That these acts should have been perpetrated on the peaceful population
of an unoffending country which was not at war with its invaders, but
merely defending its own neutrality, guaranteed by the invading power,
may excite amazement and even incredulity. It was with amazement and
almost with incredulity that the committee first read the depositions
relating to such acts. But when the evidence regarding Liege was
followed by that regarding Aerschot, Louvain, Andenne, Dinant, and the
other towns and villages, the cumulative effect of such a mass of
concurrent testimony became irresistible, and we were driven to the
conclusion that the things described had really happened. The question
then arose, how they could have happened. Not from mere military
license, for the discipline of the German Army is proverbially
stringent, and its obedience implicit. Not from any special ferocity of
the troops, for whoever has traveled among the German peasantry knows
that they are as kindly and good-natured as any people in Europe, and
those who can recall the war of 1870 will remember that no charges
resembling those proved by these depositions were then established.
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