There can be no possible defence for the murder of children.

Whether or no Belgian civilians fired on German soldiers, young children, at any rate, did not fire. The number and character of these murders constitute the most distressing feature connected with the conduct of the war so far as it is revealed in the depositions submitted to the Committee.

It is clearly shown that many offences were committed against infants and quite young children. On one occasion children were even roped together and used as a military screen against the enemy, on another three soldiers went into action carrying small children to protect themselves from flank fire.

At Haecht several children had been murdered; one of two or three years old was found nailed to the door of a farmhouse by its hands and feet, a crime which seems almost incredible, but the evidence for which we feel bound to accept. In the garden of this house was the body of a girl who had been shot in the forehead.

Capelle-au-Bois.—Two children were murdered in a cart, and their corpses were seen by many witnesses at different stages of the cart's journey.

Tamines.—One witness describes how she saw a Belgian boy of fifteen shot on the village green, and a day or two later on the same green a little girl and her two brothers (name given) who were looking at the German soldiers were killed before her eyes for no apparent reason.

Boort Meerbeek.—A German soldier was seen to fire three times at a little girl of five years old. Having failed to hit her, he subsequently bayoneted her. He was killed with the butt end of a rifle by a Belgian soldier who had seen him commit this murder from a distance.

Weerde.—Two children were killed in a village—apparently Weerde—quite wantonly as they were standing in the road with their mother. They were three or four years old, and were killed with the bayonet.

Eppeghem.—The dead body of a child of two was seen pinned to the ground with a German lance.

Hofstade.—On a side road ... was seen ... the dead body of a boy of five or six with his hands nearly severed.

In Hofstade and Sempst, in Haecht, Rotselaar and Wespelaer, many children were murdered.

Louvain (August 28th).—One woman went mad, some children died, others were born.... (August 29th, outside Louvain): Some corpses were those of children who had been shot.

A small village.—There were two little children—a boy about 4 or 5, and a girl of about 6 or 7. The boy's left hand was cut off at the wrist and the girl's right hand at the same place. They were both quite dead.

Malines.—"One day when the Germans were not actually bombarding the town, I left my house to go to my mother's house in High Street. My husband was with me. I saw eight German soldiers, and they were drunk. They were singing and making a lot of noise and dancing about. As the German soldiers came along the street I saw a small child, whether boy or girl I could not see, come out of a house. The child was about 2 years of age. The child came into the middle of the street so as to be in the way of the soldiers. The soldiers were walking in twos. The first line of two passed the child. One of the second line, the man on the left, stepped aside and drove his bayonet with both hands into the child's stomach, lifting the child into the air on his bayonet and carrying it away on his bayonet, he and his comrades still singing. The child screamed when the soldier struck it with his bayonet, but not afterwards."