of it he said, 'I won't have any more. I am afraid there
will be none for the others.'" (p. 37.) Unfortunately, Miss Macnaughten
too readily accepted war stories. She writes of "country houses" where
he heard German prisoners here lived in luxury, "and they say girls are
allowed to come and play lawn tennis with them." The humour of this will
be apparent to any who have visited internment camps. Lawn tennis was,
however, possible at some camps, both here and in Germany--there were
seven courts at Ruhleben. Some of the atrocity stories many of us will
recognise as not so reliable as Miss Macnaughten supposed. It is her
personal experiences which are important, and, like the Scotchman[59]
(whom she quotes) she has, not hatred, but respect, for the Germans whom
she herself meets.

THE EASE OF ACCUSATION.

Again and again, everywhere, we find readiness to accept stories against
the enemy on very slender evidence. At the time of the loss of our three
cruisers I saw in one of the better newspapers a large heading, "German
Treachery. Fighting under the Dutch Flag." I looked down the columns for
evidence. No mention of such a circumstance in the official report, none
in the letter from the chief correspondent; but at last I found that
some one at Harwich had "heard of" such an incident. We must remember
that only cool and clear intellects are likely at such a time to give
an accurate account of facts. Between others mutual recrimination may
readily arise. An officer on H.M.A.S. _Sydney_ wrote after the attack on
the _Emden_: "It was very interesting talking to some of the German
officers afterwards. On the first day they were on board one said to me,
'You fire on the white flag.' I at once took the matter up, and the
torpedo-lieutenant and an engineer (of the _Emden_) both said
emphatically, 'No, that is not so; you did not fire on the white flag.'
But we did not leave it at that. One of us went to the captain, and he
got from Captain von Mueller an assurance that we had done nothing of the
kind, and that he intended to assemble his officers and tell them so."
Note how readily on the other side, amongst those less responsible or
less cool-headed, a tale may grow up against _us_. Let us observe in
considering tales against them the same caution that we should wish them
to exercise in considering tales against us.[60]

TROOPS IN OCCUPATION.

Witnesses from Brussels and from Ghent have spoken well of the personal
behaviou