No-we women, and especially we mothers, are determined that this shall not happen again, We surely have the power to prevent it, and we must find out how to use it. It would be the grossest treachery on the part of men of the civilised world towards women if they permitted any repetition of what has happened in the last four years.

We know what we have paid, and we are determined this shall be settled once for all and the world made safe. But who among men are strong enough, far-seeing enough, and courageous enough to resolve on measures which shall protect the world in the future?

Is it to President Wilson that we must appeal? Is he the Ruler who, made supreme in power by the great unselfish nation behind him, can dictate the terms of peace, and also dictate what treatment a orim

VOL. CCIV.NO. MCCXXXVIII.

inal Germany shall receive after the war, in order that she may cease for ever to be a menace to the world? Our own statesmen and those of other nations watched Germany preparing, untiringly and unceasingly, for some great attack, yet they took little notice, and any one who tried to rouse them to the danger that was coming was jeered at as a scaremonger. If Germany should succeed in bamboozling British statesmen again concerning her intentions, our fearful sacrifices will have been made in vain.

Mr Hughes warns us that we are as little prepared for peace as we were for war, and implores us to cut off the tentacles of the German octopus that was strangling us before the war, but our rulers are slow to take his advice. German interests seem strangely protected; and those who, like

3 A

the mothers, have given their all, tremble lest we should again be cajoled and deluded into trading with these oriminals as we did in former years. Of the suffering of the mothers, who can speak!

Of the millions of men who have died, many have been young-so very young-nineteen, twenty, and twenty-one years of age. Who can measure the tireless patience and love, the self-sacrifice, the devotion of mothers to their young sons? Who can measure the anguish of those mothers at seeing them cut off before they come to man's estate, to gratify the ambition of a homicidal maniac such as the German Emperor has proved himself to be, holding in one hand the mask of Peace before his face, and in the other, behind his back, his bag of poison-gas?

Who will protect the mothers from any repetition of these hideous sufferings? They have not complained. They weep in silence, and their sorrow is hidden from the world. They do not grudge their sons. They believe they have died to save their country, but they have a right to ask that these young lives shall not have been sacrificed in vain.

If the Free Trade policy which was pursued pursued by us with Germany before the war -namely, letting their manufactured goods come in free to this country while they taxed the things we sent to themis continued, will they not quickly build up again their

prosperity and again prepare to dominate the world? Bismarck used to say, "British Free Trade is good, very good -for Germany," and we have been constantly told that it was upon that Free Trade that the German Empire became strong and powerful.

Now we have a Committee appointed to inquire into Trade After The War. This Committee is presided over by Lord Balfour of Burleigh, and has upon its list many business men. In the report which they have issued, we read the following words:

"We now proceed to discuss the policy which should be adopted as regards the participation of aliens in commercial and industrial occupations in this country. In our opinion it would not be desirable that any special restrictions should be imposed on aliens generally in this connexion. satisfied that the absence of such restrictions in the past has on the whole been to the advantage of this country, especially 88 regards the freedom of investment of capital."1

We are

If the investment of capital is to be the only interest considered, then indeed the women of this country will be betrayed.

We did not know before the war the character of the German people, but we know it now, and we cannot believe that it will be safe to return to pre-war days, to trade with them and to admit them to this country. They have been

Unfortunately, millions of our people have no time to read the evidence of the unspeakable crimes committed by the Germans in the countries they have invaded. If people are working ten hours a day in a munition factory, they cannot be expected to read up the newspapers and to pick out, from the mass of matter with which the newspapers are filled, the few items which are of real importance.

How many people have read the Report of the Committee appointed by the British Government to inquire into the German outrages, principally in Belgium? Probably very few. And dreadful as these reports are, we are told that much was omitted because it was unprintable. Is it not well that women should know what was done by the Germans when they did get control of a civilian population, as in Belgium and Northern France?

We must remember that the German army is a civilian army. The whole manhood of the country passes through the army, and remains in it for one, two, or three years, according to circumstances. They then return to ordinary life, and come over to this country as waiters, hotel-keepers, commercial travellers, clerks, and all the numberless occupations

If the following cases are considered to be printable, what can those have been which the Committee oonsidered to be be unprintable? Ought not all the women of this country to have been made fully aware of what was done in Belgium? We were told over and over again by Generals in authority that an invasion was quite possible and almost probable, and, indeed, there can be no doubt that the Germans counted on being able to invade this country as a certainty. Is it not well, therefore, that the women of this country should have been prepared for what they might expeet from the hands of these people? and knowing these things, will they consent to allow these people to swarm over to this country when Peace is declared, because it may be to the advantage of the investment of capital?

No evidence was taken that the Commission did not consider absolutely reliable.

"At Haicht several children had been murdered. One, of two or three years old, was found nailed to the door of a farmhouse by its hands and feet, a crime which seems almost incredible, but the evidence for which the Committee felt bound to accept."

In the following case the witness stated that he went to a farmhouse in Belgium:

"The Germans knocked at the door of the kitchen, and the farmer, the two men, the girl, and myself, all rushed out of the kitchen into

another room and hid ourselves there in the dark. The farmer's wife, who had a baby in her arms, which she was suckling, was not quick enough to get away, and she had not escaped with us. There was a small window, which looked into the kitchen, from the room into which these people got. The witness continues: I looked into the kitchen. I saw the Germans seize the baby out of the arms of the farmer's wife. There were three German soldiers-one officer and two privates. The two privates held the baby, and the officer took out his sword and cut the baby's head off. The head fell on to the floor, and the soldiers kicked the body of the child into a corner and kicked the head after it. After the baby had been killed we saw the officer say something to the farmer's wife, and we saw her push him off. After five or six minutes the two soldiers seized the woman and put her on the ground. She resisted them, and they then pulled all the clothes off her until she was quite naked. The officer then violated her, while one soldier held her by the shoulders and the other by the arms. After the officer, each soldier in turn violated her, the other soldier and the officer holding her down. After the woman

"I saw the dead body of a child about two years of age. A German lance, similar to those used by the Uhlans and other German cavalry, was in the child's body, and was stuck into the ground through the body. The wound was still bleeding.

"A young child-a boy of about three or four years-lay partly in a manger and partly over it, in a stable. His two hands and feet were cut off."

Another witness stated:

"On opening the back door of a farmhouse I saw four Germans climbing over a wall and trying to escape. Three got away, but the fourth I shot down. Lying on the ground I found four children-three little girls and a boy. Each had their hands cut off. They were dying, but not quite dead, their hands still hanging to their arms by the skin. There was blood all round on the ground. There was no one with the children, either in the yard or in the house."

Still another witness stated: "The Germans were retiring and we were pressing on them. We entered about midday. A young

officer cut off the woman's breasts. I then saw him take out his revolver

and point it at the woman on the ground. The witness says that he knew nothing more, as they then ran into the field, and from there saw the farmhouse had been set on fire. The soldiers were cavalry, because they had spurs on."

Another witness stated:

"We were passing the Flying Ground outside Liége when I saw a woman, apparently of middle age -perhaps twenty-eight to thirty years old stark naked, tied to a tree. At her feet were two little children about three or four years

old. All three were dead. I beIlieve the woman had one of her breasts cut off, but I cannot be sure of this. Her whole bosom was covered with blood and black marks. Both children had been killed by what appeared to be bayonet wounds.

crying in the village. She was dressed only in a chemise. She cluding herself, had been dragged told me that seventeen girls, ininto a field, stripped quite naked, and violated, and that twelve of them had been killed by being ripped up across the stomach with a bayonet. In the same village, on the same day, I saw a man in a barn dead. The corpse was burnt, and his legs cut off. The village people told us that his legs had been cut off, and that he had been thrown alive into the fire."

In another locality a witness testified to a number of men being brought out of houses and shot.

"Altogether thirty-two were killed -all men. I counted the bodies afterwards. After the shooting, seven or eight were finished off with the bayonet. Immediately after the

men had been killed I saw the Ger

mans going into the houses in the Place and bringing out the women and girls-about twenty were brought out. They were marched close to the corpses. Each of them was held by the arms. They tried to get away. They were made to lie on tables which had been brought into the Square. About fifteen of them were then violated. Each of them was violated by about twelve soldiers. While this was going on, about seventy Germans were standing round the women (including five officers-young). The officers started it. The ravaging went on for about an hour and a half. Many of the women fainted and showed no sign of life. While this was going on, other Germans were burning the houses in the Square."

Another witness stated:

"At the entrance of a village we were close to a farm. The farmhouse was on fire. The body of the farmer -an old man-was lying there; the head, severed from the body, was lying at some distance off. Two sons, aged about thirty-five to forty, were lying dead also, from gunshot wounds. The wife of one had her whole left breast cut away, and was covered with blood, but was still alive, leaning against the wall on some straw. She told us that the German Uhlans, six of them, had gone into the house, and one of them said: "You have some Belgian soldiers hidden here,' and she naturally replied: 'No, there are none.' Instantly he struck her, cutting off the whole of her left breast. She did not say it was the blow of a sword, but I think it was. She spoke Flemish, which I understood a little. She was very faint, having lost much blood, which was still flowing. She also said that they had sent up her little son of some eight years old to look in the loft to see if there were any Belgian soldiers hidden in the straw. They then pulled away the ladder and set the house on fire. It was about twentytwo to twenty-five feet from the door or window of the loft to the ground, and too high for him to jump down, and he must have been burned to death in the straw which was there."

Again, another witness stated:

"I saw two little children-girls three or four years old-standing beside the road with a woman, who appeared to be their mother. As the Germans came up, two of them drove their bayonets through the bodies of these two children, killing them. Close beside the road there was a small farm homestead burning, and the bodies of the two children were pitched into the flames by the soldiers who killed them. They tossed them in with their bayonets.'

Another witness, an eleotrical engineer by profession, stated:

"He was in a village south of Malines. He saw the corpse of a man and a woman. We inquired of the neighbours, and they told us that the woman was enciente. She had been violated by German soldiers, and had had her womb cut open by them in her husband's presence. He had been previously bound to the banisters. They had removed the unborn child. We saw the latter, half-burnt. The flesh was grilled more than burnt. headed the husband. They had beplace where they had beheaded him man's head and thrust it into the covered with blood. They took the woman's womb, after tearing out the child. We saw the two corpses in this state after it had been done. soldiers who had done it had been I asked the neighbours if any of the drunk, and they said they had not. I do not think it could have happened more than an hour. The woman was

We saw the

completely naked. The man was fully clothed. They were people of five years old. middle class, apparently about thirtyThe neighbours told us it would have been their first

child. They said the Germans had done it out of sheer villainy, and had not suggested that they had been fired on by civilians."

In another village the same witness found several houses where there was blood on the floor, and in one house found