A RACIAL CHARACTERISTIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 7, 26 August 1914, Page 4

A RACIAL CHARACTERISTIC.

"Mem Gott! What a place to sack!" is said to have been Blucher's comment when ho was taken on a triumphal tour through London after the battle of Waterloo. As if to show that the desire for plunder is a racial characteristic which dies hard, the ;irst net oi the Germans after being allowed to enter Brussels without resistance was to demand a war contribution rf eight millions sterling from the inhabitants. A large contribution is also sdd to have been demanded from Liege, and wo 6xpect to'hear of similar demands we expect to hear of similar .demands from Ghent and- Ostehd: Private proiperty.belonging to an enemy if on land ii Filp'posed to be immune from eaprure during war, differing in this respect from enemy property on shipboard. Pillage is' supposed* to have' passed away'witli the : age of barbarism, and to be no longer possible with civilised nations. Requisitions and contributions, however, are recognised in international law. Requisitions are orders given by authorised officials of the invading army to the inhabitants of the district invaded requiring them to provide laborers,. stores, or. other articles of which the invader! stands in need, j For these services and commodities an order for payment is giveiii, and is supposed to be niet after the war. Wellington, was very scrupulous in this respect, and the English during the Boer war even more-so. Contributions ''are 'forced loans levied by an invader from the inhabitants of an occupied country to take the place oi requisitions or as a substitute for taxation. These are also supposed to be repaid, and only to be levied when it is a case of military necessity. A leading writer on international law reminds us that in the Franco-German war the rights df the army of occupation in this respect were "pushed to extremity," and judging from this early exhibition of their rapacity the Germans -;eem to have changed very little since 1870, the Christchurch Press remarks.