In November, , Professor Morgan was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Home Affairs to undertake the investigation in France into the alleged breaches of the laws of war by the German troops. His investigations extended over a period of four or five months. The first six weeks were spent in visiting the base hospitals and convalescent camps at Boulogne and Rouen, and the hospitals at Paris; during the remaining three months he was attached to the General Headquarters Staff of the British Expeditionary Force.
Professor Morgan orally interrogated some two or three thousand officers and soldiers, representing almost every regiment in the British armies and all of whom had recently been engaged on active service in the field.
The whole of these inquiries were conducted by Professor Morgan personally, but his inquiries at headquarters were of a much more systematic character. In this way he was enabled not only to obtain corroboration of the statements taken down at the base in the earlier stages, but also to make a close local study of the behaviour of the German troops towards the civil population during their occupation of the districts recently evacuated by them.
The following is extracted by permission of the Editor from statements by Professor Morgan which appeared in the "Nineteenth Century" for June, :β. A German military writer von der Goltz of great authority predicted some years ago that the next war would be one of inconceivable violence. The prophecy appears only too true as regards the conduct of German troops in the field; it has rarely been distinguished by that chivalry which is supposed to characterise the freemasonry of arms.
One of our most distinguished Staff officers remarked to me that the Germans have no sense of honour in the field, and the almost uniform testimony of our officers and men induces me to believe that the remark is only too true.
