The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA: TUESDAY, May 23. REPRISALS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XLII, Issue 91, 23 May 1916, Page 5

The Clutha Leader. BALCLUTHA: TUESDAY, May 23. REPRISALS.

Wlii'lin'i' it is justifiable to avenge j tlie inhumanities committed by the Germans in ourse ot' the war by rejn'isais in liimi has of late been keenly debated on hoth sides; but fortunately fur the maintenance of present standards of civilisation authoritative ojniiiou mostly discountenances such reprisals. Those who advocate revenge in kind arc, we may suppose, impelled by the horror and indignation naturally roused by German atrocities. Th® man or woman must be a poor specimen of humanity indeed who is not moved to rifjlitcou, wrath and passionate pity by smdi atrocities as the torpedoing of the biisitania, the "gassing" of our troops in the West, the brutalities inflicted 011 helpless civilians and on prisoners. But ran it under any circumstances be justifiable to avenge such horrors hv imitating them Those who urge retaliation are moved, we think, mainly by anger, but they adduce practical reasons for the imitation of German ruthlessness. The only way, they say, to prevent cruel treatment of British prisoners is to make it recognised that such treatment I "ill I'an-c German prisoners to be J treated with severity, but we do not think that anyone has contemplated the Waet following out of German barbarities, hut merely harsher treatment than lias hecn habitual. So far as we know the only jirisottors singled out for unfavourable ireatineiit by the British have been the crews of the submarines I Mgaged in the piratical sinking of merchant vessels, and the experiment does tot appear to have been satisfactory, as it bas merely aroused the ire of the Ger* »au commanders and authorities and given the))' it pretext for further harsh treatment of 'British prisoners. The re* suit should have been anticipated. Reillation is a game iu which the honourable ;u>d humane are heavily handicapped. With regard to instruments and' Methods of waging war it may indeed tappen that one side must imitate the Mer or put itself at a hopeless diaMvaatage, but here the motive is praccal necessity, not revenge. The Allies we tf > sonic extend followed the Germans in their use of gas, though they "wild not of themselves have adopted Mi'h a weapon. But they have not dcfi'Td in indict, on the rank and file of Gfrmans the tortures suffered by British mi I rone I] gas-si ricken soldiers, and the ? as they have used is comparatively armless, oulv temporarily ineapacitatthose exposed to it. l'he question of ''tsliation has been particularly kecDly 'bated with regard to the Zeppelin tt'ds on Britain. Sir Arthur Conan °)lp among others suggested that each '"'id should be followed by Rf aeroplane raids 011 any convenient loi' man !<nv " s ' ai "' kord Roseberry fole« this up, deprecating the "passive Hen eX r* MVe l' at i ent ' e " °' his countrytop' US| " ' ie sa )' s > "bring home tlic iniquities they have been to'fch US mC *° ° U ' ; measure «„"»«*•«! no other remonstrance iust ? e^e - t ' ve ''' Lord Roseberry has j; , f D drawing a picture of the inCt .u tlminate wrecking of mansion and of c ' lur ' : ' 1 an d school; the slaughter twfl en ' women an d babes, and he' profcred't Ur^e tliat we ®i loU id similarly «. .. omes and kill and maim unliWn g P eo P !e! How can one de- » coudeain aed wholehearUdty

abhor actions and at the same time desire to.do likewise? The proper line of ■direct retaliation for the Zeppelin outrages is that which with but or two exceptions has been followed by the allied air service—carefully planned assaults on military positions and munition works and storehouses. Many leading Englishmen have most strongly protested against the line of conduct advocated by Sir A. Conau Doyle and Lord Roseberry, among them Sir Evelyn Wood and Rev. Dr Sanday, of Oxford. The. latter well says: "It is a strange kind of homeopathy to suppose that we should check these atrocities by adding to them. The only result would be to drive up the standard of ruthlessness in war, and that is high enough already. Let the enemy fill up his cup to the brim. It is not in vain that the whole world is looking' on. When the time comes for the great convention of the nations at the end of the war let us at least go into it with clean hands." There is grave danger that this tremendous war and the bitterness awakened in its course may result in a lowering of the moral standards of nations affected by it. All thinking people, all sincere patriots, should strive so far as iu them lies to prevent this. Britain would indeed be conquered by Germany in a most terrible sense if driven to abandon her previous high standards of humanity, honour and chivalry.