The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1914. INVADER AND INVADED

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2241, 29 August 1914, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1914. INVADER AND INVADED

Jurists havo written volumes on the law of nations, but in times of war belligerents are apt to make, laws for themselves.' They arc not- always punctilious in their regard for those dictates of international legal codes which may happen to clash' with their immediate aims and objects. International law is after all & rather vague sort of thing. Ib lays down a number of broan general principles, based on what may be oalled tho common law of mankind and the usages of civilised nations. But there is so in the interpretation of these general principles to particular cases that it does not impose very serious ' restraints on the action of_ an • unscrupulous belligerent. Still, international law has done good service to tho world by setting a progressive standard of morality regarding the dealings of nation with nation. One of its aims is to safeguard the private property of the people of an invaded country against the invader, and in doing so it has the support of the moral-sense of civilised communities. One of the acts of the ideal king depicted by Xenophon was to make an agreement with his foe that the' labourers in the land should be lot alone on either side, and that tho operations of war should be confined to those bearing arms. This suggestion sounds reasonable enough, tut it would bo very difficult to give full effect to it in actual warfare. In ancient and medieval times plunder and devastation wore jcpnairod as Dfl-rt of the business of

an invading army. AVo are told that the atrocities of the Thirty Years' War were so terrible that a great famine resulted, and in some districts "bands of men and women took to the woods and lived by cannibalism." The phrase "to plunder after the German fashion" became a proverb. In the course of time more civilised methods began to prevail, and Grotius argues that even in a just war men should not capture more than is necessary for their own safety, unless it is morally due to them either as a- debt or by way of punishment. It is hard to say how far the provisions of the law of nations are being observed by the Germans in their treatment of those parts of Belgium which are now being overrun oy their armies. If there is any truth in some of the reports that have been published they are not too scrupulous in their dealings either with, the lives of noncombatants or the private property of the people. Apparently the Germa'n fashion" in warfare has not yet been abandoned by its inventors. Qerman methods contrast ■ very unfavourably with the instructions' of the British Army Council regarding the conduct of our troops in an enemy's country, a summary of which appeared in yesterday's Dominion. These instructions exhibit a real desire to do all that can reasonably be expected to limit the hardship and devastation caused by war. The action of the Germane in demanding tribute from the people of Liege and Brussels is not altogether without precedent, though it has very little justification. ■ Though modern armies take with them enormous, supplies of provisions, it is not an uncommon thing to make requisitions of food and fodder on the inhabitants of an invaded country. It is the, British custom to pay for such goods, but some other countries have not'been so particular in this matter, and invaded countries have often been swept bare in order to feed invading armies. As regards money contributions, the Brussels Conference of 1874 declared that these should only be imposed "on the order and. on the responsibility of the General-in-Chief, or of the superior civil authority established by the enemy in the occupied territory." Dr. Lawrence, in his Principles of International Law, tells us that on principle there is little to be said for these exactions, though they were resorted to by Napoleon to an extent which seriously- impoverished whole provinces, and "have not been altogether unknown since his time." This indicates that the Germans are adopting at least an unusual course in compelling Liege and Brussels to pay tribute. Some jurists even contend that the practice [is illegal. Dr. Lawrence, however, is not prepared to go as fair, as this, but he holds that the only case in which such contributions arc defensible is when they take the place of payments which should have' been made in kind. This would base them on the doctrine that in case of _ necessity a commander may feed his _ troops from the resources of occupied districts. Apart from tHis necessity, "they have no more respectable origin than the old practice of enrichment by plunder. Pillage is still pillage, even though it be reduced to system, and carried on by rulo and measure." Whatever international law may have to say on the subject, the- exaction of> tribute freim' the Belgians in the present war is aimply adding' injury to injury. They neither sought nor provoked war upon Germany. They declared their neutrality, and did their best to keep out of the quarrel between their powerful neighbours. War was forced upon.them by thsi invasion of Gorman armies, and. now they are compelled to pay part of the cost of the struggle which they did their utmost to avoid. Tribute in such circumstances is sheer -pillage. But these pitiless exactions are in keeping with the other methods of barbarism which the Germans appear to have adopted in the struggle now going on. Some of the stories of German brutality are probably exaggerated; but it is impossible to ignore the atrocities mentioned in the report of the Committee of Inquiry, the members of which include Judges and University Professors. These brutalities are said to be vouched for by reliable witnesses, and the Press Bureau is of opinion* that they ap-pea-r to have been perpetrated for the purpose of terrorising the people and so making it unnecessary to leave troops to protect the communications. The German War Party may consider this sort of thins to be justifiable, but it is not civilised warfare, and there will be a bitter day of reckoning for Germany.