The Spectator at war: An inquest upon German outrages

From ‘An Inquest Upon German Outrages’, The Spectator, 26 December 1914:

It has already been announced in the Press that English. barristers have for some time past, under instructions from the Home Office, been investigating specific state- ments with regard to alleged atrocities. The witnesses have been subjected to a careful examination, and their evidence has been taken down and recorded. There is thus already available a large mass of material which requires to be sifted and weighed. But the issues involved do not turn merely on specific proof of particular atrocities committed, for, even if it were proved that twenty or two hundred barbarous acts had been committed by German soldiers, that would not be sufficient justification for a general censure of the German Army or of the German people. Everybody knows that in war it is almost impossible to avoid some horrible acts when soldiers are drunk or otherwise out of hand.