Many depositions have thus been omitted on which, though they are
probably true, we think it safer not to place reliance.
Notwithstanding these precautions, we began the inquiry with doubts
whether a positive result would be attained. But the further we went and
the more evidence we examined so much the more was our skepticism
reduced. There might be some exaggeration in one witness, possible
delusion in another, inaccuracies in a third. When, however, we found
that things which had at first seemed improbable were testified to by
many witnesses coming from different places, having had no communication
with one another, and knowing nothing of one another's statements, the
points in which they all agreed became more and more evidently true. And
when this concurrence of testimony, this convergence upon what were
substantially the same broad facts, showed itself in hundreds of
depositions, the truth of those broad facts stood out beyond question.
The force of the evidence is cumulative. Its worth can be estimated only
by perusing the testimony as a whole. If any further confirmation had
been needed, we found it in the diaries in which German officers and
private soldiers have recorded incidents just such as those to which the
Belgian witnesses depose.
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