Is it to incite our soldiers to commit, if chance arises, atrocities like theirs? We repudiate with horror a thought such as that. _Defensive_ reprisals (asphyxiating gas, liquid fire, etc.) are sometimes indispensable. Reprisals for _revenge_ would be unworthy of us. But--without speaking of personal punishments, demanded by outraged conscience, and essential in order that the two indivisible principles of right and of responsibility may still exist in the world--we must make it absolutely impossible for the Wild Beast to break out again. And how, when the settling time draws near, and, in spite of weariness, a new effort is needed to realise conditions of peace with guarantees for the future--how could the Allied Nations accept the sacrifices still demanded of them, if they remained in ignorance? It is not enough for these crimes to be known by Governments and by a few hundred people with leisure and inclination to read collections of great volumes. They must be known by everybody, by the entire people, by the People, who--in our proud and free countries--control, support, direct their Governments and are the sole masters of their own destiny. Our peoples ought to know the crimes committed in the name of "Kultur," in order, at all costs, to take the precautions necessary to prevent for ever their return. That is our first object. The second is this: to all our martyrs we have a sacred duty--that of remembrance. There, where they fell, we shall doubtless carve their names in stone or bronze. But what of a time further away? When, after the long sufferings of this war, freed humanity takes up again its works of peace, we shall see the Germans reappear in every land, at every cross-road--men of commerce, industry, finance, science, men of the people and of society--in every place where those of all countries, all races and all colours meet and rub elbows. And what is our attitude to be? Our answer is this: So long as the nation in whose name and by whose hands these atrocities have been committed has not herself solemnly cast from her the scoundrels who dragged her into such decadence, we shall consider that it would betray our martyrs for us even to rub shoulders with their executioners, and that until the day arrives--if it ever does arrive--of a striking moral repentance, to _forget_ would be to _condone_. L. MIRMAN, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle. G. SIMON, G. KELLER, Mayor of Nancy. Mayor of Lunéville. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Crimes, by Various