RUTHLESS WARFARE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 9, 12 January 1915, Page 4

RUTHLESS WARFARE.

Details of a remarkable book, giving the rules under which the Austrians have been waging war against Servia, have just been made public through a Swiss source. The rules are set out in a little book of seven pages, copies of which have been distributed by order of the Chief of the Austrian General Staff, upon the methods that are being employed by the dual monarchy against Servia. Among these rules are the following: “I order that during these military operations the greatest severity, harsh, ness and suspicion should bo exhibited towards everybody. T will not

tolerate that people not in und'orm, but armed, captured in ’groups or singly, should be taken prisoners. They must be executed at all costs. Anybody who shows mercy in such eases will be most severely punished. On entering a village hostages (priests, teachers, or wealthy notabilities) should i)o taken, and, il a single shot is tired on our troops, must be killed. ' Enemy populations must be warned to give up their arms. Each house in which a weapon is found must

be destroyed. In hostile villages not more than three men should be allowed to meet together in the street, and at nightfall no citizen should leave his house. Officers and soldiers must scrutinise every hostile villager, and must not allow them to put their hands in tbeir pockets, since they have.probably secreted revolvers there. Every inhabitant one meets outside the villages and more particularly in forests should bo regarded simply as a member of a band whose arms have boon hidden. Not having the time to look for thoso weapons, those people, if their conduct seems in the least degree suspicious, ought t'o bo shot. Summarising these rules for warfare, the Commamler-in-Chief urges his men to show discipline, dignity, but above all. harshness.”