nother a Belgian Red Cross party is stated to have been ambushed.

On the whole we do not find proof of a general or systematic firing on
hospitals or ambulances; but it is not possible to believe that much
care was taken to avoid this.

(3) As to firing on stretcher bearers in the course of trench warfare,
the testimony is abundant, and the facts do not seem explicable by
accident. It may be that sometimes the bearers were suspected of seeing
too much; and it is plain from the general military policy of the German
armies that very slight suspicion would be acted on in case of doubt.

_(c) Abuse of the Red Cross and of the White Flag._

THE RED CROSS.

Cases of the Red Cross being abused are much more definite.

There are several accounts of fire being opened, sometimes at very short
range, by machine guns which had been disguised in a German Red Cross
ambulance or car. This was aggravated in one case near Tirlemont by the
German soldiers wearing Belgian uniforms.

Witness speaks also of a stretcher party with the Red Cross being used
to cover an attack and of a German Red Cross man working a machine gun.

There is also a well-attested case of a Red Cross motor car being used
to carry ammunition under command of officers.

Unless all these statements are willfully false, which the committee
sees no reason to believe, these acts must have been deliberate, and it
does not seem possible that a Red Cross car could be equipped with a
machine gun by soldiers acting without orders. There is also one case of
firing from a cottage where the Red Cross flag was flying, and this
could not be accidental.

On the whole, there is distinct evidence of the Red Cross having been
deliberately misused for offensive purposes, and seemingly under orders,
on some, though not many, occasions.

ABUSE OF THE WHITE FLAG.

Cases of this kind are numerous. It is possible that a small group of
men may show a white flag without authority from any proper officer, in
which case their action is, of course, not binding on the rest of the
platoon or other unit. But this will not apply to the case of a whole
unit advancing as if to surrender, or letting the other side advance to
receive the pretended surrender and then opening fire. Under this head
we find many depositions by British soldiers and several by officers. In
some cases the firing was from a machine gun brought up under cover of
the white flag.

The depositions taken by Professor