Evening star., 1915-05-12

killed in large numbers during the first
weeks of the invasion, and this, so far as
we know, has never been officially denied.
II IT were denied the flight and continued
voluntary exile of thousands of Belgian
refugees would go far to contradict de-
NAL, for there is no historical parallel in
modern times for the flight of a large
part OF nation before an invader
Ihe German government has, however,
sought to justify it's seventies on the
grounds of military necessity, and have
excused them as retaliation for cases in
which civilians fired on German troops
There may have been cases in which such
firing occurred. but no proof has ever been
given, or, to our knowledge, attempted to
ne gwen, oil such cases, nor of the stories
of shocking outrages perpetrated by Bel
slan men and women on German sol
diers."
referring to statement by the chan
cellor of the German empire September
II last, that Belgians had committed ont
RACES on the German soldiers, the commit
tee says:
NO evidence whatever seems to have
been adduced to prove this, and. though
mere may be cases in which individual
Beigians fired on the Germans. the state
ment that the whole civilian population
of Belgium was called out is utterly on
posed to the fact
No Inquiries Were Conducted.
An invading army may be entitled
to shoot at sight civilian caught
red-handed. or any one who though
not caught red-handed 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 indiscriminate-
~ and killed them. or such as they
col tod fro L.,
least regard to guilt or innocence. The
mere crime. 'Civilisten haben geschos-
sen, was enough to hand over whole
village or district, and even outlying
places, to ruthless slaughter.
we gladly record the instances
where the evidence shows that hu-
manity has not wholly disappeared
from some members of the German
army, and that they realized that the
responsible heads of that organiza-
but in butchery. 1 am merely exc
cutting orders and I should be shot if
did not execute them said an officer
to witness at Louvain. At Brussels
e-hundredth part of what we have
been ordered to do by the high Ger
man military authorities
That these acts should have been
perpetrated on the peaceful population
of an unoffending country which was
not at war with its invaders, but mere
ly defending it's own neutrality. guar
anteed by the invading power, may ex-
cite amazement, and even incredulity
1t was with amazement and almost
with incredulity that the committee
first read the depositions relating to
such acts. But when the evidence re-
garding Liege was followed by that
regarding Aerschot, Louvain, Andenne,
Dinant and the other towns and vii
lagos. the cumulative effect of such a
mass of concurrent testimony became
irresistible. and we were driven to the
conclusion that the things described
had really happened. The question
then arose how they could have hap
pened. Not mere military license, for
the discipline of the German army is
proverbially stringent, and its obedi-
ence explicit. Not from any special
ferocity of the troops. for whoever has
travelled among the German peasantry
knows that they are as kindly and
good-natured as any people in Europe,
and those who can recall the war of
1870 will remember that no charges
resembling those proved by these depo-