THE POISONERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 265, 5 April 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE POISONERS.

Germans being the culprits, it is ?;o surprisng to learn of the systematio poisoning of wells and the wanton destruction of villages by which the reJ treat of the Kaiser's forces on the I Western front is being marked. This scrt of thing has come to be accepted as the natural and typical manifest:;-' tion of Prussian Ku'ltur. he outrages which the Germans are committing are speefically prohibited by tho Hague' Convention. Article 27 of the Conven-' tion cf 1907, No. IV., provides:—" It specially forbidden (a) to employ poison or poisoned weapon.; (g) to destroy or seize the enemy's property, unless such destruction or te'zere be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war." Articlo 28: "The pillage of a town or place, even when taken by assault, h prohibited." These provisions were duly signed and ratified by Germany, but what of that? The time has long passed when it might have been coneoiveJ impossible for so great a nation to bo I shamelessly callous concerning it« plighted obligations. As t!:e "Post'', says, "Teuton apologists will excuse the poisoning of wells, the wholesale dc 1 struction of immoveb'e property, and' the piilage of the rest by saying that 1 they are necessary for the'suecess of the! military plan—in this rase the delay of th 0 Allied advance. It will net occur to them to explain why machiV-guns (if necessary with heroic German gunners chained to them) are not used, as they! legitimately could be, for the same purpose. The plea that "ju.stifrVd" fcho' invasion and ruin of Belgium is surely' strong enough to support the ravaging 1 of a few thousand square miles oFtho! rich lands of Fr;n<e." Tn war, as tho German wages it, there is no rcom for' numanity and chivalry. The Prussian ! cult of "frightfulness" is subject to no limitations sav e those which are expedient in the infarcts of its brutal exponent., who have shown that ir. their estimation ll, c virtues of honour and morality are of no accmnt. Rut the poisoning of veils and the pillaginof towns and vUl.ges will not avail to save the Hun from the just rctributta irhien await, him. By his firnlish tac ti'-s ho -nay him'cr the advance of tho Allies, bi.t nothing he can do will nre-ve-it their ultimate triumph.