AN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT ON GERMAN INFAMIES.
ITo THZ EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I think your readers will like to see the following letter addressed to the Rector of the University of Upsala, SWeden, by the President of Columbia UniversitY. Iti vigour, sincerity, and righteous indignation are wholly admirable--I am, Sir,
" Sta,--I have the honour to acknowledge your letter addressed to Columbia University in the City of New York, bearing date February 1st, 1919, sent in the name of the Senate of the University of Upsala. You were good enough to transmit therewith a copy of an open letter from the Rector and Senate of the University of Leipzig, addressed to the Unirersities of Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway under date of December 23rd, 1918, together with a copy of a letter dated December 30th, 1918, testifying that the University of Heidelberg and the Heidelberg. Academy. of Sciences wished to associate themselves with the University of Leipzig in forwarding the open letter just mentioned.
The open letter from the University of Leipzig complains to the Universities in neutral lands of the outrageous action (das unerhorte Vorgelien) of the French High Command toward the German scholars and men of science in Strasbourg. It is alleged that these scholars and men of science have been com- pelled to leave the University of Strasbourg on twenty-four hours' notice, in many cases to the grave damage of the studies and investigations which they had under way. Such treatment is made the ground of sharp protest in the name of science. and the Universities in neutral lands, to whom the letter of the University of Leipzig is addressed, are asked that the facts laid before them be spread abroad in the Press and brought immediately to the attention of the UniVersities and Academies of France, England, and America.
Whether or not German scholars and scientists formerly resident in Strasbourg have been harshly treated by the French High Command we do not know. We should wish to have some more convincing evidence than the mere allegation of the Rector and Senate of the University of Leipzig.
Meanwhile we invite attention to the fact that it is an established principle in England ant the United States that any one who comes into a Court of Equity seeking relief must come with clean hands. Before the Rector and Senate of the University of Leipzig can expect the court of public opinion to sympathize with their allegations, the people of France, England, and the United States will certainly wish to know what measure of protest, if any, the Rector and Senate of the University of Leipzig recorded against the cruel and inhuman treatment in 1914, by the German High Command, of the scholars associated with the University of Louvain and against the wanton and barbarous destruction of the library of that University. They will also wish to know what measure of protest, if any, the Rector and Senate of the Univeriity of Leipzig hare recorded against any or all of the following thirty-one kinds of offence which it has been proved on indis- putable evidence, gathered formally by national and inter- national Commissions, were committed by German armies and German agents and their allies in one or more of the countries invaded by linens during the war whose isiues are now in process of settlement :— Massacre of civilians, putting to death of hostages, torture of civilians, starvation of civilians, rape, abduction of girls and women for the purpose of enforced prostitutign, deportation of civilians, internment of civilians under brutal conditions;forced labour of civilians is connection
• with military operations of the enemy,' usurpation of sovereignty during military occupation, compulsory enlist- ment as soldiers among the inhabitants of occupied territory, pillage, confiscation of properly, exaction of illegitimate or exorbitant -contributions and requieiticins, debasement of currency, issue of spurious currency, imposition of collective penalties, wanton devastation and destruction of property, bombardment of undefended Places, wanton destruction of religious, charitable, educational and historic buildings and monuments, destruction of merchant ships and passenger vessels without examination or without warning, destruction of fishing boats and a relief ship, bombardment of hospitals. attack on and destruction of hospital ships, breach of other rules relating to the Red Cross, use of deleterious and asphyxiating gases, use of exploding and expanding bullets, directions to give no quarter, ill-treatment of prisoners, misuse of flags of truce, poisoning of wells.
The Rector and Senate of the ancient University of Upiala might render great service, not only to science and to scholar- ship, but to the cause of civilization itself, if they would bring to the attention of.the Reetor and Senate of thelTnivergity of Leipzig, as well as CO that of the proper authorities of the
University of Heidelberg and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, the fact that acknowledgment of wrongdoing sin the part of the German Government, the German armies, and the German people, and contrition for that wrongdoing, are the first and necessary steps in the rehabilitation before the world of German scholarship and German science. It is probably within the truth to say that the Universities of France, England, and the United States are awaiting, with deep interest and no small measure of anxiety, some sign that German scholars and men of science realize the enormity of the offences, public and private, that have been committed by Germans and in the name of Germany during the war now ending, and some evidence that these scholars and men of science feel sincere regret for them.
We have not forgotten the amazing prostitution of scholar- ship and science to national lust marked by the formal appeal to the civilized world made by German professors in September, 1914. That appeal was an unmixed mass of untruths, and the stain which it placed upon the intellectual and moral integrity of German scholars and men of science will for ever remain one of the most deplorable and discouraging events of the war which German militarism and Prussian autocracy forced upon the peaceful and liberty-loving nations of the world.
I have the honour to be, your obedient servant,
NICHOLAO MURRAY' BUTLER.
President of Columbia University."
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