" It is absolutely clear that this applies to
arms taken from civilians by order of the local authorities in Belgium
and France, and deposited at the Town Hall, every weapon bearing the
name of its owner. Would they have taken that for an arsenal? No, stupid
as they may be, they are not so foolish as that. They feign stupidity
simply because they know very well that the conscience of the civilized
world is beginning to be moved.
OUTRAGES ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN
We might write a long and heartbreaking chapter on this pitiful subject,
but let the following suffice. The Report of the French Commission of
Enquiry concludes with these words, "Outrages upon women and young girls
have been common _to an unheard-of extent_." No doubt the bulk of these
crimes will never come to light, for it needs a concatenation of special
circumstances for such acts to be committed in public. Unfortunately and
only too often these circumstances have existed, _e.g._, at
Beton-Bazoches and Sancy-les-Provins, a young girl, and at St.
Denis-les-Rebaix, a mother-in-law and a little boy of eight years old,
and at Coulommiers a husband and two children, were witnesses to
outrages committed on the mother of the family. Sometimes the attacks
were individual and sometimes committed by bodies of men, _e.g._, at
Melen-Labouxhe, Margaret W. was violated by twenty German soldiers, and
then shot by the side of her father and mother. They did not even
respect nuns.
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