The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-23

down his arms under the pain of In
curing the death penalty. one sentence
running as follows: General officers
and soldiers who in battle have saved
their lives by capltulation should be
shot down. Both he who orders the
surrender and those who obey the order
are traitors alike and deserve capital
punishment"
Ensland's military law j. very severe
about surrenders. and the existing
army act, section 8. prescribes heavy
penalties for any one who Is taken
prisoner by want of Que precau,ion.
through disobedience of orders or will
ful neglect OF duty" while in nearly
every navy of the civilized world a
commander who surrenders his craft
IN war to the enemy renders himself.
ipso facto. liable to conrt-martial. with
the almost certainty of disgrace, II not
OF death. As recently az last year. when
the revised naval regulations of Russia
were promulgated. it was seen that they
contained an order in the name of the
Car that commanders of warships
must sink their vessels, with all on
board. rather than surrender them.
Surrender, indeed, Is well nigh un-
pardonable offence. Field Narsb =,
Bazaine was sentenced to death by n
French court-martial. presided over by
the late Due d'Aumale, at Versailles for
having surrendered Metz to the Ger
mans in 1870, his sentence being COM
muted To lifelong imprisonment by Mar.
sinai MacMahon. then President Of the
republic. To this day his name is re-
garded with exeCration by every ma
triotic Frenchman. all his previous brill
liant services in Frances many wars
being forgotten.
In the same way the Russian Gem
eral Stoessel. who surrendered Port
Arthur to the japanese after a pro-
ionged siege, was sentenced to death
on his return from captivity to Russia
al the close OF the war, his sentence
h"ing cpmmuted AT the last moment
~ the Car to military degradation
ana Imprisonment. But Gen. Europat-
KIN. upon whose shoulders rests the
burden OF the defeat OF the great army
under his command in ManChurla, has
retained his commission and liz treated
with the greatest regard and honor in
81. petersburg. by the crown, the army
and the people alike. All appreciate
the fact that he did his very best with
cut sparing himself In any way--but
then he did not order any surrender.
III the memory OF Napoleon III. f.
heid In such contempt by the French
and II the memory of all the achieve
ments OF his eighteen years reign have
been obliterated-that reign during
which Paris was the centre of the
political gravity OF the world-it is be-
cause OF his surrender at the battle n
Sedan. Had he died there all his faults
would have been forgotten, even by
the foes of his dynasty. which might
he occupying to-day the throne of
France. But the fact that he should
have yielded up his sword to old EN-
peror William and should have sur
rendered the army under his command
to the Germans will never be forgotten
or forgiven by the French and is re-
garded by them as a disgrace sufficient
to doom all the hopes OF his family
from ever reigning again on the banks
OF the Seine.
In the Crimean battles of Balaklaya
and lnkerman. sanguinary engagements
each one OF them, the allies lost bur
hfteen prisoners. Yet these figures
caused so much feeling in England and
France, being construed as indications
of cowardice, that the historian King
lake found II expedient TO explain that
though tho captured men were un-
wounded their horses had been shot
under them before they surrendered.
II Is not only In European armies
that these ethics prevail II during the
war In Manchuria ten years ago the
number OF prisoners taken by the Rus
6ans was so infnitesimal, It was not
that the Cars soldiers had refrained
from giving quarter but because the
japanese refused to accept It, preferrlng
death by their own hands to the dis