The Kingdom of serbia : report upon the atrocities committed by the Austro-Hungarian Army during the first invasion of Serbia

IV

MASSACRES AND ATROCITIES PERPETRATED ON CIVILIANS

I mavE spared no effort in verifying the excesses committed by the Austro-Hungarian Army against the civil population in the invaded territory. In this endeavour I employed the following methods : Interrogation of Austro-Hungarian prisoners, interrogation of Serbian eye-witnesses, both civilian and military, the study of the Serbian official reports placed at my disposal by the military authorities, which reports I perused with a view to arriving at statistics, as well as the lists compiled by the civil authorities and obtained by me on the spot or forwarded to me by the said authorities, and finally, the personal inspection of the localities where the massacres and atrocities had been perpetrated. Eye-witnesses were examined on the spot and in most cases they were my guides to the places where the outrages had taken place. Thus I was afforded the opportunity of verifying the truth of their statements by actual and personal inspection. Besides this I have been at pains by corroborative evidence to assure myself of the reliability of my witnesses and of the authenticity of the facts laid before me. I have thought it advisable, although you are in 30

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