Yet when the German Imperial Chancellor received a party of American journalists (representatives of the United Press and the Associated Press) on September 2nd, 1914, he communicated this statement: "The English will inform your countrymen that German troops have burnt down Belgian villages and towns, but they will conceal the fact that Belgian girls have gouged out the eyes of our helpless soldiers lying on the battlefields." "Berlin papers informed the public that 'a large number of Belgian civilians were prisoners in Münster. They are the same bestial creatures who shot from their houses on our unsuspecting troops, and who, before the arrival of our invading armies in Belgium, had perpetrated all sorts of cruelties on helpless German citizens. Indeed, when they were searched on their arrival at the prisoners' camp fingers with rings on them, which they had hacked off their victims, were found in their pockets. Justice will soon strike down these Belgians, among whom a very large number of priests are to be found. Twenty to thirty have already been condemned to death by a court-martial.' "The 'Pax' Society of Priests immediately wrote to the commander of the prisoners' camp, and received this reply: 'The ridiculous assertion of a Berlin paper that fingers had been found in the pockets of Belgian civilians in this camp is false. Neither has any priest or layman been condemned to death, but over one hundred Belgian women and children have been sent home again.'"[126] [Footnote 126: Ibid., p. 19.] The above extracts will suffice to show how these Roman Catholic gentlemen proceeded. Immediately an atrocity was reported they applied to the authorities, and in every case received an affirmation that the deed had never taken place. Among the monstrous lies exposed by these investigators, are reports that Belgian priests paid eight shillings for every German head brought to them; high treason charges against Catholic priests in Alsace; all kinds of monstrous crimes charged to the priesthood; that a Belgian boy was caught with a bucketful of dead Germans' eyes; espionage by priests etc., etc. Yet one other case deserves quotation: "On October 5th, 1914, a priest was travelling by rail to Mayence. In the same compartment there were four privates from Infantry Regiment No. 94. One of them named Rössner, related the following story to his comrades, and then, at the priest's request, again repeated it: "'In the Belgian village of Patsie the _curé_ welcomed a German major and his orderly into his house. Afterwards the priest promised a boy of thirteen that he should go straight to heaven if he would murder the two Germans. The lad perpetrated the murder, after which he and the _curé_ were shot under martial law.' "When the priest pointed out how incredible the whole story was, the soldier swore to its truth, and became very impolite to his auditor. An inquiry was instituted and this was the result: