The
excesses recently committed in Belgium were, moreover too widespread and
too uniform in their character to be mere sporadic outbursts of passion
or rapacity.
The explanation seems to be that these excesses were committed--in some
cases ordered, in others allowed--on a system and in pursuance of a set
purpose. That purpose was to strike terror into the civil population and
dishearten the Belgian troops, so as to crush down resistance and
extinguish the very spirit of self-defense. The pretext that civilians
had fired upon the invading troops was used to justify not merely the
shooting of individual francs-tireurs, but the murder of large numbers
of innocent civilians, an act absolutely forbidden by the rules of
civilized warfare.[A]
[Footnote A: As to this, see, in appendix, the Rules of The Hague
Convention of 1907, to which Germany was a signatory.]
In the minds of Prussian officers war seems to have become a sort of
sacred mission, one of the highest functions of the omnipotent State,
which is itself as much an army as a State. Ordinary morality and the
ordinary sentiment of pity vanish in its presence, superseded by a new
standard, which justifies to the soldier every means that can conduce to
success, however shocking to a natural sense of justice and humanity,
however revolting to his own feelings.
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