Chapter XVI: Conclusion

All this evidence and all these admissions are sufficient to prove the criminal nature of the German treatment of civilians whose territory had been invaded. The pretexts which they allege have no validity. They are only made for the sake of appearances, and, on the other hand, the acts which they committed are such as admit no kind of excuse and can in no case be justified. Nevertheless the German Government attempted to do so. The Berlin Cabinet undertook to prove that the inhabitants of Liège were guilty and deserved to suffer the fearful butchery which followed the entry of the Germans. To prove this the latter relied upon the evidence of a certain Hermann Costen, who was represented as a Swiss member of the Red Cross. But the chief of the Swiss police promptly published the following information—

(1) M. Hermann Costen never belonged to the Swiss Red Cross.

(2) M. Hermann Costen is not Swiss, as he was refused
naturalisation.

(3) For two years M. Hermann Costen has been under the
surveillance of the Swiss police. I maintain that since the
declaration of war this person only left Switzerland from the
9th to the 14th August. _It is absolutely impossible that he
can have been at Liège at the period of the siege mentioned by
you._

(4) M. Hermann Costen left Switzerland finally in consequence
of a decree of expulsion on the 19th September.

(5) M. Hermann Costen’s moral and material credit is nil. He is
an individual for whom there is little to be said.

After the picture of German atrocities which has been put before us, it is not without its uses to form from this reply some idea of the duplicity which endeavoured to cloak them.