Plate 18.
Yes, it is war, but a war such as was never waged by the soldiers of Marceau, nor ever will be waged by the soldiers of Joffre, such as never has been nor ever will be waged by France, “mother of the arts, of arms and of law”. Yes, it is war, but such as even Attila would not have waged, had he agreed to certain engagements, for, to agree to them would have been to awake to the conception which alone distinguishes the civilized man from the barbarian—the nation from the horde—the respect of the given word.—Yes, it is war, but a war whose insolent principles could be constructed only by pedantic megalomaniacs, the Julius von Hartmanns, the Bernhardis, the Treitschkes; principles that presume to authorize the people elect to blot out from the laws and customs of war all the humanity that centuries of Christianity and chivalry have with difficulty introduced; principles of systematic ferocity, the odious side of which is already obvious enough; but still more the senseless and ridiculous side. Is it not indeed ridiculous that they should be already obliged to deny it at least in words,—they the burners of Louvain, Malines and Reims, they the assassins of women, children, and wounded men! and that they should have imposed upon their slavish ninety-three Kulturträger the denials which we know so well: “It is not true, say they, that we wage war contrary to the laws of nations, and our soldiers do not commit acts of indiscipline or cruelty[30]”, and again: “We will carry on this war to the bitter end as a civilised people, for this we will answer in our name and on our honour”. Why this pitiful and humble denial? Perhaps because their theory of war presupposes as a postulate their invincibility, and as at the first shudder of their defeat on the Marne it collapsed, they now repudiate it at the first threat of retaliations.
I shall draw no conclusion: the allied armies who are marching on towards victory will do that.
[ADDITIONAL NOTE]
General Stenger’s order of the day, mentioned on page 29 was communicated orally by various officers in various units of the brigade. Consequently the form in which we have received it may possibly be incomplete or altered. In face of any doubt, the French government has ordered an enquiry to be made in the prisoners’ Camps. Not one of the prisoners to whom our magistrates presented the order of the day in the above mentioned form found a word to alter. They one and all declared that this was the order of the day which had been orally given in the ranks, repeated from man to man; many added the names of the officers who had communicated the order to them; some related in what a vile way it had been carried out under their eyes. All the evidence of these German soldiers was collected in a legal manner, under the sanction of an oath, and it is after reading their depositions that I wrote the order of the day.
The text of all this evidence was transmitted to all the French embassies and legations in foreign countries on the 24th of Oct. 1914. Every neutral wishing to clear his conscience is at liberty to obtain it from the representatives of the French Republic who will certainly respond willingly.
