Their sufferings are majestic in simple heroism and uncomplaining endurance. So majestic in proportion ought the relief to be. The Belgian people are wards of the world. In the circumstances the Belgian people are special wards of the one great country that is secure in its peace and that by its natural instincts of human sympathy and love of freedom is best suited to do the work that should be done for Belgium. If every millionaire would give a thousand, if every man with $100 a month would give $10, the American Committee for the Relief of Belgium, with its splendid organization, its unrivaled efficiency, through which flows a tide of human sympathy, would be able to report at the end of the war that a small nation in misfortune had been saved from famine and despair by a great people far away, who had responded to the call, “Come over and help us!” CHAPTER XII JAMES BRYCE’S REPORT ON SYSTEMATIC MASSACRE IN BELGIUM REPORT OF COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE GERMAN OUTRAGES -- A HARROWING RECITAL -- TELLS OF MASSACRES--“KILLED IN MASSES”--THE TALE OF LOUVAIN -- TREATMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN -- CALLS KILLING DELIBERATE--“SPIRIT OF WAR DEIFIED”--THE COMMISSION’S CONCLUSIONS. Viscount Bryce, former British Ambassador at Washington, was appointed chairman of a special government commission to investigate and report on “outrages alleged to have been committed by German troops.” Associated with Lord Bryce on the commission were Sir Frederick Pollock, Sir Edward Clarke, Sir Alfred Hopkinson, H. A. L. Fisher, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield; Harold Cox, and Kenelm E. Digby. The commission was appointed by Premier Asquith on January 22, 1915. The document is considered as probably the most severe arraignment made of the German military sweep across Belgium, mainly because of the position of Viscount Bryce as a historian, and also because of the care with which the investigation was made, the great number of witnesses whose testimony was examined, and the mass of evidence submitted with the report of the commission. The report makes an official document of sixty-one printed pages, or upward of 30,000 words, accompanied by maps showing the various routes of the army and the chief scenes of desolation. It states at the outset that 1,200 witnesses have been examined, the depositions being taken by examiners of legal knowledge and experience, though without authority to administer an oath. The examiners were instructed not to “lead” the witnesses, and to seek to bring out the truth by cross-examination and otherwise. The commission also submitted extracts from a number of diaries taken from the German dead, chiefly German soldiers and in some cases officers. A HARROWING RECITAL