Oct. 19.
We have received a second re-' port of the Commission of Inquiry instituted by the Belgian Minister of Justice in respect of the charges against German troops of ''violation of the rights of nations and of the laws and customs of war."" This report is dated Antwerp, August 14, and, 'a8 with the first, it bears evidence of careful and judicial sifting of testimony. The whole story, contrasting strongly with the gallant behaviour of the captain of the Emden, is one of almost incredible horror. Yet as before, we do not intend, on careful consideration, to reproduce it. On the one hand, no story of barbarous ill usage that may now. be told can add anything to the sympathy already felt for Belgium nor to the determinate that, if human help can her wrongs shall be righted to the uttermost. On the other! hand, we cannot help feeling at least so far from the scene of action as Shanghai, it is) preferable to leave such questions! alone until after the war. The charges against the Gertnans fall broadly into two classes: the: burning of towns and villages, which in certain circumstances might be, we do not say that they are, conceivably justified by military necessity; and crimes against individuals, rape, looting, killing of the wounded, which no necessity could make other than a black disgrace. Of the first. class, the causeless, senseless, barbarous destruction of Louvain was the crown and summit. That act has aroused universal reprobation; and it may be that the horror which it has called forth among neutral peoples, particularly in America, will work upon German officers to exercise greater restraint on themselves and their men in respect of crimes of the second category. If it does not, then for the present the matter is between themselves and their consciences. No amount of re-can have any effect upon them and nothing more can be done than is already being. done to subject them to the only law which they recognize. Whereve: we can unmask and refute the lies and calumnies which German press agencies circulate about the Allies, we shall not hesitate to do so in the most convincing way that we can. But, 0 far as is possible, while we are fighting we wish to avoid recrimination. In saying this, we would not appear to reflect upon the Belgian Commission of Inquiry. Belgium's position is like that of nobody else, and the Commission is doing valuable work in collecting evidence against the day when the bill shall be presented and paid to the last farthing. But for the rest of us, while we fight, it is at least the most dignified course to try to think of our opponents as gentlemen.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.