Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-03-15

would receive no quarter in case we
should be overwhelmed. and this, for
reasons entirely outside of the dues-
ton of our disguise. placed on us
| Americans the Oh i;gation OF resisting
lcapture TO The death There would
have been no prisoners to deal with
us Spies except OF men 50 severely
wounded that there was no fight left
in them. But this. 81 course. does not
affect in any way OR legal status.
! Having acknowledged that our Sta
tus Was taat of spies, wish to call
attention 20 popular erroneous belief
that spies are 1iolstters of the laws of
war simply because they are spies in
disguise. It is safe to say that there
ineHer~ has been a war in which both
sides did not usea spies; in fact, the
principal military nations use them in
times of peace. Spies are punished,
not because there is anything morally
reprehensible in their work, but be-
cause it is desired to make their oc
cupation so dangerous that it will be
dieult to find men to undertake the
risks involved.
The status of the spy in our own his
tory cannot be better shown than in
the fact that Nathan Hale, the spy of
our own Revolution, whose impressive
statue stands in New York city. and
Whose last words on the gallews were:
My chief regret is that l have but
one life to give to my country is one
of the greatestAof our national heroes
1.-THE fate of the gallant British Of
! ficer, Major Andre, executed for pene-
I fr..t S.rif. ise
| and to whom a monument has been
erected by Americans themselves, was
one that aroused the deepest sympa-
| thy not only of his own people but of
his enemies as well. No one ever
thought or attributing TO him any
moral obliquity. One of the heroes of
the Civil War is Andrews, who with
| a number of companions, all disguised,
iseized a locomotive and penetrated
| into the heart of the Confederacy. de-
isroying bridges and other railroad
property, finally to be captured and
executed
| Washington has been regarded al
ways as one of the most scrupulous
of men; but he did not hesitate TO
hold as prisoner the British general.
| Prescott, captured by Colonel Barton
of the Rhode Island militia, and a few
men, all disguised as non-combatants,
who penetrated the British lines under
! false eoiors The incident is related
| in Lossings Field Book of the Revo-
luton" page CAB. This book is in the
| library of the Military Information
Bureau at Fort Santiago.
Although the use of spies is not a
violation of the laws of war, there are
certain acts that are recognized as
such, and may be punished by DEATH
The violation of the flag of truce,
breaking a truce; violation of parole,
the use of poison; killing prisoners of
war TO prevent their reCapture; hoist
| ing the hospital flag over a place not
| q hospital, etc. But all these imply
moral obliquity, and / have never
heard of anyone being rewarded or
having a menument erected to him for
having been guilty of any one of them.
The Filpinos are about the last
people in the world who can question
the ethics of entering the enemy S
lines in disguise AS veteran of the
war here you know that, disguised as
non combatants, their officers and sol
diers were among US all the time and
that if we had strictly enforced the
law relative to spies we would have
been hanging men all the time.
|