The Germans themselves admit that the accusation is unfounded. Has their Press for that reason ceased to make use of it? We little know the Germans if we imagine that it has. The entire Press continues imperturbably to spread these abominable calumnies. The Kölnische Zeitung of the 15th February (four o'clock edition), referring to an article by Étienne Girau, pastor of the Walloon community of Amsterdam, once more declares that the Belgians have ill-treated the German wounded. It is enough to make one ask whether the Belgians have not morally blinded all the "intellectuals" of Germany.
Another example. In February 1915—that is, when no honest German could any longer believe in the legend of the gouged-out eyes—Vorwärts protested against a little work by a Pastor Conrad, of which 150,000 examples were printed and sold at 8 pfennigs per copy to school-children, in which the Belgians were still accused of having blinded their prisoners (N.R.C., 12th February, morning edition).
The Berlin Government also acts as though it was ignorant of the conclusions of its own commissions of inquiry. Wishing to refuse General Leman, a prisoner in Germany, the privilege of receiving a visit from his daughter, it based its refusal on the atrocities of which German soldiers have been the victims in Belgium, and on the inhuman fashion in which the Belgians have treated the wounded and prisoners in their hands. The second accusation is as ill-founded as the first. The German soldiers taken prisoner by the Belgians were interned in Bruges; they made no complaints, far from it (pp. [56]-[8]); as for the wounded in our hospitals, here are precise facts.
Let us quote, first of all, from the correspondence published in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, giving a few details from letters written by the German wounded under treatment in Antwerp.
How the Belgians treat their German Prisoners.
A private correspondent writes to us from Antwerp:—
The fact of knowing that the prisoners of war of the belligerent States are treated as well as possible should also touch the hearts of the Dutch.... I give you here some extracts from the letters of wounded Germans under treatment in the hospitals of Antwerp.
I am in a very good Belgian hospital and they treat me very well.
Karl Hintzman, Military Hospital, Antwerp.
I am very well looked after and have very good food.
Georg Storck.
They treat us very well in Belgium. What the German papers said in the summer about the Belgians is utterly untrue. The Germans could not look after us better. Moreover, the nation is highly developed.
Franz Crauwerski.
A number of comrades are here. We are extraordinarily well looked after. Everybody is very kind to us.
Richard Kustermann.
Several comrades of my company are here. I am very well looked after. One could not look after us better in Germany.
Peters.
We could not hope for better care.
Walter Schumann.
The medical treatment is very good. We are sounded every day, and our wounds are dressed daily. The doctors are very capable here. We have food in abundance; all is excellent.
Hossbach,
Sölliger (Braunschweig).It must not be forgotten that the majority of these prisoners fell into the hands of the Belgians at Aerschot, where the Germans had imprisoned several hundreds of civilians in the church, at the time of the investment of the town. I can speak from experience. The German prisoners are treated with fully as much kindness in other parts of the country. At the house of the commandant of the service de garde in Bruges I saw an assortment of German books and card games which had been sent by Mme. E. Vandervelde, who had visited the prisoners a few days earlier in the company of her husband, Minister of State and the Socialist leader of Belgium. The latter wished to make sure that the prisoners lacked for nothing.
We can say that Belgium does not seek to avenge her unheard-of sufferings by maltreating the German victims of the war. Suffering evokes pity in a sane mind. I can only express the hope that these proofs may fall into the hands of German readers.
(N.R.C., 8th October, 1914, morning edition.)
I am in a very good Belgian hospital and they treat me very well.
Karl Hintzman, Military Hospital, Antwerp.
I am very well looked after and have very good food.
Georg Storck.
They treat us very well in Belgium. What the German papers said in the summer about the Belgians is utterly untrue. The Germans could not look after us better. Moreover, the nation is highly developed.
Franz Crauwerski.
A number of comrades are here. We are extraordinarily well looked after. Everybody is very kind to us.
Richard Kustermann.
Several comrades of my company are here. I am very well looked after. One could not look after us better in Germany.
Peters.
We could not hope for better care.
Walter Schumann.
The medical treatment is very good. We are sounded every day, and our wounds are dressed daily. The doctors are very capable here. We have food in abundance; all is excellent.
Hossbach,
Sölliger (Braunschweig).
But we have something better than these documents of a private nature. The German authorities exhibited, at Spa, a statement that the German wounded there were perfectly well cared for. At the moment when the Germans dispensed with the collaboration of the clinical staff of the Red Cross in Brussels, they did homage to its devotion and competence.
Spa, 18th August, 1914.
To the Burgomaster of Spa.
The Commander-General of the 10th Army Corps thanks the Burgomaster of Spa for the good reception accorded to his troops by the city of Spa on the 11th and 12th August, 1914. Thanks to his care and efforts, he recognizes that the wounded in the hospitals of Spa are particularly well cared for.
Hoffmann,
Lieutenant-General.Frederic-August,
Grand Duke of Oldenburg.(Les Nouvelles, published under control of the German military authority, 22nd September, 1914.)
German Government,
Headquarters, Medical Service.Brussels, 31st August, 1914.
To MM. the President and Members of the Red Cross of Belgium, Rue de l'Association, 24.
Gentlemen,
The German Government assures you of the expression of its grateful sentiments for the devoted care which you have given to all the wounded collected in the capital.
Ambulances have been organized in great numbers, and the necessity of a concentration henceforth indispensable compels us immediately to take the following measures....
In bringing these measures to your knowledge and in begging you to assist us to realize them promptly, we again express to you the thanks which we address to all the members of your association and especially to the ladies of the Red Cross, whose complete devotion we have appreciated.
I beg you to accept, Gentlemen, the assurance of my high consideration.
Prof. Dr. Stuertz,
Oberstabarzt.