Harrowing reports of German savagery at Aerschot have reached the Belgian Government at Antwerp from official local sources. Thus on Tuesday, August 18th, the Belgian troops occupying a position in front of Aerschot received orders to retire without engaging the enemy. A small force was left behind to cover the retreat. This force resisted valiantly against overwhelming German forces, and inflicted serious losses on them. Meanwhile practically the whole civilian population of Aerschot, terrorised by the atrocities committed by the Germans in the neighbouring villages, had fled from the town. Next day, Wednesday, August 19th, German troops entered Aerschot without a shot having been fired from the town and without any resistance whatever having been made. The few inhabitants that remained had closed their doors and windows in compliance with the general orders issued by the Belgian Government. Nevertheless the Germans broke into the houses and told the inhabitants to quit. In one single street the first six male inhabitants who crossed their thresholds were seized and shot at once under the very eyes of their wives and children. The German troops then retired for the day, only to return in greater numbers on the next day, Thursday, August 20th. They then compelled the inhabitants to leave their houses and marched them to a place 200 yards from the town. There, without more ado, they shot M. Thielmans, the Burgomaster, his fifteen-year-old son, the clerk of the Local Judicial Board, and ten prominent citizens. They then set fire to the town and destroyed it. The following statement was made by Commandant Georges Gilson, of the 9th Infantry of the Line, now lying in hospital at Antwerp: I was told to cover the retreat of our troops in front of Aerschot. During the action fought there on Wednesday, August 19th, between six and eight o'clock in the morning, suddenly I saw on the high road, between the German and Belgian forces, which were fighting at close range, a group of four women, with babies in their arms, and two little girls clinging to their skirts. Our men stopped firing till the women got through our lines, but the German machine guns went on firing all the time, and one of the women was wounded in the arm. These women could not have got through the neighbouring German lines and been on the high road unless with the consent of the enemy. All the evidence and circumstances seem to point to the fact that those women had been deliberately pushed forward by the Germans to act as a shield for their advance guard, and in the hope that the Belgians would cease firing for fear of killing the women and children. This statement was made and duly certified in the Antwerp Hospital on August 22nd by Commandant Gilson, in the presence of the Chevalier Ernst N. Bunswyck, Chief Secretary to the Belgian Minister of Justice, and M. de Cartier de Marchienne, Belgian Minister to China.