Martyrdom Of Belgium; Official Report Of Massacres Of Peaceable Citizens, Women And Children By The German Army; Testimony Of Eye-Witnesses — Commission Note

* * * * * The Commission makes it a rule to limit its publications to a mere statement of facts, thinking that no commentary could add anything to their tragic eloquence.

It thinks, however, that the evidence given above leads to certain conclusions.

It has been said that when Belgium makes up the account of her losses, it may appear that war has levied more victims from the civil population than from the men who were called out to serve their country on the battlefield.

This prophecy, which seemed contrary to reason, is now confirmed as regards the Province of Namur.

In certain parts of it half the male adult population has disappeared: the horrors of the conflagrations at Louvain and Termonde, of the massacres at Aerschot and in Luxembourg and Brabant, are all surpassed by those of the slaughter at Dinant, at Andenne, at Tamines, and at Namur.

In this twentieth century the people of Namur have had to live through all the frightful details of a mediæval war, with its traditional episodes of massacres _en masse_, drunken orgies, sack of whole towns, and general conflagration.

The “exploits” of the mercenary bands of the XVIIth Century have been surpassed by those of the national army of a State which claims the first place among civilized nations!

The German Government cannot deny the truth of these facts--they are attested by the ruins and the graves which cover our native soil.

But already it has set to work to excuse its troops, affirming that they only repressed, in consonance with the Laws of War, the hostile acts of the Belgian civil population.

From the day of its First Session our Commission has been trying to discover what foundation there might be for this charge--a charge which seemed very unconvincing to anyone who knew the character of the Belgian people.

After having examined hundreds of witnesses--foreigners and natives--and after having exhausted every possible means of investigation, we affirm once more that the Belgian people took no part in the hostilities.

The supposed “France-Tireur” War, which is said to have been waged against the German Army, is a mere invention.

It was invented in order to lessen in the eyes of the civilized world the impression caused by the barbarous treatment inflicted by the German Army on our people, and also to appease the scruples of the German nation, which will shudder with fear on the day when it learns what a tribute of innocent blood was levied by its troops on our children, our wives, and our defenseless fellow-citizens.

Moreover, the chiefs of the German Army have made a singular error when they try to influence the verdict of the civilized world by this particular argument.

They seem unaware of the fact that the repression by general measures of individual faults--a system condemned by the International Conventions at which they scoff--has long been condemned by the conscience of the nations of to-day.

Among those nations Germany appears for the future as a monstrous and disconcerting moral phenomenon.

(Signed) COOREMAN, _Minister of State, President_.

COMTE GOBLET DE AVIELLA, _Vice-President, Minister of State and Vice-President of the Belgian Senate_.

CHEVALIER ERNEST DE BUNSWYCK,

_Chief Secretary to the Minister of Justice_.

ORTS,

_Councillor of Legation to H. M.

the King of the Belgians_.

FOOTNOTES:

(1) Testimony of the Right Reverend Monsignor X---- annexed to the proceedings of the Session of Dec.

18, 1914.