The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-12
awful REIGN
OF CRIME LAID
TO GERMANS
Bryce Report on Belgian AtrOc-
tiles Fearful Indictment.
Charges Appalling Breaches of
Rules of War.
LUST and MURDER RAMPANT
Committee Holds Women and
Children Were Not Spared.
Frightful MutilatiOn of Both
Sexes Is Alleged.
SAYS BERLIN ORDERED 0RGIE
Statement Cites Instances to
Show Deliberate Program.
Declares Outrages Unprece-
dented i'm Three Centuries.
Committee Holds Women and
Children Were Not Spared.
Frightful MutilatiOn of Both
Sexes Is Alleged.
SAYS BERLIN ORDERED ORGIE
Statement Cites Instances to
Show Deliberate Program.
Declares Outrages Unprece-
dented i'm Three Centuries.

London, May 12.-viscount Bryce.
former British ambassador at WASH
ington, and now chairman of a spec
ial government committee appointed
to investigate and report on out
RACES alleged to have been committed
by German troops during the present
war; has submitted the report of the
committee to Premier Asquith.
The document is considered as
probably the most severe arraignment
thus far made of the German military
sweep across Belgium, mainly because
of the position of Viscount Bryce as
a historian, and also because of the
care with which the investigation
was made, the great number of wit
nesses whose testimony was examined
and the mass of evidence now submit
ted with the report of the committee.
Associated with Lord Bryce on the
committee were Sir Frederick Pol
lock, Sir Edward Clarke, Sir Alfred
Hopkinson, HI. a. l.. Fisher. Vice
Chancellor of the University of Shelf
field, Harold Cox and Kenelm E. Dig
by. The committee was appointed by
Premier Asquith on January %, last,
and was given broad Instructions to
investigate alleged outrages, the mal-
treatment of civilians, and breaches
of law and established usages of war
The most important findings of the
committee are summed up in the fol-
lowing conclusion at the close of the
report:
1t is proved:
First: That there were in many
parts of Belgium deliberate and
Systematically organized mas
sacres of the civil population, ac-
companied by many isolated muir
ders and other outrages.
Second: That in the conduct of
the war generally innocent civil
ians, both men and women, were
murdered, women violated and
children murdered.
Third: That looting,i house
burning, and the wanton destruc-
ton of property were ordered and
countenanced by the officers of
the German army, that elaborate
provision had been made for sys-
tematic incendiarism at the very
outbreak of the war, and that the
burning and destruction were
81 frequent where no military nec-
essity could be alleged being in
deed part of a sysctem of general
terrorization.
Fourth: That the rules and
usages of war were frequently
broken, particularly by the using
of civilians, including women and
children, as a shield for advance
ing forces exposed to fire, to
less degree by killing the wound
ed and prisoners, and in the fire.
quent abuse of the Red Cross and
the white flag.
The report saws: Murder. lust and
pil1age prevailed over many parts of
Belgium on a scale unparalleled in any
war between civilized nations during
the last three centuries
"Our function is ended when we
have stated what the evidence es-
(ConIirCed rage Two.I