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
From the foregoing pages it will be seen that the Committee liave come to a definite conclusion upon each of tlie heads under which the evidence has been classified. It is proverl — (i) Tliat there were in many parts of Belgium deliberate and systematically organised massacres of the civil population, accompanied by many isolated murders and other outrages, (ii) That in the conduct of the war generally innocent civilians, both men and women, were murdered in large numbers, women violated, and children murdered, (iii) That looting, house burning, and the wanton destruction of property were ordered and countenanced by the officers of the German Army, that elaborate provision had been made for systematic incendiarism at tJie A'ery outbreak of the war, and that tlie burnings and destruction were frequent where no , military necessity could be alleged, being indeed part of a system, of general tsrrorization. (iv) That the rules and usages of war Avere frequeatly broken, particularly by the using of civilians, including women and children, as a shield for advancing forces exposed to lire, to a less degree by killing the wounded and prisoners, and in the frequent abuse of the Red Cross and the White Flag.
Sensible as thej' are of the gravity of these conclusions, the Committee conceive that they would be doing less than their duty if they failed to record them as fuUj^ established by the evidence. Murder, lust, and pillage prevailed over many parts of Belgium on a scale unparalleled in any war between civilised nations during the last three centuries.
Our function is ended when we have stated what the evidence establishes, but we may be permitted to express our belief that these disclosures will not ha\'e been made in vain if they touch and rouse the conscience of mankind, and we venture to hope that as soon as the present war is over, the nations of the world in council will consider what means can be provided and sanctions devised to prevent the recurrence of such horrors as our generation is now^ witnessing.
We are, &c., BRYCE. F. POLLOCK. EDWARD CLARKE. KENELM E. DIGBY.. ALFRED HOPKINSON. H. A. L. FISHER. HAROLD COX.
The Bryce Report on Alleged German Outrages, Committee on Alleged German Outrages (chair: Viscount Bryce). 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. Provenance and rights.