WAR CRIMES.
SCATHING INDICTMENT
UNPABAIiIiELED ENEMY ATROCITIES. (Australian and NJZ. Cable AsßOcmtios) LONDON, Saturday. Official: The Sub-Commission dealing with facts relating to the responsibility for tlio war and the violation of the laws of war and principles of humanity, lias submitted an interim report. It forms a terrible indictment against the enemy Powers. Mr Massey was chairman of the Sub-Commission, and also chairman of its drafting committee. The Sub-Commission, after eliminating the weak eases, states that facts are sufficiently established to justify, inter alia, the conclusions that the war was premeditated by the Central Powers, together with Turkey and Bulgaria, and was the result of acts deliberately committed in order to make it unavoidable; also that the war was carried on by the Central Empires and their allies by barbarous and illegitimate methods, in violation of the established laws and customs of war, and the elementary principles of humanity.
Tlio Sub-Commission enumerates tlie enemy's offences into over thirty separate and distinct groups, which "beggar all previous calendars of crime and have no parallel in history. The list includes:— Massacre. Torture. Starvation. Deportation. Brutal internment of civilians. Uape. Abduction for enforced prostitution. Pillage and wanton destruction of religious and historic buildings and monuments. Sudden ami brutal attacks on merchant, passenger, relief and hospital ships. Abuse of Red Cross and ilags of truce. Use of poisonous gases and explosive bullets. Poisoning of wells. 111-treatment of prisoners of war. Probably a tribunal will bo set up to deal with the offenders whose names and positions are not for the meantime published for obvious reasons. The detailed facts represent an appalling record. The main Commission lias not yet made a final report to Paris. The Daily Mail, referring to Mr Massey's work on the Commission, says:— •' The members appreciated his practical views of policy matters. He has directness of method and shrewd judgment.'•'
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Bibliographic details
Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13781, 10 March 1919, Page 5
Word Count
309WAR CRIMES. Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 45, Issue 13781, 10 March 1919, Page 5
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