The argument may be summarized thus: "We know, as Germans, that we possess the truth; it is useless, therefore, to go in search of it with the help of an impartial commission." In a second letter M. Magnet commented on these evasions, as contrary to the spirit of brotherhood as to the scientific spirit. Let it not be supposed that the refusal to examine, objectively and impartially, the German and the Belgian accusations, is peculiar to Freemasonry. On the 24th January, 1915, Cardinal Mercier requested the German authorities in Belgium to set up a commission comprising both Germans and Belgians, under the presidency of a representative of a neutral country. His request was accorded no reply. Thus the Germans refuse to allow any light to be thrown on their actions and those of the Belgians. Why this opposition to a faithful search for the truth? They fear, perhaps, that the truth will be unfavourable to them. That is undoubtedly one of their reasons; but we do not think it can be the only reason; and the principal reason for their refusal is without doubt the voluntary blindness to which they have one and all subjected themselves since the outbreak of the war. They have decided, one would imagine, to accept, without any discussion, whatever is decreed by authority, which they invest with the absolute truth; every German calmly receives that portion of the truth which the Government thinks fit to dispense to its faithful, and no German permits himself to ask for more. _Magister dixit_: the Staff has spoken! Since the month of August a strict censorship has been exercised over the Press. _Vorwärts_ and other Socialist sheets have several times been suspended. The _Kölnischer Volkszeitung_ was suspended on the 11th September, 1914, for having published articles disposing of at least a part of the so-called Belgian atrocities.... And then, apparently, it proceeded to take them for granted; for afterwards it even aggravated the accusations brought against the Belgians. The _Vossische Zeitung_ itself, official as it is, had its issue of the 1st December, 1914, seized on account of an article on a commission of the Reichstag (_N.R.C._, 3rd December, 1914, evening). At the same time the Government was careful to stop all foreign books and newspapers. This prohibition is so strict that Dutch working-men going to work in Germany are not allowed to wrap their sandwiches in newspaper (_N.R.C._, 10th December, 1914, evening).