The
population of Rheims is warned that on the slightest disturbance part or
the whole of the city will be burned to the ground and all the hostages
taken from the city (a long list of whom is given in the proclamation)
immediately shot.
The evidence, however, submitted to the committee with regard to the
conduct of the German Army in France is not nearly so full as that with
regard to Belgium. There is no body of civilian refugees in England, and
the French witnesses have generally laid their evidence before their own
Government. The evidence forwarded to us consists principally of the
statements of British officers and soldiers who took part in the retreat
after the battle of Mons and in the subsequent advance, following the
Germans from the Marne. The area covered is relatively small, and it is
from French reports that any complete account of what occurred in the
invaded districts in France as a whole must be obtained.
Naturally, soldiers in a foreign country, with which they were
unacquainted, cannot be expected always to give accurately the names of
villages through which they passed on their marches, but this does not
prevent their evidence from being definite as to what they actually saw
in the farms and houses where the German troops had recently been.
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