Against both of these only the most ruthless measures are effective. Napoleon wrote to his brother Joseph, when, after the latter ascended the throne of Naples, the inhabitants of lower Italy made various attempts at revolt: “The security of your dominion depends on how you behave in the conquered province. Burn down a dozen places which are not willing to submit themselves. Of course, not until you have first looted them; my soldiers must not be allowed to go away with their hands empty. Have three to six persons hanged in every village which has joined the revolt; pay no respect to the cassock. Simply bear in mind how I dealt with them in Piacenza and Corsica.” The Duke of Wellington, in 1814, threatened the South of France; “he will, if leaders of factions are supported, burn the villages and have their inhabitants hanged.” In the year 1815, he issued the following proclamation: “All those who after the entry of the (English) army into France leave their dwellings and all those who are found in the service of the usurper will be regarded as adherents of his and as enemies; their property will be used for the maintenance of the army.” “These are the expressions in the one case of one of the great masters of war and of the dominion founded upon war power, and in the other, of a commander-in-chief who elsewhere had carried the protection of private property in hostile lands to the extremest possible limit. Both men as soon as a popular rising takes place resort to terrorism.”[91]
“War Treason” and Unwilling Guides.
A particular kind of war treason, which must be briefly gone into here, inasmuch as the views of the jurists about it differ very strongly from the usages of war, is the case of deception in leading the way, perpetrated in the form of deliberate guiding of the enemy’s troops by an inhabitant on a false or disadvantageous road. If he has offered his services, then the fact of his treason is quite clear, but also in case he was forced to act as guide his offense cannot be judged differently, for he owed obedience to the power in occupation, he durst in no case perpetrate an act of open resistance and positive harm but should have, if the worst came to the worst, limited himself to passive disobedience, and he must therefore bear the consequence.[92]
Another deplorable necessity.
However intelligible the inclination to treat and to judge an offense of this kind from a milder standpoint may appear, none the less the leader of the troops thus harmed cannot do otherwise than punish the offender with death, since only by harsh measures of defense and intimidation can the repetition of such offenses be prevented. In this case a court-martial must precede the infliction of the penalty. The court-martial must however be on its guard against imputing hastily a treasonable intent to the guide. The punishment of misdirection requires in every case proof of evil intention.
Also it is not allowable to diplomatic agents to make communications from the country which they inhabit during the war to any side as to the military situation or proceedings. Persons contravening this universally recognized usage of war may be immediately expelled or in the case of great danger arrested.
CHAPTER II
PRIVATE PROPERTY IN WAR
Of Private Property and its immunities.