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A DISHONOURED ARMY
GERMAN ATROCITIES IN FRANCE: WITH UNPUBLISED
RECORDS
IN November of last year I was commissioned by the Secretary
of State for Home Affairs to undertake the investigation in
France into the alleged breaches of the laws of war by the
German troops, the inquiries in England being separately con-
ducted by others. The results of my investigation were com-
municated to the Home Office, in the form of confidential reports
and of depositions, diaries, proclamations, and other pices
justificative8, and were in turn submitted to the Committee
appointed by the Prime Minister and presided over by Lord Bryce.
The Committee made liberal use of this material, but, owing to
the exigencies of space and the necessity of selection, some of it
remains unpublished, and I now propose to place it and
the conclusions I draw from it before the public. Some part
of it, and that part the most important-namely, that which
establishes proofs of a deliberate policy of atrocity by responsible
German officers-came into my hands too late for use by the
Committee; Moreover, the Committee felt that their first duty
was to Belgium, and consequently the portion of the inquiry
which related to France, and in particular to outrages upon British
soldiers in France, occupies a comparatively small place in their
publications.  In this article I therefore confine myself to the
latter branch of the inquiry, and the reader will understand that,
except where otherwise stated, the documents here set out are
now published for the first time.'
My investigations extended over a period of four or five
months. The first six weeks were spent in visiting the base-
hospitals and convalescent camps at Boulogne and Rouen, and
the hospitals at Paris; during the remaining three months I was
- 1 It is, however, impossible to include within the limits of this article
the
whole of the unpublished material at my disposal
A