The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1015. A DAMNING RECORD

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2462, 15 May 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1015. A DAMNING RECORD

The report of Viscount' Bryce's Committee on German atrocities in Belgium is probably the most ghastly record of systematic and premeditated savagery which has found, a place in- the anna's of warfare. The list of horrors which has survived the test of strict investigation will leave a- blot on the pages of German history which can never be erased. A people that can do such things deserves to he cut off from the fellowship of civilised nations. The Germans have shown no mercy—not even to women and children—and no mercy should be shown to them when the day of reckoning comes. The Marquis of .Crewe has repeated Mr. AsQiirrn's promise that they must be forced to pay to tho uttermost farthing. Generosity to pirates and murderers would be a crime against humanity. Tho destruction of Louvain, and the outrages upon its peaceful citizens are deeds of shamo that will never be forgotten; and yet they are only incidents in the long story of brutality and outrage of which tie report of Lord Bryce's Committee forms but a single chapter. It has been said that almost everything connected with this war is colossal, but none of its many colossal features will jbe able to overshadow .the colossal infamy of Germany's methods of warfare. The Kaiser's armies have endeavoured to put into practice in its most extreme form the ideal of warfare which Bismarck commended to his countrymen. "You must inflict," he ,said. "on the inhabitants of invaded towns the maximum of suffering, so that they may become sick of the struggle, and may bring pressure tobear on. their Government to discontinue it. You must leave the people through whom you march only their eyes to weep with." But Bismarck, as a recent tyriter remarks, "was wise enough to temper his heroics with common-sense," whereas the men who now control the destinies of Germany, and want to rule tie world, appear to have inherited All tho cunning and ferocity of Bismarck without his caution and statesmanship. Instead of becoming sick of the struggle the people whom Germany is trying to terrorise by her "frigntfulness" are urging their Governments to continue the struggle with greater vigour than over until the' Teutonic tyranny has been completely overthrown!

The findings of Lord Bryoe's Committeo should put to silence every apologist for Germany within the British Empire, and they will certainly "create a profound impression in all neutral countries. It is impossible to dielieve that men like Lord Bryce and his associates would place their signatures to any document unless they were convinced of the truth of its contents. When the personnel of the Committee was announced, the London Times remarked that any decision to which it might come must command universal respect. Lord Bryce "is famous in two worlds for skill in marshalling broad masses of evidence and for judicial impartiality .in appraising it. All his colleagues are men of eminence, and ail are accustomed to weigh and scrutinise testimony.'' Sin Frederick *Poi,i.ock is a great jurist; Sin Edward Cr.AHKii has won distinction at the Bar, and in Parliament; Sin Alfred Hopiunson* is a leading authority on law, who has occupied high university positions; Professor Fisher is one. of the most brilliant representatives of the modern school of historians; Mr. Harold Cox is a promiment journalist, ancl editor of (.H«s Edhibwait Rr''/««'■ Mfim tjf thin typo we not at all libolx to allow

their feelings to run away with their, judgment or to risk their- reputations by attaching their names to a verdict which the historian of the future would have to revorse. The Committee has had the assistance of a large number of barristers who have had personal interviews with persons reported to have been eyewitnesses or victims of German atrocities. In each case a signed statement was taken, and the investigating barrister added a note, recording his impressions of tho witness. Some hundreds of detailed statements were collected and sifted in this careful manner. Lord Brack's Committee has been at work since the beginning of the present year, and its report will bo accepted throughout tho civilised world as an historical document of great valuo. The report lays stress on tho fact that, taken as a whole, the outrages formed an integral part of tho German, plan'of campaign. The Committee state that individual acts of brutality were very widely committed, but the gravest charge against Germany is the killing of civilians, which was part of a deliberate plan. It is not easy to shock the moral sense of a German officer, yet some of. them seem to have been sickened by the work they were called upon to do: but disobedienoo meant death. According to the Teutonic theory of_ warfaro anything, however revolting, is justifiable if it conduces to success. This doctrine made the killing of noncombatants, the slaughter of women and children, and wholesale devastation as much a part of a soldier's woi;k as defeating the armed forces of tho enemy. Brutalities are the natural outcome of the instructions contained in the German official hand-book on the usages of <war. The Kaiser himself gave his approval to tho most extreme form of terribleness when he told the t German soldiers who took part in the relief of Peking to give no quarter and to take no prisoners. He paid to Atilu all the respect duo to a, patron saint. "Just, as a thousand years ago, the Huns, under their King Atilla, made themselves a name which still appears imposing in tradition, so," he said, "may tho German name become known in China in such a way. that never again will a Chinaman dare to look askance at a German." Before the present war commenced Britishers were inclined to regard this sort of talk as mere mock heroics on a par with the Kaiser's claim to be the special favourite of tho gods. And we simply laughed at the manner in which German professors harped on the idea that the Germans are tho "chosen people," destined to govern tho whole earth and to impose their "kiiltur" on all its inhabitants. We now realise that the Kaiser, the professors, and the Prussian junkers wore in deadly earnest. The report of Lord Bryce's Committee snows that in order to gain their ends they will use their foulest weapons—murder, pillage, and outrage; that innocent women and little children have been made the victims of unspeakablo horrors. To say that the civilised world will stand aghast at tho disclosures made is to faintly express the intense 'loathing which must bo felt for Germany and all things German.