Mr. Asquith has described the sacking of Louvain as “the greatest crime
committed against civilization and culture since the Thirty Years’ War.
With its buildings, its pictures, its unique library, its unrivalled
associations, a shameless holocaust of irreparable treasures lit up by
blind barbarian vengeance.”
_INTRODUCTION._
It was a little over a month after the declaration of war that reports
of great events began to crowd in upon us. Much had happened in that
short space of time. The enormous forces of the Kaiser had forced back
the line of the Allies well into France. We admired the huge machine at
work. From a military point of view the rapidity of the advance of such
an enormous body of men was something unique in warfare. It was not this
wonderful achievement of the German army, however, it was not the
equally wonderful resistance made by the Allies against overwhelming
numbers, it was not the glorious record of Belgian, French, and British
heroism--which resulted in practically nothing being gained by their
adversary--it was none of these things that aroused and amazed the
nations of the civilized world. It was something very different which
arrested their horrified wonder, something which, in the words of the
_Times_, “will turn the hand of every civilized nation in the world
against them” (the German nation).
The atrocious acts committed by the troops of the Kaiser have staggered
the civilized world, and it must now be plain to the meanest
intelligence that these atrocities and acts of inhuman barbarity were
not the doings of soldiers intoxicated with the excitement of success in
battle, or maddened to the point of avenging defeat, or to be ascribed
to an unbridled license of irresponsible troops out of hand. There is no
longer any doubt, even in minds slow to believe them, that deeds which
bring the blush of shame to the cheek as we read of them have been
perpetrated; there is as little doubt where the responsibility for them
rests. It is with the Kaiser and the men around him.
Plain Speaking.
“Until now we have maintained an attitude of deliberate reserve upon the
innumerable stories of German atrocities which have reached us,” says
the _Times_. “We published without comment the unanswerable list of
shocking excesses committed by the German troops, which was sent to
England by the Belgian authorities. When a German Zeppelin cast bombs
upon ill-fated women asleep in their beds at Antwerp, we did no more
than explain the bearings of international law upon conduct which has
met with universal reprobation in Europe and America. But now the real
object of German savagery is self-revealed, not only by the effacement
of Louvain, but by the shameful admissions sent forth from the wireless
station at Berlin. On Thursday night the following official notification
regarding Belgium came vibrating through the air:--
“‘The only means of preventing surprise attacks from the civil
population has been to interfere with unrelenting severity and to
create examples which by their frightfulness would be a warning to
the whole country.’
“Such is the cynical nature of the German apologia for the
destruction of Louvain. Such is the character of the warfare of the
modern Huns. They seek to strike terror into the hearts of their
foes by methods which belong to the days of the old barbaric hosts,
who were thought to have vanished from the world for ever.
“There must be no mistake about the apportionment of blame for this
and numberless other crimes. We have listened too long to the
bleatings of professors bemused by the false glamour of a
philosophy which the Germans themselves have thrust aside. The
Kaiser and his people are alike responsible for the acts of their
Government and their troops, and there can be no differentiation
when the day of reckoning comes.
“The Kaiser could stop these things with a word. Instead, he
pronounces impious benedictions upon them. Daily he appeals for the
blessing of God upon the dreadful deeds which are staining the face
of Western Europe--the ravaged villages, the hapless non-combatants
hanged or shot, the women and children torn from their beds by
cowards and made to walk before them under fire, all the infamies
which have eternally disgraced German ‘valour.’ We are no longer
dependent upon hearsay for these stories. Our own men are bringing
them back from the front. Let there be no mistake as to where the
responsibility rests.”
What the Kaiser Said.
It was the Kaiser (addressing his troops in June, 1900, on their setting
out for Peking) who said:--
“_When you meet the foe you will defeat him. No quarter will be
given, no prisoners will be taken. Let all who fall into your hands
be at your mercy. Gain a reputation like the Huns under Attila._”
=And Who Was Attila?=
=It is worth while to recall the methods of this savage, for he was
nothing better. In one expedition across Greece and in another across
Italy he reduced seventy of the finest cities to smoking ruins and to
shambles. The inhabitants were either slaughtered on the spot or marched
away in chains to end their lives as slaves. Men, women, children,
babies--all came alike to this black demon of outrage and destruction.
Briefly, the Monarch of the Huns may be best described as the worthy
leader of one vast gang of Jack the Rippers.
And this is the blood-guilty ruffian whom the Kaiser now holds up as his
exemplar! Judging by Louvain, he is no unworthy follower of his Master.=
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