[Sidenote: 32]
There can be no possible defence for the murder of children.
[Sidenote: 33]
Whether or no Belgian civilians fired on German soldiers, young
children, at any rate, did not fire. The number and character of
these murders constitute the most distressing feature connected with
the conduct of the war so far as it is revealed in the depositions
submitted to the Committee.
[Sidenote: 32]
It is clearly shown that many offences were committed against infants
and quite young children. On one occasion children were even roped
together and used as a military screen against the enemy, on another
three soldiers went into action carrying small children to protect
themselves from flank fire.
[Sidenote: 18]
At _Haecht_ several children had been murdered; one of two or three
years old was found nailed to the door of a farmhouse by its hands and
feet, a crime which seems almost incredible, but the evidence for which
we feel bound to accept. In the garden of this house was the body of a
girl who had been shot in the forehead.
[Sidenote: 18]
_Capelle-au-Bois._--Two children were murdered in a cart, and their
corpses were seen by many witnesses at different stages of the cart's
journey.
[Sidenote: 11]
_Tamines._--One witness describes how she saw a Belgian boy of fifteen
shot on the village green, and a day or two later on the same green a
little girl and her two brothers (name given) who were looking at the
German soldiers were killed before her eyes for no apparent reason.
[Sidenote: 17]
_Boort Meerbeek._--A German soldier was seen to fire three times
at a little girl of five years old. Having failed to hit her, he
subsequently bayoneted her. He was killed with the butt end of a
rifle by a Belgian soldier who had seen him commit this murder from a
distance.
[Sidenote: 17]
_Weerde._--Two children were killed in a village--apparently
Weerde--quite wantonly as they were standing in the road with their
mother. They were three or four years old, and were killed with the
bayonet.
[Sidenote: 19]
_Eppeghem._--The dead body of a child of two was seen pinned to the
ground with a German lance.
[Sidenote: 17]
_Hofstade._--On a side road ... was seen ... the dead body of a boy of
five or six with his hands nearly severed.
[Sidenote: 33]
In _Hofstade_ and _Sempst_, in _Haecht_, _Rotselaar_ and _Wespelaar_,
many children were murdered.
[Sidenote: 21]
_Louvain_ (August 28th).--One woman went mad, some children died,
others were born.... (August 29th, outside Louvain): Some corpses were
those of children who had been shot.
[Sidenote: 30]
_A small village._--There were two little children--a boy about 4 or
5, and a girl of about 6 or 7. The boy's left hand was cut off at the
wrist and the girl's right hand at the same place. They were both quite
dead.
[Sidenote: 32]
_Malines._--"One day when the Germans were not actually bombarding the
town, I left my house to go to my mother's house in High Street. My
husband was with me. I saw eight German soldiers, and they were drunk.
They were singing and making a lot of noise and dancing about. As the
German soldiers came along the street I saw a small child, whether boy
or girl I could not see, come out of a house. The child was about 2
years of age. The child came into the middle of the street so as to
be in the way of the soldiers. The soldiers were walking in twos. The
first line of two passed the child. One of the second line, the man
on the left, stepped aside and drove his bayonet with both hands into
the child's stomach, lifting the child into the air on his bayonet and
carrying it away on his bayonet, he and his comrades still singing. The
child screamed when the soldier struck it with his bayonet, but not
afterwards."