Content note: Describes killings, sexual violence and the destruction of towns, as reported in witness statements the committee accepted. This object is shown as it was published. Why
The report a British government committee, chaired by the jurist and diplomat Viscount Bryce, issued in May 1915 on alleged German conduct in Belgium and northern France. It was translated widely and used in Allied and American propaganda. Later historians have questioned its methods: the committee worked from depositions gathered by others rather than hearing the witnesses itself. Other sources document the killing of civilians in Belgium in 1914. The archive's case study on the report sets out that record; this is the report as issued.
Read the text
- Warrant of Appointment 176 words
- Introductory Observations 2,566 words
- Part I: Conduct of the German Troops in Belgium 18,297 words
- Part II: Breaches of Rules and Usages of War and Acts of Inhumanity in Invaded Territories 7,668 words
- Conclusions 362 words
Download as plain text 29,069 words, with the provenance header above the text
Provenance and rights
- Edition
- Report of the Committee on Alleged German Outrages appointed by His Britannic Majesty's Government and presided over by the Right Hon. Viscount Bryce. London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1915 (University of Massachusetts Boston scan, Internet Archive item reportofcommitte00grea)
- Text source
- Internet Archive, item reportofcommitte00grea (University of Massachusetts Boston)
- Text basis
- Machine-read (OCR) text of a library scan, not proofread.
- Rights
- A 1915 official publication of the British government (Crown copyright, long expired), so in the public domain in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Internet Archive lists the scan as not in copyright. Checked September 29, 2026.
- Changes made
- Machine-read (OCR) text of a library scan, not proofread: recognition errors (for example "tlie" for "the") are the scan's, not edits. Page numbers, running heads and library stamps removed, line-end hyphens resolved and line wraps rejoined; nothing else changed. The report only; the separate volumes of witness evidence are not included.
- Source file checksum
a623e9cc769c709e…(SHA-256 of the download this text was made from)