The committee has conducted its investigations and come to its
conclusions independently of the reports issued by the French and
Belgian commissions, but it has no reason to doubt that those
conclusions are in substantial accord with the conclusions that have
been reached by these two commissions.

ARRANGEMENT OF THE REPORT.

As respects the framework and arrangement of the report, it has been
deemed desirable to present first of all what may be called a general
historical account of the events which happened, and the conditions
which prevailed in the parts of Belgium which lay along the line of the
German march, and thereafter to set forth the evidence which bears upon
particular classes of offenses against the usages of civilized warfare,
evidence which shows to what extent the provisions of The Hague
Convention have been disregarded.

This method, no doubt, involves a certain amount of overlapping, for
some of the offenses belonging to the latter part of the report will
have been already referred to in the earlier part which deals with the
invasion of Belgium. But the importance of presenting a connected
narrative of events seems to outweigh the disadvantage of occasional
repetition. The report will therefore be found to consist of two parts,
viz.:

(1) An analysis and summary of the evidence regarding the
conduct of the German troops in Belgium toward the civilian
population of that country during the first few weeks of the
invasion.

(2) An examination of the evidence relating to breaches of the
rules and usages of war and acts of inhumanity, committed by
German soldiers or groups of soldiers, during the first four
months of the war, whether in Belgium or in France.

This second part has again been subdivided into two sections:

a. Offenses committed against noncombatant civilians during
the conduct of the war generally.

b. Offenses committed against combatants, whether in Belgium
or in France.

PART I.

THE CONDUCT OF THE GERMAN TROOPS IN BELGIUM.

Although the neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by a treaty
signed in 1839 to which France, Prussia, and Great Britain were parties,
and although, apart altogether from any duties imposed by treaty, no
belligerent nation has any right to claim a passage for its army across
the territory of a neutral State, the position which Belgium held
between the German Empire and France had obli