Rudolf F. Thienes, Esq.
MY DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 28th inst., intended as a rejoinder to a
letter recently printed by me in THE TIMES, is written under a
misapprehension in regard to one important matter.
The Americans, who are in a position to judge impartially in regard to
the issues of the war, have criticised the official acts which have
attended the devastation of Belgium, not because these acts were
committed by Germans, but because they were in themselves abominable and
contrary to precedents and to civilized standards.
If the Russians had, under official order, burned Lemburg, including the
university and the library, and executed the Burgomaster, they would
have come under the same condemnation from Americans that has been given
to Germans for the burning of Louvain and Aerschot and the shooting of
the Aerschot Burgomaster. I am myself familiar with Germany. I am an
old-time German student, and I have German friends on both sides of the
Atlantic, and I am in a position to sympathize with legitimate
aspirations and ideals of these German friends.
I am convinced, however, that no nation can secure in this twentieth
century its rightful development unless its national conduct is
regulated with a "decent respect to the opinions of mankind." The
references made in my TIMES letters were restricted to official actions;
things done under the direction of the military commanders acting in
accord with the instructions or the general policy of the Imperial
Government.
The misdeeds of individual soldiers are difficult to verify. While these
are always exaggerated, it remains the sad truth that every big army
contains a certain percentage of ruffians, and that when these ruffians
are let loose in a community, with weapons and with military power
behind them, bad things are done. It is my own belief that the material
in the German Army (which is the best fighting machine that the world
has ever seen) will compare favorably with that of any army in the
world, and that the percentage of wrongful acts on the part of the
German soldiers has been small. Such misdeeds, sometimes to be
characterized as atrocities, are the inevitable result of war, and they
bring a grave responsibility upon a Government which (to accept as well
founded the frank utterances of the leaders of opinion in Germany) has
initiated this war for the purpose of "crushing France and of breaking
up the British Empire."
You appear to think that it is in order for Germany to visit upon
unoffending Belgians reprisal for the misdeeds (as far as such misdeeds
may be in evidence) committed by Russians in East Prussia. I cannot see
that this contention is in accord with justice or with common sense.