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- Author’s Preface to the English Edition
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AUTHOR’S PREFACE
TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
Long before my book dealing with my personal
recollections from the war theatres of France and Belgium had
been translated into English, it was made the subject
of a criticism in the “Daily Telegraph” of February 15th.
The author, Mr. William Archer, complained that I have
not once introduced into my narrative any harsh and
condemnatory utterances regarding Germany’s conduct of the
war. The fact is that I have had no occasion for such
utterances. My self-imposed task was, as I have repeatedly made
clear, merely to describe what I saw with my own eyes and as
much as possible to refrain from citing the experience of others.
During the two months that I spent on the German western
front, I did not see a single instance of cruelty to prisoners or
wounded, let alone ill-treatment of the civil population and
its goods and chattels. The Germans maintained the same
incorruptibly severe and just discipline that existed, according
to the testimony of history, in the Swedish armies which
Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII. led to victory during
the epic period of my own country.
But even in peace time not a day passes but that crime is
committed even in the most civilised countries. How, then,
can one expect that it shall disappear in a war? I therefore
by no means deny that there have been isolated instances of
offences and cruelty in an army of several million men. But
I have not seen them and need not therefore embark upon
the subject. I have a shrewd suspicion that criminal statistics
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