find entries in diaries which reveal a genuine
pity for the population and disgust at the conduct of the army. It
appears that a German non-commissioned officer stated definitely that he
"was acting under orders and executing them with great unwillingness." A
commissioned officer on being asked at Louvain by a witness--a highly
educated man--about the horrible acts committed by the soldiers, said he
"was merely executing orders," and that he himself would be shot if he
did not execute them. Others gave less credible excuses, one stating
that the inhabitants of Louvain had burned the city themselves because
they did not wish to supply food and quarters for the German Army. It
was to the discipline rather than the want of discipline in the army
that these outrages, which we are obliged to describe as systematic,
were due, and the special official notices posted on certain houses that
they were not to be destroyed show the fate which had been decreed for
the others which were not so marked.

We are driven to the conclusion that the harrying of the villages in the
district, the burning of a large part of Louvain, the massacres there,
the marching out of the prisoners, and the transport to Cologne, (all
done without inquiry as to whether the particular persons seized or
killed had committed any wrongful act,) were due to a calculated policy
carried out scientifically and deliberately, not merely with the
sanction but under the direction of higher military authorities, and
were not due to any provocation or resistance by the civilian
population.

TERMONDE.

To understand the depositions describing what happened at Termonde it is
necessary to remember that the German Army occupied the town on two
occasions, the first, from Friday, Sept. 4, to Sunday, Sept. 6, and
again later in the month, about the 16th. The civilians had delivered up
their arms a fortnight before the arrival of the Germans.

Early in the month, probably about the 4th, a witness saw two civilians
murdered by Uhlans. Another witness saw their dead bodies, which
remained in the street for ten days. Two hundred civilians were utilized
as a screen by the German troops about this date.

On the 5th the town was partially burned. One witness was taken prisoner
in the street by some German soldiers, together with several other
civilians. At about 12 o'clock some of the tallest and strongest men
among the prisoners were picked out to go around the streets with