The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-07-21
DELEGATES DISCUSS
| 1 Jaws OF WARFARE
The Status Of Volunteers Comes
Before Peace Conference for
Consideration.
G i, !; y PROPOSALS
Suggests That No Belligerent
Shall Accept Services Of Volun-
teers From Neutral State.
GERM AlNY's PROPOSALS
TIE HAGUE July %

Z i Z . +
1t is interesting to study tho character
OF the proposals laid before the commis-
sion on the laws and customs of land
warfare. In the spirit If not in the letter
of each you may read the fear and men-
AGO of nation.
X Take the German proposals. for exam-
pie. Germany has a great army and Q
vast population trained to arms She is
not likely to- stand In need of alien help
to repel invasion Therefore she has sug-
sested that no belligerent shall accept
the services of volunteers from neutral
states. General de Gundell carried this
principle further by a series OF amend.
ments to the convention of 1880 He de.
manded that militia and volunteers OF
belligerents should wear badges dstin-
guishable from distance. and that in the
event OF. "a sudden rising to repel invasion
which gave no time to conform to the let.
ter of this regulation. arms should be
borne openly. n
Wise Precautions.
These In themselves are wise precau.
lions which England would have vel. 4
coined in South Africa, where 1t wal
impossible to distinguish between com.
Blatant and non-combatant because OF tn,
ease with which men were converted
from one status to the other. But what
of the smaf states. who, must make up
in cunning and deception what they lacl
in strength Of numbers?
Another German proposal grants to thu.
individual citizen what the convention OF
1888 comedies to the population OF al
occupied terrltory-that they shall not b
, forced to take part In military opera
tons against their own country General
! Poortugael, Holland, supplemented this
provision with a stipulation that neither
tho individual nor the population OF oc-
nv {tx,a. ~
formation against their own country
Ot great, though not perhap s obvious,
I Importance is another of the German
amendments extending to contracts the
principle Of the inviolability OF private
property OF beligerants on land. This
question has been raised by Russia since
me war In the Far East. It VIII be re-
membered that the dispute between Rus
sla and Japan originated with timber
concessions on the Yalus granted to Ger
tam grand dukes and flnanciers These
concessions the japanese refused to rec
osnlse. and carried the principle further
by ignoring alleged contracts for mines
in Manchuria
Austria's Pretcnsions.
TIC same pretension is EN- bodied In this
proposal OF General de Gieslingen Aus
IRA, Who would add contracts to the
honor and rights OF families, the lives
and property of individuals. religious con-
Nicttons. and right to worship. which are
! already protected by the convention
Other additions were suggested. Gen.
erat Poortugael would forbid the execu.
titHn OF capital sentences without the con.
sent, of nscouncil OF war sanctioned by
the commander-in-chief. Senior de Villa
urrutia tSpain) demands that commits.
| stoned officers, when prisoners, Il be ex.
empt from the obligation to work
None of these propositions was debated
this afternoon. They are merely part OF
the raw material with which the CONF
mission over which NJ Beer.aaert pre-
sides will occupy itself3in the next few
| weeks The president made another adj.
dress-they would Il fill "a volume, these
preliminary discourses--in which he re-
4 minded the delegates that they were on
the historic ground OF Grotius. Inciden-
tally, he expressed the opinion that the
i convention prohibiting the launching OF
Explosives from balloons would be re.
| newei.