27, was
subjected for several days to a bombardment which has seriously damaged
the cathedral church of St. Rombaut, the pride of this ancient city. The
town of Heyst-opden-Berg was also bombarded without mercy, though there
was no strategic interest to warrant such an act.
The Plea of Armed Resistance.
The Germans, in order to excuse their violence, declare that, wherever
they have shot civilians or burned and pillaged towns and villages,
armed resistance has been offered by the inhabitants. While there may
possibly have been isolated instances of this kind, that is nothing more
than occurs in all wars, and if they had confined themselves to
executing the guilty persons we could only have bowed before the rigor
of military law. But in no case could individual and absolutely
exceptional acts of aggression justify the wholesale measures of
repression which have been adopted against the persons and the property
of the inhabitants of our towns and villages--the shooting, the burning,
the pillaging which has proceeded pretty well everywhere in our country,
not only by way of reprisals but with a refinement of cruelty. Moreover,
no provocation has been proved at Vise, Marsage, Louvain, Wavre,
Termonde, and other places which have been entirely and deliberately
destroyed several days after being occupied, not to mention the
systematic burning of isolated buildings situated in the line of march
of the troops, and the shooting of the unfortunate inhabitants who fled.
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