Excerpt from The Destruction of Belgium: Germany"s Confession and Avoidance
In essentials their stories never vary. Every massacre of inhabitants, every organised shooting of "hostages," every wiping out of groups of people or individuals, every shelling, burning and destruction of entire towns and villages, or of single houses, always had its origin in the misdeeds of "Franc tireurs."
It must have occurred to most people that members of the German Army in the circumstances of its invasion of Belgium would from time to time be attacked by unrestrained individual civilians. That, however, is not at all the case which the Germans set out to prove. They understand that isolated acts of that character do not warrant the infliction of collective and often vicarious punishment. They affirm that great masses of the civilian population of Belgium engaged in a "people"s war" with them, and that this was done generally throughout the country, not merely with the connivance, but with the assistance of the Belgian Government and military authorities, and that only such repressive measures were taken by them as were legitimate, essential, and justified by the occasion.
Before proceeding to examine the materials upon which this allegation is based, it is desirable to consider what is the charge made by the Belgians against the German Army, because the White Book is professedly an answer to the Belgian Report, and has no other object than to refute and overcome the "mendacious libels against the German Army," which are said to be contained in that document.
The Commissioners appointed by the Belgian Government issued a series of Reports between August 28th, 1914, and January 20th, 1915. These reports, together with a most admirable and spirited preface by M. van Den Heuvel, a Belgian Minister of State; some extracts from the pastoral letter of Cardinal Mercier bearing on the subject of the German conduct in Belgium, and an appendix containing the advice given to civilians by M. Berryer, the Belgian Minister of the Interior, warning them that they must abstain from hostile action towards the Germans, formed the documents to which the German White Book purports to reply. The charges brought by the Belgian Commissioners against German officers and soldiers are pointed, precise, and definite. The reports give names, places, dates, and in many instances the number of people killed and of houses destroyed.
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