It was desired to prove that England had already been forced to send marines into France. No. 27 of the Illustrierte Kriegs-Kurier, a semi-official, subsidized organ, represents "President Poincaré visiting the British forces in France. One sees him reviewing the artillery of the Royal Marines." And we do see President Poincaré passing in front of two ranks of British soldiers armed with rifles. But was it in France that this review took place, during the present war? Consult the July number of the French illustrated periodical, Lectures pour tous, for 1913. On page 1245 you will find a photograph entitled "The Consecration of the Entente Cordiale. M. Poincaré, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, reviewing his guard of honour on his arrival at Portsmouth (24th June, 1913)." Now the same personages and the same soldiers figure in the two photographs; and the surroundings are the same. The only difference is that one photograph was taken a moment later than the other.
It seems that trickery of this kind is believed not to be a German speciality. Our neighbours accuse the Russians and the English of the same fault. But a kind of lie of which Germany may boldly claim the paternity and the exclusive monopoly is that which consists in denying, or at least in considerably diminishing, the extent of their acts of vandalism. On the other hand, they try to deceive their readers as to the causes of the destruction of Belgian towns.
Thus they are now trying to make people believe that Louvain was not intentionally burned, but that the town suffered a bombardment. This is the legend which they related to Dr. Sven Hedin, while calling his attention to the accuracy of their fire:—
"Eleven miles to Louvain. Once in the town one goes a good way before coming to the first ruins. By no means all Louvain has been destroyed by the bombardment, as is imagined. Hardly a fifth of the town is destroyed. It is true that this fifth included many precious buildings, which cannot be replaced; particularly regrettable is the loss of the library. In the midst of this destruction, however, like a rock in the midst of the sea, rises the Hôtel de Ville, the proud jewel of the period of 1450, with its six slender open towers. I went right round the Hôtel de Ville, and I could not with the best will in the world discover a scratch on these walls, with their prodigal richness of ornamentation. Perhaps there may somewhere be a scratch from a shell-splinter which escaped my eyes. Thanks to the excellence of the German fire not a single moulding of the six towers has been damaged. The reason for the bombardment of Louvain is known. The civil population fired from the windows on the German troops at the time of their entering the town, and as this crime could not be punished otherwise, the houses were burned by bombardment. When the German soldiers sought to extinguish the flames in the houses adjacent to the Hôtel de Ville the francs-tireurs again fired on them with their carbines. Any other army in the world would have done the same, and the Germans have themselves profoundly regretted that they were forced against their will to resort to such means."
(Sven Hedin, Ein Volk in Waffen, p. 149.)
They told the same story at Termonde to Herren Koester and Noske: "It is certain," say these gentlemen, "that Termonde was not intentionally burned."
On the other hand, the Germans try to dissemble the extent of the damage inflicted. In the October issue of the official and propagandist Journal de la Guerre they give a plan of Louvain on which the parts destroyed are shown by shading. Now this plan is falsified in two ways. In the first place, no distinction is made between the portion built on and that occupied by market gardeners, which is considerable; so that the ratio of the part destroyed to the part left intact is distorted. Secondly, this portion is absolutely diminished; many quarters burned are shown as intact; to mention only one example, the Old Market, where only the College of the Josephites and a few adjacent houses have been left standing, is marked as untouched by fire.
There is yet another kind of graphic lie which is peculiar to the Germans. They are experts at displaying sentimentality to order; a sentimentality, by the way, which goes ill with their incontestable cruelty. Thus they have several times published photographs representing German soldiers sharing their bread or soup with French and Belgian women or children. One is particularly inclined to let oneself be touched by the kindliness of these German warriors, who, after having been so treacherously attacked by the terrible "francs-tireurs," now take the bread from their own mouths to feed the starving population.... What these public demonstrations of German generosity and magnanimity are worth one may judge from the photograph published in No. 16 of the Illustrierte Kriegs-Kurier. (It is interesting to note that it is always the Kurier, semi-official and subsidized, which bears the palm for sincerity.) The illustration shows that "the soldiers of the German Landsturm share their bread with French children." Now, this little scene, otherwise very convincing, is not laid in France but in Belgium, in the railway station at Buysinghen, near Hal. It is wholly "faked."
This is not the only instance in which the Germans have built up scenes to be photographed or cinematographed. Here is another. On the 20th October, 1914, a military band had been playing on the terrace of the Botanical Gardens of Brussels, and some German officers were strolling round the musicians. At the same time a cinematographic camera was set up in the Rue Royale. It was naturally hoped that large numbers of the public would gather near the band, so that a nice film could be obtained, showing a crowd of Belgian citizens present at a military concert, and fraternizing with the German officers. Alas, the Germans had counted without the hatred which the people of Brussels entertain for anything which concerns our oppressors! At the first thumps of the big drum the promenaders rapidly melted away, and the disappointed officers were left alone. The scheme had failed! A fresh attempt was made on the 26th, on the Boulevard Anspach, near the Bourse; that is, at the busiest spot in Brussels. The number of passers-by there is always so great that it is easy to give the impression of a crowd. Yet those who had occasion to preside over the unwinding of the film discovered that not a few people were ostentatiously turning their backs upon the musicians. This, by the way, is the favourite attitude of the people of Brussels when, at about eleven o'clock each morning, the military band—a true barbarian orchestra—passes down the Rue Royale and along the Park.
No. 31 of this semi-official journal shows "the band of the German Marines which plays every Sunday at Zeebrugge." Now a street like that represented, with tall contiguous houses and large shops, does not exist in Zeebrugge.
No. 3 of the same paper (it must certainly justify the Government subsidy) shows us, in these photographs, the entry of the German Marines into Antwerp. Only the photographs were taken in Brussels, at the corner of the Rue de la Loi and the Rue Ducale.