WAR CRIMES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 273, 3 November 1916, Page 6

WAR CRIMES.

“War Crimes: their Prevention and Punishment,” is the subject ot an article in the “Nineteenth Centurv.” bv Dr. Hugh H. L. Bellot. Despite the German doctrine that military necessity is paramount to all other considerations, he says, and, despite the fact that the Germans ihave ridden roughshod over the established usages of war and the principles of international law, no great moral ideal has ever wholly vanished from the earth. The principle upon which international law rests, that of justice, is eternal. The British Government, in conjunction with our Allies, should convey to the Central Empires in unmistakable terms that they will treat as “war criminals.” not only the authors and instigators of outrages upon humanity, but also the actual perpetrators of all violations of the laws and usages of war, whether acting under orders or not. It would, Dr. Bellot thinks, act as a wholesome restraint. The acceptance by the Central Powers of a Court spcciallv constituted for the trial of war crimes committed during the war should be made an essential preliminary to any peace settlement. The right to commit atrocities in the name of military necessity must not go unchallenged. The offenders must be brought to justice, not in a spirit of revenge, but in order that those “stipulations of international law” and these “sentiments of humanity and civilisation” to which Germany’s representative at toe Hague Conference of 1907. paid such eloquent lip-service, may be vindicated and maintained.