In
any case, artillery fire on a hospital at such a moderate range as about
1,000 yards can hardly be thought accidental.
(2) As to firing on ambulances, the evidence is more explicit.
In one case the witness is quite clear that the ambulances were aimed
at.
In another case of firing at an ambulance train the range was quite
short.
In another a Belgian Red Cross party is stated to have been ambushed.
On the whole we do not find proof of a general or systematic firing on
hospitals or ambulances; but it is not possible to believe that much
care was taken to avoid this.
(3) As to firing on stretcher bearers in the course of trench warfare,
the testimony is abundant, and the facts do not seem explicable by
accident. It may be that sometimes the bearers were suspected of seeing
too much; and it is plain from the general military policy of the German
armies that very slight suspicion would be acted on in case of doubt.
_(c) Abuse of the Red Cross and of the White Flag._
THE RED CROSS.
Cases of the Red Cross being abused are much more definite.
There are several accounts of fire being opened, sometimes at very short
range, by machine guns which had been disguised in a German Red Cross
ambulance or car.
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