rong French detachments stood ready to march through that country
against the advancing German Army. The Belgium Government was assured
that its interests would be conscientiously guarded if it would permit
the German Army to march through its territory. Its answer to this
assurance was a declaration of war. In making this declaration it acted
perhaps not wisely but unquestionably within its formal rights. It was,
however, not right, but, on the contrary, a disgraceful breach of right,
that the eyes of wounded German soldiers in Belgium were gouged out, and
their ears and noses cut off; that surgeons and persons carrying the
wounded were shot at from houses.

Private dwellings of Germans in Antwerp were plundered, German women
were dragged naked through the streets by the mob and shot to death
before the eyes of the police and the militia. Captains of captured
German ships in Antwerp were told that the authorities could not
guarantee their lives, German tourists were robbed of their baggage,
insulted and mishandled, sick persons were driven from the German
hospital, children were thrown from the windows of German homes into the
streets and their limbs were broken. Trustworthy reports of all these
occurrences, from respectable and responsible men, are at hand. We
perceive with the deepest indignation that the cruelties of the Congo
have been outdone by the motherland. When it comes to pass that in time
of war among nations the laws of humanity respecting the helpless and
the unarmed, the women and children, are no longer observed, the world
is reverting to barbarism. Even in wartimes humanity and honor should
still remain the distinguishing marks of civilization. That French and
Russians, in their endeavors to spy upon Germany and destroy her
institutions, should disguise themselves in German uniforms is a sorry
testimony to the sense of honor possessed by our opponents. He who
ventures to conduct espionage in a hostile land, or secretly to plant
bombs, realizes that he risks the penalty of death, whether he be a
civilian or a member of the army. Up to the present, however, it has not
been customary to use a uniform, which should be respected even by the
enemy, to lessen the personal risk of the spy and to facilitate his
undertaking.

For a number of years there have been increasing indications that
France, Russia and England were systematically spying upon the military
institutions of Germany. In the eight years from 1