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Sims on Atrocities. Conveniently for Mr. Ponsonby the U. S. Navy's Rear Admiral William Sowden Sims has now declared: "There exists no authentic report of cruelties ever having been committed by the commander or crew of a German submarine. The Press reports about cruelties were only meant for propaganda purposes."
Cited by Laborite Ponsonby as an instance of "unofficial propaganda" is the deed of Miss Kate Hume of Dumfries, Scotland. In 1914 she forged and gave to the British press a purported letter from her sister, Miss Grace Hume, in which the latter was supposed to write that her right breast had been hacked off by Germans in Belgium. Since Miss Grace Hume had never been out of England and was sensitive about her breast, she denounced her sister, but not until the story had grown to national prominence.
Germany's Sole (?) Guilt. As an indication of the official and unofficial change in Allied opinion concerning Germany's sole War guilt, Mr. Ponsonby cites two treaties:
The Treaty of Versailles (1918) declares that "the Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility ... of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies"; but the Locarno Pact (1925), refers to "the peoples upon whom fell the scourge of the war 1914-1918." Thus Germany has progressed officially, from the status of a culprit self-confessed and solely guilty, to that of membership in a community of pious sufferers. Needless to recall, the hypothesis of sole guilt is bindingly included in an article (No. 231) of the Versailles Treaty, while the quotation from the Locarno Pact is taken from its mere preamble and is therefore not binding—though enormously significant.
Priests as Clappers. Perhaps the only humorous page of Laborite Ponsonby's whole appalling report is that on which he shows how the European press gradually and spontaneously built up an atrocity story out of absolutely nothing, after the fall of Antwerp in November, 1914. Without comment he presents the following press cuttings:
When the fall of Antwerp got known the church bells were rung.
—Kölnische Zeitung (Cologne).
According to the Kölnische Zeitung, the clergy of Antwerp were compelled to ring the church bells when the fortress was taken.
— Le Matin (Paris).
According to what Le Matin has heard from Cologne, the Belgian priests who refused to ring the church bells when Antwerp was taken have been driven away from their places.
The Times (London).
According to what The Times has heard from Cologne via Paris, the unfortunate Belgian priests who refused to ring the church bells when Antwerp was taken have been sentenced to hard labour.
—Corriére della Sera (Milan).
According to information to the Corriére della Sera from Cologne via London, it is confirmed that the barbaric conquerors of Antwerp punished the unfortunate Belgian priests for their heroic refusal to ring the church bells by hanging them as living clappers to the bells with their heads down.
—Le Matin (Paris).
Citizens of the U. S. who wanted to peer at each page of the Ponsonby Report were glad, last week, that E. P. Button presses were whirring, producing copies entitled Falsehood in War-Time by Arthur Ponsonby, M. P., to be sold at $2.00.