It may be asserted that the plea of “Frightfulness” will not be
recognised a “military necessity” when Germany is judged, and that
this enemy of civilisation, even as the enemy of society, will be
held responsible for its crimes, though they stand as far above the
imagination as beyond the power of a common felon. Bill Sikes may
justly claim “military necessity” for his thefts and murders, if
Germany can do so for hers.
Under Article No. 46 of the Regulations of The Hague, we learn that
“Family honour and rights, individual life and private property must
be respected,” and, under Article No. 47, “all pillage is expressly
forbidden.” But while it was a political necessity to subscribe to that
fundamental formula of civilisation, Germany’s heart recognised no real
need to do so, and secretly, in cold blood, at the inspiration of her
educated and well-born rulers, she plotted the details of a campaign
of murder, rape, arson and pillage, which demanded the breaking of her
oath as its preliminary. Well might her Chancellor laugh at “the scrap
of paper,” which stood between Germany and Belgium, when he reflected
on the long list of sacred assurances his perjured country had already
planned to break.
No viler series of events, in Northern France alone, can be cited than
those extracted from the note-books of captured and fallen Germans.
Such blood-stained pages must be a tithe of those that returned to
Germany, but they furnish a full story of what the rank and file
accomplished at the instigation and example of their officers. Space
precludes quotation; but one may refer the reader to “Germany’s
Violations of the Laws of War,”[A] published under the auspices of the
French Foreign Office. It is a book that should be on the tables at the
Peace Conference.
[A] English translation. Heinemann
We cannot hang an army for these unspeakable offences, or treat those
who burn a village of living beings as we would treat one who made a
bonfire of his fellow-man; nor can we condemn to penal servitude a
whole nation for bestial outrages on humanity, ordered by its Higher
Command and executed by its troops; but at least we may hope soon to
find the offending Empire under police supervision of Europe, with a
ticket-of-leave, whose conditions shall be as strict as an outraged
earth knows how to draw them.