ons as having been proved
beyond question:

1. That there were in many parts of Belgium deliberate and
systematically organized massacres of the civil population, accompanied
by many isolated murders and other outrages.

2. That in the conduct of the war generally innocent civilians, both men
and women, were murdered in large numbers, women violated, and children
murdered.

3. That looting, house burning, and the wanton destruction of property
were ordered and countenanced by the officers of the German army, that
elaborate provision had been made for systematic incendiarism at the
very outbreak of the war, and that the burnings and destruction were
frequent where no military necessity could be alleged, being, indeed,
part of a system of general terrorization.

4. That the rules and usages of war were frequently broken, particularly
by the using of civilians, including women and children, as a shield for
advancing forces exposed to fire, to a less degree by killing the
wounded and prisoners and in the frequent abuse of the Red Cross and the
white flag.

The Bryce Commission's report on the destruction of Dinant is an example of
testimony laid before them. It follows:

"A clear statement of the outrages at Dinant, which many travelers will
recall as a singularly picturesque town on the Meuse, is given by one
witness, who says that the Germans began burning houses in the Rue St.
Jacques on the 21st of August, and that every house in the street was
burned. On the following day an engagement took place between the French
and the Germans, and the witness spent the whole day in the cellar of a
bank with his wife and children. On the morning of the 23d, about 5
o'clock, firing ceased, and almost immediately afterward a party of
Germans came to the house. They rang the bell and began to batter at the
door and windows. The witness' wife went to the door and two or three
Germans came in. The family were ordered out into the street. There they
found another family, and the two families were driven with their hands
above their heads along the Rue Grande. All the houses in the street
were burning.

"The party was eventually put into a forge where there were a number of
other prisoners, about a hundred in all, and were kept there from 11 A.
M. till 2 P. M. They were then taken to the prison. There they were
assembled in a courtyard and searched. No arms were found. They were
then passed through into the prison itself and