Chapter III: The German Mind, Self-Depicted (1)

In those chapters in which we have dealt with the violations of international treaties, and of the Hague Convention, we have often been led to comment on the mode of thought displayed by those who committed these crimes. But hitherto we have touched upon the subject of German mentality only in an incidental fashion; it will doubtless be interesting to consider it more closely.

We shall utilize, by preference, documents of German origin. In cases where these are lacking, for example, in the case of the cruelties committed, we shall have recourse to observations which we ourselves have collected, and whose authenticity is indisputable.

In place of passing in review all the peculiarities of the modern German mind, which would occupy too much space, we shall confine ourselves to those from which Belgium has suffered most cruelly; but we shall not speak--it would be superfluous--of the obscene spirit of rape, and rapacity, and drunkenness. The three psychological elements which we shall consider are pride, duplicity, and spitefulness.

A.--Pride.

_Some Manifestations of Pride and the Spirit of Boasting._

"The German nation is the Chosen People, and God is with us." That is the prevailing idea of the speeches and proclamations of the Kaiser. In his Speech from the Throne on the 4th August, 1914, he declared: "It is not the spirit of conquest which urges us forward; but we are animated by the inflexible determination to retain the position in which God has set us, for ourselves and for all the generations to come."

In her pride Germany is unanimous. No German is permitted to doubt the indisputable superiority of his nation over all other nations. As soon as he learns to lisp his first words, his brain is steeped in the conviction that no people is comparable to his own, even remotely.

This longing to exalt his own country is accompanied by a corresponding desire to abase all others. Hardly is a discovery of any kind made in a neighbouring country than a German appropriates it in order to give it a new trade-mark. One example will suffice.

All the world knows that Louis Pasteur was the founder of the science of bacteriology, a science whose consequences, in the spheres of hygiene and medicine, are incalculable. Germany ignores Pasteur and has heard only of Koch. A Belgian, who attended the Berlin celebrations in honour of Koch, returned disgusted with the fact that the name of Pasteur was systematically suppressed throughout the ceremonies. In an obituary notice devoted to Koch a Belgian bacteriologist, M. Jules Bordet, remarked with great justice, in speaking of the German biographies of the scientist who had just died:--

"They made Koch the absolute creator of modern medicine: all other glory pales before his; he is the founder of bacteriology. Their obituary articles, emanating, for the most part, from disciples of the master, and which are, one feels, steeped in pious gratitude, and also, perhaps, to a certain extent, in a somewhat exclusive patriotism, attribute to him the honour of having shown the organic origin of contagious diseases." "It would be," said Herr Pfeiffer, the distinguished Breslau bacteriologist, "a real act of justice were posterity to divide the history of medicine into two periods, one before Koch and the other after him."

Reading such notices it would almost seem as though Pasteur had never lived!

We think M. Bordet shows himself far too indulgent toward the German biographers when he says, in conclusion: "And one could not take it amiss of these disciples if, in their filial solicitude, they left on the tomb of their Master a few leaves from the laurels of Pasteur."

Here is another example of boasting, interesting principally by reason of the _charlatanesque_ manner in which it was published. Every one has heard of the Cooper-Hewitt mercury-vapour lamp, with its strange blue-violet light, so rich in ultra-violet rays. The most summary treatises on physics explain that quartz will allow the ultra-violet rays to pass, and that the Cooper-Hewitt quartz lamp is in constant employment in the laboratories. But if you read the communication which the Germans imposed upon _L'Ami de l'Ordre_ on the 27th December, 1914, you will see that the Germans invented the whole affair.

If you want to be initiated into the perfections of the German, Herr Momme Nissen, in _Der Krieg und die Deutsche Kunst_, will enumerate them for you. "The qualities of the German," he says, "integrity and courage, profundity of mind and fidelity, insight and the sense of inwardness, modesty and piety, are also the ornaments of our art."

_The Germans compare themselves with their Allies._

Here is a last point to be considered. The Germans do not merely consider themselves to be superior to their adversaries; they are equally modest on behalf of their allies. To their minds, and in their writings, the present war is "the German war." The most complete chronological compilation which has appeared hitherto is entitled _Chronik des Deutschen Krieges_. The official publications deliberately ignore the Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs, Croats, Turks, etc. The first of the pamphlets of propaganda distributed by the Germans (_Journal de la Guerre_) begins thus: "The name this war will one day bear in history is already determined; it can only be the _German War_, for it is a war destined to establish the position of the German nation in the world." By what name shall we call the German's sense of superiority over all other nations: is it pride, presumption, or impudence?

Herr Paul Rohrbach, who is generally more moderate in his expressions, has written a pamphlet entitled _Warum es der Deutsche Krieg ist_ ("Why this is the German War").

It would be useless to insist on the general aspects of the question. Let us consider only a few of the immediate consequences of this frame of mind: militarism, disdain for others, cynicism, and absence of the critical spirit.

1. MILITARISM.

_Might comes before Right._

Bismarck has given us a precise formula of the cult of brute force, "Might comes before right!" Nietzsche has gone further, "Might creates right." "You say that a good cause sanctifies even war? I tell you that a good war sanctifies any cause!" (_Thus Spake Zarathustra_).

Herr Maximilian Harden, the well-known polemical writer, expressed the same idea in a lecture delivered at Duisbourg and reproduced in _K.Z._ (8th December, 1914). It is expressed with equal lucidity in an article published in _Zeit im Bild_ (19th November, 1914), and signed _Vitus Bug_; the author, after inquiring into the reasons which make Germany hated, adds: "Let us be victorious, and people will immediately discover that we were in the right!"

It is, consequently, towards the army that the essential aspirations of the German nation converge; everything must give way to the military interest; the moment this is in question there is no longer any room for morality, says Professor Rein, of the University of Jena (_N.R.C._, 22nd January, 1915, morning), nor for humanity, says Herr Erzberger (_N.R.C._, 6th February, 1915, evening), nor even for the law of nations, declares Professor Beer, of the University of Leipzig (_Völkerrecht und Krieg_). In other countries people have remained simple enough to believe that it is precisely in time of war that the prescriptions of international law should be most strictly respected. Nothing of the sort, say the Germans; the moment war breaks out everyday justice can only efface itself. On the slightest accusation, the least pretext, or even without any, they begin to shoot and to burn. If by accident those put to death are innocent, or if there was in truth no complaint to be made against the inhabitants of the houses burned to ashes, it is obviously regrettable; but such commonplace considerations will not prevent the German army from inflicting on the nearest village a punishment any less exemplary. _Es ist Krieg_: in this phrase is contained the whole psychology of the German soldier in war-time. "Do you suppose," said a German at Louvain, "that we've got time to make inquiries?" (_N.R.C._, 9th September, 1914, morning). "You understand clearly," said an officer at Francorchamps, "that we cannot stop the German army to inquire if this man has really fired on us; he was accused of doing so; isn't that sufficient reason for shooting him?"

* * * * *

Before leaving the subject of militarism, we will cite one insignificant fact which, however trifling, clearly reveals the importance which the military idea has assumed in the conceptions of the German people. According to the _N.R.C._ of the 6th February, 1915 (evening), _Vorwärts_ has protested against the following measure: The German wife whose husband is under arms cannot be expelled from her dwelling for non-payment of rent; but if her husband should be killed in the war the landlord immediately recovers the right to turn her out.

2. DISDAIN OF OTHERS.

We have seen that the Germans are seeking by all possible means to accentuate their superiority over their neighbours. An elementary procedure for increasing the vertical distance between them and their rivals consists in depreciating the latter. Germany has so often, in every tone of voice, proclaimed the irremediable inferiority of all the other peoples inhabiting our planet, that she has at last come to believe it herself, and has begun to act in conformity with her belief.

_Some Inept Proclamations, etc._

Thus, to speak only of our own experience, they assuredly under-estimated our national integrity when they believed us capable of becoming accomplices in the violation of an international treaty. They also greatly under-estimated our army's powers of resistance, or they would have taken good care not to lose a fortnight in Belgium, a delay which spoiled their sudden attack upon France. Finally, they show us every day, by their placards, that they do not think much of our intelligence. Some of those entitled "News published by the German General Government" are really inimitable.

Imagine our laughter when the authorities to whom we are forced to submit officially announced that a German squadron had captured fifteen fishing-boats; or that the Serbians had taken Semlin in order to obtain food; or that the star of Paschitsch was growing pale; or that the Austrians had evacuated Lemberg for strategic and humanitarian reasons; or that the British Army is so ill-equipped that the soldiers are without writing-paper and shoelaces; or that the river of the "gifts of love" continues to flow; or that General Joffre (in a French that could only have come from a German pen) informs his troops that "the moment is come to profit by the weakness which offers itself to us, after we have reinforced ourselves in men and material." In the last days of September 1914, when a citizen of Brussels met a fair-haired comrade, he hastened to measure him, to make sure that he was not Charles-Alice Yate, "being about 5 ft. 9 in. in height."

Here are some of these placards:--

NEWS PUBLISHED BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.

BERLIN, _6th September, 1914_.--The Austria-Hungarian Ambassador
publishes the following dispatch which has been forwarded to him by
the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Vienna:--

"The Russian news on the subject of the battle of Lemberg and
the triumphant capture of the city is a lie. The open town of
Lemberg was evacuated by us without a battle for strategical and
humanitarian reasons."

THE GENERAL GERMAN GOVERNMENT.

LONDON, _8th September, 1914_ (Reuter's Agency).--A German
squadron, composed of two cruisers and four torpedo-boats, has
captured fifteen English fishing-boats in the North Sea, and has
brought numerous prisoners to Wilhelmshaven.

THE GERMAN GENERAL GOVERNMENT.

BERLIN, _22nd September, 1914_.--On the night of the 19th September
Major Charles-Alice Yate, of the regiment of the Yorkshire Light
Infantry, escaped from Torgau, where he was prisoner of war. Yate
is that English officer of superior rank concerning whom it was
announced the other day that he did not deny, upon inquiry, that
the English troops have been supplied with dum-dum bullets; in the
course of this interrogatory he declared that the soldier must
obviously use the ammunition which is furnished to him by the
Government.

The fugitive is about 5 ft. 9 in. in height; he is slender,
fair-haired, and speaks German well.

THE GERMAN GENERAL GOVERNMENT.

VIENNA, _29th September, 1914_.--The _Reichspost_ announces from
Sofia: The correspondent of the _Volja_, the organ of Ghenadjev,
writes from Nish: The Austrian offensive has serious consequences
for Serbia; rebellion is muttering in the country and the army, and
every day may see the outbreak of the revolution. During the last
few days several regiments of artillery have revolted. A certain
number of guns have been demolished....

King Peter has returned; he is completely apathetic, and the Crown
Prince Alexander does not know what to do. The star of Paschitsch
is paling, and it is feared there may soon be victims in his
entourage.

THE GERMAN GENERAL GOVERNMENT.

L ONDON, _6th October, 1914_.--The _Daily Chronicle_ announces that
at Aldershot, in round figures, 135,000 militia belonging to all
arms should be prepared to depart for the army as soon as they
are ready. However, the training, despite the most brilliant
efforts, could not give satisfactory results, the troops being
insufficiently equipped. The newspaper appeals for the assistance
of the public, and remarks that, for example, no officer of Lord
Kitchener's first army possesses field-glasses. They also lack
socks, handkerchiefs, shoelaces, writing-paper and materials, and
drums and fifes for the Scottish regiments.

THE GERMAN GENERAL GOVERNMENT.

What is even more strange than their insistence in offering us their sophisticated views, is their virtuous indignation when they discover that we are not receptive of this kind of truth. Thus the people of Liége, who would not believe the German placards and preferred their secret newspapers, were warned by Lieut.-General von Kolewe that they were in danger of appearing ridiculous in the eyes of intelligent people.

TO THE POPULATION OF LIÉGE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.

Considering the continual successes of the German troops, it is
impossible to understand why the people of Liége are still so
credulous as to believe the absurd and frivolous news spread by
the manufactories of falsehoods installed in Liége. Those who busy
themselves in propagating such news are risking severe punishment.
They are playing a dangerous game in abusing the credulity of their
fellow-citizens and in inciting them to reckless actions. The
reasonable population of Liége will resist all temptations of the
kind.

Otherwise it is exposing itself not merely to the gravest
disappointment, but also to appearing ridiculous in the eyes of
intelligent people.

KOLEWE,

_Lieut.-General and German Governor of the
Fortress of Liége_.

_It is forbidden to tear down this placard or to paste another over
it._

_Lies concerning the Situation in Belgium._

Before other placards the shrugging of shoulders gave way to disgust. Baron von der Goltz, at Sofia, boasted of having rendered "the situation in Belgium entirely normal." What of it? We were so glad to be rid of him that we were ready to overlook any ineptitudes. But when his successor, Baron von Bissing, after levying a contribution of 480 million frs. (£19,200,000), had the audacity to declare that he hoped "to do much for the economic situation," and would especially apply himself "to doing everything to assist the weak in Belgium, and to encourage them," he passed the bounds of cynicism and presumption. However, two months later, on the 18th February, 1915, after having despoiled us of 120 million francs, he found occasion to go still farther, affirming his "solicitude for the welfare and prosperity of the population."

_Lies concerning "Francs-tireurs."_

What shall we say of the accusations made against Belgian civilians? From August, at the time of the first sortie of our troops from Antwerp, the Germans posted up statements in Brussels that the Belgian population was again taking part in the conflict.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY THE COMMANDANT OF THE GERMAN ARMY.

BRUSSELS, _28th August, 1914_.--On the 26th and 27th August several
Belgian divisions made a sortie from Antwerp in order to attack
our lines of communication, but they were repulsed by those of our
troops left behind to invest the city. Five Belgian guns fell into
our hands....

The Belgian population almost everywhere took part in the fighting.
It became necessary to take the most drastic measures to repress
the bands of francs-tireurs....

Now certain of these battles took place at a distance of only six miles from Brussels; peasants were shot at Houtem (a hamlet of Vilvorde) and at Eppeghem: that is, in villages whence people went into the city every morning with vegetables, milk, etc., so that the inhabitants of the capital were perfectly informed as to the behaviour of the German troops toward the Belgian civilians. They knew, too, that these pretended attacks of "francs-tireurs" had been delivered by detachments of the Belgian army (_see_ E. Waxweiler in _La Belgique neutre et loyale_, p. 219). The keen indignation against the German liars was still further aggravated when, three weeks later, the Kaiser repeated these calumnies. The fact of their having placarded the walls of Brussels with these obviously false accusations shows once more in what low esteem the Germans hold the mental faculties of their victims.

NEWS PUBLISHED BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.

BRUSSELS, _7th October_.--From the leader of a troop of cyclists
near Hennuyères written instructions were taken, intended for the
leaders of the so-called "destructive detachment," in which they
are told, among other things: "Spread false news: landing of the
English at Antwerp, Russians at Calais."

That the Germans should seek to deceive their own compatriots as to the situation is natural enough--they are quite content with official news. But in Belgium we still, in spite of all obstacles, continue to receive foreign newspapers, which keep us informed of the military operations. Why, then, did the Germans try to impose on us over the battle of the Marne, when nothing was easier than to learn the truth from the _Times_ and the French Press?

A still more curious case was that of the battle of Ypres. During a whole fortnight the official placards daily informed the Belgians of the latest German success ... and at the end of three weeks the army was still as far from Ypres. The whole of this Yser campaign is interesting as throwing a light upon the German mentality. From the outset the Germans tried to establish a confusion between the "canalized" Yser and the "canalized" Yperlée, that is, the canal running from Ypres to the Yser. What they call "the canal of the Yser" in their placard of the 22nd October is the canalized Yser between Dixmude and Nieuport. In the placard of the 2nd November they spoke of the "canal from the Yser to Ypres, near Nieuport," an absolutely fantastic description. Finally, on the 4th April, when they claimed to have crossed "the Yser canal" to occupy Driegrachten, it was really the Yperlée that was in question, and not the Yser at all. This is, as will be seen, on a par with the intentional confusion which they sought to create between the city of Liége and its forts (pp. 50, 58). Such confusions may deceive the Germans, but the Belgians, familiar with the geography of their country, naturally laugh at them.

Another point relating to this astonishing campaign on the Yser: On the 2nd November the Germans announced that operations were rendered difficult by the inundation. On the following day, having expressed their pity for the Belgians "whose fields were devastated for a long time to come," they added that the water was in parts deeper than a man's height, but that they had lost neither man, nor horse, nor gun. How can they impose such idle stuff on people who know the _polders_ of the coast region, with their innumerable canals and ditches, and who know, moreover, than an inundation there renders all retreat impossible?

3. CYNICISM.

They must require a good stock of effrontery to put before us such assertions as that of the Kaiser, whose falsity is obvious at sight. They cannot be ignorant of the fact that these impostures are instantly exposed. But this consideration does not give them pause; German superiority appears to them so indisputable that they have no need to trouble about the opinion of other people; if they occasionally indicate the reasons for their actions, it is to reassure their own conscience, not to justify themselves to their victims. They are, in short, in the situation of the sportsman who brings down the game passing within gunshot, but is not required to render an account of it to the rabbits and partridges. To the sportsman's way of thinking there is no cynicism in so acting: between the hunter and the game there is too great a difference to make such a justification necessary. Similarly, the Germans occupy, in the scale of _Kultur_, so exalted a position as compared with the Belgians, that they believe in good faith that all is permitted to them in dealing with this horde, and that they need not justify their actions. They behave toward us as the Conquistadores toward the Aztecs.

More, they actually advertise their contempt for the rules of justice. We have already mentioned the placard posted at Gand, according to which they openly placed themselves in conflict with the Hague Convention. They have gone yet farther in this direction. What are we to say, for example, of the placard posted at Menin, in July 1915, by order of Commandant Schmidt, in which it is ordained that the families of those "who do not work regularly on the military works" shall be allowed to die of starvation?

ORDER.

From to-day the town can no longer grant relief--of whatever kind,
even for families, women and children--save only to those workmen
who are working regularly on the military works and on other works
prescribed.

All other workmen and their families cannot henceforth be assisted
in any way whatever.

And this is not the gem of the collection. At Roubaix and the vicinity (in French Flanders, close against the Belgian frontier) they advertised their decision to prevent all sales of comestibles if work were not resumed by the 7th July, and they even threatened completely to suppress "circulation," which would have resulted in the lingering death of the whole population.

And this is not the worst. In a neighbouring town, Halluin, Commandant Schranck caused a declaration to be read to the assembled notables which stated that he denied their right to invoke the Hague Convention, since the German military authorities had determined to enforce the fulfilment of all their demands, "even if a city of 15,000 inhabitants had to perish."

(_Read at Halluin, on the 30th June, at 11.30 p.m., to the
Municipal Council and notables of the Town of Halluin._)

GENTLEMEN,

What is happening is known to all these gentlemen. It is the
conception and interpretation of Article 52 of the Hague Convention
which has created difficulties between you and the German military
authority. On which side is the right? It is not for us to discuss
that, for we are not competent, and we shall never arrive at
an understanding on this point. It will be the business of the
diplomatists and the representatives of the various States after
the war.

To-day it is exclusively the interpretation of German military
authority which is valid, and for that reason we intend that all
that we shall need for the maintenance of our troops shall be made
by the workers of the territory occupied. I can assure you that
the German authority will not under any circumstances desist from
demanding its rights, even if a town of 15,000 inhabitants should
have to perish. The measures introduced up to the present are only
a beginning, and every day severe measures will be taken until our
object is obtained.

This is the last word, and it is good advice I give you to-night.
Return to reason, and arrange for the workers to resume work
without delay; otherwise you will expose your town, your families,
and your persons to the greatest misfortunes.

To-day, and perhaps for a long time yet, there is for Halluin
neither a prefecture nor a French Government. There is only one
will, and that is the will of German authority.

THE COMMANDANT OF THE TOWN,
SCHRANCK.

Do you not agree that a cynicism so shameless is a sign of perplexity and an admission of impotence? The Germans realize that they are driven to the worst expedients!

A host of similar facts might be cited, but it would mean useless repetition. Let us rather examine some examples of graphic cynicisms.

_Photographs and Picture Postcards._

The Germans have published, in their newspapers, photographs representing the population of a village, consisting principally of women, being driven away as prisoners (_Berl. Ill. Zeit._, No. 36, 6th September, 1914); a military observation-post installed by them on the tower of Malines Cathedral during the siege of Antwerp (_Berl. Ill. Zeit_., No. 44, 1st November, 1914); doctors detained as prisoners in Germany, contrary to the Geneva Convention (_Berl. Ill. Zeit._, No. 15, 11th April, 1915); soldiers taken prisoners, whom they are forcing, despite Article 6 of the Hague Convention, to do work directed against their country (_Die Wochenschau_, No. 44, 1914).

We find the same effrontery in respect of the conflagrations started by their troops: Scharr and Dathe, of Trèves, have edited and placed on sale, in Belgium itself, a series of fifty picture postcards, representing localities which the German army has destroyed by fire. We may mention Dinant, Namur, Louvain, Aerschot, Termonde; and in Belgium, Luxemburg, Barranzy, Etalles, Èthe, Izel, Jamoigne, Musson, Eossignol, Tintigny. Let us add that these photographs commonly show German soldiers and officers striking triumphant attitudes amid the ruins. The most instructive card of this kind which we have seen is one representing General Beeger amid the ruins of Dinant. To understand the full significance of this card, one must remember that it was this officer who ordered 1,200 of the houses of Dinant to be burned and 700 of the inhabitants to be massacred. It is surprising that he did not have a few corpses of "francs-tireurs" arranged about him when the photograph was taken--preferably selected from the old men, women, and children at the breast.

After the torpedoing of the _Lusitania_ they sold in Belgium a series of cards entitled _Kriegs-Errinerungs-Karte_, edited by Dr. Trenkler & Co., of Leipzig, which pictured the operations of submarines. Card No. 2, of Series XXXIII, represents--very inaccurately, by the way--a German submarine stopping the _Lusitania_. It is as well to recall the fact that in this disaster more than 1,500 non-combatants perished, among them Mme. Antoine Depage, the wife of the well-known Belgian surgeon.

Nothing ought to surprise us on the part of those who prove that every means is good provided it is efficacious. Here is what a newspaper, much respected in Germany, the _Hamburger Fremdenblatt_, has to say in its weekly illustrated supplement for the 16th May, 1915:--

"In the situation in which Germany now finds herself, attacked on
three sides at once with all the means that cruelty and perfidy
can invent, we must not ask ourselves whether a means of defence
is permitted or prohibited; but whether it is effectual. All that
facilitates the defence must be employed; this is especially true
of the submarine war, and consequently of the destruction of the
_Lusitania_."

_Alfred Heymel on the Battle of Charleroi._

We have already spoken of the articles of Alfred Heymel and Walter Blöm. Here are some extracts from an article by the former:--

THE BATTLE OF CHARLEROI.

One regiment of cavalry was detrained near the enemy frontier. For
a little while it halted on a manoeuvring ground where the division
to which we were to be attached as scouts was to assemble.

Already many of us were impatient at having to wait longer before
marching to the front; we heard the growling thunder of the
howitzers of the great fortress near the frontier, around which
there had been violent fighting these last few days; we were told
of cruelties that made our hair stand on end, committed, in its
fury, by a people which had for years been excited against us deeds
of cruelty committed against our compatriots, soldiers, civilians,
women and children, because of our violation of a neutrality which
it had itself violated a thousand times over in advance. On our
side we were boiling inwardly to avenge these infamies.... We
breathed more freely only when, in our march beyond the frontier,
we saw the first houses burned in reprisal; a curé, who had
revolted, was hanging from a tree in a neighbouring thicket,
swinging at the will of the wind, when at last the noise of battle
grew plainer....

(They arrive near Charleroi.)

The head of one regiment, led by my friend Lieutenant S----,
trotted forward again, and seized as hostages what civilians it
could catch; some 12 to 16 persons, old and young, fat and thin,
had to march before or between the lancers; more, this portion of
the regiment had received the order from its comrades not to ride
too far ahead.

Something that alarmed me quite particularly, giving me a
presentiment of misfortune, was the fact that the wives of these
civilians burst into weeping: one red-headed woman, frantic, threw
herself down in the road and gave vent to wild screams; others,
behind us, their emaciated arms stretched in the air, threatened
us, although they were several times assured that so long as
nothing was done to us nothing would happen to their husbands,
sons, friends, and lovers. All these significant scenes took place
in the side streets....

(A volley is fired from a barricade--or a railway crossing the
street; it is not clear which.)

I saw two or three cavalrymen fall back in front, and with them
the hostages fell to the ground; my friend was standing, near his
horse. A violent and rapid fire alternated with volleys; we could
not escape on either side; naturally we immediately faced about and
returned in the direction whence we had come; there was a furious
pursuit along the uneven road, with the balls whistling at our
backs. The horses fell, one after another....

Thus from the advance-guard we had become the rear-guard. We had
to consider how we could regain the main body of the troop. In the
first place hostages were taken, some curés among them; the cavalry
and artillery were no longer marching alone and unprotected, but
flanked by the infantry and pioneers; one soon learns when once
one has been caught. With great difficulty we again penetrated
the streets in the smoke and heat, in the midst of the flames
we ourselves had lit; now we continually heard the popping of
cartridges, bursting harmlessly, piled up in the houses, and
betraying the friendly intention of the ex-inmates![32]...

We learned later, when we had found the uniforms, that two
battalions of crack French infantry were distributed everywhere,
in order to organize and discipline the fire of the Belgian
civic guard and the francs-tireurs. The rumour (of marksmen on
the neighbouring heights) spread.... I thought I perceived--this
chilled my heart, and I still hope I was mistaken--that my
cavalrymen, otherwise so brave, did not really feel inclined to
go forward; their gait became slower and slower; they continually
observed more minutiæ and took a longer time in seizing civilians;
in short, I saw the necessity of intervening, at need, against my
own troops, the most heart-breaking thing that can happen to you in
war. In any case I prepared myself, with a heart full of pain, to
face even the abyss of this prospect....

_Kunst und Künstler_, January 1915 (Amm. xiii, part 4).

We must not overlook an article by Captain Walter Blöm, adjutant to General von Bissing. Herr Blöm, who is greatly admired in Germany, and whose novels may be seen at this moment on the shelves of the travellers' libraries installed in our railway stations, does not hesitate to declare that the conflagrations at Battice and Dinant were not intended to punish the population, but to terrorize them (p. 84). The article already mentioned, which incidentally describes the shooting of a French hostage, is highly typical. One sees that the death of this man--shot because the French army does not consent to cease its bombardment--does not in the least affect the writer, who finds the conduct of his countrymen quite natural.

Referring to the systematic pillage effected by the German army, we have already mentioned (p. 132) the fact that "war booty" was despatched openly. In this respect, effrontery and impudence have surely nowhere been carried to greater lengths than in the valley of the Meuse. All the villas were as a matter of course emptied by the officers; when they were situated close to the banks of the river the furniture, etc., was transported on a little steamer, one of those tourist boats which in summer run between Namur and Dinant. The boat would stop before each villa, and--without the least attempt to conceal the nature of the proceedings--the pianos, beautiful pieces of furniture, clocks, pictures, etc., were piled on the deck. To cite one case among hundreds, it was thus that the villa of Mme. Wodon, at Davos, was emptied.

Cynicism and impudence often lend one another mutual support. Let us recall, for example, the question of asphyxiating gases. Article 23 of the Hague Convention forbids the employment of poisons. Even in the siege of Liége our enemies were making use of shells which discharged poisonous gases at the moment of explosion; it was one of them that all but poisoned General Leman. It might, however, be supposed that these toxic vapours were the inevitable result of the detonation of the explosives with which the shells were loaded. But in April 1915 the Germans suddenly began to accuse their adversaries of the use of asphyxiating shells (see the German official communiqués of the 9th, 12th, 14th, and 21st April). At the same time they made it known that their chemists, far abler than those of France or England, were about to combine substances whose detonation would liberate products far more toxic than those of the enemy's shells. And on the 22nd April they preceded their attack on the trenches to the north of Ypres by a cloud of smoke of a yellowish-green colour, which asphyxiated the French and Canadians (see _N.R.C._, 29th April, 1914, morning). Now the falsity of their bragging allegations is obvious. They will not persuade any one to believe that between the 8th of April and the 22nd May they had had time to invent the combination of substances capable of giving off toxic vapours, to manufacture them in sufficient quantities, and finally to forward the cylinders to the field of battle.

Let us add, moreover, that we knew before the end of March--that is, before the accusations made against the French--that the Germans were making experiments on a large scale in the aviation camp at Kiewit, near Hasselt. They were asphyxiating dogs. It may be supposed that they presently realized that they had gone a little too far in their cynicism, for in its issue of the 3rd May, 1915, _Die Wochenschau_, commenting on the affair of the 22nd April, stated that the attack had been "ably seconded by technical means."

Still, the palm for cynicism goes to the high authorities. What are we to think of Baron von der Goltz, whose proclamations state that the innocent and guilty will be punished without distinction? (p. 144). Here we begin to see into the mentality of the Germans; swollen with pride, they consider that all things are permitted to them as against a people so uncivilized as the Belgians.

Well, incredible as it may seem, the Germans have surpassed themselves in this department. The same action, accordingly as it is performed by them or against them, is denounced as a crime or highly approved. We have already seen this in connection with the bombardment of towns by aeroplanes and dirigibles. What shall we say of the action of the German cavalryman, who, surprised by superior forces, surrendered; but, as he was giving up his arms thought better of it, broke the head of one of his adversaries, and fled. If a Belgian or a Frenchman had been guilty of such treachery the Germans could not have found sufficient terms of abuse to heap upon his head; but as he was a German his action became _ein kühnes Reiterstückchen_ (a "Bold exploit of a Cavalryman"). More--this incident is reported in the first number of the pamphlets of propaganda distributed by order of the German authorities--the _Journal de la Guerre_. Not only do they find no cause for blame in a soldier who has committed so vile an action; they are proud of him, and take pains to celebrate his glory in neutral countries.

Here are two other examples, bearing on matters of much greater importance. On the 4th August, 1914, the very day on which they were violating the neutrality of Belgium, and were commencing to punish us, at Visé, for having dared to resist them, they expressed their satisfaction in the fact that Switzerland was scrupulously remaining neutral. M. Waxweiler (p. 52) calls our attention to this contradiction in their attitude toward the two neutral countries--Belgium and Switzerland. Moreover, they had the impudence to placard their satisfaction in the neutrality of Switzerland about the streets of Brussels.

NEWS PUBLISHED BY THE GERMAN GENERAL GOVERNMENT.

BERNE, _7th February_.--The representative of the Bund has been
received in Berlin by Herr von Jagow, Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, who spoke of Switzerland in the most friendly
manner. Herr von Jagow says: The strictly neutral attitude of
Switzerland has produced the most favourable impression in Germany.
We take a very keen interest in a neutral, independent, and
powerful Switzerland.

THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT IN BELGIUM.

While in Belgium they burn houses and torture civilians, on the pretext that the latter have fired on them, they congratulate the Hungarian peasants who took up arms to defend their country against the Russian invader. The contrast here is so obvious that it even struck one German--Herr Maximilian Harden. In an article in _Jingoism, a Disease of the Mind_, he reproaches his compatriots with having two weights and two measures (published in _Vorwärts_, August 1914).

They push their effrontery to the point of photographing their own francs-tireurs, so that no doubt may be left in our minds. The _Berl. Ill. Zeit._ of the 16th March, 1915 (p. 261), gives a photograph "from the theatre of the war in the Carpathians"--"Ruthenian Peasant employed in the Austro-Hungarian Army to guard roads and telegraph-lines." The peasant, without uniform, carries a rifle.

Lastly, let us cite a case in which cynicism is allied to pedantry. On the calcined walls of the Hôtel de Ville of Dinant (burned on the 23rd and 24th August, 1914) is a chronogram. The letters are cut in a slab of marble let into the wall facing the Meuse. The fire had rendered the inscription illegible, but the commandant of the town, in March 1915, had the slab re-painted black and the letters re-gilt. This is the inscription:--

PAX ET SALVS
NEVTRA LITATEM
SERVANT IBVS DETVR.

("May peace and security be granted to those who preserve
neutrality.")

(1637.)

Herr Otto Eduard Schmidt, returning from the French front by way of Dinant, was struck by this inscription. "I could not learn for certain," he says, "by questioning passing soldiers of the Landsturm, whether the inscription had lately been placed there or had merely been re-gilt. But in any case, I should regard it an insult to German authority, and I am astonished that this insult should be tolerated" (O. E. Schmidt, _Eine Fahrt zu den Sachsen an die Front_, p. 131). What would Herr Schmidt say if he knew that it was his own countrymen who, in a fit of shameless cynicism, caused this inscription to be renovated?

_Surrender of the Critical Spirit. Refusal to Examine the Accusations of Cruelty._

Painfully moved by the horrors committed in Belgium, M. Charles Magnet, the National Grand Master of Belgian Freemasonry, wrote on the 9th September to nine German lodges, requesting them to institute, by common consent, an inquiry into the facts. Since the Germans denied the atrocities of which their troops were accused, and, on the other hand, were accusing the Belgians of maltreating the wounded, such an inquiry could only have a happy result. Two lodges only replied. "The request is superfluous; this inquiry would be an insult to our army," replied the Darmstadt lodge. "Our troops are not ill-conducted; it would even be dangerous to recommend them to display sensibility and kindness," replied the Bayreuth lodge.

The argument may be summarized thus: "We know, as Germans, that we possess the truth; it is useless, therefore, to go in search of it with the help of an impartial commission." In a second letter M. Magnet commented on these evasions, as contrary to the spirit of brotherhood as to the scientific spirit.

Let it not be supposed that the refusal to examine, objectively and impartially, the German and the Belgian accusations, is peculiar to Freemasonry. On the 24th January, 1915, Cardinal Mercier requested the German authorities in Belgium to set up a commission comprising both Germans and Belgians, under the presidency of a representative of a neutral country. His request was accorded no reply.

Thus the Germans refuse to allow any light to be thrown on their actions and those of the Belgians. Why this opposition to a faithful search for the truth? They fear, perhaps, that the truth will be unfavourable to them. That is undoubtedly one of their reasons; but we do not think it can be the only reason; and the principal reason for their refusal is without doubt the voluntary blindness to which they have one and all subjected themselves since the outbreak of the war.

They have decided, one would imagine, to accept, without any discussion, whatever is decreed by authority, which they invest with the absolute truth; every German calmly receives that portion of the truth which the Government thinks fit to dispense to its faithful, and no German permits himself to ask for more. _Magister dixit_: the Staff has spoken!

Since the month of August a strict censorship has been exercised over the Press. _Vorwärts_ and other Socialist sheets have several times been suspended. The _Kölnischer Volkszeitung_ was suspended on the 11th September, 1914, for having published articles disposing of at least a part of the so-called Belgian atrocities.... And then, apparently, it proceeded to take them for granted; for afterwards it even aggravated the accusations brought against the Belgians.

The _Vossische Zeitung_ itself, official as it is, had its issue of the 1st December, 1914, seized on account of an article on a commission of the Reichstag (_N.R.C._, 3rd December, 1914, evening). At the same time the Government was careful to stop all foreign books and newspapers. This prohibition is so strict that Dutch working-men going to work in Germany are not allowed to wrap their sandwiches in newspaper (_N.R.C._, 10th December, 1914, evening).

In Germany even people are beginning to find the censorship a little too strict. Before the Budget Commission of the Reichstag Herr Scheidemann, the Socialist deputy, complained that in the district of Rüstringen certain of the German official communiqués even were prohibited. The newspapers may not leave blank the spaces caused by the censorship, as the latter must not appear. At Strasburg the censorship prohibited the publication of articles dealing with the increased price of milk. At Dortmund the Socialist newspapers were subjected to a preventive censorship for having inserted an article by the sociologist Lujo Brentano, one of the "Ninety-three," professor at the University of Münich (_N.R.C._, 16th May, 1913, morning).

Does the German public, knowing that the newspapers publish none but articles inspired by authority, or at least controlled thereby, accept this sophisticated mental pabulum in good part? Or does it make an effort to procure foreign publications? One must believe that it does not, for in that case the "intellectuals," better informed, would cease to blindly accept the official declarations.

"But," it will perhaps be said, "since the Government forbids the introduction of foreign newspapers, it is radically impossible to obtain them." We do not know just how the Germans could obtain pamphlets and newspapers, but we do know that in Belgium we read prohibited literature every day--French, Dutch, and English. Any one who does not intend to resign himself to living in an oubliette will succeed, in spite of everything, in opening some chink that the light may shine through; and this light, when we have received it, we hasten to share. It is forbidden, under the severest penalties, including the capital, to introduce newspapers into Belgium; it is forbidden, under the same penalties, to publish and distribute "false news," as our masters call it. It makes little difference to us; not an article or book of importance appears abroad but it reaches us, and two days later it is secretly distributed in thousands of copies. There will be a curious book for some one to write when the war is over, on the subject of the strange and ingenious means employed by the Belgians, prisoners in their own country since August 1914, to obtain and distribute prohibited letterpress.

There is accordingly no doubt that if the Germans really wished it they could without great difficulty obtain reliable "documentation." But they do not wish it. They, of late so proud of their critical spirit, who made it their rule, so they professed--and their glory, as was thought--to accept only that which their reason commanded them to believe! They have abdicated their critical faculty; they have sacrificed it to the militarist Moloch. And to-day, with eyes closed, they swallow all that the Government and its reptile Press presents to them.

_The Abolition of Free Discussion in Germany._

What am I saying? Not only are they ready to swallow all the lies offered to them; they have even abolished liberty of speech among themselves. A striking example of this fact was given by the _N.R.C._ (of the 16th November, 1914, morning edition). Dr. Wekberg, one of the three editors of a German periodical, the _Revue des Volksrechts_, retired from his editorship because his colleagues refused to insert an article in which he declared that Germany's attitude towards Belgium was perhaps disputable. It would be difficult to push intolerance of criticism much farther.

In the same connection we may recall the sessions of the Reichstag of the 4th August, 1914, the 2nd December, 1914, and the 20th March, 1915. At the first session not a voice protested against the war. At the second, the Socialist deputy, Dr. Karl Liebknecht, asked leave to present some objections, which indeed were timid enough; he was at once disowned by his party. On the 20th March the deputy Ledebour permitted himself to criticize the proclamation of Marshal von Hindenburg, prescribing the burning of three Russian villages for any German village burned by the Russians. Both these deputies expressed the opinion that it is iniquitous to punish the innocent in the place of the guilty. Immediately the whole assembly, Socialists included, copiously abused and insulted the two speakers. We may remark that Herr Ledebour was discussing not a strategical measure, but a prescription that was merely inhuman (see _K.Z._, 20th March, 1915, evening).

These few examples are enough to show that the Socialists lend themselves to militarist domestication with the same docility as the "bourgeois" parties. As for the Catholic remnant in the Reichstag, its docility surpasses even that of the Socialists.

In short, all the political parties, without exception, have abdicated their liberty of thought, to accept, obsequiously and without the slightest attempt at discussion, the ready-made opinions provided by authority. Such, in Germany, is the power of discipline, that all have submitted without protest--one might almost say wantonly--to the voluntary extirpation of the critical spirit. But the inevitable results of this servility were not long in showing themselves; having renounced the employment of reason, the Germans now accept the most extravagant lies.

_German Credulity._

We have remarked that one day a curious book may be written as to the expedients invented by the Belgians to obtain news from abroad and to distribute it throughout the country. Equally interesting--but how discouraging, from the standpoint of the progressive evolution of the human mind--will be the book containing the amazing examples of credulity afforded by the Germans during this war. When speaking of the German accusations against the Belgians we cited the case of the rifles collected in the Hôtel de Ville, which were exhibited to the German soldiers as the irrefutable proof of the official premeditation of the "franc-tireur" campaign (p. 90). Not only were the soldiers thus deluded. A well-known novelist, Herr Fedor von Zobeltitz, visiting in Antwerp a museum of arms, which contained war weapons of the Middle Ages, cried: "See how Belgium made ready for the war!" Was he sincere? It is difficult to say, for artists often allow their sensibility to run away with them. One may say the same of the Kaiser, who also declared that Belgium had long been preparing for the "war of francs-tireurs"; and even, perhaps, of Herr Bethmann-Hollweg, who spoke, in his manifesto to the American newspapers, of gouged-out eyes and other atrocities whose falsity he could very easily have ascertained.

NEWS PUBLISHED BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT.

BERLIN, _10th September_.--The _Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_
publishes the following telegram addressed by the Emperor to
President Wilson of the United States:--

"I consider it my duty, Mr. President, to inform you, in your
quality of a most distinguished representative of humanitarian
principles, of the fact that my troops discovered, after the
capture of the French fortress of Longwy, in that fortress,
thousands of dum-dum bullets made in special workshops by the
Government. Bullets of the same kind have been found on dead
soldiers, or wounded or prisoners, of English nationality. You know
what horrible wounds and sufferings are caused by these balls, and
that their employment is forbidden by the recognized principles of
international law. I therefore raise a solemn protest against such
a mode of making war, which has become, thanks to the methods of
our adversaries, one of the most barbarous of history.

"Not only have they themselves employed this cruel weapon, but
the Belgian Government has openly encouraged the civil population
to take part in this war, which it had carefully for a long time
prepared. The cruelties inflicted, in the course of this guerilla
war, by women and even by priests, upon wounded soldiers, doctors,
and hospital nurses (doctors have been killed and hospitals fired
on) have been such that my generals have finally found themselves
obliged to resort to the most rigorous means to chastise the guilty
and to prevent the bloodthirsty population from continuing these
abominable, criminal, and hateful acts. Many villages, and even
the city of Louvain, have had to be demolished (except the very
beautiful Hôtel de Ville) in the interest of our defence and the
protection of our troops. My heart bleeds when I see that such
measures have been rendered inevitable, and when I think of the
innumerable innocent persons who have lost their homes and their
belongings as a result of the deeds of the criminals in question.

"WILHELM I.R."
THE GERMAN MILITARY GOVERNMENT.

DECLARATION OF THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EMPIRE TO THE ASSOCIATED AND
UNITED PRESS, NEW YORK.

... In this way England will tell your compatriots that the German
troops have burned and sacked Belgian towns and villages, but
she will carefully conceal the fact that young Belgian girls have
gouged out the eyes of wounded men stretched defenceless on the
field of battle, that the functionaries of Belgian towns have
invited German officers to dinner and have treacherously shot
them dead at table. Contrary to international law, the whole
civil population of Belgium has been called to arms[33] and has
treacherously risen against our troops with concealed arms and a
perfidy incredible after having first of all feigned a friendly
welcome. Belgian women have cut the throats of German soldiers
quartered on them while they slept....

_Journal de la Guerre_ (an organ of German propaganda).

We will suppose, for the time being--to be extremely generous to the Kaiser and his Chancellor--that they accepted, in good faith, the accusations of cruelty brought against the Belgians, and that they carefully refrained from investigating them, so that they should not be forced to recognize their imbecility.

_Voluntary Blindness of the "Intellectual._"