GERMAN ATROCITIES.
PROFESSOR J. H. MORGAN has already rendered good service by his German War Book—a work in which he gave us, with useful historical and critic,a1 notes, a translation of the handbook issued by the Great General Staff of the German Army. He later added to this debt by his legal handbook, issued in collaboration with Dr. Baty, entitled War : its Conduct and Legal Results. He now makes an even more useful contribution in his German Atrocities : an Official Investigation (T. Fisher Unwin ; 2s.
net, cloth ; is. net, paper). The book consists of a valuable introduction, and, what is still more valuable, a chapt3r filled with first-hand documentary evidence. Here are deposi- tions by the victims of the outrages, by British soldiers, excerpts from German diaries, and other evidence of an incriminating character, if not "made in Germany," at any rate made by Germans.
Before we quote any of these documents we ought perhaps to meet the objection which is sure to be made by pro- Germans and pacificists here—the objection that we are encouraging a spirit of revenge in directing attention to the German atrocities, and that we should show a nobler and better spirit by trying to forgive and forget rather than by fanning the flame of hatred, and so forth. We are not going to call names or bring accusations against those who use such arguments as these. We will try instead to meet them on their own ground. They will, we are sure, agree with us on one point. It is of the utmost importance to prevent in the wars of the future horrors like those committed by the German troops, especially at the beginning of the war, when they thought they were going to have things all their own way. They believed then that they could do what they liked. Outrages are like treason. None dare call them by that name when committed by those who have won the day. Our object and the object of the neutral Powers should be to set a mark upon atrocities and the committers of atrocities, so that in new wars, not only will the soldiers not dare to commit them or permit them, but the statesmen and the ruling authorities generally will tell the Army chiefs at the beginning of the war that there must be no horrors or they will forfeit a valuable asset in the goodwill of the world. If at the end of this war Germany and the German Government are made visibly to suffer for their shameless wickedness in not merely failing to discourage, but in actually encouraging, the com- mission of outrages, the rulers of the world will have learnt a lesson. In future they will say : "We must keep our troops in order, lest, in the case of our being beaten, the fate of Germany fall upon us. She thought 'frightfulness' would pay, and used 'frightfulness' as an instrument of policy_ But instead of paying her it did the very reverse, and greatly contributed to her downfall." But we shall be unable to read the world this lesson and produce these good results unless we continually keep before men's minds the horrors committed by the German troops, and remind them also of what is an absolute fact, that there is no necessity whatever for war to be accompanied by pillage, rape, and murder. No such evil deeds as were done in Belgium and Northern France, in Poland and in Serbia, in the matter of the outraging of women, acts of inconceivable devilry committed against children, the murder of hostages, and the torture of the wounded, took place during Napoleon's campaigns, in the war of 1866 against Austria, in the Franco- Prussian War, or in our Boer War. In the last-named war there was of course no shooting of hostages, or indeed of any persons not proved guilty of murder—we could not let men make war an excuse for assassination—and there was no single proved case of outrage on women. Those, therefore, who— as do some of our pacificists—try to cover up the sins of the Germans by saying that such things always happen in war are speaking either ignorantly or falsely. War can be waged in deadly earnest and yet without the commission of acts of bestial brutality upon the civil population. Remember that in the case of the Germans they had not the excuse of an army demoralized by hunger or defeat. The atrocities took place when the Germans were winning, when they were well fed, and when their discipline had not suffered in the very least. Theirs was no case of a hungry mob, with their officers killed or lost, raging about the country half starved, and committing atrocities in the madness of desperation. Their armies in Belgium, for example, were fully disciplined and 12 perfect military order. It is ridiculous to suggest that the German officers could not have stopped the outrages if they had desired to do so. They did not desire to do so, but desired just the opposite. The men at the top wished, as a matter high policy, to create a feeling of the utmost terror in Belgium. They thought that theT could most quickly accomplish this by allowing the outraging of women, the killing of children, and the shooting of the leading people, including the priests, on the pretext that they were hostages. But worse than this, the officers in many cases set the example to their men by satisfying their vilest passions, both as regards drink, pillage, and outrage. Some of the best authenticated and some of the most horrible of the offences against women were committed by officers. When we think of the way in which our officers have always behaved in this respect the thing sounds incredible. Yet it is true. In spite of the horror of the book before us, we most earnestly hope that our politicians, our clergymen of all denominations, and our publicists—especially those who are inclined to take the line, most honourable in itself if it were backed up by the facts, that the Germans cannot be as bad as they are painted, and that they need, as it were, protection against prejudice—will buy Professor Morgan's book and read it carefully. Let them begin with the new documentary evidence at the end. After they have read this, let them turn to the introduction, because that introduction places the facts in their true perspective, both historically and in relation to what have hitherto been regarded as the universally accepted doctrines of international law.
For ourselves, we will support our plea that the book shall be read by quoting a portion of what must always be regarded as the best evidence procurable, evidence contrary to interest. Here are extracts from three German diaries and from a pri3oner's letter (0) EXTRACT FROM THE DIARY OF A GERMAN SOLDIER FORWARDED BY THE EXTRAORDINARY COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INSTITUTE BY THB RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT.
'When the offensive becomes difficult we gather together the Russian prisoners and hunt them before us towards their com- patriots, while we attack the latter at the same time. In this way our losses are sensibly diminished. We cannot but make prisoners. Each Russian soldier when made prisoner will now be sent in front of our lines in order to be shot by his fellows.'
,(b) EXTRACT FROM A DIARY OF A GERMAN SOLDIER OF THE 13TH REGIMENT, 13TH DIVISION, WITH CORPS, CAPTURED BY THE FIFTH (FRENCH) ARMY AND REPRODUCED IN THZ FIRST (BRITISH) ARMY SUMMARY No. 95.
December 19th, 1911.--/ The sight of the trenches and the fury, not to say bestiality, of our men in, beating to death the wounded English affected me so much that, for the rest of the day, I was fit for nothing.'
(C) CONTIECTS OF A LEITER FOUND ON A PRISONER OF THE 86TH REGERENT, BUT WRITEEN BY JOHANN WENGER (10TH COMPANY BODY REGIMENT, 1ST BRIGADE, 151 Dense:re I.A.C. Thee) Dr ee 16TH Meacii, 1915, PERONICE, AND ADDRESSED TO A GERMAN GIRL.
(After promising to send a ring made out of a shell). 'It will be a nice souvenir for you from a German warrior who has been through everything from the start and has shot and bayoneted so many Frenchmen, and I have bayoneted many women. During the fight at Baton-villa EP Badonviller] I bayoneted seven (7) women end four (4) young girls in five (5) minutes. We fought from house to house and these women fired on us with revolvers; they also fired on the captain too, then he told me to shoot them all— but I bayoneted them and did not shoot them, this herd of sows, they are worse than the men.'
(d) EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF MUSEETFXR BRESLIN, IT., MTH RESERVE INFANTRY REGIMENT (2ND COMPANY), 26TH RESERVE INFANTRY BRIGADE, 2ND GUARD RESERVE DIVISION, X. RESERVE CORPS.
(This diary was captured during the recent operations at Loos, and forwarded to Professor Morgan by the Head-quarters Staff.) August 16th (1914). On the march towards Louvain.—' Several citizens and the cure have been shot under martial law, some not yet buried—still lying where they were executed, for every one to see. Pervading stench of dead bodies. The cure is said to have incited the inhabitants to ambush and kill the Germans."
To this testimony we will add a passage from the introduc- tion. Its horrors need no comment from us. It is, however, in our opinion, an imperative duty to force them on the attention of our readers, and it is their duty to read and to draw the necessary conclusion. We must make it clear for the future that those who wage war in this fashion must reap the consequences. When men do not instinctively, as do our soldiers, avoid mixing bestiality and war, and make no attempt to control their passions, on the plea that war is so horrible that it is useless to attempt to mitigate it, they must be compelled to behave themselves by the dread of the sternest punishment :— " The public has been shocked by the evidence, aooepted by the Committee as genuine which tells of such mutilations of women and children as only the Kurds of Asia Minor had been thought capable of perpetrating. But the Committee were fully justified in accepting it—they could not do otherwise—and they have by no means published the whole. Pathologists can best supply the explanation of these crimes. I have been told by such that it is not at all uncommon in cases of rape or sexual excess to find that the criminal, when satiated by lust, attempts to murder or mutilate his victim. This is presumably the explanation—if one can talk of explanation—of outrages which would otherwise be incredible. The
Committee hint darkly at perverted sexual instinct. Cases of un- natural crime and of the rape of little children did undoubtedly occur on a very large scale. Some of the worst things have never been published. This is not the time for mincing one's words, but for plain speech. Disgusting though it is, I therefore do not hesitate to place on record an incident at Rebais related to me by the Mayor of Coulommiers in the presence of several of his fellow-townsmen with corroborative detail. A respectable woman in that town was seized by some IThlans who intended to ravish her, but her cendi- tion made rape impossible. What followed is better described in French : Mme. H—, cafetiere It Rebels, miss nue par une patrouillo allemande, obligee de pareourir ainsi toute sa chase% dam la rue at obligee do regarder lee cadavres do soldats anglais. Les allemande lui barbouillent la figure avec le sang de . . . .'* It is almost needless to say that the woman went mad. There is very strong reason to suspect that young girls wore carried off to the trenches by licentious German soldiery, and there abused by hordes of savages and licentious men. People in hiding in the cellars of houses have heard the voices of women in the hands of German soldiers crying all night long until death or stupor ended their agonies. One of our officers, a subaltern in the sappers, heard a woman's shrieks in the night coining from behind the German trenches near Richebourg l'Avoub; when we advanced in the morning and drove the Germans out, a girl was found lying naked on the ground 'pegged out' in the form of a crucifix. I need not go on with this chapter of horrors. To the end of time it will be remembered, and from one generation to another, in the plains of Flanders, in the valleys of the Vosges, and on the rolling fields of the Marne, the oral tradition of men will perpetuate this story of infamy and wrong."
We will end our study of Professor Morgan's book by quoting his general conclusion. It runs as follows :— " Although I have some claims to write as a jurist I have here made no attempt to pray in aid the Hague Regulations in order to frame the counts of an indictment. The Germans have broken all laws, human and divine, and not even the ancient freemasonry of arms, whose honourable traditions are almost as old as war itself, has restrained them in their brutal and licentious fury. it is useless to attempt to discriminate between the people and their rulers; an abundance of diaries of soldiers in the ranks shows that all are infected with a common spirit. That spirit is pride, not the pride of high and pure endeavour, but that pride for which the Greeks found a name in the word riSpir, the insolence which knows no pity and feels no love. Long ago Renan warned Strauss of this canker which was eating into the German character. Pedants indoctrinated it, Generals instilled it, the Emperor preached it. The whole people were taught that war was a normal state of civilisation, that the lust of conquest and the arrogance of race were the most precious of the virtues. On this Dead Sea fruit the German people have been fed for a generation until they are rotten to the core."
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