And I appoint Viscount Bryce to be Chairman, and Mr. E. Grimwood Mears and Mr. W.J.H.  Brodrick, barristers at law, to be Joint Secretaries to the committee.

(Signed) H.H.  ASQUITH.
15th December, 1914.

Sir Kenelm E. Digby, K.C., G.C.B., was appointed an additional member of the committee on 22d January, 1915.

To the Right Hon. H.H.  Asquith, &c., &c., First Lord of H.M.  Treasury.

The committee have the honor to present and transmit to you a report upon the evidence which has been submitted to them regarding outrages alleged to have been committed by the German troops in the present war.

By the terms of their appointment the committee were directed

“to consider and advise on the evidence collected on behalf of his Majesty’s Government as to outrages alleged to have been committed by German troops during the present war, cases of alleged maltreatment of civilians in the invaded territories, and breaches of the laws and established usages of war; and to prepare a report for his Majesty’s Government showing the conclusion at which they arrive on the evidence now available.”

It may be convenient that before proceeding to state how we have dealt with the materials, and what are the conclusions we have reached, we should set out the manner in which the evidence came into being, and its nature.

In the month of September, 1914, a minute was, at the instance of the Prime Minister, drawn up and signed by the Home Secretary and the Attorney General.  It stated the need that had arisen for investigating the accusations of inhumanity and outrage that had been brought against the German soldiers, and indicated the precautions to be taken in collecting evidence that would be needed to insure its accuracy.  Pursuant to this minute steps were taken under the direction of the Home Office to collect evidence, and a great many persons who could give it were seen and examined.

For some three or four months before the appointment of the committee, the Home Office had been collecting a large body of evidence.[A] More than 1,200 depositions made by these witnesses have been submitted to and considered by the committee.  Nearly all of these were obtained under the supervision of Sir Charles Mathews, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and of Mr. E. Grimwood Mears, barrister of the Inner Temple, while in addition Professor J.H.  Morgan has collected a number of statements mainly from British soldiers, which have also been submitted to the committee.

[Footnote A:  Taken from Belgian witnesses, some soldiers, but most of them civilians from those towns and villages through which the German Army passed, and from British officers and soldiers.]

The labor involved in securing, in a comparatively short time, so large a number of statements from witnesses scattered all over the United Kingdom, made it necessary to employ a good many examiners.  The depositions were in all cases taken down in this country by gentlemen of legal knowledge and experience, though, of course, they had no authority to administer an oath.  They were instructed not to “lead” the witnesses or make any suggestions to them, and also to impress upon them the necessity for care and precision in giving their evidence.