To-day, Germans find it difficult to forgive Bethmann-Hollweg for his
confessions when, at the beginning of the war, he acknowledged they
were committing a wrong against Belgium, that their designs made
necessary, by "hacking the way through." We now know that the motive of
the Kaiser and his War Staff for massacring Belgium was an overwhelming
motive. They had staked everything upon a short war. "Brussels in
one week, Paris in two weeks, London in two months,"--that was the
programme. The stubborn opposition of the Belgian army, standing on a
frontier whose sanctity the Kaiser, by the most solemn treaties, had
just pledged himself to safeguard, stalled the German military machine,
made impossible a crushing victory over France, and threatened their
dreams of a series of hurricane victories over England.
Then the German War Staff put into operation the instructions to
"frightfulness" against aged men and women, girls and little children.
Should the average American return home at night to find that his wife
and children had been massacred and mutilated during his absence, he
would not go to the office on the following morning. The horror of "a
great darkness" would fall upon him, the tool would drop from his hand,
and weeks would pass before he could steel his hand to the accustomed
task. Now the German War Staff fully realized the true value of the
atrocity as a military instrument. Their soldiers ran no risk in
killing aged men or raping young girls, but they hoped that when the
news of their crimes reached the armed opponent, the atrocity committed
upon his wife or child would break his nerve, and leave him helpless
to fight. It took only three and a half weeks to spread the black wave
of terror and frightfulness over Belgium, in order to break the nerve
forces of the Belgian army.