The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, JULY 8th, 1915. THE BRYCE REPORT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20403, 8 July 1915, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." THURSDAY, JULY Bth, 1915. THE BRYCE REPORT.

As far back as last September, tlia charges of inhumanity and outrage brought against the German soldiers in Belgium were so numerous and to tervible that the British Government docided that they must be investigated. A number of barristers were set to work to take the evidence of witnesses, and the statements thus obtained, numbering nearly 1,200, were submitted to a committee. We were able a few days ago to publish an extended summary ol' this report. The credibility of th^ conclusions of such a body depends upon its judicial character and upon the precautions adopted in collecting the evidence. No reader of the report will ha% re any doubts on either head. The members of the committee include a statesman and hisu'viah of norld-wide reputation like Lord Uryce, distinguished jurists like Sir Frederick Pollock and Sir Edward Clarke, an educationist of note like Sir Alfred Hopkinson, in eminent historian like Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, a Civil Servant and a liawvor like Sir Kenelm Digby, smd a publicist of judicial temperament like Mr. Harold Cox. The circumstances did not permit inquiry by a committee of neutrals, but it will be allowed on all hands that a body of men more fitted than thes** to carry out the task equitably could not have been found in the British Empire. Uhe barristers who assisted them by collecting the evidence were instructed to treat the testimony critically nxid to cross-examine the witnesses. Their competence and their fairnesa are approved by the committee, ani

whereverMhey had their suspicions or doubts as to the truthfulness of a Avitness, ttiey noted the fact. The committee itself rejected every deposition which in any way appeared suspect. 11 formed its conclusions upon evidence which resisted the test of cross-examin-ation, which in many cases was corroborated by numerous witnesses unknown to each other, and which is confirmed in its outlines, and often in its details, by entries in the diaries of German soldiers. The horror of the havoc which was Jet loose upon Belgium can 1-e appreciated only after reading the full record set out in this report. The outrages, burning, murder and devastation began ns soon as the German army had cior-sed the Belfljiau troatier. The crimes were of two classes. The first were individual acts of brutality, of the sorb whtcn occur in all wars, but have been neither as numerous nor as shocking in any previous modern war. There are two reasons why the German soldiers should have given such lull license to lust—drunkenness and the demoralising; effect of the official outrages which their leaders systematically demanded of them. It is the kilting ct non-combat-ants and the destruction from definite policy of towns and villages, which give to the conduct of the Germans in Belgium and in France it quality unknown to previous warfare by civilised States. Men, women and children were murdered wholesale at Louvain, Aerschot, Dinant, and other places by command of German officers, and the excuse officiallygiven was "military necessity.". It was alleged commomy that German troops 'had been fired on. The fact of any suc)i offence was rarely astablislieu"; no inquiry was made before the killing or burning was ordered, and no attempt *vas made to discriminate rtetween tne guilty'and'innocent. Of any suspicion of judicial proceeding there was no tr«ce. Nor does this exhaust the list or barbarities committed by the German army. Thejr used innocent noncombatants as a screen or shield to cover •uj!ifc»vy operations; they looted, burned and wantonly destroyed property ; Iliey killed wounded and prisoners; they firud on hospitals and lied Cross ambuJsncfis; and they abused the Red Cross unri the white flag. The evidence leaves Jiti'o doubt as to the purpose which inspired the systematic devastation of Belglum. Tso reader of the German .newspapers in the early months of the war {in whiich the Belgians ~were never referred to except with such epithets ars "bestial") but must have been con- | -<>aced that the lierman Government was deliberately drugging the contcionce of the German people, uneasy at the monstrous oiitrago of levying war without excuse sr provocation upon an unoffending neighbour. A London contemporary expresses the belief that this was the origin of the fables of atrocities by Belgians upon German soldiers -— fables which more than one German doctor exposed. The outrages upon the i hapless Belgians which preceded and accompanied this campaign of calumniation wero ordered with the intention of breaking Belgium's resistance so as Jo secure a speedy passage for the German army, and of cowing the population so an to avert any danger or rebellion or trouble to the German army's communications. The second of these objects was attained; the first was defeated by the very ferocity of the meth- | ods adopted, which planted in the heart ! of Belgium an unconquerable resolution to defy the savage tyrant until justice was done upon him. Every Britisher will endorse the pronouncement that '•'no words are needed to emphasise the villainy of the German calculation and of choosing for such an experiment in barbarity a peaceful country whose safety those who ordered the experiment had guaranteed. . The indictment stands, and if the punishment does not come m full measure this world of ours will have reeled back into the beast without hope of recovery."