"German refugees whom I met afterwards, related hundreds of similar acts of kindness. When such severe accusations are raised against the entire Belgian people, justice demands this statement that Belgians in hundreds of cases, uninfluenced by the prevailing bitterness, showed themselves kindly, helpful and humane towards the Germans."
In the second month of the war two representatives of the Social Democratic Party received special permission from the General Staff to visit Belgium and the theatre of war in Northern France. Their report has been issued by the Vorwärts Publishing House.[[101]]
[!-- Note Anchor 101 --][Footnote 101: "Kriegsfahrten durch Belgien und Nordfrankreich" ("Journeys in War Time through Belgium, etc."), by Dr. Adolph Koester and G. Noske.]
"Concerning the events and conditions in Belgium many false reports have been spread abroad. That is especially the case in regard to the terrible persecutions of Germans immediately before the outbreak of war. The civil authorities (German) are now permitting full investigation in those parts of Belgium occupied by our troops, and it is already obvious that many exaggerations were circulated by German newspapers. Without doubt beer-houses and business houses were wrecked, but the Tartar stories which were reported in Germany and Belgium, Herr von Sandt, Chief of the Civil Administration, puts down to hysterics, and the desire of some people to make themselves important."[[102]]
[!-- Note Anchor 102 --][Footnote 102: Ibid., pp. 14-15.]
No correct judgment on the apportionment of right and wrong between the Belgian civilians and the German army is possible without taking into consideration the status of militarism in each of these countries before the war. As far as Belgium is concerned, the army was looked upon as a necessary evil. The Social Democratic doctrines imported from Germany had obtained such a hold upon the people that the Belgian Government experienced ever-increasing difficulty in getting supplies voted in the House of Deputies, for defence purposes. Belgian Socialists unfortunately played into the hands of the German Government by doing their utmost to prevent money from being spent for the defence of their country. Consciously or unconsciously, German Socialists have rendered the Kaiser and his army inestimable service. Their propaganda against armaments has borne fruit in Belgium, England and France, but did not prevent a single German battleship from being built, nor a single regiment from being added to the German army.
In Germany militarism is a gospel. All classes and all political parties have been unanimous for years past, that every man should be a soldier. The military ethos has ruled supreme, and whenever civilianism has dared, merely to cherish thoughts contrary to the ideals of the ruling caste, no time was lost in seeking an opportunity to challenge a quarrel which invariably ended in humiliation for the civilian ethos. Characteristically, therefore, the contemptuous phrase has become current both in the German army and navy—"das Civil"—when speaking of the non-military elements of the nation.
Imbued with these traditions and inspired by this contempt for everything civilian, the German armies invaded Belgium, and it may be safely assumed that in a country where the civilian ethos predominated, looks, words, and even deeds, expressed hostility. Such "provocation" would certainly rouse the military ego to a revenge ten thousand-fold greater than that taken at Zabern. German militarism brooks neither contempt, criticism, nor opposition from German civilians, and much less so from the civilians of another nation.
When it is possible to obtain cool and clear accounts of the events in Belgium, the author has no doubt whatever, that proofs of civilian-baiting will be forthcoming in that unhappy country. The policy of frightfulness was not only intended to drive an enemy into abject submission and as a punishment for resistance to Germany's imperious will, but it was the military ethos in strife with the civilian spirit.
In order to hinder the march of the invaders the trees lining the roads were cut down and formed into barriers, but the civilian population was compelled at the bayonet's point to remove all obstacles and thus assist in the conquest of their native country.