This report has now been published. Tt is the work of four responsible officials of high rank—M. Georges Payelle, first presi dent of the Cour des Comptes, one of the highest and most independent institutions in France, corresponding to some extent to the British Exchequer and Audit Department; M. Armand Mallard. Minister Plenipotentiary, who was -|for_ many years Chef clu Protocole, or Director of Diplomatic Ceremonies; M. Georges Maringer, a member of the Conseil d'Etat, which decides litigation betwoon. the Star: and private individuals; and M. Edmond Paillot, a judge of the Court of Cassation, all men of the highest integrity and intelligent They were empowered by decree towards the end of September to collect evidence in the invaded districts, so that there should be a Benuine record of the manner in which the invader comported himself towards French non-combatants.
The report consists of a preamble summarizing the results of their inquiries, and a long list, giving chapter and verse, of outrages of all kinds which might have been expected from savages, but not from the highly disciplined troops of the German Empire.
There is no sign of passion or patriotic vindictiveness about the report. In the opening passages, M. Payelle and his colleagues say:
"We have included only a part of the evidence collected, because we have subjected every statement to the strictest. examination. We have recorded nothing but clearly established crimes, leaving aside everything that was not. confirmed to our satisfaction or might have resulted from a genuine act of war instead of voluntary excesses. We are fully convinced that the veracity of the statements contained in our report cannot be seriously disputed. They are not hased merely on our personal impressions, but on photographs and fon sworn testimony taken in proper judicial form."
So much for the spirit in which the investigators accomplished their task, As to their personal feelings they say:
"Our task would have been really too painful but for the encouragement we derived from the cheerfulness of our troops and the dignified resignation with which the—inhabitants of the districts we visited supported unprecedented calamities. In Lorraine, for instance, which has been so often ravaged by warfare, we did not hear a single com: plaint, and yet the frightful misery we saw far exceeded, in extent and horror, anything that could have been imagined. On all sides there are nothing but ruins. Whole villages have been destroyed artillery or by fire. Towns formerly full of animation are now deserts strewn with ruins; and when we visited the places in which the invader's torch had done its work, it seemed as if we were walking amid the ruins of one of those cities of antiquity which were destroyed by some great cataclysm of nature.
"We venture to say that never has any war between civilized nations been characterized Fy such savagery and ferocity as the war now being waged on our territory by an implacable enemy.—Theft. outrage, arson and murder are constantly practised by him, and the facts laid before us duy by day not only constitute crimes at common law which are severely tunish: ed by all civilized nations but also indicate an astonishing regression in German mentality since 1870. Outrages on women and girls have occurred with extraordinary frequency. We have recorded 2 number of these cases, but ther are only a small part of thos Original fro
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.