Compare, for example, the laws of war according to the German Great General Staff[19] with the stipulations of the Hague Convention. As the last is based on humanitarian considerations and seeks to lighten the scourge of war for non-combatants, so the Germans systematically refuse to make war less cruel; on the contrary, they start with the principle that the more terrible the war the more swiftly and surely will its object be attained. Read the chapter, "The Object of War," and you will be edified. Even jurists like Baer, blinded by warlike passions, dare to maintain that all must yield to military necessities, including--what blasphemy!--the law of nations. The characteristic theory that war should be "absolute" and barbarous is the idea underlying the manifesto of von Bissing which has already been cited (p. 70). In fewer words Hindenburg says the same thing[20] (p. 206). So that Belgium might realize the fate that awaited her the German authorities made haste to advertise their opinion. It is true that they have since then posted up reassuring phrases as to the humanitarian sentiments of the German Army for the moment. Had our butchers renounced their attempts at terrorization? _Terrorization: "Reprisals" as a "Preventive."_ According to this hypothesis, that the great "reprisals" undertaken at the outset of the war would serve as examples, the Germans wished to instil terror into the very marrow of our bones, so that they might then be able to rule us with a small garrison of Landsturm. Reflect, for example, that Brussels, an agglomeration of 700,000 souls, has never had a garrison of more than 5,000 men, and has often had only 1,000. Such a calculation is so abominable, so fundamentally inhuman, that we shrank from the harshness of this supposition, and accepted it with all manner of reservations.[21] Well, our hesitation was futile. In an article whose frankness is calculated to make one's hair stand on end, Captain Walter Blöm, adjutant to the Governor-General, published in the officially-inspired _Kölnische Zeitung_ of the 10th February, 1915, the confirmation of that which we hardly dared to imagine. Here are his exact words:--