IS ALL FAIR IN WAR?

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10597, 28 October 1910, Page 6

IS ALL FAIR IN WAR?

(By Colonel F. N. Maude.)

Whatever race may have been the inventor of the old.saying, "All is fair in love and war," our own Anglo-Saxon forefathers were very far indeed from accepting it uiiiesoiif dl\ in « ith< i ca«e Indeed, as apolicd Lo wai, th< v loicctcd it cntiich as H was tonsideitd the art of an untutored barbarian to begin a campaign without the pic mentation ot a formal challenge to meet at a given time and place on a field which was carefully "enhazelcd" —i.e., marked out with about tilt '■ame rjieciiion as a polo .grdumi. Unf artimateh, much of tins »puit still survives in us, our comments on the shmness of the Boers during the South Ai'i ican war .and the fatuous nubpcihty of 4 our politicians in Bonding repiesent'atives to'the Convention at the FTagno aie sufficient proois ot "the fact, and' it is time that' some effort 1 was made'- to open "the 'eyes of therratiou to the dangers it,is lucurrnifi by its obstinate adherence to bvgono notions founded on-the customs of the pnsie-ring. - . The leal truth lovealed by military historj is that with each- succeeding' geneiation the tendency has been to ignore in practice the lostrafnts upon' the conduct of hostilities which the cus~' torn of cnilised countiies ioimerly iinposed—and, it is sad to have to lecoid, it, we were the gieatest sinnois and profitciLinost laigelv by our iniquities It-may be some cousolation, bowev<y, to icmcmber that wo at least sinned on the giand scale, the captuie ot Spanish tieasine ships bv Nelson, and the destruction of the Danish fleet affei fhc peace ot G ikvt had nothing petty 'about them, like the treacherous tucks *b\ which the Fiench gamed the Foiticss. of Pampeiuna, 01 suipiiscd the passage oi< the Danube in 1805 at Vienna. The point, howevei, leir.ains that '/urn the outbieak of the Fiench Hethose nations have thiiven Ivst \>V> have cast aside all notions of cJhvali\ in war and acted up to the !elentl"ss deotiine oi "All is fair in •par," emploMiig tucks and artifices as low as the lowest with, which modem conuiiciwalisnj. has made us familiar. E-eiy >eai foreign statesmen aie learning to look upon wai —to crtioLe one ol then deepest thmkeis —"as 'a 101 m of commercial competition," and aie preparing to apply, without the limitations the existence of'the law couits and ihc police impose on nididuals, the same principles which competing iums employ against one anothei in even-day business. Th" most advanced American trusts

cdn voulcl diaw the lmc at Napo- [ h s expedient of issuing false rouble )iD in hi& Russian campaign of 1812, )Ul the lestiarmng foice in theli case is not moiolite, but expediency, foi foigeie would bung them into col'.sion with the police, and the Tombs 01 would be the ultimate issue Imagm" men of this fibre, fiee iiom all iogaTiestiaint and lighting for all the> held most sacied —ic, homes, wines md cinldie I—what1 —what limit can one assign tj .then actions 0 . German statesmen have, alt the stic.iu.th of chaiactei of these men, but 'inj."cntnc unselfishness with regard to ,- . etarj considerations 1 enders them ~ioie danaerous in the pursuit of hm, ldcils Eveiv one them has beci broiurht up to belieie implicitly I t i'i the overwhelming cause of their oii«\ all things arc expedient, it is, ,i t'et, the onlv law tile's recognise r<- it to be supposed that in the ,i ,m ni'c name of dutv thee would hcsit'f to romei the wheat oi gold maiK.l, .ind send up the price of provisions o auv height necessary to compel their noun to bow to their will 0 Aftei all, \ ' "i di(fnonce is there between creats famine m a besieged city by mcult In the simpler piocess of i mail rre'Jtion —<i step that no Chicigo into' would check foi one momci.t if m s.iw his opportunity ° To cit off the Vatei tuppl' of a besieged cite is one of the ieie fast opeiatnTis undeitaken in an mi estment, but wam of watei creates greatei sufrei mg nrd fa moie disease than hungei orlj , \ct fi'iioush, we oxpiess om uidigna-■'i-n> i'i immeasuied terms when our ccnii-sa\age enemies in the desert fill im their wells with dead camels and J..ic poico'i the water. Hitheito all Vinope.ui l.ves lir.c dii"" the line at poisoning the water \ it!i mitiobcs —possibl\ because in the pi«s n 'il state oi "mitr.n science Lhe ienvd\ is too ei-iU ipoV'l—hut waiter "an ho cvphnod to dest'ov life m othei ■in\s O'lh as icccith as 1870 the Geimans, „!nb n\cstmg Metz diew up a plan in d.iu the Moselle hdow the cite, and lhu« to diown the inhabitants out The r^a l ! 1,11 actu illv appioeod at> headaiivleis,, <ilkl m.il ongmceis were called up Lorn tlie Rhine to check the le\els and .ioik out the details Fotturaleh foi the "Fieijfh, the theodolite levelled sciioiis cuois m then rtwn «ur\ o> sheets, and the plan was diopped not beciuse it wo<ild hue been wicked, hat because it would have taken many thousands of workmen nearly a year to complete it —and these could not have been fed without mteifeiu-g with the supplv arrangements of the held aimj. Instances could be multiplied in which the sense oF moialit\ was lacking, and onh that ef expedience lemained to neit terrible suffering delibeiateh brought about for the furtherance of 'ftnni ends. - Ex imples ol such actions might be multiplied almost indefinitely, and ,this sinister fact about all of them remains is a lesson W hen the\ have been successful, the public opinion of the nation v Inch employed thern has invariably cordoned the total lack of humanitnnanism involved m their application. The point foi us to consider m the time ect available for preparation for the great decision now befoie us is, where will onr enemies diaw the line, or will thev diaw no line at all, but press the piinciplc—"All is fair m wai" —to its ultimate logical conclusion 0