(1915) some aspects of the war santiago perez triana, 1858-1916

8/9/2019 (1915) Some Aspects of the War Santiago Perez Triana, 1858-1916

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SOME ASPECTSO i\m WAR/-irvS.PEREZ TRIAN./^


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GIFT OFJANE KcSATHER


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SOME ASPECTS OF THE WAR


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SOME ASPECTS OFTHE WAR

BYS. p6rez TRIANA

FORMERLY OF THE PERMANENT COURT OFARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE

T. FISHER UNWIN LTD.ADELPHI TERRACE, LONDON


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First Published in 1915

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CONTENTSI.

II.III.IV.V.VI.

VII.VIII.

IX.X.XI.XII.

XIII.XIV.XV.

XVI.XVII.

XVIII.XIX.

THE NAME OF GOD AND THE WAR .THE WAR AND AMERICA ....THE "scrap of paper"INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGE .SOWING THISTLES AND GATHERING THORNSTHE LAWS OF WAR ....THE LAW OF NECESSITY....VISIONS OF HATRED ....LYING LIPS AND MURDEROUS HANDSMOLTEN LEADVERGEBLICHES STANDCHENTHE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR .THE INVASION OF CANADASONGS OF WARWHY A SPANISH-AMERICAN SHOULD NOT BE

PRO-GERMANTHE " PLACE IN THE SUN"...GERMANISM IN AMERICA.THE SETTLEMENT OF PEACEHOW TO ENFORCE THE LAWS OF WAR

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Some Aspects of the WarTHE NAME OF GOD ANDTHE WAR

On the 15th of August of this tragic year of1914, his Majesty the Kaiser telegraphed tothe General in command of the troops thathad been fighting at Miilhausen :

" I thank God Almighty who was withus. I thank you and your gallant soldiersfor this our first victory."

In his address to the German people at thevery beginning of the war, the Kaiser ex-claimed in accents thrilling with patriotism :

*' Since the foundation of the Empire ithas been for forty-three years the objectof the efforts of myself and my ancestorsto preserve the peace of the world and

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THE NAME OF GODto advance by peaceful means our vigor-ous development. But our adversarieswere jealous of the successes of our w^ork.There has been latent hostility on theeast and on the west and beyond the sea.It was borne by us till now, as we wereaware of our responsibility and power.Now, however, these adversaries wish tohumiliate us, asking that we should lookon with crossed arms and watch ourenemies preparing themselves for a comingattack. They will not suffer that wemaintain resolute fidelity to our ally whois fighting for its position as a GreatPower, and with whose humiliation ourpower and honour would equally be lost.So the sword must decide."In the midst of perfect peace the

enemy surprises us. Therefore to arms !Any dallying, any temporising would beto betray the Fatherland. To be or notto be is the question for the Empirewhich our fathers founded. To be or notto be German power and German exist-ence. We shall resist to the last breathof man and horse, and shall fight out thestruggle even against a world of enemies.Never has Germany been subdued when8


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AND THE WARit was united. Forward with God, whowill be with us as He was with our an-cestors I WiLHELM.

''Berlin, Aug. 6."

His Majesty the Tsar, when calling hispeople to arms, said that

"The God of the Russians is a greatGod and He shall give us victory."The French Presidential Manifesto on the

10th of August calls the people to the defenceof France, "eternal, peaceful, resolute, theFatherland united, watchful and serenely dig-nified." There is no mention of the Almightyin that document. None is made in theBritish announcement of the war issued bythe Foreign Office,

and which reads asfollows :

" Owing to the summary rejection bythe German Government of the requestmade by his Majesty's Government forassurances that the neutrality of Belgiumwill be respected, his Majesty's Am-bassador at Berlin has received his pass-ports and his Majesty's Government havedeclared to the German Government that

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THE NAME OF GODa state of war exists between GreatBritain and Germany as from 11 p.m. onAugust 4th."

The method adopted in France and inGreat Britain would seem to be the most de-corous one. It is one thing to implore theDivine mercy. To declare that a given causeis the cause of God, and to do so at theprecise moment when every notion of pityand of justice is suppressed, when cruelty isestablished as the supreme law of life, andwhen iniquity and infamy are consecrated aspatriotism, provided they do harm to theenemy, is something quite different. Thepractice of associating God with our miser-able follies, seeking to turn Him into anaccomplice of our acts when those acts reachtheir maximum degree of atrocity, may be aninveterate one, but it is no less objectionableon that account. The God of Israel may havebeen called the "God of Battles," it mayhave been maintained that He fought forthe ** chosen people," it may be that "theRussian God will fight for His people." Not-withstanding all that, to associate God withthe fury of man in the performance of actswhich are fundamentally criminal, such as10


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AND THE WARkilling, pillaging, and the destruction of pro-perty (all of which are allowed within thepractices of honest men by a pitiable conven-tion, and even then only in accordance withan honesty that is itself conventional), hasnever been, and never can be, aught elsethan the most audacious and glaring formof blasphemy.Doubtless the Imperial invocations of theAlmighty as an ally are sincere utterances;to be sincere is not to possess the truth, butto believe that one possesses the truth. Thecause of God for the Kaiser signifies his ownabsolute rule over Germany, culminating andmanifest in the Imperial crown ; it signifiesrelentless military discipline throughout theEmpire, inside and outside the barracks; itsignifies Socialism trodden under the iron heelof Junkerdom ; it means the workman andlabourer groaning under the yoke of taxationand yielding the sweat of their brow for theEmpire in time of peace, and the blood oftheir veins to defend the Empire in war time ;it means a France subjugated and despoiledof her colonies ; it means a humiliated Eng-land, thrust back into the arms of reaction,and a universe trembling with terror at theslightest thrill of anger of the reigning

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THE NAME OF GODHohenzollem. Such is the cause of Godas seen from Potsdam with the Bismarckiantelescope.The cause of God for the Tsar signifies thepossession of Siberia, the tetrical Uving tombof all those who dare to dream of liberty ; itmeans the mujik, prolific and kept in ignor-ance and blind fanaticism so as to be a usefulinstrument of extermination ; it means an auto-cracy, deaf and frigid as the winter in thesteppes ; it means the knout, the pogrom ; itmeans the greased rope with the clusters ofhuman beings, hanging from the collectivegallows, at the break of dawn in the frightenedcities or in the open fields surrounding them ;it signifies the dismemberment of Persia, andFinland trampled under foot; it means thedream of Peter the Great : the conquest ofConstantinople, the mosque of Saint Sophiaturned into a cathedral of the OrthodoxChurch, and a free road to the Ganges, toDelhi, to Benares, to Bombay, to Calcutta,and even to remote Ceylon, leaving behindthe footprint of Alexander, like the dust of aweary caravan in the distant plains of thebygone centuries; it means the fulfilment ofthe traditional ambition of the Romanoffs,unbending as a dagger, instead of the law of12


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AND THE WARjustice ; it means the hand that strangles theideal in the consciences of men and throttlesthe song in their throat. That, and muchmore than that, is what the cause of Godmeans for the White Tsar, the unappealablelord and master of all the Russias past,present, and future.The autonomy offered to Poland and the

promise of civil rights to the Jews, that havesupervened at the hour of danger, cannotobliterate the past ; yet, in them may lie thehope of the future.There is not, amongst the aggressors, inthis dark hour of struggle, any one nationwhose cause is the embodiment of absolutejustice. There is, amongst those aggressors,no nation that can maintain that her cause isthe cause of immaculate justice and therebythe cause of God Almighty.In the essence the struggle is betweenreaction and liberty, between privilege anddemocracy.Our human fallibility makes us the un-avoidable companions of error. We areguided by the uncertain light of a vacillatingreason and an imperfect experience ; we mustimplore the divine protection in all our en-deavours; but when we venture to declare

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THE NAME OF GODthat those endeavours are divine, we involveourselves in a superlative farce ; yet, thecrowned comedians of our day may rely onthe ignorance of mankind, which still kneelsat the altar of convention.Whenever war becomes inevitable, it is

but right and proper to appeal to God inall humility, as Lincoln did in his secondinaugural address :

" With malice towards none ; with charityfor all ; with firmness in the right, asGod gives us to see the right, let usstrive on to finish the work we are in ;to bind up the nation's wounds; to carefor him who shall have borne the battle,and for his widow and his orphan ; todo all which may achieve and cherish ajust and lasting peace among ourselves,and with all nations."

Lincoln bowed in reverence to the SupremeBeing. " With firmness in the right, as Godgives us to see the right." There are othersnow, who, in the arrogance of their militarymadness, dare to order God Almighty toform in the ranks with their other servantsand to march to the fight for their ambitions14


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AND THE WARand their privileges. The Imperial attitudewould be laughable were it not for the infinitesorrow that it begets and for the sea of bloodand tears in which the hopes of the world aresinking.

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IITHE WAR AND AMERICA

The Smaller NationsThe condition of America, meaning therebythe continent in its entirety, with the excep-tion of the colonies of European beUigerentsin the present war, is one of neutrahty, knownin International Law as an " attitude of im-partiahty." War in Europe has necessitatedthe immediate suppression of the institutionalfoundations of civil and muncipal life whichhave been superseded by martial law. Theword "law," as expressing a concrete andwell-defined scope of concepts and possibili-ties, is a misnomer in this instance. Martiallaw, in the essence, signifies the establishmentof the unappealable criterion of the soldierfor the government and guidance of theState.The normal evolution of collective and

individual energies, based on the conventionsand assumptions which, in their turn, have16


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THE WAR AND AMERICAbeen the result of human endeavour since therace began to breathe, and which are styled"civilisation," has come to an end. Thesoldier must primarily and exclusively consultthe exigencies of war; the slightest neglectthereof would be the betrayal of a supremetrust. The exigencies of war are necessarilyarbitrary and harsh ; without actual perversitythey may become ruthless, and they may alsodegenerate into crime of the most dastardlyand infamous nature, as proved by the agon-ising events which have been enacted inhapless Belgium.The law of war is the law of violence, andthat is the supreme law in Europe at thepresent moment. Thus Europe is under thehegemony of barbarism. The potentialitiesof martial law, whether proclaimed by thehome Government or by the enemy on occu-pied territory, are identical in that the criterionof the soldier is supreme and the exigenciesof war are paramount.

Fortunately for the future of humanity, atthis dark hour of destiny, civilisation, that isto say, the endeavour after justice and liberty,finds a refuge in the continent of America.

Impartiality does not mean indifference : theAmerican nations could not, if they would,B 17


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THE WAR AND AMERICAbe indifferent. Their industrial and economiclife and their future development are inti-mately and indissolubly identified with theeconomic and industrial life of Europe. Allthe countries of America, not excepting theUnited States, lean heavily upon Europeancapital.From Mexico to Patagonia, Europeancapital, principally English, has financed prac-tically whatever economic and industrial de-velopment has been attained. The outlaythereby incurred certainly does not fall shortof one thousand million sterling.At home and abroad the war has paralysedall credit. Neutrality cannot achieve economicimmunity.

Notwithstanding the very large amountspent thus far, the Latin-American continentis in the infancy of its industrial develop-ment.

It is estimated that the present war entailsan outlay of 11,000,000 per day; one hun-dred days would mean 1,100,000,000. Europeweakened, impoverished, disheartened, willhave no capital for foreign lands. Thus thiswar, irrespective of victory or defeat for thecause of justice or for the cause of militarism,will unavoidably paralyse the economic and18


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THE WAR AND AMERICAindustrial development of Latin-America foran incalculable period of time.The political aspect of the situation requiresa brief restatement of well-known facts inorder to be accurately appreciated.The system of the balance of power, whichhas culminated in the hideous catastrophe ofthe present war, never succeeded in its aimsbeyond the maintenance of a precarious andvacillating armed peace in Europe; it begottiie progressive competition of armaments ;the co-relative increase of taxation, and itfostered the spread of that blind and brutalspirit of militarism which, at this very hour,and acting from its principal stronghold, isthrottling Europe to death.Peacesuch as it wasonly existed withinthe charmed circle of the Great Powersgrouped in the System and their satellitesand neighbours. Wars of conquest and op-pression were constantly waged now by one,now by another Power, the others lookingon complacently, at times expectantly; andin this connexion the more liberal and en-lightened members of the System utterlydisregarded the most elementary principles ofjustice and humanity by condoning iniquityor participating in the spoils.

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THE WAR AND AMERICAThose wars were circumscribed within the

Eastern Hemisphere. Eventually all theterritory available for predatory purposes wasappropriated and labelled. Those petty belli-cose sports were seldom fraught with moredanger than a big-game hunt in the tropicaljungle. They served, however, a multitudeof purposes. They eased the tension of theidle and chafing fighting institutions; theysupplied new opportunities for concessions,chartered companies and the like ; they justi-fied new contracts for arms and ships; theyfurnished editors with opportunities to ringthe changes on *' patriotism," **the whiteman's burden," and to re-roast all the vener-able chestnuts of Jingoism. They also justi-fied the System evolved by the wisdom ofthe Powers which fostered and maintainedthe fraternity of the strong, founded on therobbery and oppression of the weak.

Outstretched hands and longing eyes wereconstantly turned towards America ; there onthat continent lay, waste and desert, terri-tories twice, three times as large as Europe ;there forest, river, mountain and valley ininfinite variety teemed with natural wealthand untold possibilities of development. Andthat potential hearth of a cluster of mighty20


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THE WAR AND AMERICAimperial nations lay under the political swayof a few millions of degenerates who couldbe either eliminated if they resisted, or pennedlike sheep in some corner of the Pampas orthe Amazon Valley if they submitted. Thusthe Imperialistic dream.Those lands, however, are part of thecontinent of America, and they come underthe following declaration made on the 2ndof December 1823 to the Congress of theUnited States by President Monroe : ** Weowe it therefore to candour and to the ami-cable relations existing between the UnitedStates and those Powers (the EuropeanPowers) to declare that we should considerany attempt on their part to extend theirSystem to any portion of this Hemisphere asdangerous

to our peace and safety."Whilst the United States have not on alloccasions carried this doctrine to its completelogical conclusion, the exclusion of the Euro-pean System has been successfully accom-plished.Democracy has a home unassailable bythe militarism of Continental Europe. The

small nations of America need not fear afate like that of Belgium under the Prussianinvasion.

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IllTHE "SCRAP OF PAPER"

For a human collectivity to be a nation ac-cording to international law, it must possessa territorial home of its own, permanent anddefined by recognised boundaries. It musthave a Government, that is to say, one ormore persons representing the people andadministering the affairs of the people accord-ing to the law of the nation, and it musthave a sovereign composed of one or more in-dividuals in whom the supreme authority isvested. All these things together constitutea nation, the status of which is not affectedby the size of the territory or the numbers ofthe population.War between nations entails not onlythe transient calamities of violence, the de-struction of life and property, and the con-sequent ruin and misery, but also loss ofterritory and even total dismemberment,which means the extinction of the nation.22


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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"Such was the case of Poland, whose territorywas parcelled out between Prussia, Austria,and Russia in 1772. Losses of territorygenerally take place after the conclusion ofevery war, as, in modern times, in Austriaafter Solferino, or in France after Sedan.The dangers of loss of territory or of lossof nationality through dismemberment areinherent in war; and war in its turn, as apossibility, lies in the very nature of things.The will of the victor becomes the sole andunappealable law after victory. All otherprevious conventions disappear, like smokefrom the battlefields. Nations, weak orstrong, are all subject to these unavoidablecontingencies. When a nation is plungedinto war, either through its own seeking orthrough the imposition of other nations, allthese terrible possibilities supervene and loomon the horizon, as does the possibility of deathfor all combatants in the field.The nineteenth century, so fruitful in dis-

coveries and combinations, often called inven-tions, brought forward, for the first time inhistory, an artifice to place a given andselected nation beyond war, and so beyondits dreadful dangers and contingencies. Thiswonderful makeshift arose from the jealousies23


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THE ''SCRAP OF PAPER"and rivalries of the strong, each of themmoved by the fear that, in time of war, cir-cumstances might arise where the wilful orforced action of the selected nation mightprecipitate adverse results, which it was wiseto forestall. The method consisted in theneutralisation of the territory in questionunder the guarantee of other nations. In thisway the neutralised nation was placed beyondthe possibility of war; the integrity of itsterritory and its political sovereignty wereguaranteed, so that the nation itself coulddevote all its energies to the arts of peaceand to the welfare of its citizens. Thus pro-tected, the neutralised nation could contem-plate war from afar, as a blast of malediction,powerless to do harm against the shield of aconvention guaranteed by the honour of allthe belligerents. Indeed, a most admirablestate of affairs !

According to the solemn enactment of Euro-pean treaties at present in force, there are threeneutralised nations: Switzerland, Belgium, andLuxemburg. The various treaties were signedin 1815, 1831, and 1867 respectively. Theneutrality of Belgium was established andguaranteed in the document which recognisedits independence, signed on the 15th of24


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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"November 1831 by Great Britain, France,Austria, Prussia, and Russia, and by Belgiumherself, in witness of her acceptance of theduties and conditions of neutralisation. Neu-tralisation does not impair the rights ofsovereignty ; the guarantee, however, ceasesif the neutralised country carries out acts ofwar other than those of defence, or acceptsundertakings that may lead to acts of war.

Thus, the jocund land of Flanders becamea gymnasium of the mind, worthy of theglorious traditions of its soil, so frequentlydrenched with blood, during past centuries, inthe struggles for civil liberty and liberty ofthe human conscience. Thus also, withoutpreconceived intention on their part, thesignatory Powers, whilst serving their ownends, created a serene asylum for humanthought and human endeavour, placing itbeyond the menace of war.The German General Staff had plannedthe invasion of France through Luxemburgand Belgium. In matters of war Germanynever hesitates; her troops invaded Luxem-burg in the first days of August ; on the 3rdof that month the German Minister in Belgiumasked the Belgian Government, demanding areply within twenty-four hours, to maintain25


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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"a friendly neutrality and to allow the passageof the German troops through Belgian terri-tory. A refusal would mean war. Belgiumchose the latter course, which perhaps wasleast in accordance with her own convenience,but which was decidedly the only one com-patible with honour. Battles, sieges, bombard-ments, and all the sanguinary turmoil of warsupervened; and in their train came the un-necessary cruelties, the sacrifice of innocentcivilians, the destruction of villages andcities, carried out as a manoeuvre in coldblood, as part of a plan for sowing terror inthe minds of the people. The object wasachieved. Horror has invaded the conscienceof humanity, and the invaders have assuredfor themselves and for their arms a harvest ofignominy that nothing will efface. WhilstGermany and Austria wage war upon Bel-gium, England, France, and Russia, the othersignatories of the treaty of neutralisation,defend her. The British intervention hasfairly stupefied the Germans ; for faith inEngland's neutralityas later developmentshave shownwas an integral part of theGerman military plans. Such a belief on thepart of the Kaiser and his advisers revealsin them, under the circumstances, a diseased26


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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"mentality, fraught with ominous potentialitiesfor the peace of

the world.The Note of the EngHsh Ambassador in

Berlin, giving an account of the last inter-views which he had with the Foreign Ministerand with the Chancellor of the GermanEmpire, throws a glaring light on the tortuousidiosyncrasies of Prussian militarism and ofthe methods which it employs to extend tothe world at large its system of blood andiron under which the German people, its firstvictim, has been kept for the last decades.The Ambassador says : " London, August 8, 1914.

" In accordance with the instructions con-tained in your telegram of the 4th instant,I called upon the Secretary of State thatafternoon and enquired, in the name ofhis Majesty's Government, whether theImperial Government would refrain fromviolating Belgian neutrality. Herr vonJagow at once replied that he was sorryto say that his answer must be * No,'as, in consequence of the German troopshaving crossed the frontier that morning,Belgian neutrality had been already vio-lated. Herr von Jagow again went intothe reasons why the Imperial Govern-

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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"merit had been obliged to take this step,namely, that they had to advance intoFrance by the quickest and easiest way,so as to be able to get well ahead withtheir operations and endeavour to strikesome decisive blow as early as possible.It was a matter of life and death forthem, as if they had gone by the moresouthern route, they could not havehoped, in view of the paucity of roadsand the strength of the fortresses, to havegot through without formidable opposi-tion, entailing great loss of time. Thisloss of time would have meant timegained by the Russians for bringing uptheir troops to the German frontier.Rapidity of action was the great Germanasset, while that of Russia was an in-exhaustible supply of troops. . . ." During the afternoon I received yourfurther telegram of the same date, andin compliance with the instructions thereincontained, I again proceeded to theImperial Foreign Office and informed theSecretary of State that unless the ImperialGovernment could give the assuranceby 12 o'clock that night that they wouldproceed no further with their violation28


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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"of the Belgian frontier and stop theiradvance, I had been instructed to demandmy passports and inform the ImperialGovernment that his Majesty's Govern-ment would have to take all steps intheir power to uphold the neutrality ofBelgium and the observance of a treatyto which Germany was as much a partyas themselves.

** Herr von Jagow replied that to hisgreat regret he could give no other answerthan that which he had given me earlierin the day, namely, that the safety ofthe Empire rendered it absolutely neces-sary that the Imperial troops shouldadvance through Belgium. . . ." I then said that I should like to goand see the Chancellor, as it might be, per-haps, the last time I should have an op-portunity of seeing him. He begged meto do so. I found the Chancellor veryagitated. His Excellency at once begana harangue, which lasted for about twentyminutes. He said that the step takenby his Majesty's Government was terribleto a degree ; just for a word ' neutrality,'a word which, in war time, had so oftenbeen disregardedjust for a scrap of29


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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"paper Great Britain was going to makewar on a kindred nation who desirednothing better than to be friends withher. . . ."

That '' scrap of paper " represented the peaceand happiness of milUons of human beings,sheltered behind the honour of the signatoryPowers. The symbol was destroyed, the doc-trine was outraged, honour disappeared, andthere ensued the tempest of human fury, seek-ing to drown its own shame in the blood ofits victims. In a memorial to King George Vthe Belgian Minister of Justice says :

" Belgium, forced into a war of defenceto save her institutions and the homes ofher citizens, sought by every means inher

power to maintain her resistance,respecting the restrictions that all civil-ised nations have accepted as the rules ofconduct in time of war, and to observestrictly all the international conventionsand to respect the conscience of humanity.Our enemy, after invading our territory,has sacrificed our population, has mur-dered our women and our children, hascarried away into captivity many of ourharmless citizens, has mutilated our

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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"wounded, destroyed defenceless cities,burnt churches and destroyed historicalmonuments, amongst them primarily therenowned library of the University ofLouvain. All this stands on record inauthentic and undeniable documents."

It is useless to labour the point. It wouldbe like blackening darkness. Belgium'stragedy, noble and glorious, has been imposedby the will of men as a punishment for herloyalty to the pledged word; it is luminousand fruitful as a martyrdom. The tragedy ofthe German people culminates in indelibleignominy.The " scraps of paper " are the protectingfortresses of right ; and right in its turn is thesupreme haven of the weak. Were right tofail, what would become of the small nationsthat have neither armies where a million ofsoldiers forms the unit, nor navies whereDreadnoughts are counted by the score ?There is no room for illusion as to thecauses of the present conflict and the inten-tions of those who prepared it and thrust itupon the world, like a hurricane of thunder-bolts. For the German and for the Austrianempires an oath stands only so long as it is31


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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER'*advantageous. For both empires their peoplesare mere instruments to smite with, when andwhere the circumstances may require. Andthese circumstances are those of a traditionlooking backward upon life and totteringunder the weight of abuse, pitiless and blindand gasping for breath in the atmosphere ofmodern life.The immediate cause of the war, both inVienna and in Berlin, is the fear of theRussian avalanche. "It is a matter of lifeand death to us," as Minister Jagow confessed.Surely neither the Kaiser nor his Ministersdestroy international treaties for sport, out ofmere perversity ! The alleged supreme lawof necessity is no justification. If truth is tostand only so long as the lie is unprofitable,what is all this farce of honour amongst men ?Or is it that the lie amongst individuals be-comes truth and justice as between nations?Under these principles cities are sacked andburned to ashes, defenceless citizens aremurdered, treason and deceit become thelaw of life ; everything is done in the name ofthe nation, and the golden gates of history arethrown open to the victor, advancing with thelaurel wreath of triumphant patriotism on hisbrow.32


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THE "SCRAP OF PAPER"Belgium, France, Russia, and England may

succumb, the victorious Kaiser may onceagain from Versailles, like a new Roi Soleil,dismember Europe, scattering the light of hisfavour amongst the subjugated peoples at hiswill ; the egregious professors of the GermanUniversities may bend their servile necks tothe ground ; the German Socialists may be-tray their principles, and history itself, writtenin blood, may sing the mendacious hymn ofmight as the supreme law of a defenceless anddegenerate humanity; all this may happen,yet it will remain true that the respect for the"scraps of paper" will ever give the truemeasure of civilisation amongst men. Intheir stead there can only arise the law of thejungle, the claw or the tooth. Such is thegoal heralded for humanity by the Kaiser andthe Emperor.

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IV

INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEUncle Toms Cabin was the prophetic bookthat preceded the Civil War of 1860 in theUnited States; it was a cry of anguish andof pity. The struggle between North andSouth was complex in its causes and itstendencies; in the tissue of its endeavoursthere were motives, some noble and somedastardly, as well as economic, social, and poli-tical reasons ; yet, it all culminated in theabolition of slavery. The life work of thatgeneration, whose memory shall live grate-fully in the heart of humanity, crystallises inthat redemption.The war which is now devastating Europewas also heralded by a book, sordid and cruelas the spirit which set it aflame. Mrs. BeecherStowe voiced the feelings of the abolitionists,for whom the toleration of slavery in the landwas tantamount to complicity in the crime;Bernhardi is the apostle and the prophet of34


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEPrussian militarism, condensed in the doctrinethat might is right, which is as old as tyranny,renovated and strengthened in word and indeed by the Chancellor of " blood and iron,"and by his predecessors, from the day of thefirst Elector of Brandenburg to the reigningKaiser.The title of Bernhardi's book is Germanyand the Next War, As literature it is worth-

less : his reasoning is pliant to the object thathe may have in view ; his information is super-ficial ; he neither argues nor proves, but dog-matises. The author doubtless had in mindThe Prince ; between Bernhardi and Machia-velli, however, there exists a fundamentaldifference. The Florentine was not merely aman of genius, he was one of the greatestgeniuses that the world has ever seen; thegenerations since his day have vainly soughtto solve the riddle of his perverse and dis-concerting pages. Bernhardi is merely a gar-rulous drill-sergeant from the barrack heapof Prussian militarism ; he has gathered, asone would take water in a jug from the run-ning stream, the dominant tendencies of hispeople, by which the directing castes exploitand oppress the dumb and disciplined masses.On its appearance in 1911, Bernhardi's book35


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEawakened a certain degree of mild curiosityabroad. People were inclined to see in it anextravagant presentation of the old creed ofmight. As a rule, it was thought impossiblethat its shameless and cynical maxims shouldbe the rules of national conduct for the bestinformed and most studious nation in theworld. The book stood, therefore, as an in-dividual utterance, possibly sincere, wilfullyexaggerated in search of notoriety, and not dis-interested, for under the shadow of militarismflourish promotion, decorations, and pensions,and the untold profitable and remunerateddistinctions of the service. All these circum-stances were greatly enhanced by the factthat there stood on the steps of the throne,ready, when the time should come, to takeupon his hallowed shoulders the sacred burdenof the divine right of kings, the most foohshand hare-brained prince that Europe has seenlooming as a menace on the near horizon forcountless centuries of history.The war has demonstrated that Bernhardirevealed the fundamental principles of Prussianofficialdom. Thus his book becomes thePrussian gospel, and that gospel is the gospelof brigandage, harmless whilst it was theeffusion of an obscure, pushful soldier, but86


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEominous for mankind the moment it becomesthe law of evolution of a system supported by-millions of bayonets, alive and directed withskill, with relentless tenacity, and with all theresources of modern science.A few quotations from the book suffice toshow what may be the fate of humanityshould Prussia be victorious.

Defending the sanctity of war as an ele-ment of life for humanity, and defining hisinfamous conception that weakness or thecondition of inferiority is a crime in the eyesof justice, he says:

" If we sum up our arguments, we shallsee that, from the most opposite aspects,the efforts directed towards the abolitionof war must not only be termed foolishbut absolutely immoral, and must bestigmatised as unworthy of the humanrace. To what does the whole questionamount ? It is proposed to deprive menof the right and the possibility to sacrificetheir highest material possessions, theirphysical life, for ideals, and thus to realisethe highest moral unselfishness. It isproposed to obviate the great quarrels be-tween nations and States by Courts of37


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEArbitration that is, by arrangements.A one-sided, restricted, formal law is tobe established in the place of the decisionsof history. The weak nation is to havethe same right to live as the powerfuland vigorous nation. The whole idearepresents a presumptuous encroachmenton the natural laws of development,which can only lead to the most disastrousconsequences for humanity generally."

His conception of the motives that guidemen individually and collectively, and of thevalue and scope of right, is thus expressed :

"There can be no doubt on this point.The nation is made up of individuals, theState of communities. The motive whichinfluences each member is prominent inthe whole body. It is a persistent strugglefor possessions, power, and sovereignty,which primarily governs the relations ofone nation to another, and right is re-spected so far only as it is compatiblewith advantage."This doctrine, that right should only be

respected as long as it is compatible withadvantage, has become the fundamental lawof the German Empire; it has been conse-88


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEcrated by the violation of Belgian neutrality,by the destroyed cities, by the torture

of aninnocent population, and by a sea of bloodthroughout Flanders. Bernhardi looms onthe horizon in the lurid light of Belgiandevastation as the prophet of iniquity nowdeveloped into a system of government.

Bernhardi continues :" Strong, healthy, and flourishing nationsincrease in numbers. From a givenmoment they require a continual ex-pansion of their frontiers, they requirenew territory for the accommodation oftheir surplus population. Since almostevery part of the globe is inhabited, newterritory must, as a rule, be obtained atthe cost of its possessorsthat is to say,by conquest, which thus becomes a law ofnecessity.""... Lastly, in all times the right ofconquest by war has been admitted. Itmay be that a growing people cannotwin colonies from uncivilised races, andyet the State wishes to retain the surpluspopulation which the mother-country canno longer feed. Then the only courseleft is to acquire the necessary territory39


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEby war. Thus the instinct of self-pre-servation leads inevitably to war and theconquest of foreign soil. It is not thepossessor, but the victor, who then hasthe right. In such cases might gives theright to occupy or to conquer. Might isat once the supreme right, and the disputeas to what is right is decided by thearbitrament of war. War gives a bio-logically just decision, since its decisionsrest on the very nature of things.""... But the acts of the State cannotbe judged by the standard of individualmorality. If the State wished to conformto this standard it would often find itselfat variance with its own particular duties.The morality of the State must be de-veloped out of its own peculiar essence,just as individual morality is rooted inthe personality of the man and his dutiestoward society. The morality of theState must be judged by the nature andraison detre of the State and not of theindividual citizen. But the end-all andbe-all of a State is power, and * he whois not man enough to look this truth inthe face should not meddle in politics,'says Treitschke.40


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGE"... In the face of these claims the

German nation, from the standpoint ofits importance to civilisation, is fullyentitled not only to demand a place inthe sun, as Prince Biilow used modestlyto express it, but to aspire to an adequateshare in the sovereignty of the world farbeyond the limits of its present sphere ofinfluence. But we can only reach thisgoal by so amply securing our positionin Europe that it can never again bequestioned. Then only we need nolonger fear that we shall be opposed bystronger opponents whenever we takepart in international politics. We shallthen be able to exercise our forces freelyin fair rivalry with the other WorldPowers, and secure to German nationalityand German spirit throughout the globethat high esteem which is due to them.Such an expansion of power, befittingour importance, is not merely a fancifulschemeit will soon appear as a politicalnecessity.""... We shall very soon see ourselvescompelled to find for our growing popu-lation means of life other than industrialemployment. It is out of the question41


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEthat this latter can keep pace permanentlywith the increase of population. Agri-culture will employ a small part of thisincrease, and home settlements may affordsome relief. But no remunerative occu-pation will ever be found within theborders of the existing German Empirefor the whole population, however favour-able our international relations. We shallsoon, therefore, be faced by the questionwhether we wish to surrender the cominggenerationsto foreign countries,asformerlyin the hour of our decline, or whetherwe wish to take steps to find them ahome in our own German colonies, andso retain them for the Fatherland. Thereis no possible doubt how this questionmust be answered. If the unfortunatecourse of our history has hitherto pre-vented us from building a colonial Empire,it is our duty to make up for lost time,and at once to construct a fleet which,in defiance of all hostile Powers, maykeep our sea communications open.""... Our people must learn to see thatthe maintenance ofpeace never can or mayhe the goal of a policy, . . . The inevi-tableness, the idealism, and the blessing42


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEof war, as an indispensable and stimulatinglaw of development, must be repeatedlyemphasised."

It is unnecessary to insist further ; thewhole development of the present war provesthat Bernhardi's theories are the guidingprinciples of the German Empire. Suchtheories cannot be justified by alleged bio-logical laws ; man's superiority over the beastlies precisely in his capacity for improvement,which consists primarily in man's power toeducate and to control his instincts towardsco-operation, outside and beyond the struggleof extermination which is the law of thelower organisms. The biological necessity ofwar implies the negation of all conceptionof civilisation, which fundamentally imposeslimitations on the voracity of appetites.Germany's longing for political conquest canonly be satisfied on the American continent.Germany knows that her children are welcomecolonists in all the nations of America, butGermany does not only want homes for theoverflow of her population; she wants tokeep her emigrants under the shadow of herflag. She does not want them to strengthenthe sinews of another nation, a possible rival,43


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INTERNATIONAL BRIGANDAGEas in the case of the United States, wherethere are millions of German descent whoto-day neither pay taxes towards the cost ofpast wars in Germany, nor fight Germany'sbattles at the present hour.All the nations of America should bearin mind what a menace lies for them in avictory for Prussia. Their integrity wouldbe threatened with a very brief delay. Berlinwould not rest upon her laurels . . . that isto say, if she manages to get any.

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SOWING THISTLES ANDGATHERING THORNSBismarck, Moltke, and von Roon, the realorganisers of the victory of 1870-71, were notof one mind when the time came for dictatingthe conditions of peace. The first did notwish to mutilate France, and sought compen-sation for the war and the reward of victoryin a heavy pecuniary indemnity, bleedingFrance white, as calves are bled to produceveal. Moltke, on military grounds, demandedthe retention of the fortresses of Metz andStrassburg and the extension of the Germanfrontier to the Vosges, thus completing thestrategic formation of the Empire. TheEmperor, who had recently been proclaimedin Versailles, supported Moltke, and Francewas mutilated. The victorious trio, wearynow of war, wished to secure peace, andGerman hegemony in Europe, on the basis ofa system of " blood and iron," inside and out-

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SOWING THISTLES ANDside the Fatherland. They forgot, however,the human element, which refuses to toleratebarrack discipline as a rule of life ; they forgotthat territorial spoliation leaves behind it aburning hatred, which the years fan into afiercer flame, and that men's minds and feel-ings are not shaped and set towards affectionby the gentle persuasion of the drill-sergeant.Those far-seeing strategists and tacticians,those unerring organisers of violence, provedshort-sighted in their appreciation of a nation'ssoul, which broods and dreams and remembers.They had before their eyes Poland, untamedafter a hundred years of dismemberment, andthey created a Western Poland in Alsace andLorraine.

Instead of peace, they established an armedpeace; they produced a latent war, destinedto break out into open war, as inevitably asa dam is bound to overflow, towards whichthe surrounding waters pour their unceasingtribute. They imposed on Europe a com-petition in armaments, which in its turnbrought about a rise in taxation, economicoppression, social discontent, the resentmentof the proletariat, crushed between povertyand compulsory military service, the obstruc-tion of all attempts to reform social injustices,46


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GATHERING THORNSand the steering of a course towards the abysseither of internal revolution, through thedesperation of the masses, or of foreignwar, as a safety-valve for the intolerablepressure. To this latter things have unavoid-ably come. The three Germans, in whomthe victory of forty-three years ago was em-bodied, cast into the blood-soaked furrowthe seed of error; to-day Europe is reapingthe catastrophe.A few weeks of this new war, which is theinevitable corollary of the former, have sufficedutterly

tofalsify

the axiomatic calculations ofthe militarists. The German General Staffrejects or ignores two factors : personal dignityand the individual and collective sense ofliberty. German officers go to the length oflashing their men with their whips, and thesoldiers, one and all, humiliate and outragecivilians whenever and however they please,all as part of the system of ** blood and iron,"which, like charity in the proverb, begins athome. Blind faith in this system, as a standardofjudgment in all human activities, has alreadyyielded its harvest of disillusionment for theastonished Kaiser and for his people, in whom,even in those who dreamt of liberty, thetradition of forty years of militarist oppression

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SOWING THISTLES ANDhas bred a servile spirit, which, hke secondnature, rises supreme in critical situations.It was thought : the hour is propitious.We must so crush Russia that never againshall she be able to threaten our development.If necessary, Japan will once more attack herenemy of yesterday. France, both because ofher definite alliance and because her ownexistence is at stake, will make war on us.We shall be able to overcome both our enemies,one after the other. We shall invade Franceon the North, marching our troops throughLuxemburg and Belgium ; and, avoiding thenetwork of fortresses near the Rhineland,which would hold us up for weeks, perhapsfor months, we shall fall on Paris like athunderbolt. Our artillery will reduce thefortress in a

day.It will be sufficient to show

that the only alternative is the razing of thecity to the ground : Notre Dame in ruins, theLouvre in flames, will be more eloquent thanany word from human lips. Parisfaithfulto her courtezan spiritwill surrender. Therestthe submission of France and her dis-armamentwill follow without delay. Weshall leave her under an army of occupation,and terrorised by a few examples of salutary" frightfulness " which, although they " make48


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GATHERING THORNSour hearts bleed," shall teach her with bloodand tearswhich is the way to train theconqueredth^^t the mere attempt at rebellionmeans death.We shall thus be able to turn upon Russiaa Russia already weakened by the troops ofour ally, Austria. Our triumphant soldierswill sweep across the steppes in a hurricaneof victory, and we shall dictate peace in St.Petersburg, as we shall have already dictatedit in Paris.We shall have to take into account theobstacles in our path. Belgium and Luxem-burg are neutral countries by virtue of a treatyto which we are signatories, which guaranteesthe inviolability of their territory. Treaties,however, are mere scraps of paper which canbe torn up whenever convenient. Luxem-burg will not be able to offer any resistance.Belgium is hardly in a position to make theattempt ; and if she does, we will sweep heraside, as we would kick a dog from our path.Austria will do the same with Serbia, whichhas supplied the spark of pretext for thealready prepared European conflagration.

Italy, our ally, will join us. We shallquieten her scruples concerning the letterof the treatywhich only binds her to comeD 49


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SOWING THISTLES ANDto our assistance if we are the attacked, andnot the attackerswith the vision of territorialexpansion in Africa. All this will follow assurely as the Rhine flows into the North Sea.What will Great Britain do ? Her leaderstell us that their hands are free : the ententeis not an alliance. Great Britain will not joinin the war. She has too many problems todeal with in her overseas Empire, as well as inher own house. In Ireland the political partiesare organised into armed forces, equipped withthe weapons which have been shipped fromour shores, thanks to a timely tolerance on ourpart, and they keep the country on the brinkof civil war. Canada, Australia, and NewZealand will eagerly seize the first opportunityto shake off the mother-country's yoke. InIndia a smouldering rancour, embittered bythe refusal of the right of entry into BritishColumbia to the Hindoos, will break out intothe open rebellion of a people which has neverforgotten the horrors of the Sepoy war. Eastand West and South and North, Great Britainweighs on the world like a curse, and the raceswhich she calls inferior, and the colonies of herown race which now have their own aspira-tions, will find in this conflict the hour of theirdeliverance.50


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GATHERING THORNSThere remain, too, the Boers in South

Africa, vanquished, deprived of their sove-reignty, and reduced to the condition of acolony. There the rebellion will be immediate.It was but yesterday that England needed250,000 men and three years in order toovercome this people, which all toldmen,women, and childrenscarcely numbered halfa million souls. If Great Britain declares waron Germany, Germany's most effective allywill be the Boers, who will recover theirindependence and found under Germanhegemony the Empire of South Africa,which will include the old Republics of theTransvaal and the Orange Free State, as wellas Cape Colony, Natal, and Rhodesia, andwhich will be able to spread without letor hindrance over the whole of the DarkContinent.So dreamt the Kaiser, and with him his

whole peoplemasters and men, merchantsand bankers, peers and commoners, reaction-aries and liberals, and the very elect ofintellectual Germany, the thinkers and philo-sophers. Educated in a materialistic faith andservile discipline, even the wisest explorers ofnature's mazes, even the revealers of the secretof the intangible atom, even the demon-

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SOWING THISTLES ANDstrators of the innermost mysteries of organiclife, thought it possible to rule the worldwith no other element than force, and thusto control the course of history, as surely andeffectively as they crush the will of the soldieror fix the trajectory of a projectile.And the hour of disillusionment has comewith overwhelming rapidity. Japan fights onthe side of Russia, and the siege-guns whichKrupp sold her to use against Russia shemakes over to Russia herself; nor do we hearof these, as we do of those sold by Krupp toBelgium, that they were made purposelydefective, to prepare the way for the Prussiantriumph. In declaring war on Germany,Japan repeats with reminiscent irony thevery phrases Germany had used twenty yearsbefore in despoiling her of the territory ofKaio Chau, from which Japan now ousts outGermany. Italy has not come in to fight forher allies of yesterday. The wall of paper inBelgium has proved to be a wall of granite,which has materially obstructed the course ofinvasion and completely upset the plan ofcampaign. Serbia, from being invaded, hasbecome the invader. Russia advances likean avalanche in Prussia and in Austria. Thelatter, in the words of Mr. Gardiner, the editor52


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GATHERING THORNSof the Daily News, possesses " the genius ofdefeat." Andthe crowning disasterGreatBritain has east her sword and her treasureinto the scale of war. The colonies have madecommon cause with the Motherland. FromCanada, New Zealand, Australia, and Indiacome men in tens of thousands, and money bythe million, to fight for the Empire. The warhas united and quickened the British Empireas an electric current galvanises a wire.In defence of their conqueror of yesterday,the Boers take up again the arms they laiddown at the end of the late war, and theGerman guns which were knowingly suppliedto the Irish parties will, with the union ofthese parties, be used against the Germantroops.All this is incomprehensible to the Germanmind, which regards a colony as a dependencygoverned with the sole object of exploitationfor the benefit of the mother-country, andwhich sees in the vanquished merely fit sub-jects for enslavement. Such are Germany'scolonies, and such have been her vanquishedin the provinces wrested from France.In her poetry and literature. Freedom(Freiheit) is a tutelary deity; but she hasnever come down to dwell among her people.

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SOWING THISTLES ANDSo long as there exists what the Germans callMajestdtsbeleidigung {Use majeste), so longas incidents like that of Zabern are logicaland normal, to speak of Freedom is a mereabuse of the term, which betrays a rash con-fidence in the foolish credulity of mankind.And it is this freedom, or the genuinestriving after it, that constitutes the essenceof the mystery which the Kaiser fails tounderstand, and which has brought him sucha bitter harvest of surprise and disillusion-ment. Forty-three years after their conquestand annexation, the provinces of Alsace andLorraine are as far removed from the GermanEmpire in spirit and in aspirations, assuspicious and as aggrieved, as at the momentof their annexation. Twelve years after theloss of their independence, following on ascruel and bloody a war as ever was fought,the conquered Boers sally forth to fight forEngland under the command of Botha him-selfthe last to surrender his sword in thelate conflict.For Great Britain victory did not consti-tute a right to oppress. Before long the

vanquished were granted complete autonomyunder the aegis of the Empire. The Kaisercounted on their disaffection because, looking54


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GATHERING THORNSat home, he imagined the vanquished as sub-ject to oppression and outrage organised intoa system of government. Freedom andequaUty before the law never entered intohis calculations, for he knows nothing of thesethings. The very words have no meaningfor him.

General Beyers, the Commander-in-Chief ofthe South African forces, sent in his resig-nation in order not to assist England. Hedeclared that he forgave, but could not forget ;that he bore in mind the horrors of the warin which his people had been subdued. Inaccepting his resignation, General Smuts, theMinister of Finance and Defence in the Unionof South Africa, wrote to him : " You forgetto mention that since the South African Warthe British people gave South Africa herentire freedom under a Constitution whichmakes it possible for us to realise our nationalideals along our own lines, and which, forinstance, allows you to write with impunitya letter for which you would without doubtbe liable in the German Empire to the ex-treme penalty."In Germany, whoever refuses to join thecolours is shot, as many Socialists have been,and as Samain was for the crime of refusing

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SOWING THISTLESto take up arms against the Fatherland dearto his heart. Prussian miUtarism slays who-ever is not with it, men or nations; hencethe world is up in arms against it, in self-defence.

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VITHE LAWS OF WAR

Up to a comparatively recent period, war re-cognised no difference between combatants andnon-combatants. Each individual memberof one nation went to war with each andevery member of the other. Killing was per-missible under all circumstances, withoutregard to condition, age, or sex ; the right ofprivate property disappeared, and confiscationknew no other bounds than the power or thepleasure of the enemy. There was no refugenor protection for the vanquished : men har-boured no sense of pity in their hearts. Itwas true, remorselessly true, that the onlysalvation for the conquered was to expectnone from the conqueror. Una salus victisnullam sperare salutem.Perhaps the oldest law of war, stated inprecise and concrete terms, is contained inSamuel's exhortation or command to Saul.

Possibly in Nineveh too, in Babylon, in57


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THE LAWS OF WARcise. Without doubt the High Priest wasconscious of the prophetic breath while utter-ing these injunctions, and foresaw that theymust not apply simply and solely to thematter in handthe extermination of Amalek," who laid wait for Israel in the way, when hecame up from Egypt''for that would havebeen to limit the application of his words to apassing act of punishment or vengeance. Oneis not a High Priest for nothing ; it was a ques-tion of legislating for the ageswhich Samueldid, and with marvellous efficacy. To-day,in the twentieth century of the Christian era,Samuel's commands flourish anew, as com-prehensive and as inflexible as though theCrucified had never died on Golgotha toredeem mankind from hatred and error.

** Spare them not." SamuelHigh Priestas he wasknew how to crystallise his teach-ing, and this in its turn was not a seed thatfell on stony or on barren ground. It wascarried out by David, king of kings, and servantof the Lord, with exemplary conscientiousness.

(2 Samuel xii. 29-31) :*' And David gathered all the people to-gether, and went to Rabbah, and foughtagainst it, and took it. 59


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THE LAWS OF WAR" And he took their king's crown from

off his head, the weight whereof was atalent of gold with the precious stones:and it was set on David's head. And hebrought forth the spoil of the city in greatabundance." And he brought forth the people thatwere therein, and put them under saws,and under harrows of iron, and underaxes of iron, and made them pass throughthe brick-kiln : and thus did he unto allthe cities of the children of Ammon. SoDavid and all the people returned untoJerusalem."

Samuel comprised in his words the veryessence of the law of war. Nothing wasomitted. Why should Amalek be extermi-nated ? Because he laid wait for Israel in theway. That was enough. The mere lyingin wait was the crime. We are not toldwhy Israel "came up," or whether he didso rightly or wrongly, or whether in so doinghe injured Amalek or not, or whether Amalekwas justified in lying in wait. Samuel acceptsno excuses: Amalek lay in wait, thereforelet Amalek perish. Thisand remember thatit was a question of fixing the law for succeed-60


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THE LAWS OF WARing generations throughout the ages (forSamuel must have known what he was about)this is beautifully clear and simple. Itexcludes all argument and settles and defineswhat constitutes right and justice withawoman's reason.Samuel did not confine himself to the mere

exposition of his doctrine in the form of aperemptory command. Albeit he was HighPriest, Samuel was mortal, which might havelowered the credit of his word. Samuel founda formula to make his voice ring from centuryto century in the minds of men, continuallyaccumulating authority from tradition, just as,in a cavern, the rolling of the thunder re-doubles with the reverberating echoes. Inreality it was a question of vengeance, carriedto the very extreme of blind and brutalsavagery. What did Samuel do to lenddignity and unimpeachable authority to thisact ? He had recourse to the Almighty, andfixed on Him the tremendous and shamefulresponsibility. " Thus saith the Lord ofhosts." So Samuel became the founder of aschool of blasphemy.And let it not be argued that no estimateof a moral code can be acceptable whichdoes not include, as an essential feature, the

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THE LAWS OF WARscrupulous consideration of the current ideasconstituting the moral atmosphere of theperiod in question ; and that it is not legiti-mate to apply the moral standards of ourday, when mercy is on the lips of all and inthe hearts of some, to a stage of human de-velopment in which the lex talionis exactedan eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.Let it not be argued thus; for Jehovah isone and unchangeable, in whose hands eternityis less thaa a grain of sand upon the seashore.Another explanation is possible : that Samuelfashioned a Jehovah to serve the hatesand passions of Samuel. And this latter isthe true explanation. For the rest, now asalways, the negation of pity is the negationof God.From Samuel onwards, in the course ofthe centuries, there has been no bold, blood-thirsty ruffian who, wittingly or unwittingly,has not followed Samuel's precedent. Menand women have been vilified, humiliated,tortured, sacrificed and enslaved, in the nameof God, by all the villains in history. All ofthem, we may say, at all times and on alloccasions, have blazoned the name of God ontheir infamous banners ; and from the greatcriminals the practice has spread to those of62


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THE LAWS OF WARlesser degree. The political highwaymen inthe revolutionary countries of America, amongothers, usurp the name of God to cloakrobbery and murder. The system has beenperfected. Religion is confined to a fac-tion; God in His turn is part of religion.Those who, in temporal affairs, oppose thefactionas Amalek opposed Israelare ipsofacto enemies of God, and** spare themnot."But the abuse of the system by gentry of

little repute would end by bringing it intodiscredit. The danger of this increased indirect proportion to the progressive develop-ment of the baleful spirit of analysis andperverse curiosity of our time. P^ortunatelyfor the system, if not for humanity, thecrowned lords of Potsdam and Vienna nowcome forth, sword in hand, to defend it,among others, and they say to terror-strickenhumanity, " None shall be spared who opposeus." From the commands of Samuel to thedoctrines of Bernhardi, from Saul to theKaiserto the latter's people at leastwe passwithout break in continuity.The spirit of mercy, based on the teachingof Christ, was slowly working towards miti-gating the horrors of warseeing that in the63


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THE LAWS OF WARpresent condition of mankind it is impossibleto abolish them, which would mean theabolition ofwar itself. And so, certain humani-tarian practices were springing up for sup-pressing unnecessary cruelty and the uselessdestruction of wealth, for ameliorating thelot of the wounded and the prisoners, and forprotecting the life and property of non-combatants; all this without weakening thesupreme law of war, which admits of every-thing short of the most flagrant cruelty andinfamy to secure victory, or, as the phraseis, to fulfil the exigencies of military law,which is the law of triumph.

It is to the United States of America thatthe honour belongs of having made the firstattempt to codify the laws of war in a spiritof watchful altruism. This attempt took theform of '' Instructions for the government ofarmies in the field," issued in 1863 by Mr.Seward, the Secretary for War.The following clauses illustrate the standardadopted :

** Military necessity, as understood bymodern civilised nations, consists in thenecessity of those measures which areindispensable for securing the ends of the64


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THE LAWS OF WARwar, and which are lawful according tothe modern law and usages of war." Military necessity admits of all directdestruction of life or limb of armedenemies, and of other persons whosedestruction is incidentally unavoidable inthe armed contests of the war ; it allowsof the capturing of every armed enemy,and every enemy of importance to thehostile government, or of peculiar dangerto the captor ; it allows of all destructionof property, and obstruction of the waysand channels of traffic, travel, or com-munication, and of all withholding ofsustenance or means of life from theenemy ; of the appropriation of whateveran enemy's country affords necessary forthe subsistence and safety of the army,and of such deception as does not involvethe breaking of good faith either posi-tively pledged, regarding agreementsentered into during the war, or supposedby the modern law of war to exist. Menwho take up arms against one another inpublic war do not cease on this accountto be moral beings, responsible to oneanother and to God.

" Military necessity does not admit ofE 65


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THE LAWS OF WARcrueltythat is, the infliction of sufferingfor the sake of suffering or of revenge,nor of maiming or wounding except infight, nor of torture to extort confessions.It does not admit of the use of poisonin any way, nor of the wanton devasta-tion of a district. It admits of deception,but disclaims acts of perfidy; and, ingeneral, military necessity does not in-clude any acts of hostility which makethe return of peace unnecessarily difficult."

In 1864 the principal European Powerssigned the Geneva Convention for the ameli-oration of the condition of the sick andwounded of armies in the field ; to-day almostevery civilised nation has adhered to thisconvention. It was due to the initiative ofM. Jean Henri Dunant, a citizen of Geneva,who was moved by infinite pity for the fateof thousands of wounded men, whom he hadseen dying, helpless and in agony, on thefield of Solferino after the battle.

In 1868 the Powers signed at St. Petersburg(now Petrograd) an agreement prohibiting theuse of explosive projectiles below certaindimensions. In 1899 the First Peace Confer-ence met at The Hague, and adopted a " con-66


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THE LAWS OF WARvention with respect to the laws and customsof war on land," following very closely thespirit of the instructions issued by the UnitedStates. This convention was ratified, and itsscope extended, at the Second Peace Confer-ence in 1907. It is supplemented by furtherconventions signed at this Second Conference," respecting the limitation of the employmentof force for the recovery of contractual debts,""relative to the opening of hostilities," "re-specting the rights and duties of neutralpowers and persons in case of war on land,"and "relative to the laying of automaticsubmarine contact mines."The nations signatory to the Convention

regulating war on land expressly laid it downin the preamble to this solemn instrumentthat " the cases not provided for should not,for want of a written provision, be left to thearbitrary judgment of the military com-manders," and that " in cases not included inthe Regulations adopted by them, populationsand belligerents should remain under the pro-tection and empire of the principles of inter-national law, as they result from the usagesestablished between civilised nations, fromthe laws of humanity, and the requirementsof the public conscience."

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THE LAWS OF WARAll this is contrary to Samuel's simple law :

"destroy all that they have and spare themnot." The distance between this simpleformula and the complex regulations of theHague Conferences, which is only a first step,represents a slow and painful process of gesta-tion in the human mind, an irrepressibleimpulse of love and compassion for thewounded, the helpless, and the unprotected,as human beings, without distinction ofnationality or race. Small as are the re-sults obtained, they are nevertheless a germof consolation, and whoever transgressesthem commits a double crime against thehuman race : the violation of a covenant ofmercy and the annihilation of all hopes ofemancipation from arbitrary and ruthlessviolence as a law of life among men.Writing in 1889, the Enghsh jurist, W. E.Hall, in the introduction to his book on Inter-national Law, says :

"And it would be idle also to pretendthat Europe is not now in great likeli-hood moving towards a time at whichthe strength of international law will betoo hardly tried. Probably in the nextgreat war the questions which have ac-

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THE LAWS OF WARcumulated during the last half centuryand more, will all be given their answersat once. Some hates moreover willcrave for satisfaction; much envy andgreed will be at work; but above all,and at the bottom of all, there will bethe hard sense of necessity. Wholenations will be in the field; the com-merce of the world may be on the seato win or lose ; national existence willbe at stake ; men will be tempted to doanything which will shorten hostilitiesand tend to a decisive issue. Conductin the next great war will certainly behard ; it is very doubtful if it will bescrupulous, whether on the part of belli-gerents or neutrals ; and most likely thenext war will be great. But there canbe very little doubt that if the next waris unscrupulously waged, it also will befollowed by a reaction towards increasedstringency of law."

This prophecy has been fulfilled withintwenty-five years of its utterance. Themutterings of the storm which to-day agi-tates the universal conscience, are mutteringsof accusation, and the Prussian armies are

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THE LAWS OF WARthe accused. In every war accusations ofatrocities by one belligerent against the othersupervene, which afterwards either do notmaterialise, or turn out to have been magni-fied beyond all recognition. But Louvain,Dinant, Termonde, and Rheims admit of noexcuse or palliation; they corroborate, byinference, the accusations which are heard onall sides of the shooting of unarmed civilians,regardless of condition or sex, and they estab-lish the historic fact that the God of theKaiser is the fierce and vindictive Jehovah,and not the God who preached the law oflove and forgiveness by the mouth of theCrucified. Why was Amalek exterminated ?Because he laid wait for Israel in the way,when he came up from Egypt. Why do thePrussians ravage Belgium? Why do theyslaughter her innocent inhabitants ? Whydo they burn her towns and villages and laywaste her fields ? Because she resisted Prussia,when Prussia broke her pledged word and** came up " against France. The nationwhich claims to wield the sceptre of cul-ture goes back thousands of years into thetwilight of history for precedents of violence.This is a reversion to barbarism pure andsimple.70


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THE LAWS OF WARIn order to instil terror, precept goes in thevan of practice. The written word will live

long after the present turmoil of grief andrage, of grasping ambition and heroic en-deavour, has been blotted out in the mercifulgloom of oblivion, and only the funda-mental outlines of history stand out againstthe dark background. This written wordwill be a lasting memorial of shame.In a decree issued in the name of theGerman authorities at Rheims, it is stated,among other things, that :

** With the object of providing an ade-quate guarantee for the safety of thetroops and of inducing a spirit of calmin the city, the persons indicated belowhave been seized and retained as host-ages by the Commander-in-Chief of theGerman forces. These hostages will behanged on the slightest attempt at dis-order. Further, the city will be whollyor partly burned, and its inhabitantshanged, for any violation whatever ofthese orders."

The following proclamation was issued bythe Commander of the German forces atGrivegnee, near Liege :

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THE LAWS OF WAR"Important Notice.

"Township of Grivegnee."Major Dieckmann warns the inhabitants

that:*' 1. Before 4 o'clock in the afternoon ofthe 6th September 1914, all arms, am-munition, explosives and fireworks still inthe possession of the inhabitants must bedeposited at the Chateau des Bruyeres.Whoever disobeys this order will be liableto be shot. He will be shot on the spotor else executed, unless he can prove thathe is not at fault.

"2. All the inhabitants of occupiedhouses in the localities of Beyne-Heusay,Grivegnee, Bois-de-Breux and Fleron,must return to their houses at nightfall(which is now at 7 p.m. German time).The aforementioned houses are to belighted as long as anyone is up. Theouter doors must be closed. Anyonewho does not obey these directionsrenders himself liable to be severelypunished. Any resistance to orders willbe punished by death." 3. The Commandant must not meet

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THE LAWS OF WAR" 6. From the list which is submitted

to me I will designate persons who shallbe hostages from midday till the follow-ing midday. If the substitute is notthere at the correct time, the hostagemust remain another 24 hours at thefort. After these 24 hours the hostagewill incur the penalty of death, if thesubstitute has not presented himself.

** 7. Priests, Burgomasters, and Mem-bers of the Administration are to be takenfirst as hostages." 8. I insist that all the civilians whomove in my district, particularly those ofBeyne-Heusay,Fl^ron, Bois-de-Breux andGrivegn^e, show their respect to theGerman officers by taking off theirhats, or lifting their hands to their headsin military salute. In case of doubt,every German soldier must be saluted.Anyone who disregards this must ex-pect the military to make themselves re-spected by every means."

9. The German soldiers are permittedto inspect all vehicles, parcels, etc., of allinhabitants of the neighbourhood. Inthis connexion all resistance will beseverely punished.


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THE LAWS OF WAR" 10. Whoever knows that quantities

greater than 100 litres of petroleum,benzine, benzol, or any similar liquid isto be found at a given place in the above-mentioned Communes, and who does notinform the military Commandant there,when there is no doubt as to the place orthe quantity, incurs death. Quantitiesof 100 litres only are referred to."11. Anyone who does not obey theorder * hands up ' renders himself liableto be shot." 12. Entrance to the Chateau desBruyeres, and also of the drives in thepark, is forbidden under penalty of deathbetween dusk and dawn, between 6 p.m.and 6 a.m. (German time), to all personswho are not soldiers of the Germanarmy.

** 13. During the daytime entrance isonly permitted by the North-West gate,where the guard is, to persons holdingpermits. In the interests of the popula-tion, persons are not permitted to assemblein the proximity of the guard.

** 14. Whoever spreads false news, liableto lower the moral of the German troops,and whoever makes any plans directed

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THE LAWS OF WARagainst the German army, will be a sus-pect, and runs the risk of being shot onthe spot."15. While, by the above regulations,the inhabitants of the district of FortressIllb. are threatened with severe punish-ments if they infringe these regulationsin any way, these same people, if theyshow themselves peaceable, can count onthe most benevolent protection and helpon every occasion when harm is or mightbe done to them." 16. Demands for the giving of afixed quantity of cattle are made daily,from 10 to 12 in the morning and from2 to 3 in the afternoon, at the Chateaudes Bruyeres by the Cattle Commission.

"17. Whoever injures or attempts toinjure the German army by taking ad-vantage of the Red Cross flag, and isdiscovered, will be hanged." (Signed) Dieckmann," Commandant'Major,"

Copy certified correct :" The Burgomaster : Victor Hodeige."Grivegnee, 8/^ September 1914."

And yet Prussia had covenanted that theappreciation of the circumstances should not76


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THE LAWS OF WARbe left to the arbitrary judgment of militarycommanders, and that the populations shouldremain under the protection of internationallaw. It is true, on the other hand, wemust admit, that the gallant Commander-in-Chief assures the above-mentioned inhabitants" the most benevolent protection and help onevery occasion when harm is or might bedone to them." So circumstances alter cases.After all, how can one dare to ask for more ?

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VIITHE LAW OF NECESSITY

Necessity knows no law. So runs the Latinproverb: Necessitas caret lege. To-day thislawwhich is no lawis invoked anew tojustify the violation, actual or potential, ofevery established law. So we go back fromthe precise to the vague, from the logical tothe arbitrary. Truly, it is not a sign of pro-gress, still less of culture, without which thereis no progress.The civilised nations form a communitywhich we call the Family of Nations. Inancient times this did not exist: the greatempires were the only nations. In the MiddleAges the conditions changed but little; thebreak-up of the Roman Empire, the growthof the feudal system, the consolidation of theroyal power, were steps leading up to themore precise formation of nationalities, effectedin its fundamental outlines by the Renaissance,and perfected in our own times.78


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THE LAAV OF NECESSITYThe members of this Family of Nations,

like the human beings composing each one ofthem, live subject to certain usages, customs,and traditions, and to written laws which, forgreater solemnity, at times take the form oftreaties ; these are only arrived at by pro-tracted bargaining and laborious analysis untila formula is found adequate to the case incontemplation. The nations which composethis Family are for the most part Christian,as is clear from the ostensible aim of theiractions. They are bound to one another, invarying degrees of closeness, according to thespecial circumstances, by the exigencies oftrade and industry; international commercewas, and is, the cement that binds togetherthe universal structure on which present-daycivilisation is based. Besides a common re-ligious tendency, there is communitywhichis not to say identityof standards in moralityand art, in poetic conception, and in historicattitude towards the phenomena of life.Science is common propertya field of labourin which the furrow yields its fruit for thebenefit of all and to the defrauding of none.The scanty measure of truth wrung fromnature and from life since man came into theworld, constitutes the most precious treasure

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THE LAW OF NECESSITYof the human race ; and the moral ideas whichrestrain the voracious appetite and create aharmony of effort, producing co-operation in-stead of a struggle of extermination, are thevery quintessence of this acquired truth.These moral ideas become modified in thecourse of centuries ; their tendency towardsthe truth is, however, their lasting and valu-able feature.

Bring in a universal cataclysm, levelling allthe fabric of man's hand, whether cathedralsor cottages, with the dust, and destroying allthe products of the ages over the face of thewhole earth, and on this leave man, crushedby the catastrophe, naked and defencelessbeneath an inclement and vindictive sky ; butleave him the memory of this acquired truthand his moral ideas, and soon cities will springup over the plains, the ruined industries willrise again vigorous and flourishing, and civilisa-tion, strengthened and purified by the disaster,will emerge once more victorious.On the other hand, spare all the creationsof man, and all the elements which to-daymake up the complex system of his restlessand feverish existence ; do not remove a shipfrom the sea, nor an aeroplane from the air,nor a shuttle from the loom, nor a retort from80


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THE LAW OF NECESSITYthe laboratory ; but cast the shadow of oblivionover his mind, take away his conception ofjustice, thus restoring the empire of appetiteunchecked, and you will have created thepretended law of necessity. And so the nightof barbarism will fall on a crushed and con-temptible humanity.The law of necessity, in international poli-

tics, is a euphemism which serves to cloakabuse, threatened in its endeavour to turnaside the currents which are stifling it. Themilitarism which oppresses Europe felt theground failing beneath its feet. The wave ofrevolt grew more menacing every day. Thestarving peoples demanded their share in thegood things of life. Oppression and abuse,multiform and omnipresent, culminated andfound a common goal in armaments a outi^ance,Prussia resisted all attempts to reduce thesearmaments, and drove Europe on a headlongcareer towards the abyss to which she hasnow arrived.

Behind Prussian militarism there shelterthe tyrannical and medieval traditions of im-perialism, the stolid and brutal idiosyncrasyof the Junker, and, first and foremost, thevery existence of the internal political andsocial system of Germany, a land in which

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THE LAW OF NECESSITYthere is abundance of discipline and a lack ofliberty.Crushed against the wall of logic, which isharder than granite, Prussia takes refuge incynicism, and being unable to palliate or togive an honest appearance to her actions, shethrows all principles to the wind. Allegingthe law of necessity, she preaches faithlessnessand falsehood as the supreme guiding prin-ciples in international life ; for this is whatthe declaration amounts to, that internationaltreatiesor any other treatiescan be violatedwhenever the interests of one of the partiesrequire it.

Dr. Dernburg, formerly German ImperialMinister for the Colonies, as the authorisedrepresentative of his country in the UnitedStates, whither he has gone to enlist thesympathy of the American public for thePrussian cause, expresses himself as followsin the New York Times (6th October 1914) :

" Nations are fully justified in violatingthose treaties which prove prejudicial totheir interests. It suited British in-terests to maintain the treaty of Belgianneutrality (guaranteed by Great Britain),and therefore Great Britain upheld it.

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THE LAW OF NECESSITYIt did not suit German interests to main-tain this

treaty (guaranteed by Germanytoo), and therefore Germany violated it."And the egregious ex-Minister of his

Majesty the Kaiser adds, with an artlesscynicism that would put a mountain to theblush :

** As far as I am concerned, I am a fer-vent believer in international agreementsfor the purpose of preventing difficultiesand wars, but at the same time we mustnot exaggerate the value of internationaltreaties."

This doctrine is of royal ancestry ; FrederickWilliam IV, in his speech at the opening ofthe first Prussian Parliament in 1847, said tohis docile audience :

" I will never consent to a written sheetof paper intervening like a second Pro-vidence between God our Lord on highand this earth, to rule us with its con-ditions."

Dr. Dernburg, a most worthy apos

(1915) some aspects of the war santiago perez triana, 1858-1916

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