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.

THE GERMAN MILITARY CODE

In 1902 the Historic Section of the German General Staff published a collection of works for the instruction and guidance of the officers of the German Army. Among these works is a Manual upon “The Laws of War on Land.” (“Kriegsgebrauch im Landkriege.”) The following extracts from this manual show that the ideas of the German General Staff on the conduct of warfare are diametrically opposed to the views generally adopted by civilized countries. It is the systematic carrying-out of these ideas which has caused the devastation and desolation of Belgium.

It is by making a deep study of the history of wars that, “one may protect oneself against exaggerated humanitarian ideas.”