e invading army, and that Germans had displayed
brutal insolence to Belgians before a state of war had been declared.
Nearly every single letter from soldiers, published in German papers,
records the fact that in the villages through which they passed they
were given water, wine and food, while payment was in many cases
refused.

It is part of Germany's policy to blacken Belgium's character in order
to justify her own ruthlessness--naturally Wolff's Agency was one of the
principal tools to that end.

"Much as we condemn the excesses of the Belgians, still we must not
wreak vengeance on the whole nation as a section of our Press demands.
Have not harmless and defenceless foreigners been terribly ill-treated
in Germany without distinction of sex? Have not shops and restaurants
been demolished in hundreds, wherever a French word was to be met? And
the rage of the German masses has found an outlet not only against
foreigners, but against good German patriots and even German
officers."[99]

[Footnote 99: _Leipziger Volkszeitung_, August 12th. This journal as
well as the _Fraenkische Tagespost_ names Wolff's Agency as their
authority in more than one issue.]

The same journal on the preceding day deplored that "we ourselves are
not free from guilt." It recounts how German reservists, when leaving
Antwerp and Brussels, had sung their national songs in a loud,
provocative manner, and taunted the bystanders with such remarks as: "In
three days we shall be here again!"

According to the same authority German residents had insulted the
populace by displaying their national flag; and German employers had
been among the first to discharge employees of their own nationality,
without salary in lieu of notice, thus increasing the difficulties of
German residents in Belgium.

German official pronouncements are much more reticent in their judgment
on these allegations of Belgian cruelties. None the less the Berlin
Government must be held responsible for them being scattered throughout
the land. After Germany's official representative had returned from
Brussels to Berlin he made a statement to the Press. Considering that
von Below was in the Belgian capital at the time, his views are
instructive.

He expressed his great astonishment that such things should have
happened, and asserted that up till the very last minute he had been
treated with the greatest kindness and politeness. Neither he nor any of
his Legation Staff had exper