As the army came in, with their
trumpets and flags and goose-stepping, we picked out our friends
entertained by us in our salons--dinner guests for years. They had
originally come with every recommendation possible--letters from
friends, themselves men of good birth. They had worked their way into
the social-political life of Brussels. They had won their place in our
friendly feeling. And here they had returned to us at the head of troops
to conquer us, after having served as secret agents through the years of
friendly social intercourse."
After becoming proficient in that kind of betrayal the officers found it
only a slight wrench to pass on to the wholesale murder of the people
whose bread they had eaten and whom they had tricked. The treachery
explains the atrocity. It is worth while to repeat and emphasize this
point. Many persons have asked me, "How do you account for these
terrible acts of mutilation?" The answer is, what the Germans did
suddenly by flame and bayonet is only a continuation of what they have
done for years by poison.
Here follows the testimony of a man whom I know, Doctor George Sarton,
of the University of Ghent:
"Each year more Germans came to Belgian summer resorts; Blankenberghe,
for instance, was full of them. They were all very well received and had
plenty of friends in Belgian families, from the court down. When the war
broke out, it immediately became evident that many of these welcomed
guests had been spying, measuring distances, preparing foundations for
heavy guns in their villas located at strategical points, and so on.
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