Notes
In Germany's reply to the American protest against certain features of the "war zone" order, which was received in Washington on Feb. 14, occurred this expression:
If the United States ... should succeed at the last moment in removing the grounds which make that procedure [submarine warfare on merchant vessels] an obligatory duty for Germany ... and thereby make possible for Germany legitimate importation of the necessaries of life and industrial raw material, then the German Government ... would gladly draw conclusions from the new situation.
In the German note to the American Government justifying the sinking of the Lusitania presented above, appears this clause:
In spite of the German offer to stop the submarine war in case the starvation plan was given up....
These two expressions are referred to in the British official statement, published herewith, in these words:
It was not understood from the reply of the German Government [of Feb. 14] that they were prepared to abandon the principle of sinking British vessels by submarine.
Whether this may regarded as an opening for the renewal of the German offer in explicit terms, with the implication that England might accept it, is not explained.
The obituary columns of The Times of April 30 contained the following notice under "Died of Wounds":
RHODES-MOORHOUSE.—On Tuesday, the 27th April, of wounds received while dropping bombs on Courtrai the day before, WILLIAM BARNARD RHODES RHODES-MOORHOUSE, Second Lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps, aged 27, dear elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Moorhouse of Parnham House, Dorset, and most loved husband of Linda Rhodes-Moorhouse.
Taken from Belgian witnesses, some soldiers, but most of them civilians from those towns and villages through which the German Army passed, and from British officers and soldiers.
Marginal references are omitted in this reproduction.—EDITOR.
For instance, the dead body of a man is found lying on the doorstep, or a woman is seen who has the appearance of having been outraged. So far the facts are proved by the direct evidence of the person by whom they have been seen. Information is sought for by him as to the circumstances under which the death or outrages took place. The bystanders who saw the circumstances but who are not now accessible, relate what they saw, and this is reported by the witness to the examiner and is placed on record in the depositions. We have had no hesitation in taking such evidence into consideration.
Copies of typical proclamations have been printed in L'Allemagne et la Belgique, Documents Annexés, xxxvi.
A copy of this diary was given by the French military authorities to the British Headquarters Staff in France, and the latter have communicated it to the committee. It will be found in Appendix B after the German diaries shown to us by the British War Office.
This account agrees substantially with that given in a letter written by Mme. Tielmans, the Burgomaster's wife, which is printed in the fifth report of the Belgian Commission. The letter is as follows:
This is how it happened. About 4 in the afternoon my husband was giving cigars to the sentinels stationed at the door. I saw that the General and his aides de camp were looking at us from the balcony and told him to come indoors. Just then I looked toward the Grand Place, where more than 2,000 Germans were encamped, and distinctly saw two columns of smoke followed by a fusillade. The Germans were firing on the houses and forcing their way into them. My husband, children, servant, and myself had just time to dash into the staircase leading to the cellar. The Germans were even firing into the passages of the houses. After a few minutes of indescribable horror, one of the General's aides de camp came down and said: "The General is dead. Where is the Burgomaster?" My husband said to me, "This will be serious for me." As he went forward I said to the aide de camp: "You can see for yourself, Sir, that my husband did not fire." "That makes no difference," he said. "He is responsible." My husband was taken off. My son, who was at my side, took us into another cellar. The same aide de camp came and dragged him out and made him walk in front of him, kicking him as he went. The poor boy could hardly walk. That morning when they came to the town the Germans had fired through the windows of the houses, and a bullet had come into the room where my son was, and he had been wounded in the calf by the ricochet. After my husband and son had gone I was dragged all through the house by Germans, with their revolvers leveled at my head. I was compelled to see their dead General. Then my daughter and I were thrown into the street without cloaks or anything. We were massed in the Grand Place, surrounded by a cordon of soldiers, and compelled to witness the destruction of our beloved town. And then, by the hideous light of the fire, I saw them for the last time, about 1 in the morning, my husband and my boy tied together. My brother-in-law was behind them. They were being led out to execution.
"They have been shooting."
As to this, see, in appendix, the Rules of The Hague Convention of 1907, to which Germany was a signatory.
"Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege," Berlin, 1902, in Vol. VI., in the series entitled "Kriegsgeschichtliche Einzelschriften," published in 1905. A translation of this monograph, by Professor J.H. Morgan, has recently been published.