The Wanganui Chronicle "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1916. PUNISHING GERMAN CRIMES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 16824, 1 December 1916, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1916. PUNISHING GERMAN CRIMES.

Germany's ruthless defiance of the claims of humanity and the recognised rules of international law has caused many people to regard it hopeless, henceforth to try to formulate mi-1 proved codes for the conduct of war. This, however, is not the view of Hugh L. Beilot, D.C.L., wlio writes as a jurist in th«j "Nineteenth Century anrl After 7 on the prevention and punishment of wai- crimes. He contends that it Should be the .first duty of the Allies, on the conclusion of peace, to cart i), conference of all the Powefs, great! and small, for th 3 revision of. the laws of war on land or sea. The Powers which became signatories to the revised coda should be invited to incoiv porate its provisions in their own military and naval law, so that their courts could enforce it on any delinquents who came within the reach of their authority, as prisoners of war, as intern, ed belligerents, as fugitives, or as visitors after or during the war in whieih, the offence was committed. The actual perpetrators o^war crimes should be held responsible as well as the prime instigators who ordered them. Each offence against the regulations shouM have its penalty set forth, and offend-* era would thus meet with the prescribed penalty whenever they fell into ths hands of the injured party, whether belligerent Or neutral. As to the prevention \ ; .f further outrages during the present war, Dr Beilot suggests that as reprisals are perilous, since Germany can beat the Allies.hopelessly in any rivalry of that kind owing to her being 'restrained by no scruples of decency or chivalry, war criminals who fair into the hands of the, Allies: should simply be "earmarked" for trial after the war. "The public opinion of the civilised) world will not," he says, /'rest satisfied unless, upon th,e termination of the conflict, not onu"y the instigators, bub also the actual perpetrators of the more heinous offences against the usages of war are brought to trial before some impartial tribunal.'* Hence he would have the Allies make acceptance by the Central Powers of a court specially constituted for the trial of war crimes committed during the war as an essential preliminary 'to any" peace settlement. "Composed of eminent civilian judges versed in criminal law and practice, *nd appointed by , the Entente Powers from their own judicial ranks, such i court would," fee | declares, ''prove as impartial a tribunal as any likely to be obtained." Dr Bellot thinks that some such course was fore-shadowed in Mr Asquith's statement that Great Britain would not tolerate the resumption of' diplomatic intercourse with Germany after >the war until reparation had been madle for the murder of Captain Fryafct and similar outrages. "Unless," he argues, "some such action be taken—and the tendency in official quarters is usually towards smoothing over these troublesome terms in a peace settlement—precedents will have been created which will render war in future even more terrible to non-combatants, belligerent and neutral alike, than vr, has proved in the present struggle. The right to commit atrocities in the name of military necessity, claimed by *,te Central Powers, must not go unchallenged. The offenders must.be brought to justice, not in a spirit of revenge, not even with the desire to punish the individual, but in order that those 'stipulations of international law' and those 'sentiments of humanity and civilisation' to which Marsohell yon Bieberstein, Germany's representative at the Hague Conference of 1907, paid such eloquent lip-service, may be vindicated and maintained."