CONCLUSIONS.
I. The wholesale atrocities by French Negro colonial troops alleged in the German press, such as the alleged abductions, followed by rape, mutilation, murder, and concealment of the bodies of the victims are false and intended for political propaganda.
II. A number of cases of rape, attempted rape, sodomy, attempted sodomy, and obscene mishandling of women and girls have occurred on the part of French Negro colonial troops in the Rhinelands. These cases have been occasional and in restricted numbers, not general or widespread. The French military authorities have repressed them severely in most cases and have made a very serious effort to stamp the evil out. The amount of evidence necessary to convict in such cases is a very delicate matter to express opinion upon. However, the number of acquittals is not large and there is nothing surprising about these acquittals, except in one case where a girl of 14 years was known carnally. In this case the acquittal followed upon the claim that the girl had consented.
III. As a rule the number of convictions and the thoroughness of the reports of the investigations and trials indicate the very earnest effort of the French trial authorities to do justice and to stamp out the evil by stern repressive measures. That their sentences are often milder than ours would be is largely due to extenuating circumstances found in the evidence according to their rules of evidence which are very different from ours, and to the fact that in general French courts do not punish these crimes as severely as American and English courts do.
IV. The discipline of the Senegalese Tirailleurs was not always good as evidenced by the refusal of some of them to get aboard transports at Marseille when ordered to Syria.
Henry T. Allen.
The Secretary of State,
Washington, D. C.