REPRISALS ALONE TELL.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 October 1917, Page 8

REPRISALS ALONE TELL.

■ GERMAN'S DISLIKE THEIR OWN . ■ MEDICINE. Sew York. ' Dr. Henry Van Dyke, the ex-United " States Minister to Holland, states, con--1 corning the question of reprisals ifor ; air raids:— ''Germany has conducted these raids ! on cities which, whether they were fortified or not, still had the right, according ' to international law, to receive notifica--1 tion before the beginning of a bombard- > ment which would necessarily expose tho ! lives of women, children, and helpless old l people. 4 "On the question of 'reprisals' in general I think one broad principle may be I laid down. It is not necessary that they should be reprisals in kind, but it is ! necessary that they should have an ac--1 tual military value in putting a stop to t or in frustrating the practices against ■ which they are directed. For example, the .Germans made an unannounced aerial bombardment of the little French city of ■ Bar-le-Duc, in which no military damage - was inflicted, but in which scores of help- ' less and harmless men, women, and ehili dren were killed. This was done on two 'successive nights. Soon after, the French, by way of preventing a repetition of his i 'brutal business at 'Bar-le-Duc, sent their aeroplanes over Karlsruhe and bombarded that city. Tho Hermans put up a ' terrific outcry about'this. They did not ; like their own medicine. But, all the • same, they have never repeated their raids on Bar-le-Duc. Tho reprisals in ; this ease were therefore {effective. I • doubt very much," adds Dr. Van Dyke, ! "whether tho Herman Government, by ; which 1. mean the predatory Potsdam : gang, is open to any other form o£ argu- ■ ment at the present moment." s =====