The Road to Liège, the Path of Crime, August 1914

rpTTp '^^^^ ^Hk "^Bbv '^Wvv^fffl' ROAD TO LIEGE usmvB SoM\ p Clatnell Unttiersitg Sibracg Jtifata. Sfeni ^nib THE GIFT OF CXju>^, crwsyyifW'0->-k/5 Cornell University Library D 626.G3S69 1916 load to Liege, 3 1924 027 865 397 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027865397 THE ROAD TO LIl&GE THE PATH OF CRIME AUGUST 1914 — ; THE ROAD TO LIEGE THE PATH OF CRIME AUGUST 1 9 14 BY GUSTAVE SOMVILLE With a Preface by HENRY CARTON DE WIART, Minister or Justice ' There is blood that is silent and blood tbatciies aloud: the blood of the battle-fields is drunk in secret by the earth the peaceful blood that is shed rises moaning toward the heavens : God receives and avenges it." Chateaubriand. Translated by BERNARD MULL HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MCMXVI MT^Hrt^TE- A i^i^..^ PriHiti in Grial Britain by Hia$U, W*lson & Vinty, Ld., London and AyUibwy. PREFACE On the 7th of August, 1914, upon receiving news of the excesses which the Germans had committed from the time of their entrance into Belgium, the Belgian Govenmient instituted an ofi&cial Commission, whose duty it was to collect, collate, and examine, with the greatest impartiaUty and attentiveness, aU such facts as came to its knowledge and appeared to be violations of the Law of Nations or of the laws and usages of war. This Commission, composed of discreet and able men, whose reputation alone constituted a guarantee of the highest value, has since its appointment sat in Antwerp and Havre, and in London, where a delega- tion, presided over by Sir Mackenzie Chalmers, was appointed to collect and consider the depositions of numerous witnesses who were refugees in England. In Brussels the President of the Commission was M. Van Iseghen, President of the Court of Cassation ; in Antwerp and Havre, M. Cooreman, Minister of State and sometime President of the Chamber of Represen- tatives. The results of this conscientious inquiry are contained in twenty-two Reports, which have been published in several languages.' No definite denial, based upon proofs, has hitherto been made to diminish their significance. On the contrary, the French and British Governments having, like the Belgian Government, instituted official Com- missions of Inquiry, the labours of these two Com- 1 Berger-Levrault, publi^ers, Paris and Nancy. vi PREFACE missions, presided over, in the one case, by M. Payelle, President of the Court of Accounts in France, and in the other by Lord Bryce, late British Ambassador in Washington, have confirmed and completed many of the revelations recorded by the Belgian Commission. These official documents have themselves been completed by unofficial publications, which have seen the light in many countries. Of course, in time of war all recitals must not be accepted with equal confidence. Whoever has some experience of the fallibility of human evidence will in anticipation be on his guard against the confusions, omissions, errors, and untruths which may distort or efface the recollections of a witness. A deposition is worth only what the good faith of its author is worth, the fidelity of his memory, the sureness of his observa- tion, and his power of suppressing, in the sole interest of truth, the voice of his passions, which may of itself inspire him with resentment, exaltation, interest, and the desire to attract attention. It is necessary, then, to retain of these pubUcations only those whose authors afford substantial presump- tions of their sincerity in their previous labours, and the proofs which they have already given of their integrity and discretion. Such a book is this of M. Gustave SomviUe's. And having long observed the author at work in the fore- most ranks of the Belgian Press, where his name is respected by all, I do not hesitate to apply to this volume the quahfication with which Montaigne pre- faced his Essays : " This book is in good faith." It is true that M. Somville speaks out of a heart still bursting with all that he has seen eind heard. One cannot ask that an upright man, under pretext of im- partiality, shall silence the horror, disgust, or disdain with which the spectacle of cruelty, cowardice, and injustice must inspire him. But his recital is clear, PREFACE vii methodical, and precise. He gives abundance of dates, names, and objective data. The statements which he makes are such as it would be possible to verify, and it would be easy to disprove them were there any grounds of denial. More : M. Somville invites and challenges contra- diction ; he challenges the German authorities to submit his narrative to the scrutiny of an International Commission. This challenge wiU not be accepted. The official Belgian Commission has already declared its readiness to refer the results of its labours to an International Commission of Inquiry composed of delegates of non-belligerent nations. "It is proper to remark," said the Commission, on com- pleting its 12th Report, " that the data on which our conclu- sions are based are attested by reputable witnesses ; they have seen things with their own eyes, and have signed their depoa- tions. As many of them reside in the territory still occupied by the invader, it wiU be understood that we could not pre- maturely give their names to the pubhc. But we do not fear, indeed we most earnestly invoke, the constitution of an In- ternational Commission which should resume our inquiry upon a wider basis, while affording the witnesses every guarantee of personal security." And the Belgian bishops, for their part, having re- peatedly, with a courage truly apostolic, denounced to the German authorities, both civil and military, the abominations which devastated and are still devastating their dioceses, have similarly offered to submit their accusations, in the event of their, being contested, to a court of arbitration. Cardinal Mercier, in his letters of the 24th of January, 1915, and the nth of February. 1915, and Mgr, Heylen, Bishop of Namur, in his letter of the 12 th of April, solicited the formation of a tribunal which should be composed of German and Belgian arbitrators, in equal numbers, with a delegate of a neutral State for President. Returning to this idea, an admirable collective letter was addressed, on the 24th viii PREFACE of November, 1915, by all the bishops of Belgium to the bishops of Germany, offering to submit the exactitude of the Belgian protests and affirmations to ecclesiastical judges. A proposal of the same kind was made in January 1915, in the name of Freemasonry, by M. Charles Magnette, Senator for Liege, and Grand Master of the Belgian Lodges. Having pointed out to the Freemasons of Germany " that they would be performing an action of the highest utility in investigating the circumstances in which the horrors deplored by all civilised human beings were committed," M. Magnette added : " I would in the next place beg you to agree to appoint, in concurrence with myself, a Commission of Inquiry, which should make a survey of the regions in which the war com- menced and continues, and which, surrounding itself with all useful information, should prepare a report of its findings. This Commission would be composed of delegates of the Grand Lodges of neutral countries : for example, a Dutch, a Swiss, and an Italian brother, and it would of course include a German and a Belgian mason." If these proposals have met with no response it is because the German authorities know perfectly well that they could expect nothing from a tribunal worthy of the name but the confirmation of the terrible indict- ment brought against them by the accusing voices of so many victims and witnesses of their crimes. Any fresh examination of these crimes, any pubUc discussion of their proceedings, in which all parties should be heard, could only arouse or reawaken the attention and indignation of the neutral countries. The one desire and the one hope of Germany is that her crimes may be forgotten, and that presently the dust of time, heaped high by all the convulsions and catastrophes to which humanity to-day is subject, wiU cover, as with a kind of amnesty or statute of Umitations, all the accumulations of blood and mire and ashes. : PREFACE ix But this calculation will be foiled. The universal conscience will not lend itself thereto ; nor will history. However great the egoism and the frivolity of nations and of naen, there subsists, deep within the heart of each of us, a sense of justice which yields to nothing. Every attempt to stifle it increases its power of resist- ance and impulsion. And this sense of justice will never permit violence and cynicism to assume the name of right. Lady Macbeth will never efface the spot of blood which denounces her sin to all. " The originality of the German crimes in this war," says M. Jean Cruppi, sometime Minister of Justice in France, ' ' resides not in their motive, nor in the barbarity of their execu- tion ; but in the doctrinal effort which their authors are making to attach these crimes to a scientific conception of war." This is very true ; we find ourselves confronted by a systematic barbarism, which regards itself as a form of civilisation, and carries this paradoxical aberration to lengths never imagined by the human mind. The doctrine of the Great General Staff of the German Army may be summed up in this single principle All things are lawful that may ensure the success of our Army.

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