We have seen the evidence adduced to prove Germany's misdeeds in Belgium. Why have we been prevented from seeing Germany's defence against these charges? In any civilised society, even the vilest criminal is allowed to defend himself. What is the use of "defying Germany" to prove a single case of _franc-tireur_ action and at the same time depriving the public of all access to the German White Book with its long list of specific outrages supported by sworn evidence?
Here then is presented for the first time in Great Britain Germany's official reply to the charges formulated against her troops during their passage through Belgium. The reader can judge of the evidence for himself. To refuse it a hearing on the _a priori_ assumption that, as Mr. Bonar Law declared in the House of Commons, it was "full of lies," or that nothing that a German states could be true, is scarcely worthy of a sane and judicial mind. Nor do I hesitate to say in this respect that any Englishman who knew his Europe in pre-war days would have regarded the sworn testimony of a German as at least quite as trustworthy as the unsworn evidence of a Belgian.
But apart from the Bryce and Belgian Reports on the one hand and the German White Book on the other there exists a mass of evidence hitherto almost unknown in Great Britain or America--I refer to the evidence of the Belgian Press in the early days of the invasion. Here are some extracts from well-known newspapers:--
The _Het Handelsblad_ of Antwerp, August 6th, 1914:--"A furious struggle without mercy, which roused in a portion of the civilian population of the Low Countries, disturbed in its peaceful work of the fields, a veritable and violent desire to defend the natal soil against the Prussian traitors.... It is incontestable that from the air-holes of the cellars, loopholes in the roofs made by removing tiles, from houses, farms and cabins a terrible fire was directed on the Uhlan and Silesian assailants."
_Nieuwe Gazet_, August 8th:--De Burgerij Schiet Mee Op Den Indringer. ("The citizens also fire on the invaders.") "At Bernot the outposts had to fight against the civilians who fired like madmen at the invaders from houses, roofs and windows. Some women even took part in the struggle. A young girl, eighteen years of age, armed with a revolver, fired at an officer.... The peasants and inhabitants kept up a regular fusillade against the Germans."