evidence have added their comments upon
the intelligence and demeanor of the witnesses stating the impression
which each witness made, and indicating any cases in which the story
told appeared to them open to doubt or suspicion. In coming to a
conclusion upon the evidence the committee have been greatly assisted by
these expressions of opinion, and have uniformly rejected every
deposition on which an opinion adverse to the witness has been recorded.

This seems to be a fitting place at which to put on record the
invaluable help which we have received from our secretaries, Mr. E.
Grimwood Mears and Mr. W.J.H. Brodrick, whose careful diligence and
minute knowledge of the evidence have been of the utmost service.
Without their skill, judgment, and untiring industry the labor of
examining and appraising each part of so large a mass of testimony would
have occupied us for six months instead of three.

The marginal references in this report indicate the particular
deposition or depositions on which the statements made in the text are
based.[A]

[Footnote A: Marginal references are omitted in this
reproduction.--EDITOR.]

The depositions printed in the appendix themselves show that the stories
were tested in detail, and in none of these have we been able to detect
the trace of any desire to "make a case" against the German Army. Care
was taken to impress upon the witness that the giving of evidence was a
grave and serious matter, and every deposition submitted to us was
signed by the witness in the presence of the examiner.

A noteworthy feature of many of the depositions is that, though taken
at different places and on different dates, and by different lawyers
from different witnesses, they often corroborate each other in a
striking manner.

The evidence is all couched in the very words which the witnesses used,
and where they spoke, as the Belgian witnesses did, in Flemish or
French, pains were taken to have competent translators, and to make
certain that the translation was exact.

Seldom did these Belgian witnesses show a desire to describe what they
had seen or suffered. The lawyers who took the depositions were
surprised to find how little vindictiveness, or indeed passion they
showed, and how generally free from emotional excitement their
narratives were. Many hesitated to speak lest what they said, if it
should ever be published, might involve their friends or relatives at
home in danger, and it was found nece