Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-05-13

mo evidence whatever seems to
have been adduced to prove this anc
though there may be cases In which
individual Belgians fred on the Ger
mans, the statement that the Whole
civilian population of Belgium was
called OUT is utterly opposed to the
fact.
AN invading army may be en-
titled to shoot at sight civilian
caught redhanded, or anyone VINO
though not caught redhanded IS
proved guilty on inquiry. But this
was not the practice followed by the
German troops. They do not seem
to have made any inquiry. They
seized the civilians Of the village In
discrinately and killed them, or such
as they selected from among them'
without the least regard to guilt or
innocence. The mere crime 'Civilis-
ten haben geschossen' was enough to
hand over whole village or district
and even outlying places to ruthless
slaughter.
Sane Evidence Of Humanity.
We gladly record the instances
where the evidence shows that nu"
mainly has not wholly disappeared
from some members of the German
army and that they realized that the
responsible heads of that organization
was employing them not in war out III
butchery: I am merely executing or
oers, and l should be shot If / dld not
execute them,' said an officer to 3
witness at Louvain. At Brussels
another officer says: I have not oohH
one hundredth part of what we nave
been ordered to do by the High Ger
man Military authorities
THAT these acts should have been per-
ietratcd on the peaceful population Oh an
unoffending country which was not at
war with it's invaders but merely defend
ing it's own neutrality, guaranteed by the
invading power, may excite amazement
and even incredulty. 1t was with
amazement and almost with incredulity
that the committee first read the deposl-
tons relating to such acts. But when the
evidence regarding Liege was followed
by that regarding Aerschot, Louvain, An
denne, Dinant, and the other towns and
villages, the cumulative effect of such
mass Of concurrent testimony became
irresistible and we were driven to the
conclusion that the things described had
really happened..5 The question then
arose how they could have happened.
Not mere military license, for the disci-
pline of the German army is proverbially
stringent, and its obedience explicit. Not
from any special ferocity of the troops,
VI WbUaEGc ha lsAtr Uslp
German peasantry knows that they are
as kindly and good-natured as any peo-
pie in EuropeS and those who can recall
the war Of 1870 will remember that no
charges resembling those proved by these
dispositions We're then established. The
successes recently committed in Belgium
| were, moreover too widespread and too
uniform in their character to be mere
sporadic outbursts of passion of rapa city
| 1.-The explaEat ton seems to be that
> these excesses were committcd-in some
cases ordered, in others allowed-on a
| system and in pursuance of set pur-
pose. That purpose was to strike terror
into the civil population and dishearten
the Belgian troops.t so as to crush down
resistance and extinguish the very spirit
(, of self-defense. The pretext that civil
| ians had fired upon the invading troops
was used to justify not merely the shoot
! ing of individual francs-tireurs, but the
! murder of large numbers of innocent
civilians, an act absolutely forbidden
| by the rules of civilized warfare.
War Seems a Sacred Mission.
| "In the minds of Prussian officers war
seems to have become sort of sacred
mission, one of the highest functions OF
| the omnipotent state, which is itself as
much an army as a state. Ordinary
| morality and the ordinary sentiment OF
pity vanish in its presence, superseded
By new standard which justies to the
, soldier every means that can conduce to
success, however shocking to a natural
sense Of justice and humanity. however
revolving to his own feelings. The spirit
Of war is deified. Obedience to the state
and it's War Lord leaves no room for any
| duty or feeling. Cruelty becomes legiti-
mate when it promises victory. Pro-
/ claimed by the heads of army, this doc
( trine would seem to have pcrmeated the
! officers and affected even the private SOL
! diers, leading them to justify the killing
| Of ncn-combatants as an act OF war; and
| so accustomng them to slaughter that
/ even women and children become at last
/ the victims. 1t cannot be supposed to
! be a national doctrine, for it neither
springs from nor reflects the mind and
feelings of the German people as they
/ have heretofore been known to other ma
! items. 1t is specifically military doctrine.
the outcome of theory held by ruling
caste WHO have brooded and thought.
! written and talked and dreamed about
, War until they have fallen under its OBJ
session and been hypnotized by its spirit.
THE doctrine is plainly set forth in
the German Oe.icial Monograph on the
| usages Of war on land, issued under the
direction of the German staff. This book
| is pervaded throughout by the view that
whatever military needs suggest becomes
THEREBY lawful. and upon this principle,
as the diaries show, the German officers
acted.
Perverted Conception Of Duty.
IF this explanation be the true one,
the mystery is solved, and that which
| seemed scarcely credible becomes more
ineligible though not less pernicious
This is not the only case that history
| records in which false theory. dis
guising itself as loyalty to a state or to
church. has perverted the conception
of duty and becomes a source of danger
to the world"
j Another 1;x,;c;on Of the reDort is on