[77] It is, however, impossible to include within the limits of this book the whole of the unpublished material at my disposal. [78] The term “soldier” is used throughout this article in the sense adopted in the Army Annual Act, _i.e._, as meaning N.C.O.s and privates. [79] The outrages committed in the districts now in the occupation of the British armies have not been reported upon by the French Commission, and the ground so traversed in this article is therefore new. [80] Von der Goltz. [81] One might go further and say that the Geneva Convention, which has hitherto been universally regarded as a law of perfect obligation and which even the German Staff in the German War Book affects to treat as sacred, is perverted to an instrument of treachery. The emblem of the Red Cross was used to protect waggons in which machine-guns were concealed. And since this article was written a German hospital ship, the _Ophelia_, has been condemned, on irrefutable evidence, by our Prize Court as having been used for belligerent purposes. Such things throw a very lurid light on the German conception of honour. [82] Similar evidence has been supplied to me by a French officer attached to the Fifth Division of the British Expeditionary Force. _See_ Chap. III., Part I., No. 56. [83] See Chapter III., Part I., and, in particular, Nos. 39 to 43. [84] The German officers spoke Hindustani. Doubtless they knew, as I have found they often know, the identity of the British regiments opposite their positions and were attached there for the express purpose of dealing with Indians. But in no case, so far as I know, were their attempts to seduce our Indian troops successful. [85] This diary is now in the possession of my friend the Marquis de Dampierre, who is about to publish it and numerous others, together with fac-similes of the originals. [86] The passage suggests that our wounded were killed, but it is not conclusive. “Noch lebenden,” _i.e._, “still living,” would appear to mean the wounded found in our trenches and unable to escape with the others. The fact of some prisoners being taken does not dispose of the suspiciousness of the passage. [87] Brenneisen is now a prisoner in England. The diary was a most carefully kept one. Since I first published it, it has been republished by the French authorities. [88] What follows refers principally to the portion of Northern France now occupied by the British troops. The case of Belgium has been sufficiently dealt with by the Committee. [89] _See_ Chap. III., Section 2. [90] _Ibid._, Section 3. [91] After the outrage they dragged the girl outside and asked if she knew of any other young girls (“jeunes filles”) in the neighbourhood, adding that they wanted to do to them what they had done to her. _See_ Chap. III. (2) No. 4. [92] Presumably La Couture.--J. H. M.