e two of her sons had been in the civil guard and had shot at
the Germans. As a matter of fact one of her sons was at that time in
Liege and the other in Brussels. It is stated that, besides the ninety
corpses referred to above, sixty corpses of civilians were recovered
from a hole in the brewery yard and that forty-eight bodies of women and
children were found in a garden. The town was systematically set on fire
by hand grenades.

Another witness saw a little girl of seven, one of whose legs was broken
and the other injured by a bayonet.

We have no reason to believe that the civilian population of Dinant gave
any provocation, or that any other defense can be put forward to
justify the treatment inflicted upon its citizens.

As regards this town and the advance of the German Army from Dinant to
Rethel on the Aisne, a graphic account is given in the diary of a Saxon
officer.[1] This diary confirms what is clear from the evidence as a
whole, both as regards these and other districts, that civilians were
constantly taken as prisoners, often dragged from their homes, and shot
under the direction of the authorities without any charge being made
against them. An event of the kind is thus referred to in a diary entry:

"Apparently 200 men were shot. There must have been some
innocent men among them. In future we shall have to hold an
inquiry as to their guilt instead of shooting them."

[Footnote 1: A copy of this diary was given by the French military
authorities to the British Headquarters Staff in France, and the latter
have communicated it to the committee. It will be found in Appendix B
after the German diaries shown to us by the British War Office.]

The shooting of inhabitants, women and children as well as men, went on
after the Germans had passed Dinant on their way into France. The houses
and villages were pillaged and property wantonly destroyed.

AERSCHOT, MALINES, VILVORDE, AND LOUVAIN QUADRANGLE.

About Aug. 9 a powerful screen of cavalry masking the general advance of
the First and Second German Armies was thrown forward into the provinces
of Brabant and Limburg. The progress of the invaders was contested at
several points, probably near Tirlemont on the Louvain road, and at
Diest, Haelen, and Schaffen, on the Aerschot road, by detachments of the
main Belgian Army, which was drawn up upon the line of the Dyle. In
their preliminary skirmishes the Belgians more than once gained
advantages