remember that the German
atrocities began actually at the moment that the German troops crossed
the frontier on the evening of August 3rd and continued in unabated
violence until the defeat at the Marne.

After the retreat of the Germans from Paris the German General Staff
appear to have altered its cold-blooded policy in Belgium and France.
From that moment, when the carefully prepared blow at the heart of
France had failed and when the possibility of defeat began to dawn upon
the Potsdam mind, organised robbery, murder, arson and rape were
discontinued or at least toned down as a feature of German warfare.
Whilst that method--the Official Reports of the Allied Governments'
Commissions of Enquiry prove conclusively it was a method--continued,
Raemaekers concentrated his pencil upon it and neglected the strictly
military and political happenings. That is why I have grouped the
Belgian cartoons at the beginning of this volume. They do really
represent the first phase of the war. With regard to the extracts that I
have selected to face the Belgian cartoons I would ask the reader to
remember that they have been taken largely from Official Reports issued
after the drawings were published. Raemaekers' pictorial indictment came
first. He was justified later by the sworn evidence of eye-witnesses.

I think perhaps that it is necessary to make these observations in case
the letterpress facing the Belgian cartoons should not in many cases be
considered quite apt.

J. M. A.

* * * * *

_CHRISTENDOM AFTER TWENTY CENTURIES_

Raemaekers' first war cartoon, originally published on the first of
August, 1914.

[Illustration: DE MENSCHHEID NA 20 EEUWEN CHRISTENDOM]

_THE HARVEST IS RIPE_

On the evening of August 3 the German troops cross the frontier. The
storm burst so suddenly that neither party had time to adjust its mind
to the situation. The Germans seem to have expected an easy passage. The
Belgian population, never dreaming of an attack, were startled and
stupefied.

From the very beginning of the operations the civilian population of
the villages lying upon the line of the German advance were made to
experience the extreme horrors of war. "On the 4th of August," says one
witness, "at Herve I saw at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, near the
station, five Uhlans; these were the first German troops I had seen.
They were followed