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

MASSACRES OF CIVILIANS 31

possession of the original documents, likewise to include copies of some of the military reports in this paper.

In most cases these reports agree with the information I was able to obtain elsewhere. Yet, I think that they are less reliable with regard to certain occurrences, than the evidence I have gathered from eye-witnesses. As a matter of fact, these reports were made from life, so to say, or, correctly speaking, directly after the excesses had been committed. It is an undeniable fact that at the time all minds were wrought up to a great pitch of excitement, and that since then the imagination has undergone the inevitable reaction, with the result that both such incidents as had been observed by the officers themselves, and such as had been reported to them by eye-witnesses, would bear a fuller investigation.

As regards the statements I have personally taken from eye-witnesses, I believe that I may safely assert that they represent the truth. First of all, the personal investigations I was in many cases able to make, confirm them entirely. Secondly, the minds of the witnesses, by far the most of whom are peasants, had calmed down since the time when the Austrians committed the atrocities. The danger of exaggeration from excitement, which is so natural in the first moment, was to a great extent eliminated. I also noted that the Serb peasants are very reserved indeed, and I am convinced that they are more inclined to say too little than too much. Finally, misfortune has depressed them to such an extent (without however depriving