se.[101]

[Footnote 101: "Kriegsfahrten durch Belgien und Nordfrankreich"
("Journeys in War Time through Belgium, etc."), by Dr. Adolph Koester
and G. Noske.]

"Concerning the events and conditions in Belgium many false reports have
been spread abroad. That is especially the case in regard to the
terrible persecutions of Germans immediately before the outbreak of war.
The civil authorities (German) are now permitting full investigation in
those parts of Belgium occupied by our troops, and it is already obvious
that many exaggerations were circulated by German newspapers. Without
doubt beer-houses and business houses were wrecked, but the Tartar
stories which were reported in Germany and Belgium, Herr von Sandt,
Chief of the Civil Administration, puts down to hysterics, and the
desire of some people to make themselves important."[102]

[Footnote 102: Ibid., pp. 14-15.]

No correct judgment on the apportionment of right and wrong between the
Belgian civilians and the German army is possible without taking into
consideration the status of militarism in each of these countries before
the war. As far as Belgium is concerned, the army was looked upon as a
necessary evil. The Social Democratic doctrines imported from Germany
had obtained such a hold upon the people that the Belgian Government
experienced ever-increasing difficulty in getting supplies voted in the
House of Deputies, for defence purposes. Belgian Socialists
unfortunately played into the hands of the German Government by doing
their utmost to prevent money from being spent for the defence of their
country. Consciously or unconsciously, German Socialists have rendered
the Kaiser and his army inestimable service. Their propaganda against
armaments has borne fruit in Belgium, England and France, but did not
prevent a single German battleship from being built, nor a single
regiment from being added to the German army.

In Germany militarism is a gospel. All classes and all political parties
have been unanimous for years past, that every man should be a soldier.
The military ethos has ruled supreme, and whenever civilianism has
dared, merely to cherish thoughts contrary to the ideals of the ruling
caste, no time was lost in seeking an opportunity to challenge a quarrel
which invariably ended in humiliation for the civilian ethos.
Characteristically, therefore, the contemptuous phrase has become
current both in the German army and navy--"das Civil"--when speaking