The Belgian Government have made the attempt to free themselves from this responsibility by attributing blame for the occurrences to the destructive rage of the German troops, who are said to have committed deeds of violence without any reason. They have appointed a Commission for the investigation of the alleged German outrages, and have made the findings of this Commission the subject of diplomatic complaint. This attempt to pervert the facts has failed utterly. The German Army is accustomed to make war only against hostile armies, and not against peaceful inhabitants. The incontestable fact that from the commencement a defensive struggle was forced on the German troops in the interests of self-protection by the population of the country cannot be argued away by the investigations of any Commission. The narratives of fugitives gathered together by the Belgian Commission, which are characterised as being the result of scrupulously impartial investigations, bear the stamp of untrustworthiness, if not of malicious misrepresentation. In view of the existing conditions the Commission was not in a position to test the correctness of the reports brought before it, or to grasp the connection of events. Their accusations against the German Army are therefore nothing but low calumnies, which cannot stand before the documentary evidence possessed by us. The struggle of the German troops with the civil population of Aerschot did not arise because German officers attacked the honour of the Burgomaster's family, as is suggested on the Belgian side, but on account of a well-thought-out attack on the Commanding Officer of the place by the civil population, who treacherously murdered him (App. A). At Dinant it was not innocent, peaceful inhabitants who fell victims to the German arms, but murderers, who treacherously attacked German soldiers, and in this way involved the troops in a struggle which destroyed the city (App. C). In Louvain the fight with the civil population did not arise because fleeing German troops were involved by mistake in hand-to-hand contests with their comrades who were entering the town, but because a deluded population, unable to grasp the course of events, thought they could destroy the returning German soldiers without danger (App. D). Moreover in Louvain, as in other towns, the burning torch was only applied by German troops when bitter necessity demanded it. The plan of the destruction of Louvain (App. 50) shows clearly how the troops confined themselves to destroying only those parts of the city in which the inhabitants opposed them in a treacherous and murderous manner. It was indeed German troops who took care, whenever possible, to save the artistic treasures, not only of Louvain, but of other towns; a special German Commission has shown to what a large extent German troops protected the art treasures of Belgium.