Evening star., 1915-05-12
Maps Accompany Report.

The report makes an official docu
ment of sixty-one printed pages or
upward of 10000 words, accompanied
by maps, showing the various routes
of the army and the chief scenes of
desolation. 1t states at the outset that
l 1000 witnesses have been examined, the
dispositions being taken by examiners
though without authority to administer
an oath. The examiners were instruct
ed not to lead" the witnesses. and to
seek to bring out the truth by cross
examination and otherwise. The COM
mittee also submits extracts from a
number of diaries taken from the Ger
man dead. chiefly German soldiers, and
in some cases officers.
I'VE began the inquiry with doubts
whether a positive result would be OBJ
tained.' says the report. But the
farther we went and the more evidence
we examined SO much the more was
our skepticism reduced. There might
be some exaggeration in one witness.
possible delusion in another, inaccu-
racies in a third. When. however. we
found that things which at first seemed
improbable were testified to by many
witnesses coming from different places,
the points in which they all agreed be-
came more and more evidently true.
When this concurrence of testimony
showed itself in hundreds of deposit
tions. the truth of the broad facts stood
out beyond question. The force OF the
evidence is cumulative.
IF the period from August to Au-
gust 80 is taken it will be found to
cover most of these organized out
| RACES. Murder, rape, arson and pill
| lage began from the moment when
| the German army crossed the frontier.
| For the first fortnight Of the war the
| towns and villages near Liege were
the chief sufferers. From August 10
\ to the end of the month outrages
| spread in the directions of Charleroi
| and Malines and reached their period of
| greatest intensity. There is GER
| tain Significance In the fact that the
\ outrages around Liege coincide with
the unexpected resistance of the Bel
! gian army in that district, and that the
| slaughter which reigned from August
| 19 to the end of the month is CO.
temporaneous with the period when
| the German army's need for a quick
| passage through Belgium at all costs
was deemed imperative.
Here let a distinction be drawn be-
tween two classes of outrages.
treatment Of civilians. rape. piunder
| and the like-were very widely COM
! mitted. These are more numerous and
more shocking than would be expected
in warfare between civilized powers,
but they differ rather in extent than
| in kind from what had happened in
previous though not recent wars.
I'm all wars many shocking and out
| raReous acts of men of criminal in
| loosed by the immunity which the condi-
| tions Of warfare afford. have been COM
mitted. Drunkenness. moreover. may turn
even a soldier who has no criminal habits
4 into q brute, who may commit outrages
at which he would himself be shocked
| in his sober moments, and there rs
! evidence that fntoxication was extreme
/ ly prevalent among the German army,
| both in Belgium and In France, for
| plenty Of wine was to be found in the
| villages and country houses which were
pillaged. Many Of the worst outrages
appear to have been perpetrated by
| men under the influence of drink. I'm
| fortunately, little seems to have been
done to repress this source Of danger.
Claim Killing Was Planned.
I'm the present war. however-and this
is the gravest charge against the German
army-the evidence shows that the killing
Of non-combatants was carried out to an
extent for which no previous war between
nations claiming to be civilized tfor such
cases as the atrocities perpetrated by the
Turks on the Bulgarian Christians in 1875
| and on the Armenian Christians in 1895
and 1896 do not belong to that category
furnishes any precedent That this killing
was done part Of deliberate plan is
clear from the facts hereinbefore set
forth regarding Louvain. Aerschot, Dinant
and other towns. The killing was done
unQer OFQcfB III cdCn place. DeB6u III 4
certain fixed date. Some of tho officers
who carried out tho work did II reluctant
ly and said they were obeying directions
from their chiefs The same remarks ap-
ply to the destruction Of property. House
burning was part of the program. and
villages. even large parts Of a city, were
given to the flames as part of the terror
izing policy.
; 'Citizens Of neutral states who visited
Belgium in December and January report
that the German authorities do not deny
that -cQmbatanta ware aYatematically