Repository: UIHistories Project: War Publications - WWI Compilation 1923 - Article 14 [PAGE 14]

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f tWir inhabitants f»* the destruction of art galleries, historic monu!L™ educational buildings, and the like. In fact, wherever any Libic military advantage could be subserved by measures forbidrJn bv the laws and customs of war, the German armies have overridden the law and set up the plea of military necessity as an excuse. I N S T R U M E N T A L I T I E S A N D MlvANS The Hague Convention declares that the means which a belligerent mavlulopt in order to injure his enemy are not unlimited and among the instrumentalities and measures which it forbids are the use of poison and poisoned weapons, arms, projectiles, and materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering, the use#of projectiles t h e sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious eases, the use of expanding bullets, the compelling of the inhabitants to take part in military operations against their own country, assassination, the killing of prisoners, the"destruction of property except when imperatively demanded by the necessities of the war, efT^ These prohibitions are all expressly incorporated in the war manuals of the United States, Great Britain, and France, The German manual, however, declares that all measures may be employed to overcome the enemy which are necessary "to attain the object of the war" and that they include both "force and stra2 tagem. " Again, "every means may be employed without which the object of the war cannot be attained; what must be rejected, on the other hand, is every act of violence and destruction which is not necessary to the attainment of this end." Again, "all means which modem inventions afford, including the most perfected, the most dangerous, and those which destroy most quickly the adversary en masse are permissible; and since these latter result most promptly in the attainment of the object of the war they must be considered as indispens3 able and, all things considered, they are the most humane." Nevertheless, says the German manual, while Kriegsraison permits a belligerent to employ "all means of such nature to contribute to the attainment of* the object of the war, practice has taught the advisability, in one's own interest, of employing with limits certain means and of renouncing completely certain others. Chivalrous and Christain spirit, the progress of civilization and especially the knowledge °f one's own interest have led to voluntary relaxations the necessity 4 of which has received the tacit assent of all states and of all armies." It is quite clear that the authors of the German manual regard mill^^effectiveness rather than considerations of humanity the test of the legitimacy of an instrument or measure. Therefore any instrumentality or method, the employment of which will contribute to the

fSSl! Retpectin* the Lawt and Custom* of War on Land, Art. 22. tran ,atci Gcnn wS^'-P' 'A f HK * n words *• "violence and cunning" but Carptntier, p. 20, more *^rattly renders them at "la fora ti la t uii." •Morgan, p. 85; Carpemicr, p. 21. •Carpentier, p. 4; Morgan, p. 69.

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