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The mass of documents which the Mission were carrying to America, he informed me, were all signed statements of persons who had been eye-witnesses of the atrocities, as well as those of many who had suffered.

In a chat I also had with M. Emile Van der Velde, another member of the Delegation and the leader of the Belgian Socialists, he said: “I went to Malines after the fighting, in order to investigate the state of affairs. I found only eight Belgian people in the town, but even then the Germans were bombarding the deserted houses, apparently with the sole object of destroying them. The whole object of the Germans,” he added, “had been to create such a reign of terror that the whole population of Belgium should flee into Antwerp, and so render it impossible for the people congregated there to be fed. I myself examined the bodies of a peasant and his son which had been cut to pieces by bayonet thrusts.”

Another member of the Delegation told me that he had learned from several wounded persons how a druggist living near Tirlemont, on refusing to act as guide to the Uhlans, was shot three times and then bayoneted; and further, in the same hospital, wounded soldiers had told him how that while lying upon the battlefield many had been bayoneted or shot.

The Delegation had, earlier in the day on which I had this interview with them, presented an Address to His Majesty at Buckingham Palace, the text of which has been published. It ran:—

“Sire—Belgium, having had to choose between the sacrifice of her honour and the peril of war, did not hesitate. She opposed the brutal aggression committed by a Power which was one of the guarantors of her neutrality.

“In this critical situation it was for our country an inestimable tower of strength to see coming forth the resolute and immediate intervention by great and powerful England.

“Commissioned by His Majesty the King of the Belgians with a Mission to the President of the United States, we have considered it to be our duty to make a stay in the capital of the British Empire to convey to your Majesty the respectful and ardent expression of gratitude of the Belgian nation. …

“Our adversary, after invading our territory, has decimated the civil population, massacred women and children, carried into captivity inoffensive peasants, put to death wounded, destroyed undefended towns, burned churches, historical monuments, and the famous library of the University of Louvain. All these facts are established by authenticated documents. Each we shall have the honour of submitting to the Government of your Majesty.

“In spite of all this suffering in Belgium, which has been made the personification of outraged right, the country is resolute in fulfilling to the utmost her duties towards Europe. Whatever may happen, she must defend her existence, her honour, and her liberty.”

The King, in reply, said that he would support Belgium, and expressed his horror at the shocking report of German brutality.