What Germany Thinks Part 14

[Footnote 106: "Mit der Kluck'schen Armee nach Belgien" ("With von Kluck's Army into Belgium"), by Dr. Jos. Risse, p. 17.]

Dr. Risse's interesting diary contains one or two important pa.s.sages ill.u.s.trating the relation between conquerors and conquered. Like many other German writers, he saw no hostile act on the part of the civilian population, but they came to him as rumours. "That night we slept in a barn. Here we heard that a village near Dahlem had been burned down because the inhabitants had cut the throat of a sleeping ambulance attendant.

"On continuing our march we suddenly entered a wide vale. The horizon was blood-red and huge clouds of smoke drifted heavenwards. On all sides the villages were in flames. In the last village before Louvain the sight was terrible in the extreme; houses ablaze; pools of blood in the street; here and there a dead civilian; pieces of Belgian equipment, haversacks, boots and trousers lay around; while the inhabitants stood about with their hands raised above their heads.

"It was said that hostile cavalry had hidden in the village and together with a part of the inhabitants had fired on our troops. We only saw the consequences.

"After a long rest before Louvain we entered the town at 7 p.m. Our artillery had taken up a semi-circular position on the heights around and directed their cannon on to the town."[107]

[Footnote 107: Ibid., pp. 22-3.]

The above events occurred on August 19th, exactly six days before the sack of Louvain. It strikes one as remarkable that the German cannon were even on that day directed against an unfortified city.

Risse was among the first German troops to enter Brussels. "Our route took us through some of the princ.i.p.al streets, and various splendid buildings including the Royal palace. Joy shone in our faces and a feeling of pride swelled our b.r.e.a.s.t.s at being the first to enter Belgium's capital. These feelings found expression in our talk and shouts. The man behind me shouted to every bewildered, staring Belgian whom we pa.s.sed: 'Yes, young fellow, you are astonished, you blockhead!'

On we marched with the air of victors.

"The inhabitants were exceedingly kind, so that one had not at all the feeling of being in the capital of an enemy. They brought us water, lemonade, beer, cigars, cigarettes, etc., without asking for any payment."[108]

[Footnote 108: Ibid., pp. 26-7.]

The same writer refers to similar hospitality in various parts of his book. After pa.s.sing through Brussels he continues his diary: "Sunday, August 23rd. Nothing came of our hopes for a rest-day. Shortly after 5 a.m. we were ready for the march. A fine rain was falling as we pa.s.sed through village after village. We saw the villagers with frightened faces hurrying to church, carrying prayer-books. Notices from the Belgian Government were placarded on the houses, warning the people to avoid every kind of hostility towards the Germans."[109]

[Footnote 109: Ibid., p. 31.]

From the last sentence it is evident that the Belgian authorities did not incite the civilian population to resistance. Other German war-writers state that the Belgian and French Governments had organized a _franc-tireur_ warfare long before, and this accusation is one of the pillars of Germany's defence for the destruction of Louvain.

"Soon after crossing the frontier we saw the first ruined house. Our route led us down the same road on which a few days before the violent and bitter struggles had taken place between German troops and Belgian soldiers, aided by the inhabitants. The Belgians have supported their troops in a manner which can only be described as b.e.s.t.i.a.l and cruel.

From the houses they have shot at troops on the march, and of course their homes have been reduced to ashes.

"The road from Aix-la-Chapelle to Liege is one long, sad line of desolation.[110] Otherwise the district is fertile; now, however, sadness and devastation reign supreme. Nearly every second house is a heap of ruins, while the houses which are still standing are empty and deserted.

[Footnote 110: On September 8th, 1914, the Kaiser sent a long telegram to President Wilson, in which he defended the German armies against the charges of ruthless atrocities. He euphemistically stated that "a few villages have been destroyed."]

"On every side signs of destruction; furniture and house utensils lie around; not a pane of gla.s.s but what is broken. Still the inhabitants themselves are to blame, for have they not shot at our poor, tired soldiers?"[111]

[Footnote 111: "Mit den Konigin-Fusilieren durch Belgien" ("With the Queen Fusiliers through Belgium"), by H. Knutz, p. 13.]

That is the utmost sympathy which any German has expressed for Belgium.

The German public is fully informed of all that has been done, and considers that _they_ have been brutally, wrongfully treated. Lord Bryce's report as well as the French and Belgian official reports have been dealt with at considerable length in the German Press, but receive no credence whatever; they are lies, all lies invented to blacken the character of poor, n.o.ble, generous Germany!

Germans are well aware of the awful number of brutal crimes which their men-folk commit year by year at home. Yet they are absolutely convinced that these same men are immediately transformed into chivalrous knights so soon as they don the Kaiser's uniform. They seem incapable of conceiving that a race which debauches its own women, can hardly be expected to show the crudest forms of respect to the women of an enemy people.

Herr Knutz--an elementary school-teacher in civilian attire, and a non-commissioned officer when in the German army--seems to possess some rays of human feeling. "Just as I was leaving the fort I saw seven or eight Belgian civilians guarded by our men with fixed bayonets. They were charged with firing on German soldiers. I must say that the lamentations of these men--aged from 20 to 50--made a deep impression on me. They had thrown themselves upon their knees, and with raised hands were weeping and beseeching that their lives might be spared.

"The villagers are exceedingly ignorant, and when their land is in danger, believe themselves justified in seizing any old shot-gun or revolver which lies at hand. Probably some of the more prudent are aware that it is a mad enterprise, but the instinct of self-defence is so innate in the simple country people that advice does not help in the least." (Von Bethmann-Hollweg and von Tirpitz justify the use of gas, the sinking of merchant vessels containing women and children, the dropping of bombs on open towns, etc., etc., by the plea of self-defence.--Author.)

"But it is otherwise with regard to the atrocities on our wounded; these are a stain on Belgium's national honour which will not easily be wiped out. A German would never perpetrate such monstrous crimes,[112] and that we can say without any overweening opinion of ourselves."[113]

[Footnote 112: This is hypocrisy or ignorance.--Author.]

[Footnote 113: Ibid., pp. 18-19.]

Herr Knutz offers no proof of the alleged atrocities; he has heard of them, believes and repeats the story. I have some fifty German books describing the war in Belgium, and in all of them similar legends are mentioned, but in no single instance is a case proved and nailed down.

No victim is named, and the scene of the alleged atrocity is never given, hence it seems to be the usual German artifice to make _Stimmung_, _i.e._, to raise feeling.

One thumb-nail picture from the teacher's diary shows that the Germans created only too well a _Stimmung_ of abject terror among the Belgians.

"This morning, August 19th, we searched a small wood for Belgians, but found none. On leaving the wood a touching picture met our eyes. Several families were fleeing with their children, and the barest necessaries of life, into a neighbouring village. An old woman on crutches was trying in vain to keep up; a young mother with a sucking child was sobbing and pressing the babe to her bosom. The boys were weeping bitterly and holding their hands high to prove that they were harmless. We pa.s.sed by the ruins of Roosbeck, where civilians had shot on the 20th Artillery Regiment, for which reason it was burnt down."[114]

[Footnote 114: Ibid., p. 27.]

Among the various interesting pictures of the Fatherland sketched by German authors perhaps the following is the most nave: "English, French and Belgians, hand in hand; how nicely it was all thought out; Belgian neutrality--so solemnly pledged by all the Powers--was nothing but a screen behind which they wrought the most devilish plans against Germany. It was a neutrality which had long since been betrayed and sold by the Belgian Government.

"But the German people--a pure fool-like Parsifal, who could not conceive such treachery and knavery because it was incapable of such things itself--toiled and worked day by day, enjoyed the blessings of peace, was happy in its existence and ignorant of the looming clouds gathering on its frontiers. All hail to our chosen leaders who kept watch and ward over a dreaming people, and did not allow themselves to be lulled into watchlessness by the lies of our enemies, who while talking of peace intrigued for our annihilation."[115]

[Footnote 115: "Von Luttich bis Flandern" ("From Liege to Flanders"), by Wilhelm Kotzde. Weimar, 1914; p. 5.]

The same author's opinion of the Belgians coincides with that expressed by many of his fellow countrymen. "What did our troops find by the roadside? On all sides haversacks, straps, cartridges, caps, tunics and rifles. To our soldiers this was a remarkable sign of flight, for they are accustomed to military training of a different sort. In the forts, it is true, they found among the soldiers also civilians wearing patent-leather shoes. Indeed, the whole Belgian campaign has shown how badly the army was prepared and equipped.

"The lack of discipline and order is evident, however, in every department of Belgium's national life, and these virtues they endeavoured to replace by cunning and cruelty--at least among the Walloons."[116]

[Footnote 116: Ibid., pp. 61-2.]

A Knight of the Order of St. John[117] is still more cynical in his condemnation of the conquered enemy: "The greatest misfortune in this land is unemployment; factories are inactive and shops closed. The horrors of famine draw nearer, and we, as well as some neutral countries, are endeavouring to relieve the tortures of want. But charity only encourages the laziness of the inhabitants. Just as the refugees in Holland, the Belgians who have remained in their land would like to put their hands in their pockets and be fed. Of course, that is not permissible, and the German Government does its best to rap these lazy wretches on the fingers."

[Footnote 117: "Kriegsfahrten eines Johanniters," by Fedor von Zobelt.i.tz, pp. 86-7.]

"It was characteristic that the Belgians always placed their hopes on foreign help and never dared to rely on the strength of their own army.

This alone is a serious symptom of national weakness. Still, the Belgian army has fought bravely. It is true they had not the discipline and preparation which distinguish the German troops, but everything which a badly equipped and trained army could achieve they have done."[118]

[Footnote 118: Wilhelm Kotzde: "Von Luttich bis Flandern," p. 71.]

It is not necessary for the author of this work to write a song of glorification for Belgium; she has herself composed an epic of valour and self-sacrifice written in immortal deeds. At present her only reward seems to be a desolate land in the hands of the conqueror, and the graves of her fallen sons. Germany's evident intention is the annexation of that part of Belgium where Flemish is spoken. At the moment of writing, Goliath has vanquished David. France and England have a supreme duty to fulfil: they are called to avenge Belgium's wrongs, and thereby establish the principle that even necessity must recognize law.

CHAPTER VIII

ATROCITIES

The question of Belgian atrocities is so important that no apology is required for giving the British public every possible opportunity to sift evidence, and above all, to hear the German side.

In the interests of fair play we will allow a German lawyer[119] to state the case against the Belgians. Herr Gra.s.shoff is armed with two doctorates and is in practice as an advocate in one of the higher courts of law (_Kammergericht_). Chapter III of his work is ent.i.tled: "The Belgian Outrages;" in the foregoing chapter he endeavours to show that the Belgian Press had worked upon public opinion and lashed it into such a state that atrocities and mutilations of Germans by Belgian men, women, boys and girls were the natural consequences.

[Footnote 119: Richard Gra.s.shoff: "Belgien's Schuld" ("Belgium's Guilt").]