C.—Violations of the Hague Convention.
Nothing would be easier than to show that our enemies have not respected a single one of the articles of the Hague Convention. But it is not our intention to draw up this inventory. We prefer to confine ourselves to a few facts which no one can dream of contesting, so patent are they and so well known to every one in Belgium. And we shall refer only to those which will enable us to compare the two mentalities: that of the German, crafty and tyrannical, and that of the Belgian population, refusing to bow the head to military despotism. We exclude from our list those data which have already been recorded in other publications: Belgian Grey Books, Reports of the Commission of Inquiry, La Belgique et L'Allemagne, etc. Lastly, we shall deal only with what has happened in Belgium itself, so that we shall speak neither of prisoners of war nor of the wounded.
These eliminations lead us to omit the whole of Section I: The Belligerents. The three first articles apply to "francs-tireurs," Articles 4 to 21 relate to prisoners, the wounded, etc.
Article 22.
Belligerents have not an unlimited choice of means of injuring the enemy.
Article 23.
Besides the prohibitions established by special conventions, it is notably forbidden:—
(a) To employ poison or poisoned weapons;
(b) To kill or wound by treachery individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;
(c) To kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or no longer having means of defence, has surrendered at discretion;
(d) To declare that no quarter will be given;
(e) To employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering;
(f) To make improper use of a flag of truce, of the national flag, or of the military insignia or uniform of the enemy, as well as of the distinctive signs of the Geneva Convention;
(g) To destroy or seize enemy property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war;
(h) To declare abolished, suspended, or inadmissible the right of the subjects of the hostile party to institute legal proceedings.
A belligerent is likewise forbidden to compel the subjects of the hostile party to take part in the operations of war directed against their own country, even if they were in the service of the belligerent before the commencement of the war.
The violations of this Article are numerous. The Germans themselves cannot deny that the employment of toxic gases, such as those which were used in the attack upon Ypres on the 22nd April, falls under the condemnation of paragraph (a). We shall recur to this matter further on. Let us remark for the moment that we are not speaking of gas released by the bursting of shells, but of clouds of gas intentionally produced.
As to paragraph (e), the 7th Report speaks in a precise manner of the employment of dum-dum bullets. After the German occupation we shall be able to mention other irrefutable cases, of which it would now be too dangerous to speak.
The prescriptions of paragraph (f) have often been violated. At the fort of Boncelles, on the 7th August, and at Landelies, near Charleroi, on the 22nd, our enemies abused the white flag. At Ougrée and at Grez-Doiceau they wore Belgian uniforms to deceive their enemies. This action was repeated during the siege of Antwerp; but this time the Belgians were warned of the German mimicry, so that the "asses clad in lions' skins" were nearly all left on the battle-field.
We shall deal later on, when speaking of pillage, with the infractions of paragraph (g).
Military Employment of Belgians by the Germans.
The last paragraph of Article 23 forbids belligerents to compel their adversaries to take part in operations of war directed against their own country. Let us see how the Germans respect this principle where civilians are concerned. At Liége (N.R.C., 23rd August, evening), at Vilvorde (N.R.C., 27th August, morning), at Anderlecht (N.R.C., 28th August, evening), at Dilbeek (N.R.C., 31st August, evening), at Eppeghem (see photograph in 1914 Illustré, No. 5), at Soignies, and at Neder-Over-Heembeek, the inhabitants were compelled to dig trenches for the Germans. A Dutchman (an extreme Germanophile, however), saw peasants from the outskirts of Spa compelled to perform the same task.