But, everywhere, the ruins with
which northern, central, and eastern France are covered, whether they
were caused by the ordinary processes of war or not, are equally part of
the guilt of Germany. In the country which I saw last year on the
Belgian border, from the great phantom of Ypres down to Festubert, the
ravage is mainly the ravage of war. Incessant bombardment from the
fighting lines has crumbled village after village into dust, or gashed
the small historic towns and the stately country houses. There is no
deliberate use of torch and petrol, as in the towns farther south and
east. Ypres, however, was deliberately shelled into fragments day after
day; and Arras is only a degree less carefully ruined. And whatever the
military pretext may be, the root question remains--"Why are the Germans
_in France at all_?" What brought them there but their own
determination, in the words of the Secret Report of 1913 printed in the
French Yellow book, to "strengthen and extend _Deutschtum_ (Germanism)
throughout the entire world"? Every injury that poor France in
self-defence, or the Allies at her side, are forced to inflict on the
villages and towns which express and are interwoven with the history and
genius of the French, is really a German crime.
Pages:
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149