Evening star., 1927-05-19
GERMANS ADMIT
VIOLATIONS IN WAR
Abuses Condemned in Report
of Weimar Commission
to ReiChstag.
By EDGAR ANsEL MOWRER.

By Radio to The star ana LhlcaSo Daily
News. Copyright. ie%I.
BERLIN, May 19.-Five thick vol
umes lie today on the desk of the
Reichstag presidency. They are Ger
many's answer to charges of violating
the laws of war during the world
struggle.
The Weimar constitutional assem-
bly, appointed a non-partisan mixed
commission to investigate the charges.
Wednesday the report. containing the
German viewpoint was made to the
Reichstag. The commission was un-
unable to make up is mind concern
ton of the violation Of Belgian neu-
trality.
The ma jority of the commission was
unable to make up his mind concern
ing the forced deportation of Belgian
workmcn for German industries dur
ing the war. but the minority strenu-
ously condemned this practice and in
the Rechstag discussion the fact was
emphasized that this measure of seiz-
ing peaceful workmen and sending
them baggageless in unheated cars
to Germany to work was practically
carrie out at the orders of the late
Ratesnau. who passed for a pacifist.
Admits Abuses Were Rife.
The commission admits abuses We're
rife in carrying out this order. EX.
Cepting the use of cyanide and phos-
gene shells. the commission considers
the use of gas justified and forbidden
gases were used only under allied prov
ocation. Most important is the fact
that the commission approves unlin-
tied submarine warfare as an answer
to the British illegal blockade. No
army at the front treated prisoners
properly, the commission finds.
Economic war showed the opposi-
ton of the continental legal concep-
ton that property during war is
sacred against the English common
law which admits seizure of properly.
The commission hopes the continental
idea will be generaly established.
Hospital ships were occasionally fired
on by all countries, it is alleged.
Finally the commission declared the
destruction of France carried out by
the retreating German armies in 1917
and 1918, was undertaken for military
purposes.
Opposed by Democrat Deputy.
These conclusions were bitterly op-
posed by the social Democrat deputy,
Paul Levi, who declared the deporta'
tion of Belgian workers was purely In
order to enable German industries to
make money, and that mixing nation.
alities in German prison camps was
against all international conventions
and led to infection of the we'll by the
sick, and to terrible mortality among
the prisoners from typhus, All the
patriots protested against Levi.
1t must further be said that the com.
mission seems generally to have given
no answers or unsatisfactory answers
to questions such as the invasion of
Belgium and the deportation of Bel
gian workers, where Germany OBJ
viously was in the wrong, and to have
passed over the very important ques'
tion of shooting hostges as reprisals
against sniping. Some of the persons
shot were children under y.
The commission obviously made an
effort toward objectivity, but the time
has not yet come when one can expect
any official commission to admit
charges against the national interest.
The five volumes none the less consti-
tute a terrible indictment of modern
war, and portions ought to be pub
lished the world over.