STATUS OF PARASHOTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 September 1940, Page 8

STATUS OF PARASHOTS

RULES OF WAR The status according to the rules of war of parashots and other members of Britain’s civilian army is discussed by a London correspondent in the latest issue of “The New Zealand Law Journal.” “Though England has not for nearly a thousand years suffered invasion other countries have not been so fortunate. The natural desire of a people to rise against the aggressor has raised questions of their privileges as combatants which are not yet settled,” he writes. “Even if, as has been argued, a country has a right to make war and invade its neighbour, it must conduct its operations by regular forces and according to the laws of war. And though the right of defence is not confined to the regular forces of the invaded country, yet military authorities, specially when they are German, do not look with favour on local patriotism. It was in the Franco-German War of 1870 that the French francs tireurs got into trouble for endangering the precious lives of Bismarck’s soldiers, and Germans, though not denying the legality, of a levee en masse, take a stricter view oh the matter than other States. “However, The Hague Convention of 190.7 as to the laws of war allows volunteer'corps the rights of belligerents provided they have a responsible commander, have a fixed distinctive emblem recognisable at a distance, carry arms openly, and observe the laws and customs of war. “Germany, it seems, requires all four of these conditions to be observed, though an article accepted by other countries dispenses, in the case of a spontaneous rising against an invader, with the first two. The Local Defence Volunteers who are now being raised will, no doubt, satisfy all the conditions.”