The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1923-08-01
NEW REGULATIONS
FOR AIR FIGHTING
DRAWN UP BY EXPERTS OF FOUR
GREAT POWERS. THEY MAY
BE ADOPTED SOME DAY.
LATER CONFERENCE LIKELY
These Suggested Rules Would FORBID
Bo~mbardment of D~efenseIess Cities
and Would Spare Men Escaping
From Destroyed Aircraft.
BY EDWARD q. CLARK

BY EDWARD B.. CLARK
Washington.-International lawyers,
representing the different great DOW
ers, have formulated rules by which 1t
Is hoped to regulate the use of air.
planes in any possible war of the fu-
ture. The desire is to bring 1t as near
he plane Of humanity as warfare can
be brought.
Before long, it is believed, there will
be another conference of the powers
similar to that which was held in
Washington in the fall of 1921. AT
this conference it is expected that the
airplane regulations will be taken up
and sanctioned. The question, of
course, will remain unanswered as to
whether the subscribing nations will
live up to the regulations in case war
shall come and the territory of one of
them is subjected to invasion.
OF course, If war does come, and
the regulations are violated by any ma
ton, it will be subjected at once to the
denunciation to which Germany was
PbbJt1ASd With IL hlO1ditd Tx Z iilo
of the treaty and invaded neutral
Belgium. 1t seems to be believed now,
however, by representatives of the va
nous governments that hereafter in
war times the rules and regulations
will be observed by every nation for
reasons of safety if for nothing else.
Germany paid the penalty of having
violated a treaty provision-the pen
atty of arousing the %antagonism of the
people of certain nations who other
wise might have been favorable to the
German cause. 1t seems from what
n o%verhears in diplomatic circles to-
day that the general feeling in ali
countries is that it does not pay to
violate the canon of warfare.
To Spare Parachute Jumpers.
If the regulations which the ~jurists
have drawn up are sanctioned and go
into effect in time of war, there will
be no more bombardments of defense
less cities and no more raining down
of bombs on the heads of defenseless
civilians-men, women and children.
The dropping of bombs on unfortified
places for the purpose of killing non
belligerents and striking terror TO the
be known again if the present plan is
put into effect and Is adhered to by
warning countries.
In the regulations which have been
drawn, there is one which forbids the
occupants of an airplane. after it has
destroyed a balloon or other airplane,
to fire on the men of the destroyed
aircraft If they had managed TO es-
cape In ~paraehutes. After the armis-
tiee when the writer of this was or
dered back TO the United States from
France, he had in his command on the
ship an American soldier who did not
look to be a day Oer seventeen years
Of age. OF course, he was older than
that, otherwise he could not have been
in the service. He was a balloon man,
and he had had three balloons destroyed
while he was making observations aloft
of the enemy's line. On these three
different occasions this young soldier
had escaped death by means of his
parachute, but on each one of his de-
scents he was fired on by the guns of
the enemy airplane which had de-
stroyed his balloon.
On his last descent In a parachute
the youngster was shot through the
thigh, and he came dangling down
with a leg on a strike" This time
his parachute landed in a tree and the
boy with a shattered limb hung shere
for an hour and a half before some of
his comrades succeeded in effecting his
rescue.