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PREFACE
PREFACE
T HIS fearful and disgraceful record of a Nation’s shame and of an Emperor’s complicity in atrocious crimes against God and man is no work of fiction, but a plain unvarnished statement of the grim and terrible work of the Kaiser’s Huns of Attila which I have considered it a duty to lay before the British public. Modern Germany, frothing with military Nietzschism, seems to have returned to a primitive barbarism. Belgium, a peaceful modern nation, has been swept by fire and sword, and its honest,
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FOREWORD
FOREWORD
WHO WERE THE HUNS OF ATTILA? The Kaiser, we read, has exhorted his soldiers to make themselves as much dreaded as the Huns of Attila. It is worth while to recall the methods of this savage, for he was nothing better. In one expedition across Greece and in another across Italy he reduced seventy of the finest cities to smoking ruins and to shambles. The inhabitants were either slaughtered on the spot or marched away in chains to end their lives as slaves. Men, women, children, babies—all came ali
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
In addition to the sworn facts and statements supplied officially to me by the Belgian Government, I have here included some others which have been recounted by wounded men who have returned from the front, by doctors who have attended them, and by the special correspondents of Reuter’s, the Central News, and other news agencies, and of the London and provincial newspapers. Mr. Asquith has described the sacking of Louvain as “the greatest crime committed against civilization and culture since th
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
I T was a little over a month after the declaration of war that reports of great events began to crowd in upon us. Much had happened in that short space of time. The enormous forces of the Kaiser had forced back the line of the Allies well into France. We admired the huge machine at work. From a military point of view the rapidity of the advance of such an enormous body of men was something unique in warfare. It was not this wonderful achievement of the German army, however, it was not the equal
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I.
I.
Article XXIII. of The Hague Convention forbids:—“To kill or wound treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army.” From almost the first day of the war this undertaking, given by Germany along with the other Great Powers, has been treated by her as a “scrap of paper.” The fearful deeds of horror which have besmirched the name of Germany form a terrible page of history. They have been proved by captured Germans themselves to have been deliberate, and to have been actually order
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II.
II.
My Interview with Belgian Ministers of State. In order that the civilized world should be acquainted with the terrible atrocities committed in Belgium, the King of the Belgians, who had served in the trenches with his men, disguised as a private soldier, appointed a Mission to proceed to the President of the United States and lay the case before him. The members of the Mission were:— M. Carton de Wiart, Chief of the Mission, who is the Belgian Minister of Justice; M. de Sadeleer, Leader of the C
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III.
III.
Our own Press Bureau issued on the 25th August the following statement to the English Press:— “The Belgian Minister has made the following statement:— “In spite of solemn assurances of good will and long-standing treaty obligations, Germany has made a sudden savage and utterly unwarranted attack on Belgium. “However sorely pressed she may be, Belgium will never fight unfairly and never stoop to infringe the laws and customs of legitimate warfare. She is putting up a brave fight against overwhelm
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IV.
IV.
The following is the second report issued by the Belgian Commission of Inquiry, and which was published by the British Official Press Bureau on September 15th, 1914. To M. Carton de Wiart, Minister of Justice, Antwerp. Sir,—The Commission of Inquiry has the honour to make the following report on acts of which the town of Louvain, the neighbourhood, and the district of Malines have been the scene. The German Army entered Louvain on Wednesday, August 19th, after having burned down the villages thr
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V.
V.
Can These Things Be True? Can these cold-blooded deeds of atrocity be true? Is it a fact that they have been proved to the satisfaction of the most exacting critics? Is this “welter of fire, blood, and destruction” to be written finally on the pages of history? I can only say this: 1. These stories came to us first from responsible correspondents of all our leading newspapers, who took them down for the most part at first hand from eye-witnesses and from the poor victims themselves. 2. A committ
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VI.
VI.
It is specially forbidden “To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion. To make improper use of a flag of truce, of the national flag, or of the military insignia and uniform of the enemy.”—Hague Convention, Article XXIII. Wanton Brutality. I have made it plain from the official documents I have quoted that the German troops violated every item of this article. But in addition to cases of brutality already cited
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VII.
VII.
300 Men Shot in Cold Blood. A terrible story of the holocaust at Liége was told to the correspondent of the Daily Mail by a wealthy Dutch cigarette manufacturer who had lived for a long time in Belgium, and was married to a Belgium woman. He stated that on the day of their entry the Germans posted an order on the streets that all arms in possession of private persons must be immediately delivered, under the threat of being shot. The inhabitants complied with the order. Among others, collections
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VIII.
VIII.
“ Our German people will be the grand block on which the good God may complete His work of civilizing the world. ” From a speech of The Kaiser’s . The Inferno at Visé. A correspondent of the Handelsblad was an eye-witness of the scenes in Visé, near Liége, when it was burned, and told a tale of German barbarity, and of the murder and torture of its helpless inhabitants, of a nature to make one’s blood run cold. As summarized in the Daily News the story is as follows:— “It was an awful sight. E
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IX.
IX.
The Maiden Tribute. Another story M. Cruls related was told to him by the mother herself. At a village called Leau a squadron of about five hundred Uhlans was marching through the town when they declared that someone had fired at them. On going round to all the houses, searching for firearms, they came to one where the family circle consisted of a grandfather, the father, mother, and a girl of seventeen or eighteen, and a young boy, who, upon seeing the approach of the German soldiers, fled and
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X.
X.
Atrocities Around Liége. Belgian officials reported from Liége devilish atrocities committed in the town and suburbs. In the Place de l’Université, the Rue des Pitteurs, and the Quai des Pecheurs most of the houses were burned. The occupants, who had been awakened by the acrid smoke, fled in terror, and fifteen persons, men, women, and children, were killed as they ran, while in one instance a family were called together, and father and son were killed and then mutilated in front of them. Appare
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XI.
XI.
The Crime of Louvain. “ In destroying the ancient town of Louvain, the German troops have committed a crime for which there can be no atonement, and Humanity has suffered a loss which can never be repaired. ”— Press Bureau. No words can adequately describe the wave of disgust which swept over the whole of the civilized communities of the world when it became known that the Germans had reduced to ashes the beautiful old city of Louvain. Mr. Asquith has described the sack of Louvain as “ the great
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XII.
XII.
“ Just for a word—‘neutrality’—just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was going to make war. ”— The German Chancellor. The “scrap of paper” was the Powers’ treaty guaranteeing Belgium neutrality. French Protest to the Powers. So numerous and so terrible were the outrages committed by Germans on French territory that the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, on September 2nd—a month after the outbreak of hostilities—was compelled to address a communication to the Powers which set forth a large nu
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XIII.
XIII.
The Desecration of Churches. Other refugees from Lorraine had harrowing stories to tell of German brutalities, and many made statements which were officially registered. Whole villages, they said, had been put to fire and sword. One man told an official of the Catholic Society that he had, with his own eyes, seen two German soldiers chop off the arms of a child which clung to its mother’s skirts. Other narratives show once more that the Germans entered closed houses and shot or bayoneted the inm
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XIV.
XIV.
“ It is not a fair fight. Germany is fighting foully; she is defying not only the rules of war, but the rules of humanity. ”— Mr. Richard Harding Davis , the great American author. Treatment of English Travellers. The treatment meted out to English travellers and residents in Germany at the time of the outbreak of the war was equally in keeping with the modern culture of the nation. British subjects arriving in England were loud in their protest of the manner in which they were treated, and even
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XV.
XV.
“ France must be so completely crushed that she can never again come across our path. ”— Gen. Von Bernhardi. (This statement was made long before war was declared.) What Our Soldiers Say. By innumerable acts of treachery and appalling savagery on the battlefield the German soldiers have forfeited for ever the right to the courtesies usually extended to an honourable foe. The opening phases of the war have shown them in the light of cold-blooded barbarians, rather than honourable soldiers. The
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XVI.
XVI.
“ The wrong—I speak openly—that we are committing I will endeavour to make good as soon as our military goal is achieved. ” From a speech by The German Chancellor . The Antwerp Outrage. Next to the tragic and infamous destruction of Louvain, and the attendant atrocities committed in that beautiful old town, nothing has called forth more passionate denunciation than the cowardly attempt made by Zeppelin airships to drop bombs at Antwerp in the dead of night on its sleeping inhabitants. For the
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XVII.
XVII.
“ Against ordinary though severe reprisals upon civilians who have fired upon the German troops we have not a word to utter; but outrage, mutilation, burning alive, and so forth are not reprisals; they are atrocities which make the name of Germany stink in the nostrils of mankind. It is hard to believe that a civilized nation should have so reverted to savagery, but unfortunately the facts admit of no dispute. ”—From the Globe . “The Hussar-like Stroke.” The laying of mines in neutral waters i
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THE DAY
THE DAY
By THE “BATH RAILWAY POET” [This very striking poem, which we reproduce below by kind permission of the Daily Express , is published in leaflet form at a halfpenny, for the benefit of the National Relief Fund. The author is Mr. Henry Chappell, a railway porter at Bath. Mr. Chappell is known to his comrades as the “Bath Railway Poet.” The Express acclaims the author of “The Day” as a national poet—an opinion which is very largely shared by the general Press.]...
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