WHAT CONQUEST MEANS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 390, 26 August 1911, Page 5

WHAT CONQUEST MEANS.

Those people who say "ivc have nothing to lose and nothing to fear from invaders" wili be interested in a book, "War Rights on Land," lately published by Macmillan's. This volume is a valuable contribution to military literature. In it the author, Mr Speight, gives a clear account of the customs and laws of war on land. He takes the articles uf the various treaties 'and conventions and illustrates them in the most effective manner from recent struggles. It is worth knowing that the German fie>d regulations forbid levies en masse, and that the German administration of military law which has sometimes been held up to us for admiration, has usually been marked by extreme severity. Thus it was fieath in IS7O for a Frenchman to have arms in his house; it was death for him to cut a telegraph wire or to destroy anything needed for the service of the German army. If, from any village, a shot was fired at a German soldier, six of the inhabitants were seized and shot. A number of workmen were ordered to appear at Nancy and execute without pay certain work. It was added that if they did not come forward a proportion of workmen would be shot. Huge fines were levied on French towns and villages where the FrancTireurs attacked trie Germans. And Franc-Tireurs when captured were mercilessly shot. The moral of the book is salutary. Woe to the people that fails to prepare for war. Its sons will be shot; its homes burned; vast sums will be levied on its population ; its workmen will be compelled to labour without pay for the alien; starvation will stalk abroad in its streets; it will know the emotions of the sheep in the clutch of the tiger.