LORD ROBERTS ON WAR

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1347, 26 January 1912, Page 6

LORD ROBERTS ON WAR

SEVEREST MEASURES THE MOST " HUMANE. Asked for his opinion upon the charges made against the Italian Army in Tripoli, Lord Roberts made tlio following statement:— "It is totally unfair, as we are a friendly nation, to criticise any military measures which the Italian Commander-in-Chief may have found it necessary to put in force without having access to the information upon which he actcd. "As far as can bo learnt from the more trustworthy reports that have reached this country, the Italians were suddenly faced with a rising of Arabs in the direct rear of their line of resistance. Such a desperate state of affairs would in any case warrant desperate measures to reestablish the. equilibrium of battle. Time also was pressing, as the main attack by the Turks and Arabs was imminent. That the means employed to re-establish what I havo called the equilibrium of baltlo was severe is doubtless true, hut in war it is usually the severest measures that are, in the long run, the most humane.. "Xo soldier will put any credence in the reports that women and children were deliberately killed by the Italians, but doubtless in the act of clearing the hostile villages behind the Italian lines many innocent people suffered with.ths guilty. Such things are unfortunately inevitable in war. "In no army in the world could tho orders which General Caneva found it imperative to issue for the clearance of the Tripoli oasis havo been carried out without instances of regrettable severity. The very urgency of tho operations alone would necessitate this severity. Only these, who have had experience in war in all its phases havo tho right to judge of the expediency of reprisals, and then only when they have access t/> the information which v.is 'il Ihn lime in Ihe of the direeling flnlT."