Astonishment has been caused by a report in the Times
that Brigadier-General John Charteris in a speech in America declared that the well-known story that the Germans, during the War, boiled down corpses in order to extract the oils and fats was invented for propaganda purposes when he was Chief Intelligence Officer at G.H.Q. - He is reported to have said that the story was invented for distribution in China, no doubt because Chinese respect for the human body would cause the details to fall upon fertile ground in the matter of working up indignation against Germany. General Charteris is also reported to have said that a German diary con-. tairiing details about the corpse factory. was forg but that this diary was never used. As General. Char- , teris has announced that he has been misreported it. is only right to suspend judgment. Meanwhile Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Masterman and Sir Frederick Maurice' have all stated that the story was repudiated at the time by the Propaganda Department. Mr. Ian Macpherson, on the other hand, seems to have suggested that it was believed by the War Office and the Foreign Office.
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