Their Crimes Part 4

[25] L.H. Grondijs, "Les Allemands en Belgique," p. cxix. (Paris, Berger-Levrault, Publishers).

[26] Liebknecht was too honest and embarra.s.sing a witness for Germany.

He has been thrown into prison. We salute him.

[27] The martyrdom of Dinant began on August 24th; that of Louvain on the 25th August, at 5 p.m.

[28] It may be recalled that commissions of enquiry, at which _both_ sides should be represented, were offered by Belgian Socialists to German Socialists, by Belgian Freemasons to German Freemasons, by Belgian Bishops to German Bishops. Three proposals. Three refusals!

[29] France has suffered from similar calumny. We alluded above (note, p. 37) to the declaration of a German army doctor that orders were given to amputate, as a reprisal, "all wounded limbs." So _we_ are said to have done that? A monstrous lie, which will be spurned indignantly by all who know the honourable traditions of our ambulances and of our French doctors. The _method of systematic lying_ has been shown to the life in connection with the use of asphyxiating gas. The Boches made immense preparations for the use of this gas. When their organization was complete, they took care, before acting, to publish each day for a week in their communiques, little notes announcing that the enemy were "making wide use of this new method of warfare,"--a statement contrary to fact, and known by them to be so, but one that was calculated to mislead public opinion. When they considered that public opinion was sufficiently "prepared," they launched their deadly gases and their flaming liquids; and we needed a long time, needed also to overcome our moral hesitation, to make sure of our defence and our reply. _Cynical lying_ with the Germans is not only admitted, but _gloried in_. When it was completely proved that, in order to start the war of 1870, Bismarck had committed _forgery_. Professor Hans Delbruck exclaimed, "Blessed is the hand that forged the Ems despatch."

[30] Who, except the specialist in mental diseases, can deal with this proclamation of the Kaiser to his Army of the East?: "Remember that you are the chosen people! The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me as Emperor of the Germans! I am the instrument of the Most High. I am His sword. Woe and death unto those who resist my will! Woe and death unto those who believe not in my mission!"

THE GERMAN APPEAL

APPEAL TO THE CIVILISED WORLD

Now that we have reached the close of this book of horrors, let us impanel the 93 Germans of light and learning, and confront them with the words of their own manifesto:

"As representatives of German Science and Art, we the undersigned, declare that:--

"It is not true that Germany provoked this War....

"It is not true that we have criminally violated the neutrality of Belgium....

"It is not true that our soldiers have made any attack on the life or property of a single Belgian citizen without being forced to it by sheer necessity....

"It is not true that our troops brutally destroyed Louvain....

"It is not true that we have conducted warfare in defiance of International Law. Our soldiers commit neither undisciplined acts nor cruelties....

" ... In this struggle we shall continue to the end to act as a civilised nation, to whom the heritage of a Goethe, a Beethoven or a Kant is as sacred as our own hearth and home. We answer for that in our own name and on our honour."[31]

And since irony is more powerful than abuse, let us set down here, without a word of comment, a few German utterances:--

The Kaiser: "We are the salt of the earth. G.o.d created us to civilise the world."

The Cardinal-Archbishop of Cologne: "It is with G.o.d that our soldiers set out for this war that has been inflicted upon us, and in which we are fighting for the sacred treasures of Christianity, and for its own particular gift, Kultur."

Dryander, a Protestant Minister, and preacher to the Royal Court at Berlin: "On our side we are fighting with a self-control, a conscience, and a gentleness unexampled perhaps in the history of the world."

Professor La.s.son: "Our characteristics are humanity, gentleness, conscience--the Christian virtues. In a world of evil, we stand for love, and G.o.d is with us."

And, finally, this older and memorable saying of their great philosopher Hegel: "The destiny of the German race is to supply the sustaining pillars of Christian teaching."

FOOTNOTES:

[31] Speaking of honour, it is as well to recall here the reply made by a German officer to the schoolmaster at Chanteheux. The schoolmaster quite simply pledged his word of honour that no inhabitant had fired: "You French pig," the brute shouted, "don't talk of honour--you have none."

APPEAL BY BELGIAN WORKMEN

800,000 copies of this pamphlet had already been sent out when the world rang with the tragic appeal of the Belgian workmen to their brother workers in other lands. This appeal ought to be fixed on the door of every factory and workshop. Every worker, every citizen, should study it. We regret that we cannot reprint it here in full, but the following extracts will at least give an idea of this new crime committed by Germany:--

"Workers,--In the name of the international bonds that unite all workmen, the working cla.s.ses of Belgium--threatened, without exception, with slavery, deportation, and forced labour for the enemy's gain--send to the working cla.s.ses in other lands a supreme appeal.

"Germany, as you know, attacked and terrorised Belgium in 1914 for having defended her right to neutrality and her faith and honour.

"Germany has been martyrizing Belgium. She has from that moment onwards turned the land into a prison: the frontiers are armed against Belgians like a battle front.. All our const.i.tutional liberties have been abolished. There is no longer safety anywhere; the life of our citizens is at the mercy of the policeman,--arbitrary, limitless, pitiless ... Belgian industrial idleness has been the creation of the Germans, maintained by them for their own profit.[32]

To these 500,000 unemployed they have for the last month been saying: 'Either you will sign a contract to work for Germany, or you will be reduced to slavery.' In either case, it means exile, deportation, forced labour in the interests of the enemy, and against the interests of our country: formidable punishments, the cruellest ever invented by tyranny for the punishment of crimes--and what _are_ the crimes alleged?... On the western front, Belgian workmen--your brothers and ours--are being forced to dig trenches, to build aviation camps, to fortify the German lines, and when the victims, in spite of everything, are firm in their refusal to take part in work forbidden by International Law, they are starved and beaten into illness, wounded, and sometimes even _killed_.

"In Germany, they are turned on to work in mines, and at lime-kilns, quite regardless of their age, profession, or trade. Youths of seventeen, old men of seventy, are deported in haphazard ma.s.ses. _Is not this a revival of ancient Slavery with all its horrors_?... Do you know, brothers, what the Germans throw to their victims by way of pay? 30 pfennigs (3d.) a day!

"Workers: _Never forget that the soldiers-who are_ _acting as the torturers or our Belgian workmen are themselves German workers!_

"In the depths of our distress, we count on you. It is for you to act! For ourselves, even if brute force succeeds for the moment in reducing our bodies to servitude, we shall never give our consent.

"A final word: Whatever tortures we may undergo, we do not wish for Peace except with the independence of our country and the triumph of justice.

"THE WORKMEN OF BELGIUM."

FOOTNOTES:

[32] By levying on Belgium a war contribution which already exceeds 40,000,000--by transporting to Germany food, merchandise and various products to the value of more than 200,000,000--by seizing and despatching to their own country the greater portion of our raw material, machines and accessories--by issuing threatening edicts to prevent localities from using the unemployed on their own important works of public utility.

CONCLUSION

What is our object?

Is it to incite our soldiers to commit, if chance arises, atrocities like theirs? We repudiate with horror a thought such as that.

_Defensive_ reprisals (asphyxiating gas, liquid fire, etc.) are sometimes indispensable. Reprisals for _revenge_ would be unworthy of us. But--without speaking of personal punishments, demanded by outraged conscience, and essential in order that the two indivisible principles of right and of responsibility may still exist in the world--we must make it absolutely impossible for the Wild Beast to break out again. And how, when the settling time draws near, and, in spite of weariness, a new effort is needed to realise conditions of peace with guarantees for the future--how could the Allied Nations accept the sacrifices still demanded of them, if they remained in ignorance?

It is not enough for these crimes to be known by Governments and by a few hundred people with leisure and inclination to read collections of great volumes. They must be known by everybody, by the entire people, by the People, who--in our proud and free countries--control, support, direct their Governments and are the sole masters of their own destiny.

Our peoples ought to know the crimes committed in the name of "Kultur,"

in order, at all costs, to take the precautions necessary to prevent for ever their return. That is our first object. The second is this: to all our martyrs we have a sacred duty--that of remembrance. There, where they fell, we shall doubtless carve their names in stone or bronze. But what of a time further away? When, after the long sufferings of this war, freed humanity takes up again its works of peace, we shall see the Germans reappear in every land, at every cross-road--men of commerce, industry, finance, science, men of the people and of society--in every place where those of all countries, all races and all colours meet and rub elbows. And what is our att.i.tude to be? Our answer is this: So long as the nation in whose name and by whose hands these atrocities have been committed has not herself solemnly cast from her the scoundrels who dragged her into such decadence, we shall consider that it would betray our martyrs for us even to rub shoulders with their executioners, and that until the day arrives--if it ever does arrive--of a striking moral repentance, to _forget_ would be to _condone_.