New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-30

o lHe EDITOR OF Inc tribune.
Sir; A clearer understanding of the situa-
ton in international law on the subject Of
deportation of the whole or a part Of sub
jugatcd people can be arrived at by stimuli
taneously considering the cognate subject Of
the concentration of hostile civilians. The
case of present interest-the Belgian depor-
tations-prese the following situation:
Invasion took place. portion of the civilian
population fled, another portion slaugh-
tered whether rightly or wrongly is not ma
terial to the present question:, and great
residuum remains. To the point to which her
armies have advanced Germany has wholly
overrun and completely subjugated the land
to her rear. The line of her local forces eX
tends unbrokenly through and across Bel
GUM and has the greater part of that king
dom behind it.
Assume, for the sake of argument, that
of the population which has remained large
number should be properly classified as hos
tile. In that case (since the security OF her
armies which have now passed on and have
hostile country at their rear would demand
it) Germany, under the rules of international
law, may put 70 death all civilians who ac-
lively engage in hostile enterprises-that is,
engage in any enterprise which tends to d.
minish the probability Of success of the Ger
man armies. This Germany has been doing
in individual cases-the number of hostiles
apparently not being large.
But assume that the number of hos.iles was
so large that an infiction of the death PEN
atty would be repulsive to modern civiliza-
ton" or assume case in which a hostile
civilian population is so scattered az that il
cannot be controlled without the employment
Of undue number or proportion of the
available forces of the conqueror In such q
case the alternative of assembling such hos
tiles in so-called Concentration camps" has
been adopted as a more humane remedy than
death. Ii is apparent, meanwhile, that these
two remedies (as also third remedy, ter
ror" which flows from or accompanies or
is the incident of the exercise of either of
them are applicable to conditions where the
population remaining on the subjugated land
is in whole or in part hostile, and are APP
plicable only to such individuals as actually
occupy an attitude of hostility. 1t is also
apparent that killing and concentrating, be
ing remedies against impairment of efficient
operations, are not applicable as to such por-
tion of the population as are of pacific char
acter, since no impairment of efficiency is
threatened or will occur through the acts of
such inhabitants.
tional law, death oy imprisonment (concen-
tration) being permitted merely necessary
measures to prevent diminution Of efficiency
of forces. But the correlated question as to
the right the part of the conquerng
belligerent 70 increase his effective force
from or out Of the pacific portion of the con-
quered populato or from its resources, re-
mains. The right exists, but it is subject To-
certain qualification. That qualification Is
that the allowable augmentation of the efh-
cheney Of the forces of the invading belliger-
ent is limited in its application to the actuai
invading forces then present.
Other limitations also apply. They relate
TO the class or kind of augmentation or EN-
cheney which may be exacted. The fatal
slip. from the point of view OF international
law, in the German position in respect to i
the Belgian deportations is one which we
have become accustomed 10 in Germany's
procedure. II can be described either as
faulty logic or as a method Of reasoning
which substitutes one matter for another, on
the theory that they are equivalents in cases
where the substitution Of equivalents is noe
permissible
The German argument is that il they take
Belgians and send them into Germany to /
work that will free so many more German
men to fight in German trenches Belgium,
and they argue that this is nothing moro