"NECESSITY KNOWS NO LAW."

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 166, 11 July 1918, Page 8

"NECESSITY KNOWS NO LAW."

°l: Toi Commit Perjury—(a) By invading and'ruining, Belgium, a" country ' whose neutrality and independence shehas sworn to s'afeguarrd. (Treaty of - 1831; articles 7 and 25); (b) by infringing at her pleasure;, the Articles of the Hague Convention relating to warfare, which she has sworn to observe. 11. To Steal—(a) By pillage ot household goods on the part of her troops during the invasion of Belgium. Prance, and Serbia, which pa-age was' organised::' and corfdmcted' by officers ; (b) by wholesale removal from, Belgium into Germany of the machinery of factories arid raw materials. until the conntry Haa been .virtually stripped of these things. 111. To Make Men and Women iStaTesr-(a) IBy forcing Belgian and French" t people to make munitions of •war for her in Belgium and France; (c) ! by deporting many thousands ot Belgian and Frenrh people into Oer,manv and there forcing them to work for her. . IV. To Torture —(a) By -starving auto submission those whom she has deported, (b) 'by"''brutally ill-treating prisoners of war; (e) by savagely mutilatnng men, women, and ' children in. Belgiumand France. , , , V. To Commit A rson-—By whol esal e trarning of Belgian aid French towns arid" villages upon." the flimsiest pretext of -punishment for "disorder" on the. part-of the population of the invaded territory. ."': . ■'- ■ _- .VI. To.Massacre and Murder—(a) By wholesale shooting of hostages taken, an denancs of her own pledge, from Belgian- and French towns and villages : (b) by>the indiscriminate slaughter of the .men,'•women, and children of such towns and -villages as a punishment for ' VII. To Commit. Crimes Against Women arid GirH —«A.* one other part of an-organised plan for terrorising invaded territory. ."''',, , VIII. To Commit Judicial Murder. example, in the cases of Nurse

Cavell and Captain Fryatt. IX. To commit Piracy—By her use of submarines against enemy and neutral vessels, sinking them at sight and drowning: their crews. Jt To dropping bombs from aircraft on open towns. That Germany was the fir?t of the belagerents' to do this is abundantly XI. To torpedo without warning grfeat steamships crowded with men). women, and children, both enemy and . XII.-"'To Conspire to Murder—(a) By blowing up' munitions factories -in the United States; (b) by placing bombs fit'neutral steamships. XITL To introduce the use of asphyxiating gas and liquid fire in violation of her : own pledge in the Hague Conventions. . . To place living screens of civilian*, in front of her own attacking troops.\ . ','.,,• c XV. To destroy buildings of priceless historical and artistic value, for instance: Louvaire Library. X'VI. To poison wells. XVII. : To torpedo hospital ships ■without warning, and otherwise make -war*-noon the Red Cross. If 'Germany wins- the war there will henceforth be no law in Europe any longer. The only test of what is right .will De —'Roes it pay to do these things? , % - ' The civilised world means to snow that it does not'oav to break the law of-nations and destroy the very foundations of human' freedom and happi-ness.—-{From the Beacon No. 4).