The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1918-01-11
Atr0Cious Treatment of the Help
less Part of Campaign Plans
of Military Leaders.
POLICY OF FRIGHTFULNESS
Terrorism Declared a Necessary Prin-
cipIe in National Warfare-Bru-
taIities May Be Said to Be D-
rectIy Attributable to the
Emperor Himself.

nation, appointed by the president,
and consisting Of the secretary of
state, secretary Of war, secretary of
the macy, and George Creez, official
censor, has made public a mass of
eudence dealing with German mar
practices mhich shows the kaiser's
leaders IN the field and IN command
Of captured points to be directly. re-
sponsl5le for the beastliness which
has characterized the operations of
the "Huns," IN the present conflict.
Quotations from the pamphlet fol-
IOW::
For many years leaders in every civ
1lized nation have been trying to make
warfare less brutal. The great land
marks in this movement are the &C.
neva and Hague conventions. The for
mer made rules as to the care of the
sick and wounded and established the
Red Cross. At the first meeting at &C.
neva, in 1864, it was agreed, and until
the present war it has been taken for
granted, that the wounded, and the doc
tors and nurses who cared for them,
would be safe from all attacks by the
enemy. The Hague conventions,
drawn up in 1899 and 1907, made addi-
tional rules to soften the usages of war
and especially to protect noncombat-
ants and conquered lands. Germany
took a prominent part in these meet
ings and with the other nations SOL
EMMY pledged her faith to keep all the
rules except one article in the Hague
regulations. This was article A.
which forbade the cOnQuerOr to force
any of the conquered to give informa-
ton. All the other rules and regula-
lions she accepted in the most binding
manner.
But Germany's military leaders had
no intention of keeping these solemn
promises. They had been trained
along different lines. Their leading
generals for many years had been urg
ing policy of frightfulness. In the
middle of the nineteenth century Won
Clausewitz was looked upon as the
greatest military authority, and the
methods which he advocated were used
by the Prussian army in it's successful
wars of 1S66-1S71. Consequently be-
cause these wars had been successful,
the wisdom of Won Clausewitz' meth
DDS seemed to the Prussian army to be
fully proved.
Policy Of FrightfuIness.
Now. the essence of Won Clausewitz'
teachings was that successful war in
wolves the ruthless application of force.
In the opening chapter of his master
work, 'Vom Kriege" c'On Wary, he
says:
evidence arms itself with the inven-
tons of art and science. Self.
imposed restrictions, almost impercep.
tible and hardly worth mentioning
termed usages of international law
accompany it without essentially i'm
pairing It's power. NOW, ph1lan
thropic souls might easily imagine tina:
there is skillful method of disarm
ing or subduing an enemy without
causing too much bloodshed, and thai
this is the true tendency of the art OF
war. However plausible this may ap
pear, still it is an error which must be
destroyed; for in such dangerOu:
things as war, the errors which pro
coed from spirit of 'gOOd-natured
ness are precisely the worst. AS tn.
use of physical force to the utmost ex
tent by no means excludes the co
operation of the intelligence, it follow!
that he who uses force ruthlessly, with
out regard to bloodshed, must Obtain
a superiority, if his enemy does no
so use it."
In 1877-78, in the course of serie
of articles upon Military Necessit
and Humanity" General Won Hartmann
wrote, in the same spirit as Won Clau
sewitz:
"Thc enemy state must not be spare
the want and wretchedness of war
these are particularly useful in shat
tering it's energy and subduing it's VIII.
individual persons may be harshl
dealt with when an example is mad
of them, intended to serve as a war;
ing Whenever q national wa
breaks out, terrorism becomes ne,
essary military principle" ''It is
-gratuitous illusion to suppose ths
modern war does not demand far NOR
brutality, far more violence, and a
action far more general than was TO
merly the case"
In 1881 Won Moltke, who had bee
commander in chief of the Prussia
army in the FrancO-Prussian war, d.
clared:
perpetual peace is dream and n,
even q beautiful dream. War is an el
ment in the order OF the world esta
lished by God. By it the most mob
virtues of man are developed, couras
and remuneration, fidelity to duty ar
the spirit of sacrifice-the soldier Civ
his life. Without war, the world Won
degenerate and lose itself in materis