Chapter 24).

[59] What I have here written is, without exaggeration, the substance of the Manifesto issued by the German Professors in August last. For the text, _see_ the _Morning Post_, August 13th and 14th. And to the same effect is the speech of the Imperial Chancellor in the Reichstag a few days later (for report, _see The Times_, August 21st).

[60] Long ago--in 1870--Fustel de Coulanges pointed out that the crime which, to use the words of our law, “is not to be named among Christians,” flourished in Berlin as it flourished nowhere else, and the immorality of latter-day Germany was the subject of a mournful lamentation by Treitschke in his old age. An acute student of modern Germany, Dr. Arthur Shadwell, also remarks on the low commercial morality of German merchants (_see_ the _Nineteenth Century and After_ for August, 1915).

[61] It is a curious fact, attested by the evidence of a large number of British and French soldiers who have been in action, that the German soldier often exhibits the most abject fear when confronted individually with the bayonet, going down on his knees, and whining “Kamerad,” “Mercy,” and such like lachrymose appeals.

[62] Bryce Appendix, “Depositions taken by Professor Morgan,” page 195.

[63] Belgian Reports (Tenth Report), page 119. To the same effect the British and French Reports, _passim_.

[64] Admiralty Memorandum, August 21st. Commander’s report on the stranding of _E_13.

[65] _See_ Belgian Reports and Bryce Report.

[66] The writer has brought together a number of such passages in his preface to the _German War Book_. For others _see Les Usages de la Guerre et la doctrine de l’Etat-Major Allemand_, by Professor Charles Andler (Paris, 1915). _Also_ Chapter I. of “_Les Cruautés Allemandes, Requisitoire d’un neutre_,” by Léon Maccas (Paris, 1915). And more especially the extremely valuable book published, at the moment of going to press, by an eminent French scholar, the Marquis de Dampierre, _L’Allemagne et le Droit des Gens_, a copy of which has just reached me.

[67] Sorel, _Essais d’histoire et de critique_, p. 271.

[68] German Proclamation of August 27th, 1914, at Wavre (Belgian Reports, No. 6, page 82). In the Proclamation at Namur of August 25th, 1914, the German commandant, von Bulow, warns the inhabitants against “the horrible crime” of compromising by their conduct the existence of the town and its inhabitants!

[69] _Ibid._, page 81.

[70] _See_ p. 123.

[71] Holtzendorff, IV., 378.

[72] French Reports, _Rapports et Proces-verbaux_, p. 40.

[73] _cf._ the reply of the Roman Senate to the offer of a German chief to poison Arminius, “Responsum esse non fraude neque occultis, sed palam et armatum populum Romanum hostes suos ulcisci.” Tacit., _Ann._, II., p. 88.

[74] _See_ the British White Paper of September 21st, 1915; “Austrian and German papers found in possession of James F. J. Archibald, Falmouth, August 30th, 1915.”

[75] Professor Salmond in the _Law Quarterly Review_.

[76] Mr. Justice Bailhache in the _King_ v. _the Superintendent of Vine Street Police Station_. “The courts are entitled to take judicial notice of certain notorious facts. Spying has become the hall-mark of German Kultur.” September 7th, 1915.

[77] It is, however, impossible to include within the limits of this book the whole of the unpublished material at my disposal.

[78] The term “soldier” is used throughout this article in the sense adopted in the Army Annual Act, _i.e._, as meaning N.C.O.s and privates.

[79] The outrages committed in the districts now in the occupation of the British armies have not been reported upon by the French Commission, and the ground so traversed in this article is therefore new.

[80] Von der Goltz.

[81] One might go further and say that the Geneva Convention, which has hitherto been universally regarded as a law of perfect obligation and which even the German Staff in the German War Book affects to treat as sacred, is perverted to an instrument of treachery. The emblem of the Red Cross was used to protect waggons in which machine-guns were concealed. And since this article was written a German hospital ship, the _Ophelia_, has been condemned, on irrefutable evidence, by our Prize Court as having been used for belligerent purposes. Such things throw a very lurid light on the German conception of honour.

[82] Similar evidence has been supplied to me by a French officer attached to the Fifth Division of the British Expeditionary Force. _See_ Chap. III., Part I., No. 56.

[83] See Chapter III., Part I., and, in particular, Nos. 39 to 43.

[84] The German officers spoke Hindustani. Doubtless they knew, as I have found they often know, the identity of the British regiments opposite their positions and were attached there for the express purpose of dealing with Indians. But in no case, so far as I know, were their attempts to seduce our Indian troops successful.

[85] This diary is now in the possession of my friend the Marquis de Dampierre, who is about to publish it and numerous others, together with fac-similes of the originals.

[86] The passage suggests that our wounded were killed, but it is not conclusive. “Noch lebenden,” _i.e._, “still living,” would appear to mean the wounded found in our trenches and unable to escape with the others. The fact of some prisoners being taken does not dispose of the suspiciousness of the passage.

[87] Brenneisen is now a prisoner in England. The diary was a most carefully kept one. Since I first published it, it has been republished by the French authorities.

[88] What follows refers principally to the portion of Northern France now occupied by the British troops. The case of Belgium has been sufficiently dealt with by the Committee.

[89] _See_ Chap. III., Section 2.

[90] _Ibid._, Section 3.

[91] After the outrage they dragged the girl outside and asked if she knew of any other young girls (“jeunes filles”) in the neighbourhood, adding that they wanted to do to them what they had done to her. _See_ Chap. III. (2) No. 4.

[92] Presumably La Couture.--J. H. M.

[93] I have suppressed the names of the witnesses for fear of their relatives, if any, in German hands being subjected to vindictive measures. Also in the case (selected from some twenty similar cases equally authenticated) of rape I have omitted certain details which seem to me too disgusting for publication.--J. H. M.

[94] NOTE.--This diary is a laconic example of a hundred such village tragedies. According to the Eleventh Belgian Report (page 133), twenty-six priests and monks were shot in Namur alone. And see the pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier (_ibid._, page 165) on what he calls “this sinister necrology.” In his own diocese alone (that of Malines) he records thirteen priests as having been killed. According to a German soldier the guilt of priests was established by the fact that church-bells often rang!--(Bryce Appendix, page 163).

[95] This savage credulity found its sequel in the murder of many unoffending priests not only in Belgium but in France. I quote one case from the depositions in my possession:

“Marie B----, sœur du curé de Pradelles, a déclaré ‘Les Allemands rodant dans le village out enlevé la personne de mon frère M. l’Abbé Héléodore Bogaert, curé de cette paroisse, et l’ont fusillé au cimetière de Strazeele sans aucun motif le 9 octobre vers 1 heure et demie du matin.’”

[96] These documents have been placed in my hands by the General Headquarters Staff. In accordance with the procedure adopted in the Bryce Report, and for military reasons, I have suppressed the names of the British regiments referred to and of their officers and men.--J. H. M.

[97] This and the two following depositions are selected from a number of statements, mostly by Russian prisoners in German hands, who succeeded in escaping to the British lines. The statements (_b_) and (_c_) by these Russian soldiers are confirmed by the statement (_a_) which was volunteered by a German soldier, Stephan Grzegoroski, taken prisoner by the British troops. It is hardly necessary to point out that the employment of prisoners of war upon military works and their exposure to fire constitute a flagrant breach, not only of the Hague Regulations, but of the unwritten laws and usages of war.--J. H. M.

[98] These two men escaped on December 8th, 1915, and reached the British Lines.--J. H. M.

[99] “German Atrocities: An Official Investigation.” By J. H. Morgan, M.A., late Home Office Commissioner, with the British Expeditionary Force, Barrister-at-Law of the Inner Temple, and Professor of Constitutional Law in the University of London. (T. Fisher Unwin.)

[Transcriber’s Note:

Corrected the first two entries in the TOC to reflect the actual page numbers.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]

End of Project Gutenberg's German Atrocities, by John Hartman Morgan