General Stenger's order of the day, mentioned on page 29 was
communicated orally by various officers in various units of the
brigade. Consequently the form in which we have received it may
possibly be incomplete or altered. In face of any doubt, the French
government has ordered an enquiry to be made in the prisoners' Camps.
Not one of the prisoners to whom our magistrates presented the order
of the day in the above mentioned form found a word to alter. They one
and all declared that this was the order of the day which had been
orally given in the ranks, repeated from man to man; many added the
names of the officers who had communicated the order to them; some
related in what a vile way it had been carried out under their eyes.
All the evidence of these German soldiers was collected in a legal
manner, under the sanction of an oath, and it is after reading their
depositions that I wrote the order of the day.
The text of all this evidence was transmitted to all the French
embassies and legations in foreign countries on the 24^{th} of Oct.
1914. Every neutral wishing to clear his conscience is at liberty to
obtain it from the representatives of the French Republic who will
certainly respond willingly.
[Illustration]
Imp. de Vaugirard, H.-L. Motti, dir., 12-13, Impasse Ronsin, Paris.