When war weariness is apt to sap resolution and the possibility of a
patched up peace is furtively canvassed, the great world of the
English-speaking race should call to remembrance the inhuman and barely
credible acts of brutality and bestiality committed in cold blood by the
German race.

No apology is made for this book. It is a translation of a document
which has created a profound impression in France. It is an
authoritative record of German crimes committed on the people of Belgium
and Northern France, attested by the Mayors of twenty-six French towns.
Some time ago permission was obtained from the French Committee of
Publication (the Prefect of Meurthe-and-Moselle, and the Mayors of Nancy
and Luneville) to produce an English version on condition that the
translation be an "exact and literal translation." This has been
completed and the Editor, the Rev. J. Esslemont Adams, an Assistant
Principal Chaplain with the British Expeditionary Force in France, is
indebted to the friends who have assisted in producing the work.




INTRODUCTION


This is a book of horrors, but a book of plain truths! Where have we
discovered our facts? They are taken from three sources: _First_, Four
reports issued by the French Commission of Enquiry[1]; and "Germany's
Violation of the Laws of Warfare," published by the French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs; _Second_, Two volumes containing twenty-two reports of
the Belgian Commission[2], and the Reply to the German White Book of the