In not a single instance were the facts of the various incidents and events which form, grouped in a loose tissue, the body of his book disproved or even weakened by the testimony produced at the trial.
Nevertheless the court-martial sentenced the young officer to six months' imprisonment and to dismissal from the service "for libelling his superior and commanding officers by the publication of writings in a peculiarly offensive and damaging form, and also for a breach of service regulations."
The lieutenant was undoubtedly guilty of a breach of regulations, as an officer in Germany is prohibited from publishing any printed matter except over his true name, and is required to give notice of his intention to the military authorities,--a rule which the young man had violated.
The German press, in its comments on the case, admits that it has an importance far beyond the person of the accused.
The Berlin _Post_, one of the chief organs of the aristocracy in Germany, said:
"In the interest of the army's good name it is urgently requisite that abuses such as have been partly disclosed should be speedily and thoroughly eradicated."
The Berlin _Tageblatt_, a leading paper, said:
"Lieutenant Bilse's book should be seriously pondered in high places."
The _Vossische Zeitung_, one of the oldest and most respected journals at the German capital, made this comment:
"That such things could be possible in German military corps would have seemed impossible to the most malevolent critic ... the public confidence must be restored."
The Hamburg _Nachrichten_, Bismarck's old organ, says:
"We regret to admit that the picture is not overdrawn."
And that is the tenor of all the comment of the entire German press. In the neighboring countries, in the house of Germany's friends, Austria and Italy, the comment was even more outspoken; while in France and Russia, although their political affiliations are not precisely friendly to Germany, more forbearance was shown.
The Bilse book and the Bilse case have since formed the theme of divers debates in the Reichstag. On an interpellation from some of the delegates, the Minister of War, General von Einem, made some interesting admissions. He did not deny that Bilse had stated, in the guise of fiction, established facts; nor did he repudiate the statement that the conditions described by the author existed in duplicate form or worse in many garrisons of the empire.