In the eyes of the moralist the worst of all their crimes will perhaps be this, that the wretches tried to dishonour Belgium, after first assassinating her.  They have dared to say, write, and proclaim publicly, and affirm to Neutrals, that Belgian women and girls had mutilated German wounded soldiers, blinding them with scissors or with boiling water.  The reports of the Belgian Commission of Enquiry have been replied to in a counter report[28] published as a German White Book.  This enquiry and these documents will live in history.  In centuries to come they will hang as a heavy weight on the Kaiser’s memory and the conscience of Germany.  Listen to the pathetic conclusion of the Belgian reply:  “Before God and before man, the Belgian Government has no hesitation in giving this as its opinion of the conduct of the German Government towards the Belgian nation:  ’He is twice guilty who violates the rights of others and then attempts, with singular audacity, to justify himself by imputing to his victim faults that were never committed.’"[29]

It still remains to be explained how, by what means, by what deadly influences, this German nation, consisting of men who, as individuals, are not all brigands, has reached and been led to this state of savagery?  In the preparations for this collective madness of a people, what part has been played by its leaders of thought and its politicians, by race and by education?  This is a disturbing phenomenon which students of mental disease[30] will study later, but on the examination of which we cannot here embark.  It is not for us to seek the pathological cause for this moral decay—­this decadence.  We have only to note its effects.

FOOTNOTES: 

[24] Need it be noted here that even if in any locality an imprudent civilian had fired a shot, it would still remain—­in accordance with the Hague Convention, International Law, and plain morality—­a veritable crime to massacre in a heap, haphazard, and without enquiry, so many innocent souls?

[25] L.H.  Grondijs, “Les Allemands en Belgique,” p. cxix. (Paris, Berger-Levrault, Publishers).

[26] Liebknecht was too honest and embarrassing a witness for Germany.  He has been thrown into prison.  We salute him.

[27] The martyrdom of Dinant began on August 24th; that of Louvain on the 25th August, at 5 p.m.

[28] It may be recalled that commissions of enquiry, at which both sides should be represented, were offered by Belgian Socialists to German Socialists, by Belgian Freemasons to German Freemasons, by Belgian Bishops to German Bishops.  Three proposals.  Three refusals!