reduced to ashes the beautiful old city of Louvain. Mr. Asquith has described the sack of Louvain as

This ancient city, the Oxford of Belgium, has been reduced by the new Huns to a heap of ashes. “Every traveller in Belgium,” says Sir William Robertson Nicoll, “will remember the ancient mediæval town, its wonderful Hotel de Ville, the most perfect piece of architecture in Belgium, the Church of St. Peter, begun in 1425, and the University with its priceless library. All have perished, and why? The civil population had been disarmed, but{74} in a night skirmish German soldiers accidentally fired on their own guard, and it was decided in the panic of the hour to destroy the whole town. A town of forty-five thousand inhabitants, the intellectual metropolis of the Low Countries since the fifteenth century, is now no more than a heap of ashes.”

The wanton destruction of this ancient seat of learning, rich in historic associations, was an act of vandalism almost without parallel in history, a crime not only against humanity, but against the generations of future years.

The restrained and dignified words in which our own Official Press Bureau made known the ruthless sacking of Louvain constitute a fearful indictment of German Militarism, which can give official sanction to such an appalling deed. Here are the words of the Press Bureau:—

“Ancient and beautiful Louvain, a town of forty-five thousand people, a seat of learning, famous for its ancient and beautiful churches and other buildings, many of them dating from the fifteenth century, has been utterly destroyed by one of the Kaiser’s commanders in a moment of passion to cover the blunder of his own men. The excuse for this unpardonable act of barbarity and vandalism is that a discomfited band of German troops returning to Louvain were fired upon by the people of the town, who had been disarmed a week earlier. The truth is that the Germans, making for the town in disorder,{75} were fired upon by their friends in occupation of Louvain, a mistake by no means rare in war. The assumption of the German commander was, in the circumstances, so wide of probability that it can only be supposed that in the desire to conceal the facts the first idea which occurred to him was seized upon as an excuse for an act unparalleled in the history of civilized people.

“The Emperor William has stated that the only means of preventing surprise attacks from the civil population has been to interfere with unrelenting severity and to create examples which, by their frightfulness, would be a warning to the whole country. The case of Louvain is such an ‘interference,’ without even the miserable excuse suggested. Louvain is miles from the scene of real fighting. In International Law it is recognized that ‘the only legitimate end which the States should aim at in war is the weakening of the military forces of the enemy.’ And the rules under the annex to Convention IV. of 1907, which expand and demand the provision of the Declaration of Brussels, lay down that any destruction or seizure of enemies’ property, not imperatively called for by military necessities, is forbidden.

“In destroying the ancient town of Louvain, the German troops have committed a crime for which there can be no atonement, and Humanity has suffered a loss which can never be repaired.”

Incredible Wickedness.

But even the above statement does not relate one half{76} of the fearful crimes against property and human life committed by these uniformed ruffians in the ill-fated city, perpetrated by hosts of armed men against innocent and helpless non-combatants, aged men, defenceless women, and children. The houses and buildings of the town were without doubt deliberately set on fire. Helped by petrol poured on by brutal Teuton soldiers, the flames spread rapidly and fiercely.

Everyone who offered opposition was killed; everyone found in the possession of arms shot. Wives saw their husbands murdered before their eyes, mothers their sons. Men were brutally dragged away from their weeping wives and children, propped up against a wall and shot, or ruthlessly cut down where they stood. German soldiers, encouraged by their officers, looted where and how they liked; the inhabitants were in some cases driven to take refuge on the roofs of their houses, which were set on fire. From burning houses were to be heard the agonized cries of those perishing in the conflagration, which was destined to reduce the city to ashes.

Many authenticated stories of these terrible happenings have reached London. At first they seemed unbelievable, but each day brings further corroboration.{77} I take the liberty of reproducing a despatch of Mr. Hugh Martin, the special correspondent of the Daily News and Leader, whose vivid narrative brings home to us the details of the sufferings of the poor victims of these abominable proceedings:—

“Stories of the sacking of Louvain, which are almost unbelievable in their horror, reach here (Rotterdam) from the frontier. One of the most vivid is that of an assistant in a bicycle shop, who, though a Dutchman, was given special facilities for escape owing to his being mistaken for a German.

“ ‘At mid-day last Tuesday,’ he begins, ‘a fearful uproar broke out in the streets while we were at dinner, and the crackle of musketry was soon followed by the roar of artillery near at hand.

“ ‘Hearing shrieks from the inhabitants of our streets, I rushed to the window and saw that several houses were already in flames. Soldiers were smashing the shop windows and looting in all directions.

Shot Down Like Rabbits.

“ ‘As the people rushed into the streets from the burning houses they were shot down like rabbits. With my governor, his wife, and little boy, we fled to the cellar, where I and the boy hid under a pile of tyres, while the manager crept into a chest, and his wife far into a drain, where she stood with water up to her waist for many hours.

“ ‘Night fell and the sound of shooting in the streets{78} became brisker. I crept out of my hiding-place to get some water, and, peeping out of the window, saw, to my horror, that almost the whole street was in ruins. Then we found that our own house was alight, and it was necessary to choose between bolting and being burnt to death where we were.

“ ‘I decided to make a dash for it, but the moment I was outside the door three Germans held me up with their revolvers and asked me where I was going. My reply was that I was a German, and that my master and his wife were Germans who had been trapped in the burning house.

“ ‘Apparently my German was good enough to make them believe my statement, for they promised to give us safe conduct out of the town. Our walk through the streets to the railway station I shall always remember as a walk through hell.

“ ‘The beautiful town, with its noble buildings, was a sea of flame. Dead bodies lay thick in the streets. Dreadful cries came from many of the houses. It was half-past five on Wednesday morning when we reached the railway station. Soldiers were even then still going about the streets with lighted brands and explosives in their hands, setting alight any buildings that still remained intact.

“ ‘In the parks they had already begun to bury the dead, but in many cases so shallow were the graves that a large part of each body was still visible. At the railway{79} station we witnessed a truly harrowing spectacle. Fifty citizens, both men and women, had been brought from houses from which the soldiers swore that shots had been fired.

“ ‘They were lined up in the street, protesting with tears in their eyes that they were innocent. Then came a firing squad. Volley followed volley, and the fifty fell dead where they stood.’

“This appalling story is fully confirmed by an independent despatch from a Dutch journalist who happened to be at Louvain on his way to Brussels. He states that he was standing on Tuesday evening near the railway station at Louvain talking to a German officer, when he was strongly advised to leave the spot, owing to the great danger.

“A group of some five hundred men and women described as hostages were ranked in the open space by the station, and they were informed that for every soldier fired on in the town ten of them would be shot. This arrangement was carried out with true German regard for the punctilious observation of all rules.

“The wretched people sobbed and wrung their hands and fell on their knees, but they might as well have appealed to men of stone.

“Ten by ten as the night wore on they were brought from the ranks and slaughtered, without regard to age or sex, before the eyes of those who remained.

“Accounts differ widely as to the origin of the trouble,{80} some declaring that the German patrols in the city fired on the German troops retreating before a sortie from Antwerp, while others state that stray shots were fired at a commissariat train passing through the town.

“I would draw special attention to the fact that so far as the main facts are concerned both my informants are Dutchmen, who can have no object in spreading anti-German lies.”

Further terrible details are supplied by a cigar manufacturer who happened to be in Louvain about that time. Taken prisoner, he was escorted by German soldiers from the town, which was then one mass of flames, to the neighbouring village of Campenhout, where they witnessed the shooting of seven priests.

“Altogether we were seventy-three men, handcuffed like criminals,” he says, “and we were locked in the church, and had to lie on the cold floor. Fresh prisoners arrived at intervals. Outside we could hear the cries and lamentations of women and children. Inside an imprisoned priest gave us absolution.

“When we left the church, Campenhout was burning fiercely. We were told we should be freed, but must return to Louvain. On returning, we were once more taken prisoners and driven in front of German soldiers across country without rest or food, and used as a cover for the troops.”

The “Black Hole” Outdone.

Incredible inhuman treatment was accorded to some{81} twelve hundred people who were captured by the German barbarians in the act of fleeing from the doomed city. The men were separated from the women and children, and marched back to Louvain. Then began for them a terrible journey—a journey that drove many mad and others to self-destruction.

“Like so many brutes,” says the Times correspondent, “these burgesses of Louvain, among them merchants, brewers, advocates, engineers, and representatives of all social grades, were herded into wagons which had served for the transport of horses and were inches deep in filth. Into each wagon ninety men were crushed at the point of the bayonet by soldiers who seemed to glory in the maltreatment of their fellow-men. The unhappy prisoners had, of course, to stand, and to add to the horrors of the fetid atmosphere, the doors were shut, and only fugitive rays of light filtered through the chinks.

“For two hours they were kept like this at Louvain station, after which the train left for Cologne. The journey occupied about fifty hours, and the Belgians during this awful time were given neither food nor drink. ‘After such an experience,’ states one of them, ‘hell itself can have no terrors.’

“Once strong physically and prosperous, he who spoke is now a nervous wreck and destitute, living on the charity of friends who do not know but what it may be their turn to-morrow.

“Arrived at Cologne, the prisoners were marched{82} through jeering crowds to the Exhibition Gardens. Men and women surged round the pitiful band, hurling at them vile epithets, and shouting, ‘Zum Tod, zum Tod!’ (‘Kill them, kill them!’) Even the children joined in kicking the prisoners as they passed. The Belgians could gather no idea as to why they had been dragged off to Germany, and even feared the worst. The night was passed in the open, and in the morning they broke their prolonged fast on a small portion of black bread.

“Suddenly the German authorities changed their minds. Back the prisoners must go to Belgium, and, four abreast, the motley column regained the station. A passenger train awaited them, but each compartment for nine people was made to hold eighteen or nineteen. In some ways the home journey was more terrible than the outward. For two days and three nights the unfortunate inhabitants of Louvain were jolted about between Cologne and the capital of their own country, again absolutely without food.

“On rare occasions the guard exhibited a glimmering of pity, and permitted the prisoners a mouthful of water. At the Gare du Nord, in Brussels, compatriots smuggled food through the windows. The train only stopped a short time here, and was off again to Schaerbeek.

“Completely at a loss what to do with their charges, the Prussian officers ordered them out of the train, and{83} under an armed guard marched them on foot through Vilvorde and Pont Brulé and on to Malines. When crossing the fields the prisoners tore up turnips and beetroots and ate them ravenously. At Malines the officer in charge of the escort told the half-dead men they were free, and by different routes they reached Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, and other places in territory unoccupied by the enemy.”

The Massacre of Innocents.

The stories of the poor panic-stricken women of Louvain who emerged alive from the night of terror cannot fail to arouse horror. One woman upon whose face were marks of the intense suffering through which she had passed told how she tore down the curtains from her windows, wrapped them round some wearing apparel, and ran from the house with her two children. In the street she became involved in a stampede of men, women, and children rushing away from their burning town, whither she knew not.

This miserable refugee’s story was so disjointed, so interspersed with hysterical sobs and exclamations, that it is impossible to make a full and coherent narrative of it.

“Ah!” she exclaimed, with a convulsive shudder, “I will tell you of the burning of Louvain. We had pulled down some of the buildings so that the Germans should not mount guns on them when they came. I believe that was the reason. We were in a state of terror, because{84} we had heard of the cruelties of the Germans. But all we had heard of them was not so bad as we experienced. In the streets people were cruelly butchered, and then on all sides flames began to rise. We were prepared for what we regarded as the worst, but never had we anticipated that they would burn us in our homes. People rushed about frantic to save their property. They were shot down by rifle volleys, struck down by sabres, and pierced by lances. My God! What have we not suffered?”

Two young Oxford undergraduates who were present tell a graphic story, in a letter to the Times, of the sack of the town and the burning of the neighbouring village. Leaving Aix-la-Chapelle on the Wednesday in question, they set off for Louvain. As they passed through the little hamlet of Cortenbergh they encountered a body of German troops who had been dispatched to destroy the village. Taken prisoners, they were guarded while the inhuman soldiers of the Kaiser made use of the cartloads of straw which they had brought with them for their terrible purpose. Soon every house was a mass of flames.

“This was in the afternoon,” they relate, “and from three to six o’clock we had to stand at the end of the street while the firing went on. It was a terrible spectacle, and our first glimpse of the horrors of war, for we saw five civilians, as they left their burning homes, ruthlessly shot down by German soldiers. Neither of us will ever forget the spectacle Louvain presented when we reached{85} it the following morning. The whole town had apparently capitulated to the Germans, although occasionally we heard the sound of firing. The greater part of the town was in flames. Houses were falling, telegraph and telephone poles were tumbling into the streets, and the picture of desolation was complete, while German soldiers were looting among the ruins. Dead bodies littered the streets.... Some German soldiers told us that they had taken four hundred English prisoners from among those who had attacked their troop-trains, and three hundred and thirty of them had been shot that morning because they were found in possession of dum-dum bullets.”

A Refugee’s Plight.

The pathetic tale of a Belgian woman, who reached a place of safety after almost inconceivable hardship, was told in words which were few, but pregnant with tragedy and suffering. “Panic-stricken, we women fled from the burning town, and, half-running and half-walking, hurried from the dreadful scene. Mile after mile we covered, until our feet seemed as lead and our senses reeled. I am told we walked over seventy miles before we came to a railway. I wanted to bow down and kiss the cold iron rails. I fell exhausted, having carried my two children in turn. Footsore, broken-hearted, after the first joy of sighting the railway, I felt my head whirling, and I wondered whether it was all worth while. Then I thought of my deliverance, and thanked God.{86}

“What did Louvain look like? Like what it was—a mass of flame devouring our homes, our property, and our relatives. Most of us women were deprived of our husbands. In the town everybody who offered any opposition was killed, and everyone found to be armed in any way was shot. Wives saw their husbands shot in the streets. I myself saw the Burgomaster shot, and I saw another man dragged roughly away from his weeping wife and children and shot through the head.”

An American’s Story.

A vivid word-picture of the scene is given by Mr. Gerald Morgan, an American, in the Daily Telegraph. “An hour before sunset we entered Louvain,” he says, “and found the city a smoking furnace. The railway station was crowded with troops, drunk with loot and liquor, and rapine as well. From house to house, acting under orders, groups of soldiers were carrying lighted straw, placing it in the basement, and then passing on to the next. It was not one’s idea of a general conflagration, for each house burned separately—hundreds of individual bonfires—while the sparks shot up like thousands of shooting stars into the still night-air. It was exactly like a display of fireworks or Bengal lights and set-pieces at a grand display in Coney Island.

“Meanwhile, through the station arch we saw German justice being administered. In a square outside, where the cabs stand, an officer stood, and the soldiers drove the citizens of Louvain into his presence, like so many{87}

WRECKAGE IN THE STUDENTS’ QUARTER OF LOUVAIN.
Photo, Newspaper Illustrations, Ld.
Face p. 87.

unwilling cattle on a market day. Some of the men, after a few words between the officer and the escorts, were marched off under fixed bayonets behind the railway station. Then we heard volleys, and the soldiers returned. Then the train moved out, and the last we saw of the doomed city was an immense red glare in the gathering darkness.”

What M. Carton de Wiart Told Me.

Before leaving the subject of Louvain it is necessary for me to chronicle the following, which was told me by M. Carton de Wiart, the Belgian Minister of Justice. “As to the sacking of Louvain,” he stated, “we have here a statement dated August 30th, which has been handed to the Commission by a person of universal repute in Belgium, and which has been telegraphed to us. On August 30th that person went from Brussels to Louvain. On the high-road, when he got to a place called Weerde St. George, he saw only burning villages and peasants beside themselves with terror. When he reached Louvain and got to the American College—a large number of American students, young priests, and medical students come to Louvain—he found that fire had destroyed the whole town except the town hall and city station. This gentleman noted that on Sunday last the Germans kept on kindling new fires and placing straw so as to carry the fire farther. The cathedral and the theatre had been destroyed, and had collapsed completely. So had the famous library, one of the most precious in the world,{88} especially as regards manuscripts and works of art. The town,” he says, “presents the aspect of an old ruined city, a city like Pompeii. In the midst of this scene of desolation the only people you could see were drunken soldiers carrying bottles of wine and liqueurs in their arms, and officers themselves sitting in the streets around tables drinking like their men.”

The “Times” Speaks Out.

Finally I give a quotation from the Times:—

“Deep and deadly must be the vengeance which the defenders of civilization will exact from these new apostles of brutality. Even Attila had his better side. He spared Milan. It has been said of him that, though he destroyed cities without remorse, he respected the laws of nations as they were understood in his day. The modern Attila respects neither the laws of nations nor the laws of God. His evil deeds cry aloud to Heaven and to the horror-struck watching nations. The infamous crime of the destruction of Louvain is without a parallel even in the dark ages. The harmless civil population had been disarmed a week ago. The German garrison at the gates of the town fired upon another force of their own countrymen. To conceal their blunder, they laid the blame upon the helpless townspeople. No denials were listened to. Some of the men of Louvain were shot, the rest were made prisoners, the women and children were flung into trains and carried off to an unknown destination, and the city was razed to the ground.{89} Louvain has ceased to exist. A town of forty thousand inhabitants, bigger than Crewe or Dover or Colchester or Keighley, has been completely wiped out. The wickedness of this abominable act shall be expiated to the uttermost when the day of reckoning comes.

“Until now we have maintained an attitude of deliberate reserve upon the innumerable tales of German atrocities which have reached us. We published without comment the unanswerable list of shocking excesses committed by the German troops, which was sent to England by the Belgian authorities. When a German Zeppelin cast bombs upon ill-fated women asleep in their beds at Antwerp, we did no more than explain the bearings of international law upon conduct which has met with universal reprobation in Europe and America. But now the real object of German savagery is self-revealed, not only by the effacement of Louvain, but by the shameful admissions sent forth from the wireless station at Berlin. Last Thursday night the following official notification regarding Belgium came vibrating through the air:—

“ ‘The only means of preventing surprise attacks from the civil population has been to interfere with unstinting severity and to create examples which by their frightfulness would be a warning to the whole country.’

“Such is the cynical nature of the German apologia for the destruction of Louvain. Such is the character of the warfare of the modern Huns. They seek to strike{90} terror into the hearts of their foes by methods which belong to the days of the old barbaric hosts, who were thought to have vanished from the world for ever. There must be no mistake about the opportionment of blame for this and numberless other crimes. We have listened too long to the bleatings of professors bemused by the false glamour of a philosophy which the Germans themselves have thrust aside.

XII.

French Protest to the Powers.

So numerous and so terrible were the outrages committed by Germans on French territory that the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, on September 2nd—a month after the outbreak of hostilities—was compelled to address a communication to the Powers which set forth a large number of authenticated cases of barbarity. In the course of this official statement it was explained that the indisputable facts set out were selected merely as examples, and that it was impossible to bring to the notice of the Powers every act contrary to the laws of war of which accounts were being received day by day. The series of memoranda were sufficient to establish the two following classes of facts:—

To this communiqué were attached ten separate memoranda, setting forth various specific charges against the Germans, and showing, among other things, how the Kaiser’s troops were killing the French wounded, and had even shot Red Cross nurses.

A Dead Man’s Diary.

“In the fifth of these memoranda,” says Reuter’s correspondent, “the German allegation that the civilian population had taken part in the war was strongly denied, and was declared to be nothing but a pretext put forward by the German troops to give them the appearance of reprisals. From the beginning of the war the Germans had made a practice of burning undefended{93} villages and of assassinating the inhabitants, and evidence of this was to be found in letters and notebooks which had been taken from Germans, dead or prisoners.”

A notebook found on a corpse of a German lieutenant contained the following remark:—“We have fired the church of Villerupt and shot the inhabitants. We pretended that scouts had taken refuge in the tower of the church and had fired on us from there. The fact was, it was not the inhabitants of Villerupt, but Customs officers and forest guards who fired on us.”

The sixth memorandum gave detailed evidence in support of the charge that a systematic devastation of the country had been ordered by the German leaders. Letters found on German soldiers made it clear that the burning of villages and the shooting of the inhabitants were general measures, and that the orders were given by superior officers.

Attention was called to this violation of The Hague Convention, and it was pointed out that it was on the proposal of the German delegates at the second Hague Conference that an article was inserted declaring that the belligerent guilty of such violation should be liable to pay an indemnity.

In the remaining memoranda information was given as to the destruction of villages in the region of Paris, and the burning of Affleville, under circumstances of particular brutality.{94}

The statement concluded: “The Government of the Republic, respecting International conventions which it has ratified, protests against those violations of International law, and holds up to reprobation before the opinion of the world the behaviour of an enemy who respects no rule and goes back on his signature affixed to International agreements.”

The Red Hand of Destruction.

Upon the Franco-German frontier the red hand of destruction was indeed laid heavily, and it seemed incredible that a civilised nation should resort to the methods of savages. Yet it was, alas, true, as was proved in hundreds of cases. Atrocities were committed everywhere; civilians, women, and children were shot down in blind rage. A German officer captured by the French near Blamont admitted that the Germans wanted no prisoners, and that the wholesale massacre of peaceful villagers was according to orders.

German infantrymen belonging to the Bavarian regiments systematically set fire to the villages through which they passed in the region of Barras, Harbone, and Montreux, for during the engagement no artillery fire could have caused such conflagrations. In the same district they forced the inhabitants to precede their scouts. According to the same report the German troops were daily massacring peaceful villagers, and actually made children march before them when debouching from the villages upon the field of battle.{95}

An official report was made by M. Mirman, Prefect of the Meurthe and Moselle, to the French Minister of the Interior, after a visit paid to the districts of Bardonviller, Cirey, and Blamont, in the Luneville area. He stated that it was impossible to cite all the acts of savagery and brutality on the part of the German troops which had come under his notice. He could make out a long list of women, young girls, and old men and women who had been executed without the least reason and upon the slightest pretext. Houses had been systematically burned by order of the German officers as they advanced, and then again as they retreated.

Petrol on Burning Houses.

At Bardonviller, where one of the Kaiser’s sons was with the troops, eleven of the inhabitants had been murdered, among whom was the wife of the mayor, and a woman with her infant child, while seventy-eight houses were burned with petrol and specially-prepared faggots. After pillaging the town and looting everything they could, they fired on and demolished the church, and took fifteen of the inhabitants, including a magistrate, away as hostages.

At Bremeuil the Prefect found a pitiful and shameful state of affairs. There, five inhabitants, one a little lad, were butchered, as well as an old man of seventy-four, who was “trussed and shot like a rabbit.” The Communal building was destroyed, and nearly the whole town swept away, not during battle, but by the soldiers on their arrival.{96}

The French troops in Lorraine had seized an entire mail, letters written by German soldiers to their families. In these it was shown that the chief occupation of the troops was eating and drinking, and in more than twenty of the letters it was stated that all French civilians were shot if they only looked suspicious or evil-disposed. All the men, and even boys under age, were shot.

Another official statement issued by the French Ministry of War stated that two Uhlans who were reconnoitring on the frontier entered the little village of Affleville. They were ejected by a patrol of three mounted riflemen. On the following day a detachment of Uhlans returned, set fire to a farmhouse, and killed the farmer, who attempted to save his property. The inhabitants protested that their village had not interfered with the enemy, but later that evening a further squadron of Uhlans arrived while all the villagers were attending service in the church, and after sprinkling the houses with petroleum set the whole place on fire. The terrified inhabitants fled without money or other property to Verdun, the parish priest being shot.

“We Kill Everyone.”

Many other sensational indictments of the blood-lust of the Kaiser’s savage hordes reached the French Ministry of Justice. The Curé of Pillon, in the Metz district, states that on August 10th fifteen Germans entered his house and pointed their rifles at him. He was dragged into the road and brought before the{97} General. On the way there he was hurried along with the butts of his captors’ rifles. When he stopped they hit him. He took out his handkerchief, and they confiscated it. He shouted: “You are a set of brutes. Take me before one of your officers who speaks French.” An officer replied in French, “It’s all up with you.” A French shell burst not far from the German troops. The Germans threw themselves down, but compelled the priest to remain standing.

Seven lads from French Lorraine at Baroncourt saw a body of Uhlans driving before them old men, women, and children. They struck those that would not or could not walk. Three Uhlans moved aside to a field where a boy of fifteen was tending a herd of cows. The youth attempted to prevent the seizure of the cattle. The troopers shot him point-blank, and he fell without a cry.

In Lorraine a large number of letters written by German soldiers were captured, and these letters are full of descriptions of acts of wanton cruelty. Most of the writers make reference to food and drink. One says, “We have no need for money. We simply take.” In another it is written, “Before burning the village we took away everything that was eatable or drinkable,” and again, “The first village across the frontier was completely destroyed. It was a sight which was both sad and agreeable.” In another letter it is stated, “We have shot the inhabitants of from fourteen to sixty years old. There were thirty of them.” In twenty other letters the phrases recur, “All were shot. We kill everyone.”{98}

Village Ruthlessly Bombarded.

Refugees from Lorraine had a pathetic story to tell. The village of Pontsurseille was burned on August 21st by the Germans. Like several others in the neighbourhood, it was close to the border-line, and courteous relations continued between its inhabitants and the enemy, even after the first days of the war. But on August 14th a body of Uhlans suddenly appeared and commandeered a number of things. They were supplied at once with 200 chickens, a quantity of oats, and some other provisions. The Guard Champêtre himself delivered the objects commandeered, and took them across the border into the German camp. He was not allowed to return immediately, and was detained for two days. On Monday, August 17th, when the Guard Champêtre had returned, a shell suddenly burst over the village. It exploded a few yards from a place where a couple of women were engaged in milking the cows. Other shells followed. They came from a battery erected on the other side of the border.

No French soldier had been seen at the village for three days. They had made their appearance only for a short time, and had fallen back. The firing stopped{99} after a while, but was resumed during the night and continued for several nights following. All the able-bodied men had left for the garrisons, and only the women, the children, and some aged men remained. The Guard Champêtre was the only person with any authority that remained, and he took over the administration of the commune. Meanwhile he was compelled every day to go back and forwards between the village and the German camp and supply the provisions that were commandeered.

A young seminarist acted as secretary at the Mairie, and the wife of the Guard Champêtre took charge of the fire-engine and tried to put out the fire caused by the shells with the help of some other women.

On the night of August 20th it became evident that the Germans intended to lay the village in ruins. The bombardment was continued all night and the following day. The inhabitants took refuge in the cellars, which protected them against the shells. About forty of them found shelter in a big cellar belonging to a rich farmer, M. François Michel.

Helpless Children.

There were small children of three, six, and nine years, and infants only a few months old. The Guard Champêtre, assisted by his wife, directed everything. He had the openings protected by mattresses, which prevented the Germans from discharging their rifles into the cellar.{100}

By making a hole in one of the walls he secured a retreat into an adjoining cellar. Suddenly an officer came, had the door opened, and ordered everybody to come out at once. M. François Michel was the first to step out, and he was instantly shot down by a group of soldiers standing by. Next a boy of six, a nice little lad, stepped out. He was also shot down. Everybody in the cellar then rushed back, amid cries of horror raised by the wife of M. Michel and his children.

The Germans shouted, “Come out, or we shall burn you alive,” and fired a volley down the steps of the cellar. The soldiers poured petroleum down the cellar and on the mattresses, and set fire to it. The people inside took refuge in the adjoining cellar, and the Guard Champêtre and his wife were the last to leave. From this cellar they finally escaped and fled across the field. The soldiers meanwhile had seized the young seminarist, and another young man, aged twenty, and shot them, declaring that they were of age for military service.{101}

THE CHURCH AT TERMONDE IN RUINS.
Photo, Sport and General.
Face p. 101

XIII.

The Desecration of Churches.

Other refugees from Lorraine had harrowing stories to tell of German brutalities, and many made statements which were officially registered. Whole villages, they said, had been put to fire and sword. One man told an official of the Catholic Society that he had, with his own eyes, seen two German soldiers chop off the arms of a child which clung to its mother’s skirts. Other narratives show once more that the Germans entered closed houses and shot or bayoneted the inmates on the pretence that they had been fired upon by them. Miners had in many places been wilfully entombed, and other miners had been forced to dig trenches for the enemy under the threat of being shot. Germans had stabled their horses in churches, which they desecrated, and even covered their animals with priests’ vestments.

Under their usual plea the Germans burned the town of Burzweiler, in Alsace-Lorraine, blowing up its factories.

An eye-witness, M. Gaudefroy-Demonhynes, who was attempting to return to France from Baden, made a sworn statement to a Paris magistrate, explaining how he had found himself on August 1st detained with other Frenchmen and some Russians at the railway station of Lorrach, in Baden, a few miles from the French frontier. The party were arrested by soldiers and taken to the police{102} station, where they and their luggage were searched. They were then led under guard through the town amid hostile demonstrations by the inhabitants to the square in front of the railway station, where they found another party of about thirty Frenchmen and twenty Russians.

One of this party, a French commercial traveller, a stout man aged about forty, suddenly shouted “Vive la France!” Instantly the two soldiers guarding him took him before an officer or a non-commissioned officer, standing a few paces away from a group of officers. People standing between M. Demonhynes and the scene prevented him from hearing what was said, but a few seconds later a shot—only one shot—rang out.

“I don’t know who fired,” the witness says, “but I know that just before the report the Frenchman was standing before my eyes against the wall of a restaurant facing the station, held fast by his two guards in the position of one who is about to be executed.

“Hardly had the shot rang out than protests arose from our little band. Among those who protested most vigorously were three young Frenchmen from eighteen to twenty years old. They looked to me like students leaving Germany, like myself. I did not speak to them and do not know their names. Just as the soldiers seized him and his comrades one of the young Frenchmen tried to speak to an officer who was wearing a large, light grey cloak. This officer did not listen to him. Some order must have been given, I don’t know by whom.{103}

“One of the three Frenchmen, who must have been told of the fate awaiting him, cried out in German ‘Don’t hold us. We aren’t afraid; we are Frenchmen!’

“This time the officer replied coarsely, half turning round, ‘Shut up.’ The three Frenchmen of their own accord placed themselves against the wall of the same restaurant. Two lines of soldiers were drawn up on either side of them at right angles to the wall. Other soldiers—how many I did not count—took up their position in front of them about eight yards away. A volley rang out. The three Frenchmen fell.

“Fresh cries arose from our party. Horror-stricken women began to weep. I did not see the bodies removed, but I saw them fall to the ground.

“At this moment a great uproar broke out. Another Frenchman, a big man with a great black beard, whose age and appearance I forget and whom I did not know, began to shout, ‘Cowards! Murderers!’ Soldiers surrounded him. He struggled with them. They speedily overcame him, and, without taking the trouble to stand him up against the wall, without the intervention of any officer, one of the soldiers thrust the barrel of his rifle against his body and shot him down point blank before my eyes.

“I saw these same soldiers dragging his body along the ground. The man was struggling still. I had not the strength to look any more. I heard other shots. I don’t know if there were any other victims.”{104}

The German troops allowed no considerations of religion or respect for antiquity to interfere with their scheme of devastation. Great works of art and architecture and ancient churches were destroyed by fire or shell, and in more than one instance it is stated that cathedrals were used for stabling horses. To-day many are the ruined churches in Belgium. Of the beautiful cathedral of Louvain only the walls stand, for the interior is reported to have been ruthlessly shelled, pillaged, and finally set on fire. Other churches in the ill-fated city similarly suffered, while at Malines, too, bare walls and loose masonry are all that remain of what were until recently sacred edifices of exceptional interest to visitors by reason of their ancient treasures.

{105}

XIV.

Treatment of English Travellers.

The treatment meted out to English travellers and residents in Germany at the time of the outbreak of the war was equally in keeping with the modern culture of the nation. British subjects arriving in England were loud in their protest of the manner in which they were treated, and even British, French, and Russian Consuls were treated like criminals. In regard to the latter, a mock formality of presenting the Consuls with passports was gone through before their departure, but, provided with these so-called guarantees of safe conduct, they were subjected to the grossest insults on the way, the women being the chief object of the mob’s fury. Insulting inscriptions were scribbled on the walls of their compartments, and they were the objects of very hostile demonstrations. At every station brave soldiers of the Kaiser presented their revolvers at the heads of the travellers, came up to the carriage windows, jeered at the occupants, and often threw rubbish into the compartments.{106}

Mr. Drummond Hay, the British Consul at Dantzig, the French Consul, M. Michel, and the Russian Consul were, with their families, turned out from their consulates at an hour’s notice. They were told that they would be taken to the Russian frontier, but in reality they were conveyed to Bentheim, near the Dutch frontier, via Stettin, a journey which occupied three days. During the journey they were not given nor allowed to buy any food, and when the train reached Bentheim the travellers were curtly told to get out, and the Consuls were immediately separated from their families. The women and children were housed in a mean tavern under strict military guard, and the men, together with Mr. Drummond Hay’s sixteen-year-old son, were taken to the local prison. They were all put into one small cell, which they found already tenanted by M. Vassel, an attaché of the French Consulate at Bentheim, who had been imprisoned some days previously. M. Vassel had been arrested when looking after the luggage of the French Consul at Bentheim, who had just left for Holland.

In prison the Consuls were treated as though they belonged to the worst class of criminals. They were obliged to sleep on the floor, without covering of any kind, and with only a few wisps of straw between them and the cold stones, and their only food was the black bread which is served out to the ordinary convicts.

Having fallen ill on the journey, M. Michel asked to be allowed to see a doctor, but, in lieu of medical advice,{107} he was given a very strong dose of castor oil, which made him very much worse. The conditions under which these four men and a boy lived cannot be described. The gaolers would not allow them nor anyone else to clean out the cell. Night and day the unfortunate prisoners were herded together. Their only recreation, a daily walk of half an hour’s duration, was taken in company with the convicts.

Ten days after leaving Dantzig Mr. Drummond Hay was set free, but the others were detained amid the awful surroundings which have been described.

It was ascertained that there were forty-eight other foreigners—among them fifteen Frenchmen—who are being kept in the town of Bentheim under the strictest military observation.

The state of affairs in Dantzig when the Consuls left was terrible; many people were being shot daily, often upon the very scantiest suspicion.

If the Germans treated responsible Government officials in the manner described above, how much worse was the case of unfortunate girls and women stranded alone in Germany. In many cases English governesses in German families were cast adrift, to starve and endure the insults of the savage enemy. Hundreds of English men and women, many of them tourists, were thrown into prison without any trial, and suffered the same indignities as did our Consul at Dantzig.{108}

Englishwoman’s Experience.

A well-authenticated story was related by the headmistress of a London elementary school, who was in Switzerland when the war broke out and who returned to England prostrate with shock at the horror of scenes she witnessed while passing through Germany. The train, she said, was packed; all windows were closed, and the blinds drawn, and the passengers were forbidden on peril of their lives to raise them. Glimpses of troop trains were caught at intervals, and to allow these to pass frequent stops were made. The pace was slow, and the crowded, unventilated carriages became unendurably close. In the same compartment as the lady in question were two English women, whom she learned to be teachers in the provinces. One of these became ill, and at last, when the train came to a stop at a countryside place between stations—there was no means of locating it—her friend helped the sick girl to alight in order to breathe some fresh air. Instantly bullets hailed upon them, and both were shot dead. Their travelling companions dared make no attempt to recover the bodies, and when the train passed on they were left beside the line.

Two teachers of another London girls’ school state that a woman travelling with them through Germany was shot for failing to show her passport, and her body thrown out upon the line. Other ladies in the same train stated that they had been stripped by German officers on the pretence of searching them.{109}

A MALINES RED-CROSS WARD WHICH WAS SHELLED BY THE GERMANS.
Photo, Sport and General.
Face p. 109.

XV.

What Our Soldiers Say.

By innumerable acts of treachery and appalling savagery on the battlefield the German soldiers have forfeited for ever the right to the courtesies usually extended to an honourable foe. The opening phases of the war have shown them in the light of cold-blooded barbarians, rather than honourable soldiers. The well-attested stories of their shocking brutality have no parallel in the history of the world. And in practically every case these incredible acts of cruelty have been committed with the knowledge and approval of their officers. They are carrying out to the letter the advice of the Kaiser to act like the Huns of Attila.

British soldiers who have returned wounded from the front are emphatic in their assertions that the German gunners deliberately fired on the hospitals and Red Cross men. One man remarked, “They seemed to take a delight in aiming at hospitals, which had the Red Cross over them. In fact, anything with the Red Cross acted{110} as a target. A church was being used as a hospital, and one of our officers, who had a flesh wound, was taken inside for medical attention. Whilst he was there a shell blew away the roof of the church, and injured him a second time. Fifty men went out under the Red Cross to pick up wounded. They were fired on, and only two of them came back.”

A member of the Red Cross organisation stated that the Germans have treated with actual brutality the British wounded who fell into their hands. Twenty-seven British soldiers who were being removed from the field in an ambulance were dragged away and made to march to the Town Hall of Mons, two falling unconscious in the streets on their way.

A resident of Ostend, in a letter to this country, put into words the prevailing opinion in Belgium. “These Germans are not true soldiers,” he writes, “they are murderers in uniform. They kill the wounded and shoot the women and children. At one of the charges at Liége the Colonel of the 9th Regiment of the Line was shot through the head, and when his body was recovered later in the day it was found that these German cowards had inflicted at least twenty bayonet stabs on the already dead body.”

Helpless Soldiers Maimed.

These terrible allegations are borne out by information which has been received by a British officer from his son at the front, who states that the enemy, on coming{111} across wounded British soldiers, proceed to stab them through the right hand with a bayonet, with a view to rendering the hand useless for holding a rifle again.

A horrible story is told by a wounded British sergeant. Struck down by a bullet, he lay on his back on the battlefield of Mons, unable to move, around him many wounded men. The German soldiers advanced over their bodies, stabbing at them with their bayonets. Realising that his only chance of saving his life was to feign death, the wounded “Tommy” closed his eyes and kept perfectly still. As the Germans passed one struck him on the body a heavy blow with the butt of a rifle, with the result that one of his ribs was smashed. Clenching his teeth to prevent crying out he lay rigid, hoping against hope that the barbarous enemy would not see that he still lived. Then to his relief they passed on, but not before one of them had plunged his bayonet into his shoulder.

Such stories as these make one’s blood boil, but they are by no means isolated instances. Many wounded soldiers who have returned have declared that after the battle of Mons the Germans, especially officers and non-commissioned officers, passed over the ground and thrust their swords at the wounded men. One man escaped by hiding for twenty-four hours under sheaves of corn.

Yet another story is told by a wounded soldier who was also in the fighting near Mons. He said, “We had had to retire a short distance, leaving some killed and wounded behind. We saw the Germans come along.{112} They carried away some of our men who were lying on the ground we had left. They placed them—and I am positively sure there were wounded as well as killed among them—on a hayrick. Then the rick was set on fire. It made us desperately wild, and we long to get at those Germans. If we only could have charged! As it was, we had to stay where we were, but I think we got in a good few shots of vengeance which found their billet.”

A lieutenant of an infantry regiment stated that the Germans captured a party of his men outside Liége, and in order to prevent their escape crushed their feet with the butts of their rifles. They then took one man and held him against a tree while their comrades beat him about the back with rifle butts. An infantryman named Legrande, who was in the trenches beside his brother at a point where the fighting was furious, and who is now in hospital at Brussels, told the following story. His brother was mortally wounded by a German bullet, and died in his arms. He himself was shot in the thigh, and almost at the same moment some German Uhlans rode over him, leaving him unconscious. When he recovered his senses he made an endeavour to crawl back to his own lines, which in the meantime had been drawn in. He was discovered by some German infantrymen, who stripped him, taking his water-bottle and everything. Legrande had to wait in a state of utter nudity until the middle of the night, and then strip the dead bodies of his comrades in order to clothe himself. Eventually he{113} regained the ranks of his comrades in an almost dying condition.

Again the Germans, having despoiled dead Belgian soldiers of their uniforms, clothed some of their men in them and placed them at the head of their troops when an attack was made upon the Belgian troops.

The Khaki Uniform Trick.

The treacherous use by the Germans of British uniforms is instanced by one of the wounded men at present in England. “What made matters worse for us was the treachery of the enemy,” he stated, in the course of an account of the fight in which he had sustained his hurt. “We were compelled to fall back at one point, and left behind us our haversacks and greatcoats, which we had taken off to allow us to fight the better. Some time afterwards a body of men came towards us wearing the familiar khaki-coloured coats, and naturally we took them for friends. But they were Germans who had seized our coats and put them on in order to disguise themselves, and no sooner were they near us than they sent a murderous fire into our ranks. Later, when there was a lull in the fighting, we found a large number of Germans killed wearing the clothes of British soldiers, showing that they must either have stripped our dead or the British prisoners they had captured and used their clothes.”

A number of Belgian soldiers arriving in Folkestone have also described the behaviour of the enemy as too{114} brutal for any civilised nation, and most of them had seen Belgian villagers drawn in front of the Germans to act as a screen for them. A favourite trick of the Germans was to terrify Belgian villagers by driving them along immediately in front of their heavy guns, where, owing to the elevation of the guns, they were really quite safe. Their experience had been that the Germans had no respect for the Red Cross, and that in fact they waited until the wounded had been picked up and would then fire. They confirmed the stories which had been told about the manner in which the Germans had killed wounded men.

In another case a French soldier, after the engagement at Spincourt, related that while he was on the ground with a bullet in his foot the Germans, seeing he was not dead, fired at him with a rifle, twice, point-blank, hitting him in the hip and shoulder, whereupon he became unconscious. The Germans, thinking he was dead, left him.

Many of the British wounded affirm that the Germans pay no respect to the Red Cross flag, but continually fire upon it and upon Red Cross men. The enemy have also frequently violated the rules of the white flag. These statements are supported by the Ostend correspondent of the Central News, who was the eye-witness of the disgraceful incident which he described in the following message:—“When I was in the neighbourhood of Malines the forts were under bombardment. From the Willebroek fort the Belgians were placing shells into{115} a wood four miles distant, with the object of forcing out a detachment of Uhlans. Presently a party of Uhlans, exhibiting a white flag, came forward towards the Belgian trenches with a request for a cessation of fire for the purpose of collecting wounded. The temporary truce was agreed to. A Red Cross wagon came forward to collect wounded, and a party from the Belgian trenches went out for a similar purpose.

“Suddenly the German Red Cross van opened, and from out of it a mitrailleuse poured its deadly fire with such effect that some ninety of the Belgians fell dead. The retribution was swift and complete. The Belgian artillery again opened fire, and with well-directed shells laid low at least 200 of the treacherous Germans.

“Another incident of like character came beneath my immediate notice. A party of German cyclists, entering the village of Willebroek, shot down a child of seven years of age. The Belgian infantry opened fire upon the cyclists, and an armoured motor-car, carrying a captain and four men, pursued the marauders. It is with satisfaction that I can record that eight of the Germans will fight no more.”

France Makes a Formal Protest.

An official communiqué issued by the War Office of Paris contains the following references to these outrages. It draws to the attention of the Powers signatory of The Hague Convention the following facts, constituting on the part of the German military authorities{116} a violation of the Conventions signed on October 10th, 1907, by the Imperial German Government:—

“According to a report dated August 10th, 1914, sent by the General Commanding the Army in the East,” it continues, “the German troops have finished off a large number of wounded men by shots fired into their faces at close quarters, as has been demonstrated by the dimensions of the wounds. Other wounded men were deliberately trampled upon.

“On the 10th August the Bavarian infantry systematically set fire to the villages which they went through in Barbas, Montigny, Montreux, and Paruse districts, at a time also when no artillery fire on either side could have provoked such action. In the same district they compelled the inhabitants to go in front of their scouts.”

Another report, dated August 11th, 1914, says: “The German troops are burning villages, massacring inhabitants, and making the women and children march in front of them when they come out of the villages on to the battlefields. This was done notably at Billy, in the fighting on the 10th. They are finishing off the wounded and killing prisoners.

“The Government of the Republic, in view of such proceedings, which must be repudiated by the universal conscience of mankind, leaves it to the civilised Powers to make complete appreciation of these criminal acts, which are eternally dishonouring for a belligerent.”{117}

XVI.

The Antwerp Outrage.

Next to the tragic and infamous destruction of Louvain, and the attendant atrocities committed in that beautiful old town, nothing has called forth more passionate denunciation than the cowardly attempt made by Zeppelin airships to drop bombs at Antwerp in the dead of night on its sleeping inhabitants. For the first time in history a death-dealing airship has attacked a city in this way. As a weapon the Zeppelin dropping bombs may be as destructive as great shells fired from siege howitzers. The horror of aircraft is, however, more terrorizing than that of any siege gun, because bombs can be thrown down from the sky on defenceless and sleeping cities. The civilized world has greeted with execration this inhuman method of prosecuting war.

Before even a fortified town can be bombarded, the rules of war provide for twenty-four hours’ notice before the commencement of actual bombardment. Here we have a great airship sailing high over a sleeping city.{118} Without warning her crew drop death-dealing bombs from the sky in the dead of night. Surely the killing of unsuspecting men, innocent women, and sleeping children in this way is the most ruthless outrage ever attempted in war.

Piloted by a German who knew the city well—one of the many to whom the city opened wide its doors in the days before the war—the huge airship had for its objective the Palais du Roi, where the Queen of Belgium, the little Princes, and Princess Marie-José lay sleeping. Aided by the darkness, the crew of the Zeppelin felt confident of their ability to carry out their murderous programme. They had mapped out a career of terrifying destruction. In a track of devastation they meant to leave in ruins the Palais du Roi (which would also have involved the death of the Royal Family), the Bourse, the Palais de Justice, the Banque, and the Minerva Motor Works. But in no case was the treacherous aim attained. The cowardly raid proved a complete and utter failure, the only consolation provided the Kaiser being the slaughter of seven innocent persons and the wounding of some twenty others.

Girls Horribly Mutilated.

The bombs which were to have killed the Queen and her family and to have shattered the Bourse fell into an adjoining street, wrecked a house, and injured two women. That destined for the destruction of the Banque struck the attic of a house near by, killed a servant as{119} she slept, and injured two others. Of the other bombs one fell into a shrubbery, dug a deep, funnel-shaped hole, uprooted shrubs, and plucked from their frames windows of the St. Elizabeth Hospital, where the wounded lay. Another—and the most successful bomb—struck a private house inhabited by poor people, murdered a woman, and horribly mutilated three girls, killed two Civic Guards, and seriously injured another. It was at a private house just off the Place de Meir that a bomb wrought much destruction to life and property. It tore off the top storey and split up the front.

Screams of Dying Women.

“As I arrived on the scene,” says a Daily Telegraph correspondent, “a woman tottered out covered with lime dust, crying out, ‘Docteur, docteur!’ Beneath the ruins of the house two Civic Guards were dead. Within the house pitiful screams came from three girls who had been roused from sleep by receiving dreadful wounds on the face and body. One girl had half her face blown away; the two others were seriously wounded on the face. Evidently their bodies had been somewhat protected by the bed-clothes.”

The Zeppelin at the time of this appalling incident was almost stationary in the sky, some seven hundred feet from the ground. Needless to say, a panic at once ensued, and thousands of people took refuge in their cellars, while others dashed out into the streets in their night attire. Time after time the earth trembled as the{120} terrible bombs fell, causing devastation everywhere, the spots being signalled, it is said, from the roofs of houses occupied by prominent Germans, of whom there was a large colony in Antwerp. Truly it was a night of terror, for the populace through the hours of tension did not know from one moment to another that they might not be blown to atoms. Ten bombs struck ten different streets. One which fell in the Rue des Navets made a hole six feet six inches in diameter and twenty-two inches deep. It was probably filled with shot, for all the houses in the vicinity were riddled by bullets, and presented the appearance of having been fired upon, all the doors and windows being broken and the ceilings having fallen in.

Enormous Damage to Property.

It was calculated that about nine hundred houses were more or less damaged and about sixty houses destroyed. In a single house four persons were found dead. Indeed, in one room two people had been blown to atoms. Three men were walking in the Rue de la Corne, when one of the bombs fell. One was killed and the other two mortally wounded, while another passer-by had his leg blown off. All the bombs, which created a terrific explosion,{121} were found to have been in a steel cover one and a half inches thick and about a foot in diameter. The Zeppelin was, of course, fired upon from the forts with guns and rifles, but having launched its deadly missiles it moved off into the darkness.

A subsequent examination of the projectiles thrown showed that they had a double covering, the two covers being joined together by mushroom-shaped rivets, which act the part of bullets, and must cause horrible injuries, as the two covers or envelopes are torn to fragments by the explosive.

A Miraculous Escape.

The story of that terrible night would not, however, be complete without a reference to the miraculous escape of M. Vamberg, a cigarette-maker. Had he slept in the bed he usually occupied, he would now be a dead man. But for some reason he chose another bed in another room, his wife being absent in the country, and so saved his life. The bed which Mme. Vamberg occupies when at home was crushed by the falling roof. More than that,{122} having been aroused by the sound of the cannon, and having jumped out of bed and rushed down to the first floor, M. Vamberg found himself suddenly hanging from the window, the house having fallen about his ears. He was rescued from this position by the firemen.

More Cowardly Raids.

But, as though not satisfied with the success of the first attempt, the Germans determined upon another dastardly raid. A few nights after the first outrage a Zeppelin again appeared over the city in the dead of night. Ten bombs were discharged, and damaged a number of houses. No lives were lost, however. A boy of fifteen had his right arm injured by a flying splinter, while his father and sister and one or two others were slightly injured. A graphic description of the raid is given by the Daily Telegraph correspondent. “I was awakened,” he relates, “by the rattle of rifle-fire from neighbouring roofs and the hideous crash of exploding bombs. Hurriedly descending into the Place Verte, I was just in time to see an airship disappearing southward. She was at a tremendous height, but could be clearly seen in the rays of the searchlight. There was an incessant rattle of shots from rifles and machine guns from the darkened town, and shrapnel could be seen exploding like meteorites in the trail of the flying marauder. All round the Place Verte from the roadway, and from points of vantage on the high buildings, spurts of flame indicated the efforts of the firers to bring down the hated{123} ship. Immediately the searchlights fixed upon her the Zeppelin made off at great speed.”

Worse than the Boxers.

Surgeon-Major Seaman, of the United States Army Reserve Corps, who helped to tend the wounded, was so indignant with these cowardly tactics on the part of the Germans that he communicated with his Government, asking it to join at once in exacting reparation from Germany for such infamies. He declared that in all his eight campaigns, of which one was against the Boxers in China, he had never seen an act of war so ruthless, so horrible, as the sight of three young girls mutilated and defaced, and of the dead young mother, all attacked in their beds at night. And with him the civilized world will agree.

Other airship and aeroplane raids were made on Antwerp and also upon Paris, but fortunately none has been attended with either great loss of life or destruction of property. But that such should be the case affords no excuse for crimes which rank among the greatest committed by the ruthless German army.

{124}

XVII.

“The Hussar-like Stroke.”

The laying of mines in neutral waters in contravention of the rules by which civilized warfare was to be conducted was in itself a most dastardly act. To place contact mines in the open sea and then to skulk behind them was declared by the Kaiser’s wireless press bureau to be a “Hussar-like stroke.” The Kaiser himself referred with satisfaction to the fact that his navy had sown the North Sea with death. The laying of mines is only admissible for the purpose of guarding estuaries and harbours, and by The Hague Convention it was specifically laid down that neutral waters must not be mined. In consequence of this cruel action of the enemy many crews of British and Danish trawlers, the hard toilers of the sea, were sent to their deaths, while the Wilson liner Runo, on a{125} voyage to Archangel, and His Majesty’s ships Amphion and Speedy were sent to the bottom with great loss of life. In addition, several trawlers, while engaged in mine-sweeping operations, were also destroyed. All craft and cunning in naval warfare was, of course, admissible, including the alteration and extinguishing of lights, the removal of landmarks and buoys, and the disguising of warships as merchantmen; but to scatter death indiscriminately along a neutral waterway was a stab-in-the-back method worthy, indeed, of the pinchbeck Napoleon.

{127}

THE DAY

By THE “BATH RAILWAY POET”

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