BINDING Vol. III Tht binding design on ihts volume is An au(hori*ed Facsimile oF the original arc binding on the official Bnirsh copy of the Ver- sallies Peace Treaty, which was signed by King George V and deposited in the Archives of the British Government. Sinking of ihe Lusitania A German picture issued in commemoration of the disaster Ni«taac Ck«» SOURCE RECORDS OF THE GREAT WAR A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE SOURCE RECORD OF THE WORLD'S GREAT WAR, EMPHAStZINC THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS. AND PRESENTING THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN THE ACTUAL WORDS Of THE CHIEF OFFIOALS AND MOST EMINENT LEADERS MN'MtrtiAM NO^''SCCTtOt trality Laws . .135 BARON STEPHEN BURtAN. Au*tff«’i MloiHcr ot P«r«lca Affair* itk ROBERT LANSING, U. S. S«cr«ivy of State. I X The Canadians Defy the First Gas Attack {April 22) The Second Battle of Vpres • *37 OFFICIAL GERMAN PRESS REPORT. GENERAL SIR JOHN FRENCH, the BNdth Commaodcr. SIR MAX AlTKEN.OAclalCenadlao Eye-Wltnew. X The Armenian Massacres (April~Decemker) The Last Great Crime of the Turks . 154 LORD BRVCB. lortaee BrflUb Aabaaaador to the U. 8. DR. MARTIN NIBPACE. Cemaa teaeber lo Aela Miner. DR HARRY STURM BR. Cemaa 41ploHu»carv. VON BETHMANN.HOLLVVEG, ChancellMQlCermaBy In It IS. ANTONIO SALANDRA. Priow WiAMer of Italy la ttlS. The Fall of Warsaw (Aug. 4) Russia Loses her Whole Outer Line oj Defense . d39 CSKERAL VON DSR tOERCK. German infaniry tcMral an4 se 1 )ecaine civic rather than mili- tary. She set herself to consolidate her rule over Belgium and the captured parts of northern France in the hope that these might ultimately become a i>art, and a submissive pan. of her Mid- Europe Empire. Her governors therefore tram- pled underfoot all civilian protests within the conquered re- gion. They governed these lands in the same spirit as they had ravaged them. Their motto was still that no other peo- ple could possess any rights when these came in conflict with German wishes." In the military strife in the West, Ger- many planned merely to hold her trench line as cheaply as she could ; while France and Britain, kept in hot anger by her treatment of the captured provinces, exhausted their strength against her defenses. Meanwhile in the East, her new em- pire was to be expanded and consolidated by her fiercest war- fare. ’ See f I. ‘’Germany Military Rule in France," by tbe Kaiser, Dishop Cleary, etc. THE BUILDING OF GERMANY'S EMPIRE XV THE SWIMGIHC PENDULUM OF VICTORIES With this end hi view. Germany began the year by en- couraging Turkey to a vigorous attack on Russia, so as to deplete the Russian strength. Enver Pasha, the vainglori- ous Turkish leader, was persuaded to umlcrtakc an Asiatic campaign against the Russians in Armenia and the Caucasus. This resulted in brilliant Russian vlctorie.s.* They were disastrous to the Turks, but not at all so to Germany, whose control over her Ally was thereby increased. .Also Russian strength was distracted from (he main front, the Polish front, where Germany's own attack was later to be made. In similar fashion, Russia unwittingly played the Ger- man game, by devoting herself to a gigantic and most heroic attack upon the Austrian forces in (he Carpathian moun« tains. Here for months was fought the remarkable "Battle of the Passes." All through the bitter eastern winter of the Russians st niggled onward, high above the line of constant snow, to force their way over the Carpa- thian mountain passes and so enter Hungary and break the last shadow of Austria’s power. Nature fought against them even more than the fiery Hungarians, who were now bat- tling not for conquest but for their homes, Yet even against Nature the Russians pushed on. They won the crest of the mountain range: they were ready for the plunge into the land beneath ; and it was spring at last, the fateful first of May, 1915.* Up to that first of May the pendulum of the war seemed still swinging in the Allies' favor. Russia had won three great victories : in the Caucasus, in the Carpathians, and a third m the surrender of Przeraysl (pra-mel), the one strong fortress which had held out against lier in Galicia. The .Vustnan army in Praemysl surrendered on March 22nd surrendered to starvation after six months of siege, the only o d-timc lengthy siege of the War.* Everywhere, the strug- gle m the East seemed to promise Russian victory* and e\erywhere in the AUied countries hope ran high. I VM To*^**!^ Caucasus." by Machray, Bodart «c • S^e 1 VI*' - Su "1?^ ^ ^ Nicholas.^c. S M. Surreoder of Pnemysl" by Cen. Krobailn eic XVI AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF This was in spite of the first serious setback in the Dar- danelles, which had given Turkey breathing space, time to recover her courage after the defeat in the Caucasus and become once more convinced of her own and German su- periority. In March a combined French and British war- fleet had attempted to force the strait of the Dardanelles, the Turks* guarded passage between Europe and Asia. Its conquest would have captured Constantinople, and crushed all Turkey at a blow. Almost, the bold scheme succeeded. We know now that with a little more effort it would have succeeded ; but it failed. The ships were driven back ; and the reanimated Turks gathered an army and munitions, and made enthusiastically ready to resist any future attack. They applauded themselves as being the only people who had “proved that the British fleet was not invincible.” ‘ Meanwhile, the early spring had also seen a lack of Ally success on the Western trench line. France and Britain were both hopeful of beating back the Germans there. The French tried it in March in the Champagne district, west of the Argonne forest, but without success. Next, the British at Neuve Chapelle (noov-sha-p€l) made an even larger ef- fort, with even less result. For the Neuve Chapelle assault British munition factories had been working all the winter making a store of projectiles, to be used in one huge ar- tillery attack such as the world had never known before. This, on March JOth, was hurled against the Germans. The bombardment was tremendous, awesome; it lasted for three days of tumult. Then the British infantry rushed upon the battered trench-line hoping to break through, capture the daaed remnant of the defenders, and then attack the other German positions from the rear. But they had ovcrcounted the effect of the great bombardment. Other German de- fenses, other troops, were ready behind the foremost trenches ; and soon the British were brought to a halt in costly failure.* It was no part of Germany’s plan to seem too passive ‘ See \ V, “Naval Disasur of the DardaneUcs,” by Chapelle.” by De Souea, etc. Ambassador THE BUILDING OF GERMANY'S EMPIRE xvll in the West. Shortly after Neuve Chapdle, she launched a cautious offensive of her own against Ypres. Here for the first time she tried that new and hideous weapon, poison gas. On April aand, she directed a deadly cloud of this against the point where the French and British trenches met. A French regiment facing the full strength of the gas was practically annihilated, hundreds of men perishing in awful torture. The British portion of the line was held by the Canadian troops ; and these, encountering the poison less di« rectly. were able to survive and even at last to beat back the Gennan infantry assault that followed hard upon the gas. The whole War contained nothing more terrlWe than the launching of this new form of agonizing destruction, nor more splendid than the heroism with which it was met.* Soon afterward the Germans tried another similar device, the flame thrower, by which they hurled a stream of burn- ing oil against their foes. The fire started conflagrations everywhere it fell. But against this also the Allied soldiers held firm, nor did the fire prove practical of employment in large quantities. Moreover, hasty inventions were contrived to meet the gas assaults. Thus defense soon reasserted itself as stronger than attack. The Western struggle was again at deadlock by the first of May A KlCHTiaa WAKPARa BEGUN AT THE OONAJEC On that fateful date Germany launched her own real mam attack, the one for which she had been preparing aU wmter, How the (^rman High Staff must have smiled at the French and British bombardments in Champagne and at Neuve Chapelle! How they must have congratulated them- selves upon their own superiority f They too had been pre- paring a bombardment, and it was such a monster one as made that of Neuve Chapelle seem the effort of a child It was d‘«ctcd against the Russian army on the Dunajee (doo'- ?tht j«t south of the ^Ush border: that is. about midway of the long Eastern battle Ime. It did what the Britons had hoped to do «d l“i‘.h German xviii AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF with their bombardment ; it fairly wiped out the Russian forces who encountered it. The German infantry then moved forward, seized the Russian lines at Gorlice, and brought the great guns onward for another attack. This Battle of the Dunajec. or of Gorlice» was the beginning of the great German drive on Russia, “Von Mackensen’s bat- tering-ram,*’ as it was called. The Russians could hnd no defense against it. None seemed possible.* The long Russian line was thus broken in the center, The victors to the southward in the battle of tlie Carpathian passes had to turn back from the Hungarian invasion, lest their line of supplies be broken and themselves entrapped. That was why Germany had been so willing that the Rus- sians should expend their best blood in the Carpathians; she knew she could check that advance the moment Mackensen was ready, She had thus saved Austria a second time, All through May and June that dreadful battering-ram” kept on advancing through Galicia. Russian soldiers by the hundred thousands strove to bar its passage by the mere weight of human bodies. They perished in numbers un- counted and uncountable. Przemys! was recaptured by the advancing Germans and Austrians on June 3rd. Lemberg, the Galician capital, was regained June 22nd. It had fallen to the Russians in the great battle of the preceding Septem- ber; and for almost a year they had retained over Galicia a rule more complete, and far more kindly, than that of the Germans over Belgium. By July isl the great Mackensen drive seemed slowing up. but by that time practically all Galicia was once more in Aiistro-German hands, a restored province of the rapidly developing Mid- Europe Empire. ITALY RNTF.RS THE WAR A further check was put. at least to .Austria's share in the Russian drive, by what was perhaps the main event of the year. Italy's entrance into the War.* This was formally announced on May 23rd, and was followed by a rapid Italian advance across the Ilalo-Austrian frontier in the Alps and along the Isonzo River. The Teutons, however, refused to ‘ See i Xr. “Dunajec,” by Gen. Mackensen, Duke Nicbol«, etc. i XIV, "Iwly Joins the Allies," by Fran* Josef, Salandra, etc. THE BUILDING OF GERMANY'S EMPIRE xix become unduly anxious over this attack. They trusted to the strong natural barrier of mountains to hold the Italians in check, and sent there only the weaker Austrian reserves, the regiments of the “Landstrum" or older men. For a year the Landstrum held the Italians fairly in check, while Aus- tria still used her main strength against her former foes, Russia and Serbia. This sudden entry of Italy into the struggle was an event not clearly understood at the time, especially in neutral lands, where there was a tendency to regard it as a mere selhsh grasping after territory, an attempt to get in line with the victorious Allies and so share their spoils. Such views were only possible because the European situation was misun- derstood. Distant neutral peoples still ial)ored under the illusion that Germany had exhausted herself at the Marne; and they had been told that ilie spring battles of Ncuve Chapelle and Ypres had been great .Ally triumphs, proofs of an ever-increasing su|)eriorlty of force. They pictured the Germans at home as exhausted, serving and despairing. Of the new national colossus which had prepared the munitions for the tremendous Mackensen drive they had no conception whatever. That drive was to them but anotlter of tlie see- saw movements on the Eastern front; no one foresaw that it was the beginning of Russia’s destruction. The Allies' leaders, however, were under no misconcep- tion as to the terrible meaning of the astounding artillery battle of the Dunajec. lu it they foresaw Verdun and all the other tremendous battles of 1916. Italy knew well that she was entering on a struggle of life and death. German prop- agandists had done everything possible to keep her neutral ; but. as her leaders grimly stated their position, a victorious Germany would surely trample Italy under foot despite every promise. The only future dial .await eiding hatred among Nor- wegians, EHitch, and those other small neutrals who, l)ecausc of their immediate proximity to Germany's great strength, dared not openly defy her. No Power had ever l>efore, even in war time, destroyed neutral vessels, or slain neutral citizens on the high seas. Except for pirates the neutrals had been safe; and against pirates all the sea Powers had united. Yet here was a leading Power going back to piracy, deliberately announcing death and destruction to any neu- tral who dared to sail the seas w lie re she forbade. Germany knew full well what she was doing. She thought she could afford to ignore the anger of the outer ring of nations. The only one strong enough to assail her was the United States; and German statesmen easily persuaded themselves that this country was too peace-loving to be driven into war. They e^•en ventured to make secret war on Amer- ica, sending agents to Wow up munition factories and per- form other crimes against her civil law. They did this so openly that the United States Government was compelled to XXJV AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF demand the recall of the Austrian Ambassador for obvious violation of the diplomatic laws.* Germany, through her submissive Austrian tools, went even one step further. She had the Austrians protest against the sale of American munitions of war to the Allies. The protest took the wholly illogical ground that since Ameri- cans were not in a position to deliver rnerchandise equally to both parties to the War, their sales to the Allies became “opposed to the spirit of International Law.*' Not content with drowning neutral sailors to stop their trading with the .\lUes, Germany sought to give a show of justice to her action by this Austrian protest. In itself the protest would be un- important, except for the fact that it partly accomplished what it was presumably intended to do. It confused some .^merlcans into thinking there might be justice in the Aus- trian plea, when in truth there was none whatever. Ger- many had herself made a business of selling ‘‘munitions/’ and sometimes even regiments of soldiers, in every war that America had ever fought, and not once had she been in a position to traffic equally with each party to the war. In other words, Germany was again inventing an absolutely new rule, labeling it “International Law/’ and summoning neutrals to apply it for her benefit. Her plea, as a future question not of law but of abstract justice, had a speciously plausible sound. How unjust its application would really have been was decisively pointed out in the reply made by the United States Government.* Confusion of American opinion was further increased by the fact that Britain at the time of the new U-boat attack began expanding the established methods of enforcing mari- time International Law, so as to enable her to check all sup- plies from reaching Germany by sea. The United States Government protested to Britain, but admitted that the new British methods were within debatable grounds of law. The dispute was thus one to be settled within courts of law. Moreover, America’s dispute with Britain was wholly dif- ferent from that with Germany, because the British steps in- ' S«« f XVII, ‘The Secret Attack upoo America." by Laniins, bern««rff. etc. *See I Vin, "Germany Proteau against Amenca, by Bunaa, etc. THE BUILDING OF GERMANY’S EMPIRE xxv jured Americans only in property, which wuld bo restored or paid for, and did not strike at American lives, winch were as beyond repayment as they were beyond restoration. Nevertheless, the confusion of mind among Amenc.im caused by Austria’s protest, Germany’s arguments, anti the controversy with Britain, made it p^>ible for Germany to \'enture her next step in frightening iicuiraU from the seas. On May 7, 191 S» sank tlie Lusitama.' There is no need to dwell here upon the horror of that tragedy. It was of a piece with all Germany’s policy of fright fulness; and the frank unwillingness of America to fight made her to German judgment a fitting subject for the lesson of submissive fear which she meant the sinking of the Lusitania to teach to all the neutrals. German psy- chology misread Americans as wholly as it had misread tlie Belgians and the Britons. THE OEEAT CBRUAH ATTACK OH RUSSIA By the summer of 1915 the world had thus become almost a unit in its disgust and anger against the Germans, though by no means a unit in its fear of them. That was to come later. The meaning of Dunajec was not at first widely un- derstood. Germany now proceeded to make her new power clear. In the west she lauiKhed in June a series of smashing attacks against the French in the Argonne. These were con- ducted by the armies of the Crown Prince, and had perhaps a dynastic rather than a military purpose. At any rate, they w'ere as resolutely met as they w'ere delivered. The Germans could advance but a few yards, paying dearly for each one; and after three weeks they abandoned the assault. If it had been intended only to concentrate the Allies’ attention on the west, it had succeeded. Germany’s mighty movement against Russia seemed for the moment almost for- gotten, This Mackensen advance had been, as we have seen, partly delayed by Italy's entrance Into the War; but by July ist Galicia was reconquered and Mackensen was turning bis advance northward into Poland, threatening Warsaw from the south. ‘See 8 XII, ‘’Sinking of the LtuHonio,*' by von Jagow, Wilson, etc xxvi AX OUTLINE NARRATIVE OF So began the third great German assault against War« saw; and this time it was successful. Hindenburg, whose main armies lay along the Prussian- Polish border to the north of Warsaw, suddenly struck southward with all his strength, while Macke nsen was striking northward. The main Russian armies were thus caught between the two, and might well have been surrounded in Warsaw and cap- tured there. Their commander, the Grand Duke Nicholas, foreseeing this, fought delaying battles as long as he could, and then retreated, leaving W^arsaw to its fate, The Ger- mans entered it on August 4th, triumphant indeed at having captured the great city, but sorely regretful that they had not also captured within it the main Russian army.' From that time Russian resistance continued crumbling before the mighty blows of Hitulenhurg and his able lieu- tenant. Mackensen. The greatest of Russian fortresses along the Western frontier was Kovno on the Niemen (n€- inen) River, the chief defense against East Prussia. This was stormed and captured by the Germans on August 17th. Its loss startled Russia far more than that of Warsaw. The latter was, after all, a Polish, not u Russian city ; but Kovno was Russian, and in one sense was the outermost defense of Petrograd itself. Directly east of Warsaw the strong Russian fortress town of Brest-Litovsk (le«t6fsk) was captured on August 25th : and between this loss of Kovno in the north and Brest- Litovsk in the south, the Russian armies were again threat- ened with encirclement. To escape, they on September ist abandoned Grodno, another strong fortress position between the two extremes. Their line was now withdrawing toward the interior of Russia, losing mightily in men, munitions and territory, but always managing to evade that final sur- rounding and capture which was the avowed aim of the Hin- denburg campaign. On September 5th the Czar announced that he himself would take over the active command of the Russian forces. This made no immediate change; but gradually the Russian resistance stiffened. Once more Hindenburg made a desperate *S«e § XV, “The Fall of Warsaw," by Van dcr Boeck, Princeas RadaiwilL etc. THE BUILDING OF GERMANY’S EMPIRE xxvii effort to entrap an army, this time the one at the northern end of the long Russian line, at Vilna. After a week of battle Vilna was captured on September i8th. But the Russians again withdrew in safety, and the German losses In the long and bitter battle had been so heavy that Germany saw it was time to pause. Her success in ilie campaign had been enormous. Poland had been added to the Mid-Europe Empire: much of the Russian frontier lands had l)een occu- pied; and the Russian armies had l>een sorely battered. To have advanced further against them in the face of the on- coming Russian winter, would have lieen to repeat the 1)1 under of Napoleon.' Moreover, the Russian forces seemed once more as strong as ever. Immediately after their escape from Vilna, they began attacking again, At DviiiNk, to the north of \'ilna and Kovno, there was a great battle lasting all through mid-October. When the Russians havakovUch, etc THE BUILDING OF GERMANY’S EMPIRE xxxi cruelly and dcUgJu. Bulgaria’s utmost official defense lias been to declare tlic reports of the survivors “exaggerated." In fact, the series of widespread massacres witli wliich the Mid -Europe Empire was inaugurated in 1915 make that perhaps the record year for all eternity of man’s inhumanity to his fellows. Here is the record. In the West, Germany continued to hold her dominion over Belgium and Northern France by her established policy of severity. Of this the most notorious case was the sudden, secret process of law and falsehood by which her officials executed the British nurse, Edith Cavell.^ On the Western oceans, as we have seen, Germany began (he killing of civilians and neutrals hy means of submarines, including the sinking of the La.n- tank. From die Western skies Zeppelins and other air- craft dropped their bomlis upon un warlike cities. In the East, Germany overran Poland, professed a heartfelt friendship and pity for the suffering Poles, and then cx- [jloited them in a slavery and starvation far worse than Ihr.t which desolated Belgium. The Belgians were saved hy American charity and by the (mblicity Americans ga\'c to each injustice, The Poles, shut off from Western knowl- edge and Western pity, were compelled to endure their Calvarv unaided.* These were German and official cruelties, deliberate! v earned out for the consolidation of the expanding German Empire. In the farther East, where Germany had linked forces with the half civilized hordes of Asiatic origin, with Turks and Bulgars and Hung.irians. the massacres were more pwsonal. undertaken as much for pleasure as for busi- ness. Of such nature were the Serbian atrocities, and the still more unspeakable massacres of Armenians by the Turks For ^ese outbreaks of her Eastern partners Germany is on y indirectly responsible; she did not command them'but onh al owed and unofficially encouraged them bv precept and e.tample. Meanwhile Germany herself raised coLtant out- cr>-. because on the Western from the French and Bri°“sh emp oyed so^c of their African and Hindu t^t Xt xxxii THE BUILDING OF GERMANY’S EMPIRE troops were trained to civilized warfare and kept under civilized command. Yet at the very moment of her protest, Germany linked hands with the most unhuman of Asiatics, and permitted these monsters to work their ghoulish wills unrestrained. The details of the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians are the most foul, the most unprintable, that his- tory has been called on to record since the first Hunnish in- vasion of Europe almost fifteen hundred years ago.* To Germany, however, these endless sickening horrors were but minor incidents, unfortunate, but inseparable from the one great triumph, the establishment of her Empire of Middle Europe,* This had become a visible fact, symbolized by the sending of a German train under German officials all the way from Berlin to Constantinople. This was first accomplished in November, and soon became a regular sys- tem, affording unbounded satisfaction to every German. The new extension of empire had become possible through three main steps, each destructive to Germany’s al- lies, Indeed, like the fabled god of old, Germany seemed able to grow only by devouring her own children; for even In Poland, which she now held as a conquered province, she had begun by proclaiming Polish independence and then de- stroying it. The three steps of her advance to Constanti- nople had been ; first, the breakdown of Austria, compelling her obedience to German commanders; second, the Armenian massacres, which threw the Turkish leaders into the arms of German diplomats as their only shelter from punishment by outraged Christianity ; and third, the German assistance and protection which had enabled Bulgaria to destroy the Serbs, and had thereby bound her in iron chains to Germany, her one defense against the sternly indignant ‘‘brotherhood of Democracy.” This brotherhood was being born, with many throes, through all the western world. It w»as founded everywhere on the increasing rule of the people. Only by thus appealing to Democracy could the former rulers find the strength to persist in the tremendous War. •Sec S X, ’‘Tlie Armenian Massacres/' by Lord Bryce, Talaat § XXI II. ’'Middle Europe Empire EsubJished.” by Prestdcnl Judsun, el al. GERMAN MILITARY RULE IN FRANCE OFFICIAL SEVERITIES AND -THE GREAT PILLAGE" WILLIAM H0HEN2OLLERN BISHOP HENRY CLEARY PREFECT L MIRMAN What happened to French civUians and non-combatants v/licn the Germans seized possession of northern France is, from the vicw|)oinl of Frenchmen, tragically dear, They regard the invaders as having been drunkenly savage, and the occupation as stupidly bestial, an olh- dal slaughter in which oflkers were as vile as their men. They speak with shuddering horror of "the passage of the Hun"; and they recall disgustedly the "Great Pillage,” in which even royal princes took a shameless part To see the invasion from the German viewpoint is less easy. Some former officials still stand as indignant defenders of every- thing, declaring, as they did at the first seizure of Belgium, that their soldiers were all "pure as snow." Other Germans say that their rule was severe but not unnecessarily so. and that their men were occasion- ally brutal, but that the charges against them are "mainly propaganda," Only a few have yet come to admit the drunken, disgraceful frensy in which their troops spread over France, and how unhappily much of official sanction they had for their barbarities. It is in no spirit of revenge that the story is here retold; but only because the somber duty of History is to m^e sure that the lesson is not forgotten, that men do not build the future on a careless ignorance of the character and possibilities of ihe people who once sought to force their mastership on the surrounding nadons^-and may some day seek to do the same again. The German kindliness of pleasant mo- ments IS a notable and charming national characters Stic, but it flares very easily into the "Furor Teutonicus" of moments of passion. What that fury is capable of is written here. Each statement made in the following narrative has been tested and retested, and has stood long before the public gaze to invite contra- jenon or disproof, if such, alas, were possible. Dr. Cleary, the Roman Catholic Bishop of New Zealand, a clergyman of the noblest repute speaks wholly from his personal experience. M. Mirman, on the other hand, is the official speaker for the entire body of French civic author- ity m the invaded districts. His report becomes thus the sworn and solemn statement of united France. There have been individual Ger- man reports by men who declared that they, being at the from, saw nothing of these savageriea. There have also been reports by Germans who took active part m the atrodUes and who gloried in them. dififermg German wMces, we have chosen here the 2e “I **- ‘“t*'-”'*-" Otw would like to doubt ‘‘*"’”'"8 »0>enient of one who. from his own human imperfection, assumes to bec^e at once judge iurv and exe- C. P. E. I w . VOL. rn.—i 2 GERMAN RULE IN FRANCE BY KAISER WtLLlAM n. M y sotU is tom asunder, but everything must be put to fire and blood. The throats of men and women, chil- dren and the aged must be cut and not a tree nor a house left standing. With such methods of terror, which alone can strike so degenerate a people as the French, the war will finish be- fore two months, while if I use humanitarian methods it may be prolonged for years. Despite all my repugnance I have had to choose the first system. BY RT. R£V. DR. CLEARY Both in Northern France and Belgium one hears very numerous stories of oppression and outrage against the civilian population. Some of these, told at second, third, or tenth hand, I felt bound to regard as exaggerated or wholly untrue. Others were staled in a form which did not aid investigation. Others, relating to fully detailed cases of alleged crimes, some of them of peculiar atrocity, 1 had not the time, nor as to certain of them the inclination, to inves- tigate. I here refer only to acts of oppression and vio- lence, vouched for by eye-witnesses of good standing, of de- clared competency and good character. The more public and striking outrages described hereunder are, moreover, supported by a very considerable mass of independent and convergent testimony which cannot be lightly set aside, and which induces a strong c