These are but a few examples from a very long
list. We earnestly hope that the Belgian Committee may be mistaken as to many of these awful charges. We are bound, indeed, to say that we cannot believe accusations like that of burning alive except on the most unimpeachable evidence. That the Germans were ordered to strike terror we can well understand, but we feel absolutely sure that no orders to use torture would ever have been given, and we do not believe that the German soldier would torture for the love of it. Again, we think there is room for doubt in the accusations that the Germans fired deliberately on ambulances and hospitals. Such accusa- tions are sincerely, but generally wrongly, made in every war. Still, we cannot help remembering that Bismarck laid it down that the people of an invaded country should be terrorized in order to avoid the wasting of troops in guarding conquered territory. The civilized world will expect Germany to answer scrupulously the charges of the distinguished Belgian Com- mittee.
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