WHO ARE THE HUNS?

186 The Conduct of German Troops.
the fact that,—leaving on one side the enormous influence of
lies and hysteria,—the fury of international franc-tireur warfaremust
inevitably lead to the most unhappy results.
In a report from Royon, the arch-chauvinistic "Petit
Parisien" writes as follows:
"The city has not at all suffered under the rule of the
enemy, and the ordinary life of the inhabitants is not interfered.
with. The Mayor, Senator Moel, is on the best of terms with
the Commandant; the German officers see to it that the inhabitants
want for nothing in the way of provisions."
We would add to this a purely objective remark which
we have repeated more than once and would purposely emphasize.
We would never presume to say that our troops are incapable
of committing acts which cannot be foreseen. Our
soldiers, as we declared in a former chapter, are not all angels.
No sensible man would deny this. And passion is responsible
for all excess.
It is possible that young men who had never perhaps drunk
wine in their lives before, might have succumbed to drunkenness
in the land of champagne, and carried on in a foolish manner.
It is also possible that older troops, and even Landsturm,
made reckless by being torn away from their wives and
children, may have gone beyond permissible limits.
This and more, we are willing openly to acknowledge.
But what we do declare with the greatest emphasis is that
such cases must be considered as rare exceptions and that where
they become flagrant, they are punished in the most rigorous
manner, and that the magnificent discipline of the German
army immediately roots out such exceptional cases. Thus the
committing of great, numerous and systematic excesses, contrary
to civil or international law, is absolutely precluded. Our
splendid officers' corps and the troops themselves are deeply
concerned over such exceptional instances. The culprits are
invariably severely punished.
Should such cases-as must naturally occur in a war conducted
in such a manner by our enemies, become more numerous,
it is certain that the German leaders would not hesitate to
issue a strict mandate against them. It has not yet been necessary
to issue proclamations similar to those which have been