CHAPTER VIII
ATROCITIES
The question of Belgian atrocities is so important that no apology is required for giving the British public every possible opportunity to sift evidence, and above all, to hear the German side.
In the interests of fair play we will allow a German lawyer[[119]] to state the case against the Belgians. Herr Grasshoff is armed with two doctorates and is in practice as an advocate in one of the higher courts of law (Kammergericht). Chapter III of his work is entitled: "The Belgian Outrages;" in the foregoing chapter he endeavours to show that the Belgian Press had worked upon public opinion and lashed it into such a state that atrocities and mutilations of Germans by Belgian men, women, boys and girls were the natural consequences.
[!-- Note Anchor 119 --][Footnote 119: Richard Grasshoff: "Belgien's Schuld" ("Belgium's Guilt").]
"That the goaded rage of the lower classes found expression in nameless horrors is unfortunately a sorry truth. The proofs? We are not in a position to satisfy the desire for sensation with a cabinet of horrors. The equipment of the German army does not include either the jars or the chemical fluids for preserving hacked-off limbs, hence it is impossible to display exhibits as in a museum. Our hospitals do not admit the dead.
"If Germany should be compelled to conduct a second campaign against the cultured peoples of Western Europe, then she will not forget to add the above articles to her equipment in any future war against such opponents. Pitying mother earth covers the murdered victims."